This Pedal is currently available.
Modified Ernie Ball VP Jr
The PM-1 Volume Pedal has been and remains the foundation of Thru-Tone. Utilizing the most popular of all volume pedals at its core and more than just a simple volume mod, the PM-1 is a complete overhaul of the Ernie Ball VP offering the ultimate in through tone performance, swell taper response, and tour grade durability. Now featuring our brand new upgraded Comp Cable.
Features
- Organic and true response buffering
- Custom designed potentiometer for unrivaled swell and longevity
- Comp Cable eliminates fatigue breakage, stretch, and slip
- Input Z control to suit your guitar's pickups and adjust high-end sensitivity
- Independent op-amp input and output buffers
- Fully isolated and buffered Tuner Out
- 9v operation with reverse polarity protection
- Cree high output blue LEDs with internal defeat switch
- True bypass switch for stock pedal use if power is unavailable
Gear lovers geek speak for those who want more...
The Ernie Ball VP is the most simple, yet solid built and physically responsive volume pedal ever created. Though, it’s shortcomings arrive with the fact that it is completely passive. The design places a 250k volume pot at your foot, which is just like wiring another paralleled pot in your guitar, and naturally causes some high end loss. This is small compared to the damage you cause your signal if you use the Tuner Out jack (You know the term... tone suck). The Tuner Out is wired in parallel off the Input and because of this design being passive you are splitting your impedance load in half. What that means, audibly, is a major hit in clarity, fullness, and power in your original signal along with the possibility of unwanted noise entering your signal chain due to the tuner's input not being isolated from your audio path.
Unlike many other companies' buffers, there is nothing brash and hard sounding about the tone of the PM-1. The design was based on organic response and retention of richness in the midrange that you would get plugging into an old blackface with a 10ft cable. The Input Z control on the front of the pedal adjusts the input impedance of the buffer allowing you to control the exact amount of high end presence and punch you hear from your pickups. No treble is boosted, rather you just gain back what was taken away from your pickups due to loading and capacitance of a longer instrument cable. Think of it as finessing the timbre of the pick attack against the string. Also the entire active circuitry is 100% true bypass-able so if you end up in a situation without extra power, a flip of the switch and you have back your completely stock volume pedal — albeit without the advantage of all the perks the PM-1 offers.
Inside there are no cobbled together DIY-quality tacked-on circuits nor any sterile sounding SMT boards. We hand build these circuits using our plated though-hole PCBs, premium quality components, and custom Thru-Tone designed potentiometers. These pots are the best quality available anywhere; they offer a protective fully sealed casing and are the absolute smoothest (nobody offers or mods a volume pedal with a taper as comfortable from min to max as Thru-Tone, period). We also have developed a replacement for the stock EB string, our new Comp Cable offers the dependability players have waited for for years. The circuit is completely noiseless when on and requires no special maintenance other than the TLC that you give all of your toys. The PM-1 runs on 9v negative tip DC power @ ~30mA from any of your power supplies and input impedance is variable between ~50k to 1Meg, which is designed to give you the optimal flexibility to dial in that sweet spot for your rig.
