Boss EV-30 dual expression pedal

solo-act

Fractal Fanatic
Since the EV-30 is a relatively new pedal and I was doing some relaxing today, I thought I'd post a few observations.

Video of the cam mechanism. To see into the shadows, I had to lighten exposure so much the the pedal washes out, but it is hollow and has space for a battery since it shares same chassis as pedals that require a battery. If you hear any noise, it's not the pedal, just my ring touching it and callouses on my left fingers catching on edges.


Size comparison to mission EP1and Zoom FP01, which is the same size as the Roland EV5
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Size comparison to Zoom FP01. The EV-30 is a bit smaller in every dimension.

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The pivot point on the EV-30 is closer to your heel than the Roland EV5 and this Zoom exp pedal. The distance from pivot to the "heel" end of the EV-30 is the same as my older Mission EP1, which uses a Dunlop Crybaby chassis.
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Bottom plate is beefy - thick as a quarter
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And finally, this is looking into the heel end of the pedal to show the washer/bushing that takes on the stress for tension adjustment. It's thick and should last through years of friction and re-tightening.I like the default tension. It looks like you can really crank it down though.
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As far as use/performance, I'm using it mostly for wah so I shortened the travel by inserting a spacer. The photo above shows one spacer. I added a second spacer and I like the travel better. It's a bit more travel than the Mission/Dunlop, but short enough to do a full sweep quickly. To get similar travel you'll need something about as thick as two quarters.

Regarding size, my foot is USA size 9.5. This is long enough (for people without giant feet) to fit the heel and ball of your foot onto the pedal. It's 7 & 9/16 inches long (192mm) by 3 & 3/16ths wide (80mm) by 2 & 5/16ths high (58mm). If you wear boots with heels, I'm guessing it'll feel "normal" and you won't have the ball of your foot hanging off the front like you'd have with a pedal 4.5 to 6 inches long.

I turned the min/max knob to max, calibrated with my Gordius Little Giant, and I use the Axe-Fx to set different sweeps and curves on FX blocks, which means I only need one output. That said, if you're using 2 independent hardware stomp boxes that require different sweeps, this is a very handy pedal.
 
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Looks like a cool, compact option, but I have to wonder why they didn't put some sort of grip material on the top of it. Just bare metal ?
 
Looks like a cool, compact option, but I have to wonder why they didn't put some sort of grip material on the top of it. Just bare metal ?
I think you are seeing the EP-1 in the picture, which appears to be missing the "tread"...
 
Looks like a cool, compact option, but I have to wonder why they didn't put some sort of grip material on the top of it. Just bare metal ?
Just bare metal, which does seem odd. The tread came off the mission pedal a while back and I haven't missed it. EV-30 feels fine at home. I'll know for sure after gigs this weekend.
Interesting pedal, thx for the photos. Do you know the resistance of the pots?
Didn't turn up on google so I'll take a wild guess and say 25k based on how often I saw 25 when I was researching expression pedals.
 
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Put three gigs on it so far. Size, weight, usability and feel are nice and I like the weight reduction on pedalboard.

I need to put in one more spacer to get physical sweep closer to what I'm used to in a wah. Otherwise, a simple but nice upgrade to the rig.
 
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Cool, thanks for this review. So how do you use the duel part of the exp pedal? one for wah and then can you have it do something else in the axefx/ax8?
 
Ace-FX users don't need the dual outputs. We can assign a single expression output to multiple blocks and functions and operate them simultaneously. And each thing we control with the expression pedal can have its own customizable curves.

That said, a benefit for Fractal users is you have a backup output if you break one. And if you have hardware in addition to Axe-Fx that needs expression control, you have a pedal to control both units.
 
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Here's an update on the EV-30; I got hold of one today.

It uses the Roland standard 10K resistance (fine for probably everything including the AxeFX). Increasing the minimum setting increases this value, but I set them to off.

It uses the unofficial industry standard of pot wiper to TRS tip.

The polarity switch reverses operation of one of the connections, so instead of going from minimum to maximum, it goes from maximum at heel-down to minimum at toe-down. This would be useful when using both connections to cross-fade between 2 different sounds. Of course the AxeFX modifiers allow us to do that with just one controller.

One neat thing: Normally if you used a single pedal with 2 connections to different rigs it would likely cause an earth loop. The EV-30 has the 2 connections electrically isolated. They've thought of everything!

Very little dead zones at pedal extremes, if any (not fully tested yet).

Well built, smooth operation, adjustable tension.

And my subjective thoughts: Good weight and not too small. Heel down position is comfortable in standing position. Suitable for both volume and wah.
 
I have one of these connected to my AX8. I can't seem to get it to be usable for volume and wah at the same time. any tips on how to program the patch where I can use it for volume in the patch but also be able to use it for wah when needed?
 
I have one of these connected to my AX8. I can't seem to get it to be usable for volume and wah at the same time. any tips on how to program the patch where I can use it for volume in the patch but also be able to use it for wah when needed?
Insert a volume block, assign your pedal to it. Insert a wah block, assign your pedal to it. Now the pedal is "usable for volume and wah at the same time." When you move your pedal, you use wah and volume at the same time.

If you need to "be able to use it for wah when needed," then you need to do what it says here
https://wiki.fractalaudio.com/axefx...ollers_and_modifiers#Auto-Engage_a_controller

If you need it to quit controlling volume before controlling wah, then I believe you need to start using scenes, where one scene is for controlling volume, and another scene is for controlling wah, and a third scene is for controlling both simultaneously. Dive into manual or wiki on controllers and scenes and you'll get where you need to go.
 
Awesome. Thanks for the clarification. This is my first time using anything digital so it's a learning process. Appreciate the help!
 
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