Bundling cables underneath a pedal board

[manymanyhaha]

Yep. Drod is correct.

This is what my pt-pro looks like.

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This is inspiring me to make an effort next time I put my board together.

[whoismarykelly]

If you use high quality isolated power supplies you can probably run them parallel to guitar cables just fine. If you use a digital switching power supply like a 1 spot then you might get noise. Here is my board running on a Pedal Power 4x4.

[ritz]

I love a tidy underside. Hate looking at my board and having that little nagging feeling, knowing it's a total mess underneath.

Problem is you get it all nice and tidy and DONE...and then inevitably you need to make some changes, swap thing out or change your signal routing ... and then that slow creep back to disorder begins, and it's only a matter of time unless you maintain as you go...

I'm currently in the process of trying to get back to perfectly tidy and wrapped up in bows. Floor board is pretty settled these days, and I want it to be DONE, course I know that it's only done UNTIL something comes along to change it... and thus the push/pull with entropy pushes onward

[Pete]

I love a tidy underside. Hate looking at my board and having that little nagging feeling, knowing it's a total mess underneath.

Problem is you get it all nice and tidy and DONE...and then inevitably you need to make some changes, swap thing out or change your signal routing ... and then that slow creep back to disorder begins, and it's only a matter of time unless you maintain as you go...

I'm currently in the process of trying to get back to perfectly tidy and wrapped up in bows. Floor board is pretty settled these days, and I want it to be DONE, course I know that it's only done UNTIL something comes along to change it... and thus the push/pull with entropy pushes onward

Can totally relate to this!

[goroth]

That's why I try to standardise as much as I can - top mount everything makes swapping out stuff easy. Generally my wiring is loose enough such that I can change out 1590B, 125B, 1590BB or even D without redoing any underboard wiring. Also seems a good idea to have a small amount of slack in the cabling anyway.

[whoismarykelly]

After 20 years I have at least 100 patch cables of different lengths on hand so I can swap cables to make any replaced pedal neat and tidy.

[sardinista]

Yeah, I use these as well, but just for the power cables which I run under the board. They work great. Signal cables are above the board.

Things change often enough for me that zip ties don't really make sense. I mean, it'd be a hassle at least.

i use these lil guys and it works nice for me. but i have broken a few by trying to fit too many cables in there.

[Pete]

You should have no issue with noise from crossing cables unless they are low quality. You may get noise crossing power cables and audio cables. Especially if they run parallel. Velcro zip ties are the best for fixing things in a pinch, but normal zip ties are good too

Could you elaborate a little on running cables parallel? I feel embarrassed to ask, but what exactly does that mean? Should I basically try to avoid having the patch cables and power cables cross each other underneath the board?

[DRodriguez]

Basically, keep power and audio cables as separate as possible. When they need to cross, try to keep the crossing area as small as possible. So cross the audio and power cables at a right angle like a +.

Try and avoid running the power and audio cables right next to each other like an = close to each other.

Basically, the more power and audio cables touch, the higher the chance of interference. So make them touch in as few places as possible.

[Pete]

Wow, fast and helpful response, dude-thanks a lot!

[Pete]

That's why I try to standardise as much as I can - top mount everything makes swapping out stuff easy. Generally my wiring is loose enough such that I can change out 1590B, 125B, 1590BB or even D without redoing any underboard wiring. Also seems a good idea to have a small amount of slack in the cabling anyway.

This makes a lot of sense. I used to find the "top-mounted only" posts pretty silly, but... I get it now. Jack placement really can affect what goes on and stays off a board, especially on a big board with a long signal chain.

I'm thinking of buying some new patch cables for my board, and I've been looking at cable lengths that are a bit longer than what it would appear I need... Say I have a top mounted jack pedal on my board, and I decide one day that I want to swap it out for a new pedal (in the same spot on the board) that is bigger and has side jacks... Extra cable length comes in handy.

When choosing cable lengths, how much slack do you generally like to have (so you don't have to redo underboard wiring when switching out a pedal)? I imagine getting a cable about 3 inches longer than what you need for certain, is a safe bet for most circumstances

[goroth]

Enough so that I can pull out the cable without any trouble. If you get those sticky zip tie holder things you can easily use them to keep any slack tidy. But yeah, I guess two or three inches.