I only have experience with my Pedaltrain 2 Hard Case but I will share my experiences just in case you did have the budget to consider one. IMO they are worth it, but I've not bought cheaper boards to know if they would also suit your needs.
The design is good as you can attach a power supply underneath and run wires through the gaps to keep it neat and tidy. It is designed with the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2+ in mind and has the right holes and brackets for one already. Some drilling may be required, but my shop did that for me at the time of purchase. The angle of the board is also quite nice IMO, however it does slightly change the feel of wah/other rocker pedals. I now prefer this angle, but not everyone does. The board itself is made from metal and is very sturdy, I have no concerns about it. The rails are wide enough to put enough velcro that most pedals are going nowhere after attachment. Often you can still leave the feet on pedals if the feet dangle either side of a rail. However with some pedals/layouts you will need to remove the feet to get a clean connection with the velcro.
I'm a bit under 90kg/200lb/14 stone (to cater for all readers). I can stand in the centre on top of my Pedaltrain 2 hard case and it is solid when closed. No concerns about the quality what so ever. The Latches, corners and handle are also good quality. The box is actually fairly heavy (couple of kg) and the first time I loaded it with my board + pedals I was quite shocked at how heavy it was. I am definitely glad I went no bigger, but I think bigger boards come with wheels.
I like 'buy once cry once'Originally Posted by Not_the_DJ
Thanks for the tips! I do like the look of the pedaltrain ones, but for the layout I want I'd have to get a pedaltrain 1 (i was hoping I could get away with a junior). The stagg/dv/kinsman ones appear to be identical and I've read 1 bad review too many between them. Since this board will be going on the road (and no doubt will end up getting chucked into the back of a van at some point) it might be worth going for quality - so as of 5 minutes ago I threw caution to the wind and bought a Diago Gigman. Worst case scenario I'll regret spending more than I really need, rather than regret buying something made of paper.
Last edited by littlethoughts; 8th January 2013 at 03:36 PM.
Very wise.
I have a TKL one and it is brilliant! It is definitely wood as I screw my pedals down on it, has a removable lid, pouch for leads and spare valves and weighs bugger all. For £40 you can't go wrong. Done well over 200 gigs with it no probs.
Only crap bit was the loop velcro on the bottom which I replaced with a tesco value door mat and that has been fine.
I pulled the trigger on one of these last week, it should arrive in the next couple of days, so I'll let you know how I get on with it.
http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_bent..._pedalcase.htm
This replaces my home made Gorm board which I've been transporting in a plastic crate - not ideal. Plus the power supply was cheapo no-name eBay job. The plug is hanging off, secured only by gaffa. The earth pin snapped off in the power extension lead, so I always have to use the same power extension with the pin jammed in it for the board to work!
We recently had to have all our gear PAT tested, and everyone else's stuff passed, and my board was the only thing that failed
I'm really looking forward to getting my new board, PSU, patch leads and other goodies from Thomann so I can go legit and stop worrying about my board dying or causing me to die!
For all the band cables I use an old Samsonite suitcase that US customs broke the locks on. The closing clasps still work. It's great, and has wheels too
I used to have a Kinsman and it was a perfectly serviceable pedalboard (It's for sale in the classifieds). The main thing with this (and all similar budget boards) is that the fabric they use to line them is fairly easily ripped out by the strong velcro people tend to use with pedals. This means you have to budget an extra £3-5 to buy a value floor mat and glue it into the base.
I think it would survive (and did) being dropped out of a car or a rain shower or all the basic stuff you might expect. What it would not survive is backing the car over it or throwing it down a flight of stairs. So if you generally roadie your own gear and you aren't a total nutter it will probably be fine.
The reason I'm selling it is that I've got a pedaltrain 2 purely because the lip on conventional pedalboards (including Diago) does my head in and restricts where you can put pedals and partly because I like being able to thread cables under things rather than around them. I managed to pick up a hard cased one for a song, but I do think at full RRP they are a bit of a rip off considering they are just a bent piece of metal in an (admittedly well made) hard case. I'm amazed there aren't any clones on the market.
Well there's the T-Rex Tonetrunk, but they're the same price, which I always thought was strange.
Maybe given the size of the addressable market the cost of producing welded metal widgets that are then bulky to ship and store it's not doable super cheaply.
Red ones are better.
The Kinsman and Stagg ones are pretty cheap in comparison to Pedal Trains and the like, if they had smarter designs I don't suppose they would actually be much more expensive than they are now. The only choice then would be in terms of relative build quality.
Breeding mammals with insects is my personal bugbear.
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