How to handle wah. Use expression pedal or separate wah pedal?

[GMGM]

You can calibrate it on a shorter range of its sweep to overcome this.

It never worked for me. Because you still have that extra travel that exists in the switch itself. Once you the footplate makes contact with the switch, there's still roughly 1/4" of travel in the switch. Which means the pedal is overtraveling. I may revisit this someday, as I'd sure love to get it figured out.

And again, it's such a small issue that I almost didn't bring it up. It only bothers me where there's a "whammy" patch in my preset. No whammy = no problem. Usually when you're wah-wah-ing around, you're not running from 0% to 100% anyway. But when you're whammying around, you notice when some notes hit 97% of their octave pitch, sometimes it hits 96%, sometimes 98%.

One thought was to put an extra set of rubber feet/bumpers, then calibrate the travel where it meets the rubber. Then in order to active the switch I have really push hard through the rubber.

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

Thanks. Does that mean you can't use the same pedal as a volume pedal then if connected to the WAH block?

It's possible, but every preset needs a dedicated wah and volume pedal, IMHO. Three pedals is a nice place to be, so you ger to have an expression pedal as well. I have 4, which is even nicer, as I have 2 expression pedals available....

 

[ChristThePhone]

It never worked for me. Because you still have that extra travel that exists in the switch itself. Once you the footplate makes contact with the switch, there's still roughly 1/4" of travel in the switch. Which means the pedal is overtraveling. I may revisit this someday, as I'd sure love to get it figured out.

And again, it's such a small issue that I almost didn't bring it up. It only bothers me where there's a "whammy" patch in my preset. No whammy = no problem. Usually when you're wah-wah-ing around, you're not running from 0% to 100% anyway. But when you're whammying around, you notice when some notes hit 97% of their octave pitch, sometimes it hits 96%, sometimes 98%.

One thought was to put an extra set of rubber feet/bumpers, then calibrate the travel where it meets the rubber. Then in order to active the switch I have really push hard through the rubber.

have you tried changing the controller curve in the modifier panel to be a bit steeper and reach 100% before the pedal travels to it's endpoint?

 

[unix-guy]

Which means the pedal is overtraveling

Not possible. The modifier only goes to 100%...

 

[Robbie Boyette]

We all know Leon Todd is a genius, and I have been using the sequenced auto wah that he suggested in this video. Head to around 2:20. Just another option. There's a certain amount of refreshing freedom about not having to be tied to pumping the wah or expression pedal. This is for the FM3 but works with the FM9 too.

I'm gonna go to work on my auto-wah settings tonight. That sounds awesome and would allow me to leave my "station" onstage and get out in the middle of the stage.

 

[iaresee]

It never worked for me. Because you still have that extra travel that exists in the switch itself. Once you the footplate makes contact with the switch, there's still roughly 1/4" of travel in the switch. Which means the pedal is overtraveling. I may revisit this someday, as I'd sure love to get it figured out.

And again, it's such a small issue that I almost didn't bring it up. It only bothers me where there's a "whammy" patch in my preset. No whammy = no problem. Usually when you're wah-wah-ing around, you're not running from 0% to 100% anyway. But when you're whammying around, you notice when some notes hit 97% of their octave pitch, sometimes it hits 96%, sometimes 98%.

One thought was to put an extra set of rubber feet/bumpers, then calibrate the travel where it meets the rubber. Then in order to active the switch I have really push hard through the rubber.

All of that is unnecessary. Just rock the foot pedal up to the switch but not through it. You could even put a penny on top of the switch and rock the pedal just up until it touches the penny. Just don't let it push down on the switch when you're calibrating and it'll be fine.

The pedal will read 100% at the point it touches the switch (or the penny) and when it travels past that point as you engage or dis-engage the switch it'll continue to read 100%. You can't go beyond 100%.

 

[Greg Ferguson]

As others have said, you can double-duty a pedal (you can actually use it for about 8 things before it starts breaking your brain).

My brain breaks somewhere around 2.

 

[Rumbletone]

Thanks. Is there a pedal besides the EV-1 that you recommend? One that has a built-in switch?

Thanks,

Steve

I use a Mission SP1 with toe switch, which I modified from latching to momentary. On some presets the switch toggles between wah (with auto engage) and volume. In other presets the switch and/or the XPDL do other things.

 

[Rumbletone]

It's possible, but every preset needs a dedicated wah and volume pedal, IMHO.

I think it depends how you use presets. I have many song-specific presets, and many of them don’t need wah or (pre) volume control, in which case I’ll assign them to something that I might want to tweak for that particular song (like wet/dry mix or amp gain). But for my generic/kitchen sink presets it’s always wah and pre volume.

 

[DrGreencock]

@2112 Jesus Christ that's a great tip. Thanks - now I'm gonna lose a few hours to custom wah sequencing per song.

Right now I have the EV-1 and find it works well for a long throw wah. I prefer a darker wah so I either lower the HF or set the controller to max out below 85%, or both. The amount of tweaking is silly good

Got a switch-less spring-loaded Mission EP-1 on the way and my plan is to use that exclusively for wah, and modulation where I want a sudden speed burst. The EV-1 will be relegated to control effects and maybe morph from a clean to mean sound on a single amp!

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

I think it depends how you use presets. I have many song-specific presets, and many of them don’t need wah or (pre) volume control, in which case I’ll assign them to something that I might want to tweak for that particular song (like wet/dry mix or amp gain). But for my generic/kitchen sink presets it’s always wah and pre volume.

I always have a post-amp volume pedal set up, usually with a volume boost attached to the output level for solo boost. It's nice to have an always-there way to shut down the sound when you need quiet now (more or less, if there's delay or reverb involved).

I have a wah-shaped wah controller on every preset, too - a leftover from my old '80s & '90s stage setup.

I have two expression pedals set up, though most often only one is used. Quite frequently, I run the expression pedal in zones, set up for the various parts of a song. Rarely need more than 3 sounds, but have squeaked out 4 zones on the pedal on occasion, and the pedal makes for smoooooove transitions. Combine that with switches, and a lot can be done within a single preset....

 

[Rumbletone]

I always have a post-amp volume pedal set up, usually with a volume boost attached to the output level for solo boost. It's nice to have an always-there way to shut down the sound when you need quiet now (more or less, if there's delay or reverb involved).

Yeah if it’s post-amp then agreed it should always be available. I use a combination of solo boost (in every preset I have CS2 assigned to it, and CS2 is on an external footswitch that is always available) and a micro-XPDL that is assigned to global output volume for on the fly tweaking (don’t tell my sound guy!).

In my perfect world I’d have a set-up like Warren Haynes (I think it was him?) with expression/volume pedals for each of the other instruments in my monitor mix. But often I play some pretty tight stages (small pubs, musical theatre) so I’m trying to limit my rig to 2 full size XPDLs and 2 micro XPDLs (which are just a lot with a knob that’s large enough to move with my foot):

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

Yeah if it’s post-amp then agreed it should always be available. I use a combination of solo boost (in every preset I have CS2 assigned to it, and CS2 is on an external footswitch that is always available) and a micro-XPDL that is assigned to global output volume for on the fly tweaking (don’t tell my sound guy!).

In my perfect world I’d have a set-up like Warren Haynes (I think it was him?) with expression/volume pedals for each of the other instruments in my monitor mix. But often I play some pretty tight stages (small pubs, musical theatre) so I’m trying to limit my rig to 2 full size XPDLs and 2 micro XPDLs (which are just a lot with a knob that’s large enough to move with my foot):

View attachment 113043

Nice! Looks a bit like my FM9's board. I have 7 buttons poking up from under that have (mostly) dedicated functions. The two purple ones are momentary and latching CCs (using a hidden ExpressionIO MIDI adapter under the board) almost always used for rotary speed control. The next 3 are plugged into the FM9's pedal jacks. One does my 'delay accent' echo swell, and two and three do stuff that can't be done with MIDI CCs, usually channel-switching of #2 (lead) amp block, but occasionally different stuff and occasionally nothing. The gold and blue are 'modulation accent' and tap tempo, respectively. One of the two faders is set up to control delay wetness globally. The other pokes at a couple PEQ bands' levels to make Fletcher/Munson compensation possible with that single fader (such as it is - it might not be perfect, but it can 'mostly un-f**k' your sound if at a gig where the volume is far from the volume the preset was dialed in at). The pedals are numbered per their External Controller number. Volume is #1, secondary expression is #2, wah is #3, and primary expression is #4.

With the firmware 4 on FM9 increasing its capability so much over the eariler ones, this could be my whole gig rig - the two boards and the SpaceStation XL. The FX3 Turbo (and the FC6 board that runs it) are nearly surplus to my needs at this point, unless I want to do something reallllly overblown and need the extra HP of the FX3 Turbo to handle the job....

 

[GLiDE BPM]

Love an expression pedal with the wah block using heel down to cut the wah block back off!!!

 

[GLiDE BPM]

Nice! Looks a bit like my FM9's board. I have 7 buttons poking up from under that have (mostly) dedicated functions. The two purple ones are momentary and latching CCs (using a hidden ExpressionIO MIDI adapter under the board) almost always used for rotary speed control. The next 3 are plugged into the FM9's pedal jacks. One does my 'delay accent' echo swell, and two and three do stuff that can't be done with MIDI CCs, usually channel-switching of #2 (lead) amp block, but occasionally different stuff and occasionally nothing. The gold and blue are 'modulation accent' and tap tempo, respectively. One of the two faders is set up to control delay wetness globally. The other pokes at a couple PEQ bands' levels to make Fletcher/Munson compensation possible with that single fader (such as it is - it might not be perfect, but it can 'mostly un-f**k' your sound if at a gig where the volume is far from the volume the preset was dialed in at). The pedals are numbered per their External Controller number. Volume is #1, secondary expression is #2, wah is #3, and primary expression is #4.

With the firmware 4 on FM9 increasing its capability so much over the eariler ones, this could be my whole gig rig - the two boards and the SpaceStation XL. The FX3 Turbo (and the FC6 board that runs it) are nearly surplus to my needs at this point, unless I want to do something reallllly overblown and need the extra HP of the FX3 Turbo to handle the job....

That green dressed up FM9 is killer!!!!

 

[iaresee]

In my perfect world I’d have a set-up like Warren Haynes (I think it was him?) with expression/volume pedals for each of the other instruments in my monitor mix.

Jimmy Herring does that when he's playing with Widespread Panic.

 

[Anthony76]

I tried Mission - both the standard and extended travel versions with toe switches. Neither worked well for me.

The pedal would bump into the switch at approx. 97% of its travel. I could never get it to read 100% without pushing "through" the switch and engaging/disengaging whatever parameters it was assigned to.

For a wah patch, and most other effects, this was not a big deal. But it didn't play well with "Whammy" patches.

But I couldn't use it with a "whammy" patch. Even after much experimenting with the calibration range, I couldn't get a full octave sweep from the whammy with any switchable expression pedal. And the FM9 was too smart, it always seemed to know that I was playing games with the calibration - and would never hit 100% consistently.

Sorry, I'm rambling a bit. It's hard to explain without seeing it in the unit itself. If someone else has figured out how to make that work with the whammy models, I am all ears.

Until then, I still carry a wah pedal (for gigs that involve a lot of wah - funk/fusion), and I tap dance between the FM9 and a non-switchable expression pedal for situations that don't need much wah.

That sounds like you need to calibrate the pedal sweep in the axefx.

 

[Anthony76]

All of that is unnecessary. Just rock the foot pedal up to the switch but not through it. You could even put a penny on top of the switch and rock the pedal just up until it touches the penny. Just don't let it push down on the switch when you're calibrating and it'll be fine.

The pedal will read 100% at the point it touches the switch (or the penny) and when it travels past that point as you engage or dis-engage the switch it'll continue to read 100%. You can't go beyond 100%.

This

 

[bigkid]

Hi all. My FM9 is ordered. Waiting for it to ship. In anticipation....

How do most of you handle having a wah effect? Do you rely on the wah provided in the FM9 and use an expression pedal? If so, how do you turn the wah on or off? Or do you use an external wah wah pedal?

I've been using a Line 6 Pod XT Live for decades and what I am used to is a pedal that is normally a volume pedal, but when I push toe down it switches to a wah wah.

What is the best way to handle this with the FM9?

Thanks,

Steve

Odd man out here. I use a single Mission SP1-R which has the additional output TRS jack for a switch under the toe of the pedal you mention. I use it for Wah & Vol, and any other expression related effect in my setup. I have used the switch output to switch between the two effects. However, I now use midi. For my very simple purpose (to switch between two effects and pass through midi expression messages) I just use the Disaster Area Midi-Baby with its single button. The mission expression output goes into the MB and then out as midi messages to the FM9 which I identify as source Control Switch Modifier External 10. The button is Control Switch Modifier External 5. The FM is setup so that a tap of the MB Button activates the Wah, tap again to turn it back to Volume. I do this as I prefer to use aux pedals to switch scenes - not such a big deal with the FM3 as you can use dual (TRS) pedals into 2 pedal inputs to access all 8 scenes at the press of a single button, but more of an issue with the FM9 with it taking single switch (TS) pedals. The pedal inputs, therefore, are all taken, hence the midi solution. As a bonus, the MB switch is a damn sight easier to activate than the MIssion switch when seated at a workstation!

 

[Sixstring]

One pedal to rule them all! at least on my board. I never could get used to a short throw for my wah but then again I never used wah a lot. Over time I have got very comfortable with using a standard throw pedal.