On a Mission - let's go for FOUR...

Scott Peterson

Scott Peterson

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I've been running my rig with three Mission Engineering expression pedals for a long time - years. Extremely powerful, crazy intuitive (to me) way to control a LOT of things in real time, on the fly and allows for all sorts of OCD madness in terms of details, dealing with different rooms, creating various sonic timbres and so on.

But... I have been wanting to run one more pedal to break up one specific thing - my delay wet/dry mix - from my existing setup. So the question was... can I fit 4 on the board? Do I want to carry it?

The biggest heaviest aspect of my rig is the pedalboard - it's manageable, but it's unwieldy. My board is all mounted with velcro to a Pedaltrain Pro; I use the padded soft cover (I do not do fly dates and my gear either goes with me in the car or in the van/trailer with the rest of the band's gear/PA stuff. I just carry it with my cart... or lug it. No biggie.

But man, I've wanted to try this... so here we go.

I'll do a video once I get into this and explore different ways to divide up the added versatility that makes sense.

Should be fun!

Old board:



So what do I have the expression pedals do now?

I'll go left to right.

Left expression pedal (black one):

  1. Toe down switch turns the wah on/off - then it's a Wah pedal. Toe down switch and it's off.
  2. When Drive block is engaged - it controls the amount of gain/drive in the Drive block
  3. When the PEQ block is engaged - it controls the amount of output level from +1db to +6db. (Note: I have the PEQ configured as a dynamic custom preamp boost).
  4. When the Rotary Block is engaged, it controls the upper horn rotor speed


Middle expression pedal (green one): (switch not currently being employed for any purpose):

  1. Controls wet/dry mix for: Tremolo; Rotary: Delay; Phaser; Chorus; Flanger; and Pitch. In essence, this pedal is my 'effects' mixer. I can mix in whatever amount of wet effect I want at any time and dynamically change it on the fly. (*Note: the range of wet/dry is different for each effect block based on my preferences and taste. That's saved per preset.)

Right expression pedal (white one):

  1. Reverb wet/dry mix - dynamically control on the fly independant of other effects
  2. When the Delay block is engaged, controls the Delay feedback from short to long
  3. When toe switch is engaged, it is a Volume pedal.


New layout:



I might do it this way or separate the pedals a bit by putting two on the left and two on the right of the MFC-101... but we'll see.

I want the delay wet/dry broken out and have some other ideas. I'll post up the results and do a demo video soon.

This is the fun stuff.
 
Won't it be difficult to use the green one based on forward position between the other two pedals? Not that I have a better alternative.
 
Hi Scott, that sounds like lots and lots of flexibility with three, let alone four! Really intrigued to see how you get all this setup as I've been pondering multiple expression pedals.

I suspect I've missed something somewhere (I usually do), but would you mind expanding on how you use the toe switch with these pedals. I was under the impression that it needed an expression pedal interface to operate, rather than one of the switch interfaces, which would use more than the four in the MFC. I'm assuming there's some kind of workaround?

Thanks.
 
vltjd said:
Won't it be difficult to use the green one based on forward position between the other two pedals? Not that I have a better alternative.
Click to expand...

I would keep the things I use all the time - on the fly - on the two closer pedals. The others are more 'set it and forget it' based on songs. But... good point.

fox5150 said:
Hi Scott, that sounds like lots and lots of flexibility with three, let alone four! Really intrigued to see how you get all this setup as I've been pondering multiple expression pedals.

I suspect I've missed something somewhere (I usually do), but would you mind expanding on how you use the toe switch with these pedals. I was under the impression that it needed an expression pedal interface to operate, rather than one of the switch interfaces, which would use more than the four in the MFC. I'm assuming there's some kind of workaround?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

The toe switches are just on/off switches - you can have four with the MFC. I use them as noted in the OP - one turns the left pedal from a gain/volume of the drive and/or PEQ boost into a wah. I am not using the middle switch (*though I may or may not now... we'll see); the furthest one (white) is reverb wet/dry and when I switch it, it is a volume pedal.

Someone on TGP asked if the MFC hangs off the left edge like it appears in the photo... it doesn't. So I took another shot just now to show that...
 
Thanks for clearing that up for me Scott. Now to replan how I'm going to use those pedals and which ones to get ;)
 
Wow, I feel like a simpleton. I have four also. I use a spring loaded one for wah ONLY (auto engage), one for volume only. One for synth volume (external GR-30) and one for whammy (just on some patches). You have given me some really good ideas for multi-uses! Hmmmm...What if???...
 
with your 3 pedal setup couldn't you use the toe switch on the green one to make it a delay mix otherwise an modulation effect mix?
 
Scott, i have been checking Mission pedals, so if I understand you correctly your black pedal for example have dual (or more functions).

1. expression pedal function for what ever you chooses, eg drive, rotary etc
2. click toe-down and you engage the wah and use it as a wah, click "off" and its back to expression pedal function

is this correct, if you understand my crappy explanation ? and is this the SP-1 ?
 
Ooftah! I recently went in the opposite direction. I took my PT-Pro down to a PT-2 when I went from three pedals onboard to two. I can still carry the third in the bag and set it on the floor for those odd times I'd use it but very few of my presets needs more than one EXP (the other is a dedicated master volume).

I do have to give you props for your creative use of geometry!
 
Scott Peterson said:
...can I fit 4 on the board?
Click to expand...
No doubt you can, but would you want to? Of course, you and your feet are the ultimate arbiters of what works, but if you try to cram another pedal onto your existing board, you could find yourself trying to use a clown car for serious transportation. It's sort of like trying to cram three people into a love seat. It might work okay for watching a half-hour TV show, but not be such a good idea three weeks from now. Your tools need enough room to allow you to use them comfortably. You might have to bite the bullet and get the next-size-up pedalboard.

Now that I've pissed all over your party, I hope you find a solution you like. I'm intrigued to see where you take this.
 
I have one EP dedicated to wah. I have an SP that I never use the blue channel. What would I do with 8 options?
 
I use three pedals right now (two Missions and an EB Jr), but have a fourth Mission as well (it's a color thing, I'm a little nuts about the "look" of my gear for different projects). One is a dedicated "pre" volume (the EB), the other two handle a variety of things (wah, shimmer, delay, ect- need to start playing with drive/gain and morphing options). What I've been doing is using Scenes (via an external four switch courtesy of Bright Onion) to control which pedal does what for a specific section of a specific tune, it helps eliminate the "tap dancing" somewhat.

Been thinking about making a special "hidden extension" for my board to throw the fourth pedal on, but like the other Scott already face a weight issue...
 
Can we have the Matchless patch? Need a 'ground glass around velvet' type of tone...have you nailed it?

I'm a luddite, and rarely break out the 2nd pedal (auto-wah works great for me...), but thinking about some of the more interesting things to do with pedal options.
 
More power to you, Scott, but it looks like it may be a little bit of a balancing act/dance, to access the upper ones, w/o bumping the lower ones. I don't think I have the grace, or the intuition, to juggle all of that, and still play the licks at the same time. It might be good for a studio rig, but looks a bit awkward to use on a dark stage. We often have variable room on different stages, too, so I'd prefer to keep the "permanent" footprint a little smaller, and maybe set the expression pedals on a separate board, to allow for some flexibility.
This gives me the "rubbing your tummy, while patting your head" willies....:shock:? :geek
 
Scott that's impressive! I'd be too lazy for that... and modifying effect levels when I don't hear the whole mix is IMO not something I'd do unless I had in-ears with the whole mix. But seriously I'm impressed. I wouldn't have concentration left since a PRS has enough knobs to tweak in real time. :)
 
Great stuff you have here!
Always inspiring what people do with their expression pedals... I recently made the switch and slowly step away from using too many different scenes and instead use an expression pedal for morphing between clean and gainy tone or effects. Not because it really makes sense, as I move it almost instantly, but I always felt moving an expression pedal requires less concentration than stepping on a switch.

When stepping on a switch, I lose balance quite often, which messes up the performance a bit. When using an expression pedal, this is out of the equation, as you can rest your foot on it all the time.
 
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