I was wondering if anyone has ever seen a pedal that operates similar to a pitch wheel on a keyboard where it would return back to a neutral position, allowing for pitch bending both up and down while easily maintaining a center pitch? Been looking and googling but have yet to find anything...

 

There just doesn't seem to be anything out there. I think some synths will let you assign pitch to a MIDI pedal, but I can't find anything with a center detent.

 

Weird huh?

 

It's a hands driven world...

maybe going DIY with this
http://store.highlyliquid.com/collections/midi-controllers/products/midi-cpu
and a single axis joysick...
maybe...

my point is: instead of going up and down with the pedal (it would be complex to bring the pedal back in position)
why not left or right

 

I don't think it would be hard at all to bring the pedal back to a central position using springs, it would definitely require a lot of effort to work the pedal, but I think that would actually be kind of cool like how a whammy bar actually takes work and gives you a much better feel, whereas the pitch wheel is just almost too easy