What Waggi has done with the W34 Pedalboard is taken the typical metal slat pedalboard, and added a raised shelf area. Now that shelf is hinged and does give easy access to the items below, which is great. What to put under the shelf? Well, since it’s not one of those odd angled designs, it’s a no brainer place for a pedalboard’s power supply. There’s no need for external brackets or hardware, just the mounting method of choice for the seemingly endless variations of power solutions for pedalboards.
Let’s say you’re a player who has a few pedals that are always on, and never get tweaked with, like a reverb pedal. This space is perfect for items like that. Guitarists who use pedal switchers, like the Boss MS Series, or a Loop-Master, it’s a great place to tuck pedals away, while the lower deck can be filled up with the control switcher or other pedals that get active use. The shelf doesn’t run the length of the pedalboard, so the lower deck has a jog in it, with extra depth, perfect for expression, volume or wah pedals, as well as larger pedals, like a round style Fuzz Face.
Included is a roll of Velcro that fits on the slats nicely, and allows custom placement of pedals to your location of choice. One great added design feature is the cable management. The space under the deck rails is open, and Waggi has cable retainers that can be screwed in to keep power cables in place. The unit we got was the W34, which was large enough for several big pedals, like our full sized Vox Wah, a Death By Audio Fuzz War, as well as our favorite selection of Choruses, Delays, Reverbs and Tremolos. We ran out of space on our power supply before we ran out of space on the board! Players who use big footprint pedals like the Boss 500 and Strymon units will still have plenty of room. Waggi also makes them in more manageable sizes, like their 20” and 28” wide versions.
Included is a soft bag that has padding and pockets for cables and other items. Overall it’s got all the bases covered — the hinged area is easy to access, and if there needs to be any tweaking or troubleshooting (no, you never have to fiddle with your pedalboard, do you?) you can do it on-the-spot. The cable management is great, as well. Getting a board made by one of those custom pedalboard designers would cost a lot more than this — but the Waggi unit comes equipped with the same pro-level features, just without the pro-level prices.
PROS:
Shelf area (and lower shelf) very usable, great cable management design
CONS:
None (perhaps a bit pricey)
STREET PRICE:
$269