My Newest Piece Of Gear...

... is the Modtone MT-VOL Xcelerator Volume Pedal .

I know its not the most exciting piece of gear but it really is a valuable and often overlooked piece of gear. Yeah, the guy who has a massive pedal collection is going to have one, and many people may consider a volume pedal as a luxury or maybe redundant, after all, why not just use the knob on the guitar. Well these are all good points, but those who know how to use a volume wisely can explore new and interesting sound that were impossible, or at the very lest, very difficult to do with out one of these pedals.


Swells: I know that these are possible with your volume knob, but they are a pain. Personally, my hand doesn't work well enough to pull of great sounding swells just by using the volume control on my Tele. Pedals are right there at your feet waiting for there moment to shine.


Muting/ Silent Tuning: If you haven't already gotten a tuner with a silent tuning feature, or if you don't want yet another pedal between you and your amp. Often a volume pedal (such as the Modtone MT-VOL Xcelerator Volume Pedal) has a aux out that stays hot even when the output is muted (heel down). Silence when you need it is just as important as the noise you'll be making.


Chain Placement/Gain control: Like many guitarist I use the Gain on my amp to create a dirty sound, but I also use an overdrive pedal to add distortion and volume (kind of a double wammy). I've chosen an atypical spot for my volume. It is after my overdrive and before my delay. This way I can play with swells in my delay and control my overdriven sound without effecting the distortion. Although the gain from the amp will be effected. I can still control the amount of distortion the pedal is producing with the volume on my guitar (hey, Im not a virtuoso but I can still tweak it is mid-play). So in short, the pedal controls the amps gain, and the volume on the guitar can tweak the pedal and overall line signal.


A volume pedal is a great tool to have. This one is a passive modal, so it takes no juice to operate. Thats great because I'm out of room on my One Spot Chain (also a great piece of gear). Another reason I'm so excited about the particular piece of gear is that I picked it up on Amazon for what under MF's price. Shop around, there are better deals out there than the big guys, but buyer be ware, some seller are not on the ball! In the corse of this blog I convened my self I should now use my aux out for my tuner and run from my delay to the amp. Soon I hope to post a blog about my rig and what/why I use the gear that I do.


Till Next Time