Is this Vertex pedal mod BS?

[Mick Bailey]

I have a Boss FV500-H in right now. The owner has carried out a 'mod' promoted by Vertex. Basically slice off the ribbon cable to remove the tuner out and the minimum volume pot.

Now, the main pot is a dual 250k/10k unit. The 10k side can be ignored - it just connects to the expression out. The minimum volume pot connects between the ground side of the main pot and ground. So when this pot is at zero, the main pot is connected to ground - just as though the min.vol. pot was not there.

The tuner out just splits off the main input.

So, the mod does nothing more than replicate the minimum volume pot set to zero, and nothing plugged into the tuner out.

The claim is that this has some magical properties on the tone and alters the sweep. I've measured the resistance at various points both with and without the mod and they're the same. It also sounds the same, and my signal gen/scope shows it withthe same rolloff. Either way there's a 250k pot as a voltage divider connected across the guitar.

Is this all BS? I think so. People who've done the mods say it's wonderful. I don't hear it. I certainly don't hear it "allowing the organic tone and dynamics of your instrument to flow through"

It sounds as dull as having a 250k pot across your guitar. Either way. Maybe you need to be a True Believer.

[Richard]

Just looked at their website, I have to agree it seems like BS. The tuner out shouldn't do much is a tuner is not plugged in, I don't see how the min vol pot does anything bad to the signal.

[R.G.]

H.L. Mencken is often misquoted as saying: “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

His actual words were:
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”

Clever fellow. I wonder what he would make of the internet if he were still around.

[Enzo]

I have a small but lively library shelf in my bathroom at work. A volume of the "best of" HL is one of the books there. Sits next to Bertrand Russell.