Volume Pedal Killing Guitar Signal

wenley · Post by **wenley** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:33 pm

I have a volume pedal, an Ernie Ball mono model, that I use at the end of my signal chain of my pedalboard. I'm a guitarist, and my signal chain consists of a Boss pedal tuner, Dunlop Tremolo, MXR Phaser, Rat, and the Volume Pedal. It seems to drain all the volume out of the signal (and the damn thing is all the way down, or in the "on" position at all times unless I'm using it for swells or something.) If I take the volume pedal out of the chain, my signal gets much louder.

I figured that since there are really no electronics in the thing except for the jacks that it wouldn't matter where it lived in the chain and I thought it would be cool to have it at the end so I can do swells with the effects already on. I don't use a hell of a lot of effects, but I had a power supply, board, and a bunch of pedals I wasn't using and just got a gig as the second guitarist in a new band, so I figured if I didn't get into the effects I should just sell 'em. I never used more than the volume pedal and the Rat before and never had a problem, and the volume was always last. Any suggestions, or is there some fundamental idea I'm missing. Thanks everybody!

jca83 · Post by **jca83** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:43 pm

well there is a volume pot in there that's connected to the pedal and both jacks.

i would try to pop it open and see what that pot's up to.

i have one and it quit working; the pedal itself has a little metal hook that rotates the pot's level. turns out that hook had come unhooked, so to speak. you might pop the hood and see.

wenley · Post by **wenley** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 9:03 pm

cool. thanks. I'll give that a shot.

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 7:18 am

Volume and wah pedals are notorious tone suckers.

Electronically, the best way to overcome that is to feed it a lower impedance signal.

Some boxes that I've had good luck:

ZVex Super Hard On
Maxon Compressor CP101
VHT Valvulator (BTW, I'm selling one, PM me if interested). http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopic.php?t=28146

Phiz · Post by **Phiz** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 9:28 am

The pots in those pedals are mechanical devices, which eventually wear out. So if it's an old pedal the pot may need replacing.

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:16 am

http://www.analogman.com/ernie.htm

http://www.ernieball.com/site/products_pedals.php

If your pedal is beat up, here's how to get it refurbished straight from Ernie Ball.

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Volume Pedal Killing Guitar Signal

Volume Pedal Killing Guitar Signal

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