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Zivojinovich View Drop Down
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Points: 19 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Volume Pedal
    Posted: November 12 2008 at 21:28
Does anybody know a good volume pedal that i could use for my guitar?
 
i want a volume pedal, but i'm not sure what brand i should get.
 
any fellow guitarists wanna help me out? Smile
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Petrovsk Mizinski View Drop Down
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Points: 25210 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 12 2008 at 22:35
Try out Morley.
Not the cheapest, but if you like optical pedals and want something that is guaranteed to be high quality, it's a good buy.
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Epignosis View Drop Down
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Points: 32524 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 12 2008 at 23:30
I've no experience with Morley, but I've heard many good things.

I use a Line6 PodXTLive on my recordings and live shows, and I have absolutely no complaints.  In fact, I love the way it swells my sound into existence.

Of course, it's $500, because you get a whole host of other things, but still...just thought I'd share.
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Points: 415 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 13 2008 at 01:40
Only advice I have is stay away from the ones that use a plastic cog level that runs through the gears. I have had two of these from two different manufacturers and they both failed.
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Petrovsk Mizinski View Drop Down
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Points: 25210 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 13 2008 at 01:51
Originally posted by Epignosis Epignosis wrote:

I've no experience with Morley, but I've heard many good things.

I use a Line6 PodXTLive on my recordings and live shows, and I have absolutely no complaints.  In fact, I love the way it swells my sound into existence.

Of course, it's $500, because you get a whole host of other things, but still...just thought I'd share.


Considering the X3Live goes for 500 USD at many stores in the US, there is no reason to get the older model if one could afford the X3Smile.
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Points: 32524 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 13 2008 at 10:53
Originally posted by HughesJB4 HughesJB4 wrote:

Originally posted by Epignosis Epignosis wrote:

I've no experience with Morley, but I've heard many good things.

I use a Line6 PodXTLive on my recordings and live shows, and I have absolutely no complaints.  In fact, I love the way it swells my sound into existence.

Of course, it's $500, because you get a whole host of other things, but still...just thought I'd share.


Considering the X3Live goes for 500 USD at many stores in the US, there is no reason to get the older model if one could afford the X3Smile.


I don't keep up with anything.  And I'm on the Line 6 mailing list.
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Points: 3888 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 14 2008 at 10:29
I have an old Electronic Harmonix Fuzz/Wah/Volume Pedal which is first very solid (you can stand on it) and has a nice sound, but I am not sure it's still sold check out the EH site. Otherwise the Dunlop volume and wah pedals have a good reputation for sound and solid fabrication.
 
 
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Points: 8844 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 14 2008 at 22:04
Originally posted by HughesJB4 HughesJB4 wrote:

Try out Morley.
Not the cheapest, but if you like optical pedals and want something that is guaranteed to be high quality, it's a good buy.


I've got a Morley and I really dig it. 

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jammun View Drop Down
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Points: 3449 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 14 2008 at 22:10
My pedal steel came with a Goodrich volume pedal.  I doubt it's anywhere near high-end, but it seems to do the job.
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Points: 143 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 15 2008 at 02:25
Dude, just use the volume knobs on your guitar! It's a great technique to learn and you won't have to pay an extra cent!

You can learn to strum notes while holding the knob with your little finger and turning it like that. It's not that hard and will only take a little practice to get used to.

So put that wallet away!
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Petrovsk Mizinski View Drop Down
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Points: 25210 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 21 2008 at 22:30
^You are aware the reason why people get volume pedals is so they can do things while playing normally with both hands and not have to restrict what they are doing to be able to play with the volume knob?

And also, most guitar volume pots are logarithmic taper pots.
Sure, you can buy volume pedals that are logarithmic taper as well, but what if you not only want the logarithmic taper use of your guitar's volume knob, but also a way to control volume via linear taper? You would then need to buy a volume pedal with linear taper.

If there was no use for volume pedals, they wouldn't be made.. seems plain and simple too me.
Simply suggesting that someone "use their volume pot on their guitar" as a substitute just goes to show a  lack of knowledge and understanding of guitar effects and that other players might have needs other than yourself.

No offense to you intended, but giving off uninformed advice like that is never a good thing and can lead to that person one gives bad advice too, passing on that bad advice.

When it comes to things like suggesting guitar related things, or indeed, any musical devices, make sure you know you stuff before giving advice. People don't deserve to be mislead due to poor and uninformed advice.

And again, no offense intended, but please bear this in mind next time.
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Points: 5195 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 22 2008 at 06:14
I would suggest to get a POD X3 Live ... you'll get an expression pedal which you can use as a volume pedal, wah pedal ... anything you want (except for "whammy" effects, which - I guess - are patented by Boss). The point is: why pay a hundred dollars or more for a pedal which has one single effect if you can get a complete solution like the X3 (or the Vox ToneLab SE or Boss GT-10 if you don't like Line6) for a couple of hundred dollars?Big smile

BTW: Of course you can still use the volume knob for many effects ... guitarists like Vai use it too, even if they could probably afford a volume pedal.Wink
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Points: 55 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 24 2008 at 15:37
Originally posted by Mr ProgFreak Mr ProgFreak wrote:

I would suggest to get a POD X3 Live ... you'll get an expression pedal which you can use as a volume pedal, wah pedal ... anything you want (except for "whammy" effects, which - I guess - are patented by Boss). The point is: why pay a hundred dollars or more for a pedal which has one single effect if you can get a complete solution like the X3 (or the Vox ToneLab SE or Boss GT-10 if you don't like Line6) for a couple of hundred dollars?Big smile

BTW: Of course you can still use the volume knob for many effects ... guitarists like Vai use it too, even if they could probably afford a volume pedal.Wink
 
My bandmate used to have a Morley volume pedal and it performed really well, so I would recommend it.
The pros (Steve Morse, etc) however seem to favor the Ernie Ball brand, but it's probably more expensive.
 
Volume Knob option:
 
It doesn't really work like a volume pedal if you use distortion (as we all almost do) because the guitar will *always* be before the distortion device (be it pedal or amp) so that fading with the volume knob will also fade the *gain* along too (from clean and soft to distorted and loud).
 
The volume pedal (put *after* the distortion device) however really fades the volume but with the full intensity of the distortion already present.
 
So for Steve Hackett-style soloing the volume pedal, I think, is a must.
 
POD XT Live:
 
The expression pedal can be used as volume pedal (the default) and logically be positioned before or after (the default) the distortion in the virtual effects chain. So, it works right out of the box.
 
The Whammy effect can be obtained by upgrading the software (via USB connection and Line 6 Monkey software) for free. This adds the "Bender" effect (in the "Stomp" category). By assigning the expression pedal to the 'position' parameter then you can "bend" the pitch in real time, just like in the Whammy (you lose the volume pedal feature for that preset, though).
 
Hope that helps.
Good luck Smile
 
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Points: 143 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 07 2008 at 00:40
Originally posted by HughesJB4 HughesJB4 wrote:

^You are aware the reason why people get volume pedals is so they can do things while playing normally with both hands and not have to restrict what they are doing to be able to play with the volume knob?
And also, most guitar volume pots are logarithmic taper pots.
Sure, you can buy volume pedals that are logarithmic taper as well, but what if you not only want the logarithmic taper use of your guitar's volume knob, but also a way to control volume via linear taper? You would then need to buy a volume pedal with linear taper.

If there was no use for volume pedals, they wouldn't be made.. seems plain and simple too me.
Simply suggesting that someone "use their volume pot on their guitar" as a substitute just goes to show a  lack of knowledge and understanding of guitar effects and that other players might have needs other than yourself.

No offense to you intended, but giving off uninformed advice like that is never a good thing and can lead to that person one gives bad advice too, passing on that bad advice.

When it comes to things like suggesting guitar related things, or indeed, any musical devices, make sure you know you stuff before giving advice. People don't deserve to be mislead due to poor and uninformed advice.

And again, no offense intended, but please bear this in mind next time.

Hmmm, well you're slightly pretentious aren't you? My bad advice that suggests experimenting with something built into the guitar rather than spending (quite possibly unnecessary) money is bad advice? I'm, not offended, just a little taken aback by your arrogance.

I have no idea the difference between a logarithmic taper and a linear taper, but we're talking volume here, I really doubt that it could make much difference to the sound. All that each do is lower and higer the sound level. Why should anything else matter?

Of course volume pedals were invented for a reason, they can be used for boosting as well, but buying one could be wasting up to $150 on an effect that could easily be produced by other means.

Remember, I was making a suggestion. A suggestion which could be useful to the OP. I don't know how that somehow shows that I know nothing when clearly I have some idea about a useful technique.
So no need to be an arrogant, condascending, pretentious, patronising a****le just because you feel that advice that suggests experimentation before opening up a wallet is bad and uninformed advice. No offense intended, but please bear this in mind next time.
My solo music: ANTHROPIATE
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Mr ProgFreak View Drop Down
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Points: 5195 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 07 2008 at 02:01
^ and you think that swearing will help your case?
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Points: 29630 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 07 2008 at 04:57
Just be sure you get one that goes up to 11. LOL
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Points: 65239 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 07 2008 at 05:06
I always wanted a cut-off switch.. I liked how Rhoads used his, Dave Meniketti too
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Points: 4160 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 07 2008 at 07:57
Is it really relevant? I mean, it's a bleeding volume pedal, not an analog multi-effect; who wants to pay one a $500? The cheapest one will do exactly the same job.

Or am I wrong?
Percussion, sir!
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Points: 55 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 07 2008 at 12:40
Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

I always wanted a cut-off switch.. I liked how Rhoads used his, Dave Meniketti too
 
Gibson Les Paul guitars have independent volume and tone knobs for its pickups, so you simply turn down to zero the volume knob for the neck pickup (while having the bridge pickup one fully maxed), toggle the pickup selector and there you have it, instant cut-off switch! Smile
 
Back to the volume pedal:
 
The whole idea behind it is to free your hands to play while you manipulate volume (try fading in arpeggios or fast riffing using just your pinky and volume knob!). Also, as I said, you can place the volume pedal anywhere in the signal chain, before or after the distortion, before or after the delay, even before or after your preamp if your amp has an FX loop, so lots of creative choices. The volume knob however can only be at the start of the signal chain and that's it.
 
The volume pedal, placed after the distortion device (pedal or preamp) is a must to get that full gain swell sound (like Hackett and Petrucci use). Otherwise, instead of fading the the full guitar tone, it will fade the gain along (a less sharp, much gentle sound).
 
There are even more uses, like splitting the signal chain and using volume pedals to blend the sounds (i.e. fading the signal to different delay units, FX and/or amps).
 
While the volume pedal function in itself is pretty simple, some of them are made in plastic, some in metal, some are mono, some are stereo, some are rugged, some are less so, some are mechanical, some are optical, etc.
 
For a simple fading effect, a mono pedal will do just fine. The other aspects (brand, material) are down to budget. And that's it Smile
 
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Points: 95 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 07 2008 at 18:01
The Ernie Ball seems to be the industry standard.  Back when i was thinking of getting one, that's the one everybody told me I should get...not just because of build quality, but also because of pedal response.
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