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Re: Volume pedals



Well, one thing about Ernie Ball pedals is that they are made in the 
U.S.A., by workers who earn a living wage.  The other thing is, they are 
built to last forever.  The pots and strings wear out eventually, but they 
are completely renewable.  Third, they are built with an extremely high 
quality specification which dictates a lot of careful handling.  Look 
closely at all of the the beveled edges - they're done by hand with a 
file.  Now, all of this is not necessary, but the boss believes that it 
was 
the right way to do things, and I tend to agree for the most part (even if 
it is somewhat over-engineered).  When you figure in materials cost, 
machining, labor, and packaging, the Ball family is probably not making a 
lot of money (if any) off of a volume pedal.  But they sell a lot of 
strings, so it enables them to make high-quality guitars and volume pedals 
for a reasonable price.

Very soon, you will start seeing a smaller version of the EB volume pedal 
hit the shelves, which I personally re-engineered to save aluminum without 
sacrificing durability.  It's smaller and somewhat less clunky, and much 
lighter, but essentially the same design.  It's being made in Malaysia I 
believe, so I hope it will be significantly less expensive than the 
regular VP.

-Hans


At 22:55 20/04/2003, you wrote:
>Right, any frictionless device that could be calibrated to a fairly high 
>degree of tolerance would work.  True, the Ernie Ball is passive, and 
>built like a tank.  But any pot subjected to that much abuse is going to 
>go eventually.
>
>Here's my question: Why are they so expensive?  Even the Morleys... they 
>look to be about $5 dollars of sheet steel and some electronic components 
>easily bought at RadioShack.... While I'm at it, why are MIDI controllers 
>so expensive?  Aside from the Behringer, they all seem very pricy 
>compared 
>to the things they're controlling.  I know accessories are where retail 
>makes it's money, but man oh man.  At this point, you can literally buy a 
>Digitech RP200 effects processor with a built in pedal for the same price 
>as an Earnie Ball stereo effect pedal.  Crazy.
>
>Mark Sottilaro
>
>On Sunday, April 20, 2003, at 10:36 PM, armatronix wrote:
>
>>Mark, the Morley design is nice electronically - I've had one apart 
>>before.  The Ernie Ball is just a passive device, but it is pretty 
>>tolerant of cat hair and carpet lint - even beer.  You could probably 
>>load the guts of a Morley into an EB body and have a pretty dope 
>>pedal.  Better yet, a hall effect sensor like Rane uses in its DJ mixers 
>>would be cool.
>>
>>-Hans
>>
>>
>>At 11:45 20/04/2003, you wrote:
>>>All this talk about pedals made me want to interject this:  My trusty 
>>>Morley was behaving oddly lately.  No longer linear at all.  A quick 
>>>opening and removal of a pound of rug lint and cat hair made it good as 
>>>new.  (it's all optical so it was just being blocked) No sending 
>>>anywhere to be reconditioned for $40 or whatever the cost.  I'm not 
>>>saying you're trusty Ernie Ball pedals are bad, but I can't believe 
>that 
>>>Morley wouldn't be the hands down choice for it's simple and effective 
>design.
>>>
>>>Mark Sottilaro
>>