Pedal Board Review

[stewblack]

I marvel at the price of pedal boards. They always appear somewhat low tech, easy production items to command such extravagant rrp's. 

Add a couple of useful innovations (built in power supply for instance) and the cost skyrockets. So I've usually made do with cheapies from ebay or second hand from Basschat. 

At £85 the Nux Bumblebee is far from the most expensive, comes with a very nice bag has a small footprint and looks to me like it's actually worth the money. 

It arrived nicely packaged in a handy box which I shall definitely put to good use. 

The components have taken a bit of work to design and produce, and for people of a certain age will bring back fond Meccano related memories. 

The key to the success of this board is flexibility. I've spent a long time narrowing down my pedal needs, but no matter how I try I can never arrange them to suit. Always I have to make compromises based on board size and dimensions. 

With the Bumblebee we can get a lot closer to how we want everything set up. It's a two tier board so 'always on' pedals, and power supplies can slide beneath the top level. The slats can be bolted in where you want them, and are strong and secure. 

The upper tier is angled, tilting the pedals slightly towards you and the board is supplied with 3M dual lock tape, which is superior to ordinary velcro and not cheap. 

As with all things the Bumblebee isn't perfect. The first problem is the dual lock tape. The supplied strip is nowhere near enough. Not even by half. But the really irritating issue is the height of the second tier. Just another 10mm and any pedal I own would fit beneath it. As it is the LS-2 pictured above is too high. 

Back to the positives. The design of the rail incorporates a slot allowing you to fit cable tidies. These are supplied with the board and click easily into place after assembly. Again I can see where my money has gone with these kind of features. Someone has thought about the board and designed solutions to the most common problems. 

The cable tidy allows you to run the cable beneath it or has a series of clips, each set at different sizes, it really is well thought out. 

I also found when linking everything up it was a simple matter to remove one of the rails to make access easier. 

I have wrapped some velcro ties around as a temporary measure until I get some more dual lock, and can't finish wiring yet as my set up needs some longer patch leads. I am however very very happy with what I've achieved and how easy it will be to accommodate future improvements and alterations to my lay out. 

 

Edited September 12, 2020 by stewblack

[CameronJ]

Looks very interesting! Though you’d have thought they might allow Boss pedals (one of the most popular pedal formats) to fit under the top row  seems like a glaring oversight, and I don’t even own any boss pedals! Still, seems a nice product.

[stewblack]

2 hours ago, CameronJ said:

Looks very interesting! Though you’d have thought they might allow Boss pedals (one of the most popular pedal formats) to fit under the top row  seems like a glaring oversight, and I don’t even own any boss pedals! Still, seems a nice product.

Yep. That's the one as you say, glaring, mistake. And it's not by much either. Maybe they  assumed folk would just shove psu under there. 

[Sven]

@stewblack

Nice review. The hidden row does not accomodate Boss sized pedal, but does smaller pedals such as the Joyo / Doner you have on your board, fit on that row ? I guess they are closer in height to other brands that use this type of aluminium enclosure (such as EBS, MXR and numerous other brands)

Edited November 26, 2020 by Sven

[Jakester]

No real comment on the board (other than to say good review and say "what?" about the Boss height thing) but you have given me an epiphany - I have loads of those velcro cable ties and to date I've been using actual cable ties on my pedal board - not ideal when you're constantly moving things around (as I have been recently). But instead I can use those velcro jobbies and not have to cut cable ties off all the time! So thanks! 

[stewblack]

On 26/11/2020 at 14:36, Sven said:

@stewblack

Nice review. The hidden row does not accomodate Boss sized pedal, but does smaller pedals such as the Joyo / Doner you have on your board, fit on that row ? I guess they are closer in height to other brands that use this type of aluminium enclosure (such as EBS, MXR and numerous other brands)

Yes other pedals fit underneath without problem

[chris7273]

I ended up building my own board with its custom fitted case because the prices for such a low tech thing are mad