Keyboard sustain pedals

[ozzynotwood]

I need to purchase a sustain pedal for the Yamaha MX49 that's on order. I have 2 options for the sustain pedal:

FC3: Piano-style sustain pedal ($100AU)
FC4A: A sustain pedal with the same feel as the pedal on an acoustic piano ($80AU)

Is there any reason why the FC4A costs less? It's seems to me the FC4A would be the better and cost Yamaha more to make. Can somebody explain this to me?

Thanks!

 

[SeaGtGruff]

US prices on Amazon.com:

FC3 = $50 + $9 shipping
FC3A = $36 + $5.50 shipping

FC4 = $39 + $0 shipping
FC4A = $29 + $0 shipping

As far as a I can tell from the descriptions at Amazon.com, the FC3 is about two years older than the FC4 (2004 vs. 2006), and has a continuous zone that lets you get varying degrees of sustain depending on how far you depress the pedal. It isn't clear from the description whether the FC4 is also a continuous controller.

The FC3A and FC4A are newer items (2015 and 2014, respectively), and differ from the FC3 and FC4 in that they are assignable-- apparently that's what the "A" stands for. The FC3A has half-pedal capability, which sounds like it might not recognize as many varying degrees of sustain. Again, the description for the FC4A doesn't mention anything about half-pedal capability.

So I'd guess that the FC3 pedal would be the best choice if you want a pedal that lets you get several different levels of sustain, whereas the FC4A would be best if you just need a simple on/off sustain pedal that can also be used to toggle other functions on/off.