Let's Talk About Pedal Mounting Methods

Pedal Mounting Methods

 

Imagine mounting a pedal to a pedalboard.
What did you use? Velcro? Zip ties? Something else? 

Lets talk about different options:

Velcro / Hook & Loop / DualLock

Velcro and the other hook & loop tapes have been the default for as long as I can remember.

Pros:

Cheap, easy, and functional. Readily available.

There are entire pedalboard brands designed around Velcro.

Cons:

Velcro tends to leave sticky residue on your pedals.

If you’re in a hot and / or humid environment, the adhesive softens and can slide off the pedal or the pedalboard or both.

Do you have a dog or cat? Everyone that sees the Velcro on your pedalboard can tell.

Zip Ties

I’ve seen many professionals using zip ties on their tour boards, many times in addition to Velcro - Bob Balch of Fu Manchu comes to mind - because of durability. It’s definitely a more permanent mount- they’re attached until you cut the zip tie.   

This is the connection Holeyboard was originally designed around. The holes allowed you to mount pedals with zip ties easily in almost any configuration.

Pros:

Zip ties are really tough and really easy. The zip ties that ship with Holeyboards are 75lb strength, meaning that it takes at least 75lbs to break the connection.

It’s easy to change pedals. Just clip the tie and swap your pedal, connect the same way.

Pedals with rubber feet or grippy bottom plates (Boss etc) work especially well.

Cons:

On a traditional pedalboard, it’s difficult to get them mounted the way you want (no holes)

Zip ties don’t work great with power supplies

Not the prettiest or cleanest look.

Quick Release Plates

These plates attach to the bottom of your pedals and secure to the board using a thumbscrew or small bolt.

Temple Audio makes these to work with their pedalboards and they work great. Boardmods has improved in the Temple concept by making plates that fit the most popular pedal enclosures; eliminating the need for adhesive and adding channels to use zip ties in a cleaner looking way.

Pros:

These plates offer a super secure but very easy attachment to the pedalboard, and a very clean look.

Cons:

These tend to be proprietary to their respective brands, use a very strong adhesive to attach to pedals, and once attached don’t sit flat on the floor without being on a pedalboard.

Magnets

Definitely the most controversial on this list.

There is a ton of incorrect information about magnets and pedals: magnets make pedals noisy, cause interference, or somehow damage the pedal…

It’s weird that there’s so many opinions and bad info, considering that most pedalboards are made from non-ferrous metals like aluminum and can’t use magnetic mounting anyway.

Holeyboards are make of powder coated steel and are one of very few brands that use steel for their boards.

I’ve tried this myself with a crazy powerful magnet- much more than you’d ever use to mount a pedal - with my noisiest and most finicky analog pedals and there was no perceivable change in the sound or overall performance of the pedal.

Digital pedals (Strymon, Eventide etc) don’t have any components that would be susceptible to magnetic fields, so nothing to worry about there either.

David from VVolf Mask (whom you may recognize from some of our videos on social media) uses magnets exclusively on his AA board and has not had any issues.

The boys at Ebbe design did a whole series of Instagram reels about this with demonstrations.

Pros-

No residue, super clean look, attaching to the board is super satisfying- the sound it makes and feeling when it makes contact with the board are what ASMR dreams are made of. Super clean look.

Cons-

Magnets don’t work in most pedalboards. Attaching magnets to pedals does typically require an adhesive, which may or may not leave gunk of your pedals.

Depending on how you do it, they may slide  on the board a little and may scuff the finish.

These are the primary attachment methods that the majority of players use, and is by no means a complete list.

I’ve used Command Strips and double sided gel mounting adhesive in the past.

There’s really no wrong way.

The best option is the one that works best for you.

I always love hearing from players, let me know if I missed anything.

\m/

Mike