Internal Trimpots

Crazed_Fandango

Why? 

Seriously, why do pedal builders do this? 

It's velcro'd to my board and I have to take 4 screws out to fiddle with it. 

Sorry, I must've gotten out of bed the wrong side.

Sporky

They're nipples for nerds. 

rico

Yeah it’s a pain in the arse. I won’t buy another pedal with internal trim pots or micro switches. 

Crazed_Fandango

rico said:

Yeah it’s a pain in the arse. I won’t buy another pedal with internal trim pots or micro switches. 

It's a deal-breaker for me too.

TA22GT

You are playing away and you are thinking "I wonder if it would sound better if i just turned that trim pot a little to the left" because you know its there and it haunts you.

Not for me.

preston61

Crazed_Fandango said:

Why? 

Seriously, why do pedal builders do this? 

It's velcro'd to my board and I have to take 4 screws out to fiddle with it. 

Sorry, I must've gotten out of bed the wrong side.

Like guitarists aren't indecisive enough with the options that are on the top of the pedal!!

I've never turned an internal trim pot, it actually angers me when I find out they're in the pedal, more than pedals that have a large footprint and then put the jacks on the side and not the top!!

joetele

I imagine a lot of companies must think it appeals to pedal nerds, but I can't think of anything less appealing that having to open up my pedal to get more out of it. Put it all on top, or go home. 

Also get your flippin' volumes right - stop making pedals with a volume drop or volume jump when activated. 

Matt_McG

Skreddy do a thing where they put them on the side with a little hole so you can adjust externally with a little screwdriver. I prefer that to internal, for sure. 

Bias trimpots are different, though. If you are just biasing a transistor and leaving set from the factory.

Slimbert

Some pedals have options that you'll set-and-forget like buffered/true-bypass. Makes no sense to take up real estate and further clutter the front face of a pedal.

Trim pots are usually for the settings you'll hardly ever touch but might need to tweek once in a while. Personally, I can't see any harm in them.

First world problems and all that.

Modulus_Amps

if you ever designed and built a pedal then the options available to your are limitless, I spend ages trying different caps types values etc etc, they all sound good, but which one sounds better.....

Problem is if I put all those options on the front panel you would have a 50 knob single channel amp.... which would never sell.

Trim pots give you the option to tweak IF you don't like the stock tone...

ThorpyFX

I put them in a couple of my pedals. For me they are for biasing the transistors to the correct voltage.... They aren't for the consumer to fiddle with unless they know what they are doing. I also have added a mini switch in the team medic, mainly because the true bypass/buffered switch on the outside was a waste of time and effort... better that its on the board as a set and forget.

clarkefan

There are trim pots used in eg delays, phasers, etc that are set in the factory and should not be touched, fair enough.

But, for example the Crunch Box has a really useful presence trim pot inside that would be really useful outside for on the fly adjustments, stupid.  People miss out on the power of the thing cos they never open it.

Ditto the Skreddy screwdriver in the side thing, stupid, it's stuck down a board for most people.