GCP/GCX whammy and exp. pedal issue

[Donnie St. James]

I have a Digitech Whammy into loop 1 of my GCX. It works fine when I step on the IA 1 button to activate it.

I have an expression pedal (from a mammoth electronics kit) with a stereo output. I used this as a volume pedal for my G System and it worked fine. Never an issue.

I connected the pedal with a TRS cable (same one I used with the G) in pedal 1 on the GCP and it recognizes it. When I move the pedal the numbers change on the GCP and the active light flickers on the GCX. I have the whammy set up as the correct device number and it works just fine.

I can't get the expression pedal to work at all. I changed the ctrl number to 11, which is what the whammy manual says on page 12 (Using MIDI continuous control commands, the Whammy’s Expression Pedal position can be remotely controlled. MIDI CC11 adjusts the Expression Pedal position. A value of 0 on MIDI CC11 corresponds to a toe up position and a value of 127 corresponds to a toe down position) to set it at. As far as I know I set everything up correctly but not having any luck.

Any suggestions on things I may have missed?

Thanks.

[nyteowl]

First thing I would check would be to see if it's enabled on the GCPro but if, as you say, the numbers are changing on the GCPro I suspect you do have it configured properly. Not sure if CC#11 is correct, though; in my experience CC#7 usually controls volume.

However, what you didn't mention is to what MIDI device are you transmitting the values for CC#11? As there is no guitar signal passing through either the pedal or your GCPro, the expression pedal, although configured properly on the GCPro, needs to be assigned to a target device to receive the MIDI information it is sending for it to have any effect on your volume. See Page 20 in the GCPro Manual.

[Donnie St. James]

Thanks for the reply, Nyteowl. My bad, I didn't mention what I was using it for. I was in a hurry to get the thing posted and I overlooked that important part. I want it to control my Whammy pedal. I have a volume/wah already for volume. Although on a side note, I couldn't get it to work with volume either when I attempted that, but that's not what I want it for anyway.

According to the Whammy manual, ctrl 11 is the cc to control the whammy with an expression pedal. I have the GCP channel #4 going to the whammy, and I set the whammy for channel #4 as well. Looking now at page 20, I see the target device part. I'll try that and see what happens. Again, something easy I overlooked. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Donnie St. James]

Once again, nyteowl, you prove that reading is knowledge. That's the step I missed, assigning it to a device. But now I know that I can't use that pedal because the range is terrible. It may start at 0, but it only goes up to about 108. Not so good when you are using it for a whammy - or much else for that matter. Now I just have to decide if I want to shell out the bucks for a Mission pedal or just get an Ernie Ball VP Jr. Any thoughts? I've seen on here that people use the EB and the Boss pedals a bit.

Do you know if they all give a pretty decent range, like all the way to 127?

Thanks again.

[nyteowl]

Personally, I have a Mission Expression pedal, but a lot of people favor EB pedals, so either one would be a solid choice.

Mission makes alot of different pedals, but I suspect this one would do the trick: Mission EP-1

Another option might be a Boss FV-50H. I've used one of these in-line for years; it's a very reliable pedal and a less expensive alternative. I did try connecting it to a GCPro some time ago, and if I recall correctly, the range did go all the way up to 127.