Edwards Light Beam Pedal

gary darr · Post by **gary darr** » 29 Jul 2000 12:47 pm

THIS PEDAL WAS A GARAGE SALE FIND. IT WORKS GREAT BUT HAS AN ANNOYING 60 CYCLE HUM. HAS ANYONE OUT THERE HAD PROBLEMS SUCH AS THIS OR COULD HELP IN THIS MATTER ?
AND ALLSO WHAT ARE THESE PEDALS WORTH USED?
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sho bud pro 2 session 500[This message was edited by gary darr on 29 July 2000 at 01:55 PM.]

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 29 Jul 2000 4:23 pm

The Edwards pedal was made by Don Edwards in Denver, Colorado. It was ahead of it's time.
There were two types, a straight pedal, and one with a pivot tone control. I always loved the casting. It reminded me of a expenisive bus pedal. I bought one from Scotty's music to tear down and examine, about 3 years ago. I paid $110.00. I would assume the pedal is worth from $100.00 $150.00,maybe more. They are starting to pick up quite a bit of collector value also.
A 120volt AC cord powered the pedal, which could make it deadly in a damp area. Inside there was a transformer that broke the 120 volts down. The theory of operation is a Cds cell---light sensitive resistor. Light is shaded through a tapered slot in a brown piece of plastic. Notice the inside is painted black. Outside light can make pedals using photo resistors stay on. Many of them would never go off out in bright sunlight. The main complaint of all owners of the Edwards pedals was loss of high end frequency. The reason for the loss was obvious if you looked at the electronics. There was no pre-amp, and all the high end of a pickup was sucked to ground in the volume control arrangement. Hum could come from quite a few things, especially the transformer inside. Everything must be grounded really good, including both halfs of the pedal. A transformer can radiate energy to both halfs of the pedal. If one half is not grounded, you have noise.
The Edwards pedals were taller than traditional steel guitar pedals of today. It also had a shorter up and down movement than traditional steel guitar pedals of today. The Edwards only moves up and down one inch, as compaired to the old Sho-Bud pedals that moved up and down 1 1/2 inches.
Hope this helps.

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gary darr · Post by **gary darr** » 30 Jul 2000 10:07 am

Keith I thank you for this run down on the pedal, I have since tore it down and checked the gounding lugs on both halves of the pedal,they seem ok. anyway I put it back together an it now only seems to hum at higher volume. I do have a single coil pickup on my sho bud could this account for any of this,and allso I could not notice any loss of Highs with the edwards compared to the ernie ball pedal

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sho bud pro 2 session 500

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 30 Jul 2000 7:06 pm

Unhook the pedal, and run a straight cord to the guitar. Listen to the hum. Without changing any controls,hook the pedal back up and push it wide open. Then listen to the hum with the pedal hooked back up. This test should tell you what is, and what is not, the pedal's fault. Noise is most likely in the power part of the pedal, and this can get in the audio or sound part. Just make sure all ground wires are connected. As old as the pedal is, I would probably replace all the electrolitic capacitors. Electrolitics are probably dried out. This can cause noise. Capacitors don't last forever. The Cds cell should not be a suspect for noise in my opinion. Cds cells are very quiet for audio applications. I don't suppose there is any difference in high end frequency when compaired with a Earnie Ball pedal. In going to Scotty's International Steel Guitar Convention for 27 years, I have never seen a performer using a Ernie Ball pedal. Hope this helps.

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[This message was edited by Keith Hilton on 30 July 2000 at 09:11 PM.]

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 30 Jul 2000 8:26 pm

I had a Edwards Light pedal back in 1972 when I was in Phoenix. I liked it real well at the time. but I felt that it didn't have the "warmth" and tone of my old Bigsby 2 way...al

Bob Snelgrove · Post by **Bob Snelgrove** » 6 Oct 2003 2:32 pm

Keith

Is there any way to bring back the highs? I just dug mine out of storage and it's soooo smooth. I just couldn'tt ever use it because it was a tone killer.

thx

bob

Keith Hilton · Post by **Keith Hilton** » 6 Oct 2003 6:10 pm

Bob, the solution to loss of high end frequency in the old Edwards pedal is really pretty simple. Put a "pre-amp" between your guitar pickup and the old Edwards pedal. It would be a lot of trouble to build one inside the pedal. It would be real easy to install one on the outside. Just hook a Goodrich pre-amp, or my pre-amp, the Digital Sustain, between your pickup and pedal. Another way to do this without buying anything is to use the Peavey 3 cord hookup method. With the Peavey 3 cord hookup method you put a pre-amp inside the Peavey amp between your guitar pickup and the old Edwards pedal. With a pre-amp you will hear a lot more high end frequency. Hope this information helps.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 6 Oct 2003 6:33 pm

That's cool. A three-year-old topic is revived. Look at the date of Al's reply.

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Lee, from South Texas
Down On The Rio Grande

Bob Snelgrove · Post by **Bob Snelgrove** » 6 Oct 2003 8:36 pm

Keith,

Thanks

Lee,

Gotta love the search function

bob

Bob Metzger · Post by **Bob Metzger** » 7 Oct 2003 1:26 pm

On my Edwards light beam volume pedal, I wired a small cap across the input and output jacks (NOT the volume control - time to send my brain in for the re-cap and re-cone). I experimented with various values until I felt the tone didn't change from wide open (full on) to lesser volume settings.

It's not necessarily my favorite pedal but now it works well and is an able backup. I use it on sessions where I'm looking for something a little different.

Bob M.[This message was edited by Bob Metzger on 08 October 2003 at 12:37 PM.]