transparent volume pedal

[yoni74]

Hi all!
I'm looking for a volume pedal to use with a clonewheel organ.
I've tried a few ones (cheap an less cheap ones) and all of them suck tone. I was wondering if there's any mod to avoid this. If a volume pedal is just a volume pot like in a guitar, then could it be a solution to add a 250pF capacitor and a 220K resistance (for instance) to achieve a crystaline sound?
Thanks!

[Enzo]

Without knowing the circuit you are working in, it is hard to say.

[yoni74]

Mmm, let's say a 250k audio pot, low impedance pedal. I think there's nothing else inside the volume pedals I've tried...

[Chuck H]

Most volume pedals are active low impedance devices so there is very little, if any, change of tone. But you may be experiencing the amplifier changing tone at different drive levels.

Are you playing strictly clean or are you intentionally overdriving the amplifier? Are you using effects? what is the order of your effects including the placement of the volume pedal?

There may be a solution. The more details you give about what you want and what you have the easier it will be to find.

Chuck

[Robert M. Martinelli]

Hmm...
how about a simple bypass capacitor across the volume pot? ( between the pot's input and output lugs ). Some 1000 pF should be enough to allow the highest freqs to "jump" the pot thus keeping the pot from "sucking tone".

It's a solution simple enough to be worth trying; if it doesn't do what you want, then all you probably need is an active volume pedal.

Hope this helps

Best regards

Bob

[R.G.]

Volume pedals do have an inherent compromise. The sheer resistance of the pot needs to be about 1M to keep just the volume pot from loading down the guitar. After that, you get to the losses from the pot itself, which can drain off some more treble.

I am not just trying to blow my own horn, but the company I work for did design a volume pedal specifically to avoid those issues. If you want a non-distorting, non-tone sucking pedal, you might want to find one in a dealer's shop and try it out on your guitar and amp; that's the only good test for musical equipment - does it sound good to you.

The Visual Volume 10th anniversary edition has dual 250K pots, as well as active buffers. There is a switch to allow each of the stereo channels to be either active or passive. In passive, the signal only goes to the volume pots, not touching any circuitry. In active, a buffer is switched in ahead of each pot, then after each pot to preclude any loading or treble loss. The output buffers have an individually adjustable gain of 1 to 10.

There's a lot more to it (we call it "not your father's volume pedal") but try it for the sound, not the stunts it does. I don't get any commission on sales - I just think it's a good solution to a common problem.

[52 Bill]

Originally Posted by R.G.

...The Visual Volume 10th anniversary edition has dual 250K pots, as well as active buffers...

R.G. Does it still have the light show?

[R.G.]

Originally Posted by 52 Bill

R.G. Does it still have the light show?

Yep, still has the light show. Also the always-live tuner output.