Volume pedal with NO tone suck ?

[Scotland]

I have used my E.B. volume pedal for years but forgot it last week at a gig. I realised then that it had been sucking tone considerably. Which pedal (if any) has little or no tone suck ?

[mark norwine]

Any passive pedal will suck tone as you turn the volume down.

Put a buffer in front of your pedal and these problems will vanish.

[Togman]

Hi Scotland, don't seem to have seen you around these parts for a while?

The best volume pedal I have ever owned was a Morley Wah/Vol back in the late 70's early 80's. It was a huge thing, built like a Tank and more chrome than my Austin 1300 that I owned at the time. I try not to use any pedals if I can help it, but I never should have sold that Morley......

[Disastercaster]

I used a Morley volume pedal for a while, it sure sucked tone like the bejaysus. Was fine for my uses though, but now it has fallen into disuse I'm going to sell it to someone who needs it.

[elmerbumpkin]

They're usually around $150 or more, but check out Goodrich (I own and use the L120) or Hilton pedals. They're the real deal.

[RomanS]

I have a George Dennis GD125, which is an (active, I think) volume pedal combined with a tremolo, and I don't notice any tone suck.
George Dennis makes all kinds of effects combined with vol pedals, as well as volume "only" pedals:
http://www.george-dennis.cz/
http://www.georgedennisuk.com/

[spameister]

Go for a Morley. Great value, optical components (no scratchyness), and true bypass.

[Raymund]

Hi RomanS !

Greetings from a fellow Austrian but being posted abroad. You mentioned the George Dennis volume pedals. Are they available in Vienna, at which price ?

[RomanS]

Servus Raymund,
I bought mine via Ebay, for 49 Euros (new - there's a German music store who is selling various George Dennis stuff for good prices, the Ebay name is 'audio-electric').
The only store in Vienna where I found GD stuff was MusicSession - and there it is as overpriced as all their other stuff.
And there's a store in Vorarlberg, http://www.tao-gitarrenlaedele.at/ that sells GD stuff as well.

[Scotland]

Seems like you both like the Morley, saw a second hand one for sale just yesterday, I'll give them a cal tomorrow and try it out if they still have it. Thanks boys for the help.
Just noticed Disastercaster's comments...why would one differ from others ? Are there differing models of Morley ?

[spameister]

I have a recomendation from a friend: http://www.alesis.com/product.php?id=92

Has anyone heard of this?

It certainly looks the buisness, but i don't know whether to just pay the extra 20 bucks or so to get a morley.

I thinks I might order one. If it does suck, I think i can find a use for it as a standard expression pedal.

[alotas123]

Originally Posted by mark norwine

Any passive pedal will suck tone as you turn the volume down.

Put a buffer in front of your pedal and these problems will vanish.

+1. I use a tube-based buffer. The tone it imparts is imperceptible unless you remove it from the signal chain. Hard to describe but you miss it right away.

[tiktok]

Visual Volume.

[Scotland]

Originally Posted by alotas123

+1. I use a tube-based buffer. The tone it imparts is imperceptible unless you remove it from the signal chain. Hard to describe but you miss it right away.

What is it exactly that you use ?

[johnreardon]

Originally Posted by Scotland

Seems like you both like the Morley, saw a second hand one for sale just yesterday, I'll give them a cal tomorrow and try it out if they still have it. Thanks boys for the help.
Just noticed Disastercaster's comments...why would one differ from others ? Are there differing models of Morley ?

They do a few different models of Wah wah and volume.

http://www.morleypedals.com/products.html

I have the Volumeplus and have never had any tone loss issues with it. In fact, I would say, it's one of the better ones out there. At least of the ones I have tried

[editorjuno]

Originally Posted by Scotland

I have used my E.B. volume pedal for years but forgot it last week at a gig. I realised then that it had been sucking tone considerably. Which pedal (if any) has little or no tone suck ?

I haven't tried this, but I'm confident it will work with a simple passive volume pedal:

Replace the output jack of the guitar with a stereo jack, and reroute the ground lug of the guitar's volume control to the ring lug of the new jack. If necessary, replace the pot in the pedal with one of the same value as the volume pot in the guitar. When this is done, the guitar will operate as before with a normal cable, but when you use a cable with a stereo plug (hot to tip, ground to barrel, ring unconnected) at the guitar end to connect the guitar via the volume pedal the guitar's volume control will be out of the circuit and the pickups will "see" pretty much the same load as normal. For this to work, the volume pedal must be the first (or only) device in the signal chain between the guitar and the amp.