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Opinions on volume pedal placement


Stratoron

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Aside from the tuner and a EH B9 organ sim, I've been running my volume pedal first in line on my board...before the overdrive units. However, I'm thinking of making a change and putting it(volume) after the ODs so I can have full drive even at lower volumes. I know I will lose the ability to clean up the signal by reducing volume(with pedal), but I'm reasoning that I can technically do that with the guitar volume knob.

I know the basic pros and cons of the various volume pedal placements,, but would like to hear some insights and opinions from others. (FWIW: my delay and reverb are last in line).

Heck, here are my pedals in the current order

 

Poly tune

EH B9 organ simulator

Volume pedal

Tortuga Yeti distortion

JHS Superbolt od

unnamed mystery overdrive

Purple Hayes clean boost

Guyatone VT3 tremolo

Strymon Lex rotary sim

JHS Panther Cub delay

TC Electronics Arena reverb

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I don't use a pedal board but on my amplifier, a Yamaha DG80, I use a MIDI Volume pedal that I "place" after the preamp but before the effects. The pedal acts as the Master Volume for the "rig" and the guitar volume control acts as the Gain control.

 

With this setup I can play loud and clean or dirty and quiet along with everything in between. and as Phil pointed out, the effects ring out after the pedal is pulled back. It works well for doing volume swells and pedal steel effects.

 

When playing live I normally just use one setting on the DG80. Just because the digital modelling amplifier is capable of emulating many different sounds, I don't feel the need to use them all. I treat it as if it was simply a nice sounding one trick pony tube amp that allows my guitar to cut through the mix. Sometimes I'll dial up some reverb, delay or chorus as needed.

 

 

Occasionally I use a Boss ME-25 multi effects pedal and I have the Volume pedal setup the same way as on the DG80.

 

 

 

 

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You can make a good argument that a volume pedal early in the pedal chain does the same thing as your guitar's volume controls do and its effects are redundant. Having a volume before gain pedals changes the input levels to them and increases the amount of saturation as the pedal is turned up. This isn't any different then cranking an amp up and gradually turning your guitar up to get saturation levels.

 

Putting a volume pedal after a gain pedal, the amount of saturation stays the same, its just the loudness of the saturation/its output is varied, much like a master volume on an amp (minus any speaker/power tube or transformer saturation)

 

Having the pedal after time based effects like Phil mentioned would attenuate the outputs, again like an amps master volume would.

 

Best thing you can do is experiment and find what works best for you. If you use the guitars volume allot then maybe having the volume further along in the chain might be better for you.

 

My volume pedal doubles as a Wah so I prefer having it either first in the chain of directly after a compressor pedal. It does react differently before and after compression so its simply something you have to try and see if you like it. Wah can sound good after drive pedals too, to get that power wah sound. Not my favorite sound but it can be fun to try.

 

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Thanks for the comments guys. You've all pretty much validated my thinking. I too prefer the delays/reverbs to ring out. However, I was in the process of switching from a gigantic Morley volume/wah to a much slimmer Dunlop, mainly because it'll allow me to reclaim some valuable pedalboard real estate. I thought this would be a good opportunity to try the volume pedal post ODs. So far I'm digging it.

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I guess, though, it depends on whether you use the pedal as an input 'gain' control, for volume swells/as a 'bow' effect or as a master input to the amp...all are valid applications, and each has it's own 'gestalt'. Placement in the chain does matter, although there are [if you do not have an FX loop on the amp] only really 3 positions worth trying.

Front end: great as a gain control and good for 'bow/swell effect', except it will not control the trail off on the reverb or delay pedals [or tremolo, Leslie rotation, Phase shift or flange, etc].

Post drive pedal/pre-time based good for overall volume control, but again will not cut the time based trail offs.

Last in line: True master input to the amp, total control of the signal, but will cut everything, like a kill switch, allows you to completely stop your signal to the amp, obviously. So it really depends on what you want to use the VP for, doesn't it?

I have, in different bands over the years, positioned my volume pedal [a Morley VBO] in all three positions...to great effect [pun intended] depending on my sonic need.

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