Home > Consumer Reviews > Yamaha FC-5 Sustain Pedal for Portable Electronic Keyboards

Growing up with an acoustic piano, I was uncomfortable with how the FC-5 Sustain Pedal felt. For me to tell when I was pressing the pedal or not, I had to take my shoes off. Unwilling to be an environmental hazard, I decided to purchase a pedal that has the feel of an acoustic piano's pedal. (Much better than buying that yellow tape to surround myself with...)

If you are looking for the feel of an acoustic piano's pedal, I would recommend the FC-4. Or if you want the same feel with a pedal that can do more than just sustain, I'd recommend the FC-3.

The people who said this pedal works the opposite of a normal sustain pedal may not know that the keyboard has to be turned OFF when the pedal is plugged in. This pedal works fine for me, though it slides a bit on carpet. This does not have the feel of a regular piano pedal, but I'm quite happy with it, for what it is.

I'm new to keyboards and am still trying to make my hands work together. The melody is coming along fine with my right hand but integrating chords with my left sounded choppy so I thought it might sound better with a sustain pedal. My music is a little better but the pedal itself works great. I read the comments about it working backwards and tried some experiments. If the keyboard is powered off when you plug in the sustain pedal it will work just fine, but if it has power to the keyboard when you plug it in then it will work backwards. To fix it just turn the power off and on again.
The pedal causes the sound to die away over 3-4 seconds with the peddal pushed and if you release it early it will shut the sound off early. My keyboard has a very good piano sound when set to Grand Piano and with the sustained sound it doesn't loose any of that piano sound.
The peddle itself looks fairly well constructed especially considering it's low price. I've only had it a few weeks so I can't speak about how well it will stand up to repeated use. It seems good enough for someone who wants to play for their own enjoyment and maybe a few friends.

I have owned this pedal for a VERY long time and had it through some very abusive situations and it has held up very well. (the pedals I recently purchased are add-ons for new gear) the origunal pedal still works fine.

This is a bargain and certainly fills the bill for me. I am not looking for top of the line and certainly would not expect such for this price. Thus, if I need a more realistic feel or whatever, I would expect to pay more. But for the average person, this will work fine and there is no reason to be afraid of it. It does what it says it is supposed to do and "feel" is really just what you get used to. Get used to this and I am sure you will appreciate the bargain.