Well...I just pulled the trigger on a Black Bird Peda Board

My research really supported these guys.

I will post my review when I get it.

Do let us know. Please. I almost purchased one of these two years ago! They look to be of great quality. Their aesthetics are also attractive as well.

Well sadly I am not impressed.

I had a real good feeling about this, but I am not overly impressed with the construction or attention to detail.

My board is 15" deep by 30" wide.

The surface that you mount the pedals to is only attached to the frame by brackets, which is acceptable if placed strategically. The maple top almost looks like an overlay or finished paneling glued to plywood. I will take a closer look when I get back to the studio, oh and I think the frame may be particle board, but I will check tonight and correct this post if necessary.

The entire top 30" width did not have one bracket. I could easily move the maple board in and out. So, now imagine pedals mounted at the top and the user pressing on the pedals. This is too much stress on the 30" span for it not to have one bracket. I am purchasing three and placing one in the middle and two on each ends about 5" from the corners. I will be placing other brackets where they are needed as well.

This is not as important, but using wrong hardware says alot about attention to detail, for example the power connector has countersunk screws. Unfortunately the power connector does not require countersunk screws.

The tolex installation is horrible. The seam is so ridiculously apparent. It looks as if it was the installer's first time ever installing tolex.

On the website the images clearly show screwed on feet to prevent sliding. My board had cheap adhesive feet that anyone can get at Lowes.

I inspected the cutouts for the power and 1/4" inputs. These looked like someone did not have the right size bit and took a chisel to open them up.

All in all it is not worth the money.

When I decided to buy this board I had calculated the cost of solid maple, high quality plywood, tolex, etc. and decided that I would be saving time and money by pulling the trigger on Black Bird, but I was sadly mistaken.

This saddens me because the research I did led me to believe the owner was a great and honest guy. The owner communicated very well with me and I did not have any reservations about his integrity. I still believe that the owner is probably all the things I mentioned above, honest, great guy, has integrity etc., but his perception of quality is different than mine.

Wow. Sorry to hear about your dud. They sure look great on their website. Thanks for the honest review. Can you return it?

I do not think so.

It was on the "Specials" page.

It was a demo.

What is funny is that now when I look CLOSELY on the website "gallery" I can see all of the failures I mentioned in my review, minus the feet and material used for wood top boards.

I can easily see the poor tolex job with horrible seams.

I can see the lack of and poor application of brackets, except for one pic where it is appropriate, at least for the "Wah Wedge" portion of the board.

I think the owner has great intentions and ideas and just misses the mark on engineering and application.

Oh well.

Yikes! Good luck!

TremoJem said:

I can easily see the poor tolex job with horrible seams.

Click to expand...

I just went and looked and I see what you mean......

I don't understand why the Tolex seams are overlapped. That's going to increase the chance of snagging it on something and tearing it. I'm sure the builders intentions are good, but the descriptions are a little mis-leading.

From the Features page:
"Hardwood Pedalboards
Want a more natural look? Choose from several hardwood types to create a classy board with all the same features as our tolex boards"

Although he does not state solid hardwood, he also does not mention it is veneer over plywood.

Sorry to hear your troubles.

Dom

Thanks Brother I appreciate it.

I have decided to customize what I have. I hope to take pics of it as shipped and then when done.

It will take some time as I do not have a table saw and must find one to borrow.

I found some real nice finished Walnut plywood. It appears to be of very high quality and is very heavy.

I will put that on top. I will move the Maple to the bottom.

I will place a piano hinge on the top piece to allow me to lift the top away from the frame to inspect or adjust any internal wiring.

The board shipped open back. I am going to make it a closed, but not permanently sealed, back.

I am adding a third locking 1/4" jacks, and five more standard 1/4" jacks.

This will allow guitar in and then stereo or parallel guitar out using the locking 1/4" jacks.

The remaining five 1/4" jacks are for FXLoop Switching, Channel Switching and Volume Pedal to the back of the TCElectronic.

Don't hold your breath...I am very anal so it will take me a long time.

Later Brother.

Cool, be sure to post your improvements!!

Dom

Upon closer inspection the Maple is indeed 1/4" thick.

I decided not to upgrade to the degree I posted earlier.

I have added all of my jacks and now have to wire the board.

I don't want to spend too much money on a brick and I can't find one with a 15VDC output with a positive center pin so I am looking for a low profile raceway to power the pedals.

It just did not seem worth the effort. A good frame and top board will hold my pedals and this board is that without question.

I have too many other projects that are more important.

I will post pics when complete.

Here is the final product...my first one ever and I learned alot from this project.



All Neutrick Gold and Mogami 2524 for signal and Neutrick Nickel and Mogami 2319 for switching.

And yes, it took a few days to layout and solder everything.

I will say that this is the BlackBird pedalboard I bought online.

I customized it for my use, which included replacing two locking jacks with gold jacks and adding a gold locking jack and adding five nickel jacks for switching, other than the small drill holes for cables it was...stock.

I had other ideas but settled on having a working pedalboard sooner than later.