West Coast Pedalboard Little Rock review

Based in Sonoma County, California, West Coast Pedalboard has been hand-building a variety of designs using as many US-sourced parts as possible since early 2012. The 13×7-inch Little Rock is from the company’s Standard line, but the Custom Shop offers a vast array of options, from exotic woods to personalised logos. Standard it may be, but the Little Rock feels very much like a boutique product, especially finished in this smart, limited edition silver tolex.

The Little Rock base price is $79.99, but for an extra $49.99 you can add the electronics package seen here; two high-quality Mogami cables with Switchcraft pancake plugs are wired to side-mounted 1/4-inch jack sockets housed in Electrosocket satin chrome mounts. The cables are routed up through two holes in the board surface, which is also how your power cables make their way to the pedals when a PSU is mounted underneath. Power supply mounting brackets that are compatible with various Voodoo Labs, T-Rex and other companies’ units cost an extra $10.

We used a Pedaltrain Volto for the purposes of testing, but once your power supply is securely in place, there’s a circular port for mains cable access, should you need it. When arranging our pedals on the board, we did find the position of the cable holes slightly awkward, but happily the Little Rock now comes with a longer, more practical cable access slot as standard.

Made from Baltic birch ply, the Little Rock features a 25mm thick frame with a 10mm board surface, supported by a couple of internal metal brackets; it’s chunky and confidence-inspiring, and with amp-style rubber feet it isn’t going to slide around onstage. The Super Loop surface is also the best on test by some distance – with ordinary velcro hook tape on our pedals, once situated, adjusting their position involved the use of a butter knife to prise them away from the surface, as they refused to come off with hand power alone. Though it’s far from the cheapest option available here in the UK, and you’ll need to fork out another $120 for a bespoke gigbag, the Little Rock feels like a high-quality, long-term investment.

Price $129.99 Contact www.westcoastpedalboard.com