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Volume pedal for passive/active bass?

#21
I have owwned both the 25k and 250k EB pedals, as well as a Roland vol pedal and a Morley. The Morely is active so it doesn't seem to have much of a preference. The difference in the passive pedals is real.

Play an active bass with low ioutput impedance through a 250k pedal and the pedal will not do much for most of the range of travel. Then you get all of the volume control in a small range. Not fun, not useful. The 25k pedal on a passive bass doesn't give as much range as the 250k.

As for tone, you will have to try it and see what your ears say.

Just like a passive volume control on a bass, a passive pedal uses the pot as part of a voltage divider, not as a series resistance (attenuation). So you can look over all kinds of passive circuits and see how this can effect tone, and why certain values, and cap bypass schemes, are popular.
 
#24
anyonefortennis said:
It looks like something out of a star trek episode:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

:)

Personally, the nicest volume pedal is the Goodrich low profile.
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Does it work with an active bass? I just got a George Dennis. Easily the best built volume pedal I've ever seen. Turns out that it doesn't work with active instruments......I emailed Goodrich to find out if I could use theirs but they never responded.
 
#25
jhiggy said:
I'm looking for a volume pedal, but I'm sort of stumped. Many pedals describe that they are for either a passive or active instrument, some say nothing about that at all, but none say they're for both.
Click to expand...

Email ernie ball with your questions, their pedals and service are good. Here's what they said to me when I asked about which pedal to use post my effects:

Thank you for contacting Ernie Ball. You are correct, the 6181 is the appropriate pedal for an active signal, such as your bass. Lots of people use the 6180 in front of their effects. Also, some people don't use effects at all, or have them built into their amp, in which case they don't need the 6181. If an active signal is placed before a 250k pedal, the consequence may be that the swell of the pedal does not act as designed, with most of the swell coming at the end of the sweep. If a passive signal is placed before a 25K pedal, the consequence may be that the swell of the pedal does not act as designed. Also, you might lose some of the higher frequencies. I hope this helps, and please let us know if you have more questions.
 
#26
So Back about 5 years ago I got this silver blockish visual volume pedal with these fancy led's on the side. I just started using it in my chain and it works great for me. And now I see this thread about people being idiots for not noticing a tone loss if their volume pedal is being used w/ an active bass and the volume pedal is not matched accordingly. So now I'm wondering what the story is with the pedal I have...is it not supposed to be used with my active bass or what? Maybe I'm an idiot too...again?
what the deal with this pedal I got?
thanks,
-eric
 
#27
el_Kabong said:
If an active signal is placed before a 250k pedal, the consequence may be that the swell of the pedal does not act as designed, with most of the swell coming at the end of the sweep.
Click to expand...

This was the case with my EB VP Jr, but once I switched the little switch inside of the pedal, it fixed it and now everything swells perfectly and even.
 
#29
As no one addressed the audio/linear question yet...

An audio pot (audio taper, logarithmic taper, etc) is typically used for a volume control. This will change your volume in a logarithmic fashion (or actually exponential) which is how your hearing works. Basically, in order to sound twice as loud, a sound needs to be much more than twice as powerful.

The linear pot does not do this, so in a volume control, it would have little effect until near the end of its rotation, where it would suddenly make big changes.

This is just a real quickie explanation. For all the dirty details, check out
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/potsecrets/potscret.htm
 
#30
i dont mean to bump this old thread but i just wanted to have my questions answered.
I have a Spector NS-JH6 (with active preamp and pickups) and a few passive fender basses. I would like to be able to run them with the same volume pedal if possible. My question is what is the best way to do this? is there an active/passive buffer i could add to the beginning of my chain that will allow me to change the output level before it hits the volume pedal? I just want to be able to run all my basses whether they are active or passive through the same volume pedal with no issues at all. any help would be much appreciated. thanks!
 
#31
well to me I'd want get the independence the level- preamped-buffered then run the pedal board.. Active Volume at the end.. if you need a mute just use a tuner as mute..

I use lehle- hilton stuff ernie ball have nice enclosure but need a better buffer hence why JHS and a lot of company modify them.. Just FYI
 
#33
Aidenn7 said:
well to me I'd want get the independence the level- preamped-buffered then run the pedal board.. Active Volume at the end.. if you need a mute just use a tuner as mute..

I use lehle- hilton stuff ernie ball have nice enclosure but need a better buffer hence why JHS and a lot of company modify them.. Just FYI
Click to expand...

Erie Ball makes a new one that doesn't need to be modified. It's powered. I have one. It sounds great.
 
#35
Boss FV30-H is what I use. I've noticed no tone suck, but I have a Darkglass VMD preamp afterwards in the chain if I needed a tone boost just in case. The size of this thing is perfect for my Pedaltrain Metro 16 and it seems much more reliable than my Ernie Ball VP Jnr
 

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