Tone swells - knob vs. volume/tone pedal?

[Scott Hay]

Dear Steel Guitar Brethren,

What's your preferred method for getting a good golden era inspired tone swell / "tone thwack"?
With the knob, or a pedal?
Which do you prefer and why?


If you prefer pedal, got a favorite that's not crazy expensive or hard to come by?
If you prefer knob, got a favorite pot brand/value?

Thanks for sharing your expertise from experience!

[Mitch Crane]

Are you talking about the "boo-wah" effect ? If so, that's done with the tone knob, not the volume knob/pedal.

[Bill Ladd]

"Boo-wah" is done quite a bit with a volume/tone pedal.

I can do it both ways and learned to do it with the tone knob until I scored a vintage Fender volume/tone pedal. Much easier to do it with the pedal for me.

Some examples of volume/tone pedals:

[Mitch Crane]

Are there any 'modern' versions of the volume / tone pedal ?

[Bill Ladd]

Fender has reissued that pedal . I have no experience with it, but have read here that the tone pot is inadequate and the jacks are on opposite sides rather than both on the right.

I've seen vintage Fender and Bigsby pedals for sale here on the forum.

[Ray Montee]

The Boo-Wah, slap bang, upward hammer on and off of the bar that Speedy West is noted for, was done with the TONE CONTROL KNOB on the end of his guitar rather than the foot pedal.

[Rick Winfield]

I like to use the tone/volume controls on "guitar", but on "steel" I use a volume pedal 100% of the time.
Rick
PS: referring to swells, not boo-wah

[Brian Hunter]

Swells: volume pedal
Boo-Wah: tone knob. And I copied the Kayton Roberts move of swapping the positions of my tone and volume pots on my Dual Professional.

[Bill Ladd]

The Boo-Wah, slap bang, upward hammer on and off of the bar that Speedy West is noted for, was done with the TONE CONTROL KNOB on the end of his guitar rather than the foot pedal.

I really love ya, Ray , but I'm not Speedy West, I'm Bill Ladd, and I described how I've been doing it for more than fifteen years.

The original poster didn't ask how Speedy West did it. It's been well established how Speedy (one of my all-time heroes) did it. The question was how we did it. The first reply was that it wasn't done with a pedal. I corrected that false statement.

[Scott Hay]

Thanks for the input! I figured answers were probably varied. We all have our methods that work good for us. Now I don't feel so much like I was chasing my tail on trying out a pedal.....

The reason I posted this in the first place is I did purchase one of the re-issue Fender Volume/Tone pedals and have to say it was extremely disappointing. The swivel on the tone was so stiff it's unusable. I don't feel it's a matter of adjustment to the pedal either. The tone of the pedal is quite noticeably muddy to add insult to injury.

I haven't had much luck using the knob, as the tone knob on my Gibson Ultratone is pretty frozen and dead for the most part. I've hesitated replacing it. I tell myself it's because the guitar is all original, but I think that logic is more a justification for procrastination than anything

Pickers with pedals, is the swivel action on your V/T pedals loose and easy to control? As in a quick whack back and forth comes easy?

For perspective, I have a goodrich volume pedal I use that is nice and light to the touch, resistance wise, but will stay in place if I take my foot off it.

Anyone else wanting to weigh on in this.... keep it coming.

Thanks!

[Scott Hay]

Also, since we're describing a "sound" with words, and were I to talk about "boo-wah" in the Pedal Steel section, I would be referring to pedal 8 or 9, I thought I'd get more specific with examples.

Think Hank Williams "honky tonkin" for example, at :30 here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh_CQnhZ8cY

Or on "Take it Away Leon" here at :22 or so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWB-9_vyRI

If I had to guess, my guess would be Leon McAuliffe's was done with a knob, and Don Helms' was done with a pedal. Again, guessing.... drunk monkey throwing darts here.....

[Ray Montee]

On the Hank Williams clip you've included, JERRY BYRD used the tone control knob....

Leon most likely used the same tone control knob on his FENDER (?).......but I'm not absolutely positive about that.

[Scott Hay]

Hey Ray, I had no idea Jerry Byrd played on some of the Hank recordings, learn something new everyday!

[Jim Davies]

On the new fender pedals Try spraying some pot cleaner/lube between the swivel and main housing, that should loosen it up.I leave mine full treble and just use it for Boo Wah

[rodger_mcbride]

If you search the old posts, maybe in the archived section, Lee Jefferies had a mod to bring the Fender up to Bigsby specs. He added a .047 cap to the circuit I think. There was a diagram.
Also you have to drill through the rubber on the top of the pedal to get to the nut. Taking the bottom plate off you can adjust it to whatever tension you want.
If your frozen tone knob is stuck on the bass side, you will have to bypass it or repaIr it, the pedal should see the full treble or it will be mud no matter what.
Rodger

[Bob Stone]

Jim Davies:

So are you happy with the Fender re-issue pedal? Did you have to change the one pot?

Thanks,

Bob

[Ray Montee]

Well Scott.........

That's what the www.JERRYByrd-FanClub.com is all about.

The whole story of Byrd is there for you to consume.
FREE of cost or obligation.

[Jim Davies]

Hey Bob yea I'm happy with it, I use it all the time. No I didn't change anything they come wired with a .047 cap and a 250 meg audio taper pot.

[Billy Tonnesen]

I believe Alvino Rey pioneered the use of the tone control knob for various effects including the Doo-Wah Back in the 30's. For me, the foot control was too slow. I still have two Fender Volume/Tone pedals from the late 50's courtesy of my old friend Leo Fender. (how's that for name dropping)

[Kevin Shiflett]

I like vol pedals. Vol pots tend to roll off the highs. Some vol pedals will do that as well if they use vol pots inside. I like the vol pedals that use the photo eye like the Hilton.