Volume Pedals

Joey Aguilera · From: Whittier, California, USA

I've been making some slow and steady progress on the PSG and just yesterday I decided to plug in an old broken volume pedal I had just restored into working order. What can I say but it sure slowed my progress down a bit, and frustrated me some.

Do you guys have any advice on practicing volume pedal techniques. It seems like a bit of an art in itself

I know it will come in time but hopefully somebody out there knows an exercise I can use to make the learning process a bit easier.

Carlos Polidura · From: Puerto Rico

hi joey,
i know that using a volume pedal is not easey. but this is how you may be able to get used to it.
think of the volume pedal as if it was your own mouth. make believe that you are singin a song with the pedal. use the volume pedal to express your feelings.
when you want to play gentle and soft retract the volume...strike the string...and then slowly increase the volume...slowly. this will eliminate the plucking sound.
make believe you're singing with the volume pedal. THIS IS ON SLOW SONGS.
on fast songs just give enough volume to be heard. not much movement needed.
i hope you get it.
i'm sure you'l get a better explanation than this, but this is how i learned it as back in my earlier days i had nobody to ask questions to...there was no forum...no contacts of any kind.
i'm sure you'l come thru.

richard burton · From: Britain

In my opinion it is important, in order to get a good tone, to hear the attack when the string is picked. That is why I set my VP to at least 20 per cent volume even when the pedal is backed right off.
Your mileage may vary.
R B

D Schubert · From: Columbia, MO, USA

Something that is helping me (I think) is to plug my steel into a small tube amp intended for guitar, that is easy to drive into distortion. This isn't the sound that I'm striving for, but it makes me pay a lot more attention to the volume pedal. Must back off on the volume pedal when the string is plucked, and push down on the pedal as the note decays. To my ears, the tone of a clean-sounding amp (LTD 400) changes very little with the vol-pedal, only the volume, makes it easy to become absent-minded about loudness. With a dirty amp (Princeton Reverb with hopped-up gain stage) there is a big difference, and the discipline is to milk all the volume I can w/o crossing over into hi-distortion territory. I think that's the same situation old-time steelers had to deal with before solid-state amps were the norm.

Jennings Ward · From: Edgewater, Florida, R.I.P.

WELL THAT GOES TO PROVE, THAT THERE 2 IN SOME UNDERWARE..WHEN THEY ARE BOTH EXPOSED, STINKS, DONT THEY........JENNINGS

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EMMONS D10 10-10 profex 2 deltafex ne1000 pv1000, pv 31 bd eq, +

Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

Just keep practicing 'til you like what it sounds like, Joey - you know what you're looking for and if you keep working for it you will get it faster than you think right now.

As Carlos says, the volume pdeal is what gives the instrument its voice - the one thing that virtually no instrument but the PSG can do is SING moving harmonies with itself and not just play the notes.

Go out and double clutch your truck across town and back. Twice.

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Dave Grafe - email: dg@pdxaudio.com
Production
Pickin', etc.

1978 ShoBud Pro I E9, 1960 Les Paul (SG) Deluxe, 1963 Precision Bass, 1954 Gibson LGO, 1897 Washburn Hawaiian Steel Conversion

Joey Aguilera · From: Whittier, California, USA

David Weaver · From: Aurora, CO USA

I took a woodshed workshop 5 day gig with the late Jeff Newman. He stuck a 9 volt battery in front of my volume pedal so that it would not shut down beyond a certain level.

He told me to practice this for a while so that I quit using the volume pedal as an escape valve for poor playing.

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