Wired
Wires and connectors. The fundamental elements to connect the pedals together. Often overlooked in terms of the overall cost of building out a new pedalboard.
I worked with Bruno at Tone Design. He was so helpful and he spent several hours with me over the month or so that it took to build out the pedalboard. If you are doing a major pedalboard build I would highly recommend Tone Design.
We looked over what would be needed for the board and the pedals and then I ordered the following items:
- 30 SPS5 1/4 TS Black Connectors
- 25 SP500 1/4 TS Right Angle Black Connectors
- 8 Lightbulb 1/4 TRS Black Connectors
- 4 Minicake 1/4 TRS Right Angle Black Connectors
- 50 feet of Mogami 2319 Cable – for TS Connectors
- 20 feet of Mogami 2528 Cable – for TRS Connectors
- 84 inches of Dual Lock 250/400 Black
The cost to wire up the pedalboard? $620.63
It wasn’t the only cost. I needed the tools to do all of the soldering. Here is a photo of my soldering workstation with the wires and connectors ready to go:
To make all of the cables for the pedalboard took me a week. Yes. One full week to solder and build the cables.
I needed the following tools to make it happen:
- Klein 5-inch Lightweight Flush Cutter
- Eclipse 30-20 AWG Wire Stripper
- Irwin 10-20 AWG Wire Stripper
- Weller Bench Top Smoke Absorber
- Weller Soldering Station
- Solder
- Vise
Those tools cost me $376.27 and there would not have been a practical way to do a job this large without them.
Let’s add things up shall we?
Pedals: $6,187.96
Pedalboard and Looper: $1,955.03
Wires, Connectors, Tools: $996.90
Total for this pedalboard build: $9,139.89
Easy enough to think about pedals as a secondary component of the electric guitar sound, particularly in Praise and Worship. Until you start building out pedalboards. And then it hits you. Pedalboards can easily cost more money than a high-end guitar.