Expression pedals with switch

J

JJ Rodriguez

Member
Just wondering if there's any expression pedals on the market that have a button so you can press the toe down to switch it on/off like a conventional wah. I was thinking of snagging 2 of those and using the 4 ports on a Liquid-foot Pro.

If there are any, would the switch stay in the on or off position through patch changes? Like say I set a patch to automatically have a volume pedal on, and I change to that patch after switching one of the pedals off, would I then have to hit the switch again to turn on the volume pedal or would it be programmed into the controller to work?
 
With expression pedals, there's none commercially available that I know of that have a "toe-down" footswitch.

A few people, including myself, have built them from used old or broken wah pedals (typically the Dunlop or Vox pedals make good donors) or empty expression shell kits. This basically involves removal of all the electronic bits except the switch, replacing the pot (typically with a 10k linear pot, but this varies according to taste) and the input/output jacks, and some simple wiring and soldering.

The midi controllers won't typically require you to hit the switch again when you change patches, obviously you have to have each patch programmed to recognise the switch though, and it has to be a latching type switch (not momentary). Best to consult the LiquidFoot doco on this though!

Also don't forget about the 'autoengage' functions on the AxeFx that give you a virtual switch that some people prefer.



:cool:

Chris
 
lebihanj said:
Since there seems to be quite some interest in these and nothing commercially available until now. I started manufacture of a custom expression pedal with switch for the Axe-FX. You can get more details and order one from here. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0298446953
Click to expand...

That's handy! I only see two jacks. Is one of them TRS for the pedal and the other for the switch? Or is there another jack somewhere else?
 
There's two jack's .. one TRS (stereo) goes from the pedal to one analog input on the Axe-FX, the other one TS (mono) goes from the switch to the 2nd input.

It's a 20k pot which is in the 10k - 50k range specified by Fractal Audio.
 
JJ Rodriguez said:
Just wondering if there's any expression pedals on the market that have a button so you can press the toe down to switch it on/off like a conventional wah. I was thinking of snagging 2 of those and using the 4 ports on a Liquid-foot Pro.

If there are any, would the switch stay in the on or off position through patch changes? Like say I set a patch to automatically have a volume pedal on, and I change to that patch after switching one of the pedals off, would I then have to hit the switch again to turn on the volume pedal or would it be programmed into the controller to work?
Click to expand...

The footpedal that was sold with the old ADA MXC footcontroller has a toe switch.
They're out of business now, obviously.
One of the footpedals attached to the Lexicon footcontroller (I forget the model number, R1?) has a toe switch too.
It's a cool feature.
But if you just went out and bought a pedal with this feature you'd also have to have a footcontroller that can be programmed to recognize it, and most of them can't.

Are you aware of the "Auto Engage" controller feature built-in to the Axe?
Normally it engages at the toe up position though.
It would nice if it could be changed to toe-down, but right now it can't.
Something for the Wish List.
 
lebihanj said:
Since there seems to be quite some interest in these and nothing commercially available until now. I started manufacture of a custom expression pedal with switch for the Axe-FX. You can get more details and order one from here. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0298446953
Click to expand...

Just a suggestion...
You might get a few more hits from Axe-Fx users surfing eBay if you spell it "Axe-Fx" rather than "AxeFx" which is what you've got now. Or put it in both ways.
 
Frankiev - I used a 10k linear taper pot. This seems to work well for me; anything in the 5k-50k range is apparently ok as mentioned above. Some people prefer the log/audio taper pots too but can depend on usage and taste.

Lebihanj - looks very cool. Can I suggest though putting a DPDT switch somewhere to switch the polarity on the expression pedal output? Say a mini-toggle switch on the top (under the treadle where you can still get your fingers at it). That should give excellent flexibility in using it straight into the Axe or into midi footcontrollers and save messing around with the stereo cables. I think you're on a winner with this!

:cool:

Chris
 
Thanks for the tip regarding the polarity switch. I had already thought about this, and have a third cut out in the chassis for this purpose. Pedal currently ships with a blank plate on it, so it can be upgraded in future. I just haven't had the time to properly test this configuration, and wasn't sure if it was a feature people would use. Now I know it's of interest I'll get working on it.
 
Cool. I think a lot of people would find this handy - if you've seen the number of posts in this forum about getting expression pedal x to work properly with midi controller y... almost always it comes down to the tip/ring connector polarity.

Also - one more suggestion from something I've just been alerted to if you don't already have this covered - a TRS connector on the switch output (with just the TS connectors wired obviously!). This should keep Liquid Foot controller users happy and still work normally for everyone else (the LF requires a TRS input for the switch with nothing connected to the ring connector).

Thanks to Bob for that info too.

Chris
 
Thanks again for the info. I tested tip and ring polarity to be correct for The Axe-FX and Line6 PodXT Live, but you never know, this could change at sometime. A polarity switch will also help if you want to use the pedal with devices other than the Axe-FX, especially keyboards. I'll offer it as an option as soon as I can get it tested. Good info on the TRS jack on the switch side too. I put this in my prototype but removed it from production spec since it didn't seem useful. I'll put it back :)
 
I'll buy one today if you can get me one that works with just one cable into a midi floorboard (midi mate) instead of two running all the way back to the axe fx. You can PM me with details if you like.
 
As far as I can tell, the Midi Mate lacks a second footswitch input for the latching switch on the SP-1. So you could connect the expression pedal out to the Midi Mate which should work fine, but if you want to use the switch too, you would still have to run a second cable from the switch out back to the Axe-FX.
 
lebihanj said:
As far as I can tell, the Midi Mate lacks a second footswitch input for the latching switch on the SP-1. So you could connect the expression pedal out to the Midi Mate which should work fine, but if you want to use the switch too, you would still have to run a second cable from the switch out back to the Axe-FX.
Click to expand...

So it would be 1 stereo trs cable to midi mate and then another stereo trs cable to the axe-fx pedal 1 input?
 
1 TRS from pedal out to the Midi Mate. This should allow the Midi Mate to convert the continuous analog signal from the pedal to MIDI and send MIDI to the Axe-FX. Then a mono (TS) cable from the switch out to one of the foot switch ports on the Axe-FX. Setup the port via the Axe-FX software for latching switch, and you should be good to go. I haven't tested with a Midi Mate so I am not sure what polarity it requires. If it is reversed from the Axe-FX, you will either want to order the SP-1R option with the polarity toggle switch, or I can provide you with instructions on how to hard rewire the pedal for reversed polarity.
 
There's a Daphon wah actually available on ebay at the moment at a decent price - this is exactly the same one Dutch mentions in the original post for the link above. Not sure about OS shipping but certainly for anyone in Australia who's DIY inclined this will currently be a bit more affordable than buying a blank shell from overseas (exchange rates... grrr...). Definately not to be confused with the plastic Daphon wahs either.

I actually GAS'd for an old Dunlop Wah last night, so this will be my next project. Likely to end up similar to the blue one but hopefully I'll get some better shots this time of the build.

Chris
 
Since then I've noticed that the axle on the daphon is a bit thinner than on the Vox wah, but I think it's still take a couple of centuries to wear through that part. :lol:

I've seen that the wah electronics are not too dependable, but that's not what we're buying it for, are we?
 
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