Herbert doesn't like my volume pedal

Omega1397

New member
I've been using an EWS subtle volume control with my VH4 with great results. I simply place it in my serial loop and crank it down a good amount, and then put my MV at noon and CV at 11. With that being said, my Herbert MK2 seems to not really like the pedal. When I use the same settings on the pedal on my Herbert, the tone becomes completely sucked out, and all I hear are the high frequencies and they sound super harsh and sizzly. Further, I can't seem to dial in any good volumes with the pedal, it's as if the Herbert is overpowering it or something.

I'm hoping someone around here would have some sort of an idea as to why this is the case :confused: Any input would be appreciated!
 
Vin Diezel":1glgv2wb said:
Sounds like you are in the parallel loop...


I appreciate the advice my man. I'm pretty certain i'm in the serial loop. I see a switchable, serial, and parallel. Of course, there always is the possibility I accidentally used the parallel, but i'm almost certain it was the serial.
 
Vin Diezel":22wx4cdi said:
Sounds like you are in the parallel loop...


Just to follow up- I double checked it, I did in fact plug it into the series loop. This is very strange- the volume pedal works great with my VH4
 
Vin Diezel":38h4bo4f said:
Then it is not the ews that is causing problems.

I ordered a buffer pedal from analogman. I hope it helps with my issue. Would you have any ideas as to what could be causing it?
 
Omega1397":28gherv9 said:
Vin Diezel":28gherv9 said:
Then it is not the ews that is causing problems.

I ordered a buffer pedal from analogman. I hope it helps with my issue. Would you have any ideas as to what could be causing it?

Effects loop doesnt need a buffer, it is tube driven.

Channel masters are the send level controls, you can see if you are simply overloading the volume pedal by turning this down and seeing if it gets better. Also check batteries and power supplies.
 
moltenmetalburn":hckvbyjr said:
Omega1397":hckvbyjr said:
Vin Diezel":hckvbyjr said:
Then it is not the ews that is causing problems.

I ordered a buffer pedal from analogman. I hope it helps with my issue. Would you have any ideas as to what could be causing it?

Effects loop doesnt need a buffer, it is tube driven.

Channel masters are the send level controls, you can see if you are simply overloading the volume pedal by turning this down and seeing if it gets better. Also check batteries and power supplies.

Hmm, thank you. I bought a buffer because when I placed my EQ pedal in my effects loop, I was getting a noticeable volume drop, and then when I turned the eq on my volume would jump.

As for the volume pedal, I’m not too sure what the deal is. With my VH4 I’m able to set the CV to 11, and the MV to 12. However, with the Herbert it’s like it just blows through it, and when I use the same setting on my volume pedal with my Herbert that I use in mg Vh4, the tone gets sucked dry from the Herbert. I use the serial loop with my VH4.
 
moltenmetalburn":3bdy3b7x said:
Omega1397":3bdy3b7x said:
Vin Diezel":3bdy3b7x said:
Then it is not the ews that is causing problems.

I ordered a buffer pedal from analogman. I hope it helps with my issue. Would you have any ideas as to what could be causing it?

Effects loop doesnt need a buffer, it is tube driven.

Channel masters are the send level controls, you can see if you are simply overloading the volume pedal by turning this down and seeing if it gets better. Also check batteries and power supplies.

Hey my man,

I'd hate to bother you about my issue, but could you perhaps check out the videos I posted and give me your input?
 
Omega1397":20337yzv said:
I actually posted two videos of what's going on:

Part 1 VH4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3h6J1ium5I
Part 2 Herbert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKQBEt7kGa4


I watched the vids and something is definitely off. Either the pedal does not flat out play nice with the Herbert or maybe the V5 preamp tube is microphonic in the Herbert.

Have you tried any other fx in the Herbie loop like your reverb or eq pedals? Any issues with those pedals or do they sound normal?

Just plugging straight in (no loop engaged) your Herbert sounds fine. I'd honestly just recommend ditching the volume pedal with the Herbert altogether and just tweaking the channel volumes and global MV to get a useable tone. Also try backing off your channel bass pots to around 11:00 and the master deep pot to 10-11:00 as the Herbert has a lot of bass... a whole lot of bass and it kills off a lot of the tone at low volume settings. I'd keep your master presence at 3:00 where you have it set now though. The Herbert loop might just not like that pedal.

Are your tuned to standard 440 or dropped tuned on your guitar?
 
Wizard of Ozz":1m6m8yn6 said:
Omega1397":1m6m8yn6 said:
I actually posted two videos of what's going on:

Part 1 VH4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3h6J1ium5I
Part 2 Herbert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKQBEt7kGa4


I watched the vids and something is definitely off. Either the pedal does not flat out play nice with the Herbert or maybe the V5 preamp tube is microphonic in the Herbert.

Have you tried any other fx in the Herbie loop like your reverb or eq pedals? Any issues with those pedals or do they sound normal?

Just plugging straight in (no loop engaged) your Herbert sounds fine. I'd honestly just recommend ditching the volume pedal with the Herbert altogether and just tweaking the channel volumes and global MV to get a useable tone. Also try backing off your channel bass pots to around 11:00 and the master deep pot to 10-11:00 as the Herbert has a lot of bass... a whole lot of bass and it kills off a lot of the tone at low volume settings. I'd keep your master presence at 3:00 where you have it set now though. The Herbert loop might just not like that pedal.

Are your tuned to standard 440 or dropped tuned on your guitar?

I appreciate your input. I have a fresh Ruby AC5 HG from valvequeen in the preamp V5. Further, my delay and reverb sound fine in my loop. I'll hook up my EQ to my loop to see if there is any issues. If you recall from a post I made here, I had issues placing the EQ in my loop on my VH4- i'd have a volume drop when the pedal is disengaged in the loop, and when I activate the pedal (with the volume and gain on the pedal at 0) there is a volume jump. I ordered an analogman buffer yesterday for the EQ pedal isues.

Just to clarify: I'm not having issues finding a good volume level with my Herbert in my small apartment. I'm just baffled as to why I can't crank the MV on my Herbert with the volume pedal, as opposed to my VH4 which works out pretty nicely.
 
Omega1397":zw39jjex said:
Wizard of Ozz":zw39jjex said:
Omega1397":zw39jjex said:
I actually posted two videos of what's going on:

Part 1 VH4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3h6J1ium5I
Part 2 Herbert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKQBEt7kGa4


I watched the vids and something is definitely off. Either the pedal does not flat out play nice with the Herbert or maybe the V5 preamp tube is microphonic in the Herbert.

Have you tried any other fx in the Herbie loop like your reverb or eq pedals? Any issues with those pedals or do they sound normal?

Just plugging straight in (no loop engaged) your Herbert sounds fine. I'd honestly just recommend ditching the volume pedal with the Herbert altogether and just tweaking the channel volumes and global MV to get a useable tone. Also try backing off your channel bass pots to around 11:00 and the master deep pot to 10-11:00 as the Herbert has a lot of bass... a whole lot of bass and it kills off a lot of the tone at low volume settings. I'd keep your master presence at 3:00 where you have it set now though. The Herbert loop might just not like that pedal.

Are your tuned to standard 440 or dropped tuned on your guitar?

I appreciate your input. I have a fresh Ruby AC5 HG from valvequeen in the preamp V5. Further, my delay and reverb sound fine in my loop. I'll hook up my EQ to my loop to see if there is any issues. If you recall from a post I made here, I had issues placing the EQ in my loop on my VH4- i'd have a volume drop when the pedal is disengaged in the loop, and when I activate the pedal (with the volume and gain on the pedal at 0) there is a volume jump. I ordered an analogman buffer yesterday for the EQ pedal isues.

Just to clarify: I'm not having issues finding a good volume level with my Herbert in my small apartment. I'm just baffled as to why I can't crank the MV on my Herbert with the volume pedal, as opposed to my VH4 which works out pretty nicely.

Then it's just something with the design of that volume pedal that doesn't jive with the Herbert. Try a different volume pedal? EBMM?

I really feel that the Herbert is one of the best sounding low volume high gain sounding amps bare none. I think the 180W scares a lot of potential buyers off that would love it... but it sounds great at lower volumes.
 
Wizard of Ozz":1qniirx0 said:
Omega1397":1qniirx0 said:
Wizard of Ozz":1qniirx0 said:
Omega1397":1qniirx0 said:
I actually posted two videos of what's going on:

Part 1 VH4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3h6J1ium5I
Part 2 Herbert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKQBEt7kGa4


I watched the vids and something is definitely off. Either the pedal does not flat out play nice with the Herbert or maybe the V5 preamp tube is microphonic in the Herbert.

Have you tried any other fx in the Herbie loop like your reverb or eq pedals? Any issues with those pedals or do they sound normal?

Just plugging straight in (no loop engaged) your Herbert sounds fine. I'd honestly just recommend ditching the volume pedal with the Herbert altogether and just tweaking the channel volumes and global MV to get a useable tone. Also try backing off your channel bass pots to around 11:00 and the master deep pot to 10-11:00 as the Herbert has a lot of bass... a whole lot of bass and it kills off a lot of the tone at low volume settings. I'd keep your master presence at 3:00 where you have it set now though. The Herbert loop might just not like that pedal.

Are your tuned to standard 440 or dropped tuned on your guitar?

I appreciate your input. I have a fresh Ruby AC5 HG from valvequeen in the preamp V5. Further, my delay and reverb sound fine in my loop. I'll hook up my EQ to my loop to see if there is any issues. If you recall from a post I made here, I had issues placing the EQ in my loop on my VH4- i'd have a volume drop when the pedal is disengaged in the loop, and when I activate the pedal (with the volume and gain on the pedal at 0) there is a volume jump. I ordered an analogman buffer yesterday for the EQ pedal isues.

Just to clarify: I'm not having issues finding a good volume level with my Herbert in my small apartment. I'm just baffled as to why I can't crank the MV on my Herbert with the volume pedal, as opposed to my VH4 which works out pretty nicely.

Then it's just something with the design of that volume pedal that doesn't jive with the Herbert. Try a different volume pedal? EBMM?

I really feel that the Herbert is one of the best sounding low volume high gain sounding amps bare none. I think the 180W scares a lot of potential buyers off that would love it... but it sounds great at lower volumes.

I'm by no means saying it doesn't sound good at low volumes, i'm just baffled by why it works fine with my VH4 but not Herbert. I know the impedance of the EWS pedal is 25kOhm. Perhaps I should try a lower impedance volume pedal... I'm looking at the Ernie ball pedals, but they're 250k impedance, which I think is too high. The lowest they have is 25kOhm, which is the same as the EWS. Perhaps I should try making my own volume pedal with a lower impedance. In that regard, i'm not sure wether I need a higher or lower impedance.
 
Omega1397":23vwvdt5 said:
Wizard of Ozz":23vwvdt5 said:
Omega1397":23vwvdt5 said:
Wizard of Ozz":23vwvdt5 said:
Omega1397":23vwvdt5 said:
I actually posted two videos of what's going on:

Part 1 VH4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3h6J1ium5I
Part 2 Herbert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKQBEt7kGa4


I watched the vids and something is definitely off. Either the pedal does not flat out play nice with the Herbert or maybe the V5 preamp tube is microphonic in the Herbert.

Have you tried any other fx in the Herbie loop like your reverb or eq pedals? Any issues with those pedals or do they sound normal?

Just plugging straight in (no loop engaged) your Herbert sounds fine. I'd honestly just recommend ditching the volume pedal with the Herbert altogether and just tweaking the channel volumes and global MV to get a useable tone. Also try backing off your channel bass pots to around 11:00 and the master deep pot to 10-11:00 as the Herbert has a lot of bass... a whole lot of bass and it kills off a lot of the tone at low volume settings. I'd keep your master presence at 3:00 where you have it set now though. The Herbert loop might just not like that pedal.

Are your tuned to standard 440 or dropped tuned on your guitar?

I appreciate your input. I have a fresh Ruby AC5 HG from valvequeen in the preamp V5. Further, my delay and reverb sound fine in my loop. I'll hook up my EQ to my loop to see if there is any issues. If you recall from a post I made here, I had issues placing the EQ in my loop on my VH4- i'd have a volume drop when the pedal is disengaged in the loop, and when I activate the pedal (with the volume and gain on the pedal at 0) there is a volume jump. I ordered an analogman buffer yesterday for the EQ pedal isues.

Just to clarify: I'm not having issues finding a good volume level with my Herbert in my small apartment. I'm just baffled as to why I can't crank the MV on my Herbert with the volume pedal, as opposed to my VH4 which works out pretty nicely.

Then it's just something with the design of that volume pedal that doesn't jive with the Herbert. Try a different volume pedal? EBMM?

I really feel that the Herbert is one of the best sounding low volume high gain sounding amps bare none. I think the 180W scares a lot of potential buyers off that would love it... but it sounds great at lower volumes.

I'm by no means saying it doesn't sound good at low volumes, i'm just baffled by why it works fine with my VH4 but not Herbert. I know the impedance of the EWS pedal is 25kOhm. Perhaps I should try a lower impedance volume pedal... I'm looking at the Ernie ball pedals, but they're 250k impedance, which I think is too high. The lowest they have is 25kOhm, which is the same as the EWS. Perhaps I should try making my own volume pedal with a lower impedance. In that regard, i'm not sure wether I need a higher or lower impedance.

Either that or just look in to an attenuator like the Two Notes Reload... that works for sure with the Herbert and VH4 to lower volumes and you can silent record and play in to your Mac/pc with headphones (thru an audio interface) or thru monitors.
 
Wizard of Ozz":2pham0rh said:
Omega1397":2pham0rh said:
Wizard of Ozz":2pham0rh said:
Omega1397":2pham0rh said:
Wizard of Ozz":2pham0rh said:
Omega1397":2pham0rh said:
I actually posted two videos of what's going on:

Part 1 VH4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3h6J1ium5I
Part 2 Herbert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKQBEt7kGa4


I watched the vids and something is definitely off. Either the pedal does not flat out play nice with the Herbert or maybe the V5 preamp tube is microphonic in the Herbert.

Have you tried any other fx in the Herbie loop like your reverb or eq pedals? Any issues with those pedals or do they sound normal?

Just plugging straight in (no loop engaged) your Herbert sounds fine. I'd honestly just recommend ditching the volume pedal with the Herbert altogether and just tweaking the channel volumes and global MV to get a useable tone. Also try backing off your channel bass pots to around 11:00 and the master deep pot to 10-11:00 as the Herbert has a lot of bass... a whole lot of bass and it kills off a lot of the tone at low volume settings. I'd keep your master presence at 3:00 where you have it set now though. The Herbert loop might just not like that pedal.

Are your tuned to standard 440 or dropped tuned on your guitar?

I appreciate your input. I have a fresh Ruby AC5 HG from valvequeen in the preamp V5. Further, my delay and reverb sound fine in my loop. I'll hook up my EQ to my loop to see if there is any issues. If you recall from a post I made here, I had issues placing the EQ in my loop on my VH4- i'd have a volume drop when the pedal is disengaged in the loop, and when I activate the pedal (with the volume and gain on the pedal at 0) there is a volume jump. I ordered an analogman buffer yesterday for the EQ pedal isues.

Just to clarify: I'm not having issues finding a good volume level with my Herbert in my small apartment. I'm just baffled as to why I can't crank the MV on my Herbert with the volume pedal, as opposed to my VH4 which works out pretty nicely.

Then it's just something with the design of that volume pedal that doesn't jive with the Herbert. Try a different volume pedal? EBMM?

I really feel that the Herbert is one of the best sounding low volume high gain sounding amps bare none. I think the 180W scares a lot of potential buyers off that would love it... but it sounds great at lower volumes.

I'm by no means saying it doesn't sound good at low volumes, i'm just baffled by why it works fine with my VH4 but not Herbert. I know the impedance of the EWS pedal is 25kOhm. Perhaps I should try a lower impedance volume pedal... I'm looking at the Ernie ball pedals, but they're 250k impedance, which I think is too high. The lowest they have is 25kOhm, which is the same as the EWS. Perhaps I should try making my own volume pedal with a lower impedance. In that regard, i'm not sure wether I need a higher or lower impedance.

Either that or just look in to an attenuator like the Two Notes Reload... that works for sure with the Herbert and VH4 to lower volumes and you can silent record and play in to your Mac/pc with headphones (thru an audio interface) or thru monitors.

I really want the Reload, but i'm a little tight on funds right now. I have a second EWS coming in the mail soon (I ordered it at the same time as the Herbert thinking it would work). I'm going to try changing the pot inside of it.
 
For the more tech savy folks out there- What pot values would you estimate to be a better option? My volume pedal has a 25K at the moment. How much lower should I go?
 
Try putting your Boss tuner in the effects loop but *BEFORE* the volume box you've got. This will tell you if an additional buffer will help or not.

I have to say though, I'm incredibly skeptical that these in-line volume "attenuators" do anything more than making your gain staging more difficult.
 
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