Custom Boards Finland

08/02/2025

held one of the most inspiring guitar clinics I’ve ever witnessed today at . As a long-time admirer of his music and artistry, it was a thrill to hear him break down his approach to guitar playing and what he is after soundwise.

I was lucky to have a front-row seat, fully experiencing the roaring, echoed fuzz tones in all their glory. The session ended with a touching interpretation of ”On Mulla Koti” from his latest solo album — leaving me inspired for the rest of the day.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip to Tuusula and Järvenpää! 🎸✨

07/02/2025

today at Nordis, Helsinki. Good old tube amplifiers and 4x12” cabs will surely deliver metal show just like my generation remembers it from the 80’s. Looking forward to this 🤗

04/02/2025

This pedalboard for features an inspiring gain pedal setup! 🎸✨ Jaska, a talented photographer & graphic designer, is also a guitarist who wanted to organize his old pedals for live performances. Most of his collection consists of vintage gems:

🔥 An old RAT without an LED
🔥 A well-worn early Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive
🔥 A rare Maxon OD-9 in black—only 250 units released in Europe!

The pedal order was clear to Jaska: the Maxon for lead tones, while the RAT and Sweet Honey OD shape different rhythm textures. A good ol’ Boss RE-20 Echo adds its classic charm—still sounding wonderful despite the many modern tape echo alternatives.

This was also my first time testing new Fulltone pedals since Mike Fuller’s departure. Glad to see the company thriving under its new ownership!

Overall, this was a compact yet powerful setup, already tested at its first gig—where Jaska was thrilled with the results! 🎶🔥

28/01/2025

My first task at my new workplace was a fun one! 🎸 needed some maintenance on his pedalboard, which has seen its fair share of rough use during shows. With intimate venues where drinks spill and the crowd gets up close, gear takes a beating!

I swapped out the wah-wah switch, adjusted it for better sensitivity, replaced the intermittent Neutrik D-panel connector, and secured/cleaned the connections on the ZVex Fuzzolo—one of Rane’s go-to pedals. His pedal choices are incredibly inspiring: the Octron for bass-like parts, Adineko for vintage echo vibes, and the Mas Malo for leads. He also rocks the Simble and for driving his amps.

’s stage sound is powerful yet dynamic, and I’ve had the chance to test his rig on stage—it made me admire his playing even more. 🎶

Go check out ’s spring show! I know I will—it’s been way too long since I’ve seen them live. 🔥

20/01/2025

The year 2025 is off to a great start, and now it’s time to share some updates about Custom Boards. Let’s get to the most important news right away:

The operations of Custom Boards Finland changed on January 1st, 2025, as follows:

- I have stopped importing and reselling musical equipment.
- I have closed my limited company and will continue working under my business name.
- I have moved to a smaller workspace at the same address.

I have transferred all my importing and distribution operations to Uraltone Oy, ensuring that others and I will continue to have access to the best possible supplies for building guitar equipment setups.

Why these changes?

It’s time for me to adjust my pace of life to something more manageable. When I started importing musical equipment 12 years ago, I worked with the energy of someone in their 40s: I ran an online store and a retail shop, wrote blogs, consulted, and designed equipment setups for artists. Alongside all this, I played gigs, tried to be a father and a husband, and occasionally even a writer.

Everything changed in the winter of 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Importing musical equipment became nearly impossible, and musicians' work opportunities were scarce. I had to let go of one employee. To channel my frustration, I dove even deeper into the world of guitar gear and wrote a book about the music and legacy of Kingston Wall.

By 2022, the pandemic was mostly under control, but then the war in Ukraine began. The world was thrown into chaos again. Inflation, skyrocketing freight costs, and component shortages—the list was endless. I couldn’t keep up with the pace of change, as I was already at my breaking point. By autumn, I saw no bright future ahead and was forced to let go of my second employee.

For the past two years, I have run Custom Boards on my own. I’ve been overburdened, stressed, and exhausted. There have been good days, of course, but I haven’t been able to feel the same enthusiasm for guitar gear—or anything else, really—as I once did. My behavior has occasionally been quite abrasive. If you’ve seen me like that, I sincerely apologize.

Today, I feel better than I have in years, and I firmly believe this change is entirely positive. I want to return to being the smiling, detail-oriented, and sometimes overly enthusiastic guitar gear guy I used to be. Financial concerns are a minor issue compared to the weight that has now been lifted off my shoulders.

My desire to help musicians with their equipment remains unchanged, so:

- I will continue consulting musicians, doing electronics work, and designing and building pedalboards.
- I will continue my blog in both written and video form. My goal remains to help and inspire musicians with their gear.
- I am open to all kinds of live gig work, starting with stagehand duties. Who knows, I might even go back on tour. If your band or production needs a backliner, I could be a good fit.

I am also working on my next music-related book, as writing is the one thing that truly excites me and helps me learn and absorb new ideas.

Let’s smile when we meet.

Kimmo / Custom Boards Finland

23/08/2024

More pedalboard builds during a busy summer season. This one was a quick project. The musician performs mostly troubadour gigs, so the pedals and wiring also include his vocals.

The customer brought all the pedals and patch cables with him. Since the board travels with him, we decided to use Velcro instead of 3M Dual Lock.

Classic JR was used as the base. DC7 and Cioks 4 deliver the power.

21/08/2024

Ville Kulmala is a jazz/blues/prog guitarist who has a cool setup. His main instruments are the Sadowsky Jimmy Bruno Model and the Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin, and he plays them through an AER Compact 60 Tommy Emmanuel model and a Roland JC-40.

He strives for a really clean sound with high headroom, so he has carefully chosen his overdrive pedals along with wah, chorus, and octave pedals. Check out his band, Willie Corners & The Drafted, if they happen to play near you!

If you need help or inspiration with your own setup, do not hesitate to contact us. A link to our services can be found in our bio.

19/08/2024

02/08/2024

Live guitar teching done for this summer. Eight shows of and six shows of was enough to keep me busy along with my day job at

Why the heavy duty Peltor ear m**f? I am using an Shure IEM monitors. Do not remember the model, the ones that all monitor techs recommend.

Using cups on the top allows me the keep my IEM monitoring on a very low volume. No fatique after the show and as I have only string instruments on my mix, I think I hear the guitars better than anyone else on site. Every nuance, string squeels, pedal switching, bends, the list goes on. Studiolike atmosphere which was very rewarding!

Here I am about to hand a guitar to for the alltime favourite song at festival

Photo by

04/07/2024

and are playing guitars for this year’s Music of Kingston Wall shows. After two shows, I am quite thrilled with how they deliver the sounds, riffs, and solos of legendary by getting close and finding the right feel without copying everything note for note.

Preparations for these shows started about six months ago. We designed pedalboards together with the musicians and here you can see what they use this summer. The first three pedalboard pictures are from Esa’s board and the next three are from Juhani’s board. Since then, we swapped Esa’s overdrive to a Klon to deliver a wider spectrum of overdrive sounds.

Working as a guitar tech gives me a perspective on how pedalboards should be wired. After all, I am the one who gets the heat if something goes wrong. I thought out the cabling carefully so that it would serve me and the sounds we were after.

This time, I used soldered connectors and Van Damme Cable.

I didn’t want to hide signal cables underneath the pedalboard since I wanted those to be easily tracked down when necessary.

I used the minimum amount of our ”Safety Clips”, just enough to provide stress relief and let the cables be loose enough if I had to replace a pedal during the show.

No bundles with many cables on one clip. The list of small but important details goes on.

These pedalboards are not aimed to be eye candy on Instagram, but mere tools to deliver a flawless psychedelic rock show. They are neat and secure, and I do love their slightly robust look.

There are still a few shows to do, highly recommended 🙏

Live pic from by

23/08/2023

This is something to check out: This video features some of Finland's most talented guitarists. There are others, but these guys are among the most occupied and have been around for a while.

It was also nice to see and hear our pedalboards in action, so if you want to know where these sounds are coming from, see the links below:

Tuomas Wäinölä:

https://en.customboards.fi/blogs/pedalboard-gallery/tuomas-wainola-ii

Timo Kämäräinen:

https://en.customboards.fi/blogs/pedalboard-gallery/timo-kamarainen

Varre Vartiainen:

https://en.customboards.fi/blogs/pedalboard-gallery/varre-vartiainen-iv
https://en.customboards.fi/blogs/pedalboard-gallery/varre-vartiainen-v

Mikko Kosonen:

https://en.customboards.fi/blogs/pedalboard-gallery/mikko-kosonen-ii-1

Monista yhteyksistä tuttu kitaravelho Tuomas Wäinölä julkaisee 1. syyskuuta toisen sooloalbuminsa The Return of the Hometown Hero. Levyltä julkaistaan tiistaina (22.8.

18/04/2023

Kyyria tekee paluun tänä kesänä ja soittaa vielä elokuussa Tavastia-klubilla. Tästä inspaantuneena minua alkoi kiehtoa mitä bändille oikein tapahtui. Vaikka olen tavannut kaikkia Kyyrian jäseniä vuosikymmenten saatossa, he eivät juurikaan ole jutelleet miten kaikki lopulta meni. Kaivoin faktoja pintaa syvemmältä, ja kinkkari-kirjan jälkihöyryissä kirjoitin Kyyriasta tämän artikkelin. Sain käyttööni paljon julkaisemattomia audio - ja videoklippejä, sekä kosolti valokuvia, joten mukana on paljon herkkua nostalgia-nälkäisille.

Klikkaa alta ja lue ensimmäistä kertaa miten bändi sai alkunsa, lähti liikkeelle isolla vaihteella, kunnes kaikki lopulta hajosi käsiin.

-Kimmo

KYYRIA oli yksi 90-luvun alun merkittävimpiä kotimaisia rock-yhtyeitä. He saavuttivat vankan suosion etenkin pääkaupunkiseudulla ja keikkailivat myös menestyksekkäästi festareilla ympäri Suomea. Faith No Moren, Soundgardenin, Rage Against the Machinen ja Red Hot Chili Peppersin musiikillisi...

21/01/2023

02/11/2022

Like Kustannus julkaisee kirjan Kingston Wallin Perintö tammikuussa 2023. Kirja on eräänlainen jatko-osa Petri Wallin Saaga -kirjalle ja keskittyy etenkin bändin musiikkiin ja levyillä kuultuihin soundeihin.

Kingston Wallin Perintö -kirjassa kartoitetaan Kingston Wallin Petri Wallin jälkeistä aikaa ja kuinka pienten piirien kulttibändistä kehkeytyi myös seuraavien sukupolvien suosikki.

Tutkin pieteetillä etenkin Petri Wallin soittokamoja ja onnistuin paikallistamaan paljon hänen käyttämäänsä laitteistoa. Myös levyillä kuullut rummut, bassokamat ja kosketinsoittimet käydään kirjassa kattavasti läpi.

Lisäksi analysoin yhdessä Sami Kuoppamäen, Jukka Jyllin ja miksaaja Robert Palomäen kanssa kaikki Kingston Wallin levyt alkuperäisten studionauhojen avulla, kappale kappaleelta.

Sain käsiini myös monia mielenkiintoisia videoita, joista muutama on nyt katsottavissa sivuillamme.

Todellisena helmenä mukana on klippi keväältä 1993, jossa bändi harjoittelee ensimmäistä kertaa "We Cannot Movea" Paloheinässä, Petri Wallin omakotitalon kellarissa.

Lisäksi katsottavissa on kaksi klippiä vuoden 1995 muistokonsertista, joissa Amorphis tulkitsee "Palékastron" ja Waltarin jälkeen Kreatorissa kannuksensa hankkinut Sami Yli-Sirniö soittaa kappaleen "And It's All Happening".

Tämä ei jää tähän, joten pysy ihmeessä kuulolla. Videot ja lisätietoa kirjasta löytyvät alta olevasta linkistä.

https://www.customboards.fi/blogs/custom-boardsin-blogi/kingston-wall

07/03/2022

I got flowers as a birthday present, how cool is this 🙂 I turned to 50 at the end of February and was away on vacation so the delivery could not take place.

Due to the persistantance of flower shop sales lady, I got the goods this morning and brought these to our HQ, where they bring light and joy to my day. Thank you to my secret admirer 🙏-Kimmo

04/03/2022

I am very happy to see these back on stock 🙂 See all the available models from our webpage. Link in bio.

07/02/2022

We found our last custom particularry inspiring. 1st one is for Anni Elf from
2nd is for also from Elifantree among his other various bands. 3rd board is for the bass player of who plays death’n sludge as they call it.

Having this wide variety of musicians as our customers is a bless, as we learn something new from the every session.

Gear used in these boards:



How to start your own pedalboard project? Please see the link in our bio.