Boss FV-500-H

I bought this pedal to help create ambient swells and take the job away from my volume control on the guitar.
I did a bit of research, and the main reason I bought this particular pedal was that there was no power supply required. I have a behringer expression pedal that I had some difficulty with, mainly due to having to buy a separate power supply because when I ran it off the Harley Benton Powerplant, it wasn't a happy camper at all.
Anyway, the FV-500-H got great reviews online as far as volume pedals go, and, like I say, no power supply required.
I didn't have any problem with it at all until I bought a BCB-60 pedal board, when I was disappointed to discover that it is that little bit too big to fit inside, even after removing the particular part that would allow for a wah pedal or some such. No big deal, as I would've had to evict more important pedals to allow for it anyway.
The FV-500 is reasonably heavy, quite sturdy, and feels just fine under foot. It is possible to adjust the overall feel and indeed even the volume range. Overall, I am quite happy with this purchase because it is of great quality and does exactly what it is supposed to do.

I bought this item as it was continually listed as the most solid / reliable of guitar volume pedals. I use it for ambient swells / home recording. First impression of the pedal is that it is very big & heavy & takes up a lot of room on a board. It doesn't require power, which is a plus. It is very easy to use, after a bit of practice. However, about 5-6 months after purchase it began to sound scratchy when engaged - something that showed up clearly on quieter recordings. I sent it for service - good response from Thomann / Boss. I got it back & it worked fine - again, until about 4 months of playing. It's been well taken care of, used indoors etc, but the issue with scratchy pots returned. From what I've researched, it seems difficult to open this pedal / clean it myself. I would recommend investing a bit more for something reliable.

This is definatly one of the better expression/volume pedals on the market for an affordable price, it seems to be right in the middle of everything in terms of price range and for me it works perfectly. I use it with a moog delay as an expression pedal and it accents and manipulates the repetitions of the delay very accuratley sending the delays in subtle at the start to an almost endless cosmic dealy sound.There is a knob on the bottom left of the pedal that you can adjust to have the expression/volume control more or less sensitive.If your are going to use this guy as an expression pedal be sure to have a stereo jack to stereo jack cable, using a normal jack to jack the pedal will only funtion as a volume pedal. As a volume pedal it works great if you want to ad more volume at different sections of a song at a live gig or if your guitar is clean sounding you can sound like a violin. This pedal is passive too so you do not need to plug it in and its built to last.

This is my first volume pedal... After a long period of comparing volume pedals I decided to go for this one, and I am glad I did. I am still in the experimental fase, but for now I use it just after my guitar, to control the amount of gain going from a more or less clean tone until a raoring beast. That is where the control for minimum volume is very handy. This thing is build to last for a long musical relationship. One obstacle I encountered is that the tuner output is not accessible for angled connector cables (at least for mine...). I still have to integrate it into a pedal board, and I hope it is not too heavy... Anyways, this is one of the must have pedals and still for a reasonable price. Gain/volume control and still having your both hands available to play: it's a keeper

I bought this to use as an expression pedal with my TCG System.
It also has the advantage that it visually matches the theme.
Works well when connected with an insert cable using the Input & Output Jacks connected to a TRS jack. This gives a higher calibration range of 0-99 than using the TRS jack on the pedal which gives a significantly shorter range.
It also works well as an in-line volume pedal.
The unit is very solidly built & the min volume knob is a useful feature.
Also the pedal movement is adjustable.
It also has an ouptut for a tuner on the side. Rubber feet on the base are easily removed if you wish to attatch velcro to fix it to your pedal board as I did.

Reasonably priced and very well made. Aluminum construction means that it's a lot lighter than its size would suggest. Just be aware that it's a large pedal and takes up a lot of space on the pedalboard. Most importantly (for me at least), it has a nice taper that is excellent for doing volume swells, which is not the case with some other pedals. The torque is adjustable as well so you can dial in the 'feel' of the pedal to your liking. The only disadvantage I can think of is that it has a potentiometer inside, which, if you use the pedal frequently, will eventually wear out and will have to be replaced. Potentiometers are also notorious for developing unwanted crackling noises. There are pedals on the market (Morley etc.) that use a light sensor in place of a pot, but the one I tried had a different taper that was too abrupt for my purposes.

Pros: solid and very well made, nice sweep and range, adjustable resiatance.

Cons: Large and a bit heavy - actually the weight is probably more of a pro because the pedal tends to stay where you put it.

I really like the design of the pedal, it is a substantial piece of aluminium and I am sure the band could park the fully loaded transit van on it without harming the pedal at all. Rather than the more common 'rack and pinion' drive this uses a sort or swivelling lever which gives a wider range to the pedal which is nice as is being able to adjust how freely the pedal moves. Has tuner and expression bedap outs too so plenty of flexibility, just check the size if you want to put it on a pedalboard.