Volume pedals...

[sooperunkn]

I've never used one but I think I'm ready. Correct me if I'm wrong but I feel when you lower your volume via the guitar your tone tends to get muddy as well?? But if you use a volume pedal to lower your overall volume then you keep your true pickup tone in tact going out of the guitar??? That's right... right?

I would really like to use this to SUBTLEY change from different rhythm parts. I used to do this by changing amp channels or boost but I don't feel it's subtle enough, it's too noticeable... know what I mean???

So is Ernie Ball THE pedal? Which model? How do you guys use them (i.e. where in your chain, etc).

Thanks a ton!!

[korovamilkdud]

Re: Volume pedals...

Depends on the volume pedal. Some are poorly made and others aren't. Mods are out there if you look hard enough though. But many would argue the best approach is to just get a decent quality volume pedal. Ernie Ball made some great ones.

[Chaos]

Re: Volume pedals...

A volume pedal does the same thing as the volume control on your guitar. If your guitar signal gets muddy when you roll off the volume you need to add a ‘treble bleed’ capacitor across the volume pot.

The benefit to a separate volume pedal is you can insert it anywhere in your pedal chain.

I use the volume control on my guitar in conjunction with a DS-1 to control the amount of distortion, and I use my volume pedal in the effects loop to reduce / kill the output from the amp. (noise-free / no hiss) The only thing that follows my volume pedal is an echo / delay (so the echo will fade out gracefully when I kill the output).

[ArtieToo]

Re: Volume pedals...

One of the things to consider, is passive or active, cheap or expensive.
A passive pedal, (doesn't require power), will be like Chaos said. It just moves the volume control to the floor. It will also add the extra "load" of an additional pot.

Active volume controls will include a "buffer", or small isolating amp in the circuitry to alleviate the load problem. Then the issue becomes, whats the quality of that amp? A pedal such as the $29.95 Rogue, is likely to have a dirt-cheap IC pre-amp. A more expensive pedal Like the $90 Ernie Ball, will more than likely have a much higher quality, (and quieter), pre-amp.

So you must consider all of those things.

[Cazmarzak]

Re: Volume pedals...

The morley Little Aligator is an AWESOME volume pedal. Placed in front of the amp , it will only act as a guitar volume pedal as mentioned above, but put in the FX loop it will lower your volume keeping your gain and tone intact. It also has a knob to set minimum,and maximum volume levels.

That way you don't have to worry about setting the pedal just right in the heat of battle HAHA

[Fresh_Start]

Re: Volume pedals...

Hey Cazmarzak - I bought the Morley because of that miniminum volume knob. It's a great idea, but the taper on the pedal is way to abrupt for me.

Please let me know if I'm missing something - otherwise this thing has got to go.

Chip

[aleclee]

Re: Volume pedals...

A more expensive pedal Like the $90 Ernie Ball, will more than likely have a much higher quality, (and quieter), pre-amp.

I'm pretty sure EB volume pedals are all passive. I know mine is.

[some_dude]

Re: Volume pedals...

I use a buffer and an Ernie Ball 25kohm volume pedal.

The buffer keeps the pedal from loading down the pickups, so the pickup tone stays intact as I drop the pedals volume.

Right now, I'm using a Boss GE-7 as a buffer. I'll be swapping that out for an Axess-Electronics BS-2 shortly.

[Cazmarzak]

Re: Volume pedals...

Chip,

I dont know if it will help or not, but you can call Morley and actually talk to the President of Morley and he will tell you if there is anything you can do to modify the taper.

Morley has the BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE of any manufacture of anything, this guy spent 2 hours on the phone with me over a problem I had and they actually sent me 2 new wha pedals for nothing. They tried to fix my first on (no charge either) and it didn't work so that's when they sent me the others.

Any enough of my ranting, but do call them. I know the taper on Morley stuff takes a bit of getting used to, but I love them.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Volume pedals...

I'm pretty sure EB volume pedals are all passive. I know mine is.

Ah . . . I believe you're right. (Looking over the EB website.)

I think what threw me was that for some reason, on the MF site, they list some as being passive, and others don't. So I assumed they were active . . . and the price.

[aleclee]

Re: Volume pedals...

I think what threw me was that for some reason, on the MF site, they list some as being passive, and others don't. So I assumed they were active . . . and the price.

Yeah. I believe the difference between the "passive" ones and the others is the value of the pot.

[gordon_39422]

Re: Volume pedals...

I second the Morly L'il Alligator. It has been the most useful pedal I have ever owned. The taper does take a little to get used to, but now when I play on my EB, it seems to slow.
I also attest to Morely's customer service. I called once because my Gator was down, and I had an upcoming gig. I couldnt go without the pedal, so they called a local store and arranged for me to bring mine to the store and they would credit the store. I actually found the problem to be a rare faulty Planet waves 6" cable and called the store to cancel the arrangement. Morley called me at home a few days later to see what happened, because they expected the pedal to be in by then. I have never had a corporation call me back because I hadn't sent them more burdens in the form of faulty merhcandise!!

[Grandor]

Re: Volume pedals...

What pedal should I get if I aim to simply lower the amps output while not affecting the tonal quality?
I would use my volume knob to control gain/distortion amount, and my volume pedal to control the amps voloume. How would I achieve this?

[some_dude]

Re: Volume pedals...

What pedal should I get if I aim to simply lower the amps output while not affecting the tonal quality?
I would use my volume knob to control gain/distortion amount, and my volume pedal to control the amps voloume. How would I achieve this?

Get an Ernie Ball 25k volume and use it in your amps loop. It'll raise and lower the volume without affecting the gain level.

[FireBros.]

Re: Volume pedals...

Hey Cazmarzak - I bought the Morley because of that miniminum volume knob. It's a great idea, but the taper on the pedal is way to abrupt for me.

Please let me know if I'm missing something - otherwise this thing has got to go.

Chip

The Morley PVO is like the little alligator, but with an audio taper circuit, instead of the linear taper.
BTW audio taper means that the circuit is designed to imitate the logarithmic way that human ears work. The pots in a guitar and amp, are almost always audio taper, because, that is what is most intuitive to us human players.

Almost all volume pedals are passive. To keep from loading your guitar, you either need to run them in the effects loop, as suggested earlier in this thread, or use them after some type of buffer circuit. Most any good pedal that does not have true bypass should work (I think).