Question:
Hey guys,
With the recent resurgence of pedal boards and pedals here (instead of XTL) I figured i'd through in a few quick questions.
So, I thought I had this ingenious idea of screwing my pedals to a homemade pedal board. I like to be different and creative, but this idea didn't work at all. I got sick of constantly having to rescrew a few pedals in and my pedal board isn't final yet..so every time I get new pedal or move one around I have to unscrew EVERYTHING.
So, i've decided to look into carpet. Where do you get this stuff? Is there a certain type? How do you fasten it? What do you put on the pedals? How durable is it? If i move pedals around a lot, will the pedal come off of the board or the pedal? Is it expensive?
-shane
Answer:
I would see if you have any car stereo shops in your area. Just walk in and ask them if you can buy a couple of yards of whatever speaker covering they use. I have used this on all my cabinets and pedal boards. It should only cost maybe $6-8 per yard. The last time I went they only had black, which was fine.

They may be able to sell you the adhesive to attach it to the cabinets, although I would not recommend that stuff. You need something that will hold up to the constant removal of pedals, without pulling the carpet off the plywood.

I have had the best results with indoor outdoor carpet adhesive glue, sold at hardware stores in like a half quart to a gallon can. Spread it all over the plywood with a metal scraper, then press your carpet down into the adhesive. It’s kind of smelly, but very durable and effective. It seeps into the fabric of the carpet much better, and keeps it from getting “fluffy”.
The hardest part is wrapping the carpet around the corners and making it all look nice. You'll need a very sharp razor knife and a metal straight edge for this. And some practice.
Answer:
What do you use on the pedals?
Answer:
Oops. Left that out.

Velcro, the hook side.
Answer:
A few years back I bought a 25ft x 2in roll of industrial strength velcro from Ebay for about $20.
Since it's a "hook & loop" fastener, I used the 'loop' side to carpet my board. I put three strips toward the top half and three toward the bottom to create 2 6" strips of velcro. Now I just trim a piece of the 'hook' side to any pedals that I want to add. They are held very firmly
Answer:
A couple of options from my experience:
1) felt. Works, but will eventually loose all of it's holding power if you move pedals a lot or if you've got heavy pedals.
2) speaker/industrial carpet. Works great. Might be able to find something similar at a carpet shop, possibly even find some scrap or something really cheap.
3) 3M Dual Lock. Works great. Stick it to a smooth surface and it's not going anywhere.
Answer:
I feel like a moron because i've bought a LOT of used pedals lately. And i've been pulling all the velcro off the back because I was screwing them down. *sigh*
-shane
Answer:
What I did with mine is I went to home depot and bought a roll of the industrial strength velcro its like 27 bucks for a 15ft roll; But man dude it works so nice I got another pedal sunday and had to move stuff around and it worked awesome. Except for some reason the velcro doesnt want to stick to my fish n chips for some reason but besides that itts works awesome.
Answer:
You should get some crazy shag carpet like Ryan had. Seriously.
Answer:
I get "industrial" strength velcro from Wal-Mart, at my local WM it's back in the hobby section in the sewing stuff. I don't remember exactly how much it is but it is only about $5 or so for a long roll, I know it's cheaper than the Ebay/Home Depot prices quoted above. It has a strong adhesive on the back of both the hook and the fuzzy pieces.
Originally, I used only the hook side on the bottom of the pedals and covered my board in regular black felt. Like someone above said, over time and with repeated removals the felt became fuzzy and lost its ability to hold the velcro.
Now, I just stick a small length of the fuzzy side wherever I want the pedal to go. I stick it directly to the wood. It takes a LOT to pull it off, far more than the normal wear and tear of packing/unpacking/using the pedalboard.
Answer:
So basically I want something that I can cover the whole board with (probably the speaker carpet stuff) and then some velcro material to put on each pedal.
I'd like to have the whole board covered so that I can move pedals around easily but they will stay where I put them.
Where do I get something that will stick to the speaker carpet? Or do I just get a whole lot of industrial velcro?
-shane
Answer:
With the velcro i bought. its 15 feet of both the hooks and the fuzzy stuff. so you have 15ft of both stuff and i jsut covered my whole board with one and put the other on the back of my pedals so they could go anywere.
Answer:
What I did, was go to Home Depot and buy some industrial carpet. Then I made sure I had the hook side of the velcro on the pedal. The carpet is very cheap, and the industrial stuff doesnt seem to wear out...plus it holds the hook side of the velcro REALLY well...and its like 2 or 3 dollars a foot.

Answer:
My experience with felt or carpet is that it won't last as long as the velcro (carpet and felt are made of woven fibers that will separate when pulled). I had carpet on my old board and the material frayed over time. My pedals would sag sometimes. And, it did not hold on to the velcro as well as the velcro hook and loop holds on my new board. Velcro's the way to go if you ask me.