Battle of the volume pedals

[Haddock]

I thought some of you might be interested in a recent test session I had when visiting Geoff (Jif). I had a ‘wrong PSU accident’ with my Hilton and he was kind enough to do the repair but in the meantime, I made an emergency purchase of a Telonics (still get the shakes when I think of the price….). Also he had just treated himself to a Lehle to replace his Goodrich so in the room at the same time, we had these four.

It seemed too good an opportunity to miss so we did a little head to head testing as we had two sets of ears and his studio to play with plus the four pedals. Didn’t have time to get the oscilloscope and the varicurve on the go so it’s all subjective but I think we were pretty much agreed on the results. Unfortunately, I cant play Geoffs guitar as I would need to put it up on bricks to get my legs under it but we still managed to get a good play with each.

A brief unscientific report on the results (which will morph into a glowing report of the Telonics)

Firstly, the Goodrich wasn’t in the same class as the rest being a ‘pot’ pedal. Massive tone change which could be sorted by Geoffs FET pre amp, a sort of Little Lil, but still basic tech and didn’t sound anywhere near as nice as the rest. (The pre amp made no difference at all when using the others so clearly doing its job as a current amp.) Obviously though, for some folks, the pot effect is part of the sound so fair enough and horses for courses etc. The Lehle and the Telonics were very clean sounding with no discernible tone change. The Hilton gave a slight midrange boost which actually made it sound subjectively ‘better’ and I started to feel guilty about paying so much for its replacement. However now having had the Telonics for long enough to get into it, and having picked from the 8 tapers available, for me, it’s the best volume pedal in the world. Is it worth double the price of a Hilton? Before I bought it I would have said no way. Volume pedals are black and blue things that cost £20 and sometimes come free with a wah wah. Indeed my first volume pedal had Wah and a siren plus surf noises! But having sat down at home and played a bit with the Telonics, swapped to the Hilton, and then back again several times, its the clear winner to my ears and feet. I’m sure Geoff will now tell you why the Lehle is the best but this is all part of the fun! Anyone want a Hilton?

I told you it was unscientific…..
Cheers
Calum

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

tell me about the Hilton Calum is it the older one with the transformer and the wall wart?

[Jif]

It was indeed an interesting experiment, no way would I claim that the Lehle was better than the Telonics, the Telonics obviously has many more options. However for the price the Lehle mono volume 90 is very good value for the cost @ £210, it has a very smooth mechanical action and the response is also very smooth. It does have a couple of options, with a control for boost and a control which for the first 50% of the turn alters the taper response and for the second 50% sets the minimum volume level. TBH I liked the response straight out of the box and haven't played around with the taper adjust enough to notice any real difference.

The bottom line is I like it a lot and certainly prefered it to the Goodrich or the Hilton, the Telonics was sweet though!

Now I'm waiting for the custom bracket to attach it to the crossbar, which I had to back order and am expecting it at the beginning of December. The picture below shows it attached to the guitar version of the pedal, the Lehle mono pedal, the mono 90 version has the jacks on the RHS of the pedal specifically for pedal steel use as in the 2nd picture below.

[Jif]

tell me about the Hilton Calum is it the older one with the transformer and the wall wart?

Hi John, I believe it was a newer version than that one, it was powered from a single wall wart supplying 24v, (no transformer), which was then split into a +12v and -12v by a voltage divider circuit within the pedal.

I'd just like to thank Keith Hilton for his help with the repair as there was one component which needed replaced which I couldn't identify, Keith was kind enough to tell me the part number for this component, which was key to splitting the voltage into positive and negative rails. For anyone interested I had to replace this component and the VCA chip which was also blown. The VCA was expensive to buy as it is no longer produced by the original makers Analogue Devices, plenty of Chinese versions but didn't fancy using one of these as the quality control of Chinese components can be a bit hit or miss. I managed to source a new/old stock Analogue Devices chip but it was costly. However worth it to get the pedal up and running again.

[Haddock]

tell me about the Hilton Calum is it the older one with the transformer and the wall wart?

Hi John
It must be about 5 years old and as Geoff says, has a UK power supply. It also has the Hilton approved tuner mod which gives an ‘always on’ output for your tuner, the same as the Telonics.

On tapers, the one I’ve settled on on the Telonics behaves very like the Hilton for the first third of the travel but just keeps getting louder and louder further up. Great for extended sustain! I didn’t bother with the bracket as I’ve never felt the need.

Cheers
Calum

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

would the pedal height be the same as the goodrich standard pedal or would lt match the low version? Can you pm price as i have someone looking for a lower pedal.....short legs seem to create their own probs.....

[Haddock]

Hi John
The height is quite close to the low Goodrich I believe but I can measure when I get home, probably not till Wednesday. I had a low Hilton for a while and it was actually too low as the ankle angle required to get minimum was actually sore! The new price is £329 plus postage so I’m thinking £230 inc post isn’t unreasonable.
Cheers
Calum

[Danny Mitchell]

Interesting and informative post. The best bit of info I gleaned from these gems is that Geoff is back on the guitar. Fantastic.
It also reminds me of a quote from an old tome that I once perused.
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's pedal"

[Jif]

Interesting and informative post. The best bit of info I gleaned from these gems is that Geoff is back on the guitar. Fantastic.
It also reminds me of a quote from an old tome that I once perused.
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's pedal"

Thanks Danny, only in short bursts for now, but it's a start. It's like starting all over again, well not quite, a lot is coming back but definitely requires a lot more practice to get my pick fingers to play all the right strings in the right order at the right time

I do however covet Calums new Telonics pedal

[Haddock]

On pedal heights, there’s not much difference between the Telonics and the Hilton, both being about 50mm high above the axel pivot point. Perhaps some kind soul could measure the Goodrich and Lehle?
Cheers
Calum