Hilton volume pedal

Jack Willis · Post by **Jack Willis** » 27 Apr 2011 5:08 pm

I received my most anticipated Hilton pedal yesterday. Today I removed my EB VP jr. from its well worn spot. After a few adjustments and shifting of cords it was ready and waiting. From the first note I knew this was money very well spent. It is amazing how much this improved the sound and tone of my guitar. From the sustain to the clarity, from the taper(?) to the build quality. I have been playing for only a year so this is old news to most of you but it is new and exciting to me!

Just my ten cents worth......

Jack Willis · Post by **Jack Willis** » 27 Apr 2011 5:13 pm

Thanks Fred Justice....

Storm Rosson · Post by **Storm Rosson** » 27 Apr 2011 5:34 pm

Yep unfortunately u will receive only the BEST SERVICE and parts and anything u could need from Keith Hilton, he stands behind his products 110%....great guy ,great pedal, enjoy....Stormy

Fred Justice · Post by **Fred Justice** » 28 Apr 2011 4:46 pm

Jack your welcome, I'm glad your enjoying the new Hilton.
Satisfied customers make me feel gooooooood.

Jesse Leite · Post by **Jesse Leite** » 29 Apr 2011 8:01 am

Jack Willis wrote:...my EB VP jr...

Congrats on the Hilton

I play an EB Jr. right now too. I've heard only great things about Hilton pedals but they are just so expensive. I've considered replacing the pot in my EB Jr. with a good pot like you might find in one of the Goodrich pedals. Another thing I don't like about the EB Jr. is the circuit board... not sure if Hilton and Goodrich pedals have such complicated circuits? Is the circuit board really necessary? I would think one would get a more natural tone with just a pot; no extra components?

The Hilton has some sort of photocell potentiometer right... no pot to wear out so I hear?

Storm Rosson · Post by **Storm Rosson** » 29 Apr 2011 8:44 am

Yes, the Hilton is a "light" or optical pedal

Fred Justice · Post by **Fred Justice** » 29 Apr 2011 9:20 am

Stormy, the Hilton actually works with infra red, kinda like a cash register scanner. There is no light in the pedal.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 29 Apr 2011 6:17 pm

Ummm, if your EB Jr. isn't scratchy by now, DON'T TOUCH THAT POT! For several years now, there has been a great dearth of good pots for steel pedal, and I believe Goodrich are one of the companies still shipping pedals with a Mexican pot. It may fail in a month, it may fail in a day... but fail it will. There is obviously a great hurrah when someone discovers a stash of the old correct Allen-Bradly pots, I forget the number... and they will cost you dearly.

There is one modern pot that virtually all the "pot aficionados"* on this site use, and that's a Dunlop 470K pot. They're a little tricky to install, the soldering connectors are just little nubs. Tom Bradshaw and a few others have them, and Forumite Greg Cutshaw kindly wrote a slide show and even a dramatic movie about installation!

It appears Tom is now installing a Dunlop pot in the Goodrich!:
http://www.songwriter.com/bradshaw/potentiometers.php

http://www.songwriter.com/bradshaw/goodrich_pedals.php

http://www.gregcutshaw.com/Goodrich%201 ... 20Pot.html

*(ahem)

Eddie Freeman · Post by **Eddie Freeman** » 12 May 2011 10:22 am

Jack, i've had my Hilton going on three years now
and haven't had a bit of trouble with it. The tone
and ease of use still amaze me, I don't see the need for a back up, so I am selling my Goodrich120.
Thats how much faith I have in my Hilton.

Jesse Leite · Post by **Jesse Leite** » 18 May 2011 9:05 am

David Mason wrote:Ummm, if your EB Jr. isn't scratchy by now, DON'T TOUCH THAT POT!

After about two years of on and off playing, nope it's not scratchy yet. It did get a little squeaky on the axle, but a little bit of sewing machine oil did the trick. The reason I might consider getting another pedal is because of two reasons: 1) My EB Jr. has a 250k pot. I'm told that a 500k pot will improve my sound, although I wouldn't know for myself until I tried it. 2) The EB Jr. has some friction to it. I had my foot on a Hilton for all of 2 seconds (sat behind my teacher's PSG) and the first thing I noticed was how quiet and effortless it was to move. I almost couldn't tell if I was moving it or not.

Bo Borland · Post by **Bo Borland** » 18 May 2011 12:09 pm

The Hilton pedal is all that and more.

There are plenty of players who prefer the pot pedal sound, but I decided after replacing pot after pot and never finding a suitable replacement for the original AB, that I would prefer to play and not do pedal maintenance.

In the 3 or so years my Hilton has been in action I have had only one problem, the power cable was cut.. I did a little pool table surgery, played the gig and sent it to Keith for a transplant the next day.
It came back in perfect adjustment with an upgrade I did not expect.

Jesse Leite · Post by **Jesse Leite** » 25 May 2011 10:12 pm

Bo Borland wrote:The Hilton pedal is all that and more.

I wouldn't doubt it. The issue for me is price. I know as a steel player I play an expensive instrument, but I am cheap. I wanted an ibanez TS-808 pedal for my 6 stringer so I found a schematic and made my own clone. I've considered modding my Ernie Ball volume pedal by either upgrading to a better 500k pot (mine is 250k I think) OR changing the pot over to some sort of photo cell or infrared potentiometer like the hilton pedal (whatever it uses). Thing is, mine's not scratchy yet so I don't want to tamper with it yet.

Bo Borland wrote:There are plenty of players who prefer the pot pedal sound...

Hmmm, wonder why? Is there a drastic difference in sound? Also, would a 500k pot really be a big improvement over a 250k pot?

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