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Best expression pedal?


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Hoping this is the best forum for this question.

I am a guitarist, I have a Boss Katana amp and an expression pedal can be used to control volume, wah, modulation speed, etc.

 

My criteria are Durability and a Smooth Sweep.

It has been my experience that Roland/Boss make bulletproof goodies for the most part.

 

I am pretty sure keyboardists use more expression pedals than most guitarists do, so I posted here, hoping for perspective. All viewpoints are welcome.

 

Just seeing what everybody thinks, thanks in advance!!!!!

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Broad consensus is that the Yamaha FC7 is a great pedal, but that's from the point of view of keyboard players using it as a Hammond/clonewheel expression pedal. I don't know if it will work with your Boss amp - Boss is a Roland brand and Roland use a different standard for their expression pedals.

 

One thing to watch is that most keyboard-focused expression pedals are intended for sit-down use. One nice thing about the FC7 is that it can be adjusted for either sitting or standing.

 

Cheers, Mike.

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Broad consensus is that the Yamaha FC7 is a great pedal, but that's from the point of view of keyboard players using it as a Hammond/clonewheel expression pedal. I don't know if it will work with your Boss amp - Boss is a Roland brand and Roland use a different standard for their expression pedals.

 

One thing to watch is that most keyboard-focused expression pedals are intended for sit-down use. One nice thing about the FC7 is that it can be adjusted for either sitting or standing.

 

Cheers, Mike.

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Thanks stoken6, I'll take a look at it. Yamaha is a trusted company in my experience also, they make reliable gear.

 

Boss claims any expression pedal will work, I guess I need to do more research on that too!!!!

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I prefer the Korg XVP-20 (also known as VOX V861). Incredibly sturdy and smooth. Also doubles as a volume pedal. Mind you, check the polarity needed for your instrument or amp. If you"re using Boss, go with Boss or Roland. Inversely, if you"re using Yamaha or Korg, stay with them.
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The FC7 love here has always mystified me. Yes it's a well-built piece, much heftier than the plastic Roland or M-Audio. However, FC7s don't work on Roland gear without the tip & ring connections reversed. Even with that, the taper is weird â this has been noted in another thread here (sorry, can't locate it right now). And pressing the pedal all the way down results in your ankle neing flexed greater than 90 degrees â that might be ok for some (maybe even a lot of) folk here but I find it uncomfortable myself.

 

Anyway I only have experience with the FC7 and the M-Audio EXP, which is the pedal I use now. I'll note that the EXP is almost identical to the Roland EV5 but about half the price. Despite its lightweight plastic construction, my EXP has served me well except that packing it in my accessory case forced a hard bend in the cable where it exits the pedal body and eventually it failed. I replaced it myself and used a rubber grommet along with a few layers of heatshrink tubing where the cable leaves the body and it's been good the last few years. I've also seen the suggestion here to drill a hole and install a 1/4" stereo jack so you can use a regular male-male TRS cable, which is a good idea. For around $30 a pop, I can deal with having to replace it every few years anyway.

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Mission Engineering EP-1, hands down.

 

You won't see it mentioned as much because it's aimed more at the guitar world, but that's not a bad thing. For whatever reason, guitarists are used to far superior gear (probably because there's so much more competition out there). The average guitar Wah is built like a tank and has much better machining, where-as us keyboardists get thrown these little plastic toy rockers. Mission pedals are built primarily for the guitarists, who expect this level of quality. It's basically a Dunlop CryBaby wah pedal in voltage-control form. They're not cheap, starting at $125. But once you use one you will never go back. No offense to the Yamaha FC7, but it's only the best of a VERY mediocre assortment of plastic voltage controllers. The moment I tried a CryBaby, I realized the great gulf between guitar/keyboard gear and wanted in, Mission is the answer.

 

They also have a number of different varieties, some with extremely long-throw (though, tbh, they're SO long I think it would hurt my ankle after a while).

 

https://missionengineering.com/shop-2/products/expression/multi-use-exp/ep-1/

EP-1-BK-FRONT-SIDE_WEB-1024x1024.jpg

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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What impedance and polarity is the Katana looking for? If the manual does not say then cross reference the specs of the recommended pedal.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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Hey, does anyone have a list of CC pedals compatible with Kurzweil? My 30-year old Ensoniq pedals are wearing out. I think these (and Moog) are all 50K Ohm.

 

Tom , I saw this on another site, maybe it can help. I know all the 10k linear pedals work on a Kurzweil. I use the Boss fv500 on my pc3k and it's great.

 

Bespeco VM18L - 20k

 

Boss FV-500 - 10k linear (expression pot)

 

Boss EV-5 - 10k linear

 

Boss EV-7 - 10k linear ("extra range" pot adds up to 50k ohms)

 

Boss FV-50L - 50k linear

Ernie Ball VP jr. (active) - 25k log

 

Ernie Ball VP jr. (passive) - 250k log

Korg EXP-2 - 50k linear

Kurzweil CC-1 - 20k linear

Line6 EX-1 - 10k linear

 

Mission EP-L6 - 10k linear

 

Moog EP-2 - 50k linear (reducable)

M-Audio EX-P - 10k linear

 

Pigtronix EP-1 - 20k

Proel Volume Pedal - 100k linear

 

Roland RV-5 - 10k linear

TC Electronic X1 - 25k log

Kurzweil PC3K8/ GSI Gemini Desktop/ ESI UNIK 8+ monitors/ QSC K8.2/ Radial Key Largo/ CPS Spacestation 

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Thanks everybody!!! :- D

 

The Korg/Vox pedal looks nice but has features I do not want or need - stereo volume pedal with a gear rack (and presumably a pot) dual audio inputs and outputs. It costs more, offers more, but I don't need or want those features.

 

The Katana has 8 patches, 4 per bank. Each patch can have either a wah or a volume assigned from an expression pedal, or to control other effect parameters, or not at all. So I don't need a volume pedal option since I can have one with just the expression pedal. I play standing up so I can only use one pedal at a time.

 

A patch with volume and a delay would be fun.

Another with distortion and a wah would be fun too.

That's all I really want the pedal for, it's for gigging.

 

At this point I will probably go with the Roland or Boss pedal. I like the idea of installing a TRS jack in the pedal and using a cord. Since it will be inches away from the switch board, I would prefer a very short cable.

 

 

 

 

 

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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The FC7 love here has always mystified me. [...] And pressing the pedal all the way down results in your ankle neing flexed greater than 90 degrees â that might be ok for some (maybe even a lot of) folk here but I find it uncomfortable myself.
Rob - you play standing don't you? Did you try rejigging the FC7 to "the other position" ? I play standing and don't have a problem (post-rejigging). Just goes to show how subjective these things are.

 

M-Audio EXP, which is the pedal I use now.
Coincidentally, I've just acquired the M-Audio - still boxed. I'll try it at rehearsal on Wednesday.

 

Cheers, Mike.

 

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I play standing and I play from the bench.... depends on the gig. The FC7 is my favorite regardless. I"ve used Morley Wah pedals for years. The travel is similar.

 

The best pedal is the one you use. The gear you put the reps in with is the one that gets learned.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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Lots of people don't like the Roland EV-5's but in my experience, despite the plastic construction they never fail, and they are less likely to develop scratchy pots than the Yamaha and Moog pedals I have used. They are short throw which is a negative but the positive aspect is that if you are standing they are ergonomic.

 

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Ed - do you use the same FC7 position seated/standing? Or do you switch the configuration of the pedal depending on the gig?

 

Cheers, Mike.

I use the way it comes out of the box.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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The FC7 love here has always mystified me. [...] And pressing the pedal all the way down results in your ankle neing flexed greater than 90 degrees â that might be ok for some (maybe even a lot of) folk here but I find it uncomfortable myself.
Rob - you play standing don't you? Did you try rejigging the FC7 to "the other position" ? I play standing and don't have a problem (post-rejigging). Just goes to show how subjective these things are.

 

M-Audio EXP, which is the pedal I use now.
Coincidentally, I've just acquired the M-Audio - still boxed. I'll try it at rehearsal on Wednesday.

 

Cheers, Mike.

I remember the "seated/standing" adjustment on the FC7 not making much of a difference to me. I play standing (for my bread & butter gig, not small local gigs) but I like the pedal to be fully on when it's parallel to the floor â what Yamaha calls the "seated performance" setting.

 

FC7.jpg

 

These days, I get FC7s from backline and we're at a venue with limited soundcheck time so it's not convenient to search out a screwdriver and change the little metal clip â there's usually more immediate problems to solve! However now that I'm in this thread and thinking about it, I'll give it a shot on a future gig if time affords. My real issue with the pedal was more its taper. I just spent a good 20 minutes googling unsuccessfully for the post I remember reading here where someone mentions the FC7's pot as a whacky one-of-a-kind model. I might be dreaming I read this, but if I'm not, it was something along the lines of the pot going through it's entire resistance range in less than its full travel. It certainly accounts for the behavior I see with my A800, even with the Ashby adapter.

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Thanks for posting the info about the FC7 sitting/standing set-up. I read it when I came in after yesterday's gig. Due to space constraints, I've gone from sitting to standing (no room for a bench or stool). I found myself playing at a rather awkward posture because I need to drastically decrease volume from time to time. (Music with dynamics -- who would have thought!) :-)

 

So, I grabbed a screwdriver and immediately began to experiment at home. The standing set-up is definitely more comfortable. I'm going to swap the adjusted pedal with the one that I keep at the gig.

 

Tried the spring return, too. Looks good for organists who like to pump in time with the groove. Never new it could do that! It won't help on the church gig, but, man, that would be fun with an organ trio.

 

All the best -- pj

 

Sandsoftwaresound.net

 

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You probably know that the spring return feature decreases your "normal" volume range. You say it looks good for organists â is that a feature of a real Hammond swell pedal? I didn't know they had any kind of spring loading.

 

Hi --

 

I didn't and don't endorse the spring return for all organists -- maybe the players who like to pump the pedal in time. I'm an organist and the feature doesn't do much for me, so I set the adjustment for no spring return.

 

Whatever floats someone's boat. At the least the FC7 offers the option.

 

Yep, with spring return, it won't stay in the max position -- one reason why I personally don't use spring return. Seems like a player could compensate for the lower default volume by pushing the gain further down the chain.

 

-- pj

 

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I don't know many organists that pump the swell pedal to the beat. That would make people nauseous. Most organ players pump the swell according to the phrasing or note attacks they are playing and no, there are no springs involved.

 

Oh, they exist alright. And it's awful. LOTS of YouTube videos of "professional organists" that sit there and tap their swells. Just shoot me.

 

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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I just spent a good 20 minutes googling unsuccessfully for the post I remember reading here where someone mentions the FC7's pot as a whacky one-of-a-kind model. I might be dreaming I read this, but if I'm not, it was something along the lines of the pot going through it's entire resistance range in less than its full travel. It certainly accounts for the behavior I see with my A800, even with the Ashby adapter.

You may be referring to my comments on the FC7 in Markyboard's extensive list of expression pedals HERE

 

A misguided plumber attempting to entertain | MainStage 3 | Axiom 61 2nd Gen | Pianoteq | B5 | XK3c | EV ZLX 12P

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Yes I found your post where you said the FC7 pot "maxed out at about 75% of travel." That's not the one I was remembering although it confirms it.

 

You also mentioned the generated midi values jumping around. Is it possible that Yamaha simply sourced cheap pots that had loose tolerances for resistive values over their range? That's my theory.

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I don't know many organists that pump the swell pedal to the beat. That would make people nauseous. Most organ players pump the swell according to the phrasing or note attacks they are playing and no, there are no springs involved.

 

Oh, they exist alright. And it's awful. LOTS of YouTube videos of "professional organists" that sit there and tap their swells. Just shoot me.

 

Amen! Not a fan of that -- pj

 

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I just spent a good 20 minutes googling unsuccessfully for the post I remember reading here where someone mentions the FC7's pot as a whacky one-of-a-kind model. I might be dreaming I read this, but if I'm not, it was something along the lines of the pot going through it's entire resistance range in less than its full travel. It certainly accounts for the behavior I see with my A800, even with the Ashby adapter.

You may be referring to my comments on the FC7 in Markyboard's extensive list of expression pedals HERE

 

 

Thanks for the link (to the linked link in the link!!! ) :- D

I will check it out soon, have the page open and bookmarked.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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