Volume pedal questions

[Rick Towne]

I like to use a small pedal board which sits near the amp, but not in a position where I am stuck standing behind it. I do not make many pedal changes during songs.

-Do any of you VP users have the pedal set up separate from a/the pedal board? Does it restrict you to playing in one place with your foot stuck on the VP?

-Where in the signal chain do you put it?

-Which foot do you use? I play lefty, and in trying a VP set up, my 'natural' inclination was to use my right foot. The full size Ernie Ball pedal I tried seemed huge and unwieldy.

Thanks.

[CancerLeoCam]

..I use mine (EBall) right after the guitar, into my effects then into whatever amp. I usually play some songs with one of my feet riding it. It doesn't cause a problem but you have to spend some time practicing with it to get to the point where it is almost another playing finger.

In other words, you don't have to think about it-your feelings through your foot persuade the swell in or out. I guess that's why they call it an expression pedal. It took me a while to get used to it but not that long. Whatever foot is on the neck side of the guitar is the one I recommend you use. I play righty so my left foot is on the VP. Gluck.

[Bill Hullett]

I use an Ernie Ball (I have a few of them both large and small versions....love em all)

I set the pedal board up off to my right @ a 90* angle from my foot....then I set the volume pedal up with my right foot like a gas pedal on a car.....

I use the pedal all the time.....I generally run it about half way open and either goose it for solos or gently push it down to help notes sustain a little longer like a pedal steel player would do...

In my signal chain it goes like this :
guitar
compressor
Bad Bob clean boost
expandora
another expandora
a fulldrive II
volume pedal
tremelo pedal
chorus pedal
line 6 delay

I carry many more pedals and always find a place to patch in....but this is my beginning point of the pedal board....

Bill Hullett

[Ericwest53]

As a longtime Pedal Steel Player I can tell you that what Mr Hullett says is right. Compression, Signal boosters, and overdrives are best before the pedal. Levels otherwise are really dodgy.

That's the main problem with the Line6 Podxt. The effects best put before the VP, unless you use the pedalboard or a volume pedal extension from the ShortBoard willl be after the VP, rendering the compressors and Overdrives pretty useless for controllable performance levels.

The best Volume Pedal I've found is the Infrared Hilton Electronic. The one Goodrich "copied" lately. When I tried it, and found the signal improvement, and level tone response it gave me, my 25 year/couple thousand gig used Ernie Ball became a spider house in my war room. Darn near all the steel players I know that have tried them do the same thing. the profile is much lower, even on the 'full sze model".

Now that I'm diving back into the Tele, I'm faced with a similar situation, but more need for a good compressor and overdrive. Being sold on the Podxt, I'll just have to have separate Pre-VP comps and ODs if I want to use them. (I wish someone would put together a Midi-type separate VP.)

(VPs aren't used as much as people think with PSGs, and with guitar I hardly use it at all. As Mr. H noted they are best used to sustain the notes longer. When I hear fellow guitar players "swell" chords and wobble them around to "replicate" pedal steel sounds, with few exceptions, they are imitating lousy pedal steel players.. (JMHO))

:)

EJL

[bwanasonic]

I swear by the Ernie Ball. I prefer a passive volume, as I sometimes use vintage effects that don't react well with the active circuitry (Fuzz Face, Rangemaster, etc.). I use it last on my pedal board (after comp, dist/ OD, etc), with chorus/delay type effects in the amp's loop. I also set mine up around half on. I don't attempt faux-steel with it, but I do use it for *atmospheric* swells with delay/reverb. It also comes in handy as a panic button/ kill-switch when changing guitars.

Kerry M

[tiktok]

For me, how low you wear your guitar factors into it. If it's low enough that the body rests on my leg, I don't like to use that leg for the volume pedal since my leg moves the guitar when I'm using the VP for swells.

As far as which model, I've yet to find anything that sounds better than the discontinued (yet soon to be back in production I hear) Visual Volume. On the other hand, I always preferred the feel of the classic Ernie Ball.

[TELECASTERbstrd]

Some will agree with me, A VP will get you stuck to your position behind your set up. I became a slave to one about 10yrs. ago. I threw it away! That was actually good for my right hand. I like faking steel licks as much or more than the next guy, but I'm glad that I don't have the extra wires or the pedal. I'm one of those pickers that says "I play a Tele and I play it like this... hope you can deal with it". They do.

Now Bill Hullet probably NEEDS one. He's a real working pro that has to be very versitile.

[GuitarJonz]

Originally Posted by Bill Hullett

In my signal chain it goes like this :
guitar
compressor
Bad Bob clean boost
expandora
another expandora
a fulldrive II
volume pedal
tremelo pedal
chorus pedal
line 6 delay

Bill Hullett

Despite all those pedals you list, I remember you saying that the Two-Lane Blacktop cut was CS Nocaster & cord, directly into a stock '59 Bassman RI. That blows me away.

[Ericwest53]

I must amend my thoughtless comments to say that the Hilton is indeed an "active" device, though with my limited number of effects, I have yet to find one that it is incompatible with. There might indeed be some.

My EB seemed at best to cut some of the signal at full volume, and when Allen Bradley EJ Extra life pots were available they worked reliably for years at a time and a few hundred hard weekly gigs.

It was time for a pot change a couple years ago and I couldn't find a good pot, and liked the increased volume and tonal response, so the rest is history...

:)

EJL

[jericho60]

I put it right after all the other pedals, which I try to keep to a minimum anyway. I'll use either my right or left foot, depending on how worn out my legs are getting during the night, and yes it does force you to stand like a statue with one foot glued to it.

No big deal, though, I usually am on a pretty crowded stage anyhow and am usually concentrating too hard on a country gig to be able to put much into 'showmanship'...unlike if I'm playing a rock gig and I can actually jump around some because I know the songs backwards and forwards.

I'm always a little dismayed if I see a picture of myself playing on a country gig and my face is either totally blank or I'm looking somber as a preacher...

[Rick Towne]

I'm debating the EB, Jr. vs. the Goodrich/Hilton approach, including the cost differnetial ($50+ vs. $200+) and may wait until NAMM to make a final decision. There's always several steel players set up at the George L's and Carter booths.

Re the "preacher look", most of my "gigs" are in pretty lively contemporary church settings where there's room to move about and actually interact with the other players and singers. I do not want to be stuck standing behind a pedal board unless it's a more orchestral type arrangement, i.e., sitting down.

Thanks.

[Bill Hullett]

Hi GJ........
Well you see there are two different parametes that I have to fufill when being in Nashville.....The pedalboard is taken to all sessions and used regularly and it creates sounds that seem to please folks.....

Now any time I'm cutting at MY STUDIO.....I have way more control.....99% of the time I go guitar straight in to the amp and then put a tube comressor on the mic so as to gently squash the signal to tape.....then any delay or reverb is added to the guitar on mixday.....But I can't trust downtown engineers to remember what I've asked to be added in the mix.......
Bill hullett

[jericho60]

Originally Posted by Rick Towne

Re the "preacher look", most of my "gigs" are in pretty lively contemporary church settings where there's room to move about and actually interact with the other players and singers.

whoops...

[Deacon Blues]

For sharing your expertise with us. I always appreciate your participation in a thread. Can you give us a break down of which pedals you are using (in your above list) by manufacturer?

[Nub]

Larry Carlton is one player who uses a volume pedal constantly. I've seen him play many times, and he never seems very "tied" to it, and moves around a lot.
(Good shots of him using his volume pedal on the new Larry Carlton/Steve Lukather DVD...)

[franchelB]

I use my Bespeco volume pedal after all the other pedals but BEFORE the delay. Someday, I'll have to get a better (smoother "throw") volume pedal