Passive Volume & Expression EXP Guitar Pedal, Mini Size - Vexpress

It's small. It's cheap. It's brown. ...But not in a turd-like manner. It's not like there's a lump of poo on my pedal board; this is much more than that. It's an inexpensive, small, passive potentiometer you control with your foot. You can use it to attenuate (but not boost) your overall volume, or you can use it to control parameters on some pedals. E.g. I've used it to control the EQD Avalanche Run.This gets five stars not because it's "the best" of the four expression pedals I have, but because it's the best value in a passive volume/expression pedal. I don't expect this to stand up to years of abuse, but I don't plan to abuse it, so it might very well last my lifetime, unless modern science catches up to the challenges of entropy, gravity, and their increasingly annoying effects on my creaky-ass body, making me live an absurdly long time. ...But I digress.This pedal is almost identical to another one I have. It's orange, made by Valeton, which I found out is made by the same company as Sonicake, hence the similarities. The other two pedals I have are more expensive: The DOD mini expression pedal, which feels better to the feet and seems more durable, despite its internal plastic gears, and the full-sized Moog expression pedal. The latter two have more expression pedal options, but both lack native volume control. ...So the Sonicake and Valeton have a leg up in that regard.So, that's why this is a five star pedal. BROWN!

I have become very interested in the small style effect pedals because for my main effects rig, its overcrowded and I need to look for the compact options whenever possible, and for my more portable grab-and-go options, I also need something that doesn't take a lot of space in a bag.Whether this pedal is right for you depends on what you mainly want it for, what other equipment you have, and the size of your foot or what you wear while performing.1. I love the small size and the sturdy, but lightweight plastic material. I weigh over 170 pounds and can put my full weight on the pedal without it breaking. I don't know if it would be a good option for someone they weighed twice as much. I also either play barefoot or with athletic shoes, so the small size works well, but I don't now how easy it would be to use if someone were wearing cowboy boots, combat boots, dress shoes (basically anything with a raised heel) or wore a larger size shoe. If the pedal is on a raised pedalboard, it might be more flexible for where you put your foot on it. But if it's on the floor, I need to line the heel of my foot up with the part of the pedal closet to me. If I line my toes up on the farthest end, and the pedal is on the floor, my heel will hit the ground before I can rock the pedal fully backwards. This may take some getting used to if you have been using a full size volume pedal, like the kind from Ernie Ball or Morley. I have an Ernie Ball Jr. and it's a good pedal, but the size is the main reason I'm interested in alternatives. And it weighs a lot more too. I haven't had the pedal for very long, so I can't comment on long-term durability. The package doesn't list warranty information and I don't see any warranty info on the amazon page for this product either. I've already taken mine apart and spray painted it with Rustoleum because I wanted it to be a different color, so I'm sure that voided any possible warranty.2. Regarding the volume sweep, it is limited compared to the Ernie Ball Junior. What I mean is, the EB Jr pedal has a wider transition range between no volume and full volume. But, there are some other considerations. The Vexpress can do volume swells, IF there is no noise gate being used after the pedal. For example, from Vexpress to distortion pedal to noise gate, the problem is that the noise gate would prevent the quieter sound from coming through and make it more like an on/off effect rather than a volume swell. One work around (other than not using a noise gate) would be to put the Vexpress volume pedal AFTER the gate (guitar>distortion>noise gate>Vexpress). This issue still exists somewhat even with the EB Jr, but because it was a wider range for the sweep, it is not quite as extreme regarding the on/off effect. I wold say the Vexpress is just slightly below the level of control for volume sweeps as using the volume knob on the guitar, but you have the advantage of being able to do it with you foot. By comparison, I would say the EB Jr is slightly above the level of control of a guitar volume knob. In summary, I can do volume swells with it, and for faster swells (1 second or less), it's no problem at all, as long as there is no noise gate after. If I needed to do slower volume swells or wanted to use the pedal as way to control guitar volume for overdrive tone, then I would feel like this Vexpress was too much of a compromise.3. Fully passive pedal is nice, requires no battery. Unless you are using really long guitar cables (for example, using a 20 foot cable going to the pedal input, and then another 20 foot cable from the pedal output to an amp), you shouldn't notice any change to your tone at all when the pedal is at full volume.4. As an expression pedal, I think that might depend on your equipment. I have a fuzz pedal that has an expression pedal input. This pedal did technically work, but it wasn't a good match for it. The full range of motion for the pedal was less than 1/4 of a turn on the pedal knob. I see this Vexpress pedal is rated as 10k Ohms when used as an expression pedal, but the guide for the fuzz pedal says to use a 100k Ohms expression pedal with it. I don't have a 100k Ohms expression pedal, so I can't compare, but I did try hooking up another expression pedal (Nektar) that works great with my Headrush, and it functioned exactly the same way as the Vexpress did. That leads me to believe this is a compatibility issue. With sophisticated multi-effect units like the Headrush or TC Electronic Plethora X5 (and most other mid to high budget options), there is an expression pedal calibration function. So for that use, as long as you have the proper TRS connection cable, it should be perfectly useable.

materials are good for such an inexpensive pedal; metal housing is a big plus. That said, a misaligned rubber pad on the heel side of the petal kept it from closing all the way, so I nudged that with a pokey stick to get it to align with the depression it's supposed to fit into. Even after that, the gearing inside didn't close the pot all the way for absolute silence with the heel fully depressed, so I got a lil' screwdriver and opened it up, popped the gear off, twisted the pot axle, and put the gear back on. All said, twenty minutes of tuning to get this thing to work as expected and desired, but it took some attention out of the box.For the cost, I'm not mad, but I figure having to do any of that makes this a 4-star product (because someone less willing to mess with it would have just sent it back).

Functions OK....But ...to small for me and the Volume Range is very narrow. Meaning not a lot of UP and DOWN room on the pedal. But for the price is a very good deal. RETURNING FOR A BETTER MORE EXSPENSIVE ONE WITH AN ACTUAL VOLUME POT BUILT INTO IT.

Pleasantly pleased with this volume pedal. My Ernie ball junior pedals which I love, keeps failing me, and I just needed a simple small volume pedal for my DI box so I can change between my acoustic and mandolin quietly. This thing does the job nicely. And I gig and travel regularly. Also it looks cool paired with my LR Baggs DI 🎸🤘 Also am able to ride the volume a bit while playing. Does the job!

Got the Vexpress, works as expected with spark x footswitch. Took 30 secs to get it working.

Fails to control volume smoothly out of the box. It has effectively 3 volumes, full, half, and none with nothing in between. I intended to return it, but never got around to it. (Totally on me).

This is a great addition to my traveling pedalboard. Although it’s made of a hard plastic, it still feels relatively durable assuming you aren’t stomping on it. A few things to consider:1. If you are using it solely as a volume pedal, then you can use a normal TS patch cable which is what I’m doing.2. It is a shorter range of motion so expect the volume to adjust from 0-50% with the same range of motion as a higher end pedal which would go from 0-10%. This means you’ll have to finesse it more, move a little softer and you’ll be fine.By the way, shameless plug, I paired this pedal with the Valeton GP-5 and it replaced my main board for church gigs making it way more convenient and super fun to use. My main board is the last pic and this mini combo gives me just about all the same tones. Just dial in all your favorite patches and you’re set.

Bien compacto y con un recorrido proporcional. Muy conforme.

Excelente, comodo y bonitoSu tamaño lo hace bastante cómodo de usar y llevar, este primero lo uso para el volumen general de mi pedalboard, y todo "ok"Seguro más adelante adquiera uno más para uso de expresión en otros pedales 👌🏼

funktioniert einwandfrei

Formidable pédale au rapport qualité prix imbattable. Ca à l'air d'un gadget a première vue mais pas du tout ! De petite taille mais on s'y fait très vite. La course est très précise. Je l'utilise avec l'Ampero 2 Stage. Je recommande.

Works perfectly. It's the same as the valeton surge 2. I have them both. Ifentical, Great