volume issues with high gain stuff

[caress]

does anyone ever have any problems where you turn down the volume on a pedal, but you can still hear it a tiny bit, even though it's fully attenuated?  mostly with very high gain builds...  i've been using trimpots to set the max volume in some of my pedals and i feel as though that's the cause of the problem...?  maybe that's also changing the output impedance?

[Ronsonic]

A pretty common fault in pots is to have a few ohms resistance at the bottom end. Use a meter and check. Also check that the grounded end of the pot is actually at ground as is everything else that should be like the output jack sleeve connection. I doubt your trimmer would be the problem. Try Ohming from the tip of the output jack to ground with the volume all the way down and see what you get.

Let me also suggest that this just isn't a problem in an output level control. Why would you want to turn your pedal all the way down, you can't play it like that.  I build boost pedals that very deliberately don't go to zero - I mean if 0 is 2, then all the way up is 12 and that's two more, right.  Some people don't get that and I make the pedal go to zero for them. I think it's a troubleshooting aid, if you aren't getting sound from your pedal board you know it ain't that pedal that is adjusted wrong.

[caress]

yeah, i know it's not that big a deal in an output volume control, just trying to get to the bottom of it for my own knowledge...
i'll double check the pot and see if that's it.