The Steel Guitar Forum

Has anyone out there ever used a Morley volume pedal for PSG? I like them because they don’t have pots and are very quiet. I have a Goodrich but it’s high maintenance. The cord has broken once and the pot needs frequent cleaning.

Mark, I have owned a Morley volume pedal since the 70s and while it's never failed for guitar it just doesn't work for pedal steel. The pedal sits too tall and the angle is wrong for sitting at the steel. Try it yourself and you will see. I have 4 Goodrich volume pedals and a few Ernie Ball as backup. Just get a new Bradshaw or Goodrich pot and string and it will last for years, or go with a Hilton or Telonics and have a no pot pedal. The reasons for so many pedals is because I have multiple rigs set up and I'm too lazy to swap pedals at playing time.

Lots of options for new pedals that don't have pots including Telonics, Hilton and Lehle. If you go with the new pots that use conductive plastic wipers and tracks instead of carbon you will not have to worry about a new pot for many years.

Lehle Pedal:

http://www.gregcutshaw.com/Lehle%20Mono ... %2090.html

Hilton Pedal:

http://www.gregcutshaw.com/Lehle%20Mono ... %2090.html

Telonics pedal:

http://www.gregcutshaw.com/Telonics%20P ... Pedal.html

Goodrich 120 pedal with conductive plastic pot replacement (Goodrich now comes with this):

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

And, when you change the pot, replace the string with braided masons cord. That stuff lasts forever.

Or if you want to send me your Goodrich pedal, I will be happy to do the repair work inc. new Goodrich Pot, String, lubricate and adjust.

For a nominal charge.

Thx for the tip Roger! I need a roll of it.

I am not a big fan of volume pedals for a variety of reasons being a 6 string player for many years. So purchasing my first PSG (Mullen SD10)a year and half ago I was forced too research all the volume pedals that were being used on the forum. During the process I bumped into the "Mission Engineering VM-Pro". No tone sucking, no noise, can be placed anywhere in the chain without effecting the tone.

So I bought the beauty and I could not be happier.

How does the Mission set in comparison to the Goodrich or Hilton? What I mean is the height and angle of the pedal ok with a steel guitar?

What I would love to find is a decent potless pedal that can run off a battery (perhaps optionally that or a wall wart.) I love most of the features of the new Goodrich Omni but I don't know why they opted to go with a pot, when that is the real point of failure most of the time. Maybe that's the only way to have passive operation. . . but the second point of failure for a buffered pedal is always the power supply - they have solved that with the battery option (also great for convenience.) I personally love my 10K pedals, to me they have the fullest tone of any pedal out there. But I have a virtual graveyard of them, between the pots going bad (and it's all but impossible to find decent replacements other than the occasional lucky nos find,) the string breaking, or even the whole pot coming loose off the mount inside - so I end up using a Hilton or LDR2 most of the time, but for one thing they sound very different, and you gotta plug those in & eventually your adapter will give out or you'll forget it on a gig (or if it's one with the clip-on plug part that always falls off. . .) Or it gets unplugged mid-use, or whatever... But of course you'd like to leave it plugged in when you have it set up for a long time.

Basically I wish I could find something like a potless H10K with a 9v adapter option. Anyone know of something like that out there?

Hi Larry,

To answer your question, it is exactly the same angle, with no discomfort in your position. It has side input/output ports so there is no interference with the front of the pedal and the pedal bar. It sit's sercure on the floor with no movement therefore it does not need the attachment like the Hilton clamp to keep it in postion. It has great depth for swell application.


And the beauty of it all that it is a high quality pedal at a lower price than the Hilton/Goodrich. I did not make my decision based on the price only but in it's advertized preformance etc.

It is fairly new on the market regarding the PSG application and I haven't read anything about it on the forum, so I have to assume nobody is using it.


Again it is like everything else that is available to us "Players Choice"

If i'm not mistaken, i think most of our Sacred Steel player friends use a Morley. For both volume & wah.

I use a Morley Volume Plus with the little taper pot on the edge. Its an optical that runs on a battery. I bought it cheap after my Goodrich I have got a scratchy pot and I got too lazy to fix it. I know they make several different variations of these Morleys, but mine sits low and is easy to use under my steel.

Garry, older posting on this forum and on regular guitar sites say it has a narrow sweep are where it goes from no sound to full on. Have you found this to be true? My old 70s Morley is too tall and the angle wrong for me. Maybe someone can show a comparison of Morley vs other pedals in angle and sweep.

I think this one is pretty low-profile. At least in comparison to those old chrome Morley wahs. It sits lower than the VPjr I had. In fact, I think I'm gonna buy some taller rubber feet for the 2 front ones to get a better angle. There's also quite a few videos on youtube if you want an easy mod to adjust the sweep. The pedal action is not as easy as my Goodrich but it works great so far. Keep in mind, I'm just a hobbyist so its probably not the best for everyone.

Thanks Garry, I appreciate your honesty and opinion. I'm seriously happy with my Goodrich and Ernie Ball pedals, other than potentiometer and string replacement now and then. Even that I can handle. I just don't like taking the time to do it.

I am now using the Morley Plus volume pedal--- no pot. I did modify the "swell" after watching a couple of videos on YouTube. Works fine. I slide the front of the pedal into the pedal bar on my Carter. So far, it stays put and raises the front so that it is very comfortable.
Previously, I had a photo cell Goodrich (from 1986) and then a Hilton in 2003?-- the power supply fried.

Thanks Ed, good to know.