One man's PSG volume pedal journey

[Bob Sykes]

My PSG career is around the 3 year mark now and it has been a volume pedal journey amongst other things. Here's the condensed account. Maybe this will be useful to someone. I read a lot of volume pedal threads on this forum. The pedals with end-mounted jacks are not a problem for me. I use right angle plugs. I do not use a bracket to attach the VP to the pedal bar.

I had used a Boss "expression pedal" as a volume pedal for many years with my 6 string prior to starting pedal steel.




In order of acquisition (left to right):

Carter Starter VP
String type VP that came with the Starter Kit. Action is good. Has I/O on the right side and two unused holes on the left that could be made into extra outputs. Pot was scratchy almost from day one. Contact cleaner clears the problem up temporarily, but the noise relegated this pedal to backup status pretty darn quick.

Ernie Ball VP junior
String type with jacks on the end. A little taller. Has a PF tuner out. A "guitar" pedal, so wrong pot impedance for PSG. Well made, but my string broke after a couple of months use. String is PITA to change IMHO. Has a small slider switch to choose between two tapers. Nice.

Dunlop DVP1
Jacks on the end with tuner out. The tallest of the bunch. Build like a tank. Great feel. Adjustable tension. Another "guitar" pot pedal, but with unique steel band linkage instead of of string. Supposed to be more durable, but I have broken two bands with less than 16 months use. Dulop has been great about fixing them under warranty, but I wouldn't trust this pedal without a backup on a gig.

Morley VP Junior
Jacks on the right. No tuner out. Another "guitar" pedal. Uses a pair of LEDs/Light Depedent Resistors to emulate a potentiometer. So it's an optical pedal, but not an "active" pedal in terms of signal flow. I bought this as an emergency backup while the Dunlop was being fixed. 9V batt or DC in. Only problem IMHO is the taper. All the gain is at the bottom on the travel. I have recently learned this can be tweaked in a number of ways, so I'll be doing that now that I have an "extra" VP

Hilton Pro Guitar
Wow. Should have got this a long time ago. The Pro guitar model runs on 9V (instead of 24v) and has adjustable tension (which I have not tried). I just got this last week so cannot say about durability, but seems very well made. 1 gig using it so far. I used to always use a compressor between the PSG and VP, but as soon as I started using this pedal, the compressor stays switched off mostly. That says a lot.

For all of these; I didn't mention "tone", arguably the most subjective aspect. In my 45+ years of pro/semi-pro 6-string playing, I have come to believe that tone is 90% in the fingers. Sure you can kill good tone with bad gear, but right now my PSG picking produces mediocre tone at best most of the time. I'm still mastering metal finger picks, so the subtle tone differences in volume pedals is relatively small for me. Having said that; The Hilton pedal, being active, does have the same tone at any volume compared to the passive pedals which do not.

[Len Amaral]

Hi Bob:

Thanks for the overview on the volume pedals. You can never have enough VP's and they all have different vibes and quirks but that's part of the learning curve.

Regards,

Lenny

[Daniel Policarpo]

Hey Bob, thanks for the overview. I started out with a Morley Little Alligator, which I had used for years with six string electric before I got to the steel. It worked fine for steel, especially after adjusting the taper with the LEDs. Just a couple weeks ago I decided to try out a Fender pot pedal and this made a substantial difference, both in physical utility and sound. I like the difference in sound, especially. It's made my steel sound more "classic", more like the recordings from the 60's I like the best, after I put a pedal with a buffer in the signal path. It's such an individual thing, but your right, its part of the learning curve and our needs change as we go along.

[Bob Sykes]

A friend loaned me an older Hilton and Goodrich LDR VP last week. I had never tried these before, and you just can't have too many VPs.....

Before I even plugged them in I noticed they seemed to have a helper spring to lift the top. Interesting. I have never seen that before. I like it. The Hilton Pro Guitar pedal does not have this. The Hilton Pro Guitar pedal is the same the one pictured in the post above and has been top dog up to now.


Pretty much the same height at the front

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Goodrich heel is higher in the pedal off position


Even higher if/when you floor it. Note the DC in jack at the back with cable retainer

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Bottom side shows the jacks and trim pots. If you can read the Goodrich label, note one of the jacks is designated "Wart Remover". I really need this feature and can't wait to try it.

The Goodrich LDR model designation is because it's based on a Light Dependent Resistor from what I read here. This should not be confused with the low cost Morley VP Junior "passive" LDR implementation described above. The Goodrich LDR is an active pedal with gain and tone controls.

The Goodrich DC input cord retainer works well, but is not practical to remove screw & clamp/unplug every time you put the pedal away. It runs on 18VDC. An internal LED shines through a small hole in the top of the pedal as a power indicator. It works great.

The Hilton uses the 24VDC supply, which is actually a +12V/-12V supply with an additional +5V output. Anyone know if the +5V rail is used in the Hilton pedal? The Hilton does not appear to have a power indicator. My Hilton Pro Guitar VP has one on the side.

All three of these pedal pivot at the same point. They feel pretty much the same (to me) So far all of them sound the same; Neutral throughout their range, and that is good.

If you're still reading.... I researched the "Wart Remover" earlier. Looks like it was some kind of MIDI interface to control volume at the guitar amplifier, with a single 5 pin cable to a VP DIN connector. Mine has a 1/4" jack in that position. Have not tried it yet. Still hoping........

[Per Berner]

You've missed the final step up the ladder to VP nirvana. Telonics!

[Mitch Adelman]

From my experience, I have found the Hilton Pro Guitar is great for the electric guitar like my tele but at 9 volts doesn't seem to have enough headroom as the 24 volt Hilton designed for steel. It tended to be over driven by my steel pickup. I would stick to the Hilton designed for steel if you go with the Hilton pedal which is a great pedal.

[Doug Palmer]

Bob, I'm with you on the Hilton pedal. I wasted a lot of time and money on older types. Bob Hempker talked me into trying one and I was hooked. I play 3 different guitars and the off selector is nice.

[Jerry Korkki]

Just wanted to chime in here. I picked up my first good vp, a Goodrich photocell in the early seventies and have been using it right up until a year ago New Years Eve when out of the blue it sounded like I had partially blown a speaker. I had just modified my Session 400 Limited so I thought it was my workmanship. Still sounded like crap in the practice rig until I bypassed the trusty old Goodrich. Bought an older Hilton from a forum member and was really surprised at the improvement in tone! They are not transparent but in a very good way. I swapped out the 604 op amp for a 134 and it's even better.

[Greg Lambert]

I have come to believe that tone is 90% in the fingers.

It took me a long time to figure this one out , but your 100% correct.

[Bill Bassett]

Thanks for the run down. I've been using Ernie Ball pedals for years. I have a pair of them, one for each complete set up. When one string or pot goes bad, I replace it. But, you brought up a good point. As those were designed for guitar, not necessarily for PSG, what pot value would be better? Thanks again.

[Georg Sørtun]

As those were designed for guitar, not necessarily for PSG, what pot value would be better? Thanks again.

Without pre-VP buffer: 500Kohm Log pot is the standard for high-Z PSG PUs.
With pre-VP buffer: 22Kohm to 500Kohm Log pot work equally well, although the lower value (above 22K) the better.