Boss Volume Pedals for Guitar/Bass

This is one of the most reliable volume pedals that I know. I use it with my current clonewheel (Tokai TX-5 Classic, made in Brazil) and, you know, it's an essential item for that kind of instrument (well, the classic B3 has volume pedal, no?). The volume control is very precise and smooth - you can even determine how much volume will be controlled. There's a knob on it's left side with a 0 to 10 setting - I keep it on 0 so I can go from mute to full sound. One of the coolest things about this pedal is that it doesn't require any kind of power source to work - at least if you're using it with keyboards. Just plug the cables, et voilà. Simple as 1+1=2. Did I told about "2"? Yep. It's a stereo pedal, btw. The only minor thing is that there's a bit of background noise - remember: this is an analog pedal - but if you're using it as a part of your gig keyboard setup on a stage with a huge PA, that's not a problem at all. That little noise may be actually a "charm" while using the pedal with a clonewheel ;-) So if you want a cool analog volume pedal for your keyboard - and guitar, bass, no matter what kind of instrument - needs, this is the one.

I bought this from ZZounds.com because they had the best price. I got it for $69.95 new. I bought it because my Morley began misbehaving and this pedal has a minimum volume control feature which I need for my live playing. I trust Boss and Roland products. I have many. Their products are very dependable. I like the small size of this pedal. It fits very nicely on my pedal board and sounds clean. The price was nice, too. And it's a name brand. I can't get the minimum volume up as loud as I would like compared to the full volume but I'm learning to adjust to that. The Morley was better at that. Good construction. You can't go wrong with Boss! I like this pedal a lot. I've only had it a couple of weeks but I've used it live and so far it is great. Quiet and smooth. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The Boss FV-500H is a passive volume pedal from Boss for use with mono input sources. It features a single input jack, a single output jack, a jack for use as an expression pedal, a silent tuner out, and a knob for setting the minimum volume. The pedal measures 29” by 11.4” by 4.4” so it is quite large and takes up a considerable amount of space on a pedal board. UTILIZATION The Boss FV-500H has a heavy duty aluminum dicast body that will stand up to just about anything. They put the Boss name on this so you probably knew this beforehand, but this thing is probably the strongest made volume pedal you’ll find. It has a ultra smooth pedal movement and is very comfortable and easy to control. The torque of the pedal can be adjusted to the user’s preferred pedal feel and the rubber on the foot pedal makes sure your foot is secure and won’t be slipping around while in use. A silent tuner out allows you to roll back the volume and tune without annoying the crowd during gigs and a minimum volume knob allows you adjust how quiet the pedal can go all the way down to completely nothing. SOUND QUALITY I have noticed no change in tone quality when using this pedal and it doesn’t introduce any unwanted noise. The Ernie Ball offering definitely rolled off some of my high end. You can go from clean to dirty if it’s in front of your amp, or as a more dramatic volume only alteration when it’s in your effects loop. I like to do volume swells and violin like passages, and the taper on this pedal work well for that when the minimum volume is set to zero. I also like to use it in front of my dirty amp and set the minimum volume to a clean sound and then roll up and get the dirty tones. This method is nice when a smooth transition is need between clean and dirty instead of a quick change like you get from channel switching amps. OVERALL OPINION Overall I liked the Ernie Ball version until I picked up the Boss volume pedal. The Boss pedal is huge in comparison, but is built to last a lot longer and incorporates a minimum volume knob. This is great for going between two different settings and not having to worry about over shooting it. I don’t use the expression pedal out, but that’s an added bonus too. With the Boss you also don’t have to worry about changing out the strings like you do on the Ernie Ball. The Boss also does not seem to suck as much tone off the high end as the Ernie Ball. The sound quality of the pedal is great and the feel is very smooth, the only downside is that this thing is massive in size. I have remedied this by carrying it along and setting it up alongside my pedal board and not having it mounted directly to the board to save real estate.