Expression pedals: Mission EP-25K vs Ernie Ball VP JR 25K for TimeFactor

[babymicrobe]

I know there have been plenty of discussions about this, but I recently bought both of these pedals, which are probably the most recommended to use with the TimeFactor and I wanted to share a few observations.

 

The Mission Engineering pedal is very heavy and being based on a wha pedal design it has a rather short throw. I find that making fine adjustmets is very difficult with it, even after a throrough pedal calibration.

Also, the Mission wants to see a TRS cable whist the TimeFactor wants a TS cable. Using a TRS cable does work, but I got best results when I snipped off one of the wires on both ends.

I must say that the Mission can not be considered to be a plug and play solution. The short throw might be ok for some, but for others, including me, it’s a major hindrance which makes it quite useless for fine control. Also the fact that to work at its bets it needs a custom cable is less than ideal

A good thing about the Mission is that it has two outputs. I kept it and I’m using it to control The Red Panda Particle and EHX Pitch Fork, with which it works like a charm.

 

The Earnie Ball is much more ergonomic, with a nice long throw that allows very fine adjustment.  Being a volume pedal, it used a TS cable, so operation is plug and play with the TimeFactor. They work beutifully together.

The downside of the EB is that it is, according to many online reports, prone to breakage of the string that drives the 25k pot, to the point the Ernie Ball sell a replacement kit which, from what I read, is a nighmare to fit. Time will tell.

If you are looking for an expression pedal that will work flawlessly with the TimeFacor, allowing very fine control of it’s settings with no hassle, buy the Ernie Ball – no question. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Given To Fly]

Thank you for sharing! As I currently have a “half taken apart” EB 25K Volume Pedal with a broken string sitting next to me, I was hoping Mission Engineering would be the ultimate solution. It seems Aux. Switches are easy to manufacture but expression pedals really have companies stumped. 

[nickrose]

The very latest Mission pedal appears to work with H9, and it has the nice feature that you can plug a switch into it and connect a TRS cable to H9.

The older ones are really volume pedals rather than expression, so to avoid the dread 0-100-0, you'll need to snip the ring wire off the jack.

We like the Ernie Ball. I've changed the string in five minutes (but you need their kit).

 

[Given To Fly]

Good to know! However, I still feel Eventide would do quite well designing their own accessories and outsourcing them to companies like you are doing with Cioks. I appreciate the fact you designed your Stompboxes to work well with other pieces of gear that are relatively inexpensive, but knowing an accessory will work because the Eventide logo is on it is worth quite a bit. I had to return an expression pedal because it was not working properly with my Factor pedals. Expression pedals are one of the hardest products to return because no one believes you when say “it doesn’t work properly with this particular pedal.” Oh well…Sculpt is really cool by the way!  

[babymicrobe]

Yes an Ernie Ball built, Eventide branded expression pedal would be a great idea. Incidentally, the Cioks DC10 I’m using to power my board works well with the TimeFactor.

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