Just finished re-doing my pedalboard, "upgrading" it from a much used and battered PT-1 to make way for new pedals and moving to a Musiconlab/RJM Mini Amp Gizmo setup.
This is a TrailerTrash 28 x 16 board which originally came with a fabric covered base for velcro-ing pedals. I'm not a great fan of velcro - especially with heavy-ish pedals such as the Nova's and the HT-Dual, so I decided to replace the original base with 13mm chipboard to allow me to screw pedals to the board, and add access holes for power cables. I then covered the chipboard top surface with a sticky-back "metallic" plastic to try to tart the thing up... It seemed a good idea at the time, but next time I'll just get a panel with a suitable ready-made surface finish instead.
All signal cables are run on top and all power is run below the board. George L's cabling is used for all signal runs. I'm so crap with a soldering iron I had to go with a solderless solution...
Here's an upskirt shot (so to speak) showing the PP2 and Fuel Tank Chameleon. The latter is used to power the 12v DC Nova's and Providence Chrono Delay. The Blackstar has ridiculously large power requirements which neither the Fuel Tank or PP2 can handle, so I've kept its supplied wart. I also added a power strip (screwed to the TT metal frame) with a couple of metres of mains cable. The other wart in the strip powers the Musicomlab.
An important element of the design of the rig is that I have to accommodate two types of gigs - those with my own backline (Dual Rec), and those without. (Many of the small festivals here require bands to use supplied backline for quicker turnaround times. If it wasn't for the need to be flexible with the setup I wouldn't need all the OD/distortions boxes.)
A brief rundown of the board:
Top right - custom pedalboard interface from Casey Hanson (thanks mate, it's great!) with 5 jack pass-throughs and a MIDI pass-through. I'm using 4 pass-throughs: Guitar IN, Amp input, FX Loop Send, FX Loop Return, connected via a Pedalsnake, which also carries MIDI from the Musicomlab to the RJM MAG.
Loops 1-4 in front of Amp (generally only used if I'm not using my amp):
1. BB Pre-amp - for dirty cleans and pushing the other OD's / Dist boxes if necessary for solos.
2. Emma Reeza-whatever it's called - great for more metally, heavy, compressed distortion kind of sounds
3. Suhr Riot - for more Marshally flavours
4. Blackstar HT-Dual - I love this pedal and have had it since they first came out. Really flexible with two drive channels, works great with active p/ups as well as passives, and sounds great into a Fender Twin or equivalent. This is my go-to pedal for gigs where I can't use my amp.
Loops 5-8 in the FX loop:
5. Nova Modulator
6. Nova Delay (with space ready for the Younworks NT9 interface which is on order)
7. Providence Chrono Delay
8. Empty.
The RJM Mini Amp Gizmo and interface cable replaces the Dual Rec footswitch and is controlled from the Musicomlab. The latter has enough presets for what I need to handle the two types of setup (with or without my backline). For those who have never used this kind of device, they are much easier and more intuitive to setup than their user manual implies. I'm very happy with it.
(The image is just to show the RJM Gizmo - live I use the DR with a Rectifier 4x12 cab.)
As for sound quality - so far no noise, no hum, no nasty pops from the Musicomlab, etc. Yes, compared to a hard bypassed FX loop there is a tiny, tiny, almost imperceptible difference in tone, but it doesn't bother me at all. Once the drummer comes in all of this is fairly academic anyway...
Hope this long post wasn't too boring...