Volume choke pedal, what value pot?

[MacDaddy]

I need a new stomp box for my rig, I'm sure you can but these sorts of things but I want to build one just because it's fun. Basically it'll be just a passive in-line volume choke box with one knob for the amount of volume to cut and a bypass stomp-switch to turn the thing on and off.

It would behave exact the same as turning down the volume on the guitar but I want a box that I can set to a predetermined level and switch in and out at will. The idea being that I can clean up a dirty sound from the amp but still leave a bit of gain for when I don't want a totally clean sound in some songs.

My question is though, what value potentiometer would I need to use for the volume control? I ask because like most guitarists I have a mixture of humbucking and single coil instruments and normally 250K pots go into single coil equipped guitars and 500K pots go in humbucking guitars.

As my choke box will be used with both and behaves exactly the same way as the guitar's volume control which value pot is the one I need?

I did think of Googling for passive volume pedal queries as it's pretty much the same scenario but all I got was a bunch of results about active and passive pickups and running volume pedals in the amp's loop etc so I never really found an answer to my query.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[youngthrasher9]

Re: Volume choke pedal, what value pot?

The way I understand it the pots in the guitar bottle neck the signal to what the actual signal will be, unless the pedal has a smaller value then the pots in the guitar.

So just get a pot for the pedal with the same value or bigger value then what is in your humbucker guitars.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Volume choke pedal, what value pot?

I use a Heavy Electronics Desend for this purpose. Maybe there is a spec or schematic floating round?

I run low wattage amps to break up and then use the Descend to clean things up a bit. Works great.

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Volume choke pedal, what value pot?

I'd say a 1Meg and let your guitar's knobs handle the fine-tuning. Pots stack, so if you put a 500K in the pedal and have a 250K in the guitar, the pedal is going to further attenuate the signal. It'd be like putting a 500K Master Volume in your guitar just before the output jack.

[Myaccount876]

Re: Volume choke pedal, what value pot?

1 Megaohm or a higher value if you can find one. Passive controls can only cut, and the higher the value after the jack means the less signal is altered.

Make sure to get the taper you prefer as well. Most common is Audio, but a couple folks (including me) prefer linear taper volume pots.

[Agileguy_101]

Re: Volume choke pedal, what value pot?

I would use a 1M pot but wire it up with a 3 way switch with resistors to simulate a 500K and 250K pot. Even if you only like the 1M pot setting, at least you know for sure the other ones don't work as well for you. And hey, there may be some times when you want the extra loading on your signal. Plus, it's only an extra few buck for the switch and resistors.

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Volume choke pedal, what value pot?

Just had a random thought: Is there a way to wire a 1M pot so that it cuts to 500K at 50%, then 250K at 25%, using resistors? And what, if any, tonal benefit would there be? What about going the other way - at 25% or 50% on the volume pedal, you get the full 1M, but at full-on, it drops down to 500 or 250K?

Say you're running a guitar>amp or guitar>boost>amp setup, as opposed to something like maxxed-out dirt pedal/rack/Axe-FX into a power amp, and you're using the volume pedal to determine how hard the front of a tube amp gets slammed, and the pedal has a 1M pot. Can resistors be wired to the 1M pot to cut it back to 500K at fully-on, but anything below that would be the full 1M?

[Agileguy_101]

Re: Volume choke pedal, what value pot?

Just had a random thought: Is there a way to wire a 1M pot so that it cuts to 500K at 50%, then 250K at 25%, using resistors? And what, if any, tonal benefit would there be? What about going the other way - at 25% or 50% on the volume pedal, you get the full 1M, but at full-on, it drops down to 500 or 250K?

Say you're running a guitar>amp or guitar>boost>amp setup, as opposed to something like maxxed-out dirt pedal/rack/Axe-FX into a power amp, and you're using the volume pedal to determine how hard the front of a tube amp gets slammed, and the pedal has a 1M pot. Can resistors be wired to the 1M pot to cut it back to 500K at fully-on, but anything below that would be the full 1M?

Just considering the anatomy of a regular potentiometer, I highly doubt it. You might be able to get a pot custom made that could do that but you would probably have to order a thousand of them.