A few years ago I started playing guitar again - something I had neglected while working on electronic music. One of the main complaints I had when I was still playing a lot was that it was a pain to carry a tube amp with me. Output transformers and a speaker are heavy enough to be a pain to lift and my Fender Deluxe 80 finally stopped working. So I decided to embrace an ampless set up since I had been using a computer for my effects for almost a decade anyways. I was mostly inspired by John Dieterich from Deerhoof who I saw in 2006 using a laptop who I heard was using a Crate Powerblock. I thought they sounded great live so I was ready to try a class D amplifier for a power amp. Then the pandemic happened and I had to quarantine and stopped playing with other musicians for the most part.
Most of my time for the next two years was spent on either learning electronic music production or building this website and polishing my IT and programming skills. Then the following year I had to focus on rebuilding after the pandemic. It's been a long journey. I recently have had the opportunity to start focusing on my first love - music - again. I was a bit disillusioned with electronic music after finally understanding a lot of it is trial and error by those who do not play any instruments. This is not intended to be a a critique or insult directed at anyone - to me this is no more or less a valid approach to creating music than any other approach.
However, for me with my creative process, I enjoy being able to play things the way I play a guitar or banjo. To me, that's the fun part of making music. So with this in mind, I started focusing on playing guitar and banjo again. I mostly use Native Instruments' Guitar Rig software and had been using a couple of stompboxes for my distorted sound, but it never had the same feel I would get from the Deluxe 85 I was using. I decided to incorporate a couple of pre-amps into my setup and needed to find a better solution for powering my rig than a TU-2 tuner.
If you have ever spent time in an IDF or MDF, you probably have strong feelings about cable management. I know I do. It became pretty clear to me right away I was going to have to find some way to mount my power supply to the bottom of the PedalTrain Classic 2. I initially tried using velcro, but the power supply kept falling off or would be partially obstructed. So I decided I was going to have to build a shelf to hold it.
I had a hard time finding any information or tutorials on how to install the brackets, but it seemed simple enough. They included a package of screws so I figured, how hard can this be? Unfortunately, things in life never usually work out for me on the first try. Initially when I went to install them, I had the included screw snap off. I considered returning the product, but then decided I probably could extract that screw and drill a pilot hole. After reading the manufacturer's website, I discovered the PedalTrain is made out of aluminum, so I realized some self-drilling screws from a hardware store probably would work.
I was able to install the brackets without issue this time. My original plan was to use some wood connected to these since it would be easy to cut to length, but decided instead to use an aluminum sheet instead. I decided to throw this quick tutorial together so you can benefit from my experience.
Supplies needed:
***Wear eye protection, hearing protection, and gloves***
***There will be sharp pieces of aluminum after this so be careful and vacuum the area when you're done.***
***Yes, I know the safety warnings probably are obvious to most, but others might have very little experience with DIY projects.***
1) First apply the velcro to the brackets and the aluminum sheet.
2) Mount the aluminum sheet onto the brackets.
3) Center the shelf on the brackets and carefully mount them using the screws.
The shelf will be a bit flimsy in the middle if you only use two brackets. For me, this is enough to hold the shelf and the power supply and the adapter. If this is really going to bother you, you can use a second set of brackets for stability.