Yesterday I hid my first geocache. It was published about an hour ago, and already someone has thanked me for hiding it. Not a bad way to start the day.
Category: blog
Ikea Gorm Pedalboard
Years ago, I read an interview with Paul Stanley of KISS in a guitar magazine. When asked about his guitar setup, he answered with something like, “If you can’t get the tone you want out of your amp, you’re doing something wrong.”
I took that to heart, and have striven to keep my guitar rig as simple as possible. If I needed to tune, I’d put my amp on standby, unplug the guitar from the amp, plug into the tuner, tune, plug the guitar back into the amp and turn it back on. Cumbersome? Yes. But my signal was pure, nothing to hold it back. No pedal to get kicked or stepped on accidentally. Less crap to haul around.
However my latest band, Wormrider is not so simple. I’ve found myself needing and wanting effects to change my tone at times, or to make noises. As I came to grips with the fact I’ll be using some effects pedals in this band, I began to think about how I could make the set-up more simple. A daisy-chain power source was one way. A pedalboard was another.
I did a lot of research on pedalboards. They were almost all more money than I was willing to spend, or the inexpensive ones didn’t have the features I wanted. Many were way too large. I remembered a post on Lifehacker about a pedalboard made from an Ikea shelf. So I did some more research and decided to build one. I liked the slatted base, that I could set the incline I want, and the inexpensive price.
I took stock of the pedals I currently use and the few that I want and decided the Gorm shelf that was roughly 19.5″ x 12″ would be perfect. When I got to Ikea, they only had the 19.5″ x 20″ one. No bother, I was going to cut the smaller one down anyway. It would give me enough wood to make another one if I wanted. I also purchased a pack of height extension posts
At the hardware store, I purchased some matte black spray-paint, industrial strength Velcro tape, and some non-slip rubber feet.
I cut three slats off, measured and cut the extension posts, and found a piece of scrap wood in my basement for the front trim.
Next I sanded everything, especially the cuts I made, so there would be no rough edges. Then I broke out the spray-paint, giving each piece two good coats.
Once the paint dried, I assembled the pedalboard and attached the rubber feet. Getting it to sit level required a little troubleshooting. Turns out the shelf wasn’t perfectly flat, so I had to widen the holes on the extension post to wiggle it around a little bit.
Here it is right-side up.
After measuring and cutting the loop side of the Velcro tape (the hook side goes on the bottom of each pedal) using a t-square and exacto knife, I stuck it on and the pedalboard was complete!
Here’s another view, on my kitchen floor.
* EDIT
Here are a few pictures of varying qualities, with pedals.
Declaration of War
We declare the death of vices through straight edge, which is our solid moral. We believe in it as a means to reach the real conception of that which surrounds us while still remaining pure. We do not tolerate any form of vices because these do not permit the individual to utilize his senses and make him regress to a low level of existence making him a slave to substances which are harmful to his mental and physical health, surrounding him with false values that make him live in a permanent illusion, keeping him busy realizing nothing instead of the communion between soul and matter which should be the goal of every existence. A vice is anything which forces you in behavior that has nothing to do with the realization of yourself. When you feel the need to drink a Coke, to have a chewing-gum, to eat junk-food, to have a beer or a joint, it is not you who really wants this but these substances that impose themselves on you, in a neurotic-consumer (sic) cycle that enslaves you to the point where you depend on it psychologically and even physically. These are all things brought forth by a cultural system that wants you acceptant of these rhythms of consumption, so as not to leave you space to think freely, to know, criticize and propose . One doesn’t need this shit to live! Drugs confuse your perceptions so as to make you more vulnerable while prey to artificial paradises that make you as active as an idiot, a servant to substances that make you feel happy even when they are smash you. Liberation of conscience? It’s its annihilation. Those who drink, smoke, dedicate themselves to vices, poison themselves and harm us with their stench, showing pride for the noose that tightens around their neck. This is why we are forced to wear gasmasks. They are sick and doctors shouldn’t feel any compassion for them while healing them. Force can be used to change the ideas of these sinners.
With the holy message of straight edge we also preach the perspective of a new social order which buries that of multinationals and of profit as the one reason for living. We are not for communism as that dictated by the parties that identify themselves in it. Marx was a guide for us all but his intuitions must be updated to our present world. Let us learn from those who have touched social themes before us, but let us also use the criteria of knowledge-criticism-proposal in this case as well. Ours is a post-Fordist era with a crucial importance focused on the management of information, Let us not limit ourselves to re-proposing economic theories that do not consider the real dynamism of the market. Let us not continue dreaming of conquering Winter palaces, red guards, French Mays and barbudos. Because there will never be a revolution. The system is a complex machine that absorbs everything, even mass revolts which are only its phases of transition on the road to a new balance, a settlement of society itself. It has happened, instead, that the direction of the system doesn’t occur through the masses but because of secret powers. Therefore, why not use theses secret powers to push society in the right direction? This way instead of being puppets we would be puppeteers. Equality isn’t even the goal to reach. To each according to his merits. We have to settle that each person should have what one deserves and should be put in a position to deserve what his mental capabilities allow him to. The mass is ignorant and cannot be taught adequately because it is a mass. The mass must allow its voice to rise through a concentric circle-type collectivism. The common good will be the standard used to decide, single realties must be protected. Let us therefore infiltrate into the power systems pretending to play by the rules. Remember: mimetism is our weapon.
This is why we hide our identity. The exhibitionists are reached by the counterpunches of the reactionary forces. Ours is total iconoclasm, as happens with this record that will piss of many who did not expect such an attack on their peaceful moral of passive music consumers. The voracity of collecting will therefore be made vain by our work. Style is unnecessary when it is used as only an empty manner. This is an attack launched with an instrument that you all dispose of: your stereo. To re-discover past values which can also be the future, Never lower your guard, do not turn music into boredom for wimps, have the courage to have balls. Otherwise, to listen to something new we will have to play the old records at 45 r.p.m. instead of 33.
X Gasmask X 1994