Volumes that don't suck - FX-17?

[stompbox steve]

Hello
I am trying to find a Volume pedal that does not suck the toine away when you roll it back.  I want to have the same sound but at a lower volume.  I am thinking I need an active volume?

I like the features of this new Visual Volume: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Visual-Sound-Visual-Volume-Pedal-151035-i1175544.gc
But it is the size of Poland 

I just picked up a Passive Visual Audio Volume on a whim and wish it did not suck.  Also having the boost would be nice.  Slightly larger than say a Std wah but workable if it works.  the LEDs are nice to get you back to your previous volume.  Any mods for the would be appreciated

I have a cheap Rolls passive that I put a bypass cap on but does not work great - still sucks, nice size.

What about the DOD FX-17?  Can I get some feedback on this?  I see there are some mods, mostly for the Wah (which is not my concern).
Any input is appreciate before I go out and buy 7 volumes pedals to test out, then resell.
Thanks, Steve

[Ben N]

Take a look at these:
http://www.tonepad.com/project.asp?id=12
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/VCA%20Applications.pdf
Either project should solve your problem.

Alternatively, just sticking buffers on either side of the volume pot ought to help.
http://www.muzique.com/lab/buffers.htm
http://www.singlecoil.com/tb-strip/buffer.pdf
If you do this, you may want to use a lower value pot in your pedal--I think Ernie Ball puts a 25k in their lo-impedance version.

[petemoore]

  Passive volume controls are generally wired just like a guitar volume control.
  Does your guitar have the same effect when rolled down as the pedal ?

[R.G.]

I am trying to find a Volume pedal that does not suck the toine away when you roll it back.  I want to have the same sound but at a lower volume.  I am thinking I need an active volume?

I like the features of this new Visual Volume: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Visual-Sound-Visual-Volume-Pedal-151035-i1175544.gc
But it is the size of Poland 

I have both the FX17 and the Visual Volume ( )

The FX17 is very small, OK. Internally it is an RF oscillator which is modulated by the movement of the pedal on a variable capacitor, then demodulated into the control voltage for an LM13600 OTA. This works great for the wah function, but is a bit noisy for volume pedal use.

The Visual Volume is a bit larger, but it has to be to provide the feature of visual indication of volume level. And there ARE bigger volume pedals on the market. 

The Visual Volume is a volume pot for each of two channels; it has very quiet buffers going both into and out of the pots, and the buffers are switchable per channel so you can get variable-gain active (and non-tone-changing!) or passive per channel; it also has a bunch of other stuff, including a tuner out and low profile so you can get to other pedals immediately beside it. So yeah, it took some surface area to get that stuff in there. One thing you don't find in other volume pedals is that the pot is designed to be easy to swap out for a new and non-scratchy one when that day comes, as it always does. We call it "Not your father's volume pedal".

[Mark Hammer]

Keep in mind that even where the pedal itself has every form of compensation and signal purification known to humankind, it will always colour your signal at least a little bit simply because your ears are nonlinear.  At lowest volumes, they give prominence to frequencies in the range of the human voice (mids) and situate highs and lows way in the background.

Although I don't think it currently exists, I suppose it won't be long until someone comes up with a digital real-time sensing loudness adjustment that uses a built-in mic capsule to sense the SPL and adjust the frequency response accordingly to that it compensates more effectively and accurately for both highs and lows than a mere volume compensating cap will, or even a tapped pot, and achieves - via DSP - a truly "equal" loudness that is dynamically compensated across volume/SPL levels.

Actually, that would be kind of a cool "next generation" sound reinforcement tool, wouldn't it?

[Ripdivot]

Have you tried placing your passive volume pedal after a buffered pedal? It works for me. I place mine right after my input buffer on my pedal board.

[asfastasdark]

Maybe your volume is wired like a guitar's volume, and your problem might be that treble is rolled off as you roll down the volume. It's commonly fixed with a treble bleed mod in guitars, where you wire a high value resistor and a low value capacitor in parallel across the input and output lugs (the ones that aren't grounded in other words).

[petemoore]

  Isn't the value of the pot supposed to be shown as 500k or larger value?
  Linear or audio will of course work differently..
  I put that type of mod on many a guitar volume control, like all of them that need it, 500k linear...works great with it.

[stompbox steve]

Good info- thanks guys.  Let me catch up...
I have not tried the bypass mod with a Cap AND Resistor on my current volume, just the Cap.  Yes, my guitar does the same thing which is used to tweak the sound but not good for the overall volume setting.  Also using a Les paul so twiddling both volume knobs gets cumbersome, which why I am looking for a volume pedal.

RG: I have an older VV, not sure of the model.  It is silver and one channel with tuner out.  No passive/active option.  Actually this one is smaller than the new model but has far less options.  Do you know if these ones have the buffers? 
Also do you recommend the bypass mod for this model?  If so I will have to figure out which pads to place them being the variable resistor is surface mount.  Unless you know where I would put the cap/res on this?
Thanks for the FX-17 remarks.  I think I will pass on that and make the VV work.

Last thing: I put it in my effects loop and that seems to have helped out but will know more tomorrow night when I get together with the boys