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The FAA requires all domestic airlines to permit musicians to travel with "small instruments" (up to the size of a typical guitar) as cabin baggage.

This will count as your one permitted piece of cabin baggage, so it you want to fly without checked baggage, then the only other thing you can bring is a "personal item" which must fit under the seats, and on most flights, that means no larger than 18" x 14" x 8".

So, if you are flying with a #guitar and a #pedalboard…

Your #pedalboard has to fit inside that personal item, along with everything else you need for that trip that won't fit inside your instrument case: clothing, toiletries/makeup, personal electronics (laptop, tablet, phone, etc) and power supplies/chargers, inflight snacks, etc.

BUT...pedals only come in certain sizes, and feet are only so small, so there needs to be spacing between them, as well.

This puts a hard limit on how many pedals you can fit on a board that fits inside a personal item.

This is my current plan for the next generation of my #guitar #flyrig #pedalboard, designed for use with both stage amps and direct to PA or recording console. It has two Boss GT-1000Core units, four Boss FS-7 dual footswitches to control the Cores, a Digitech FreqOut, with a Peterson StroboStomp HD tuner plus two Countryman Type 85S stereo direct boxes separate from the board, and a MONO medium powersupply underneath. The board is 385 x 285 mm.

The MONO medium power supply has six 500 mA outputs. I can run two in parallel to get 1000 mA, and the Cores take 670 mA each, so that's four slots. The FS-7s only take 25 mA each, and that's only for the LEDs, so they can all run off one output, along with the FreqOut. The tuner gets the sixth output. The DIs get phantom power.

I may be able to cut down the pedalboard slightly, but then I may have things overhanging, or not enough space between pedals to fit the cabling.

There is one other possibility. The Travelpro FlightCrew5 Vertical Rolling Overnighter. This is a similar size to the Platinum Elite Regional, but slightly thicker, 8.5" overall, which means it's technically a little too large, but probably won't get flagged for gate check.

Listed Dimensions: 16" x 14" x 8"
Outer Dimensions: 17h x 14w x 8.5d

But I don't have $150+ to buy this, now that I've already blown my budget on the Platinum Elite Regional and a 20000 mAh Anker powerbank. And the only way I'll know if my planned #guitar #pedalboard will fit it is to buy it and test it with my mockup board, which is a 385 x 285 mm bamboo thing I bought at Walmart that's really designed to fit some sort of craft taboret/basket thing.

Still, that 8.5" dimension is at the bottom, which is where they measure luggage in the sizers.

The good news is, my #bassguitar #pedalboard is smaller, and will definitely fit. This is my current plan for the next generation of my hybrid analogue/digital #bass board, which is only 350 x 200 mm (Miracle Thaw), and it's more likely I'll be flying for bass gigs:

The Boss GT-1000Core measures 173 x 135 mm, so even if I smashed them together with only 10 mm between them, I'd still need a minimum of 356 mm #pedalboard width to fit them side by side without overhanging the board.

The FS-7 is 62 x 131 mm, and the FreqOut is 73 x 120 mm.

The problem is there are 1/4" and USB jacks on the sides I need to access and use, and I don't want to have to unplug patch cables to get this to fit in the bag. Plus, I'd like to have extra board to protect the edges.

If you want to go with the option of flying with your #guitar or #bass and #pedalboard as checked baggage, you need to first of all use much heavier and larger cases for protection (Pelican type), and then you have to pay a fortune for checking them, plus the hassle of getting them in and out of, and to and from, the airports.

Although some people do check instruments in soft-sided cases, I would NOT recommend this, and pedalboards are even more fragile than solid-body electric instruments.

As you can see from the American Airlines baggage sizer photo above, most airlines do not even permit Basic Economy passengers to bring more than a personal item, now. You have to pay extra just to be able to bring a personal item and a regular carry-on suitcase, then pay even more if you want to check any baggage.

My last trip, I got a Travelpro FlightCrew5 Flight Tote, which actually is too large to be an underseat personal item, if you stuff it completely full (15" W x 11.5" H x 10" D).

As a musician, it really drives me nuts that none of the musical instrument companies seem to have figured out the fact that they need to make a #pedalboard and suitcase that fits airline dimensions. With a limit of 18 x 14", you can't make a board larger than about 15 x 11, maybe 16 x 12 with clever case design, and it needs to be a flat board, only. The good news is that at that size, you can definitely fit eight standard pedals in two rows of four, or up to 10, if you use mini pedals.

This was my original #guitar #pedalboard design, before I decided to go all digital. It was actually 390 x 290 mm, because I wanted a little extra space, but now I know that definitely won't fit. Can I go 370 x 270? IDK:

Every #pedalboard maker out there makes boards that are either substantially shorter than 15" or substantially longer than 15". The shorter ones won't fit four standard pedals across, and the larger ones won't fit in a case that meets the airline underseat limitations.

Worse, most pedalboards are slanted and thick, so they wouldn't leave enough room for clothing, personal electronics, toiletries/makeup, or anything else in that bag.

Fender's Small board is 18" x 12.8" x 3", too big.

All the commercial pedalboard companies just use these arbitrary dimensions that don't even relate to the actual sizes of pedals on the market. Most of them make 18" and 24" boards.

For a long weekend fly gig #travel I need, in addition to the clothing I am wearing for the flight:

(instrument case)
#guitar or #bass, cables, tuner, strap, strings, tools, stand

(personal item)
#pedalboard, 2 DIs
field recorder, IEMs
laptop, phone, powerbank, charger, headphones, mouse, travel router
Filofax, fountain pens
qt bag of wet toiletries/makeup
qt bag of dry toiletries/makeup
snack, water bottle, towel
change of clothing for the gig
extra lingerie
travel handbag (empty, flat)

For a longer trip, I can also check a suitcase with only extra clothing and shoes. I could bring a third set of street clothing or a second gig outfit, a set of workout clothes and a swimsuit, and a pair of athletic shoes and/or a pair of sandals.