straight yes/no... so volume pedals "suck" tone?

[MILLO]

... you know what I mean, that flat, thinner sound when you're plugged into a not-too-good pedal, that cuts certain frequencies, etc... I'd guess that ideally volume pedals should be TOTALLY transparent, just being a 'pot' to control the amount of signal... Is that the case? Just wanted to know... and by the way, thanks for being patient w/ my stupid, gear-illiterate questions.

[stanner]

if its well made, tweeked properlee and placed in the proper place in the chain, there is NO signal/tone loss.

sez me

stan

[Billster]

A good volume pedal (Ernie Ball, Dunlop, Morley) is better than the knob on guitar.

[Caevan O’Shite]

"When you're plugged into a not-too-good pedal"... kinda says it all! Compare, with your own guitar, cables, and amp.

 

For a passive volume pedal, the various Ernie Ball volume pedals are hard to beat. I've got one, and while I've been using it as a continous-control/expression pedal for an effects unit for some time, when I did use it as a volume pedal it was excellent. "YMMV"... especially with some volume pedals out there.

 

http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/icons/icon2.gif Guitar Player magazine did a pretty good "round-up" article comparing a number of different volume pedals. Six Swell Sidekicks: Volume Pedal Roundup by Barry Cleveland; April 2005 issue of Guitar Player Apparently this is only the introduction from that article, though searches for the brands of the pedals tested therein can turn up their respective reviews, their being:

 

(Passive models)

 

Boss FV-50H

 

Ernie Ball VP Junior

 

Vox V850

 

(Active models)

 

Morley Little Alligator PLA

 

Behringer FCV100

 

George Dennis GD020

 

In a nutshell, the passive Ernie Ball VP Junior and active George Dennis GD020 pedals won the day- in that review article- for their respective categories (passive and active). Both recieved the GP "Editor's Pick" award.

[MILLO]

thanks for your help!

[MILLO]

Originally posted by CaevanO'Shite:

Guitar Player magazine did a pretty good "round-up" article comparing a number of different volume pedals. Six Swell Sidekicks: Volume Pedal Roundup by Barry Cleveland; April 2005 issue of Guitar Player "Editor's Pick" award.

Actually I'm pretty sure I have that issue, I'll look it up. I have one more question that may be answered in the article:

 

For what applications an active pedal would be necessary?

[Caevan O’Shite]

( http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/icons/icon8.gif RRrrrrrr!! I just typed up a reply, only to get a "'page cannot be displayed" error-message upon trying to post it... this time, I'm gonna copy it to paste it if necessary... )

 

In general, a good passive volume pedal will only be able to cut volume levels, not boost them. When the pedal's maxed-out, what-comes-out will only be as loud as what-goes-in, at unity-gain; some (many? most? all?) won't even give you that, technically. The best of 'em sound transparent and have no appreciable, perceivable volume-loss.

 

An active model could actually boost the overall volume, -IF- it's designed to be able to do so. And an active circuit design could yield quieter, more noise-free operation. Or, poorly designed and made, an active design could make such things even worse, adding noise and unwanted coloration.

 

An active model may be good for long cable-runs or swarms of other effects-pedals in series between your guitar and amp, as well.

 

Some models offer pre-settable minimum and maximum volume levels, for easily sweeping from lower-volume clean/rhythm to louder overdriven/lead levels. Again, an active model could offer a boosted maximum, whereas a passive one would offer only whatever maximum the guitar (or whatever else is before it in the signal-path) was capable of to begin with.

 

Most often, I'd say that a good passive model would be first choice, and if it just won't cut it for various reasons, then a hunt for an active model that will work with your other gear is the next move.

 

Now, don't accidentally confuse 'active volume pedal' with a volume pedal that works well with active pickups or active circuitry onboard a guitar. There are passive and active volume pedals that are tailored for just such use. Note that Ernie Ball offers passive models that have potentiometer values and types selected for use with active pickups and guitar-electronics, as well as their 'standard' models.

[jlh]

I wasn't too surprised that the Guitar Player volume pedal shootout didn't mention it, but the real "gold standard" of active volume pedals in the pedal steel world (where the folks live and die by the quality of the VC pedal) is the Hilton ME262-B . They are expensive, but I ponied up for one for my steel. They have the biggest, ugliest wall wart you've ever seen, but they *do not* color the sound and put out a big well buffered signal. Also they are dead quiet. I wish it had been covered in the shootout so I could see how they compare with the others reviewed.

 

I also use Ernie Balls for lap steel and (rarely) my telecaster. They are great too.

Jamie

[BillWelcome Home Studios]

If I was going to consider a volume control, it would have to be active, and probably expensive (quality circuitry makes a difference if we are looking for transparency). That Hilton pedal looks the treat.

 

The simple passive volume control in my guitars change the tone in a fairly unpleasant manner, which is why I have one of my guitars tricked out with an internal bypass switch. Of course a post guitar passive pot is going to react in much the same way.

 

I've never mastered the use of a volume pedal. I've owned several, including the Ernie Ball. I like the idea of swells and such, but I somehow just end up using the controls on the guitar. When I remember.

 

Bill

[Flashback]

Oh, man You guys are giving me brain damage

 

The simple passive volume control in my guitars change the tone in a fairly unpleasant manner

 

Ok, its not that I doubt what your saying so much as the technique you used to figure that out

 

Or I may just be misunderstanding what your saying

[Squ]

Yes

[Museeip]

Not sure what volume pedal Junior Brown uses, but his tone is god like! He actually uses the pedal at about 75% as his "playing" volume and rolls the pedal forward as the chord quiets, so he can add sutain or drive his amp harder it's from the pedal steel school of volume pedal use...Really Cool Stuff!

[Caevan O’Shite]

Originally posted by Flashback:

"Oh, man You guys are giving me brain damage

 

The simple passive volume control in my guitars change the tone in a fairly unpleasant manner

 

Ok, its not that I doubt what your saying so much as the technique you used to figure that out

 

Or I may just be misunderstanding what your saying "

Some guitars have a noticeable dulling of treble when the volume-knob is rolled back for changes in overall volume, gain (cleaning up amp or pedal overdrive/distortion), or swelling/fading effects.

 

Sometimes, a player may actually like this. Other times, some- maybe most- players would prefer that the overall tone of the guitar sound the same, just lower in volume.

 

Pot (and capacitor) values and types affect this, as well as the perceivable audio taper of the pot's travel. A "treble bypass cap" can be placed across the volume pot to allow more highs through during the pots rotation, compensating for this. More extreme cap-values can even result in a quasi coil-tap kind of tone as the volume-knob is rolled back, where lows and low-mids are attenuated and upper-mids and highs seem accentuated. This can be a cool way to go from a modern hot pickup's sound to a brighter, lower output, and more "vintage-y" tone with the volume control. A bit of trial-and-error is necessary to find just the right cap-value for a given pot and pickup(s), though, and it's probably too tedious for most players these days...