How the volume control on a guitar pedal works 

Makes perfect sense. That also answers a question I've had for a long time: why higher resistance volume pots in your guitar "brighten up" the sound - More potential resistance to ground equals less of your signal bleeding through to ground and more to output. Am I right on that? This was an "aha!" moment for me. Thank you!

Love videos like this! So helpful! Thanks for taking the time to do these :)

Thanks for making this video, very helpful diagnosing my homemade volume pedal. Liked and subbed.

Great Video! Simple and very useful.

Not sure about that, but i do know that some circuits have a capacitor before the output pot. The capacitor in combination with the potentiometer make up a high pass filter. Increasing the resistance of the output pot increases the cut off frequency of bass. I discovered this first hand when i lowered the output pot on a tonebender and ended up with a very thin output signal. But anyway, thats a subject for another video :)

The way I think of a potentiometer is like a resistor with a movable tap. It's not *really* a variable resistor, the resistance from pin 1 to pin 3 is constant. You just have a tap (pin 2) that can move along the entire surface of the resistor... which is literally what it actually is, mechanically. There's a wiper that scrapes along the surface and turning the shaft slides the wiper along the resistor surface connecting the middle pin to various positions along the surface of the resistor. The schematic symbol for potentiometer shows a resistor with an arrow pointing to the middle of it. This arrow represents the wiper touching the resistor.

Really helpful, thank you!

Thanks for the video mate, really informative.

I’d love a video on how to add an expression pedal jack to a pedal!

Perfect !! I almost forgot what ive learned in school.

Hey ! Nice video :) I still have a question : as volume is controlled by a ratio between two resistor values, what would be the differecen between having, say, 1k/10k and 10k/100k ?

Do you use linear potentiometers or logarithmic potentiometers in guitar pedals? I'm curious what would happen to a volume control if you used a log potentiometer.

You are correct but in a voltage divider circuit you have to look at BOTH resistors to work out the voltage on the output. Think of the resistance as a speed hump. if the resistance to ground has a larger speedhump then the resistance to the output, more voltage will appear on the output = the path of least resistance. I would highly recommend doing this exercise with some resistors and changing values. You will what raising and lowering the values will produce on the output

Do you have schematics about a tremolo? I want to make one, the last week I did a wah wah! Now I need a tremolo, I'm investigating but I have not found the answer , PLEASE?!

can anyone help me out? i need a c100k pot (reverse audio taper) but cant find one. if i wire a a100k pot backwards will it work?

Hey, my delay pedal act like booster it boost the volume significanly when i engage it on, how can i fix it? Can you help me out?

Would it also be ok to use a single resistor in series at the output of the circuit to provide a volume reduction? Some pedals I build are way too loud and was thinking of adding a 10k or so to output to lower volume.

I'm struggling with a reverb pedal build that outputs less than unity gain. will adding a volume pot offer any possible increase in output or only adjust it from the existing level to lower?

i totally still dont get it...

I suggest you get a multimeter and see how the resistance changes between the different legs of the pot. Most trimpots I know have three legs: one is connected to one end of the resistor, the middle leg connected to the turning knob and the resistor, and the last leg is connected to the other end of the resistor. This means the resistance between the two opposite legs is always the same. As you turn the knob in one direction the resistances between the middle leg and the other two legs changes.

1 ---vvvvvvvv--- 3. 2 Thats the pot schematic symbol. 1 is lug 1, 2 is lug 2 center lug, and 3 is lug 3. The arrow in the schematic pointing to the wavy lines is the wiper, or the knob turning on the inside of the pot. The guitar signal goes into lug 1, and outputs to lug 2, 3 is grounded. That way when you turn the pot clockwise, it decreases the resistance of the pot, thus allowing more signal through, making guitar louder.

I have problem... Volume pot makes hot and ground short circuit. HELP!

Not sure what you mean. Some pots have 2 lugs connected together. Not sure i have seen that on a volume control though...regardless, easiest way to find out is to try it!

My output control works when the pedal is off. What’d I do wrong?

You should do a vid on How Gain Works

Sorry about the illustration on my first reply. The 2 is supposed to be under the wavy lines, in the middle acting as the arrow in the schematic.

While I can appreciate the fact that you explain the use of a voltage dividing trimpot in this video, it's just disappointing otherwise. I thought a video entitled "how the volume control on a guitar pedal works" would actually show an actual example circuit of ... well... how a volume control on a guitar pedal works. Instead it just shows how a DC voltage divider works. All the important questions remain unanswered :C

HannesJvv: you wanted to see the inside of a POT? The old pots are better to look at as a example of this, Coil Copper making up one big Total Resistance, and a Bar in the middle running along it. As the Voltage AC/DC is shaired over the Resister, at the point of were the Middle Run lays on will be a Fraction of the total. What gets me Why use 250K and not say 50K if there all PD

But if you were to do it the other way around, input signal to lug 3, output lug 2, lug 1 grounded, it will do the opposite. Turn the knob counter clockwise, decreasing resistance, thus allowing more signal through making guitar louder. Hook up a pot to your multimeter and experiment.

more understanding schematic vid's would be great! cheers

So is R1 supposed to be a fixed resistor and R2 a variable resistor? So that when you turn the nob you’re adjusting the resistance in R2 which affects the potential difference?? Idk tbh that’s just what I learnt in A level Physics 😊

One thing that keeps confusing me is how does higher resistance = more signal? I thought the higher the resistance the less signal that gets through because a resistor "resists"? :S I also agree with CrimsonTunes about a video for understanding schematics, such as a side by side with an actual circuit showing how the schematic translates into an actual circuit. Thanks again! Keep it up.

You still didn't show how the pot is wired. Wish you would have just drawn a simple diagram of the pot lugs connected to the circuit.

Not trying to be a jerk but you're math here doesn't seem to add up. Vin x (R1/(R1+R2)) = VR1 9 x (9000/19000) = 4.26V Vin x (R2/(R1+R2)) = VR2 = Vo 9 x (10000/19000) = 4.74V I'm a little rusty with my circuits knowledge but I'm pretty sure I'm right.

Hmm perhaps I should stick to playing guitar