Question about Volume Pedal

Rocker

I thought that a Volume Pedal is 'merely' a foot controlled pot in circuit between the guitar and amp.  And as such ought to be priced in the lowish region.  Yet from the prices of the things, this appears not to be the case.

Guidance needed, thanks.

Winny_Pooh

Most are passive so yes, it's the casing that costs money to make. You do get active volume pedals but that Is primarily as they use a optical instead of mechanical sweep (instead of only adding buffers and boosts)

I'd assume a general distortion pedal's readily available internal components & pots cost about £5-10 when made in bulk depending on the pots and parts quality. 

Cols

This puzzled me as well.  The cost of the enclosure seems to be the main driver.

I believe optical volume pedals now fall foul of RoHS regs, so it’s mechanical only.

steamabacus

I've found the cheap Bespeco volume pedals perfectly serviceable so long as you don't abuse them (standing full bodyweight on them, etc). Can be bought new for around £20.

As people above have said, the cost is in the enclosure and relatively small sales numbers.

The Bespeco ones are plastic (though sturdy enough). The newer Boss volume pedal (the smaller one, metal enclosure) are pretty good value (or at least were a few years ago when I bought one).

ICBM

You can get cheap passive volume pedals - the Bespeco one is perfectly functional and only just over £20.

The more expensive ones either have a much more costly enclosure, mechanism, or an active control circuit - not optical now, but there are other versions using either capacitance or Hall Effect to control a circuit without a physical connection.

Roland

I’ve got a Bespeco. It isn’t as smooth to use as the Mission pedal which replaced it, neither mechanically nor in output level. However it was easy to modify, and add a stereo socket between the two monos.

KevS

I have an old plastic Boss one..The handy thing is it has a minimum volume control..
So you can use it to only go between 8 and 10 on the volume control rather than just 0 to 10.
A Handy feature to have at your feet..

Greatape

I bought an Ernie Ball in the nineties and it is still going. It has required replacement pot and string. Other than that, it's essentially indestructible. 

If I were buying today, I'd get the Lehle. Their kit is bulletproof. 

skunkwerx

I recently bought one for my Katana, so its separate of my signal chain and just controls the amps master volume instead. 

Boss/Roland Ev5 it is. Kinda horrible plasticky thing tbh. Works perfect though. 

ICBM

skunkwerx said:

Boss/Roland Ev5 it is. Kinda horrible plasticky thing tbh. Works perfect though. 

I’ve got one of those too... it works well enough, but it’s not the most satisfying thing to use, and the captive cable is a right pain - always too short or too long depending on what it’s being used for! I ought to get something better really.

skunkwerx

ICBM said:

skunkwerx said:

Boss/Roland Ev5 it is. Kinda horrible plasticky thing tbh. Works perfect though. 

I’ve got one of those too... it works well enough, but it’s not the most satisfying thing to use, and the captive cable is a right pain - always too short or too long depending on what it’s being used for! I ought to get something better really.

Yeah thats the one, I had no idea the cable was hardwired to it, and I thought the entire surface would be rubber.. looks as though it wants to be!

Still, its not bad.