Pedal Saga Part 2: The PedalTrain Board

Moving along with my pedalboard story, the PedalTrain PT-Pro is my board of choice. Mainly because I found it at the Musicians Friend outlet (may it rest in peace... wait a minute what am I saying? I miss that place. Jerks.) for a great price. :)

It was in good shape, with the nylon bag, but had a couple of hairline fractures across 2 of the front welds. No biggie, it wasn't going to break anytime soon. I bought it for a reduced price and went on my way.

Fast forward a couple of years now. I was packing up for band practice, loading cables into the front side pouch. Went to zip it up, and the zipper kept on going. It was like a knife blade was suddenly built into the zipper. That whole front pouch just fell off and I was sighing. When I got to practice that night, I removed the board from the wounded bag and saw those cracked welds had cracked all the way through now, and the board was begging to break.

I contacted PedalTrain the next day and asked if they could repair it, what the price would be, if I could exchange it pro-rata'd, etc. I was not prepared for this response: "Sorry for all the issues with your board and bag.... ...Please email me your shipping address and we (will) ship you a replacement on the whole Pedaltrain, bag included. There will also be a call tag in the box for you send back the defective unit free of charge."

No questions asked, no deposit on the new one, not even return shipping charges! To top it off, I asked if I could purchase a mounting kit for my BBE Supa Charger to put beneath the board. (I'd tried velcroing it to the bottom. Fail.) They replied immediately that the boards come standard with mounting kits for VoodooLabs Power Supplies, which also acommodate Supa Chargers. Foshizzle??? WOOT!

It arrived in a couple of days, with a new, more reinforced bag, the mounting kit, and plenty of new velcro. Man, these guys sure do want good referrals! I'm so glad to see them stand behind their products! I'm impressed. I mounted the Supa Charger (ridiculously easy if you can operate a drill,) velcro'd the board, and was set for mounting ze' pedals! As with the George L's, I don't know if this is indicative of how PedalTrain treats every customer, but they bent over backwards for me.

I got some of those tie-wrap mounts (pack of ten for like $3.00 @ HD) and went to work wiring up the power & fresh George L's cables underneath the board. It looks very nice and neat, especially with the Supa Charger beneath the board now.

I used to think "anal-retentive" cabling on a board was overrated, but I now find it incredibly necessary and rewarding.

The next post will have some pics, and more about the case I purchased for it.