We got a Yamaha DGX-230 and the FC4 floor pedal for Christmas. My son recently started lessons, and he and my wife reported that when they tried to use the FC4, it didn't work, and they had disconnected it.
I plugged it in and tried it, and indeed, it was backwards. When it wasn't pressed, it sustained. When it was pressed, it didn't. There was no polarity or mode switch.
However, after about 20 minutes of Googling, I found an online PDF of the model 220 owner's manual that contained this snippet:
"Make sure that the footswitch plug is properly connected to the SUSTAIN jack BEFORE turning on the power."
It turns out I hadn't bothered to turn off the DGX-230 before plugging it in. When I followed the instructions, everything worked fine.
I also noted this caution as well:
"Do not press the footswitch while turning the power on. Doing this changes the recognized polarity of the footswitch, resulting in reversed footswitch operation."
So, although the FC4 apparently doesn't have a polarity switch, the DGX-230 can switch its OWN polarity.
Other models of course may work differently.
So far I'm quite pleased with both Yamaha products and I'm impressed with the thought Yamaha has put in to them. Yamaha FC4 Piano Style Foot Pedal
The sustain pedal that comes standard with the Yamaha electric pianos are definately lacking. There're small, light and don't feel quite right. The FC-4 has a good all around feel, more like a true piano pedal. It's also heavier and won't move around the floor while playing. Well worth the money.
I was happy with this pedal until it just stopped working one day, almost five months exactly from day I ordered it. It completely stopped sustaining notes, pressing on it had no effect. I checked over and over again to make sure it was plugged in and everything. I practice 30-45 minutes a day, I didn't use it every single day but pretty often. I'm disappointed, I thought it would last longer. Instead of ordering another one, I went with the M-Audio SP-2 which so far is working just fine. Hopefully I won't be on here again saying the same thing about that one.
I used to love, but now hate my Yamaha FC4 foot pedal. I use it with my DGX-500. I have it alongside an M-Audio SP-2 Professional Sustain pedal, and believe me, the two of them just don't complement each other.
I have used this pedal with my other keyboards, and found that it hardly replicates the functionality of a real piano pedal. Yamaha has an FC-3 which matches the SP-2, but the SP-2 is the most economical and best of the three.
If you have a keyboard that supports a pedal, this is the pedal you don't need. Don't squander your money on money hungry Yamaha. Get your hands on an M-Audio SP-2, and play your digital grand as a Steinway.
Shame on Yamaha for their pedals, M-Audio has them killed! I bought my SP-2 for $34. The FC-3 goes for $70. In a nutshell, you can get two M-Audio pedals for the price of one Yamaha.
I bought this pedal for a used Yamaha PSR-500 keyboard that I got at an auction. The pedal works fine with the keyboard, providing the ability to sustain the notes just like a regular piano pedal. I've had no problems with it at all.
Read this and you will save yourself a lot of potential frustration. On my son's Yamaha keyboard I learned that you must have the FC4 footpedal, and probably the FC3 as well, plugged in BEFORE you turn on the keyboard or the sustain is always on and will only go off when you press the keyboard (reverse of normal operation). We had originally purchased an FC3 foot pedal and returned it to amazon for this same problem. I read many of the FC3 reviews only to learn others had the same complaint. I'm sure the FC3 would work the same as the FC4 in this regard so we wasted a lot of time. All that being said, we are going to keep the FC4 as it meets my son's expectations for $25 less than the FC3. My understanding is the FC3 is more like a true piano sustain pedal in that it is variable, whereas the FC4 is on or off, which is all my son really wants.
My church's original Kurzweil sustain pedal finally gave up after many years of heavy use, so we turned to this pedal as a replacement.
It worked for about two weeks, then the staff began complaining of intermittent failures. Within another two weeks, it failed completely. We replaced it with a Roland DP-10 (awesome pedal, highly recommended), while the FC4 went on a shelf in the office.
Fast-forward several more months. Tinkerer that I am, I "rediscovered" it on the shelf, and removed the cover to examine it. It turns out that the pedal failed because one of the wiring connections had NO SOLDER at all... the twist in the bare wire was the only thing holding it together. I'm amazed it lasted as long as it did!
As a result, I really can't recommend this pedal for professional use. - Pedal Keyboard - Keyboard Pedal Sustain Switch - Keyboard Sustain Pedal - Pedals'
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