5 Reasons Why You Should Have a Pedalboard

When guitar effects pedals first appeared, they completely turned the music industry upside-down. All of a sudden you had the ability to alter your tone in ways that were previously impossible to imagine.

At first, there were simple effects pedals, but soon this category of devices grew to cover anything from distortions to modulation. Today we have a very wide array of effects to choose from. Most guitar players heavily rely on guitar effects pedals in order to get the tone they are looking for.

That being said, it's not unusual for people to have 10 pedals that they use to shape their sound. This brought a completely new problem. How do you keep all of those pedals in one place? Today we are going to talk about pedalboards, just how important they are, and why you should own one. These are 5 reasons why you should have a pedalboard.

Pedalboards Make Life Easier

One thing about effects pedals is that they are small, often times light, and tend to move around a lot. Setting up every single pedal individually takes a lot of time that you could be spending on other things. Not to mention the fact that it increases the chance of you not connecting something properly and having to deal with that during a live performance.

A pedalboard solves this issue since offers a platform where you can install all of your pedals once, and then just plug your guitar into the chain when you need to use them. You can look at pedalboards as tool racks. That is exactly what they are.

Pedalboards Allow You To Access Your Pedals More Comfortably

One thing to appreciate about pedalboards how they increase the accessibility of your pedals. Most pedalboard designs feature an angled platform that is far more comfortable to use. When all of your pedals are installed on the pedalboard, they are anchored in a way that prevents them from moving around.

This allows you to use them with confidence, knowing that you will get the effect you need at any time during your performance. If you own more than say 5 pedals, a pedalboard becomes a necessity.

Pedalboards Bring More Versatility To The Table

If you know anything about guitar effects pedals, you also know that supplying them with power can become an issue once you start using more than one or two. Running individual power supplies to each pedal is borderline impossible, and definitely least practical way of doing things. Batteries are not reliable, so you need another way to get power to all the pedals.

The advent of pedalboards has brought on power supplies that can power all of your pedals. These units come in all shapes and forms, but most of the time they are the size of two pedals at least. That is not a problem since the majority of pedalboards have built in compartments that are meant to house power supplies of this kind. Using these along with pedalboards largely simplifies the issue of power when it comes to large chains of effects pedals.

Pedalboards Offer More Protection To Your Gear

Stompboxes most guitar players use are definitely built to withstand a lot of abuse. After all, they are meant to be stepped on. However, that doesn't mean you can't damage them. Instead of having to take care of each individual pedal, a pedalboard allows you to store and transport your effects pedal in a very safe way.

Most commercial pedalboards come with some kind of a case. Whether it's a soft case or a hard case, you have a way of storing all of your pedals in one place, and keeping them safe when you're not using them. If you care about your gear, this additional protection will definitely mean a lot to you.

You Can Build Pedalboards On Your Own

Guitar effects pedals come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. With that said, it's normal that everyone's setup is going to be different in terms of space it takes on a pedalboard. Sometimes commercial pedalboards just don't cut it, and you need another solution.

This is why there are a lot of people who build their own pedalboards that are catered to their specific setup. Building one is not hard at all. You will need some basic tools and a bit of creativity to design one that fits your needs. If you are interested in doing this, check out our article about home made pedalboards here.

Conclusion

Pedalboards have become a staple of modern guitarist's setup. If you use a lot of guitar effects pedals, there is simply no reason not to have a pedalboard. They simplify things and make the use of these pedals so much more efficient. Naturally, a whole market developed around this simple product and you can find a whole bunch of models on the market. Their design and price depend on the features they offer, but that doesn't mean that you have to spend a lot of money on one.

If you're up for investigating this domain further, check out our list of Best Pedalborads on the market.