Volume Pedal Clone

[jkedzuch]

I'd like to build a volume pedal in an expression/wah pedal enclosure to have the ability to do swells and clean up distortion. Anyone have a parts list/wiring diagram?

[Mark Hammer]

Depends on what you want and where you want to put it.

If you don't need it to go beyond the max output of whatever is ahead of it, AND it is placed after a reliably low output impedance (i.e., you don't have a string of true-bypass pedals which, when they are all off, means the volume pedal sees the guitar directly - so there is always a low-impedance output somewhere in front of the volume pedal), then all you really need is a pot, and maybe even something like 50k-100k, which is what most traditional swell pedals in home organs use.  If there is no guarantee the volume pedal will always see a low-impedance source feeding it, then you'll want a higher-value pot, like 500k or 1M.

If you want to be able to go both below and above the output level of whatever comes before the volume pedal, then you will likely want a simle preamp stage at the input of the pedal, whose output will then feed the volume pot.  Essentially, the volume pot becomes an output level control of the tpreamp (although the preamp doesn'T have to provide all that much gain; 2x may be quite enough).  And because the preamp will have a low output impedance and always be "on" in front of the volume pot, you can go with a 50k pot.

The Alembic Stratoblaster, or any simple single transistor stage (e.g., Don Tillman's, or even the AMZ MosFET booster) will do just fine.