I've been through a lot of pedalboards and iterations, but I decided to build my dream board in 2018. I've made a couple of very minor changes since then, but the basic layout and most important gear are still the same. I'll describe the wiring scheme and pedal order below. For starters, here's a pic of the board as of today:
The most important starting points for me were the type of board I wanted, and whether to use a switching system like the Gig Rig.
The board itself is a Schmidt Array SA 750W. When I first saw one of these on That Pedal Show I thought it was one of the coolest musical accessories I had ever seen. I still think so. I've had several equally expensive custom pedal boards made to my specs. The Schmidt outdoes them in multiple ways.
It's a great design, beautifully built and finished, with top-notch parts, and very thoughtful details, right down to aluminum reinforcement panels on the bottoms of the sides and to reduce strain from the handle, the flip-up top tier, modular design and cleverly thought out patch bay (mine's installed on the right side, doesn't show in the pic), the extremely high quality latches and hardware, movable shelf supports so they don't get in the way of cabling, ability to bolt or snap in other components if the layout changes, etc. Just great stuff.
I thought about getting a Gig Rig or similar pedal switching system, but decided against it, because with careful planning and wiring, my board is dead quiet with no tone suck, I don't need to change pedal order in the sessions I do, and I didn't want the extra weight and wiring needed to do the job properly.
On the right side of the board is the patch bay with 6 jacks that can be used with both balanced (TRS) and unbalanced (TS) signal cables. This means you can patch in outboard gear that's either balanced or unbalanced, patch in audio cables, expression pedals, and what-have-you, at various places in the pedal chain.
Two of the jacks are "normalled." That means that when nothing's plugged into them, the cables going into the back of one and out of the back of the other are automatically connected to each other. But when you patch in external gear, you break the "normal" and that gear is inserted between whatever's plugged into the two jacks. Thus, you have a built in effects loop on the board that can be used in a variety of ways, and you decide how that's going to work for you. However, any pair of jacks can be insert points, they'd only need to be connected with a jumper cable.
My normalled jacks are between the two H9s. I decided I wanted to use that point as an insert for my Fulltone tape echo machine, but I can also use the two H9s completely independently of one another. For example, I can use the board and the first H9 into the front of an amp, and the second H9 in an amp's loop. I can go wet/dry with the 2 H9s, etc. Sometimes I stick a volume pedal between the two H9s.
I wired the 6 jacks as input, amp channel switch out, expression pedal input for the Suhr Alexa Chorus (a 'sometimes' thing), Loop in, Loop Out, and Output.
The board is powered by a Pedal Power Mondo.
The chain is:
Input >> Pettyjohn Lift buffer/preamp/eq/boost >> Suhr Kokoboost (for its sweepable mid-boost and it's also just nice sounding) >> Pettyjohn Edge low gain OD >> Pettyjohn Chime medium gain OD >> Pettyjohn Filter EQ >> Suhr Koji compressor >> Suhr Alexa Chorus with 2 setting foot switches and can be controlled by external expression pedal via the patch bay >> Peterson tuner >> H9 #1 >> normalled loop >> H9 #2 >> main output.
The Lift is always on. It's a phenomenal sounding buffer, the preamp is studio quality, and it's easy to work with. I use it as one would use a channel input on a console. I usually cut a tiny bit of bass with its preliminary EQ so guitar tracks don't get muddy. The thing makes the guitar sound better but does it without really changing the tone.
The Kokoboost is another device that adds some sparkle to the tone without changing it. However, my main use for it is as an upper-mid boost for solos (the frequency of the boost is sweepable through the midrange, and you can use it as a boost without the sweep as well).
The Edge is a great sounding, very low gain pedal that I use to get a tiny bit of grit from an otherwise clean amp. My two PRS amps don't need it, but the clean channels of the Mesas need it, and it's one of the few pedals I've tried that actually sounds good with a Mesa. This one has the Vintage option installed.
The Chime is supposed to sound a bit like an overdriven Vox, and I use it to push the front end of the DG30 when I have it set up clean. I had Pettyjohn install the discrete op-amp option, giving it a little more "studio-type" tone and more headroom.
The Filter is simply the nicest sounding EQ pedal I've ever heard, studio grade stuff inside, with very well-chosen switchable EQ turnover points.
The Koji is a great, very transparent compressor.
The Alexa is a beautiful sounding analog chorus, and there are choices about chorus type, etc. The thing has two separate choruses that can be set differently and you can footswitch between them.
Everyone knows about the H9s. Mine are both 'Max'd". I've loved Eventide gear since I had an H3000 twenty years ago. The white expression pedal goes into the first H9. There's also a tiny footswitch on the board to change channels on the Mesa Fillmore. I don't use the lead channel on the Lone Star, for me, that's always a clean amp, though I have a switch box I can patch in so the signal can go to either amp.
Edit: I forgot to mention cables. On the board, I use Evidence Audio and van den Hul. Very nice cables, very quiet, don't suck tone. I use soldered traditional plugs for their reliability. Can't have things short out or go bad when clients are in for sessions. I also have the folks who make my cables provide extra strain relief jackets underneath the plug barrels. I also had the power and output cable wrapped in Tech Flex, so they won't get damaged when they're stepped on, plus they make the cables lie perfectly flat on the floor, so the tripping hazard is reduced to a minimum. Between guitar and board I use Van Damme (PRS cables) or the Sommer cables.
The whole schmeer was a little on the pricy side of things, but the reliability and ease of use are terrific, and I'm happy.
