Guitar Effects Pedal Board - Ninja Style

Almost everyone uses Velcro to secure guitar effects pedals to their pedal boards and, until recently, I was no exception. Unfortunately, the Velcro on my board just wasn't sticking well anymore so I began looking for other options. The board itself was still very nice. It was constructed for me by my former bassist (who is now a carpenter for good reason) and I wanted to reuse the board. I stumbled across the following solution on the Internet somewhere so I cannot take credit for it. I just thought I would provide a write up and some pictures for anyone else who is tired of being oppressed by the tyranny of Velcro.

All you need to mount your pedals securely is a plank of wood (the pedal board itself), a bicycle chain, a bicycle chain repair tool, and some small wood screws. A drill also helps and I also used some cat5 data cable staples to clean up the job a bit.

The idea is to use links from a bicycle chain to mount the pedals securely to your pedal board. If you have the chain you will need to use the repair tool to break the links apart:It was difficult to use this cheap tool (about $5 at Wal Mart) to break the links apart so I assisted myself with a pair of vice grips which resulted in me breaking the tool:After going back to buy two more of the same tool I ended up with a pile of links:Once you have the links you need to attach them to the bottom of your pedals using the existing screws on the bottom of the pedals whenever possible:Then, screw them down to the board using the wood screws:Some pedals didn't have screws on the bottom (or the screws weren't close enough to the edge). On my (modified) Pro Co Rat and my Big Muff I needed to drill some holes then use some random small sheet metal screws I had laying around to attach the links:Here is the mostly finished board:I use a homemade power supply to power all my pedals as it was much cheaper than the commercial alternatives, just as good and fun to build. To keep all the wiring neat I used some cat5 data cable staples (and one NM cable staple) after I had everything routed how I wanted it:Rock on...