Now Keep All Your Pedals Together With the Best Pedal Boards

Honestly, whether you're a guitarist; bassist, lead, or rhythm, or a pianist, effect pedals will often be the secret sauce behind your unique sound. 

In the recent few years, musicians have shifted to virtual pedals (DAW plugins) to get the job done, even during live concerts. However, using these VSTs and various plugins is still not as practical because let's be honest, not everybody likes to operate their laptop with one hand and play guitar with the other.

Therefore, to get that desired sound, one needs an effect pedal, or often, multiple pedals to go about their set! Since organizing them becomes one hell of a headache with all those wandering cables on the stage, we were blessed with this beautiful, lifesaving invention called a pedalboard. That's why we've hooked you up with a list of a few budget guitar pedalboards above - they're all budget-friendly but most importantly, they're above par quality-wise!

How? Let's find out the secret ingredients of an ideal pedalboard in this section!

How To Differentiate a Poor Pedal Board From an Optimum One?

In retrospect, an ideal pedalboard lets you place all your favorite effect pedals on it, is easier to carry, and will last long!

However, there are a couple more details that are difficult to eye on directly so we'll elaborate the secret recipe for you.

Size

The size is crucial and it's an essential key part that goes without saying. If you're an absolute beginner, then know this; you're going to buy multiple pedals over the years, even if you only have a single pedal right now.

As time goes by, you'll want a delay pedal, and then a phaser, then you'll like doing those wah starters for your audience. It's a never-ending ride and that's why the size of the pedalboard is important - you need to make sure all your pedals can fit on it!

Weight

Another very important factor to differentiate a reliable pedalboard from a substandard one is the weight! A good pedalboard is always easy to carry, so lightweight that it can fit into your average nylon bag or a soft case. This is important because musicians tour a lot and need a light solution instead of a heavyweight pedalboard that is loaded with pedals that requires two people to carry it.

Accessories

So most pedalboards out there come with velcro tape, pedal cables, and relevant tools for you to go about organizing your pedals. A couple of effect pedalboards come with zip ties that allow you to better position your cables. 

You get the deal, so watch out for these items when you're buying a pedalboard and make sure they aren't missing when your product arrives!

Power supply

For extra convenience, some manufacturers do put a power supply in a dedicated compartment in their pedalboards. While others come with power supplies/cables that can be used to connect various effect pedals. 

The power supply can be bought separately as well but the point for a power supply is to be good enough to power all your pedals! However, if you've got a power supply that gives out 9V and you've got a few pedals that work on 20V or anything higher than 9V, you're going to end up with a damaged pedal. Don't forget to take this into consideration!

Material

Plywood has been the go-to material for pedalboard owners for a long time - particularly because they're easily customizable and aren't too heavy. But in comparison to aluminum, they're not as sturdy and prone to breakage. On the other hand, aluminum ones are sturdy, well-built, and offer enough functionality to get things done.

Lastly, you may find plastic pedalboards but they're usually below par, cheap, and prone to breakage. 

Flat vs. Angled

This is a matter of personal preference but one advantage angled pedalboards have over flat ones is that they enable you to press the top row without your foot messing with a pedal from the bottom row.

Extra compartments

Some of the coolest pedalboards may come with a particular compartment for power supply and some even come with plus points like guitar pickup holders - think of them as just a cherry on top!

How Does One Organize Pedals on Their Pedal Board?

There aren't any rules about this and to each its own! However, we suggest it's best that you order them in a way you'll be needing them.

For example, start with a tuner, followed by a compression pedal, then an overdrive pedal, further followed by the chorus, phaser, and delay pedals, and lastly a reverb pedal.

Try to have reverb on one end and your tuner on one end. It's just better to have easy access to these two since they're used most often!

Why Do Pedal Boards Cost Too Much?

So pedalboards are notorious for costing too much! This is because some high-end brands do price pedalboards around the expensive spectrum. 

However, the truth is, all you need to look for is the ease of carrying, size, and longevity and they work like a charm! That's why wood pedals have been so famous and now aluminum ones have taken the lead!

When you're planning to buy a pedalboard, don't worry about spending too much and just go with a $50 - $100 choice. More often than not, you'll have your ends met with convenience!