MSA Volume Pedal

[Wayne Tumey]

Just wondering if anyone knows a little about this pedal. I've had it for about 30 years, still works just fine. Bud Carter put a pot in it about 4 or 5 years ago. The pedal works just fine. Thoughts?

[Jerry Overstreet]

Wayne, I have one just like it that I bought in the late 70's/ early 80's from Far Out Music in Indiana when they were a dealer for MSA. I still use it and it works just fine.

I don't know who the mfg. was, but it looks identical in design and construction to my Goodrich 120 pedals.

[Tracy Sheehan]

Altho i no longer play i still have the orginal msa volume pedal i got with the new msa D 10 classic in 1970 or 71.I never did like a stringed VP as back then the string slipped and broke often.
I used to use the old De Armond cheap gear driven pedal.In reality one would work as well today as any over priced VP as it is only a volume control.
IMHO an old De Armond today with an A/B pot if one could find one would work just as well and maybe better as any VP on the market, as there is no string to ever replace and the pot could be changed in minutes.
I was never one who had to have what every one else used.I even had my own tuning and pedal set up,not the E or D set up.I made my living for over 50 years playing steel and fiddle,at times.
I believe it would give the steel guitar a shot in the arm if so many would stop trying to copy some one else.As a great old song goes,I did it my way.
These are my opinions only and we all know what they are like.Tracy

BTW.2 or 3 years ago i was over at Carter steel and John Fabain had a MSA volume pedal that had never been used and was still in the box.I offered to buy it but he didn't want to sell it.I forget where he came across it.I may try and get hold of Reece and see if he knows what became of it.Tracy

[Charles Davidson]

I use an old [can't even remember when or where I got it] Dunlop Hi-gain pedal. NO strings to break, still has the original pot,as quite as a mouse even in the studio. YOU BETCHA,DYK?BC.

[Jim Lindsey (Louisiana)]

That volume pedal brings back some memories for me of my early days of playing steel in the mid '70s. I had an MSA pedal just like that one.

I lost mine when the bass player in the band I was in at the time got drunk & obnoxious. We made him ride in the back of the pick up with the gear and as we drove across a bridge, he grabbed my MSA pedal and started shaking it around, giggling and saying something like "Hey, guys, what if I started throwing stuff out into the water?" and as he made the gesture of throwing my pedal, he actually did. Down it went into the river below and it was lost.

He felt bad for what he did and bought me a new DeArmond pedal to replace it, but it just wasn't the same as my MSA pedal. I've often wished I still had that old MSA pedal, just as a keepsake if nothing else.

[Wayne Tumey]

Hey Jim,
Not that for from you...maybe I'll let you use it a weekend or 2 for ole time sake, pending the bass player is no longer with the band! I wonder how many of these were made? When I took it in to get the pot replaced (about 5 years ago)John and Bud C. really looked it over. Many comments too.

[Jim Lindsey (Louisiana)]

Hi, Wayne ... man, thanks a lot. It'd actually be kinda nice to feel an MSA pedal again for a moment or two. If we're pretty close, what would you think of getting together sometime to play to some tracks and swap a few licks?

And (grinning wickedly here) no worries about that old bass player; he eventually got what was coming to him. It was 1977 and we were in a band called Sweet Grass (we played stuff like Poco, Marshall Tucker, etc.) and the bass player was really a nice guy while sober, but if he got to drinking he'd turn into a complete idiot and do stupid and destructive things. One day he'd been drinking and thought it'd be a nice touch for the show to set off an M-80 in the drummer's kick drum near the end of a song. We immediately fired him (as soon as the drummer finished drumming him into the ground). Ah, the memories of those wilder days!

Good question on how many of those MSA pedals there are. Perhaps Reece might be able to give us an idea about how many of those were made and sold.