Expression pedal with toe switch for wah?

aPeRSon

aPeRSon

Member
I'm currently using a Pod HD500, but I'm on the waiting list for an Axe-Fx II XL, which I intend to buy with an MFC in the very near future. In the meantime, I've recently joined this forum and been reading the FAS manuals in preparation for the (hopefully imminent) arrival of the new gear, but I have a query that I hope can be answered by some of the more experienced users.

On the Pod, the expression pedal has a toe switch to engage / disengage the wah and I'd like to have this same functionality on the XL / MFC, but all the expression pedals I've looked at so far do not have a toe switch. Does anyone have experience of using an expression pedal for wah, or know of a toe switched pedal that is compatible?

I'm not adverse to buying an expression pedal and modifying it to fit a toe switch, but wondered if the XL / MFC can be configured to mimic the traditional behaviour of a toe (or heel?) switched wah pedal?
 
There's not need of a switch, search the forum for auto-engage ;) Otherwise, it's possible with a Mission pedal that has a switch to configure the bypass state of the Wah assigned to this switch.
 
Thanks for the quick replies! I did like the idea of the auto-engage mode for the wah, so it's effectively waiting for me to move the pedal and it would engage the wah automatically as soon as it sees movement, but how do you then disengage the wah? Would I have to assign a footswitch to switching the wah off?

The other option I thought about was setting up a "dead band" at the toe or heel positions to disengage the wah at one of those extremes (toe position would be closest to how a real wah works), but if I moved the pedal too far during use, I could accidentally disengage it mid-solo.

Apologies for what is a really fundamental question, but I'm still getting to grips with what can be done with this box of tricks...
 
The default position disengages the wah when it's heel down. You can set the time gap before it disengages, or set it to switch off at toe down. Or use a switch for that, but that takes up two expression pedal connections. MFC has 4, so that's not usually a problem though.

Auto engage and a spring equipped pedal is a very easy solution. I actually find this to be awesome, I was a bit sceptical towards the auto engage function, and would have preferred to have a normal switch before I had bought any expression pedals for Axe, but the auto engage is perhaps even better! Now I may choose to play just a quick "wacka wacka" every now and then, and then continue playing normally, and the pedal takes care of itself.
 
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D'oh - I must have skimmed past the Auto Engage section (7.2.4) too quickly and missed the part about disengaging the wah:

"The classic example is a Wah that turns on automatically when you rock the pedal and then turns off when you return to the heel-down position"

So, between the Auto Engage and Disengage functionality, any standard expression pedal will do exactly what I want it to, as per the very last line in that section of the manual:

"Try it! You’ll quickly find that Auto Engage comfortably eliminates the need for expression pedal 'toe' switches."

Note to self: RTFM (several times)
 
Just a thought,....... might be cool also is the ability to assign different controllers to the toe position and the heel position.

i.e. ...wah in the heel and pitch in the toe.
 
Chris@KatsuKuriMedia said:
I don't understand how that would work - how would you switch between the 2?
Click to expand...

I don't know.....

Was thinking ....say the auto engage for the heel position......when kicked in would switch to the pre-assigned controller on a block. Likewise with the auto-engage for the toe position but would activate a separate modifier for a separate block. Depending on which gets activated would call up the assigned controller. I know in the modifier the auto-engage only works with one option. I guess the auto-engage parameter would need to have the ability to be assigned a controller in the heel (already existing) and toe positions separately and the ability to be assigned 2 separate activations (heel and toe).

Maybe not possible or practical....just thinking aloud.
 
I like the toe switch to turn the wah on and off. The auto engage/disengage is great but I never could get use to it (I'm positive it's mental). I'm running the MFC with two Mission pedals with toe switches and 2x2 external switch boxes for extra IA switches.

Since you're in the wait and plan stage, take a look at a topic named something along the lines of "Show us your MFC's" in the MFC forum. A lot of great ideas and configs to be found there.
 
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