Expression pedal won't work after calibration

B

Brett191

Member
Plugged straight into the back of the Axe fx III my expression pedal was working fine, but I noticed that it wasn't going to 100% toe down. Ran the calibration and now it won't go past 60% at toe all the way up. The range of motion is from about 60% to 100% and the wah won't shut off. Tried recalibrating multiple times with no change.

Tried pedal 1 and pedal 2 inputs and different cables with no luck.

It was working before calibration, turning off and on with no problems.

Any suggestions or did the calibration process screw my pedal up somehow?
 
unix-guy said:
What expression pedal do you have? Some have a knob that limits the minimum value.
Click to expand...
There's no adjustments other than a polarity switch. Something in the pedal must have fried during calibration somehow. It was a cheapo pedal, but it worked great before calibrated it. I'm just going to get a better expression pedal and see if that works.
 
Not doubting this worked before, but we've seen multiple posts like this in the past where people have sworn they were using a TRS cable when they were using a regular guitar TS cable instead. They just assumed TRS and TS are the same. Just quadruple checking you didn't make this same mistake.
 
biskitboy said:
Not doubting this worked before, but we've seen multiple posts like this in the past where people have sworn they were using a TRS cable when they were using a regular guitar TS cable instead. They just assumed TRS and TS are the same. Just quadruple checking you didn't make this same mistake.
Click to expand...

Yes they are TRS cables. I even tested them on my multimeter for continuity.
 
Brett191 said:
There's no adjustments other than a polarity switch. Something in the pedal must have fried during calibration somehow. It was a cheapo pedal, but it worked great before calibrated it. I'm just going to get a better expression pedal and see if that works.
Click to expand...
I don't think it is possible for calibration to break a pedal...

Since you have a multimeter, check the jack to see what it reads. Measure tip to ground and ring to ground... Or you can measure the pot itself.

If you can open it, make sure there's not a broken wire or solder joint.
 
May be a long shot, but I had a similar problem a while back. I had to swap the wires on one side of the cable to get it to work correctly.
 
bdrepko said:
May be a long shot, but I had a similar problem a while back. I had to swap the wires on one side of the cable to get it to work correctly.
Click to expand...
That's polarity issue... And the pedal was working before.

Although the OP did say there's a polarity switch. Maybe it got flipped?
 
unix-guy said:
That's polarity issue... And the pedal was working before.

Although the OP did say there's a polarity switch. Maybe it got flipped?
Click to expand...
Nope, I flipped the polarity to see if that made a difference all it did was peg the wah at 100%.

It must have been a massive coincidence if the calibration didn't affect anything. I was literally using the pedal off and on for about an hour before I tried calibrating it.

It's broken somehow, sending it back tomorrow, and getting a fractal pedal. It was a cheapo unit anyway. Just really weird how the timing of it breaking played out.
 
Brett191 said:
Nope, I flipped the polarity to see if that made a difference all it did was peg the wah at 100%.

It must have been a massive coincidence if the calibration didn't affect anything. I was literally using the pedal off and on for about an hour before I tried calibrating it.

It's broken somehow, sending it back tomorrow, and getting a fractal pedal. It was a cheapo unit anyway. Just really weird how the timing of it breaking played out.
Click to expand...
Weird!

Did you pick it up or anything when you started the calibration?

Anyway, I'm sure you'll like the EV better than the cheapo :D
 
If you have a multimeter, check the resistance between the ring and sleeve of a TRS cable plugged into the pedal. That is the value of the pot inside. Now measure the resistance between the tip and sleeve. It should smoothly go from between roughly zero ohms to roughly the pot value (usually 10k ohms on most expression pedals) and back as you very slowly sweep the pedal back and forth. The reading between the tip and ring should sweep the same way, but in the opposite direction. Most multimeters are slow to respond, so sweep the pedal very slowly to see the value smoothly change. If you go very slowly and the value still jumps around or gets to a certain spot in the travel and just stops, you might have a bad or loose pot.

Calibration will have no impact on the pedal. That just allows you to change the internal values used by the Axe FX for the minimum and maximum travel points of the pedal. I'm quite certain the exact same reference voltage is across the expression pedal pot when it's in normal use as it is when it is being calibrated.
 
Last edited:
Did you try using the pedal on some other gear for the process of elimination, to verify that it's actually the 'pedal' that's broke?
 
Ok I am officially a dumbass. I didn't realize there was an adjustment on the side for the range of the effect. It just looks like where the pedal attaches to the base, like a pivot point

I never calibrated it when I first started using it, just plugged it in and it worked great. So when I calibrated it, it started working like the pedal was actually adjusted to work.

I was literally boxing it up to send it back when I noticed the adjustment knob.

Turned it up to 100% recalibrated and it works flawlessly now.

Thank you for all the suggestions!

Signed,
Dumbass 😂😂😂
 
Brett191 said:
Ok I am officially a dumbass. I didn't realize there was an adjustment on the side for the range of the effect. It just looks like where the pedal attaches to the base, like a pivot point

I never calibrated it when I first started using it, just plugged it in and it worked great. So when I calibrated it, it started working like the pedal was actually adjusted to work.

I was literally boxing it up to send it back when I noticed the adjustment knob.

Turned it up to 100% recalibrated and it works flawlessly now.

Thank you for all the suggestions!

Signed,
Dumbass 😂😂😂
Click to expand...
Not to say I told you so, but...
unix-guy said:
What expression pedal do you have? Some have a knob that limits the minimum value.
Click to expand...

;)

Glad you got it resolved.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom