Re: Volume Pedals

[andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

> 
> But the problem I've always had:  I cannot find a volume pedal that 
> actually operates smoothly throughout the range of the pedal.  Meaning, 
> there is always a quick dropoff from the top of the sweep to just below 
> it.  I'd simply like to find a pedal that decreases the volume by, say, 
> 10 percent if I physically back off the pedal by 10 percent.  Instead, i 
> get this dramatic droppoff somewhere near the top of the sweep, and I'm 
> constantly struggling to get the level exactly where I want it.  It 
> would be really, really great to be able to back off the pedal by 10 
> percent and know for certain that when I play the loop that I created, 
> it will be playing at 90 percent volume.  Seems like such a simple 
> thing, and since I don't hear many of you complaining about this, I'm 
> figuring that you must have it pretty well worked out for yourselves.
> 
> As I understand it, with my setup, I should be using a passive volume 
> pedal.  I'm using a Boss FV-50L with the RC-50 right now, and it is 

Oh, the FV-50L should be right for that application.
L for low impedance, ... intending to avoid the problem you are 
experiencing which is generally caused by using a high impedance (for 
guitar direct) pedal.

If you only need to accurately set the loop vol, and don't care about 
fading out completely then you could set the minimum vol control on the 
FV-50L to give you more control.

The way I solve the problem is to set up the relative volume of the loop 
to the live sound very carefully, then there isn't a problem....  but I'm 
pretty good at controlling the dynamics of my playing having done a lot of 
analog recording while watching the level meter.
Also I have midi control of the EDP loop volume, which I use occasionally.

Probably you aren't going to find a commercial product with the response 
you want :-(

Getting a replacement pot to fit a pedal could also be problematic
( well, for newer pedals , the pot is custom made so the whole range 
covers less of an angle.)
You might find an old pedal with a simple mechanism (e.g.ColorSound) which 
would take any pot, but then the mechanism doesn't give the full range of 
the pot( well, that could still work for you, just need to add a little 
gain somewhere to make up for that lost in the pedal).

Experiment with the FV-50L( or other) with a soldering iron
1) wire both pots together in parallel to further reduce impedance.
2) Try soldering a resistor between the wiper and "hot" tags of the pot ( 
may be better if you start with a pedal with high impedance for this 
idea). Try 10k, 5k, 2k, 1k, or a preset.

andy butler