THE ANSWERS
Peter, that’s a very interesting project to be contemplating. Pete Cornish built his business upon making custom professional rigs for industry heavyweights such as David Gilmour, Brian May and Andy Summers. The requirement for such a rig was not to do with weight, though, as at that time all of these players had absolutely monster rigs with huge amounts of amps that dwarf the weight of any pedalboard. They all had massive amounts of roadies to carry the gear, too. Let’s discuss the other reasons for this route.
01 The first benefit was simplicity of use, in the same way that many people seek multi-effects units to simplify their gigging workflow. Well-spaced-out large footswitches helped the pro clientele operate them on a dark stage, while enhanced and integrated power meant their ’boards would work anywhere on their international touring schedule. This power also needed to cope with the ‘noisy’ unpredictable power of differing voltages. Buffered input and outputs ensured signal loss and degradation was kept to a minimum over long cable runs. On top of this, the ’board needed to be robust enough to handle being thrown around on trains, planes and trucks yet be quickly set up ready for soundcheck. It’s hard to believe now, but all of these benefits are taken for granted.
02 Considering the benefits, what are the reasons for not doing this? You mention you aren’t electrically minded, which, to me, is a massive red flag, so I really wouldn’t proceed if you’re not confident. In fact, I’d actually recommend against doing this work anyway. First, the weight you’ll save won’t be all that great considering the spacing you’d have to put in place to make the pedals useful. Second, you’re pretty much stuck with the pedals you choose at the project’s start, which removes the whole benefit and joy of owning pedals – swapping and changing them as your mood takes you. Third, it won’t be any more robust than a well designed and built pedalboard. Finally, there is a whole lot of value lost when you dismantle a pedal and remove its warranty. That, coupled with the fact that not all pedals integrate easily with others and many use different switching methodologies, means you may end up with more problems than you expect. This is especially true if you can’t plan for these eventualities.
I feel very badly about not presenting a more enthusiastic approach towards this idea, as it is possible to do it right, but I strongly believe that individual pedals on ’boards is the best solution for 99.9 per cent of guitarists. Good luck with your pedalboard journey.