Good quality volume pedal

[guitarman2]

So lets hear the picks for a good quality volume pedal. I'm looking for a very smooth action, simple volume pedal for doing nice swell pedal steel licks and other volume effects. I want something that does not color or effect the tone negatively in any way. I had an Ernie Ball Jr that was ok but not long after having it started to slip and just wasn't the greatest quality.

[iaresee]

Goodrich (http://www.pedalgeek.com/cgi-bin/new_shop.cgi?command=link--gr) get high praise. Lots of different options. Personally I've never touched one. EB Jrs are fine, easy to fix, all I've ever needed from a volume pedal.

[Mooh]

For years I happily used a George Dennis volume/wah, but have dealt it. Am wanting the "Dunlop EW-95V Mister Crybaby Super Volume Wah" as it gives a volume range from 0 to +16dB. As a fan of Crybaby products, it seems like it should be a fit for me.

Peace, Mooh.

[Teleplucker]

Goodrich (http://www.pedalgeek.com/cgi-bin/new_shop.cgi?command=link--gr) get high praise. Lots of different options. Personally I've never touched one. EB Jrs are fine, easy to fix, all I've ever needed from a volume pedal.

I have the 10K, active model. It's great. I have no idea how it affects my tone, if at all. Obviously, it's not noticeable to me (but, I'm not as picky as some people, so who knows...).

[Milkman]

I've usd Ernie Bal, DeArmond, Boss and Morley.

For my tastes, the Morleys have always been the best.

The old ones were rather large but that has been corrected with later models.

They use a photocell instead of rack and pinion driven pot or in the case of the Ernie Ball, a string and pulley driven pot. The Morleys are SUPER smooth for swells and they don't alter your sound at all. There's also a minimum volume pot so you can use them for solo boost if you like, by setting the minimum volume at rythm level. Toe down get's you to lead level.


Nice.

[Mooh]

Milkman...I forgot about the Morley. Think mine didn't stop until it was crushed or something. Good gear.

My first volume pedal was a John Bellone's (a London music store) badged one which I got back in the mid '70s for a Fender lapsteel and to make Roy Buchanan swells easier on any electric. I wonder where it is now, LOL!

Fwiw, a volume pedal at the end of any pedal chain is a good idea.

Peace, Mooh.

[sense_of_henry]

I have an EB VP Jr. that I like a lot. It is more compact than many volume pedals. The Boss FV-500 pedals look cool too but I have never tried one. Good on Boss to make the cases out of aluminum instead of plastic.

[Dabluz]

I also like the old Morley pedals. I've had a few and they all worked great. The one I am using now is an old VBO (volume boost). It works on 115 volts AC so it is very quiet. When I depress the boost button, I get lots of overdrive. There is a boost intensity button on the side of the pedal.

[ben_allison]

Well, a passive pedal makes the most sense to me... it's just a pot and some wire. Minimal interference with your signal.

I like the Ernie Ball pedals. They feel right and are built well.

Now, going from the guitar straight into a passive pedal is going to add load to your signal. That means, rolled off highs and a loss of sparkle.

Placing the volume pedal after a buffer will eliminate this problem.

Why spend $300-400 on a volume when you could spend around $100 on a great vol pedal, then choose whatever buffer you want?

If you have a Boss on your board, you already have a pedal with a totally acceptable buffer in it!

[mhammer]

There are a few things to consider when getting a volume pedal:

1) As noted above, FEEL is important. You want the thing to express the way your voice would (although some players just use VPs to turn things off and on rather than using them in an expressive way like they use a wah). Part of that is the taper of the volume adjustment, and part is the physical resistance the treadle mechanism poses on your foot. It should be smooth and fight back juuuust a little. But ultimately, if you want to work that sucker, it has to feel right for YOUR foot.

2) Range of adjustment. In order to avoid breaking any pot installed in it, most foot-operated pedals only cover the middle 80% or so of the pot's rotation, staying clear of the 10% or so at each end. As noted, some folks use volume pedals to go dead silent, and some use them to adjust overall volume in a songwise way rather than in a note-to-note manner (like pinky swell). The pedal needs to be able to achieve the range of volume adjustment you require.

3) Noise. You cannot work a pot, even a fancy-schmancy big-bucks sealed one, back and forth a few thousand times without rubbing off some of the composite resistive strip inside. What you rub off has two consequences: a) it increases the gap between the movable contact and the resistive strip, creating intermittent contact, and b) it creates teeny piles of residue inside that create little "speed bumps" along the resistive strip thaùt also introduce intermittent contact. Both of these produce the legendary "scratchy" pots. The scratchiness can be avoided in a few ways. One is to use a mechanism that applies pressure to the pot shaft in a smooth way that minimizes stress (à la Ernie Ball). Another is to use something to substitute for a pot, like a photocell, à la Goodyear and Morley. How you illuminate the photocell can vary, from a physical "shutter" like Morley has used, to an LED or bulb whose illumination varies. Other approaches can use a variable gain cell (a transconductance amplifier similar to that used in compressors/limiters) and have the pot adjust the gain. This method does not run the audio through the pot. The pot itself only controls the gain cell and whatever noisiness it acquires over time will not show up in the audio. Of the two latter methods, gain cells have a little more hiss than photocells.

4) In/out impedance. Volume pedals are used in a lot of different contexts. Many of them were originally intended to be used with keyboards, so they have input and output impedances that anticipate what normally occurs in that context. While a 50k or 100k pot will load down your guitar, it will have much less impact on a keyboard output. For a fully passive system, guitar "wants" as high a pot value as you can find in order to minimize loading; 500k-1M are good. At the same time, that poses some loading as you go from full volume to some attenuation. At that point, you really want something in between the volume pedal and amp (or next thing in line) that buffers the pot and "protects" the next device in line from loading. On the other hand, some may find that the loading effect allows the swell to not only become louder but brighter as well, accentuating the perceived swell.


Bottom line: The most (long-term) noise-free volume pedals that preserve full bandwidth will generally be active pedals, however some active pedals can be noisier than an appropriately chosen passive one. Depending on the player, and their usage of the volume pedal, a passive one may be completely sufficient, or they may prefer to trade off noise against feel and select a passive pedal for that reason.

[iaresee]

Bottom line: The most (long-term) noise-free volume pedals that preserve full bandwidth will generally be active pedals, however some active pedals can be noisier than an appropriately chosen passive one. Depending on the player, and their usage of the volume pedal, a passive one may be completely sufficient, or they may prefer to trade off noise against feel and select a passive pedal for that reason.
Mark, in an active volume pedal is it more common to place the buffer on the input or output side of the pedal? Or both?

[guitarman2]

Since I will be using the volume pedal for purposes much like pedal steel players I wonder if its advantageous for me to use the same volume pedal they do. According to Al Brisco http://www.steelguitarcanada.com/ the volume pedal of choice for pedal steel players is the Goodrich pedal.

[iaresee]

Since I will be using the volume pedal for purposes much like pedal steel players I wonder if its advantageous for me to use the same volume pedal they do. According to Al Brisco http://www.steelguitarcanada.com/ the volume pedal of choice for pedal steel players is the Goodrich pedal.
An active Goodrich pedal is suppose to be a wonderful thing. It'll help you keep your high end intact in your signal chain as well as let you adjust your volume. I think you would be remiss to not try one out if what you're after is a pedal steel type experience.

[mhammer]

Mark, in an active volume pedal is it more common to place the buffer on the input or output side of the pedal? Or both?

My sense is that it is common for the "control element", whether that be OTA or photocell, to be placed between both input and output buffers.

In the case of the OTA, it normally requires some signal conditioning. In the case of the photocell, it helps to maintain a constant impedance.

[rippinglickfest]

So lets hear the picks for a good quality volume pedal. I'm looking for a very smooth action, simple volume pedal for doing nice swell pedal steel licks and other volume effects. I want something that does not color or effect the tone negatively in any way. I had an Ernie Ball Jr that was ok but not long after having it started to slip and just wasn't the greatest quality.

I find that hard to believe..........unless the quality control at Ernie Ball has slipped. I've had the same Ernie Ball volume pedal since the mid eighties and its still kicking, only now is the pot starting to get a little noisy.
Not bad for 20 plus years.

[guitarman2]

I find that hard to believe..........unless the quality control at Ernie Ball has slipped. I've had the same Ernie Ball volume pedal since the mid eighties and its still kicking, only now is the pot starting to get a little noisy.
Not bad for 20 plus years.

Can't say if the quality of Ernie Ball has slipped as I don't have much experience with the company. All I know is the Ernie Ball pedal I had sucked in the quality department and I don't have the patience to try another. Chances are that your 20 year old Ernie Ball pedal was of much higher quality than the Ernie Balls of today as that seems to be the case for just about everything. I've gone botique with my amps and pedals and am having excellent luck with quality, customer service and reliability. It seems you have to spend the money to get the quality of yesteryear.

[Datsyuk]

http://www.hiltonelectronics.com/standardpedal.html

http://www.gregcutshaw.com/Hilton/Hilton.html