After 8 months of lap steel, I’ve recently started learning on my new stage one PSG. Loving this instrument and journey, but learning to use a volume pedal has been difficult…sometimes I’ll press a little too hard and it gets SO LOUD in my headphones or the house… Not healthy. Is this normal for y’all and I just need to get better? Is it because my amp doesn’t have a master volume option? Amp is a Dean Markley K-20x. The settings in picture below are not current. I currently have overdrive off and clean at the lowest setting.
Is it me or my amp? TOO LOUD
Moderator: Shoshanah Marohn
- Cole Weidenbach
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- Joined: 6 Dec 2022 1:16 am
- Location: Mississippi, USA
- Dave Hopping
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- Cole Weidenbach
- Posts: 7
- Joined: 6 Dec 2022 1:16 am
- Location: Mississippi, USA
My description may have been a little misleading.. My brand new stage one VP has perfect smooth progression from 0 to 100. I went back and was actually able to lower my clean knob a tiny bit right before it cut out. Definitely better than earlier. Is it normal for headphones at 80-100% VP to be “uncomfortably loud” but not “eardrum busting” loud? Because that’s the lowest my amp seems to do. I need to learn to use RKL without moving the VP haha.
- Dave Hopping
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Yes, good volume pedal technique is not easy but it is essential. Full-on volume pedal should be too loud because that's how you get best tone and sustain in the zone where you should be using it -- more in the middle zone (with the higher zones being there for extended sustain as the note decays.
But........what's up with those eq settings? I could make a case for those making the amp super spiky and sensitive to peaks. Why are you diming everything?
But........what's up with those eq settings? I could make a case for those making the amp super spiky and sensitive to peaks. Why are you diming everything?
- Cole Weidenbach
- Posts: 7
- Joined: 6 Dec 2022 1:16 am
- Location: Mississippi, USA
Yes, last night I made some great improvement with the volume pedal without blasting my ears. As for the EQ, I’m guilty haha. I’m a beginner and I’ve never noticed that much a a difference adjusting EQ. I read I should set all knobs to 12 oclock and start there. Should I start with a certain knob first to best hear a difference?
- Dave Grafe
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Re: Is it me or my amp? TOO LOUD
Your photo shows the clean volume past the center, i.e. medium loud. Try leaving it at 10 o'clock max, at least in the house.Cole Weidenbach wrote:...Is this normal for y’all and I just need to get better? Is it because my amp doesn’t have a master volume option? Amp is a Dean Markley I currently have overdrive off and clean at the lowest setting.
Before you worry to much about tone shaping just focus on keeping the pedal halfway or lower and playing with consistent volume. When this becomes automatic you can proceed to the subtleties and they will come more naturally. The only need to push past the middle is to sustain a note, otherwise mid-point and below is where the action takes place when striking a note.
Patience is a lifetime effort, carry on.