Ernie Ball Passive Volume pedal as expression pedal?

henryrobinett

henryrobinett

Fractal Fanatic
I saw this was brought up as a topic at least once, but I didn't see a definitive response. I have two expression pedals already - a Boss FV-500L and a Mission SP-1. But I also have a passive Ernie Ball Volume Pedal. It's not the Jr. Can this be used as an expression pedal? I'd like to be able to use this as a dedicated volume pedal and use the other two for random stuff. It's not biggie since I think I have more pedals than I really need. I'm using this with the LF+12+. I mean I don't really see how it can be since it wasn't designed, AFAIK, to send controller data.
 
Yea, if you switch the pot out for a linear taper potentiometer it works well. But then you have to reassemble that !@#$!@ !@#$ !@%^^() !@#!@'ing string pulley mechanism in it.

Did it once, won't do it again that's for certain.
 
I have modified all 4 of my Ernie Ball VP Jr. pedals. I love them, they work great! There is a thread about this with a detailed description and instructions. It is not that difficult if you are mechanically inclined. There is also a video on Youtube, put out by Ernie Ball, that shows how to reassemble the pedals' string/spring mechanism. It isn't exactly easy, but if you follow the video it is doable.

Here's that thread: http://forum.fractalaudio.com/mfc-discussion/35300-mfc-101-ernie-ball-vp-jr.html
 
Cool! Well I wouldn't exactly describe me as mechanically inclined, though I have done my share. Maybe I'll leave this one alone for now. Thanks all!
 
Hey Henry--heaven forbid I should ever disagree with Cliff, but for what its worth I have an older (and unmodified) Ernie Ball Volume pedal that I've been using as a volume pedal (via the expression pedal inputs of the MFC 101) and it has worked just great for the past couple of years. You do need a TRS stereo-to-dual-mono-cable to do it, but with that it works perfectly--as far as I'm concerned no problem as far as taper goes (though I do think in my axe-fx volume block I have the taper set to 15A if I remember correctly), and I love having the traditional volume pedal feel.

I did not feel the same about the Ernie Ball Jr. pedal however--taper bugged me on that one...But seeing as you already have a regular Ernie Ball based on my experience you should definitely get the right cable and try it before discounting the idea....
 
i also use 2 eb jr's with my liquid foot jr and now pro and work fine. there is a little micro switch inside of the pedal that you can switch for tapers... not 100% sure what it does.
 
Alter Ego said:
Hey Henry--heaven forbid I should ever disagree with Cliff, but for what its worth I have an older (and unmodified) Ernie Ball Volume pedal that I've been using as a volume pedal (via the expression pedal inputs of the MFC 101) and it has worked just great for the past couple of years. You do need a TRS stereo-to-dual-mono-cable to do it, but with that it works perfectly--as far as I'm concerned no problem as far as taper goes (though I do think in my axe-fx volume block I have the taper set to 15A if I remember correctly), and I love having the traditional volume pedal feel.

I did not feel the same about the Ernie Ball Jr. pedal however--taper bugged me on that one...But seeing as you already have a regular Ernie Ball based on my experience you should definitely get the right cable and try it before discounting the idea....
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Great to hear alter Ego! I'm so lazy I didn't even try it. So I need a DUAL TRS to DUAL MONO cable, huh? What's that? So one end needs to be TRS (stereo) and the other two mono cables. Like a Y? And where would that go Or do you mean the TRS summed to a mono end? On the Ernie Ball there's one output, and above that is the Tuner and to the left of those is the Input. I would suppose the Tuner is just another output.

Thinking out loud. Sorry!
 
Henry---the way I'm doing it is with a 'Y' cable (one end is a Stereo TRS male jack(like a headphone), and that splits out to a left mono standard quarter inch jack, and a right mono standard quarter inch jack). The TRS jack plugs into your liquid foot. The other mono jacks plug into the Ernie Ball, one going into the input and one going into the output (if it doesn't work at first simply reverse those two). I know plugging into both input and output may seem a little strange, and I don't know enough to know the technical reasons behind it, but n't it works. I don't have a Liquid Foot, but once you've got the pedal basically work be sure to check the calibration.

Hope you can get it up and going---As I said it works great for me.
 
That's awesomely great to hear. I had totally discounted that the EB was a useable expression pedal so I bought these others. And I was thinking how cool it would be if that EB was just a dedicated volume pedal. I'll get the necessary calling this weekend and give it a whirl. Thanks again. I'll let you know.

Is this you only expression pedal.
 
No, I've got a couple of Korg (forget the model name) expression pedals, that have very linear tapers and are very lightweight, but are not really roadworthy...Also have the Roland Exp1, but didn't like it in this application. And as I mentioned, had the EB jr, but didn't like the taper and returned it....
 
So I'm at a loss as far as setting this up. It doesn't transmit midi. This is audio to midi? So how do I do the auto learning thing? I got the TRS - 2 mono cable. How do I program the EB to have it's own midi channel and ID and stuff?
 
Now I think I know what Cliff was talking about with the taper thing. The volume goes 100% at about 15%. But it works otherwise. Maybe I can figure this out, or just buy another Boss when I get some more cash.
 
Same here- I have 3 of the dang things. Sometimes I have to switch tip/ring orange/grey connectors to get a decent range, but it works fine. Eventually I'll get some missions, but it hasnt been a priority. I only use 1 for wah, and sometimes hook up another for volume. Mine are all JRs, at least one is a 25K, not sure of the other two.
 
Look up "easy expression pedal converter" on google. It's a Y cable that makes volume pedals more linear.
 
Simeon - unfortunately I think that's just what I did. I took the good advice of alter ego above and got a TRS to 2 mono cables, which is my Y and plugged those in to the EB input and out. Oops! I reversed the cables earlier but I guess I was checking for something else! IT WORKS AGAIN~ LOL. Thanks Simeon! That did the trick. So I had to switch the input and output cables for it to calibrate correctly. Cool. Every day I'm learning something new. Slowly, but I am still learning.
 
henryrobinett said:
Now I think I know what Cliff was talking about with the taper thing. The volume goes 100% at about 15%. But it works otherwise. Maybe I can figure this out, or just buy another Boss when I get some more cash.
Click to expand...
That's it. Not much you can do to fix it, except to put in a linear-taper pot/
 
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