Ok, so I need a volume pedal...

[piaggio]

Hi everybody,
I have almost no room left on my pedalboard but I have a B-bender, and the next obvious step seem to be buying a volume pedal, and get into those ultra-lovely slow pedal steel swells.

my eyes were fashinated by the zvex tremolo probe, that seems to have a lot of pros (boutique making, true bypass, no wearable parts )-
anyone for some cons ? has somebody tried this and found it unsatisfying ?

on the other side of the cheap-expensive scale is the behringer slow-motion, that will surely deliver an inferior sound, but you don't have to mind about your foot ...

thanks in advance for any advice !

[Joe-Bob]

Morley volume pedals are on sale right now for $50. The standard bearer is the Ernie Ball models at $100 and up.

[jazztele]

don't screw around with a cheap volume pedal--it's like replacing the pots in your guitar with crap. and they're usually unusable too, too many jumps thru the sweep.

IMO, there's nothing better than a goodrich, but the ernie ball's a decent cheaper alternative (i have an EB)

[Telejammer]

for the Goodrich...

[getbent]

goodrich or hilton.

[cdc3jj]

I've got a EB and it's solid and clean. Great for swells with my 335. If your playing a tele with a bender, you should be able to reach down with your pinky and roll the volume ala roy buchanan. Cool alternative effect might be a BYOC slow volume. It's a clone of the boss slow gear, and if you change one of the pots you can get a nice slow swell without having to worry about your foot at all.

[garytelecastor]

Piaggio have you tried reversing your control plate on your tele?
It makes accessibility to your volume control very effective.
You might not even need a pedal.
Flip the plate so that your pickup switch is toward the back of the guitar and change your volume and tone pots.

Watch this vid and check out what Sol has done to his guitar.

[CLAZ]

Erni Ball Jr is a good one for guitar....put a tuner in the tuner out for easy tuning onstage etc..... try putting a 9 volt battery under the pedal for practicing the steel swells so you don't cut alot of volume when swelling...remove the batt when you get used to it of course ..

[piaggio]

cdc3jj : what I should be able to do, and what I'm actually able to do are two different things. I think the only thing roy Buchanan did that I can mimic is about the on-off amp switch...but I'm not sure !!!

garytelecastor : yes I did it (thanks to tpdri forum, just like buying a tele )...it's fun !

[piaggio]

of course I mean tdpri forum

[jazztele]

i like the pinky method or single notes and steel bends, but for chords, i like the pedal...especially since i like to strike the strings simultaneously with the pick and fingers when i fade them in like this for better string to string balance and that sometimes involves using the pinky to play a string.

plus, roy was a very fine guitar player and all, but who cares if he did it with his pinky? you gotta find what works for YOU.

[RomanS]

For pedal-steel-y stuff, violing swells, etc. absolutely stay away from the Morley Pro series, those act more like an on-off pedal rather than a volume pedal, nothing happening for most of the poedal travel, and then from very low volume to full-on on the last thrid of the pedal travel range...

I personally love the George Dennis volume pedals (some of their models combine a vol. pedal and some other switchable effect, like tremolo or overdrive, in the same case): very nice, smooth, and even taper, solid construction, relatively small foot-print; they are optically controlle active pedals, so you will need a batter or power supply, on the other hand they won't degrade your signal by loading down the pickup, and you will never have to exchange a scratchy pot (optically controlled --> no pot); quite inexpensive on this side of the great pond, too!

BTW, if you want to see a real master of the volume pedal at work try to find videos of the band Richmond Fontaine, their guitar player, Dan Eccles, must be the Paganini of the volume pedal (he uses an Ernie Ball Jr.) - no way that you could do the stuff he does with the volume pot on your guitar, you'd need a third hand for maipulating it while playing...

[sgnl2nz]

I recommend a DeArmond 1602 volume pedal. They're huge and heavy, but have a wide travel and you can switch out the pot in minutes if you want to experiment. They come up on ebay often for less than the price of an Ernie Ball or Dunlop.

[Tele-phone man]

I've been using a Boss PV-1 for 28 years. It has an aluminum case and is active (no pot to wear out), plus it has a variable boost up to 20dB. Because it uses no pot, it has NO coloration of the tone throughout its range.

Although I've had to replace the power jack once, and repair a few solder joints, it's been working virtually non-stop all this time. If you can find one used, consider it.

[piaggio]

thanks everyone...but I bought the Behringer slow motion, it arrived today:
instant pedal steel, after a short handling of the pots, and without foot movements at all.
of course I can't do anything complex, or even righteous, from the perspective of a real pedal steel player...but the effect is guaranteed.
the backward-tape effect, instead, is not so good.

maybe the sl-200 is somewhat a tone sucker...maybe -maybe- I will buy, later on, a BYOC slow gear clone, true bypass and everything.
but for now, is more than enough.

I tried to buy a Ernieball, but the seller told me he couldn't ship the thing to me, so we both agreed to cancel the transaction.
the goodrich seemed fine, but I've just discovered a thing (alas) : no matter how low is the Dollar compared to the Euro, You have to pay at least 40 $ of "toll taxes"...
so, let's keep the GAS at bay for a while....

thanks for every precious advice.

[jefrs]

Er is the, cof, £149 Ernie Ball 6166 Volume Pedal a passive 250k pot on a box ?

No mention of battery or psu, blurb wobbles on about passive instruments.

Just like my old £15 Bespeco VM12 then, except it's not as robust as the Bespeco.

[Paul in Colorado]

Another fan of George Dennis products here.

I have an old Ibanez VL-10 that I've had forever. No problems with it at all. I like that it's stereo and it has a tuner out. I wish they still made them, I'd get another.

I also have a D'Armond. Find a stiff pot or the pedal will slip into the full on position. And I have an old Morley from the '70's. Great pedal, but real big. Takes up a lot of real estate on the pedalboard.

[woodman]

i've muddled thru with the EB VP for a couple of years now, though i miss my long-gone Sho-Bud.