musicfiend Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 I'm looking at some of the ernie ball vp's on ebay and a check of the eb site shows that they come in two different resistances, one for active instruments(25k) and one for passive instruments(250k). I play one passive/active bass and one fully passive bass. Should I risk getting the passive version and dealing with possible distortion. Or should I get the active version and deal with loss of high end transients. Or do these pedals no follow these "standard" rules. Any experience guys? Hiram Bullock thinks I like the band volume too soft (but he plays guitar). Joe Sample thinks I like it way too loud (but he plays piano). -Marcus Miller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Hoffman Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 I would think the passive pedal would be your best bet, you would just have to set the level on the pedal to your active bass. If there isn't a level or gain/volume knob then I would turn the volume down on the active bass. Sounds like a pain in the neck. I have an old Morley volume/wah. When I play my active bass I click off the boost switch and I'm set. When the wah switch is clicked off it functions as a volume wah. And it must be true bypass because I lose absolutely NO tone when I play through it, and the wah has such a tasty growl, great for funk! "The world will still be turning when you've gone." - Black Sabbath Band site: www.finespunmusic.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prague Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 I use a 250k with passive and active. No problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexclaber Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 Get the passive one; the active one will reduce the highs coming from your passive basses. The downside is that the volume pedal will act more like a switch when you're in active mode. You won't get any distortion either way - the choice of impedance just affects the way the pickups are loaded. Alex Barefaced Ltd - ultra lightweight, high ouput, toneful bass cabs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilMan99 Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 If you use some sort of "stomp-box", it would generally have a hot enough output to drive the low-impedance volume pedal no matter which bass you used. I recently went through "the quest for the ultimate volume pedal" too. Because of problems I read in reviews, I went with Morley: * Ernie Ball pedals supposedly need pots replaced periorically (and string can break) * Boss pedals tend to have a problem with the internal linkage "slipping" The above is according to reviews, not my experience. You can finds lots of reviews at: http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Data/ I went with Morley, for the optical mechanism (nothing to break, in theory). The Morleys come only in "medium impedance". I've read reviews saying some guitar players hear a loss of "highs", but others dispute that. The Morleys come in the two versions: Linear taper (Little Alligator) and audio taper (Pro Series Volume). I'll defer to others to explain the difference... After a lot of excitement, I quickly ended-up "throwing in the towel" - bought it, shelved it. Gained new appreciation for a) on-bass volume control and b) controlling volume with fingers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cthulhu Fhtagn Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 Originally posted by C. Alexander Claber: Get the passive one; the active one will reduce the highs coming from your passive basses. The downside is that the volume pedal will act more like a switch when you're in active mode. So ... I you have an amp that has a "bright" feature (Peavey TKO 115 for example), which supposedly boosted the highs, you don't get that back? (The ungainly fiddling with the amp buttons while playing and operating the pedal simultaneously aside ... this is strictly a theory application question). And ... if one were to try the hands off approach, what about buying an equilazer stomp box set up with the midrange and highs a little higher and hit that before using the volume pedal? (Cash limiting, but again a theory question) Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicfiend Posted January 22, 2005 Author Share Posted January 22, 2005 One more question. I see that the vp jr from eb is cheaper than their full sized vp. Is this ONLY due to the smaller amount of material used, or is it "smaller" in other ways? Hiram Bullock thinks I like the band volume too soft (but he plays guitar). Joe Sample thinks I like it way too loud (but he plays piano). -Marcus Miller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prague Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 The smaller EB is just a lower profile. It was partially made for pedal steel players. It's just not as "tall". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicfiend Posted January 23, 2005 Author Share Posted January 23, 2005 I read that the full sized eb was longer and wider The VP's dimensions are approximately 11" x 4" x 2.75" and they weigh about 3.75 lb. The VPJR's dimensions are approximately 10" x 3.5" x 2.5" and they weigh about 2.25 lb. straight from the ernie ball site. Hiram Bullock thinks I like the band volume too soft (but he plays guitar). Joe Sample thinks I like it way too loud (but he plays piano). -Marcus Miller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexclaber Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 Originally posted by Social Critic: Originally posted by C. Alexander Claber: Get the passive one; the active one will reduce the highs coming from your passive basses. The downside is that the volume pedal will act more like a switch when you're in active mode. So ... I you have an amp that has a "bright" feature (Peavey TKO 115 for example), which supposedly boosted the highs, you don't get that back?... And ... if one were to try the hands off approach, what about buying an equilazer stomp box set up with the midrange and highs a little higher and hit that before using the volume pedal? (Cash limiting, but again a theory question)Well firstly, you can't put back highs that aren't there. If you have lost some treble and try to EQ it back in it always sounds thinner, dirtier and less pure than if you hadn't lost it in the first place. If you put a buffered bypass stompbox before the volume pedal that would solve the impedance matching issue; but you would suffer the tonal degradation from the buffer. However, I've found that's Boss's pedals don't add much noise or change the tone noticeably. I use a volume pedal because I have a stupidly large effects chain and like to be able to keep the wilder effects under control; plus I use it for synth/strings/whale noises. If I wasn't being so effects happy then I'd just use my volume knob. As such, I place the volume pedal at the end of the chain. Originally posted by musicfiend: One more question. I see that the vp jr from eb is cheaper than their full sized vp. Is this ONLY due to the smaller amount of material used, or is it "smaller" in other ways?It's significantly smaller in every dimension and far lighter (and the weight adds up once you've got a whole bunch of pedals). I bought an original VP (passive) and replaced it with a 25k VP Jr. I like it. Why do you want a volume pedal MF? Alex Barefaced Ltd - ultra lightweight, high ouput, toneful bass cabs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicfiend Posted January 24, 2005 Author Share Posted January 24, 2005 Ive wanted a vp for a while. Whenever I ajm with friends I'll just use my volume knob to get that sound that I hear in my head. When I'm playing a show where those little glitches in my playing count however, I feel it's too risky. So the volume pedal is to gfet what I hear in my head into others' ears. I tend want swells into and out of notes and I like using the knob to get a little bit of that "delay" effect, or a controlled echo also Hiram Bullock thinks I like the band volume too soft (but he plays guitar). Joe Sample thinks I like it way too loud (but he plays piano). -Marcus Miller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.