Tuner Out For Your Volume Pedal

Bud Angelotti · Post by **Bud Angelotti** » 7 Jun 2012 12:44 pm

Boo - i just did my goodrich last week. Another satisfied customer. Get a 1 meg 1/2 watt resistor,
if your goodrich is like mine, the red wire coming off the pot is the hot one. It goes to one of the output jacks. There is a little wire that bridges the two output jacks. Cut that bridge off. Now, only ONE of the output jacks is connected to the pot. Solder your resistor from the empty output jack to the INPUT jac . There are now 2 feeds coming off the input jack, the one that goes to the pot, and the resistor which BYPASSES the pot. The jacks are all grounded to the chaissis of the pedal so you don't have to mess with them. It's really easy, had to be for me to do it.

Boo Bernstein · Post by **Boo Bernstein** » 7 Jun 2012 1:30 pm

Bud -- Thank you so much ... that was exactly what I was looking for! Tremendously appreciated!

BTW, I'm originally from NJ and started playing steel there MANY years ago. In fact, there are a number of players on the Forum that followed me in Tim Gillis' band including Tiny Olson and Ben Lawson.

Thanks again! Boo

Steve English · Post by **Steve English** » 7 Jun 2012 6:12 pm

Removed because of incorrect info $:\$

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 7 Jun 2012 6:21 pm

Steve, it looks like you took the tuner send off the wiper/J2.
I woulda thought it'd be better to take it off J1, so that you could tune quietly.
Or am I seeing funny?

Steve English · Post by **Steve English** » 7 Jun 2012 7:34 pm

Lane, you're probably right.

Just the way I hooked it up at the time. My pedal doesn't cut completely off (by choice) and it's never been an issue. My Sho~Bud's the same way. I like my pot pedals to max out at full glitter, and set my amp volume/tone relative to that. Seems like none of my pot pedals travel from complete off, to full volume with the travel of the pedal, so I go for the volume end for best signal-noise. All this means that when I back off the pedal, my guitar is barely audible.

I'll hook it up to the other terminal and see how that works.... thanks!

Bud Angelotti · Post by **Bud Angelotti** » 8 Jun 2012 5:58 am

Steve - The resistor connects to the jack where your guitar plugs into the pedal, bypasses the pot, and goes to the empty output jack. There should be no connection between the two output jacks.

Steve English · Post by **Steve English** » 8 Jun 2012 7:24 am

Got it...thanks!!

I removed pics as not to confuse anybody...

Here's corrected pics:

This is where I put the jack on the Bud:

Boo Bernstein · Post by **Boo Bernstein** » 9 Jun 2012 7:43 am

Thanks to everyone for this great tutorial and pictures.

Question: has anyone used one of the typical off-the-shelf A/B boxes to switch to a tuner and do they change the tone? I have a few stored away (DOD, Electro Harmonix) -- before I go search for them, just wanted to see if anyone had experience with these.

Thanks again. Boo

Tom Wolverton · Post by **Tom Wolverton** » 9 Jun 2012 8:27 am

Boo, the passive A/B boxes work great, as does the Jerry Rig. There are many good ways to "skin this cat". : )

William Fraser · Post by **William Fraser** » 29 Nov 2012 7:01 am

Every thing I've read stresses keeping as little as possible in line with the output from the instrument , my solution is to use one of the effect outputs to feed the rack tuner , it seems to work & on a Session 400 Limited I still have one effect send & return should I need it . Bill

Charlie Powell · Post by **Charlie Powell** » 1 Dec 2012 12:50 pm

The mod Randy suggests works even better in my experience if you put a .1uf capacitor in series with the resitor. That will keep any DC from the tuner out of your signal path.

Andrew Waegel · Post by **Andrew Waegel** » 8 May 2013 5:40 pm

Hi Fellers,

Opening up my Goodrich I see it's one of the active ones with a little amp circuit in there. Do I still need the 1 Megohm resistor or can I just change the jumpers?

-------------------------------

ANSWERED MY OWN QUESTION.
"Yes", you still need the resistor, but the circuit makes it more complicated. Here's what worked for me:

1. You've got 3 jacks labeled inst, amp, amp; let's let the jack furthest from inst be our tuner jack.

2. There's a jumper wire (it's purple on my pedal) going from the center lug of the tuner jack to the center lug of amp jack (the jack in the middle); disconnect this at amp jack. This wire is the input from the pot with the variable signal.

3. Connect the end you just removed to one lead of the 1 megohm resistor.

4. Connect the other resistor lead to the middle lug of the inst jack; on my pedal this has a light gray jumper going to the circuit board. Leave the gray wire connected.

That's it. I tried a few other things that didn't work at all, and this configuration without the resistor was definitely a tone suck, but so far so good.

Tech guys please speak up if I'm doing something boneheaded here.

- Handy Andy

Cody Angel · Post by **Cody Angel** » 18 Aug 2013 8:28 pm

Could you not just unhook the outputs and run a wire from the input to the second out without a resistor?

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 19 Aug 2013 2:05 am

Yes, but you change the load the pickup sees. This changes the tone. I do it that way, but I disconnect the phone when I get done tuning.

Pete Nicholls · Post by **Pete Nicholls** » 19 Aug 2013 3:19 am

My Pedal Master guitar has an extra jack for a tuner, will have to look and see how it is wired. I don't hear a difference in tone whether a tuner is plugged in or not, but have to back the pedal off to tune quietly.

Dustin Rigsby · Post by **Dustin Rigsby** » 2 Feb 2014 3:56 am

To add.....I just did this mod on my Goodrich 120. Best thing since sliced bread IMHO ! Thanks to all the info and pictures provided in this thread . This thread should be made a sticky note in electronics section of the forum !

Post by **Joey Ace** » 2 Feb 2014 5:59 am

It was suggested this post be made a "Sticky".
I agree. Done. Thanks Dustin.

Hugh Jackson · Post by **Hugh Jackson** » 18 Feb 2014 7:33 pm

I did what Jerry Roller did put one in cable plug works great got a whole pack for $2.00 Thanks for the info

Scott Duckworth · Post by **Scott Duckworth** » 26 Feb 2014 1:39 pm

I just rewired my Goodrich L10 to converted pot pedal and added the tuner out to my center jack. Works great. Schematic below...

Abe Levy · Post by **Abe Levy** » 28 Feb 2014 7:35 pm

Did my Goodrich 120. Best $0.50 I ever spent. Thank you!

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 11 Mar 2014 12:26 pm

I keep waiting for the sage, wiley old-timer to tell us that "Tuning by ear is good for you!" but I guess he's on vacation. This decade....

Craig A Davidson · Post by **Craig A Davidson** » 19 Jul 2014 8:13 am

I just kind of flipped thru the posts but the newer Hilton pedals have a tuner out jack. Works great.

David Stilley · Post by **David Stilley** » 26 Aug 2014 6:18 am

Hugh Jackson wrote:I did what Jerry Roller did put one in cable plug works great got a whole pack for $2.00 Thanks for the info

It looks like the sleeve that goes inside the jack's screw on cover is insulating the ground instead of the hot lead with the resistor soldered to it. That hot lead could short against the outer metal cover and cancel the signal.

Will Cowell · Post by **Will Cowell** » 28 Aug 2014 4:58 am

Guys, now that this mod is making sense and members are ok with getting the soldering iron out, here's another thing to think on, for those of you with a passive pot.

To cure the "tone suck" effect, or at least minimise it, try installing a capacitor of about 0.022 microfarad (uF) (i.e.22nF) from the top of the pot track, where the input signal comes in, to the slider terminal right next to it in the centre of the three solder lugs.

It takes the higher frequencies around the pot to a certain extent, and remedies the loss of the higher partials in the signal.

Tommi Toijonen · Post by **Tommi Toijonen** » 24 Jan 2016 4:11 am

Would this simple kind of box inbetween the guitar and the volume pedal rob the tone?

(Picture originally from http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to- ... /?ALLSTEPS by Litlleâ€“Buster)

Output from the guitar goes to input of the box. The switch that either routes the signal to the tuner output B or to volume pedal A. They are not connected to each other ever.

Any other problems?

The Steel Guitar Forum

Tuner Out For Your Volume Pedal

I sometimes use a DOD A/B pedal

Tuner output

Use a capacitor

Something wrong with this picture?

Whadda 'bout A/B box as a first stage?