advice fixing exp/wah pedal on GT-5

[onyaw]

Dear experts,

Boss pedal newbie here. I got my hands on a used GT-5 guitar processor. It works well except for the physical pedal itself (no expression control or pedal-wah, although the auto-wah functions work). It doesn't look like there is a hard on/off switch for it, it seems to be all in the programming - is that correct?

I'm not ready to tear it apart yet and want to know what I'm in for, if possible before I try or decide to take it to someone. What am I looking at for repair here - is it likely to be a connectivity issue (the pedal's potentiometer or wire) or might it be on the board. Hoping for the former. Does someone have a picture of what it should look like inside and a source for parts that might need replacing?

Thx much!

[chromandre]

Dear experts,

Boss pedal newbie here. I got my hands on a used GT-5 guitar processor. It works well except for the physical pedal itself (no expression control or pedal-wah, although the auto-wah functions work). It doesn't look like there is a hard on/off switch for it, it seems to be all in the programming - is that correct?

I'm not ready to tear it apart yet and want to know what I'm in for, if possible before I try or decide to take it to someone. What am I looking at for repair here - is it likely to be a connectivity issue (the pedal's potentiometer or wire) or might it be on the board. Hoping for the former. Does someone have a picture of what it should look like inside and a source for parts that might need replacing?

Thx much!

congrats! I am a HUGE GT-5 fan I can share more info

You are correct the expression pedal is programmable, does not have a footswitch but I think if you select WAH* it should autopopulate the parameters to automatically engage the expression pedal.

*also try turning on FX2, scroll through "quick settings" until you get what is supposed to be a whammy patch OCT-1 or OCT+1, that should have auto assigned the expression pedal.


If your expression pedal is not working, there is a calibration procedure WARNING, this might erase user patches!

Power Off: Turn the GT-5 off
Enter Calibration Mode: Hold down the PEDAL ASSIGN and NAME buttons simultaneously while turning the power back on
Select Parameter: Press the PARAMETER right ( > ) button repeatedly until "17. CALIBRATE EXP" appears on the screen
Calibrate Heel: Move the expression pedal all the way back to the heel-down position
Press WRITE
Calibrate Toe: Move the expression pedal all the way forward to the toe-down position
Press WRITE
Reboot: Turn the power off, then back on again to resume normal operation.

if its still not working and you really think the pot needs to be replaced, the service manual part # for the pot that goes in the expression pedal is as follows:

# 01016167 RK11K1140(10K SP B) 10Kx1 VR2 on EXВ.

I believe that bolded number is all you need to find it on mouser.com etc. I replaced the pot in one of my GT-5 but I dont think it was exactly 10K, it still works but it never fully calibrated. Next time I will order maybe 3 and choose thepot that is closest to exactly 10k.

While youre at it I've found the expression pedal system was actually missing a washer that makes it work better and prevents eventually breaking the pot:
http://www.bossareaforum.com/Forum/view ... ?f=6&t=577

And then lastly the rotary encoder on the jog wheel tends to get sticky, I found it comes 100% back to life if you take the knob off, spray deoxit into the shaft and work it in, it takes a bit more effort than a normal pot but it will get in there and start working again.

Aside from that the whole system is rock solid and the sounds are so good I didnt see any reason to upgrade to any of the newer GTs!

[onyaw]

Thanks for your help and encouragement.

Pressing the 'Wah' button and turning it to P1 on doesn't result in the pedal working. I had tried that unless by "Select WAH*" and have it autopopulate you mean something else.

I'm also not sure about FX2. Google AI said to press "Master" and then "Parameters" but i don't see a "quick settings" thing when i do that. I get to "effects chain" and no whammy patch OCT-1 or OCT+2. How do I get to FX2 to do this?

I just edited some patches so i'd rather not do that step if i can get through the above with success. But obviously that would be what i try next if above doesn't work.

Thx again!

[onyaw]

what i meant is i'll try the calibration after i'm sure i've found 'quick settings' selection in FX2

[onyaw]

Hi again,

I was brave and I did the recalibration and it worked like a charm, now the pedal works and also it didn't erase any of the pedal assignments I had just done.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

[chromandre]

Hi again,

I was brave and I did the recalibration and it worked like a charm, now the pedal works and also it didn't erase any of the pedal assignments I had just done.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Nice! Glad I could help. enjoy the GT5 it has a lot of fun features

[BearBoy]

Welcome to the forum Onyaw, and glad you got it sorted

[The_Doc]

Welcome Onyaw and I’m really pleased that the problem is fixed. I’m also a GT-5 user.

Chromandre - going back to the jog wheel - is it possible to remove the knob to spray detox it into it without taking the whole chassis apart? I don’t want to try and force it off and break it. Thanks.

[onyaw]

I also have another question about the GT-5 and using patches live.

Is there a quick way to switch (by foot) from a patch (and back) in group 1 to another (say, in group 2) quickly in a live setting, i.e. without bending over and pressing "group" with your finger?

[chromandre]

I also have another question about the GT-5 and using patches live.

Is there a quick way to switch (by foot) from a patch (and back) in group 1 to another (say, in group 2) quickly in a live setting, i.e. without bending over and pressing "group" with your finger?

In short, yes. It is likely possible I think the easiest way to accomplish is with an external footswitch like FS6 and then use global setting to assign it to increase/decrease "group" #

if I may suggest possibly more feasible options. GT5 "group" is a collection of 5 "banks" which is a collection of 5 patches. I think it would be more manageable to simply copy your favorite patches into a single user bank, which would mean you can use the on board B pedal system. What I do personally, is fully taken advantage of "assigns" page, I can almost always get 1 patch to do 1 entire song(with single taps which makes it a little easier to be the singer of the band too!) . there exists "manual" mode, which makes every pedal represent a selectable individual effect block. hypothetically is a powerful feature but I personally in a performance setting could never truly get my brain to truly remember what the switches actually represent in that scenario!