Volume Pedals 101 

I would like to have both a volume pedal at the beginning to simplify cleaning up my tone while playing, as well as after my gain. However, regarding volume first in your chain - as I understand it you should have a high impedence volume pedal when having it first, but even so (as I've understood) it will have a bit of a tone-suck if it's passive, so you should have an active one, right? But if that's true, this will not be a good thing if the next thing you have in your chain is another high impedence pedal, like a fuzz, right? Since an active pedal is buffered... So... How should I approach this?

So much great info. I like these 1on1's with Grant & Mason!

Cool I was hoping there was more on this than the short I saw !!!!!!

Hey guys! Great episode demistifying VP’s. I will say though, I’ve been using the Hilton pro guitar edition that takes 9v, has a better angle for standing up and has a modified buffer for electric guitar as opposed to pedalsteel. It’s been amazing and would recommend it to people! That being said I’ll probably buy a lehle next as the Hilton is getting harder to acquire in Canada. Also to the point of VP at the front of the chain, I’ve put my VP after all drives so I can manage noise and avoid clicks/pops, but swells with overdrives are definitely more fun when the drive’s saturation climbs up with the sweep instead of the saturation decaying down as the swell/volume climbs up. I’ve tried sandwiching a VP between drives which works well if the final drive has silent switching, but bad power will make clickless switches click anyways, so I bailed on it all and just put the VP after all drives for live work at least. All up to what the context is I guess! As always appreciate what you guys do for us homebrew pedalboard surfers!

Very helpful episode, thank you! Feels like there's a lot of misinformation out there on volume pedals and this cleared a lot of that up for me.

Hi mason. I know you work on several landau's boards and pedals, could you tell me which was the volume pot preference for him in terms of log vs linear pits?

I always have the volume pedal after gain before modulation and the time based effects. I started out with the Ernie Ball pedals but ended up with the Boss FV-300L for life. I did the FV-500L with Mason’s mod for some time, but I always end back with the FV-300L. Having the Vol pedal after gain also make it a noise gate. When off no hiss.

I am here once again to evangelize the Source Audio EQ as the greatest pedal ever made. I use a Mission Engineering expression pedal with my Source Audio EQ2 to work as a volume pedal. I have my signal going into the EQ2 before my overdrives and in my amp's fx loop, and using MIDI presets I can have that expression pedal act as a volume pedal before my overdrives for cleanup or in my amp's fx loop as a master volume. I can even send CC messages to have the expression act as a wah pedal, again both before overdrives and after my overdriving amp if I wanted. It's not right for everyone since a lot of guitarists and bassists are scared of MIDI and digital, but the amount of functionality per square inch is unparalleled

What about placing the volume pedal after the dry amp in a W/D/W setup? So basically after the preamp and power amp, going out through the Speaker Output into a Suhr Iso Line Out Box and THEN have the volume pedal there, right before any wet effects?

Awesome! Thank you!

I forgot I do have a stero EB pedal..I used it on an acoustic gt tour tho which was D.I. so already bright..tried for electric but yes way big and seemed to change the tones.

I love my lehele stereo!! Works beautifully!! I use it in the amps effects loop, before all other pedals in the loop.

Would you put a BOSS GE-7 before or after a Lehle Mono Volume pedal in the Effects Loop? Would the order matter if you have a TC Electronic BonaFide Buffer at the beginning and end of the Effects Loop chain? In my case I use the EQ pedal flat and adjust the Level Slider to get a clean Volume Boost or Volume Cut.

Excellent ☆☆☆☆☆. I love these episodes I was playing at a World Book of Guinness for the song Freebird at a function and talking to young musicians and it ended up turning into a class which I feel it's my duty to pass the Baton have either of you guys performed a hot tap so you can power your band? The things that we had to learn over the years compared to what they can just learn on RU-vid at any moment in time thanks for the videos Rock on ☆'s

They aren’t for me they take up to much space and seem to always tone suck in most situations. But I still listened to this for education. Great episode. I’ll add I think the vertex boost with a volume pedal really is a great combo.

I am running Guitar > JHS Switchback > Boss ES8 Switcher (buffer off). Loop 1 is my Analogman Sun Face Fuzz. Ernie Ball 6180 250k Passive Volume pedal looo comes after loop 1 always. In the Volume Pedal loop is an Analogman Buffer AFTER the Ernie Ball. So if Fuzz is on it's Guitar > JHS Switchback (sometimes adding Keeley Compressor Plus) > Boss ES8 Switcher (buffer off) > Fuzz > Ernie Ball Volume > Buffer >rest of rig If Fuzz is off, it's Guitar > JHS Switchback (sometimes adding Keeley Compressor Plus) > Boss ES8 Switcher (buffer off) > Ernie Ball Volume > Buffer >rest of rig Does that Volume Pedal setup make sense?

I’m here to be educated, thanks. I’ve been running tuners off of the tuner-out on my volume pedals for eons. I place the volume pedal after all of the gain/filter/octave/modulation pedals in my chain if any/all/minimal. Maybe what saves me is that I always have some kind of buffered effect prior. Or maybe I suck. I can’t say I’ve had noticeable tone trouble and I’ve done a fair amount of critical listening and comparison over many rigs and years. Maybe I need to do some more.

What about the polytune mk3 with bonafide buffer? I use the ernie ball with the vertex boost after the distortion section, but my guitar signal comes in via the tuner. It sounds clear and alive???

Mason I’m using a boss fv 30h first. It is going into a wah-fuzz-person tuner should I consider something else? I am using an old Les Paul with paf type pickups

Thanks for this. Curious if you have encountered the Sonuus Voluum pedal - as a bassist who plays almost entirely clean (with some compression), I'm interested. It seems kind of obscure and I haven't seen much about it.

I first want to thank you guys for all the information you are sharing! I personally run a stereo bass rig with a very dirty signal chain and a not so dirty signal chain that has a bit of overdrive. Both amps that I use have an effects loop. I don’t own a volume pedal… yet! I would use a stereo volume pedal at the beginning of my current effects loop. My loop begins with a stereo chorus, a stereo multi-effects (that can add them in parallel or series) for flanger, phaser and tremolo effects (it also has other effects that I don’t use much) and then ends with a stereo delay pedal…. Would you then use the Boss stereo volume pedal that you were talking about at the end of the video?

TGP!! Still have many good friends from the old days! Working with one this past week..you guys are funny-I miss Brian tho. I have never been able to 'bond' with a volume pedal unfortunately.

I use an ES-8 and, until now, ran my volume pedal in front of everything so i could use the volume pedal input for another pedal. I was using a full size Dunlop volume pedal off the board. I'm now re-laying out my board, putting the volume pedal on the board and will start using the volume pedal input on the ES-8. Because I'm space challenged i need to go with a small footprint volume pedal. In spite of your comments about reliability, I'm going to go with the Dunlop mini. I like the sweep and I've never had any issues with my current Dunlop. As you know, the ES-8 allows me to place the volume pedal anywhere in the signal chain. The Dunlop pedal is 250k pot. Is there a concern if I place the 250k volume pedal after my drives in my chain? If it matters, I'm using the buffered input and outputs on ES-8. Thanks guys.

My favorites Volume pedal situation is the Vertex Boost MK II used with an expression pedal. Only down side is I have had "Three vertex Boost just up and quit on me . All sent out for repair , haven't seen them since . . . still waiting . . .

What a great Job! Thank you for doing these episodes! I‘m using a Ernie Ball Volume Pedal (40th anniversary) and it is starting to make crackling and rush noises, when turning on the Volume. What am i supposed to do with it? Whats the most long term healing effect when trying to fix it? 👀

What do you think about the Xotic XVP-250K High Impedance Volume Pedal?

can i use 12v in lehle?

Love this podcast, i try to watch on YT every week so when you guys show diagrams and stuff. Mission VM-1 passive, after overdrives, says 500k pot, am I doing anything wrong? No tone loss but never was a huge fan of the taper.

Hey guys maybe Im jumping the gun becuz Ive nought finished the video-but what about using a vol/express pedal on an HX Stomp( or any digi) to avoid tone sucks?

Why doesn't a volume pedal CLEAN up a fuzz or overdrive/distortion pedals? How can you modify a volume pedal to CLEAN up a fuzz or overdrive distortion pedals?

always wanted to try a Hilton tho

Watching this right after ordering a vintage Ibanez VL10 with a 500k pot 🥂

What are your experiences with Morely Volume pedals?

Great content, missed the drum roll tho 😂

One more thing to the young musicians the mini Spark by TC Electronics has a 2 position switch they can't be momentary is a great lead booster on the effects loop on your head/amp because the soundman sucks !!!

@17:40 ….especially at your church gig.

Ibanez ds10 is a stereo distortion pedal.

Please Mason, Vertex needs to build a volume and an expression pedal.

I usually pronounce it like you guys, but if you ask the Lehle folks, they’ll tell you “it rhymes with tequila”. So lee-la

Didn't Ernie Ball solve that string issue w a different material?

So he’s a model of hydration but you two are well 🤔

Great episode too bad Brian decided he wanted to be sick today

"...you got a face tattoo, you gotta' live with it" 🤣

Hey guys! Where's Brian? 😂... that's some crap he's 😷...I'd fire him...lol

When you went with the STAR Bucks BS I almost shut this discussion down - I'm going to keep going just in case.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Aw, man! Brian ain’t here?! Volume pedals and Brian ain’t even here. He thinks they’re swell, even, and he ain’t here. It’s a cryin’ shame.

….Broken strings/dreams.

And he's lazy?? Oh man... lmao 🤔😂🤘

Now paint us a Hunter Biden picture