Volume pedals -- what's the latest/greatest?

[Bob_Ross]

I seem to get a new volume pedal every decade or so. They don't die, I don't lose them or sell them or anything...they just cease to meet my needs and I have to upgrade.

So far I've gone through (and still have)
- an old cheap semi-compact Morley with the fishing line connected to the linear poteniometer, from the late 1980s (I think). It still works fine, but it's really poorly made, which is why I abandoned it for
- an Ernie Ball, the big silver heavy-duty passive model with the string wrapped around the rotary pot shaft. It too still works fine, I mostly stopped using it because it's so freakin' heavy, pain in the arse to cart around! But also I'm not convinced it isn't a minor tone-suck. (This one's also from the late 80s or early 90s, so the pot value may be different than the current Ernie Ball passive model.)
- Most recently I've been using a Mooer Leveline, which is active, brilliantly designed in terms of construction and form-factor...it just has a completely non-linear audio taper and so kinda sucks for doing anything subtle like controlled fades or sensitive articulations.

So... what else is out there? What's the hip cool gotta-have-it volume pedal on the market today? Compact would be nice, indestuctible would be nice, I'm indifferent to whether it's active or passive though in either case it needs to not be a tone-suck, and it especially has to a have very refined audio taper, especially at the very bottom end of its travel.

For the sake of argument, price is no object.

Whaddya recommend? Thanks.

 

[Roland GR 88]

Well, volume pedals don'y usually fall into a 'latest and greatest' category but hand it to Mike Mathews to come up with this........
Next Step stereo pan/volume.

 

[aledeville]

The Lehle mono volume 90 beats them all.

 

[GMC]

My view on volume pedals is that they all pretty much do the same thing. So the personal choice comes down to a few simple factors. Firstly...how much do you want to spend on one. How nice do you want it to feel under the foot? What size do you want it (ie...what can fit on your board) and lastly what other functions do you want it to have? Midi? Active or passive? Multiple out jacks for controlling more than one effect?
The active / passive option is critical if you are using an active bass or the volume pedal is quite late in your effects chain. Also choosing a unit with the jacks where you want them / need them.
For me, I need an active micro pedal. So I have a cheap hotone unit. Mine is also a wah and expression pedal. But I already have an expression pedal on my board hooked up to my Boss ES-5. So my volume pedal is on the output of my board and I use it as a general output volume pedal and for the occasional swell effect for slow dirty ambient ramps. Although, if it used mine for more of the latter, I would place it just before my last ambinence effect (H9 max for delays and verbs).

 

[Crater]

For the sake of argument, price is no object.

Pedal steel guitar players are very picky about volume pedals because they are big part of the pedal steels' sound. They seem to favor low-production boutique units you may not have heard of:
Telonics (model FP-100)
Hilton
Goodrich

 

[Bob_Ross]

I'm very familiar with Goodrich, but never heard of those others. Will definitely be checking them out. Also that Lehle looks badass.

 

[yberwaffe]

My view on volume pedals is that they all pretty much do the same thing. So the personal choice comes down to a few simple factors. Firstly...how much do you want to spend on one. How nice do you want it to feel under the foot? What size do you want it (ie...what can fit on your board) and lastly what other functions do you want it to have? Midi? Active or passive? Multiple out jacks for controlling more than one effect?
The active / passive option is critical if you are using an active bass or the volume pedal is quite late in your effects chain. Also choosing a unit with the jacks where you want them / need them.
For me, I need an active micro pedal. So I have a cheap hotone unit. Mine is also a wah and expression pedal. But I already have an expression pedal on my board hooked up to my Boss ES-5. So my volume pedal is on the output of my board and I use it as a general output volume pedal and for the occasional swell effect for slow dirty ambient ramps. Although, if it used mine for more of the latter, I would place it just before my last ambinence effect (H9 max for delays and verbs).

What's the benefit of having an active volume pedal for:
1. Active bass ?
2. Late in the pedal chain ?
Impedance adaption maybe.
Please share your'e experience because I'm about to buy some vol/exp pedals next year.

 

[GMC]

What's the benefit of having an active volume pedal for:
1. Active bass ?
2. Late in the pedal chain ?
Impedance adaption maybe.
Please share your'e experience because I'm about to buy some vol/exp pedals next year.

An active bass generally needs an active volume pedal so that it has complete silence at the low end and a clear buffered signal that the top end of the pedal travel. If you use a passive volume there is a possibility that you can't fully silence the signal at the low end.

If you put a volume pedal before your dirt, it will cause the dirt's gain to reduce the amount of grit. So the signal will gain in grit and volume as you swell. A typical swell is best done after dirt so you can swell the whole effected grit sound. I find that I like my volume pedal either just after my grit or just before my ambience (near the end of my chain). Some guys like to place their volume pedal right before their amp / DI so they can adjust the output volume to taste (ie not for swells but as a way to tame a few wayward hot patches). What you are trying to achieve with your pedal determins it's best placement in your chain.