OffsetGuitars.com

Hello,

I use a volume pedal to blend in an effected/overdriven sound to my clean "acoustic" sound coming from the Grace Felix preamp.

I've been using an Ernie Ball MVP for a while, but I don't really like it, mostly because of its large footprint, and unability to completely cut the volume at heel down (probably an issue of my particular pedal).

Since I'm out for a change, I figured it would be a good idea to try to figure out the best impedance choice.

My rig is built around a dual source system I installed in my acoustic guitars. The guitars have an internal "microphone" (not really a microphone, but it behaves like one. It's a peculiar design made by Dave Wendler, called "dynamic field pickup") going to one channel of the Felix, and a Sunrise magnetic soundhole pickup going to the other channel. I use one of the DI output of the Felix to send a blend of the two channels to the house.

I also use the amp out of the Felix to send the signal of the Sunrise channel to : volume pedal => pedalboard => tube amp => OX => house

So my volume pedal gets the signal from the Felix's unbalanced amp output, which has a 150ohms impedance. I would guess a low impedance volume pedal is the way to go, but being an impedance NOOB, I'd like someone more knowledgeable than me to give his input.

To be clear, it works ok with the high impedance of the MVP, but I suspect it might work better with a lower impedance model, like the Xotic 25k for instance.

Thanks!

I have no experience with this, but the topic interested me and sent me down some internet rabbit holes. I'd say go with the low impedance or an active volume pedal. One post I found said you will get a better taper with the low impedance pedal when in an effects loop or after an active pedal... Which is analogous to your situation. Your pickups / mics etc are already buffered by previous devices so you shouldn't experience anything like pickup sag either way. The low impedance model you noted seemed to be designed for active pickups. Whereas an active pedal will act more like an effects pedal anywhere in the chain... As annoying as powering another device is, I think an active pedal may be most appropriate for your application.

Just noticed the MVP is active. Should be easy enough to swap it out for another active one more to your liking.

Yeh the MVP is active, but in the sense of a buffer. It can take either impedance because it will convert high to low anyway.

There is the string and pulley, which can slip, so recalibrating that somehow might help the minimum volume issue. I've not had that issue, and its got one of the best boosts i've heard on it.

Thanks for the inputs!

Trying to solve the volume issue on the MVP totally makes sense, so I'm going to start there. I can live with the size, and minimal volume issue aside, it certainly doesn't sound bad.