Volume Pedals General

[David Hartley]

If you still use a pot pedal, get a Lil'Issy.....

Otherwise, get a Telonics...

And as the Americans say, period...

[andrew marson]

The main advantage of the Hilton is that it has no pot. so you will never get crackling noises as it wears out and you won't have to put a new one in ( which on a Goodrich for example is a right pain). Sorry , that's all I know as have never used ernie or boss, but if they operate with pots they will eventually wear out and Sod's law says they will go just at the wrong time! Hope this is of use, cheers. Andy.

[Malcolm]

Reason is pots have become totally unreliable, even the so called "long life" ones. Over a two year period I spent the price of a Hilton , some lasted three months, one did a month.Check out all the posts on the American Forum and you will realise why so many of us have changed to non pot pedals.

[Will C]

TFC, there is a reason why they are more expensive. Telonics does not use a pot at all, for starters. Pots wear out. Telonics use non-contact position sensors to detect pedal movement. You don't even have to use a pedal to control volume. You can have an angle sensor velcro'd to your baseball cap if you want, excellent for handicapped players. You can select the way the volume tapers up and down, from a set of specimen tapers. Or you can program your own. You can set the minimum volume, and the "drag" on the pedal. You even get a buffered output for the tuner, so you can tune up with the volume off.

I got one, and am so pleased I did. It is the proverbial mutt's nuts. Hilton pedals are somewhat similar, also using non-pot technology. No idea how sophisticated they are otherwise.

Another thing, you need a pedal with as high an impedance/resistance as possible. That's why 250k ohm pots aren't as good as 500k ohm pots. These active pedals have effectively infinite input impedance, which means you don't get that loss of top end clarity you get with a pot.

You definitely get what you pay for.

Will C

The Hilton genreally use a light emmiting diode (LED) and a photo-resistor, with a graduated grey peice of perspex attached to the pedal passing between them. the only moving part is the pedal, but not as sophisticated a system as the Telonics. And they don't have a buffered output for the tuner, I don't think. stil a fairly decent pedal nonetheless.

[Malcolm]

There is a mod you can do on Hilton to make second output a dedicated tuner output you can use with volume pedal off.

[henry]

is it difficult to do? I'd like to set mine up like htat

[Malcolm]

Check on American forum, believe it was in thread by Randy Beavers, probably in electronics section.Have never bothered to do it I just run my Peterson in line, cannot detect any tone loss or difference by doing this.

thanks Malcolm, I'll look into that also.

[Malcolm]

Checked it out on b0b's forum, the mod can be obtained direct from Keith Hilton, believe instructions come with it, and it is not to hard to do.