Synth-DIY Yahoo! Groups Archives

Expression/volume pedal

2012-01-01 by Sean

An hour of googling has been fruitless.

How do you guys get even response on a volume pedal?

At current I have an Ernie Ball VP Jr mono volume pedal. It's between the source and the amp. V. simple.

From heel to near full the pedal is fairly even but still quiet. In the last say... 1/8 to 1/16 of an inch of play it goes from quiet to full. It's pissing me off. It's pissing my band mates off. We either get not enough Hammond/Mellotron or WAY TOO DAMNED MUCH.

I'm capable of replacing the pot in the pedal no problem. What rating and taper am I looking for? No one on the google seems to know.

Thanks.

-Sean

Re: [newmellotrongroup] Expression/volume pedal

2012-01-01 by Jack Younger

You will get more even response with an optical volume pedal. Pots get scratchy and one never knows how smooth the taper will be. Even with an expensive replacement pot, these problems happen.

I have the pedal portion of a '70's Morely Echo Delay pedal I got from an ebay purchase that turned up broken after shipping. I was bummed out that the delay was dead but I've gotten my money's worth with a little elbow grease. It's optical volume function is superb.....steady, smooth and dynamic.

I don't know how the new stand-alone Morely volume pedals stand up against this one, but it's worth a shot. A lot of pedal steel players prefer optical pedals and so you may want to research what those guys like to use.

Happy New Year!

-Jack

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From: Sean <fourtytwominds@yahoo.com>
To: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2011 9:01 PM
Subject: [newmellotrongroup] Expression/volume pedal

An hour of googling has been fruitless.

How do you guys get even response on a volume pedal?

At current I have an Ernie Ball VP Jr mono volume pedal. It's between the source and the amp. V. simple.

From heel to near full the pedal is fairly even but still quiet. In the last say... 1/8 to 1/16 of an inch of play it goes from quiet to full. It's pissing me off. It's pissing my band mates off. We either get not enough Hammond/Mellotron or WAY TOO DAMNED MUCH.

I'm capable of replacing the pot in the pedal no problem. What rating and taper am I looking for? No one on the google seems to know.

Thanks.

-Sean

Re: Expression/volume pedal

2012-01-01 by Nick Hewitt

Sean - when I bought my tron, it came without its volume/swell pedal, so I'm having to do without any form of foot control. However, I want one. As an Electronic Engineer by profession, I should be able to make one, but I'm missing certain data.

I have been told on this forum that the value of the swell pot should be 10 kilohms. I'm assuming that it would be a 1/4W carbon track device. I presume this is what you mean by RATING, Sean.

I reckon that it is a LINEAR pot and not LOGRITHMIC - is this what you mean by "taper?" It's a term applied to pots I'm not familiar with, so I'm guessing it's an American colloquialism.

I'm after the CONNECTIONS between the pot and the stereo jack-plug that plugs into the tron. A normal swell pedal is wired such that when the pedal is pushed "toe-down", the tron sound is at maximum volume, and silent when "heel-down". I prefer the exact opposite, but I still want to retain the original configuration. I can do this with a DPDT switch - I'll probably use a slide switch. All I need to know is - "Which contact on the Stereo Jack-plug does the wiper of the Swell pot connect to?" With that info, I can work out the rest.

Happy New Year to you all.

Nick

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--- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, "Sean" <fourtytwominds@...> wrote:
>
> An hour of googling has been fruitless.
>
> How do you guys get even response on a volume pedal?
>
> At current I have an Ernie Ball VP Jr mono volume pedal. It's between the source and the amp. V. simple.
>
> From heel to near full the pedal is fairly even but still quiet. In the last say... 1/8 to 1/16 of an inch of play it goes from quiet to full. It's pissing me off. It's pissing my band mates off. We either get not enough Hammond/Mellotron or WAY TOO DAMNED MUCH.
>
> I'm capable of replacing the pot in the pedal no problem. What rating and taper am I looking for? No one on the google seems to know.
>
> Thanks.
>
> -Sean
>

Re: [newmellotrongroup] Expression/volume pedal

2012-01-02 by fdoddy@aol.com

I have a 30 year old Morley optical volume pedal and it works just as good today as the day I bought it. Go for the optical pedal, no noise!!!

fritz

-----Original Message-----

Show quoted textHide quoted text

From: Jack Younger <e4103s@yahoo.com>
To: newmellotrongroup <newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sun, Jan 1, 2012 8:26 pm
Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Expression/volume pedal

You will get more even response with an optical volume pedal. Pots get scratchy and one never knows how smooth the taper will be. Even with an expensive replacement pot, these problems happen.

I have the pedal portion of a '70's Morely Echo Delay pedal I got from an ebay purchase that turned up broken after shipping. I was bummed out that the delay was dead but I've gotten my money's worth with a little elbow grease. It's optical volume function is superb.....steady, smooth and dynamic.

I don't know how the new stand-alone Morely volume pedals stand up against this one, but it's worth a shot. A lot of pedal steel players prefer optical pedals and so you may want to research what those guys like to use.

Happy New Year!

-Jack

From: Sean <fourtytwominds@yahoo.com>
To: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2011 9:01 PM
Subject: [newmellotrongroup] Expression/volume pedal

An hour of googling has been fruitless.

How do you guys get even response on a volume pedal?

At current I have an Ernie Ball VP Jr mono volume pedal. It's between the source and the amp. V. simple.

From heel to near full the pedal is fairly even but still quiet. In the last say... 1/8 to 1/16 of an inch of play it goes from quiet to full. It's pissing me off. It's pissing my band mates off. We either get not enough Hammond/Mellotron or WAY TOO DAMNED MUCH.

I'm capable of replacing the pot in the pedal no problem. What rating and taper am I looking for? No one on the google seems to know.

Thanks.

-Sean

Re: [newmellotrongroup] Expression/volume pedal

2012-01-03 by gino wong

I would buy a reverse taper pot from Small Bear. I am pretty sure that if you look at a Coloursound volume or wah pedal that you will get all of the info you will need to wire up a replacement. Jon or Martin would know off the top of their heads.

The tendency these days is to use linear taper parts for everything, you can always change the pot or add two parts and change the relative response. I would first replace the pot with an original if it broken. The bump you speak of is a matter for concern, could be a snarky nearby bypass cap or some goofy shit like that, I would experiment with a resistor switch box or a pot swap jig If I have time to piss around. Before all of that I would ask Jon or Martin or Frank or Jerry.

A while back I decided to build my own Vactrols using different leds and enclosures and other mad scientist noodling etc.... if you need one or two photocells, now illegal in the EU (?) I recently rebuilt four Farfisa pedals for a pal and they work great using these photocells, I am thinking I got a bag of 'the original' generic photocells. Send me an address or whatever I will send you some.

best

g

i think I got them from Electronic Goldmine or All Electronics really cheap withing the last year or two.

On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 9:18 AM, <fdoddy@aol.com> wrote:

I have a 30 year old Morley optical volume pedal and it works just as good today as the day I bought it. Go for the optical pedal, no noise!!!

fritz

-----Original Message-----

Show quoted textHide quoted text

From: Jack Younger <e4103s@yahoo.com>
To: newmellotrongroup <newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sun, Jan 1, 2012 8:26 pm
Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Expression/volume pedal

You will get more even response with an optical volume pedal. Pots get scratchy and one never knows how smooth the taper will be. Even with an expensive replacement pot, these problems happen.

I have the pedal portion of a '70's Morely Echo Delay pedal I got from an ebay purchase that turned up broken after shipping. I was bummed out that the delay was dead but I've gotten my money's worth with a little elbow grease. It's optical volume function is superb.....steady, smooth and dynamic.

I don't know how the new stand-alone Morely volume pedals stand up against this one, but it's worth a shot. A lot of pedal steel players prefer optical pedals and so you may want to research what those guys like to use.

Happy New Year!

-Jack

From: Sean <fourtytwominds@yahoo.com>
To: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2011 9:01 PM
Subject: [newmellotrongroup] Expression/volume pedal

An hour of googling has been fruitless.

How do you guys get even response on a volume pedal?

At current I have an Ernie Ball VP Jr mono volume pedal. It's between the source and the amp. V. simple.

From heel to near full the pedal is fairly even but still quiet. In the last say... 1/8 to 1/16 of an inch of play it goes from quiet to full. It's pissing me off. It's pissing my band mates off. We either get not enough Hammond/Mellotron or WAY TOO DAMNED MUCH.

I'm capable of replacing the pot in the pedal no problem. What rating and taper am I looking for? No one on the google seems to know.

Thanks.

-Sean

--
"All music is folk music; I ain't never heard no horse sing a song."
Louis Armstrong

Gino Wong Birgelo
BSComm, BSEE, CG, CSEC
Audio Production, Logistics, Analog Synthesizers, Sound Design

Ginowong@gmail.com

Re: [newmellotrongroup] Expression/volume pedal

2012-01-03 by lsf5275@aol.com

10k log should do it. 15k would probably work. To reverse it, merely wire poles 2 and 3 instead of 1 and 2 or visa versa.

In a message dated 1/3/2012 12:39:56 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, wonggster@gmail.com writes:

I would buy a reverse taper pot from Small Bear. I am pretty sure that if you look at a Coloursound volume or wah pedal that you will get all of the info you will need to wire up a replacement. Jon or Martin would know off the top of their heads.

The tendency these days is to use linear taper parts for everything, you can always change the pot or add two parts and change the relative response. I would first replace the pot with an original if it broken. The bump you speak of is a matter for concern, could be a snarky nearby bypass cap or some goofy shit like that, I would experiment with a resistor switch box or a pot swap jig If I have time to piss around. Before all of that I would ask Jon or Martin or Frank or Jerry.

A while back I decided to build my own Vactrols using different leds and enclosures and other mad scientist noodling etc.... if you need one or two photocells, now illegal in the EU (?) I recently rebuilt four Farfisa pedals for a pal and they work great using these photocells, I am thinking I got a bag of 'the original' generic photocells. Send me an address or whatever I will send you some.

best

g

i think I got them from Electronic Goldmine or All Electronics really cheap withing the last year or two.

On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 9:18 AM, <fdoddy@aol.com> wrote:

I have a 30 year old Morley optical volume pedal and it works just as good today as the day I bought it. Go for the optical pedal, no noise!!!

fritz

-----Original Message-----

Show quoted textHide quoted text

From: Jack Younger <e4103s@yahoo.com>
To: newmellotrongroup <newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sun, Jan 1, 2012 8:26 pm
Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Expression/volume pedal

You will get more even response with an optical volume pedal. Pots get scratchy and one never knows how smooth the taper will be. Even with an expensive replacement pot, these problems happen.

I have the pedal portion of a '70's Morely Echo Delay pedal I got from an ebay purchase that turned up broken after shipping. I was bummed out that the delay was dead but I've gotten my money's worth with a little elbow grease. It's optical volume function is superb.....steady, smooth and dynamic.

I don't know how the new stand-alone Morely volume pedals stand up against this one, but it's worth a shot. A lot of pedal steel players prefer optical pedals and so you may want to research what those guys like to use.

Happy New Year!

-Jack

From: Sean <fourtytwominds@yahoo.com>
To: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2011 9:01 PM
Subject: [newmellotrongroup] Expression/volume pedal

An hour of googling has been fruitless.

How do you guys get even response on a volume pedal?

At current I have an Ernie Ball VP Jr mono volume pedal. It's between the source and the amp. V. simple.

From heel to near full the pedal is fairly even but still quiet. In the last say... 1/8 to 1/16 of an inch of play it goes from quiet to full. It's pissing me off. It's pissing my band mates off. We either get not enough Hammond/Mellotron or WAY TOO DAMNED MUCH.

I'm capable of replacing the pot in the pedal no problem. What rating and taper am I looking for? No one on the google seems to know.

Thanks.

-Sean

--

"All music is folk music; I ain't never heard no horse sing a song."

Louis Armstrong

Gino Wong Birgelo

BSComm, BSEE, CG, CSEC

Audio Production, Logistics, Analog Synthesizers, Sound Design

Ginowong@gmail.com