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Expression Pedal Selector?

C

CuticleThorns

Apr 6, 2008
204
0
York, UK
#1
So I was wondering... instead of buying several expression pedals to control the outputs of my Moog Ring Mod could a small pedal be made thats like a line selector for an expression pedal?

I've been thinking it over & can't think of any reason why it wouldnt work? Basically I want 3 of the 4 MF102 controls & possibly a couple other expression pedal outputs to all be plugged up to a 'Pedal' that's output is one expression pedal.

One of my mates has made a few pedals before & I'd like him to try make me one but I just wondered if anyone had made one like this before and mainly; Would this work?
 
#2
I'm not entirely sure if this answers your question, but MOOG is already making a pedal that does this. It isn't cheap, though! It's a single pedal with programmable cv functions for up to 4 cv inputs:
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***I think you can even program presets for the cv outputs with this thing! That would be a godsend for a Murf user like myself!!!
 
#6
This might work:

This ($85)
mabc_big.jpg


Hooked up to ($39)
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That's a pretty cheap solution!
 
#8
CuticleThorns said:
This is what I had originally planned to do, but get someone to make the ABC box.

However after reading Happynoj's thread it seems its a little more complicated when it comes to expression pedals. :mad:
Click to expand...

Yeah, i forgot about the TRS jacks..... whoops!

It is going to be tricky to set something up where each cv input has a static voltage applied. I think that is where the $450 Moog pedal starts to make sense. Plus you can essentially make any analog cv pedal "programmable".
 
#9
CuticleThorns said:
This is what I had originally planned to do, but get someone to make the ABC box.

However after reading Happynoj's thread it seems its a little more complicated when it comes to expression pedals. :mad:
Click to expand...

:atoz: I was upset when I realised that it would not be as simple as I thought. I'm really glad TB is here. A couple of years ago I would just have bought the stuff, then been upset when it didn't work and I had spent all my money on it.
 
#10
I think you can pull it off if you've ever worked on a multi-gear bike and understand a bit about electricity. It'll be big and ugly on its first go, but you could make an elaborate mechanical switching system.

Here's an idea: Take a Third Hand and have it control the main pot that doesn't do anything, it just acts as a gear. The three potentiometers you want to control will have three different sized gears (which can be compensated for by having pots with different resistance) and use a stomp as a clutch (somehow). Make sure that the gears that aren't engaged don't move.

It wouldn't be easy, but it would be small and it'd work if you get the wiring right. Certainly cheaper and less time consuming to just get three expression pedals, but that isn't really the point.
 
#11
It can be done, but I've never seen one commercially made. You'd need TRS (stereo) jacks throughout and enough poles on the switch to switch two connections per output. (ground can be common.)

Also, there's no 'standard' expression pedal so you'd want to be sure that the exp. pedal you choose works with all the devices you want to connect.

There is a major difference between a vanilla expression pedal and a CV controller like the Moog mentioned above - generally the two are not compatible. YMMV.
 
#12
I was just thinking the same thing over the past couple of days; how to get one expression pedal to be used between a Boss PH-3, PS-5 and AW-3. For the sake of space and weight, I'd rather not carry three expression pedals.

I think some people who have considered this would like to be able to use the expression pedal to set a pedal to a particular sound, then click off and have that setting remain. I'm not looking to do this, and am only looking to be able to switch the expression pedal between effects pedals. I'd only be using one effect at a time. Anybody got any hard ideas how this could be done? What kind of selector pedal would I need to have built to be able to do this?
 
#13
Had another think about this. For controlling, say, two pedals (the PS-5 and AW-3), couldn't I just buy one of these:

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It has two outputs, and a dedicated expression output. Couldn't I have this modified to turn one of the outputs into another expression pedal output, then just switch the effect pedals on and off when needed? Would that work?
 
#14
EddieG said:
Had another think about this. For controlling, say, two pedals (the PS-5 and AW-3), couldn't I just buy one of these:

It has two outputs, and a dedicated expression output. Couldn't I have this modified to turn one of the outputs into another expression pedal output, then just switch the effect pedals on and off when needed? Would that work?
Click to expand...

Can't speak about this particular expression pedal, but if it's expensive you'll be voiding the warranty for sure. I would imagine that being a BOSS pedal is might be more difficult to mod than a regular cheap expression pedal...

Now, building a switchbox that will switch between BOSS effects only shouldn't be that tough, IF as you say you don't care about your settings on the effect that the pedal isn't connected to -- the problem I see is that when an exp pedal is connected to the BOSS pedals the internal pot will be bypassed, and so the pedal may not work at all unless your "switchbox" is set to that pedal.

You'd be cutting new ground with this I think.

CM
 
#15
Well, I don't know if this would be right, but say for instance I was only switching between the AW-3 Wah and the PS-5 Pitch Shifter, maybe thw AW-3 on one song, then the PS-5 on another. Provided I click them off once I'm done, the effect pedal itself should reset to the pot settings, as opposed to the last expression pedal setting, right?

So as long as I'm turning the pedals off when I'm done, using one expression pedal between the two shouldn't be a problem. Or am I completely wrong?:eyebrow:
 
#16
You could build a little box that has an input for the expression pedal and an output to each pedal you want to use it with. Each output could have a toggle or footswitch to "turn off" the exp pedal's path to each pedal. You could use 3PDT switches to switch all three parts of the TSR plug, or a 4PDT if you want to have an LED on/off indicator.
 
#19
I think this would work. Just keep adding on switches for however many you need. I think toggle switches would be best so you could tell which is on and which is off, and you'd want to only have one switched to on at a time. I don't think having more than one on would hurt anything, but I'm not sure if that would cause a ground loop problem or anything. In fact I would isolate all the jack sleeves from the box with plastic washers. Soory for the crappy hand drawn pic.
switchbox.gif
 

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