increasing a pedal's output/volume

[ifeellikeatourist]

Okay, so obviously this post is somewhat prompted by the other recent volume/output post, but I've actually been wondering lately--is increasing a pedal's output as simple as switching the volume pot to a higher output pot? Is there anything else that I need to do? I currently have an MXR dist + that is way lower output than my other distortion/fuzz boxes (TAFM, Wolf Computer, Hyperion, and a modded OS-2), and I would like to give it some more volume. What can be done about this?

[aen]

I've only tried a transistor based clean boost, but sometimes it can get saturated and kind of muffled

[dronemachine]

I'm really curious about this myself,I have a great old analog multi fx thingy,great fuzz,tremolo and filter sounds,but not nearly enough volume on fuzz
and trem,or when bypassed.The filter has it's own volume that is capable of reaching the unity gain,but not so with the other two,unless it's in combo
with the filter.Any further suggestions on how to fix this? I would be sooo happy to make it a permanent piece on my board,cuz it sounds too cool.

[Gopherbassist]

I've got a Dunlop GCB-100 bass wah. They discontinued them pretty quickly in favor of the GCB-105. The problem with the pedal is a volume drop when engaged, if I could post a schematic, is there any likelihood that someone could tell me what causes the drop and how to fix it?

[darryl2113]

I'm thinking that you can not increase the pedal's gain(or output) by changing to a different pot value...of course I could very easily be wrong...here is the way I understand it so far. A pot is essentially a resistor that can change its value with the turn of a knob. The key word being resistor .....To my knowledge, to increase the amplitude of a signal you need a component such as a transistor,op amp, IC, .....something along those lines. I would think that a resistor can only resist...or add load to a signal, it can make it quieter but not louder. You can reduce the value of a pot so it never lets the full amplitude of the signal escape its path, but going the other way wont make it any louder than what the circuit can put out. Kind of like changing the size of your faucet, you can get a skinnier one that would make less water come out at one time, and you can go up in size to get more water to come out at one time, but once you go so big you aren't gonna get any more water out and faster, you'd have to go and increase your water pressure to do that, which would involve a little more of an invasive action.

That may be a bad analogy, perhaps thinking of it more in terms of your faucet knobs.....lowering the value of a pot would be like getting a knob that turns from off to about half way, but once your turn the normal knob all the way on, you have opened the valve as far as its gonna open.

I have thought about the whole boosting thing alot, there is always the route of getting a pedal looper and a booster of your choice and rig your set up to where the pedals that you want to go through the booster can go there with the stomp of a switch..then there is the internal method which involves some understanding of how the circuit actually works and then getting the willingness to cut in and modify the circuit at some risk of possibly fucking something up or changing the tone in some undesirable way. Of course, I am always gonna go with whatever way is most versatile and most reversible. which we leave me to the booster and looper method.

[metalmariachi]

Usually a volume pot just varies the resistance to ground, so theoretically changing to a larger value would increase the output.
Unfortunately in practice the increase in volume isn't really that great, you will notice slightly more but that's it.

Changes in the circuit design, like bias resisters, voltage levels etc will have a greater effect.

So in short there isn't just one easy change or mod. You would need to play around with the pedal.

Now there may be mods out there like those for the Boss pedals that may increase the out put.

I know you didn't want to hear that.

MM

[ifeellikeatourist]

thanks for the responses. some mods may be in order some time in the future. some people at freestompboxes.org were saying that changing the diodes would increase output, but would also change the sound a bit too. I'll probably mess around with some different stuff and see what I can do. for now, my boost pedal has been moved from in front of the dist+ to after, and it is actually working really well. dunno why I didn't think of that one before.

[dronemachine]

Thank you people!

Yeah,I didn't think there's only one mod that could solve the problem,that would be too easy.
I just might buy a good clean booster,or hugger maybe?I'll see when I sell some pedals that I don't use...

[TheAttackman]

if youre ok with a little more dirt a 386 op amp would do the trick...

[ifeellikeatourist]

more dirt is always desirable