How much does your volume pedal suck?

blackhatboojum

blackhatboojum

Well-known member
Forgive me if this is not posted in the right place but I wanted to share this experience.

I will preface this post by saying, I’ve read quite a bit of information on passive volume pedals. Most of that info was about “tone suck” and the how and why it occurs. Personal experience with my own volume pedal, wasn’t really a “tone suck”issue. It was more of an overall “volume suck” issue. My amps would not feel and react the same with my volume pedal in line. Almost like the volume pedal was choking off the signal from my guitar even though my guitar and pedal volumes were maxed.

Well, out of shear boredom, I decided to run a quick and dirty experiment. I fed a 200hz sine wave into a true bypass looper and hooked up my dmm on the other end. In the loop I put in my Boss FV-50H at max volume.

C0255906-3D5F-42BB-B603-103A4073DB29.jpeg
+2.28 dbm straight through the looper pedal.

7ECFE2FD-0A6E-4AF1-9496-E034ADA36998.jpeg
Engage the looper and bring the volume pedal into the mix… +.98 dbm. Yep, it does indeed suck overall volume.
 
Last edited:
fig said:
Well that sucks

[it had to be said...out of the way now...you're welcome]

How about tuners?
Click to expand...
🤔Hmm. Good question. I don’t own any tuners with a bypass jack like a boss tu-2. All of mine are true bypass with an in and out. I’m curious if those types of tuners eat signal. I did however, test my korg pitch black into the tuner out on the volume pedal. It had no effect on the dbm output whatsoever.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fig
It just doesn't seem right that a volume pedal cannot achieve unity. I need to know why now.

I've got a Dunlop Volume-X Mini, and a polytune-3 mini. Neither have a bypass jack, but I'll test them later this evening just for reference.
 
fig said:
It just doesn't seem right that a volume pedal cannot achieve unity. I need to know why now.

I've got a Dunlop Volume-X Mini, and a polytune-3 mini. Neither have a bypass jack, but I'll test them later this evening just for reference.
Click to expand...
I have a feeling that the pot isn’t fully rotated at the upper end of the treadle’s travel. The treadle of most expression pedals doesn’t allow for the full 270° of rotation that the pot has to offer, so it’s possible that it’s a log taper pot, and that at toe down, there’s maybe 5-10% of the pot’s rotational travel still available. Might be able to fix this volume pedal just by opening it up and seeing if the pot can be shifted slightly.
 
I hadn't considered that but, yes sir! I remember having to adjust it for a vibe pedal I made. Can't forget the mechanical side of things. :D
 
Bricksnbeatles said:
I have a feeling that the pot isn’t fully rotated at the upper end of the treadle’s travel. The treadle of most expression pedals doesn’t allow for the full 270° of rotation that the pot has to offer, so it’s possible that it’s a log taper pot, and that at toe down, there’s maybe 5-10% of the pot’s rotational travel still available. Might be able to fix this volume pedal just by opening it up and seeing if the pot can be shifted slightly.
Click to expand...
I kinda had that thought too. I’m going to open it up and see if that’s the case.
 
@Bricksnbeatles was right. The way this thing is designed, the pot will not max out in the toe down position. Hence, the lack of full volume.

I disconnected the mechanism, gave the pot a twist so it’s maxed at toe down, and then reconnected it.

Can you guess what happens when you go all the way heel down? Yep. It doesn’t go to zero volume anymore😑.

I messed with it for about 30 minutes and found the best happy medium I could muster. Still has volume suck. Boss gets a D- from me on this pedal design.

25D9334B-31CE-4C54-96AC-F852136CE1EE.jpeg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top