Received the unit this week. A significant improvement in all areas! The box is solid and of industrial quality and the added flexibility the 9v input offers is super! I hooked it up to my 3 Yamaha FC7s and one dual footswitch - and everything fell into place without user intervention or calibration...

I would not think a slide pot would work well for pitch bend. I have a couple of sensor strips bought from SparkFun. These are position sensitive variable resistors. Easy to mount and can be covered by cloth, plastic film or whatever. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8681 Support for these and any ...