The genesis for this build was actually a combo Unicab and Headphone Amp that I built a while back. I lent it to a friend of mine and we started talking about a nicer version with maybe a few more features that I would make for him. After some back and forth we decided to just make an entire pedal board! He showed me a board that he liked from a bassist that he is a fan of and said he wanted something similar. This is where I got the idea to put all the drive circuits and everything into one box.
Over time I thought it was better to put the POG and the chorus pedal in effects loops that would be switchable from the box as well as a tuner/mute output. Additionally the effects loops are pre and post drive pedals so the box can expand and grow if he wants it to. We also picked out a compressor and a clean boost on the output of the big pedal.
Details for each pedal
I/O Buffer interface: Guitar Gear Gadgets dual buffer
I whipped this together to provide input and output buffering which it sorely needed with the amount of cabling and wire inside that box. GGG dual buffer is a great little board.
Compressor: Madbean Kompormat
This thing is great in fact I will probably build one for myself I love it so much.
Distortion: Madbean Slow Loris
Great Rat circuit with a Ruetz Mod sweep control and extra clipping options. I took both these MBP pedals after seeing build reports from @thewintersoldier
Overdrive 1 and 2: Aion Maelstrom
This is a Darkglass B3K clone and I have two here. One is built to the stock Aion specs and the other makes all the subs to make it a Vintage Microtubes.
Boost: PedalPCB Transcendence Boost
Crazy loud clean boost. Really really nice
Cab Sim: PedalPCB Unicab
This is such a great little analog cab sim circuit. Sounds excellent for bass.
Headphone Amp and Mixer: Guitar Gear Gadgets
I ended up using a GGG dual buffer pcb to split the bass signal and run each to a mixer pcb that also accepted the L and R aux inputs and sent them to dual headphone amps and on to the headphone output. This is the second time I’ve used these pcbs and the first time doing a stereo setup. A little pricy buying all these boards versus one board to do it all but the results are excellent. I had to get dual pots for the level controls and since they’re weird specs for dual pots I had to use vertical mount pcb pots with splined split shafts (not ideal but worked fine). The little 3PDT switches are from BLMS and they’re excellent. The cab sim can run to the Amp or the Headphone amp. Aux in only goes to HP because I said enough is enough lol
Relay bypass switching: PedalPCB Basic Relay Bypass and Intelligent Relay Bypass
First time using these boards and I love them. The basic boards were great for the effects loops, tuner, comp and boost. The IBR boards are great because of the channel switching mode. My buddy said he would likely only run one drive so he wanted to use them as channels for ease of use when playing live. The switching is really tight on these and they do not bounce or mis trigger. I used the led pads on the transistor holes for the leds which is a nice feature. Can’t recommend these enough.
Enclosure: Hammond Sloped
Love these enclosures! Really nice look and feel to them.
Faceplates: Amplifyfun
Spencer killed it with these faceplates and was great to deal with.
Knobs, switches, jacks etc: BLMS
The aluminum silver knobs add such a nice feel to the pedal and the big boost knob is just cool. Also I used the Pro momentary switches that come pre wired with connectors which makes assembly and replacement a breeze.
Cables and Plugs: Mogami 2319 and Squareplug SP-500
Cost and Time to Build
I honestly can’t even remember how many hours I’ve put into this but let’s just say it took me 5 months and I have a full time job and two kids below three so maybe quicker for some of you ha!
Cost is easy though. Here’s a breakdown of material cost for the whole build
Thanks to everyone here who followed along on the build thread and offered encouragement and helped me work out some ideas and concepts. Big thanks to @PedalPCB for finding some chips for the intelligent relay boards for me.
Over time I thought it was better to put the POG and the chorus pedal in effects loops that would be switchable from the box as well as a tuner/mute output. Additionally the effects loops are pre and post drive pedals so the box can expand and grow if he wants it to. We also picked out a compressor and a clean boost on the output of the big pedal.
Details for each pedal
I/O Buffer interface: Guitar Gear Gadgets dual buffer
I whipped this together to provide input and output buffering which it sorely needed with the amount of cabling and wire inside that box. GGG dual buffer is a great little board.
Compressor: Madbean Kompormat
This thing is great in fact I will probably build one for myself I love it so much.
Distortion: Madbean Slow Loris
Great Rat circuit with a Ruetz Mod sweep control and extra clipping options. I took both these MBP pedals after seeing build reports from @thewintersoldier
Overdrive 1 and 2: Aion Maelstrom
This is a Darkglass B3K clone and I have two here. One is built to the stock Aion specs and the other makes all the subs to make it a Vintage Microtubes.
Boost: PedalPCB Transcendence Boost
Crazy loud clean boost. Really really nice
Cab Sim: PedalPCB Unicab
This is such a great little analog cab sim circuit. Sounds excellent for bass.
Headphone Amp and Mixer: Guitar Gear Gadgets
I ended up using a GGG dual buffer pcb to split the bass signal and run each to a mixer pcb that also accepted the L and R aux inputs and sent them to dual headphone amps and on to the headphone output. This is the second time I’ve used these pcbs and the first time doing a stereo setup. A little pricy buying all these boards versus one board to do it all but the results are excellent. I had to get dual pots for the level controls and since they’re weird specs for dual pots I had to use vertical mount pcb pots with splined split shafts (not ideal but worked fine). The little 3PDT switches are from BLMS and they’re excellent. The cab sim can run to the Amp or the Headphone amp. Aux in only goes to HP because I said enough is enough lol
Relay bypass switching: PedalPCB Basic Relay Bypass and Intelligent Relay Bypass
First time using these boards and I love them. The basic boards were great for the effects loops, tuner, comp and boost. The IBR boards are great because of the channel switching mode. My buddy said he would likely only run one drive so he wanted to use them as channels for ease of use when playing live. The switching is really tight on these and they do not bounce or mis trigger. I used the led pads on the transistor holes for the leds which is a nice feature. Can’t recommend these enough.
Enclosure: Hammond Sloped
Love these enclosures! Really nice look and feel to them.
Faceplates: Amplifyfun
Spencer killed it with these faceplates and was great to deal with.
Knobs, switches, jacks etc: BLMS
The aluminum silver knobs add such a nice feel to the pedal and the big boost knob is just cool. Also I used the Pro momentary switches that come pre wired with connectors which makes assembly and replacement a breeze.
Cables and Plugs: Mogami 2319 and Squareplug SP-500
Cost and Time to Build
I honestly can’t even remember how many hours I’ve put into this but let’s just say it took me 5 months and I have a full time job and two kids below three so maybe quicker for some of you ha!
Cost is easy though. Here’s a breakdown of material cost for the whole build
| Description | Price | Quantity | Total |
| Rat PCB | $9.00 | 1 | $9.00 |
| Compressor PCB | $11.00 | 1 | $11.00 |
| Darkglass VMT PCB | $12.00 | 1 | $12.00 |
| Darkglass B3K PCB | $12.00 | 1 | $12.00 |
| Transcendence Boost | $10.00 | 1 | $10.00 |
| Basic Relay Bypass PCB | $4.00 | 5 | $20.00 |
| Intelligent Relay Bypass | $13.50 | 3 | $40.50 |
| Unicab PCB | $10.00 | 1 | $10.00 |
| Headphone Amp PCB | $10.00 | 2 | $20.00 |
| Mixer PCB | $11.00 | 2 | $22.00 |
| Dual Buffer PCB | $8.00 | 2 | $16.00 |
| Enclosure | $65.00 | 1 | $65.00 |
| 12.5 mm knobs | $1.59 | 26 | $41.34 |
| 20 mm knobs | $4.69 | 1 | $4.69 |
| NO Momentary Switch (PRO) | $3.70 | 8 | $29.60 |
| Enclosed Jack 1/4" | $0.92 | 12 | $11.04 |
| Panel Jack 1/4" | $1.75 | 1 | $1.75 |
| DC Jack | $0.75 | 2 | $1.50 |
| Flight Case | $189 | 1 | $189.00 |
| break out pedal board | $50 | 1 | $50.00 |
| Boss TU-3W | $165 | 1 | $165.00 |
| Bass Clone | $79 | 1 | $79.00 |
| Nano POG | $200 | 1 | $200.00 |
| Radial JDI | $249 | 1 | $249.00 |
| Cioks DC7 | $229 | 1 | $229.00 |
| Potentiometers | $1 | 24 | $14.16 |
| Squareplug SP500 | $3.84 | 7 | $26.88 |
| Squareplug SPS5 | $3.98 | 11 | $43.78 |
| SPDT ON-OFF-ON | $0.66 | 2 | $1.32 |
| OPA2134 | $3.99 | 1 | $3.99 |
| TC1044SPCA | $1.69 | 1 | $1.69 |
| LM13700 | $3.99 | 1 | $3.99 |
| CD4049UBE | $0.31 | 2 | $0.62 |
| J201 | $2.00 | 4 | $8.00 |
| OP07 | $0.49 | 1 | $0.49 |
| TL072 | $0.79 | 12 | $9.48 |
| TL074 | $0.59 | 1 | $0.59 |
| 24 AWG wire | $0.10 | 25 | $2.50 |
| Mogami 2319 | $0.49 | 10 | $4.90 |
| Faceplate | $60.00 | 1 | $60.00 |
| Pedalboard Total Cost | $1,690.81 |
Thanks to everyone here who followed along on the build thread and offered encouragement and helped me work out some ideas and concepts. Big thanks to @PedalPCB for finding some chips for the intelligent relay boards for me.
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