Racking solution

[Mark Hamburg <mark_hamburg@baymoon.com>]

So, I think I've actually now got a racking solution that should work 
fairly
well when traveling. (Think because I haven't taken it anywhere yet.)

I've got a 6-space Rackcrate -- a milk crate like thing with handles and
rack rails. It obviously isn't great for protecting equipment from the
elements, but it's light and reasonably tough. I used this both for
Loopstock 2002 and the Y2K3 Santa Cruz Loopfest. The problem has been where
to put it where I can get to it reasonably easily while playing. I've been
balancing it on top of a milk crate but that's been non-ideal.

Recently, I tried putting it on an Ultimate Support Systems Genesis amp
stand. This is a nice little stand that folds up compactly. I used a bungee
cord to attach the top front of the rack to the post at the back of the
stand. This placed the rack a little lower than I'd like but the angle was
quite good. Sitting on the drum throne that I use for playing guitar with
this in front of me, it was easy to get to all of the controls.

Just one problem...

All of the weight for the rack is at the front so things wanted to go
plunging over face-first immediately. I discovered that the box my Mo-FX
came in worked perfectly for wedging the rack upward. True the back leg of
the amp stand was prone to drift off the ground, but it was basically
stable. The weight of the rack, however, was putting dents in the box and
the box was drifting forward so this didn't look like a good long term
solution. The front of my 4-space Anvil rack worked well for propping this
all up, but it looked like it could easily slip out. It also would be sort
of a pain to carry around that one piece.

So, today's project: My son and I (well, mostly me) just built a little
A-frame sawhorse stand out of PVC pipe to put under the front of the rack
with a bungee cord to anchor it in place. (One plus about the Rackcrate is
that it has lots of places to hook bungee cords.) It sticks out slightly
further than I'd like, but it looks like it should hold well now. My EDP
foot controller just fits between the legs of the A-frame.

So, total rack setup:

6-space Rackcrate
Genesis amp stand
Homemade PVC stand
2 bungee cords

More parts than might be ideal, but the weight is very manageable.

Finally, and most importantly, I need to give credit to my wife. She's the
one who suggested bungee cords and she's the one who suggested PVC when I
was contemplating building something out of wood. She may not particularly
show signs of connecting with the music I play, but she was the source of
two very useful ideas in this process.

Now, I just need to deal with the mass of pedals at my feet.

Mark

P.S. If you want to build one yourself, I used 1/2" PVC pipe. I used the
connectors that basically look like the corner of a cube at either end of
the apex. I needed to put screw adapters on these. I used four equal length
legs coming down from the Apex. The front ones end in caps. The back ones
end in right angle connectors to a second crossbeam. Lengths:

Legs: 9.5"
Apex crossbeam: 15"
Rear crossbeam: 16.5+"

I think I'm using a 24" bungee cord on top of the rack and a 30" bungee 
cord
to secure the PVC stand to the rack.