Modding the ernie ball volume pedal

[msurdin]

I have the Ernie ball vpjr and I want to do a few mods to it. I have been told that the 25k is better then the 250k. The ernie b site said that the 25k is for more active instruments.
Is it ok to use 25k with passive instruments?

How to I remove this pot? Its attached to that big gold string holder...

And the other mod I want to do Is have 1 jack for in and out. I see that the in and out both have tip and sleve. Can I just the a stereo jack and take 4 wires and put the in's and out's tip and sleve to the stereo's tip and sleve? How would i do this if i am wrong?


Thanks a bunch guys!

Matt

[petemoore]

  depends on impedance matching 'n stuff...might not matter much.
  25k is low, if you have sufficiently low output impedance you might like it.
  to try a lower impedance you can put a 33k resistor across the outside potlugs, will make the taper different but will let you hear the volumes and sounds possible with smaller resistances.
  Another way to preserve HF's when the pot is turned down some [which introduces a large enough resistance to shave off some highs?..that and the actual volume range/taper is what I'd be most worried about]...
  To preserve highs, a 'very small' capacitor can be placed across the pots non ground lugs [ie..it's signal path lugs]., this introduces less resistance to HF's...make that cap big enough and treble can be made to become proportionally stronger when volume is lessened.
  get some alligator-clipped wires, and clip connect the caps until you find the value you like.
  The same thing can be done to any 3lug [or even 2lug] wiring of volume control....search schematics all over the place until you find a cap in such a position, start there as base value, adjust as necessary. 
  What is the impedance of the pedal or guitar driving the VC?
  250k is a typical smallish value for guitar volume pots.

[CGDARK]

I have the Ernie ball vpjr and I want to do a few mods to it. I have been told that the 25k is better then the 250k. The ernie b site said that the 25k is for more active instruments.
Is it ok to use 25k with passive instruments?

If you use a buffer/booster or a preamp before the volume pedal the answer probably be yes, but if you connect directly your guitar with passive pickups to the volume pedal the answer is no. Even with active pickups I don't recommend 25k pots for volume pedals. For a guitar with passive pickups you must use at least 250k, but I prefer 500k. Your tone will be preserved without almost any loss.

CG

[msurdin]

Its going to be used with a multi effects unit that will have a few buffers in it.
My guitar goes into that. Sometimes i will be using a guitar with active electronics ... but not as much as my passive guitar..

But i should be fine right?

[CGDARK]

Its going to be used with a multi effects unit that will have a few buffers in it.
My guitar goes into that. Sometimes i will be using a guitar with active electronics ... but not as much as my passive guitar..

But i should be fine right?

If your guitar go to the multi effects unit first, there will be no problem, because you can adjust the output level on the effects unit and BTW some multieffects unit has low impedance outputs than can drive the 25k without a problem. Let your ears be the judge and have fun.

CG

[MadMac]

I have the Ernie ball vpjr and I want to do a few mods to it. I have been told that the 25k is better then the 250k. The ernie b site said that the 25k is for more active instruments.
Is it ok to use 25k with passive instruments?

I have the 25K Ernie Ball Volume pedal.  I was running it at the front of my effects chain and didn't realise how much tone suck there was!!  I built a simple true bypass box to test all of my pedals and find out if there any of my pedals sucked tone.  To my surprise the Volume pedal was the biggest culprit. 

I rearranged my pedals so that I run into a Boss TU2 > Crybaby (true bypass) > Fulltone FD2 > Fulltone OCD > AC Booster > Boss CE2 > Ernie Ball Vol > Voodoo Labs Tremolo > Boss DD5.

Problem is now gone as the TU2 and CE2 provide buffers to the signal most of the others are hardwire true bypass. 

The 25k works so much better in this position as this is what it has been designed for.

[msurdin]

Looking inside it seems like the pot is pretty long. Does anyone know where to get these very very long pots? Maybe small bear?

Thanks Guys

[boyersdad]

hey petemoore, do you figure that 100pf is too small for a treble cap? My Ernie, w/ or w/o a buffered pedal before it robs me of a gross amount of high end. I'm not talking about just an incy little bit, I'm talking people who listen to Jessica Simpson could tell 

I'm also considering using Sean M's jFET buffer before and after the VP...