Taking a Hack-saw to an FCB1010

02/05/2017

https://www.dropbox.com/s/86kkf1ezc03c6pt/2016-10-26%2012.37.20%20-%20Copy.jpg?raw=1

Taking the pedals off a FCB1010 with a hacksaw.

There are many midi footpedals on the market, but none perhaps as both robust and cheap as the FCB1010.

There are many forums online dedicated to this footpedal and even custom EPROM chips you can buy to customize it’s function. The programming of this pedal is an article in itself so I will write another soon, about that.

What I did realize quite quickly is that the pedals that came on my unit were not very good. I have heard there is some variability, and if you are lucky, your pedals are actually useable. My issue with them was that they hardly had any range and the range they had was not fully responsive. Anyway, I decided that I would chop them off.

After commiting to this, you look inside the machine and take the pedals off (abel the wires in case you want to later install jacks for external foot pedals) you will see the following:

From the far left is the power socket (like a printer power cable), power switch, transformer.

From some reading online I found that the transformer steps down to 9V and then a diode array converts it to DC. So why not just use a guitar pedal power supply?

The two yellow wires go to the diode array. You can use a center positive or a center negative 9V DC power supply. Just like a guitar pedal would. So you can just rip out the power socket, switch and transformer. I installed a small guitar pedal power jack, and wired it up (polarity doesnt matter due to diode array).

Then comes the long task of hacksawing through the aluminium chassis while trying to maintain a straight line.

I always thought the black plastic cheeks of the unit were unnecesarily bulky and ugly so I decided to try and carve some wooden cheeks.

It took a long time also, and my fit up wasn’t great but I was happy with it.

It has run on a guitar pedal power supply ever since! I have never had it be underpowered, even when daisy chaining. Its much more compact and lighter.

I ended up buying another and did the same. Which I then sold, but while I used it I never had any problems, and the buyer left a nice review and have not heard from him since.