The Steel Guitar Forum

I have a Goodrich volume pedal with a Dunlop Hot Potz II pot in it. It seems to jump from off to fairly loud with very little pedal movement. I was wondering if this is a sign of wear? It isn't scratchy but it has been in the pedal for over a year and I play it every day.

I'd check the string. Pots don't change taper.

Edited because of "topic drift" & disruption
Sincere apologies-Eddie

if it's been working fine for over a year, what does that matter?

Well I'm not sure; but does the Lower profile Goodrich volume pedal have a shorter throw simply because of the lower profile build?? is this a lower profile you have? and Dunlop Hot Potz II doesn't come standard it Goodrich right?? You buy it new or from somebody used?? you may be running into some kind of "throw" prob. with type of Pot vs. pedal throw....string adjustment....bla bla....
Things to look at.
Ricky

Take the bottom off and work the pedal watching the string travel as it is turning the pot. Some have a full V pulley with set screw. Some have a narrow collar with a set screw and the string wrapped around the set screw that sticks out about 1/4 inch. If the string has slipped off onto the bare shaft it will make it respond faster with less pedal movement. If the pedal just started doing this all at once chances are the string has change its path. Good Luck in finding the cause.

Ned, if you can't get it worked out, send it to me and I will install a new Goodrich pot and sting and adjust everything.
I am very reasonable in pricing.

Bill

I figured out what was going on. I just got my Nashville 112 back from the repair shop. The reverb on it was very noisy since I bought it a few months ago. So they got Peavey to replace it. Not having used it much I didn't notice that the pre-gain was turned up high. Turning it down made the volume pedal work much better.

I did a test with a PEC pot and another Dunlop Hot Potz II. The PEC pot had a much smoother taper at the lowest volume. The Hot Potz starts up at a louder volume.

As usual it was operator error. I never had this problem with my Sho-Bud amp, no pre-gain control. The more knobs the more knowledge required.

Ned

Volume pedals have a much wider effective range and are not nearly so touchy if you simply set the volume on the amp to the loudest setting that you would use with the pedal wide open. A number of us(and I am at times guilty of this) turn the volume up on the amp quite a bit louder that we would ever use it just for the headroom and using it for sustain however it effectively limits the useful part of the pot by compressing the range that we would normally use.