Which Ernie Ball VP??

chilly8909

im not sure which I need, I’m using a telecaster or strat. With the following pedal chain

whammy - BD-2 - MaxonOD820 - RC Booster - Volume - Timeline - Bluesky

not sure if I need the 250k or 25k

thanks

ICBM

I would get the 250K. It's a safer choice - high impedance will always work, low impedance needs a good buffer before it. Although the Boss is permanently buffered, and the other two are when on, there are some overdrive pedals (Fulltone OCD for example) which don't have proper output buffers and will lose a lot of tone going into a low impedance pedal. So 250K keeps your options open for future changes. It's unlikely to increase noise to any significant extent, which is the main reason for choosing low impedance when possible.

cLepto-bass

I am in agreement with ICBM. 
Also, and generally speaking, it's my understanding that if you were using active pickups/circuitry then you would want the 25K; otherwise go with the 250K

ICBM

cLepto-bass said:

Also, and generally speaking, it's my understanding that if you were using active pickups/circuitry then you would want the 25K; otherwise go with the 250K

It would still depend on what the last pedal before the volume pedal is (or the last barring other true bypass pedals) - there's still the same issue of poor buffering. Essentially it's pedals which have the output level pot as the last component which are the problem, as the output impedance depends on the pot setting. The OCD is just a particularly extreme example since the pot value is high... I do not understand why!

Basically, the simple rule is to always use high impedance unless your whole system is fully buffered at each stage. That does also give the option of running it first in line should you ever want to.