Volume Pedal Survey

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

A friend of mine is taking a survey for a local musician magazine.  He needs as much input as he can get to make this a well rounded, diversely informed survey on Volume Pedals.
You have it on my word that the information used will not be sold to any outside entities, such as your email address.  He is only collecting them in case he decides to contact a few reviewers directly.

Thanks in advance for your help.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1cZ-5YWAia_Ot_d5_BAOsWUDjjlihXodqLnRcaXN_MEo/viewform

 

[Cagey]

I participated, but I'm not sure I should have. I don't use a "volume pedal" per se, I use an expression pedal tied to a volume function in a modeller. A Mission Engineering EP-1 ultimately into an Axe Fx II, to be exact.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Still relevant I suppose.  I do the same.

I'l let my friend Larry deal sort that out.  It still gives an idea of what/how people are using this application.

 

[TBurst Std]

I took it as well and I am in the same boat as Cagey, but I use a SP-1.
Now there are 2 Mission pedals in the survey LOL

 

[stubhead]

As I play steel guitar, and I started using a vp in the late 1970's because of "Between Nothingness and Eternity", I've worn out and broken every single kind of vp available. I still have a big pile of carcasses, some of which just need new pots.... Most recently, broke a Boss FV500.... I always end up back on my (powered) Hilton. If this guy is serious about getting some results from professionals who live and die on the things, tell him to post up at the Steel Guitar Forum:
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewforum.php?f=11&sid=8235cac5d84fd85d0456038c0dc55d1d

He'll get 500+ answers guaranteed, from Paul Franklin & Tommy White & Greg Leisz and them-all too.... he may have to join to post, or he can maybe just clear it with b0b the owner:
http://b0b.com/wp/?page_id=214
The only problem is, his pedal survey prices run out on the low side. Price out a Telonics sometime! - http://www.tpa-az.com/page8.htm

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

As I play steel guitar, and I started using a vp in the late 1970's because of "Between Nothingness and Eternity", I've worn out and broken every single kind of vp available. I still have a big pile of carcasses, some of which just need new pots.... Most recently, broke a Boss FV500.... I always end up back on my (powered) Hilton. If this guy is serious about getting some results from professionals who live and die on the things, tell him to post up at the Steel Guitar Forum:
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewforum.php?f=11&sid=8235cac5d84fd85d0456038c0dc55d1d

He'll get 500+ answers guaranteed, from Paul Franklin & Tommy White & Greg Leisz and them-all too.... he may have to join to post, or he can maybe just clear it with b0b the owner:
http://b0b.com/wp/?page_id=214
The only problem is, his pedal survey prices run out on the low side. Price out a Telonics sometime! - http://www.tpa-az.com/page8.htm

I shall copy and paste your post verbatim into my email thread with him.  Thanks for this input, I hadn't even considered Steel players in the mix of this!

 

[Cagey]

As I play steel guitar, and I started using a vp in the late 1970's because of "Between Nothingness and Eternity", I've worn out and broken every single kind of vp available. I still have a big pile of carcasses, some of which just need new pots.

I was surprised to learn that even the military specification pots from the likes of Clarostat, Allen-Bradley and Ohmite only have a MTBF of 25,000 rotations, and pots don't get any better than that. So, the usual suspects from Alpha, CTS, etc. that are junk (relatively speaking) don't stand a chance under the constant abuse someone like a pedal steel player would subject them to.

They're not easy to find, and they're not cheap, but you can get them here if you're interested. Also, these guys sell Clarostat parts.

Be forewarned - they usually have stainless steel housings, so they're somewhere between difficult and impossible to solder to. You need to use ground lugs. If you buy into the things and need some lugs, lemme know and I'll send you some.

 

[stubhead]

Every once in a while somebody with unearth a warehouse stash of the old Ohmite or U.S. Allen-Bradleys. If you ever find a case of these:
JA1N200P504AA 500K Type J

You can buy a new car... :toothy12: They beat the topic to death over on the SGF, right now the best pot going is a 1,000,000-rotation 470K Dunlop "Hotpotz" from some wah application they're doing, you can still get them for $20, $25 a piece. A 25,000-rotation pot translates to about a week, but they do that damnable industry-standard 20% variation that means it may be a month, a day, or not at all. All you have to do is stick a multi-meter on some "good" CTS, rebranded Gibson or DiMarzio pots to see that 20% thing is treated as a license to steal.

The biggest problem is that various volume pedal housings were made around a certain pot, with a specific rotation. And if your volume pedal housing rotates even a few more degrees than your new, different replacement pot - it means that the full-off or full-on mechanical stop is WITHIN the pot. For five minutes or so, cause you just broke the bugger. And if the pot's range is any bit much larger - it either won't go full on, or full off. So all those beautiful old ShoBud and Fender volume pedals are pretty much pot murderers these days. And yes you can tap a setscrew or weld a new stop into one, thereby "ruining" valuable vintage equipment - that doesn't WORK... :dontknow: :icon_tongue:

I got a 24 watt powered Hilton five years ago or so, with a tone control and maximum and minimum volume controls on little screwpots on the bottom. The tone is identical from top to bottom, which I like. All that old "sweet spot" lore is based around the fact that's it's HARD to make the old stuff sound good, which is not a terribly useful way to get hired twice.
But lemme know FIRST if you unearth some "AA"-taper Ohmite "J" pots....  ccasion14:

Addendum: I'm adding a link to a recent-ish SGF discussion:

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=251371&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

That's largely a discussion among amp makers, professionals and the Telonics, Mission and Hilton pedal manufacturers.

 

[swarfrat]

Surely this is a job for an encoder. Vintage schmintage, if I was killing pots on a weekly basis, I'd have the mill and the soldering iron going.