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since there's already the Pedaltrain Nano, what are they going to call the new thingy? the Nucleus?

culturejam wrote:I honestly don't understand the obsession with 1590a pedals. As a guy who builds a lot of pedals, I appreciate the challenge of cramming a lot of shit in there. But I also don't like the extreme restrictions that the size imposes on circuit selection or possible controls (as Dubkitty points out). I also don't like offset in/out jacks.

Honestly, I think the 1590a stuff is more of a "Look Ma, no hands!" kind of phenomenon.

Thinking about building these 1590a-sized SHO clones long-ways so that there's jacks on the short ends, stomp switch in the middle and vol pot on the "top" side next to a DC jack. I don't have pedalboard restrictions where this wouldn't make sense. Dunno.

Edit: rough layout example:


Edit edit: Yes, working on perfboard that small is a pain. It's small enough to be double-stick-taped to the side of the footswitch or of the bottom of the volume pot, depending on how I lay out the pedal. I'm going to print PCBs for all future pedals I build.

mathias wrote:Thinking about building these 1590a-sized SHO clones long-ways so that there's jacks on the short ends, stomp switch in the middle and vol pot on the "top" side next to a DC jack. I don't have pedalboard restrictions where this wouldn't make sense. Dunno.

There are a few circuits in which it makes sense to go small. Like, things with 5 or 6 components. I just don't think phaser, vibrato, or reverb are good choices because of the sacrifices that have to be made in order to meet the size restrictions.

But I guess it depends on where your priorities lay. If size is your #1 criteria, I can see the attraction.

I just wanted a SHO for the end of my chain, in this case, but the tremolo is small, neat, and was cheap relative to other boutique pedals. Other stuff I'm not so worried about, I guess. Stuffing more pedals onto a given size board is nice, but only if the pedals sound good. If you don't have enough room to build quality-sounding pedals, then it isn't worth the size difference. Also, sadly, no one has invented a patch cable that sticks out less, and this is really where I could save some space on my pedalboard, not in effects size.

mathias wrote:Also, sadly, no one has invented a patch cable that sticks out less, and this is really where I could save some space on my pedalboard, not in effects size.

There's really no reason that all guitar cabling couldn't use 1/8" jacks. This would solve quite a few size problems.

culturejam wrote:

mathias wrote:Also, sadly, no one has invented a patch cable that sticks out less, and this is really where I could save some space on my pedalboard, not in effects size.

There's really no reason that all guitar cabling couldn't use 1/8" jacks. This would solve quite a few size problems.

Or at least everything on the pedalboard. Keep 1/4" running to amp and guitar, with tiny patch boxes. That said, replacing all the jacks in all my pedals (and for all future pedals) would take a lot of time, effect, and money. And then I'd have to make or buy a bunch of mono 1/8" right angle patch cables.

Lava cable's tiny right angle connectors are just as small as the George L's, AFAIK. There's not a great way to cut down the size any more and be able to bend that cable out 90 degrees or put the pedals flat up against each other.

Adapters like this don't save any space in my experience, especially since they're useless when pedal jacks are offset.

It's never pretty transitioning to a new standard.

RCA jacks might be a better solution, IMHO. Small size, but still get thick cable with nice shielding. It also helps that we have a pallet of these at the Milwaukee Makerspace that I keep seeing and using in projects like my DIY-thingamagoop:


I like that these would save space inside pedals and outside between pedals with connectors like these:

culturejam wrote:I honestly don't understand the obsession with 1590a pedals. As a guy who builds a lot of pedals, I appreciate the challenge of cramming a lot of shit in there. But I also don't like the extreme restrictions that the size imposes on circuit selection or possible controls (as Dubkitty points out). I also don't like offset in/out jacks.

Honestly, I think the 1590a stuff is more of a "Look Ma, no hands!" kind of phenomenon.

I kind of agree.
It seems kind of gimmicky.
That being said, I do own a Malekko Vibrato which I love.
I didn't buy it for the size though.
A lot of people seem to be putting size over sound. I guess that's why those big old EHX are falling out of favour.

That all said, about the pedalboard: I do like the idea of having a "bare essentials" board I could throw in my gig bag's pocket to take to a jam session. If you only need a boost/OD and reverb, that's a "pedalboard" the size of a medium Moleskine, including the OneSpot brick.