Volume pedal less than unity gain

[ljudsystem]

The guitarist in my band has a Ernie Ball volume pedal (passive) but even on full volume it is significantly quieter than the bypassed signal. My suspicion is that it has to do with pedal not traveling the full sweep of the potentiometer (when the pedal is in "toe" position the pot is probably on 7 or 8 rather than 10).

I've encountered this before with my own volume pedal. What I did was adjust it so that when I put it in toe position the pot is turned all the way up. Then I got unity gain (more or less) BUT... when in "heel" position the pedal now doesn't got completely quiet 

Is there a way to make a passive volume pedal go from completely quiet to unity gain? Will changing pot values, taper make any difference? Or should I just tell him to put a booster after it?

[bartimaeus]

Where is the volume pedal in the signal chain? Have you tried placing a unity buffer before the volume pedal?

[antonis]

Taper can't do nothing on extreme edge(s) setting..
(provided pot's wiper can travel all the way down to zero resistance)

For an almost unity gain, you need very low signal source impedance, very high volume pot resistance AND very high next effect input impedance..

[ljudsystem]

Thanks for the replies guys!

Bartimaeus, Hh's got a Boss chorus right after the VP so there's your buffer but before the it he has a Dynacomp (true bypass) that I built for him.

[tubegeek]

(passive)

If it's passive, all it can do is reduce volume (unless it has a step-up transformer in it.)

You are right about the pot sweep adjustment being a way to improve the situation but it can't perfect it for the reasons you already know.

Is there room to fit a battery (or, even better, a power jack) and a small FET booster inside?

[thetragichero]

i threw the amz mosfet buffer in a broken active volume pedal i got for ten bucks. works like a charm

[ljudsystem]

Thanks for the replies guys, in the end I just gave him a mosfet booster to put after the volume pedal to bring the signal back to unity gain.