Volume Pedal Blues

[p90jr]

I have a couple of Ernie Ball VP whatevers I've had forever... I probably need to change the string and spring in them again and de-oxit the pots and maybe change a jack or two...

but what other choices are there these days? These are solid chunks of metal and kind of indestructable... but also heavy and big... do any of you use a volume pedal you like a lot with a nice taper?

I do faux pedal steel stuff with them, and use them with an eBow to kind of control the unpredictable nature of that device interacting with pickups... also like having them for if the level of a certain pedal or other is a big unexpected volume jump onstage so I can pull it back without stopping playing and do the bend over fiddle with knobs thing...

[KuruPrionz]

The only volume pedal I've used for some time now is part of a system - the Peavey Sanpera 1. It plugs into a Peavey Vypyr amp with a 7 pin MIDI type cable. 

Not what you are looking for probably. 

 

Dunlop makes a mini volume pedal, a friend has the mini Wah pedal. I tried that and liked it. Much smaller than a standard pedal but enough length to be accurate under foot. 

Morley makes a "potless" volume pedal, it's been a while since I used one but it worked well and seemed sturdy. Big ass piece of crap though, takes up too much space!

Boss has a volume pedal, it looks like it might be plastic but Boss has a good reputation with me, their stuff just doesn't seem to break unless smashed and even then sometimes it survives. 

 

Or as you say, you could just replace or clean worn parts in your current gear and keep on going. FWIW, unless they are badly bent I just roll up some 220 sandpaper, slip it into the jack holes and spin it around a few times to clean them. Has always worked with Switchcraft jacks. If you are going to replace, those are inexpensive even if you have to custom wire them to a circuit board. I've never looked inside an Ernie Ball pedal so I don't know what I'm talking about here... 😁

[Caevan O’Shite]

If you can find either of the following two volume-pedals, snag it!

(EDIT: I didn't mean to give you a bum steer here- a cursory search turns up NONE of these to be purchased! I apologize... )

(Paraphrased from something I posted a few years ago)

I own, and have been completely delighted with for a good thirteen years now (ESPECIALLY for only TEN BUCKS used!) an old Rockman RV-1 Volume (Michalík Design/Czech Republic, nothing to do with Tom Scholz' co. or products), which uses an optical circuit instead of a potentiometer. I have used it for volume-swells, fake "backwards recording" and "bowing" effects, and to clean-up and then kick-up tube-amps for that dynamic "play the amp" approach to varying from clean to mean to scream to "beam me up, Scotty". It's my favorite volume-pedal and unless I find a need for a passive volume-pedal, I don't imagine ever looking for another.

 

As you likely know, optical based designs will NOT get scratchy or static-y the way designs with potentiometers, "pots", can, do, and will. My RV-1 certainly has never exhibited any such scratchy static in thirteen years...

 

It is a VERY smooth, clean, quiet, transparent, unobtrusive volume-pedal, and it is fairly compact, as well, particularly for a volume-pedal. Taper is fantastic, I can do very, very rapid-fire volume-swells with it.

I used to have that exact same Ernie Ball volume pedal that Mark Knopfler was completely gonzo about, to the point that his tech bought-up all the remaining stock of now unobtainable pots that made it special to him... The Rockman RV-1 is better.

It is EXTREMELY sturdily built- heavy duty, I literally believe that I could pound nails with it.

Some bad news (that's really not so bad) is that it uses an oddball sized jack for external 9v power-supplies, which is also pin-positive. It wouldn't be too hard to replace the jack and reverse its polarity by one means or 'nother, but I simply used a 9v battery snap-cap adapter with a standard PS jack on the other end, fed through the hole where the oddball jack was, which is now taped-off and secured inside the case. Or, I could just use a battery.


 

 

Unfortunately- they are long since out of production as far as I know; aaannd- more unfortunately- as I type this, they seem pretty scarce. For years, they could be found for around thirty bucks...


Now, the current incarnation of that pedal is the Michalík Volume Mono Pedal, and should be of very high quality. I believe that it has a "normal" external PS jack and pin/center-negative polarity, but I do not know for certain.

If it's anything like the old Rockman RV-1 Volume pedal that I have, I'd highly recommend it to anyone that could use an active/powered volume-pedal! (It may or may not work well in front of vintage-style fuzzes, treble boosters, and the like.) I like my old RV-1 so much, that if I had to replace it and couldn't find one, I'd try to find and buy one of these.

 

 

[Winston Psmith]

I have an old Ibanez VL10, that I've used for 25+ years, maybe closer to 30?

 

Typical all-plastic construction - I've often wondered if there isn't one factory turning out all these generic Volume/Expression Pedals - however, there's a nice metal shaft driving the internal pot, instead of Ernie Ball's string. BTW, I've often read of broken strings in EB Volume Pedals, and considering the price of the EB pedals, I'm not favorably impressed.

 

I originally bought the VL10 because it doubled as a Pan pedal, letting me "glide" between signal chains or Amp rigs, even blending the sounds at the halfway mark. I really haven't seen another Stereo Volume Pedal that will let me Pan between the A and B I/O's, so I've hung on to my VL10, and taken good care of it. Still, I'd be interested to hear about any current Volume/Pan pedals, as well.

[Larryz]

P90, I too have had a couple of EB volume pedals (one for active one for passive). I made a different choice and just went with a small Boss Comp CP-1X for a clean boost with little or no compression.  I don't like standing on one leg like a stork to work cry babies, expression pedals, volume pedals, etc.  I like an on off volume boost so I don't have to use the guitar knobs and can leave my settings alone when changing volume for lead work.  On for leads and off back to normal for chords backing my vocals.  Since I'm playing more solo, I seldom need the clean boost these days as I can't let go of the chords. So my lead work is lacking the practice needed.  Having two volume settings is all I need after setting my amp/PA volume.  In your case, I hope you find a pedal that works well with the Ebow and all those knobs on the floor with a good taper. It will be interesting to see what is new out there that players are using these days.  Good hunting!  😎

 

[desertbluesman]

I tried a Dunlop Volume pedal about 10 years ago I think I sold it, or gave it to Good Will (I may even still have it somewhere).

 

After a bit, I decided to just use the volume controls on my guitars. I get better results with that method. I only used the Dunlop for my Gibson guitars because of the control placement. On the strat clone and homemade I just turn the things full up and only use the volume controls for Buchanan like swells. On my RG 321 Ibanez I turn the volume down about an eighth of a turn because it is much brighter than my other guitars, and that mitigates the trebles to a similar tone to my other 2 guitars.

[p90jr]

9 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

If you can find either of the following two volume-pedals, snag it!

(EDIT: I didn't mean to give you a bum steer here- a cursory search turns up NONE of these to be purchased! I apologize... )

(Paraphrased from something I posted a few years ago)

I own, and have been completely delighted with for a good thirteen years now (ESPECIALLY for only TEN BUCKS used!) an old Rockman RV-1 Volume (Michalík Design/Czech Republic, nothing to do with Tom Scholz' co. or products), which uses an optical circuit instead of a potentiometer. I have used it for volume-swells, fake "backwards recording" and "bowing" effects, and to clean-up and then kick-up tube-amps for that dynamic "play the amp" approach to varying from clean to mean to scream to "beam me up, Scotty". It's my favorite volume-pedal and unless I find a need for a passive volume-pedal, I don't imagine ever looking for another.

 

As you likely know, optical based designs will NOT get scratchy or static-y the way designs with potentiometers, "pots", can, do, and will. My RV-1 certainly has never exhibited any such scratchy static in thirteen years...

 

It is a VERY smooth, clean, quiet, transparent, unobtrusive volume-pedal, and it is fairly compact, as well, particularly for a volume-pedal. Taper is fantastic, I can do very, very rapid-fire volume-swells with it.

I used to have that exact same Ernie Ball volume pedal that Mark Knopfler was completely gonzo about, to the point that his tech bought-up all the remaining stock of now unobtainable pots that made it special to him... The Rockman RV-1 is better.

It is EXTREMELY sturdily built- heavy duty, I literally believe that I could pound nails with it.

Some bad news (that's really not so bad) is that it uses an oddball sized jack for external 9v power-supplies, which is also pin-positive. It wouldn't be too hard to replace the jack and reverse its polarity by one means or 'nother, but I simply used a 9v battery snap-cap adapter with a standard PS jack on the other end, fed through the hole where the oddball jack was, which is now taped-off and secured inside the case. Or, I could just use a battery.


 

 

Unfortunately- they are long since out of production as far as I know; aaannd- more unfortunately- as I type this, they seem pretty scarce. For years, they could be found for around thirty bucks...


Now, the current incarnation of that pedal is the Michalík Volume Mono Pedal, and should be of very high quality. I believe that it has a "normal" external PS jack and pin/center-negative polarity, but I do not know for certain.

If it's anything like the old Rockman RV-1 Volume pedal that I have, I'd highly recommend it to anyone that could use an active/powered volume-pedal! (It may or may not work well in front of vintage-style fuzzes, treble boosters, and the like.) I like my old RV-1 so much, that if I had to replace it and couldn't find one, I'd try to find and buy one of these.

 

 

Thanks Caeven... this actually is great info as I'm seeing other optical volume pedals to investigate.

[p90jr]

4 hours ago, Winston Psmith said:

I have an old Ibanez VL10, that I've used for 25+ years, maybe closer to 30?

 

Typical all-plastic construction - I've often wondered if there isn't one factory turning out all these generic Volume/Expression Pedals - however, there's a nice metal shaft driving the internal pot, instead of Ernie Ball's string. BTW, I've often read of broken strings in EB Volume Pedals, and considering the price of the EB pedals, I'm not favorably impressed.

 

I originally bought the VL10 because it doubled as a Pan pedal, letting me "glide" between signal chains or Amp rigs, even blending the sounds at the halfway mark. I really haven't seen another Stereo Volume Pedal that will let me Pan between the A and B I/O's, so I've hung on to my VL10, and taken good care of it. Still, I'd be interested to hear about any current Volume/Pan pedals, as well.

E Ball sells little kids to replace the string and spring for $10-20, I think (probably 4x what it costs to just find the same spring and string) and I bought a few of them years ago and had a friend swap them out on my pedals... stiull have a couple left somewhere... but yes, kind of a daft design...

[p90jr]

1 hour ago, Larryz said:

P90, I too have had a couple of EB volume pedals (one for active one for passive). I made a different choice and just went with a small Boss Comp CP-1X for a clean boost with little or no compression.  I don't like standing on one leg like a stork to work cry babies, expression pedals, volume pedals, etc.  I like an on off volume boost so I don't have to use the guitar knobs and can leave my settings alone when changing volume for lead work.  On for leads and off back to normal for chords backing my vocals.  Since I'm playing more solo, I seldom need the clean boost these days as I can't let go of the chords. So my lead work is lacking the practice needed.  Having two volume settings is all I need after setting my amp/PA volume.  In your case, I hope you find a pedal that works well with the Ebow and all those knobs on the floor with a good taper. It will be interesting to see what is new out there that players are using these days.  Good hunting!  😎

 

I'm a devotee of my Lizard Leg Flying Dragon clean boost pedals (made by a guy in my area, who's stopped making them... but since they aren't super well-known I bought tons of them for under $100 for a while whenever they'd pop up used)... I even bought a Draconis, which was his "double" version made by request, since some people liked having one Flying Dragon at unity just because of the magic it works on your tone and then another as a boost at the end of the chain... it has a loop so you can place the two units in different spots... and one of my JangleBox compressors is the Nano version, which by request of people like Elliot Easton has boost separate from compression... then I have a Komet Mirasol, which is a clean boost + Rangemaster-style treble boost circuit... and I have a SoloDallas X Boost, which is modeled on the limiter in Angus Young's wireless transmitter that made his guitar sound so magical on the "Back In Black" record...

Look Larryz, I know I have a problem... I keep expecting to come home one day and walking into an intervention my wife has put together...

[p90jr]

1 hour ago, desertbluesman said:

I tried a Dunlop Volume pedal about 10 years ago I think I sold it, or gave it to Good Will (I may even still have it somewhere).

 

After a bit, I decided to just use the volume controls on my guitars. I get better results with that method. I only used the Dunlop for my Gibson guitars because of the control placement. On the strat clone and homemade I just turn the things full up and only use the volume controls for Buchanan like swells. On my RG 321 Ibanez I turn the volume down about an eighth of a turn because it is much brighter than my other guitars, and that mitigates the trebles to a similar tone to my other 2 guitars.

With my standard Teles or Strats or Jazzmaster or my Variax I do use the volume knob, as it is very conveniently placed and there's only one for all the pickups... but I do play a lot of Gibson and Gibson-style guitars these days... I had considered doing the Jon Herrington (current Steely Dan lead guitarist) mod and have a master volume put closest to the bridge (even if means moving the pickup selector switch on an SG), keep the volume pots for both but switch to a master tone pot... I love my new 3-P90 Firebird with all of the tone options from the 3 volume knobs which pull for coil tapping, but I do wish I could un-intrusively add a master volume, and I guess that's part of what I'm trying to put on the floor.

[Caevan O’Shite]

1 hour ago, p90jr said:

E Ball sells little kids to replace the string and spring...

  THE FIENDS!! 
 
Forgive me, p90jr!   

 

2 hours ago, desertbluesman said:

After a bit, I decided to just use the volume controls on my guitars. I get better results with that method.

I use the volume-knobs on my guitars, I use my RV-1 volume-pedal, and I use 'auto-swell' type pedals like my VFE BumbleBee (think along the lines of the old Boss SG-1 Slow Gear, but MUCH better, and including an optical-compressor). I use 'em all, for 'clean-up', tonal variance, volume-swells for "bowing" and "backwards" effects...

There tends to be a slight, subtle treble roll-off with the volume-controls on guitars when I roll-back to clean-up, but that's often a kind of a good thing. IF- if- I needed to brighten that up, I could compensate one way or another with picking technique, amp and pedal settings, or even install a 'treble-bleed' cap and resistor across the volume-pot if it was really bad. IF.  
 

 

2 hours ago, desertbluesman said:

I only used the Dunlop for my Gibson guitars because of the control placement.

I'm with ya there, dbm! Just the other day, I was doing little volume-swells with my Les Paul's volume-knobs, just for the sake of practicing it. But my volume-pedal and that BumbleBee sure make that stuff a LOT easier with my Les Paul! Strats are really good for that, and Teles, too.
      

 

[CEB]

I have some EBs. Depending on your pickups and which EB they can murder your highs.  I needed something with that would fit on my huge board I got a low cost passive Fender pedal that didn’t dull the high end on my guitars and the action was okay.  
 

My favorite passive volume pedal is the Goodrich 120 both H and L models are pretty much same specs but different profiles.   L 120 is $264 new.  But they are large footprint.   My favorite active volume pedal is a Hilton. Hiltons start at about $350.  I’m a steel player.  I think a guitar player paying this much for a volume pedal is going overboard and they are not pedalboard  friendly due to size.   If my boards have room I use Goodrich.  But if I only played six string electrics I wouldn’t spend the money for one. I just take advantage of already owning them.  The fender is a nice cheap alternative whose circuit doesn’t tone suck in my experience.  
 

If you need a mini I’ve heard good things about the Dunlop DVP4.    I have a DOD Mini Volume on my favorite board.  It doesn’t tone suck.  It has a 500k pot.   

[Caevan O’Shite]

19 minutes ago, CEB said:

I have some EBs. Depending on your pickups and which EB they can murder your highs.  I needed something with that would fit on my huge board I got a low cost passive Fender pedal that didn’t dull the high end on my guitars and the action was okay.

The Fender is a nice cheap alternative whose circuit doesn’t tone suck in my experience.

Which passive Fender volume-pedal did you get, CEB? I love my active, optical volume-pedal, but sometimes I might need a passive one...
 

 

22 minutes ago, CEB said:

My favorite passive volume pedal is the Goodrich 120 both H and L models are pretty much same specs but different profiles.   L 120 is $264 new.  But they are large footprint.   My favorite active volume pedal is a Hilton. Hiltons start at about $350.  I’m a steel player.  I think a guitar player paying this much for a volume pedal is going overboard and they are not pedal friendly due to size.   If my boards have room I use Goodrich.  But if I only played six string electrics I wouldn’t spend the money for one. I just take advantage of already owning them.

Pedal-Steel players are like the professional bicycle racers of volume-pedals and clean, powerful amps- you all demand serious top-tier quality and performance from 'em!   
  
 

[CEB]

Well crud.  It looks like Fender discontinued my FVP-1.  I would not pay these prices.   The Fender was 39.99 new and not that long ago.  I tried it in the shop with my board and guitar.  Its all metal construction.  Reverb pricing is ridiculous or I’m just cheap.  
 

https://reverb.com/p/fender-fvp-1-volume-pedal

[p90jr]

Reverb prices are mostly ridiculous... as a friend of mine said, "the problem with creating an eBay especially for musicians is that you end up with an eBay where mostly musicians are selling things for what they think they're worth."

[Caevan O’Shite]

46 minutes ago, p90jr said:

Reverb prices are mostly ridiculous... as a friend of mine said, "the problem with creating an eBay especially for musicians is that you end up with an eBay where mostly musicians are selling things for what they think they're worth."

I am a fan and user of the "Make an Offer" toggle on Reverb!
 
 

[Mark Schmieder]

I would never buy an Ernie Ball volume pedal again. I bought the top-rated Hilton Electronics pedal a few years ago -- it gained popularity initially with pedal steel and lap steel players -- but recently there have been a couple of new brands that have come along and who deliver similar approaches to volume pedals.

 

The key is to avoid the complex circuitry that makes all of the others so fragile and short-lived. But regardless of that aspect, the level of detail in the pedals that don't have op amps or potentiometers, is much greater, with a much larger dynamic range.

 

I just revisited this topic recently, after accidentally finding out about one of the newer brands, but concluded that I'm just as well off sticking to my Hilton pedal.

 

Of course, things change once one gets into the discussion of passive vs. active. And then they differ again if one also needs an expression pedal but prefers it to be an alternate mode on a volume pedal. Both of those factors significantly change the list of available choices.

[KuruPrionz]

8 hours ago, p90jr said:

Reverb prices are mostly ridiculous... as a friend of mine said, "the problem with creating an eBay especially for musicians is that you end up with an eBay where mostly musicians are selling things for what they think they're worth."

The Reverb sales paradigm is quite different than the eBay options, for one thing Reverb only has a "Set a price with a best offer option" which means that the price can only go lower. Add to that, you post it and leave it posted until somebody offers what you will accept and yes, you will start with a high price because you are not going to get it anyway. 

 

EBay also has an auction opttion, you can start something at $0.01 if you choose to do so. Done intelligently, you can get a higher price for your item than you would on Reverb. 

On the other hand, people often create what I calll "victim auctions" where the item ends at a stupid time of the week or the auction does not go long enough. So searching completed items one can find items that sold way too cheap. 

You can also list an item with your price and a best offer option and eBay will run it indefinately. Same paradigm as Reverb. 

 

As Caevan says above, just make an offer and see what happens. 

[Caevan O’Shite]

11 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:

The Reverb sales paradigm is quite different than the eBay options, for one thing Reverb only has a "Set a price with a best offer option" which means that the price can only go lower. Add to that, you post it and leave it posted until somebody offers what you will accept and yes, you will start with a high price because you are not going to get it anyway.

Using the "Make an Offer" option on Reverb, I have scored some fair to very good deals on pedals, not the least of which was an all-original 1979 MXR M-117 Flanger, which were getting hard to find at the time; the market for those vintage specimens had previously reached some ridiculously high selling prices, but then seemed saturated to the point that nearly everyone who'd want one had one, leaving very few floating around up for sale at the time with asking-prices coming down again. I got mine for around half what people had been paying for specimens that were in considerably worse shape (mine's a bit scuffed-up on the outside, but 100% intact and fully, perfectly functioning).

And a I also got a good deal via "Make an Offer" on a dead-mint NOS '80s MIJ Arion SFL-1 Stereo Flanger in the original box and plastic bag with manual, brochure, promo leaflet and that "new car smell"! For FAAARRR less than people shell out for the Arion SCH-1 Stereo Chorus pedals of the same vintage in bad shape (and IMHO, the SFL-1 is a better pedal)!

Amptweaker TightFuzz Jr, Lastgasp Art Laboratories Octavella Upper Octave Feedback Fuzz (try finding either of those now)... Keeley Retro Super Germanium Phat Mod w/ box and everything AND MORE...  All pristinely like new. Offers made, pedals purchased for less. There are more, but I'll stop now.

At the very least, I've received respectable, acceptable Counter Offers that were still cut lower than the original asking-prices, and considerably less than many others.



         
 

[CEB]

I have one of those old MXR Flangers in a big Rubbermaid box full of old pedals. 😀

[Caevan O’Shite]

4 minutes ago, CEB said:

I have one of those in a big Rubbermaid box full of old pedals. 😀

The Rubbermaid box...

[CEB]

I wish.  I just have one huge plastic crate.  No one said this stuff was ever going to be worth anything when it was new.

[Caevan O’Shite]

On 6/12/2022 at 2:33 PM, CEB said:

I wish.  I just have one huge plastic crate.  No one said this stuff was ever going to be worth anything when it was new.

Well, I did say, "The Rubbermaid box... "
       
 

[CEB]

I've never bought a JHS pedal.  I wonder if the boxes say "You Have The Box"?

[Caevan O’Shite]

11 minutes ago, CEB said:

I've never bought a JHS pedal.  I wonder if the boxes say "You Have The Box"?

They should... !

[p90jr]

I happened upon a barely-used Mission Audio MV-Pro Volume pedal at a good price and it's highly regarded, so I ordered it... it seems ideal for front of board/direct to pickups stuff, like swells, eBow wrangling, etc. I am also kind of interested in the Boss FV30L for the other end of the board, post-effects, stereo ins and outs... especially with the AmbiKab stereo returns that seems perfect...

An hour after ordering the Mission I was packing for a gig where I needed a wah and grabbed one of my Cry-Babys off a shelf... only to discover that particular pedal was actually a Dunlop "High Gain" Volume pedal... go figure, and I have no idea where it came from but I have been given boxes of stuff by people. In a quick test to see if it worked it left no real impression, but I'll check it out later.

[Caevan O’Shite]

38 minutes ago, p90jr said:

I happened upon a barely-used Mission Audio MV-Pro Volume pedal at a good price and it's highly regarded, so I ordered it... it seems ideal for front of board/direct to pickups stuff, like swells, eBow wrangling, etc.

That looks to be an excellent volume pedal!  Lots of thoughtful, useful features.  The "Sparkle", switchable vintage/fuzz-compatible high-impedance output, and isolated separate (NOT split from input) tuner/re-amp output features all pique my interest VERY much!  If ever I need another volume pedal, this will be high on the very short short-list!  Congratulations on scoring a good deal on what should prove to be a great pedal!   
 

 

51 minutes ago, p90jr said:

I am also kind of interested in the Boss FV30L for the other end of the board, post-effects, stereo ins and outs...

That also looks to be an excellent volume pedal- ESPECIALLY with its stereo I/O.  Post-drive and pre-echo/verb/trem/etc. could be great!
 

55 minutes ago, p90jr said:

...especially with the AmbiKab stereo returns that seems perfect...

...Drool... ...drool... ...drool... ...drool... ...AmbiKab... ...drool... ...drool... ...drool... !!      

 

1 hour ago, p90jr said:

An hour after ordering the Mission I was packing for a gig where I needed a wah and grabbed one of my Cry-Babys off a shelf... only to discover that particular pedal was actually a Dunlop "High Gain" Volume pedal... go figure, and I have no idea where it came from but I have been given boxes of stuff by people. In a quick test to see if it worked it left no real impression, but I'll check it out later.

Haahh!    That's great, and may everyone have such problems...      Hopefully, it's in fine working order and provides you another option or back-up.  Keep us posted...   

[p90jr]

The Mission VM-Pro pedal is here... I'm too tired to play with it... it looks brand new and is in the original box, etc.

here's a funny thing: one of my earliest lessons in economics came as a small child watching "Happy Days" when Mr. Cunningham had some medical emergency and was laid up in the hospital before some big weekend when the hardware store usually had a sale that cushioned them for the rest of the year with profits, and Mrs. C - in his place - had a 1¢ paint sale (I think, it's been decades), which almost made him have a heart attack because he paid 25¢ for every can of paint... but at the end of the episode he was going over the receipts and said "Marion... I don't know how you did this... you sold the paint at a loss for every can but we made a huge profit!?!" and she said "That's easy... nobody can just buy paint... they need drop cloths and brushes and rollers and stirring sticks and masking tape and scrapers, and while they're here for the paint they're going to remember all the other stuff they've been needing like pliers and screwdrivers and screws and bolts and hammers and nails and doorknobs and whatnot, so I marked everything else in the store up 500% and they never thought twice about it since they were so excited about the cheap paint, and the profit margin is already higher on all that other stuff"

The VM-Pro pedal tuner solution is cool... it uses a 1/4" TRS jack, the outer ring adjusted by the pedal and goes toyour other pedals, the second ring goes to the tuner and is not adjusted by the pedal... the "adapter" they sell to go with it is one 1/4" TRS right angle male plug which splits into two 4" lengths of cable into two 1/4" TS right angle male plugs, one labeled for the tuner. It sells for $40. I'll try the $10 Hosa cable instead...

[Caevan O’Shite]

6 hours ago, p90jr said:

The Mission VM-Pro pedal is here... I'm too tired to play with it... it looks brand new and is in the original box, etc.

       "Yer killin' me, Smalls... "        

 

6 hours ago, p90jr said:

The VM-Pro pedal tuner solution is cool... it uses a 1/4" TRS jack, the outer ring adjusted by the pedal and goes toyour other pedals, the second ring goes to the tuner and is not adjusted by the pedal... the "adapter" they sell to go with it is one 1/4" TRS right angle male plug which splits into two 4" lengths of cable into two 1/4" TS right angle male plugs, one labeled for the tuner. It sells for $40. I'll try the $10 Hosa cable instead...

I can highly recommend these: EBS ICY-30 Right Angle Flat Insert Cable - 30 cm (Sweetwater, Free Shipping, Free 2 Year Warranty).  I have and use them, along with a few other lengths of TS/Mono EBS Flat patch cables.  I've been replacing all of my patch cables with EBS Flats a few at a time.  They take up very little space between pedals, and seem more durable and  better sounding (WITHOUT any crackling and shorting developing!!) than some of the other patch cables I've had (including Hosa, which I avoid anymore).  They're GREAT for connecting my pedals with stereo effects-output and/or stereo pass-through, like this signal-path that has both 1/4" TS L&R and 1/4" TRS Ins and Outs between the various pedals:

TC Electronic Stereo Chorus/Flanger L/R outs > Strymon Iridium > El Capistan > Flint > Boss RT-20 Leslie-sim

They look 'lite', but they're good quality, just not bulky- and among the very slimmest right-angle plugs in the business. I am confident that they'll outlast the Hosas, and there's even that two year warranty...

If that's enough length for you (I believe that the described 30 cm is the total length of both branches of the "Y" laid-out, and NOT the reach of them side-by-side), if your next pedal in line and your tuner will both be nearby enough to your new Mission VM-Pro, I believe that you'll be very satisfied with one of these EBS Y's- and the price is not much more than the ten bucks that you cite above.

[p90jr]

I have a few of the flat EBS patch cables and the Donner version... I actually haven't used them, yet, but I have a couple of the Donner aluminum pedalboards to assemble...