Birth of a Cornish Pedalboard

Paul Marossy · January 12, 2006, 05:30:28 PM

QuoteYeah, they're made from plywood

Wow, I wonder how he does that. Wait, I think it just came to me. Actually, it would be fairly simple. The hardest part would be rounding the edges.

tiges_ tendres · January 12, 2006, 07:05:22 PM

Is it my imagination or was dave gilmour rocking a boss HM-2 in this photo, left hand stack, about the middle!

Maybe they aren't as bad as people make them out to be!

Paul Marossy · January 12, 2006, 07:13:14 PM

I like how all the controls to those pedals are only an armlength away. I think Boss pedals are fine myself...

Dave_B · January 12, 2006, 08:01:51 PM

Quote from: Paul Marossy on January 12, 2006, 05:30:28 PM
QuoteYeah, they're made from plywood

Wow, I wonder how he does that. Wait, I think it just came to me. Actually, it would be fairly simple. The hardest part would be rounding the edges.

My guess:
1) Cut a circle with a 2" hole saw.
2) Drill the center with a 1" forstner bit.
3) Sand the edges. I originally thought he routed them, but it doesn't look like it in this pic.

I like the idea, but I'm way too non-committal to build something like that for myself.

Dave_B · January 13, 2006, 11:12:58 AM

Is that going to be a sideways-mounted light on the gold angle piece? If so, that's a pretty nifty idea to have the entire faceplate illuminated when the effect is engaged.

d95err · January 13, 2006, 12:43:58 PM

Quote from: bellyflop on January 13, 2006, 11:12:58 AM
Is that going to be a sideways-mounted light on the gold angle piece? If so, that's a pretty nifty idea to have the entire faceplate illuminated when the effect is engaged.

Looks like it. That would look really stunning!

Would be really cool to build something like that some day... Perhaps not all-tube, but on the other hand if you're going to make something that big, you might as well throw in a toroidal transformer and have a few tubes in there.

psst · January 13, 2006, 01:01:22 PM

Cool...
What about the switches?
According to the photos there are two kinds, first a DPDTs row wih a fat-bottom ones, and then another row with more normal DPDTs...
Does anybody know where to find the "fat-bottom" DPDTs?

Xavier · January 13, 2006, 02:41:33 PM

Once I sent an email to uncle Pete asking for a quote estimation (rehousing 7 Boss pedals and a wah)

I was lucky enough to be answered .

He said 5000 STERLING

End of Cornish Gas attack

Psst, tú por aquí? A ver cuando volveis a tocar en BCN, que la última vez me lo perdí.

Dave_B · January 13, 2006, 03:36:55 PM

Quote from: Xavier on January 13, 2006, 02:41:33 PM
He said 5000 STERLING

I bet he never runs out of 47uf's.

Obviously if you're David Gilmour or The Edge, that's not a prohibitive fee. Still, I can't help but wonder if he was a little sheepish the first time he quoted a price like that.

mojotron · January 13, 2006, 04:15:07 PM

Quote from: mudmen on December 30, 2005, 05:02:52 PM
Take a look here - very interesting !
..
http://www.petecornish.co.uk/controlpanels3.html
..

Just an observation - the 2 tube pedals (non-painted) in the middle of this picture are just some re-housed TubeWorks 911 Tube Driver pedals - with the original EI-12AX7s. I love these Tube Drivers... Looks like DG did not want to commit his Chandlers to this pedal.

ocelot · January 13, 2006, 05:15:52 PM

Here is a conish rack for sale this is in australian dollars this used to be owned by a great guitar player Diesel who now goes by the name of Mark Lizzote

http://www.guitarcrazy.com.au/PeteConishPSS.htm

superjoe · January 13, 2006, 08:13:04 PM

jesus christ

psst · January 14, 2006, 08:40:19 AM

This are the switches I meant, the lowest row:
http://www.petecornish.co.uk/wood20.html

But if we see the inner side:
http://www.petecornish.co.uk/wood15.html

Boh rows look the same.
Maybe it's just a "cover" he puts in the DPDTs so they look bigger?

spudulike · January 14, 2006, 08:57:16 AM

Pete Cornish uses aluminium "blocks" on the top of the switches - They give a bigger surface area to stomp on, and they stop the plunger going too far down in conjunction with the plywood donut. They are just lathed and drilled off a big cylinder of ally and held onto the switch plunger cap with grubscrews. The ones you are looking at havent had the ally caps fitted yet and you can see the original plunger.

Incidentally, the ridiculous moaning about the price of a Cornish system amazes me. PC sells reliability. The pedalboards are virtually bombproof, fantastically well made and total one-off custom jobs. He is a bit pricey for the routine pedals he makes, but again they are reliable. They are *extremely* quiet and well-behaved with any setup. The power conditioning and control are seecond to none. I have seen 4 Cornish systems so far, and a couple of power and control/routing setups. I still dont think Pete makes "that much" profit on the big-name custom pedalbords like Gilmour's when you consider how much work/material/engineer's salary goes into making them.

<Edit>

Incidentally, check out the locking pots for LED brightness/Level controls etc on the back of the Gilmour board. All the Cornish boards I have seen have those, nice touch

d95err · January 14, 2006, 09:44:05 AM

Quote from: spudulike on January 14, 2006, 08:57:16 AM
Incidentally, the ridiculous moaning about the price of a Cornish system amazes me. PC sells reliability. Incidentally, check out the locking pots for LED brightness/Level controls

Me too. Of course it costs a lot to hire anyone to custom design and build anything. If you want the best of the best to do it, then of course it costs even more...

Quote
Incidentally, check out the locking pots for LED brightness/Level controls etc on the back of the Gilmour board. All the Cornish boards I have seen have those, nice touch

I was looking at those too. Are these just big trim pots, or can you actually lock them into position with a screw or something?

PB Wilson · January 14, 2006, 10:36:23 AM

Quote from: spudulike on January 14, 2006, 08:57:16 AM

Incidentally, the ridiculous moaning about the price of a Cornish system amazes me. PC sells reliability. The pedalboards are virtually bombproof, fantastically well made and total one-off custom jobs. He is a bit pricey for the routine pedals he makes, but again they are reliable. They are *extremely* quiet and well-behaved with any setup. The power conditioning and control are seecond to none. I have seen 4 Cornish systems so far, and a couple of power and control/routing setups. I still dont think Pete makes "that much" profit on the big-name custom pedalbords like Gilmour's when you consider how much work/material/engineer's salary goes into making them.

Sam Maloof makes fine furniture and charges tens of thousands of dollars for it. Ervin Somogyi builds fine acoustic guitars and I believe that his base price is $12,000. Are their products ten times better than their competitors? They charge what the market will bear and increase the price to save themselves years of backlogs and unhappy customers. Yes, the pedals we make and the ones Cornish makes aren't that different (I know he uses high quality pots, jacks, switches etc.) but he chose to work with clientele that have the money to pay for the extra details and customer service. I'm not going to buy any of his pedals, but you must admit that he goes the extra mile to take his pedals to the next level. I wonder if he didn't goop his boards and was more open about his designs, would he be treated differently?

Dave_B · January 14, 2006, 11:03:17 AM

QuoteIncidentally, the ridiculous moaning about the price of a Cornish system amazes me.

I don't know about the $100,000 stuff, but $9,000US to rehouse seven Boss pedals and a wah is a lot of cash, don't you think? I don't think anyone is disparaging the guy's work, but it's perfectly reasonable to gasp at those prices.

d95err · January 14, 2006, 11:25:44 AM

Quote from: bellyflop on January 14, 2006, 11:03:17 AM
QuoteIncidentally, the ridiculous moaning about the price of a Cornish system amazes me.
I don't know about the $100,000 stuff, but $9,000US to rehouse seven Boss pedals and a wah is a lot of cash, don't you think? I don't think anyone is disparaging the guy's work, but it's perfectly reasonable to gasp at those prices.

Pete Cornish would do more than just rehouse them and connect them all together. He would add his own buffers, switching, a high-quality power supply etc. Then the custom designed wooden board... All in all its several hours of design work and many more for the actual build.

The cost of the parts is amost negligible, the man hours is where the big cost is. If you consider that hiring a reasonably good computer consultant can cost something like $1000 a day, you get up to $9000 very fast with a best-of-the-best engineer.

EDIT: As an exercise, try to count the hours you spent working on your last stompbox. Include everything. Browsing for schematics on the web, to making a parts list, to going to the post office to collect any parts you ordered, drilling the enclosure, designing the paint-job, painting, etc... Now let's pay $100 an hour for this. Before you've even started soldering, the cost is probably a lot more than most Boutique pedals...

Satch12879 · January 14, 2006, 11:56:05 AM

You know, of all the things to be curious about, does anyone have any idea what are those "terminals" he's using on his PCBs to do offboard connections? You can see them on the boards for the tube preamps and his own custom effects (the ones that are covered in red conformal coating). They are weird looking and I can't place them. Any thoughts?

spudulike · January 14, 2006, 01:59:03 PM

On the tube pcbs theyre just regular turret pins, and the SS pcbs are regular 2.54mm shoulder connectors (I think yhMolex make them). The 'male' pins solder to the pcb and you crimp the wire to a teminal pin and the terminal pins go into a housing. The housing assy then plugs onto the shoulder pins on the pcb. I've used them before (not on a stompbox though).

The pots on the boards Ive seen up close are regular pots but they have a cleat nut on the shaft. You set the pot level with a screwdriver then tighten the nut with a spanner and it holds the pot shaft in position. Neat

You're right about the clientele PC has now, but he started off with local musicians in london. If you check out the story of the Queen gear he did theres an interesting potted history of the business. I am seriously tempted to build a pedalboard using his techniques and parts. Then work out what it cost me. And then add about £50 an hour and scare myself. I have 5 of the cheap £15 Behringer pedals, was going to put them in Hammonds but now Im tempted ...

Oh, and the 'LED holders' are actually mini-MES lamp holders IIRC, and he whacks LEDs in em instead of bulbs. Blue floods look real purdy on a black board ...

<Edit> BTW I wasnt having a pop at anyone over the cost moaning, but how many on this thread (or indeed forum) have seen a Pete Cornish system up close and personal ?

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Birth of a Cornish Pedalboard