Using a volume pedal to control gain?

Lebarque

Does anybody do this with their non-master volume amps? I currently use my guitar volume (with treble pass circuit to retain highs), but I can see the advantage of doing it with my foot. Does it sound the same as rolling down the guitar volume? Presumably, if I got a buffered vol pedal, it would retain highs without the need for a treble pass circuit in my guitars? I quite like the look of the Lehle one. Any opinions or experience welcome. Cheers.

guitarcookie1

I have my volume pedal (EB MVP) last in the chain so that I can have “my sound” quieter-unity-louder, but yes a passive volume pedal first in the chain will have the same effect as the guitar volume control. 

Check out the TPS vid on volume pedals. 

Lebarque

Thanks, @guitarcookie1 . Nobody else do this?

merlin

I tend to use my volume pot despite having a really good volume pedal (Lehle mono active). Just feels a bit easier to control and means less to carry around... want it?

Roland

@Clarky uses a rocker pedal to change amp settings, including gain. I find a foot pedal difficult to use with the precision you can get from a simple knob on the guitar. A pedal is alright for moving smoothly between two states, but less good for finding points in between. Like @guitarcookie1 I use a foot pedal for overall volume, but mainly for volume swells, or for backing off if I’m too loud and can’t pause for a few seconds to turn the guitar controls.

thecolourbox

I find reaching the volume knob whilst playing quite hard, so would have thought a foot pedal would be much more convenient personally

PolarityMan

it sounds different to me, prob to do with the vol circuitry in the guitar.

ICBM

PolarityMan said:

it sounds different to me, prob to do with the vol circuitry in the guitar.

They are different, even a passive volume pedal of the same value as the guitar pots, because a passive electric guitar is a very crude system where all the components, and the cable, interact with each other. Even adding an extra master volume pot to a guitar reduces the effective load impedance on the pickups, and if you put it at the other end of a capacitive cable it's even more different - even if there is a buffered pedal immediately following the volume pedal, and much more so if there's another long cable after it.

An active volume pedal or using a buffered pedal of any sort in front of it will remove those effects and is much more like turning the amp gain up and down.

Roland

It sounds different because of where it sits in the chain. Guitar volume is right at the front end, before the cable. It affects not only the sound level through the amplifier, and hence the amount of overdrive. It also affects the tonal losses due to capacitance of the cable.

Greatape

One of the cool things about the Blues Cube is that you can plug an expression pedal into the GAFC footswitch to control either input vol or master volume..

Clarky

thecolourbox said:

I find reaching the volume knob whilst playing quite hard, so would have thought a foot pedal would be much more convenient personally

I like to keep my hands on the playing surfaces all the time

Clarky

Roland said:

@Clarky uses a rocker pedal to change amp settings, including gain. I find a foot pedal difficult to use with the precision you can get from a simple knob on the guitar. A pedal is alright for moving smoothly between two states, but less good for finding points in between. Like @guitarcookie1 I use a foot pedal for overall volume, but mainly for volume swells, or for backing off if I’m too loud and can’t pause for a few seconds to turn the guitar controls.

I have no choice but to use a pedal because it's used to manipulated a bunch of stuff in the AxeFX all at the same time and in different directions and all at different rates..
I know what you mean about precision though.. I get around this be deciding 'where on the curve' I want / need the most control.. this generally tends to be towards the heel-down end of the curve because the final 1/3 up to toe-down is where all the gain is so there's no real benefit from detailed control..
so.. the curve tends to be flattest from heel-down to mid-way, then gets steeper from mid-way up to toe-down..
with all the stuff I have under control, there are some really interesting / pretty tones to be had in that middle 1/3 of the expression pedal's throw..

I do have another pedal that controls the level of the guitar's signal at the point of entry into the AxeFX
this behaves very much like a passive volume pedal because it's placed before the 'grid' [and therefore before the noise gate]..
I use this for off / on and bowing effects.. but generally not for tone reasons 

donbot

Guthrie Govan has his foot basically glued to his volume pedal on stage. A lot of time for controlling gain.

donbot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lox9yK4Ccdk

Lebarque

merlin said:

I tend to use my volume pot despite having a really good volume pedal (Lehle mono active). Just feels a bit easier to control and means less to carry around... want it?

@merlin ;  Pm'd

koneguitarist

Before I finished gigging I used a multi fx with volume control
I used the volume on guitar to clean sound up and used volume on pedal to lower volume but still keep gain.  
That way if I want a raunchy sound at lower volumes I could leave guitar volume up but foot pedal down and raise volume pedal for solo. Or vice versa, I could have guitar volume down to clean tone up but increase volume pedal for enough power for a cleaner solo. 

fastonebaz

I use my volume pedal in my fx loop.  Essential party of my rig.  Does nothing for gain just volume so during gig warm up I can noodle with full gain at low volume and be full volume for thr gig without touching thr amp.   Perfect. 

Lebarque

fastonebaz said:

I use my volume pedal in my fx loop.  Essential party of my rig.  Does nothing for gain just volume so during gig warm up I can noodle with full gain at low volume and be full volume for thr gig without touching thr amp.   Perfect. 

Warm up? Amateur. ;0)

fastonebaz

Ok ok I mean,  trying to impress the locals with my melodic ionian interludes whilst the  singer slips into her corset...

Gassage

Yep, all the time. The key is- to use as a gain adjuster, BEFORE dirt pedals. If you want to use to adjust vol itself, after dirt. I set guitar on 7 or 8 (I am using the EMG strat most of the time at the moment) and the SPC on 5, then everything else off volume pedal.

If you use just the vol pedal and leaving the guit vol on 10, you're missing a trick as you want to crank the amps and pedals but this way you reduce noise. So, guit vol on 7/8 and then use pedal.

Lebarque

Gassage said:

Yep, all the time. The key is- to use as a gain adjuster, BEFORE dirt pedals. If you want to use to adjust vol itself, after dirt. I set guitar on 7 or 8 (I am using the EMG strat most of the time at the moment) and the SPC on 5, then everything else off volume pedal.

If you use just the vol pedal and leaving the guit vol on 10, you're missing a trick as you want to crank the amps and pedals but this way you reduce noise. So, guit vol on 7/8 and then use pedal.

Interesting thanks, @Gassage Which volume pedal do you use, out of interest?