Grateful Dead Music Forum

what is the word on the street about volume pedals?

what is everyone using? are there benefits to having one?

I use a ernie ball. Awsome pedal. Probably most durable. I use it for like a spaced out reverse type sound. Very cool violin like sounds. I love this pedal would suggest it to anyone.

I use the Ernie Ball Volume Pedal Jr. also. Its a nice pedal. I use it for going from rhythm to lead for that boost. A little tough to zero in though quickly between the two. I also use it sporadically for what spacehead said. In some Dark Stars I hear Jerry doin the same. Using volume swells to get a violin-esque sound.

I have the Ernie Ball JR. I use it every time I turn my ZVex fuzz factory on to tame it. Also when i want more volume for lead.

I don't do volume pedals. Don't like how they interact with FX nor preamp.

If I could put one in an FX loop or between the preamp and the poweramp maybe I'd consider.

1. Don't buy the Boss Volume pedal

2. Learn how to use the guitar volume knob.

I have been using a volume pedal since the mid-1980s. It is the very last item in my effects loop before heading back to the amp. In this placement, it does not impact how the effects respond (kind of like how Jerry had his volume and effects loops wired to/from his guitar). The one I have allows you to adjust how long the stroke is from silence to full volume, which facilitates swelling notes like in the opening to In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.

IMO, the only volume pedal to use is Morley because of the electo-optical electronics instead of pots that can get noisy.

Was Garcia using a volume pedal?

I thought he had a volume pedal but had it set up as a pan pedal to adjust the amount of reverb in his tone.

went and played on a mortley volume pedal today, it was pretty cool and a new experience for me. I want to get a compression/sustain pedal eventualy, but a volume pedal could fit pretty well in my line

Where does everybody place the volume pedal in their signal path? I'm curious about the instances where I see the volume pedal placed FIRST in the fx chain- what is the benefit of that placement?

fwiw, Jerry used volume pedals as parameter controllers for Delay Time, Delay Regen and Phase Speed. He used EB's for several years, beginning around 1979 but by summer 1990 had switched to using Boss 300V's.

tigerstrat wrote:Where does everybody place the volume pedal in their signal path? I'm curious about the instances where I see the volume pedal placed FIRST in the fx chain- what is the benefit of that placement?

fwiw, Jerry used volume pedals as parameter controllers for Delay Time, Delay Regen and Phase Speed. He used EB's for several years, beginning around 1979 but by summer 1990 had switched to using Boss 300V's.

I'm having a hard time imagining why anyone would put the volume pedal first in the chain. Have you seen anyone GOOD do that? Nah, maybe there is a good reason. I just don't know what the heck it is. Changing input volume plays hell with my effects, though, so my vol pedal is always the last thing in the chain.

I agree with deadguise, volume petals are less than great no matter what you use, learn to your strumming hand pinky finger to control you volume knob as you play.
Duane Allman uses his knobs for the volume swells in melissa, in the beginnig of liz reed, he dosn't swell the volume with a knob or petal, what you hearing there is flawless dynamic technique. it's all about the way you pick and mute with your right hand

I think that's Dickey in the beginning of E. Reed.

Sure, one can give the right hand additional tasks and use the volume knob. Of course, if more than one pickup is in play, you'd better have a master volume knob, or you're only going to be turning down one of them. Also, when you cut your pickup output, any effects you're using are going to respond differently.

It is certainly possible to control one's dynamics through touch. However, one can (and should) still do that even when also using a volume pedal, but with the volume pedal you can control the limits too. Bump up the max a little for the solo, and back it down some when you go to the mic. With an optical unit like the Morley (here's a big list of people who use them http://www.morleypedals.com/fom.html) the sound is not affected, and you never suffer the noise of pots wearing out.

I've used Volume pedals since I took up Pedal Steel in 10th grade.

I use one for guitar gigs as well, and usually have my foot on it 90% of the time.
imho, It allows your instrument to "breath".

I use it more like a steel player would (when playing guitar), so for me, it's not about what anybody else did or does, or how they do or did it.
For my taste, it allows for another level of expressionism above and beyond your hands/technique, volume knobs (on the guitar or effects), etc.

I always run it after all effects except reverb and/or deley (it will cut the tails off of verb/deley otherwise).
In my case, guitar>outboard tube buffer>envelope>octave>V-ped>reverb/deley>preamp>etc.

I find it very usefull for finding my comfort zone with respect to having the envelope filter fire off just the way I want it to (with respect to picking amplitude vs envelope settings).

I'll always use one.

The brands that steel players tend to use are Goodrich, or Hilton.

Here is a link to a Goodrich vendor:
http://www.tonetronix.com/c/Goodrich-Vo ... edals.html

Here is the Hilton Electronics site:
http://www.hiltonelectronics.com/index.html

~pb