Guitar volume pedal

[JPGraphX]

Hi everyone,

I have some questions concerning Guitar volume pedal. I would like to buy one / or build one.

What are your experiences with volume pedal? I want one as transparent as possible and I want it to work well with a trainwreck express.

Does a volume pedal react like a guitar volume knob with the trainwreck? Does it get clean?

What are the pros/cons?

Thanks so much!
JP

[sliberty]

I have used the Morley Little Alligator. It worked well, pretty transparent, very smooth action, easy to get dependant on it. The minimum volume knob is very nice to have - so you can just pull the pedal all the way back without regard for fine tuning its position.

Any volume pedal should allow the amp to clean up as this is mainly due to the lower level presented at the input stage of the amp.

I mainly used it for Santana-like swells. I sold it a few years ago when I no longer had that need anymore.

Cons? Its big. Takes up a lot of room if you use a pedal board. I wasn't using one when I had this pedal. And it of course requires yet another power supply connector, or a battery. Not that big of a problem.

These days, I am back to just using the guitar volume for lead / rhythm settings.

[JPGraphX]

Cool thanks a lot for your feedback ! Appreciate it !

Anyone else?

[crbowman]

I play pedal steel as well as six string and I have a number of volume pedals.
The volume pedal is an integral part of any steel setup and therefore, must be pretty robust. Seems like the main pedals used by steel guys are made by Goodrich, and Hilton. They ain't cheap, but they're very solid and reliable.
Beyond that, you have the basic string/spring/ and pot pedals, and ones that rely on light sensitive photo resistors (and need some kind of power source).
There are also passive, and buffered options with these if you need impedance matching. The throw on these pedals can be a little different seeing as they are designed to be operated sitting down, but I personally haven't had a problem using these standing up with electric six string.
Ernie Ball makes a decent volume pedal that works well for six string and I have one of these as well, but I will say it's the only one I have that has ever failed on me.

[Leo_Gnardo]

The Ernie Ball pedals are tough all right but use a dial string to move a volume pot, and just like a wah pedal, that pot wears out over time. Being mister ten thumbs with dial string things, I've been able to fix some but not others, go figure. I fixed one for myself, that was a tour discard after it got soaking wet. Well I soaked a new Alpha pot with Caig DeOxit F, got it working and it's been A-OK for many years. I'd recommend putting a shot of DeOxit into the pot of a brand new one to extend the pot life anyway.

If you're lucky enough to have any wrecked wah pedals around, you could build your VP into one of those. I see Antique/CE now sell a wah pedal shell, cast aluminum or zinc by the looks, should be tough and possibly a housing for a home-built with any bells or whistles you may care to add.

[M Fowler]

There are a lot of choices such as Mission or build your own kits are available.

http://missionengineering.com/?product_ ... ume-pedals

[Structo]

I use a EB jr. volume pedal although I don't use it that much.

What I liked about it verses others, is it didn't load down the signal to the power amp.
Plus it wasn't scratchy after a few hours of use.

IOW, I have it at the beginning of my effects loop (dumbleator) so it doesn't change how my effects sound in the FX loop. (reverb, delay, chorus, etc)

[bruce egnater]

There is really no such thing as a totally transparent volume pedal. The pedal is basically a duplicate (depending on the pot value) of the volume pot in your guitar. Also, when you plug in the passive pedal, you are "loading" your guitar pickups etc. more than the amp alone, which will also affect the tone. These aren't necessarily bad things and may be worth the minimal tradeoff to have your volume controllable on the floor instead of on your guitar. If the pedal does have an adverse affect, you might consider and high quality buffer ahead of the pedal to basically isolate it from your guitar.

[LPC78wino]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PF4bE1H9Mg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZkHmnmQ_Wk



SIGNAL PATH
ML Signature Strat, ’65 Princeton Reverb, SM57 into API Mic Pre, PCM 60 Reverb

A MESSAGE FROM LANDAU
"Greetings Fellow Tone Seekers,

I would like to share with you some info about a new pedal that I helped design with Mason Marangella of Vertex Effects. I’ve always been in search of the perfect volume pedal, they are a necessary evil for some of us when we play live and also for recording. I’ve tried them all, and as you know, they all color and degrade the natural tone and feel of your guitar sound.

So a few years ago I asked Mason if he could modify an overdrive pedal of mine so I could control the level knob with an expression pedal in an effort to get rid of using a volume pedal, my though was that I would leave the overdrive on most of the time, it worked great but obviously I only had the volume control when the overdrive was on.

Mason suggested we do the same mod to a high quality, uncolored clean boost. By doing this, I could leave the boost pedal on all the time and use whatever overdrive and distortion pedals I desired in any combination. You can set the boost pedal to unity gain (which I prefer) or boost it as much as + 16db with the black trim knob. It works beautifully! You can now control your volume as you would using a volume pedal but without any of the sound degrading problems of a volume pedal. Since your guitar signal is isolated from the expression pedal, your sound stays open and full range and most importantly, it feels like your plugging straight into the amp, it has none of the “dull blanket over the guitar sound” that all volume pedals have. If you use a volume pedal, please give this boost volume setup a try, I hope it brings you tone happiness.

Cheers!

Michael Landau"

[bruce egnater]

This just said to essentially "buffer" the input to the pedal so all your guitar "sees" is the buffer.

[Teleguy61]

The classic setup for country guitar is guitar (vol pot full on) into compressor (Dynacomp or Boss or choice, set as you like) into volume pedal.
Then into everything else you use, pedals, amp, etc.
It works.