My Do-It-Yourself IKEA Pedalboard Build Thread - Harmony Central Musician Community Forums

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:15 PM

Well, after several weeks of hard work, I've finally finished my first pedalboard and I thought it was time to start a build thread to show what I've been up to in my spare time. I decided to base my first DIY pedalboard on the well-known IKEA GORM design (who comes up with these names?). So I headed out to the local IKEA in Renton, WA and paid $4.00 for a GORM shelf and another $4.00 for two side boards. The dimensions of this thing are just slightly larger than a PedalTrain Jr.

Here's the initial layout I had in mind. I used some paper cutouts for pedals I hadn't bought yet.

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:16 PM

A friend of mine at work used his table saw to cut the side boards to size.

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:17 PM

I marked the location for some screw holes so I could use the original iron bolts to hold this thing together.

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:18 PM

I decided to go with a bright orange spray paint finish for this pedalboard to match it up with my Orange Tiny Terror and my orange-Tolex covered Avatar 1x12 cab. It's an acquired taste, but I like it. I pre-sprayed the areas where the iron bolts would go (along with 4 thick washers) so I could install these pieces when I glued everything together, and then mask off the black bolts when it was time to start painting.

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:19 PM

On one of the rare sunny weekend days in Seattle, I managed to spray the top and back of the board before the sky turned black. The semi-circular cutouts you see are for the thin but quarter-shaped round 1/4" connectors I decided to use for cabling. I made three cutouts, with the one at the top extra deep because of the narrower gap at the top of the board

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:20 PM

You can see the masked-off bolts in this photo.

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:21 PM

Here's my first test fitting after applying the paint. It looks good (and by now, I'm only waiting on my KORG Pitchblack as the BOSS FS-5U has arrived).

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:22 PM

Now it started raining and I was unable to finish painting the underside for nearly a week. This left me with a lot of time on my hands. After playing with the pedals on the board, it looked like the bottom board was flexing a little so I decided to add a stabilizing board to the center of the pedalboard. Here I'm attaching the fitted stabilizer to the underside of the board with some Gorilla glue and some giant bolts and a jar of jelly for some weight.

Adding this stabilizer introduced a major design flaw (Design Flaw #1) into my board. Can you see what the problem is? If not, you'll find out later.

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:23 PM

Finally! The sun peaked out long enough one morning (a Tuesday or Wednesday, I think) for me to quickly do the underside. I needed a 30 minute window, and Mother Nature gave me 35 minutes before the rain started up again.

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:24 PM

Later that night, I decided to get started putting Velcro on all my pedals. Here I am applying the plasticky/hook side to the bottom of my pedals. But then...I started thinking: "Hummm, should I be using the hook side or the soft/fuzzy side for the pedals?" I started a thread on HCEF and was told that the hook side is the conventional side. But then some folks said that with the soft side, I'd be able to take my pedals off and use them on tables or floors without scratching things up. Also, all my BOSS pedals had really bumpy bottoms and the soft Velcro side seemed like it would fit better.

So, reluctantly I ripped off all the hook side Velcro from my pedals (Design Flaw #2) and started over.

kevinsaari · 03-14-2009, 11:24 PM

Looks great, man. Not a huge fan of the color, but the build looks fantastic.

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:25 PM

After that, I put the hook side Velcro on to the board. Even though this is the unconventional way to do it, I was happy that I decided to do things the way I did. Cutting the Velcro was really easy on my rubber cutting board using a metal ruler with both inches and centimeters. I also bought a box of 100 single-edge razors for less than $7.00 and I made sure to use new blades frequently.

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:26 PM

After that, it was time for another test fitting. Now at least my pedals can defy gravity if I turn the board upside down!

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:27 PM

So: back to Design Flaw #1. Remember those cutouts I made early on? I did this because of the thin but wide format of the connectors I decided to use. Here are some close-ups of me showing how to insert a connector through the cutouts.

WWW · 03-14-2009, 11:27 PM

Nice work man.

I bought a couch at the renton ikea last week (live in redmond) and that led to me not posting any new ___ day threads recently.

I'd like to see the whole rig pic when you're complete.

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:27 PM

The flaw was that with the stabilizing board running down the center of the board, I wouldn't be able to get my speaker cables over to the right side of the board! Doohh! What an idiot! So, I had to cut out some squares from the Velcro on the right side, break out my Dremel tool again, and make new cutouts. Then I had to do some touch up repainting and cut out 3 Velcro patches. This set me back a day.

denracho · 03-14-2009, 11:28 PM

nicee...

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:29 PM

Next it was time to break out the soldering iron and start making cables. I practiced using a scrap piece of 12" cabling; after 45 minutes I figured out the right way to solder the cabling to the thin connectors. I also had to use my hand drill to slightly enlarge the hole for the center cable. Each cable was cut to minimal length and the connectors were attached with the cables making a natural twist relative to the pedals they would be attached to.

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:30 PM

After making the cables, it was time to install some rubber feet. I looked high and low for some black rubber feet, but the only ones I could find that were rugged and tall enough were white (and they hung out over the edge a centimeter on each side). Oh well, function over form in this case.

Armchair Bronco · 03-14-2009, 11:31 PM

Then, it was time to attach a power strip. I used a combination of Velcro and some plastic tie downs. These fit nicely through the holes on the end piece of wood. I used a 1 Spot 9-volt adapter for every pedal except for my Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man which requires a 24-volt adapter. To make that adapter fit, I had to drive out to Frys in Renton, WA and buy a $3.49 Power Strip Liberator which I also attached with Velcro and a tie down of its own. Then I spent some time carefully folding and tucking all of the loose wires and I secured everything with some black electrical tape.

03-14-2009, 11:17 PM	#3
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	I marked the location for some screw holes so I could use the original iron bolts to hold this thing together. __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard

03-14-2009, 11:18 PM	#4
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	I decided to go with a bright orange spray paint finish for this pedalboard to match it up with my Orange Tiny Terror and my orange-Tolex covered Avatar 1x12 cab. It's an acquired taste, but I like it. I pre-sprayed the areas where the iron bolts would go (along with 4 thick washers) so I could install these pieces when I glued everything together, and then mask off the black bolts when it was time to start painting. __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard

03-14-2009, 11:19 PM	#5
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	On one of the rare sunny weekend days in Seattle, I managed to spray the top and back of the board before the sky turned black. The semi-circular cutouts you see are for the thin but quarter-shaped round 1/4" connectors I decided to use for cabling. I made three cutouts, with the one at the top extra deep because of the narrower gap at the top of the board __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard

03-14-2009, 11:20 PM	#6
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	You can see the masked-off bolts in this photo. __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard

03-14-2009, 11:21 PM	#7
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	Here's my first test fitting after applying the paint. It looks good (and by now, I'm only waiting on my KORG Pitchblack as the BOSS FS-5U has arrived). __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard

03-14-2009, 11:15 PM	#1
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	My Do-It-Yourself IKEA Pedalboard Build Thread Well, after several weeks of hard work, I've finally finished my first pedalboard and I thought it was time to start a build thread to show what I've been up to in my spare time. I decided to base my first DIY pedalboard on the well-known IKEA GORM design (who comes up with these names?). So I headed out to the local IKEA in Renton, WA and paid $4.00 for a GORM shelf and another $4.00 for two side boards. The dimensions of this thing are just slightly larger than a PedalTrain Jr. Here's the initial layout I had in mind. I used some paper cutouts for pedals I hadn't bought yet. __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard

03-14-2009, 11:16 PM	#2
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	A friend of mine at work used his table saw to cut the side boards to size. __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard Last edited by Armchair Bronco : 03-15-2009 at 12:18 AM.

03-14-2009, 11:22 PM	#8
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	Now it started raining and I was unable to finish painting the underside for nearly a week. This left me with a lot of time on my hands. After playing with the pedals on the board, it looked like the bottom board was flexing a little so I decided to add a stabilizing board to the center of the pedalboard. Here I'm attaching the fitted stabilizer to the underside of the board with some Gorilla glue and some giant bolts and a jar of jelly for some weight. Adding this stabilizer introduced a major design flaw (Design Flaw #1) into my board. Can you see what the problem is? If not, you'll find out later. __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard

03-14-2009, 11:23 PM	#9
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	Finally! The sun peaked out long enough one morning (a Tuesday or Wednesday, I think) for me to quickly do the underside. I needed a 30 minute window, and Mother Nature gave me 35 minutes before the rain started up again. __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard

03-14-2009, 11:24 PM	#10
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	Later that night, I decided to get started putting Velcro on all my pedals. Here I am applying the plasticky/hook side to the bottom of my pedals. But then...I started thinking: "Hummm, should I be using the hook side or the soft/fuzzy side for the pedals?" I started a thread on HCEF and was told that the hook side is the conventional side. But then some folks said that with the soft side, I'd be able to take my pedals off and use them on tables or floors without scratching things up. Also, all my BOSS pedals had really bumpy bottoms and the soft Velcro side seemed like it would fit better. So, reluctantly I ripped off all the hook side Velcro from my pedals (Design Flaw #2) and started over. __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard Last edited by Armchair Bronco : 03-14-2009 at 11:37 PM.

03-14-2009, 11:24 PM	#11
kevinsaari Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: cleveland, ohio. Posts: 1,047	Looks great, man. Not a huge fan of the color, but the build looks fantastic. __________________ Excellent transactions with: sonaboy, VoodooChild24, (((echo))), jimihalen, jmgruber, phishmarisol, Dead Skunk, Barnaby, Hardly, Beatles-1964, echoic_memory, inang, blackjack davey, IRG, Mr. Twang, hangwire (x2), TJ000, Last Nerve, NITEFLY182, theweight, ChuckNorris1982, ClickyClique.

03-14-2009, 11:25 PM	#12
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	After that, I put the hook side Velcro on to the board. Even though this is the unconventional way to do it, I was happy that I decided to do things the way I did. Cutting the Velcro was really easy on my rubber cutting board using a metal ruler with both inches and centimeters. I also bought a box of 100 single-edge razors for less than $7.00 and I made sure to use new blades frequently. __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard

03-14-2009, 11:26 PM	#13
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	After that, it was time for another test fitting. Now at least my pedals can defy gravity if I turn the board upside down! __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard

03-14-2009, 11:27 PM	#14
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	So: back to Design Flaw #1. Remember those cutouts I made early on? I did this because of the thin but wide format of the connectors I decided to use. Here are some close-ups of me showing how to insert a connector through the cutouts. __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard

03-14-2009, 11:27 PM	#15
WWW Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Okinawa, Japan Posts: 2,584	Nice work man. I bought a couch at the renton ikea last week (live in redmond) and that led to me not posting any new ___ day threads recently. I'd like to see the whole rig pic when you're complete. __________________ Main board Effects board Metal board Travel board Good deals: Primo, Hecticone, Bluehuricane (X2), TomCray, Used666, Dettlebach, Tolling_Bells, Cleverbastid, machine gunner, shooto, 2deaconblues, Easyliver, Maxisnotdead, brokenarrow5, Drasp, Viper Jazz, the.bjorndahl, dkhp124

03-14-2009, 11:28 PM	#17
denracho Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Dallas,Texas Posts: 652	nicee... __________________ "You are what you eat" --------------------------------------- Good Deals: Okieslims,Ballfuzz,shredtilurded,Jonathanm318, 51504life,goodhonk,iiimk, WWW, joeloc,mibeaulieu,thefragile103,::fred::

03-14-2009, 11:29 PM	#18
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	Next it was time to break out the soldering iron and start making cables. I practiced using a scrap piece of 12" cabling; after 45 minutes I figured out the right way to solder the cabling to the thin connectors. I also had to use my hand drill to slightly enlarge the hole for the center cable. Each cable was cut to minimal length and the connectors were attached with the cables making a natural twist relative to the pedals they would be attached to. __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard

03-14-2009, 11:30 PM	#19
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	After making the cables, it was time to install some rubber feet. I looked high and low for some black rubber feet, but the only ones I could find that were rugged and tall enough were white (and they hung out over the edge a centimeter on each side). Oh well, function over form in this case. __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard

03-14-2009, 11:31 PM	#20
Armchair Bronco Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 4,651	Then, it was time to attach a power strip. I used a combination of Velcro and some plastic tie downs. These fit nicely through the holes on the end piece of wood. I used a 1 Spot 9-volt adapter for every pedal except for my Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man which requires a 24-volt adapter. To make that adapter fit, I had to drive out to Frys in Renton, WA and buy a $3.49 Power Strip Liberator which I also attached with Velcro and a tie down of its own. Then I spent some time carefully folding and tucking all of the loose wires and I secured everything with some black electrical tape. __________________ Gear & Stuff SG Classic, Fender CP Jaguar Special HH, SX Jazz bass 1965 Ampeg Gemini I G-12, Orange Tiny Terror Captain in the SG Army, 101st Airborne Division Honorary Mention on bassesofalessergod's "a list of jerks", 4/17/07 Proud owner of The Legendary Orange IKEA Gorm Pedalboard

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