Re: active/passive volume & controller pedal

["K. Douglas Baldwin" <dbaldwin@suffolk.lib.ny.us>]

Sorry, Michael, but this got stuck in my outbox for a few days.
Mike T. wrote:

>What is the difference between a passive and active volume pedal.   I 
>heard
>one goes before effects and one after, or somethign like that, but the
>passive one is described in Musician's Friend as if it is only meant for
>keyboard.

A passive volume pedal will only limit your volume, and will add more
capacitence/impedence to your signal. An active pedal will have some kind 
of
preamp in it which will at least minimize the cap/imp problem, and probably
add a little oomph to your signal at maximum setting, too. I'd have to see
the Muso Friend ad to comment on application, but you'd want a passive unit
if you use a minimum of other pedals, and an active unit with more pedals.
Placement
would depend on how you wanted to shape your effects, but overall, a 
passive
pedal would work best later in the chain. The active pedal could act as a
line-driver/buffer.

>Does a volume pedal work as a controller/expression pedal generally, or is
>that a separate thing altogether (and in which case why do I never see any
>in the catalogs).  I need a controller for midi parameter change with my 
>QV
>GT.

Garden-variety volume pedals do not speak MIDI. I imagine if any pedal did,
it would be an "anything" pedal, depending on which parameters you cared to
assign to it. I'm not too jazzed on MIDI but I know there are many good
controllers out there. I'm sure lots of LD'ers will steer you right, as 
they
seem to be doing even in the short time after I wrote this reply and
continued to read the remainder of posts!

>third, and final (for now) question - anyone recommend a nice stageworthy
>tuner.  Is that boss pedal tuner any good?


I haven't tried the Boss, but I just reviewed the Akai (along with the
Headrush) and was impressed enough to purchase it and ditch my old
duct-taped-to-the-amp, unplug-and-tune-between-sets unit. The Akai reads
very smoothly, has a large readout, true bypass, auto turn-off so you don't
waste batteries, and the stomp switch acts as a mute so you can tune
silently OR while playing (a nice feature if, like me, you need to drop a
string down a whole step in the middle of a song). Also, the rack-mount 
Korg
is an industry standard, and most all Korg tuners are very stable and
sturdy.
Douglas Baldwin, Alpha male Coyote, the Trickster
dbaldwin@suffolk.lib.ny.us