Boss FV500 "Dead Spot" Woes

hillbilly

hillbilly

Inspired
I'm using two FV500s as controllers and I love them, but the dead zone at the beginning of the pedal's travel is frustrating for volume control. I fooled around a bit with rate, scale, etc, to no avail. I know that a physical shim would fix the problem, but I'm asking first if anyone here has had any luck with adjusting modifier values to solve this issue?
 
Nope, tried everything.
even unscrewing the potmeter and changing the angle...
Only thing that helps are shims.
I think it's a pity since these are very sturdy pedals.
 
hillbilly said:
I'm using two FV500s as controllers and I love them, but the dead zone at the beginning of the pedal's travel is frustrating for volume control. I fooled around a bit with rate, scale, etc, to no avail. I know that a physical shim would fix the problem, but I'm asking first if anyone here has had any luck with adjusting modifier values to solve this issue?
Click to expand...

I only ever use my FV500 on the rare occasion that I need an analog volume pedal, as the dead spots on the expression output are huge on both ends. Literally half the throw on that thing is missing.

You MAY be able to configure something more useable by using an insert cable. (Y-cable with 2 x mono TS jacks to 1 x stereo TRS jack.) Plug the 2 mono ends into the input and output of the volume pedal and the TRS end into the expression pedal port. Recalibrate the pedal and check out the taper slowly in the modifier window. If it's all over the shop, swap the input and output leads around, re-calibrate the pedal and try again. It may still be just as dodgy to use, or even worse due to the 500k LOG pot but it's worth a shot.
 
Had the same problem. There's nothing you can do about it (except shims, as you mentioned).
I instantly sent it back and got a Yamaha FC7 (or whatever it's called) instead and have been happy with that.
 
It's how they're made. The control pot actually does nothing at both ends of its travel, so no amount of adjusting settings will change it.

Otherwise, they're excellent pedals. I put a thick rubber stopper under each end and it works fine.
 
Roland/Boss says it's functioning as designed. I can't find the post but someone contacted Roland/Boss and IIRC they said they designed it that way for some MIDI spec, so it will always go to 0 & 127. Also, IIRC Roland/Boss sent someone a replacement pot that fixed the issue.

I use a shim on the heel & toe and still get tons of travel/sweep but remember to recalibrate after adding the shims or make sure you don't make the shims to thick and keep just a hair of the dead spots, so you don't have issues going to 0 or 127.
 
Thick enough to solve the problem.

Seriously, I'd guess the rubber stoppers I used at both ends of the pedal are about 7mm. But even if you use too much, you can still use the AxeFX to calibrate a full sweep. Bear in mind that a small dead spot at either end is not necessarily a bad thing, either.
 
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