What's the best expression pedal for the axe?

imselln

Member
My ultra is do for delivery Monday and I'm wondering what expression pedal is the best to use with it. I have been looking at the mission engineering pedal and the boss fv500.
Anybody got an opinion? Thanks
Ed
 
After alot of frustrating tests, a strange winner: Behringer fcv100
Cheap, solid, with a very nice taper and, as it is an "optical" pedal, no "cracks,fizz,pops" in the future.
Same quality of my Vetta longboard controller which, after 5 years, is like the first day.
Highly recommended
The only thing to remember is that you need a 9 volt battery to operate it.

Angelo
 
I use a heavily modded Rocktron Hex and it's pretty amazing. to make it work you just need to swap out the pot for something small (i use a 10k linear alpha).

Otherwise, I enjoyed the Ernie Ball VPJR... the 25k VPJR works really really well, but the sweep is so big that my foot gets tired, haha. There's soooo much control that it's almost too much.

If someone would buy the Erie Ball wah pedal and mod it for expresison, I imagine this would be the ideal expression pedal (with a 12 degree sweep, so it's more than a wah but less than their standard volume pedal).
 
otherwise, the mission looks good. it has the same mod that was discussed on this forum and that i did to my Hex for controlling a cc at the toe of the pedal. To me, it's great having the on/off for the wah at your toe just like a standard wah pedal.
 
Another vote for the Boss FV500H
It has a volume pot so you can set minimum values. Extremely useful for controlling volume.
Very rugged.
 
aksman said:
I use a heavily modded Rocktron Hex and it's pretty amazing. to make it work you just need to swap out the pot for something small (i use a 10k linear alpha).

Are you using this for wah?

Do you have the procedure for modding it?

My stock Hex doesn't react well with my FX when used as a wah.
 
Satangelo said:
After alot of frustrating tests, a strange winner: Behringer fcv100
Cheap, solid, with a very nice taper and, as it is an "optical" pedal, no "cracks,fizz,pops" in the future.
Same quality of my Vetta longboard controller which, after 5 years, is like the first day.
Highly recommended
The only thing to remember is that you need a 9 volt battery to operate it.

Angelo

How long does the battery last?
 
I wasn't successful getting the sweep to work appropriately with the Ernie Ball 6166, so I just use that for my analogue board's volume. I use the BOSS FV500 for volume with my Axe, and it is exactly what the doctor ordered; I haven't tried it, yet, as an "expression" pedal for wah, or rate adjustments, or anything like that, but I expect this pedal would work well for these tasks. It is very adjustable in the amount of overall coverage the sweep takes, so you you can be at half-volume at full heel down, or completely off, or anywhere in there you want to be. It has a tuner out, if you want to do that. It is also friendly with the digital sweep ranges of the Axe, where the Ernie Ball was analogue, and not as friendly.
 
axepilot said:
aksman said:
I use a heavily modded Rocktron Hex and it's pretty amazing. to make it work you just need to swap out the pot for something small (i use a 10k linear alpha).

Are you using this for wah?

Do you have the procedure for modding it?

My stock Hex doesn't react well with my FX when used as a wah.


If you open up the Hex, it just uses a regular alpha pot. I just ordered a replacement pot, but in 10k ohms and linear from Mouser.com. it's a drop-in replacement... just put the plastic pinion on it and install it in the old pot's place.



ALSO, I made it my "junction box" for all of my ins and outs, and added a toe-switch with LED for Wah and threw a switch & led off to the side at the bottom for Pitch effects (like a whammy).

BUT, the BEST THING I DID was to drill holes all along the sides of the rocking part of the pedal, from the toe up to the axel. This redistributed the weight, so the pedal will stay in place without having it tightened. Much better flow of movement and I can leave it heel-down without it slipping forward on its own.
 
Finleysound, I don't know at this moment, it's only a couple of weeks that i own the pedal.
By the way you have to think that using the pedal as expression with the "output 2" only plugged, the battery is only to lit up the led emitter of the optical unit, so the power consumption is ridiculous!
Will give you advice when it'll finish;-)

Angelo
 
aksman said:
axepilot said:
aksman said:
I use a heavily modded Rocktron Hex and it's pretty amazing. to make it work you just need to swap out the pot for something small (i use a 10k linear alpha).

Are you using this for wah?

Do you have the procedure for modding it?

My stock Hex doesn't react well with my FX when used as a wah.


If you open up the Hex, it just uses a regular alpha pot. I just ordered a replacement pot, but in 10k ohms and linear from Mouser.com. it's a drop-in replacement... just put the plastic pinion on it and install it in the old pot's place.






ALSO, I made it my "junction box" for all of my ins and outs, and added a toe-switch with LED for Wah and threw a switch & led off to the side at the bottom for Pitch effects (like a whammy).

BUT, the BEST THING I DID was to drill holes all along the sides of the rocking part of the pedal, from the toe up to the axel. This redistributed the weight, so the pedal will stay in place without having it tightened. Much better flow of movement and I can leave it heel-down without it slipping forward on its own.

Excellent..................thanks!
 
Would suggest the Mission SP1-R hands down. Looks, feels just like a cry baby wah and works great with the Axe-Fx, even came with instructions on how to set it up with the Axe-Fx.

To me the key to getting a great wah groove going has a lot to do with feel. IMO the Ernie Ball more like a seesaw than something you would use as a wah pedal. I would really give consideration to what you want this for, I highly recommend having a pedal for volume and other swell type stuff and a dedicated pedal with a switch in the toe position for the wah. The new MFC101 will have inputs for a bunch of pedals so two at the minimum is probably a really good idea.

I am currently using an Ernie Ball for volume and any other CC that I may need but using the Mission as my dedicated wah and it is an excellent setup.

Good luck!
 
Forgot to mention one thing, I believe James at Mission Engineering designed the SP1-R specifically for the Axe-Fx (although it works with other stuff too) doubt the folks at Roland or Ernie Ball even know what the Axe-Fx is. My SP1-R came with an instruction manual SPECIFICALLY on how to use it with the Axe-Fx. Now that is cool!
 
Secret80'sMan said:
Forgot to mention one thing, I believe James at Mission Engineering designed the SP1-R specifically for the Axe-Fx (although it works with other stuff too) doubt the folks at Roland or Ernie Ball even know what the Axe-Fx is. My SP1-R came with an instruction manual SPECIFICALLY on how to use it with the Axe-Fx. Now that is cool!

Not only that but you can email him exactly what you want the pedal to do with the Axe and he will do his best to build the pedal right to your spec. Even if you don't know exactly what spec you need!!! Why you would use some generic pedal is beyond me.
 
The 'Alesis cf1 combo pedal' is nice for the price @ $39-49 bucks.... (just google it)
It has a pedal and two (2) Foot switches + reverse polarity switch.
It works well for me. Its made of metal and very sturdy. The cords (3) are hardwired.
When I use the pedal for a wah control for instance, I assign the adjacent onboard switch to turn the wah on and off. :ugeek:
 
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