Volume Pedal - Active or Passive?

[Bill L. Wilson]

I keep three Emmons pot pedals at every gig. I’ve only played thru Hilton and Telonics pedals at steel guitar shows. They work fine, but I’ll stick with my pot pedals, Lil Izzy, a Goodrich Matchbox into a Fender or Peavey amp. Works for me.

[Carl Mesrobian]

I've just bought a used Hilton and will need some time to play it.

I might also be a "Both" type user. There's something I like about the characteristics of a pot pedal, part of liking it is that I'm used to it!

Time will tell.

[Ken Byng]

I really don't want to give up my olld Sho Bud pedal. Does anyone know if the latest Goodrich pots (rebranded Dunlop?) have a different taper from the Dunlop hot potz as sold by Tom Bradshaw? From the marketing it sounds like they have modelled it on the old AB "J type" taper. It's a big investment to find out since they are apparently sold in fives:.
https://goodrichsoundcompany.com/produc ... bare-pots/

Jonathan
The new Goodrich pots DO have a different taper to the Dunlop Hot Potz. More like the AB pot. I cover all bases as I have Telonics, Hilton, Emmons, Sho~Bud (3) and Goodrich pedals. I love a good pot pedal with a pristine 500k log pot for tone, but for me the Telonics pedal delivers a beautiful performance without colouring the tone of my guitars very much. Plus I can power it from a small 24v socket on the front of my Telonics amp.

[Stu Schulman]

I have 3 volume pedals,My favorite is Telonics followed by Hilton followed by Electro Harmonics.

[Dale Rottacker]

UPDATE... shortly after posting here in June I also bought the new OMNI from Bill Ferguson.... What a GREAT pedal, the ability to go from Active to Passive, and if the Pot takes a dive, being able to push a button and immediately be back in business I thought was worth the price of admission... I really love this pedal, it’s feel and tone and construction are excellent, and like I said, I love the HYBRID idea of having all the basses covered in one pedal.

[Jack Hanson]

3 old Emmons pot pedals and 3 old Sho-Bud pot pedals with a plethora of different potentiometers under the treadle and all of 'em sound more alike than different.

[Francesco Porcu]

I tried connecting my PSG direct to my Quilter Tone Block 202 and it has perfect and powerful sound and volume, then I connected my PSG to the Hilton active volume pedal and I have to say two things:
1) the volume is reduced by a quarter the volume that I have with the pedal connected when I put the knob at 3 when I connect the active Hilton pedal to have the same volume I have to put the knob at 6 then the active pedal steals a quarter of volume.
2) I must say that the sound improves it makes it rounder warmer
Here all in all it can be fine because you increase a little volume and gai and you have a perfect sound, in addition it does not alter the timbo if you play with a little closed volume and when you open the timbre it is always the same
PS: I have never tried a passive Goodrich and therefore I cannot say how it will sound, but I would like to try this to understand the difference between my Hilton and a passive Goodrich. Francesco

[Richard Sinkler]

Every volume pedal I have ever had (many over 50 years), pot or active, has cut the volume of the amp by maybe 1/3 - 1/2. The nature of the beast.

[Glenn Taylor]

OK I'm biased. It's the only volume pedal I use.
Passive

[Charley Paul]

I use a Hilton Pro. Keith Hilton was able to customize it with the jacks on the right side in order to accommodate me using it on steel. I went with the Pro in order to be able to power it off of my pedalboard power supply. My pedalboard is usually set up right next to my steel on the floor, so powering the Hilton Pro off of the power brick is really helpful for setup/tear down, and minimizing the rats nest of cables...I really really like this pedal. I tend to use mine with the volume knob relatively low.

I have used a Goodrich Passive and a Lehle Mono Volume before this. Both were great pedals, but I like the Hilton best. I absolutely love the tone of the Goodrich passive, but didn’t want to deal with the hassle of broken strings inside the pedal. I feel like I can just about get the tone of the Goodrich out of the Hilton with the volume on the pedal set low. If I need a bit more cut, I just use my toe to adjust the volume on the pedal. I’m sold on these and have no plans to try any more volume pedals. I may order a second Hilton Pro though...