Auto Engage Problem, AGAIN!

Tahoebrian5

Tahoebrian5

Fractal Fanatic
So I've had problems on and off with auto engage doing funky things (wah not going off, not turning on, etc) and I've chalked it up to faulty cables but it has recently come back and I don't believe it is cables at this point because I have replaced them several times. Could this be a problem with my MFC? Anything you guys can think of to try? It is to the point where I never know if it's going to work or not so I have a seperate preset with wah removed and I'm considering using an external wah now. Such a bummer.
 
I'll just throw out there the things I know I would check. First thing would be making sure the pedals are calibrated. You can find that on page 32 of the MFC-101 manual. I remember changing to a different expression pedal and forgetting to do that. I had inconsistent auto engage going on. I calibrated the pedals and it was good again. It ended up being just a couple numbers different, which was all the difference it needed.

The other thing is similar, but dependent on the kind of expression you have. If you have a Roland pedal or something similar that has a knob on the side for adjusting the range, make sure that didn't move. Again, I had a similar experience with this type of pedal.

Cables, of course, which you've already tried. But maybe move your pedal over to a different jack on the MFC, and reassign your controller to that, just to verify the jack is OK. If you do that, don't forget to recalibrate.

That' what immediately comes to mind.
 
All good suggestions @Fro ! The only thing I would add is that I don't leave the settings at stock for auto-engage. Even when calibrated, sometimes it wouldn't turn off as expected. I use mine in the toe-down-is-off setting, so I have engage at 93.7% and it is very reliable. If you like it to be heel down when off, you can use 7% or whatever works reliably for you. When mine was set at 95% for toe down, it sometimes wouldn't cut off, hence the adjustment. The point is that you adjust it until it works right!

Just a note: I started using a Mission SP-2 pedal that controlled volume on one side and wah on the other. This is where I started using toe down as an off setting, as I wanted the volume at full (toe down) when I switched there. I decided I liked it, because a non-spring loaded pedal may fall down, but it never falls up. Even now that I am using a pedal for wah only, I still use that method and it comes on when I step on the heel. More reliable and just as easy to set.
 
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I played my Axe II/MFC for years and never had a Wah glitch (Boss something-or-other pedal). Well, once for cables, but once I bought quality ones I never had an issue.

See if this is happening on every patch that has a Wah. If it's only a few patches, then it's a config issue. I had copied a Wah block once I had it set up perfectly to EVERY patch that I used, so there were no inconsistencies.

If it's every patch, I would try: Moving the wah cable to another external port on the MFC and see if you can isolate it to one of those. (Plug in elsewhere.) If it continues it's *probably* not the MFC, but either a cable, or the pedal itself. Either way, when you've done sufficient troubleshooting open a ticket and FAS will assist.

R
 
You don't mention which controller pedal you're using but I had an issue one time with my Boss EV-5 because it has an adjustment knob on it which somehow moved while traveling. I normally keep it all the way up to 10 and it's pretty tucked away to prevent accidental moving but somehow it got moved and the wah instead of having it's normal full sweep it had a very short one that was pretty unusable. It took a few minutes but after I figured it out it was a real easy fix!!

So depending on which pedal you have this could be part of your issue.
 
Thanks guys, I'm using a boss ev5, it's calibrated and also checked the knob.

One thing I forgot to mention, when the glitch was happening, I went into the modifier menu and the expression position showed smooth full range motion on the graph, but the sweep sound of the wah sounded like it went to full sweep almost instantly, kind of like it wasn't tracking the same as the graph. I should have powered down the axe and back on but I was in the middle of practice and didn't think of it. Practice again tonight so hopefully the darn thing will behave.
 
Is this is happening on all presets?

I would try to download a preset from Axe-change and where there's a wah block and see if it happens in that one also.
 
any chance that the pedal itself may be getting a bit iffy?
do you have another known good pedal to try instead?

I know that one of my pedals is getting a little worn and so at heel down it don't always land exactly on zero
it's had a hard life
 
Pedals internal pot could be failing indeed.

clarky said:
I know that one of my pedals is getting a little worn and so at heel down it don't always land exactly on zero
it's had a hard life
Click to expand...

My old Crybaby (converted to exp pedal) had that too, the rocker was a bit loose so it wouldn't stay put reliably heel down. Bonus fix for that issue when I did my tire-tube mod as seen here:
 
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