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Friday Product Post: Pedal to the Metal!
Let's rock with the new SparkFun Proto Pedal guitar pedal and some cool revisions!
Hello, and welcome to another Friday Product Post! Even though we are still recovering from the Autonomous Vehicle Competition (AVC), we have quite the week for you. Four new products await your anticipating eyes, two of which should really make the music lover fall in love. This week we are pleased to release the new SparkFun Proto Pedal, a custom metal enclosure for it, and two new board revisions that have been fixed on your recommendation! Let's watch the video for a closer look!
For those about to rock, we salute you.
The SparkFun Proto Pedal is an easy-to-assemble kit that makes building guitar effect pedals easier. Let's face it; most guitar pedals start with all-too-similar circuitry – you need the input and output jacks, the bypass switch, and a barrel jack for power input. In some pedals, there may be as much wiring involved in the jacks and switch as there is in the effect itself. The SparkFun Proto Pedal takes care of the hard part and provides you with a simple infrastructure; all you need to do is decide what simple circuit to make to gain your desired effect, and you'll be ready to rock!
If you don't want to make your own enclosure for your Proto Pedal, we've got you covered! The Proto Pedal Enclosure is a custom-machined aluminum case designed specifically for the SparkFun Proto Pedal. This enclosure was designed to take a beating even under the hardest jam sessions.
We've written some really great tutorials on how to set up your Proto Pedal, create custom effect circuits, and even add a Teensy to one. Make sure to check them all out!
Moving away from audio boards, we have the new LilyPad Coin Cell Battery Holder. After receiving constructive feedback about the actual coin cell connector on this board popping off, we have solved the problem with this revision!
Last up today is the SparkFun FT231X Breakout. With a similar revision to the LilyPad board above, the FT231X Breakout is equipped with a new micro USB port to ensure that we can manufacture these at a more rapid pace to meet their high demand.
Alright folks, that's it for today. We really hope you enjoy all the new products that have been made available. If you come up with any awesome custom effect circuits for the Proto Pedal, let us know! We'd love to hear from you. Until next Friday... see you then!
Isn't the button a little small for a foot pedal? Compare with pedals like http://www.airturn.com/bluetooth-pedals or http://www.guitarcenter.com/Moog/EP-3-Universal-Expression-Pedal.gc
I see that some guitar effects pedals do just use a small switch like the one here. Guitar players, how well does that work, compared to the bigger pedals?
That's a great question. I'm a guitarist with 27 years of experience.
The first 3 seconds of that video show a great collection of classic and modern pedals. If you pause that part, you’ll see the vast majority use the same type of bypass switch that comes with the Proto Pedal. This is super common for guitar pedals, and many prefer these for live performances. It's easy to tell when you've clicked that heavy switch under your shoe to know the effect is on/off, which can be difficult with different switches…and different shoes for that matter.
The expression pedals are typically used to adjust your volume or sweep through a value of the effect, like to vary the frequency on your envelope filter, or change the length of a delay's feedback. While some of them still use the same small switch under the pedal as a bypass, its larger design facilitates the sweeping motion needed to achieve the desired effect. My "wah" pedal has this sort of design. They are used for a slightly different purpose than bypass.
Your other example looks useful in the right situation, like a home studio. However, for live performance, I much prefer the tactile click and durability of the small bypass switch.
My $.02. I hope it helps.