Please help...volume pedal question

[coltranemi2012]

hi, I am currently doing this gig...I need something that I can control my overall volume easier. I was thinking..would placing one at the end of the pedal chain..right before the amp...would that do it?
I want to be able to control my overall volume but not lose gain and overall sound. Can anyone make any recommendations? Also...what's a good volume pedal to buy? I don't care about putting a tuner through it. Thanks

 

[rumbletone]

If your amp is running clean with lots of headroom, placing the volume pedal (VP) immediately before the amp will work. If your amp is breaking up, it will not.

hi, I am currently doing this gig...I need something that I can control my overall volume easier. I was thinking..would placing one at the end of the pedal chain..right before the amp...would that do it?
I want to be able to control my overall volume but not lose gain and overall sound. Can anyone make any recommendations? Also...what's a good volume pedal to buy? I don't care about putting a tuner through it. Thanks

 

[Banditt]

If you are using delay or time based effects like chorus, you might want to put the volume pedal before them...It's nice to be able to trail off or end your volume without also killing your reverb and delay. Doing so sounds unmusical IMO. Also, putting your volume pedal before any overdrive alows you to control the amount of signal being sent to your OD, allowing you to control your tone.

Just things to think about...

 

[coltranemi2012]

Amp will be clean...no I don't want to control my pedals with it...I like them as is..problem is I'm in a situation where I may go from playing a very quiet song with brushes....to all out rock...or a samba where the drummer is hitting the rims and stuff...also I'm reading music during this. I want to be able to control my overall volume with my foot. But not change the sound, tone, amount of gain or Color. I want to do what a keyboardist can do....turn up and down but the patch remains the same...in guitar gain levels change.

 

[stinkfoot]

Then you need to place the volume pedal somewhere after the distortion/drive pedals. I'd run it immediately after that section on the board, with delays etc going after it. That way, like Banditt said, a quick adjustment to the volume won't cut off any delay repeats, which makes for a more natural volume change.

One important factor in keeping the sound the same as you turn down is the volume pedal itself. For this scenario, I'd suggest a low impedance volume pedal (Ernie Ball 25K or Boss "L" model), but you'd need to make sure the last pedal before the volume pedal is properly buffered (Boss/Ibanez type). A sure-fire way is of course to use a buffered volume pedal - the Ernie Ball MVP or Lehle Volume fits the bill perfectly.

 

[GetAddicted]

You could place it at the end of your signal chain to control the overall volume.If you use delay or reverb you could also place the volume pedal before them in order to hear the trails from delay/reverb naturally decaying when you bring down the volume.With this you can do swells.I have only used two volume pedals a vintage Tel Ray Morley and the Ernie Ball VPjr that is currently in my board.If you place a buffered pedal before VPjr then it should be ok without any tone suck.

EDIT:i have the 250K Vpjr so i don't know about how the 25k behaves with the tone.Stinkfoot describing it very well above.

 

[stevel]

FWIW, if you find yourself having to go between two levels commonly, but not all the way quiet, it's worth considering a VP with a "Min/Max" knob. This lets you set the volume for the Heel and Toe setting. Toe down could be maximum volume (100% of your signal) and Heel down could be 75% of your volume.

It's nice to have two "end points" to work within because if you pedal goes from 0-100, but you find yourself having to dial in 50-75 most of the time, it's going to be hard to get the pedal to those exact volumes in real time. At least if you've got dead ends at some top and bottom level, scrolling through the rest is a tad easier. (plus, an accidental step doesn't suddenly silence your rig!)

Also, any volume pedal I've ever tried sucks tone. But I can't afford the most expensive ones that supposedly don't. Even people who tell you they don't, either don't know how to listen or it doesn't bother them.

Sometimes I think it would be better to have a string and pulley system that ran back to my amp's master volume knob!

So be aware that you may buy one, put it in line, and then have it affect your tone in a way you don't like.

 

[Banditt]

"FWIW, if you find yourself having to go between two levels commonly, but not all the way quiet, it's worth considering a VP with a "Min/Max" knob. This lets you set the volume for the Heel and Toe setting. Toe down could be maximum volume (100% of your signal) and Heel down could be 75% of your volume."

Good advice..."fishing" for the correct volume is horrible and inaccurate....

 

[GetAddicted]

Also, any volume pedal I've ever tried sucks tone. But I can't afford the most expensive ones that supposedly don't. Even people who tell you they don't, either don't know how to listen or it doesn't bother them.

I noticed that Ernie Ball Vpjr sucks tone in it's own but when i placed a boss ge-7 immediately before the volume pedal the tone suck problem gone.Have you tried that pedal?

 

[walterw]

Also, any volume pedal I've ever tried sucks tone.

run it after a buffer and it won't.

a 25k pedal at the end of the whole shebang before the clean amp will do what @coltranemi2012 wants. i even run mine after the delay and it sounds fine that way.

 

[CEFlint]

Amp will be clean...no I don't want to control my pedals with it...I like them as is..problem is I'm in a situation where I may go from playing a very quiet song with brushes....to all out rock...or a samba where the drummer is hitting the rims and stuff...also I'm reading music during this. I want to be able to control my overall volume with my foot. But not change the sound, tone, amount of gain or Color. I want to do what a keyboardist can do....turn up and down but the patch remains the same...in guitar gain levels change.

I play regularly with a group that does a similar variety. I use a volume pedal after my wah, compression and drives, but before the amp. I run delay, tremolo and usually a rotary in the amp loop.
If you're running all before the amp, I'd put the volume pedal after drives and compression, but before delay, trem, rotary, chorus, etc. This will let your dirt still sound the same (basically) at a lower volume.