Whats the best Volume Pedal OHM'age?

sickindian

sickindian

Experienced
Hi
I was wondering if anyone could explain me this all OHM thing and how its affecting smoothness of expression pedal?

The reason I'm asking is that i own Ernie Ball 6166 Volume pedal with 250 K pot and its not that smooth its actually very rapid when you move it from heel position.

Thanks for any advice.

Adrian
 
Either way, I think it wouldn't matter, because you could adjust the curve and rate of the pedal itself, at least with the axe fx.
 
I can remember same conversation when I had ultra but I somehow managed to set it pretty much identical with my Dunlop but now it's a pain in da buttt!
 
I asked this exact question to Fractal Audio support several months ago. Paraphrasing, the response was, "Best between 10K and 50K".
 
There must be a difference if it's between 10-50 K it looks like the less OHM the more controllable is the sweep range.
Now what mission uses for their exp pedals?
 
The "controlability" is often not the range value of the potentiometer in the volume pedal, but rather whether a linear or logarithmic (aka "audio") taper potentiometer (pot) is used. Volume pedals use log/audio pots because the human ear is basically logarithmic in sensitivity. But many effects and processors like the Axe FX are designed to use expression pedals that have linear taper pots -- i.e. provide a resistance that varies linearly with pedal position. To answer the original question--things will likely go much better if you do *not* use a volume pedal but rather use an expression pedal (even if the ultimate block/variable you want to adjust is a volume pedal). Many folks like the Mission expression pedals, I like to modify an Ernie Ball Jr. volume pedal to be an expression pedal (described in other threads here, as are commercial available expression pedal conversions for the Ernie Ball).
 
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sickindian said:
There must be a difference if it's between 10-50 K it looks like the less OHM the more controllable is the sweep range.
Now what mission uses for their exp pedals?
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No that is not true, accommodating different value pots (within the intended ranges) is what calibration is for. If Fractal Audio is specifying this range of values there is no reason to double guess them, and think you need a lower value within that range. The reason most of us are using 10k ohm expression pedals is they are the defacto industry standard values used by many pedal manufacturers (including Mission for most of their pedals).

Darryl
 
The reason expression pedals tend to use pots with lower resistance values is primarily because those pots have a longer life as compared to pots with higher resistance. You can approximate a linear taper from a log taper by adding a couple of external resistors (there are at least a couple of threads on this topic here).

FWIW, audio/log taper pots commonly available generally approximate a log curve by using just two different masks. So rather than recreating a log curve you get a constant slope which changes to a steeper constant slope somewhere in the middle.
 
So basically it's better to get dedicated Expression pedal rather than try Volume pedal to work?
Mine does this thing described above and I can't set it to work smooth like my Dunlop wah.
 
sickindian said:
So basically it's better to get dedicated Expression pedal rather than try Volume pedal to work?
Mine does this thing described above and I can't set it to work smooth like my Dunlop wah.
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Again, what volume pedal (25k ohm, 250k ohm, somethign else?) are you trying to use. A 250 k ohm pedal will likely be worse than a 25 k ohm one, and all worse than a proper (linear or near linear pot based) expression pedal.

If the mission style expression pedals work for you they are a good (solid and reliable) place to start.

Darryl
 
250k mate that's what I own. I can actual remember some differences that the higher the ohm'age then it's more for passive stuff. Ur I might be wrong tho.
 
sickindian said:
250k mate that's what I own. I can actual remember some differences that the higher the ohm'age then it's more for passive stuff. Ur I might be wrong tho.
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Unfortunately you have a high range pedal with a volume/log pot so the worst of both worlds for use as an expression pedal here.

Digressing to volume pedals: For use as a volume pedal the 250k ohm or so high resistance volume pedals are intended to go in front of your amp and most other things. You don't want a low resistance pedal shorting across your raw signal path, it will affect the signal/tone more. The lower (e.g. often 25k ohm) pedals are normally intended or use after buffered fx pedals or preamps etc. or in effects loops. All this is completely irrelevant to the resistance range of an effects pedal. In the case here the recommended ranges for MFC effects pedals are just a practical decision, based on typical expression pedal values. Not a decision about affecting tone or not.

Get yourself a real expression pedal.

Darryl
 
Will EP1-TC by mission work fine with mfc eventho it's made for g system?
There is one on eBay just now at reasonable price.
 
sickindian said:
Will EP1-TC by mission work fine with mfc eventho it's made for g system?
There is one on eBay just now at reasonable price.
Click to expand...

A quick Google search for "mission EP1-TC resistance" takes me to Mission Support FAQ which states the EP1-TC uses a 470kohm pot, so well outside the recommended range of potentiometer values for the MFC. Why G-System would design products that use such non-standard resistance is beyond me.

Darryl
 
It's like my ernie ball volume pedal no use so I will just control main volume signal with it as its doing it flawless.
I actually got Roland EV-5 and Boss FV500L and they're okay.
 
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