The Steel Guitar Forum

A question for you effects pedal nerds out there...

I'm fascinated by Russ Pahl's Sho-Pro with onboard effects and the accessibility and versatility it provides him. I put together a simple mini pedal board holder with two Sho Pro leg clamps attached to a couple of lightweight shelf hooks to elevate my pedal board to be beside me at the changer end of the guitar. It's really easy to just reach over and change settings/effects if I need to quickly:

https://www.woodies.ie/select-universal ... -6-1035895

I use a Strymon BigSky Reverb and love to utilise many of its features. It has an amazing Infinite Sustain / Freeze function which was one of the reasons I bought it. It basically requires holding down a switch on the pedal though to keep it engaged. The unfortunate fact for us steelers being that our hands and feet are already occupied, means that this functionality largely goes unused. For me anyway.

It can be controlled however by the MIDI input on the pedal which got me thinking about putting together some kind of electronic sensor - like on a synth or a drum pad - that I could attach to the instrument - maybe just beside the first string near the pickup, within reach of my baby finger - that would allow me to engage it and disengage it with each push-of or wave-over the pad.

Something similar to this it kind of what I have in mind.

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/projec ... h-arduino/

I know Chris Hillman and Jon Graboff have done similar things mounting switches underneath their steels to engage rotary effects speeds.

https://cjhillman.com/2015/08/23/how-to ... ond-organ/

Has anybody any experience doing something like this with MIDI and/or a sensor?

Thanks in advance for any advice or tips!!

That C Hillman clip is interesting ...

Look thru the Strymon manual and figure out what inputs are needed, CC, NRPN or something else? I don't remember if there's anything else, it's been a while since i turned on a synth but I'm sure Strymon's not going to do anything odd.

Then you can look for a mini pad like Korg or McMillen https://www.sweetwater.com/c513--Pad_MIDI_Controllers

Thanks for the response Gene.

Yeah MIDI is something I'm not too up-to-speed with so I need to educate myself on how best to go about it.

There are MIDI inputs on the Strymon anyway and the manual advises what CC values it needs to activate that setting. Just I just need to get my electronics hat on now (or more likely, employ somebody who knows what they're doing!)

Another option is a simple hardware hack on your pedal. All the foot switches on Strymon pedals are momentary action single pole and all they do is short a control point to ground. So all you would need is another switch mounted on the guitar where you can work it easily and a wire going into the pedal soldered to the switch. I have the Dig, the El Capistan and the Mobius and have them all wired up this way to a four way joystick. And my Pigtronics looper works the same way so I can set up loops in time with a flick of the wrist while still playing. Has the advantage of working on non midi pedals too.
Ok, so you’ll lose the warranty but these are quality pedals that don’t go wrong and also are the sort of things you don’t sell.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Calum

I wonder if you could use something like the rolli lightpad block for this. I was thinking of trying something like this for my own rig....

You can control any knob or combination of knobs on the Big Sky with the expression control output. Simpler than using a midi controller.

Then you can mount something like this to the endplate, right behind the changer.
https://www.westminstereffects.com/prod ... on-ts-trs/

3m dual lock will hold it in place well. I've done it with this expression controller - works well.

And since you mentioned controlling parameters by waving your hand, you should probably know about this as well.
https://www.sourceaudio.net/hot-hand-3.html

what about a korg nano controller? nanopad or nanokontrol. You can assign any midi signal to any knob I think.

Thanks so much for the tips and advice folks. Some great ideas here . I need to look more into it. Although Covid19 will probably put this on on the long finger for the moment for me. Will be sure to share the results here when I get started.