I used to have some pretty expensive pedalboards. They were heavy, and overkill for my playing so I eventually sold them. Recently I was looking for a decent pedalboard, medium size, and reasonable cost. It turns out, they don’t exist. I did see a pedalboard that I liked, but it was pretty expensive for being just a plastic board with a handle cut out from it. Which gave me a really simple, but effective idea: cut a cutting board. Spoiler alert: it cost $12 to make, not including the Velcro (which I always replace with industrial strength any time I get a pedalboard anyway). One cool thing is that you can get cutting boards in different materials or colors, so you can have it look like whatever you want. So if you want to make a pedalboard yourself, read on.

Step 1 is pretty obvious: pick a board that fits your pedals. You can do this really simply by laying your pedals on the floor roughly how you would want them on the board, and then add an inch or two around it and measure that. For my board I went with a 15 inch by 20 inch poly cutting board.

Step 2: layout the pedals the way you want them, and mask them off to prep for the Velcro. You can, of course, use whatever fastening method you like.

Step 3: Measure the placement of the handle (assuming you want a handle).

Step 4: Most of these cutting boards are non-porous surfaces which is great for food, but not easy for adhesive to stick to. So sand down the areas where your Velcro will go, and then cut out your handle and sand the edges down.

Step 5: Layout your Velcro and then remove the masking tape.

Step 6: Attach all your pedals and run your cables, and try not to spend all the money you saved on beer. In case you don’t happen to have Velcro laying around, I used less than $8 worth of industrial strength Velcro for all of those pedals.