Volume Pedal (is this a stupid question?)

[nils]

Hi!

I think I might want to add a volume pedal to my setup; now I do know that the crucial part of building one is the enclosure; but as I have a dead CryBaby lying around, I thought "piece of cake". But then it got me thinking... what's inside a volume pedal besides the obligatory volume pot? It can't be THAT easy, can it?

In other words: are there any schems around for good sounding vol pedals? Or do I just install a pot into the enclosure and that's it?

Thanks!

[J Gagan]

I think the Ernie Ball peds are a 500k or 1 meg pot.

You could just wire it like a vol control,

Or you could use the switch hole [ dpdt for true bypass ) of the crybaby to switch between a boosted function or straight vol pedal.

Or switch between buffer and boost would be pretty cool too. This would give the least amount of loss vs a stock vol ped for your cable runs, other peds etc.

[J Gagan]

Also, try and get a very durable pot.
I find these old military spec pots at the surplus place, I think they are AB from the UK

the have a logo A-B, with a 'G' below, inside an octagon
and they say 'TYPE J'
Big sealed pot.

[nils]

so passive vol pedals are really that easy made? just the pot and nothing else?

I suppose the vol pedal should then go somewhere after a buffered pedal, right?

[ExpAnonColin]

so passive vol pedals are really that easy made? just the pot and nothing else?

I suppose the vol pedal should then go somewhere after a buffered pedal, right?

Passive are very easy, yes, but there is quite a bit of tone loss.

The EB's have op amps and what have you in them to make the tone loss not so bad.

-Colin

[Arno van der Heijden]

My EB has a treble bleed cap across the pot. No opamps though...

[bwanasonic]

My EB has a treble bleed cap across the pot. No opamps though...

The standard EB 6166 doesn't have anything other than a switchable resistor to change the pot taper. It does have some tone suck, so some sort of buffer is a good idea.

Kerry M

[nils]

thanks guys. Fixed me up a quick volume pedal using the old pot of my Wah. Value / range doesn't matter much because it's mainly for muting and a casual swell effect. Have it after my OD pedals (old H&K Tubeman is the last of them) and before my tuner (Boss TU-2), so it should be OK sound wise.

Thanks again.