The Steel Guitar Forum

Need to buy a new volume pedal. Not sure if I should buy the old standard pot pedal, or, an active style? Please let me know your thoughts.

Dennis,
this is one of the most common topics in the "electronics" section, you might want to try the search engine.
As for my personal opinion, I use a Hilton with my Carter (Alumitone PU) and like the definition and clarity, but still prefer the Goodrich for my Sho~Bud for it's character...

The active pedals are great, but I'm a cheap so-and-so.
I am satisfied with a Goodrich passive L120 and an old Izzy Plus buffer.
I know other good players who don't bother with a buffer.
Whatever choice you make, you'll find both validation and vilification here.

Everyone has their preference and I won't try to convince anyone to pick one way or the other. But, I thought I'd try to clarify the differences between them for the sake of people making informed decisions.

As has been said, the active pedals keep your guitar's tone constant throughout the pedal's travel....consistent tone no matter what the volume setting. Most have some kind of internal adjustments like overall tone, max volume, min volume, etc., so they are somewhat customizable. Also, they require a power source...either battery, or wall wart. If you want your guitar's tone to never change, no matter what position it's in, then an active pedal is for you.

Pot pedals, of course, don't need any kind of power source. The pots do fail at some point and have to be replaced. But they do affect the tone of one's guitar. Now that's not necessarily a bad thing, people. I, personally, see it as an advantage.

With the pedal full on I get all the highs that are available (depending on my amp settings) for fills, solos, sound effects, etc.. But with the pedal at a lesser setting there is just a bit of high frequency attenuation. I like that, because when I lower my volume, I'm doing it because I want to play more in the background...comping, laying a chordal bed, etc...and don't want to stand out so much.

One other thing...with the pot pedal I need to be sure my amp volume is set correctly because when I push the pedal full on, I want enough to be heard, but not melt the audience's ears. I wouldn't have to deal with this with an active pedal because I would just raise the pedal volume only as much as is needed.

So, for me, I don't want as much treble "bite" when I slip into the background with the rhythm section. A pot pedal gives me this.

So, different strokes for different folks, eh?