# Any "Anti-Boost" schematics or actual pedals for sale?



## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

A friend of mine is looking for an "anti-boost" pedal schematic or possibly someone who might have one for sale.

He specifically likes the "Descend" pedal from "Heavy Electronics" but they discontinued it but he might consider others.
Heavy Electronics Descend Precision Volume Pedal









Paging @mhammer for help with this. 

Thanks to all for any responses.


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

I don’t understand how a pedal would clean up an overdriven amp.

Here is my suggestion


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Sneaky said:


> I don’t understand how a pedal would clean up an overdriven amp.



I literally had a friend build a volume knob in a box with an LED. I should still have it somewhere, if your friend wants it @greco - the reason I wanted it in the box was to have the volume drop be consistent.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Budda said:


> I literally had a friend build a volume knob in a box with an LED. I should still have it somewhere, if your friend wants it @greco - the reason I wanted it in the box was to have the volume drop be consistent.


Ironically, he built something similar in the past. Unfortunately, his enclosure imploded from too much use with not a substantial enough of a build. This Descend also contains a filter.

Please PM me with pic or two of your 'pedal' and how much you want for it. Thanks


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

Ive done a passive filter for myself ( high and low pass - for cutting out rumble and noise but a simple matter of changing cap values to move the rolloff points for more tone shaping use). No big deal to add a V control. Passive so everything would be cut only. No need for a battery unless you need an LED ( understandable).

If it comes to getting something built lemme know.

If it wasnt for the need to cut volume I would recomend the Broughton Audio High and Low pass filter ( has V control but boost only, though if you cut with the eq enough it would attenuate overall volume and clean up the amp ( esp if cut significant bass).


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Sneaky said:


> I don’t understand how a pedal would clean up an overdriven amp.
> 
> Here is my suggestion


He has been gigging for years (and continues to do so) and is presently employed in a significant position in a large music store. This concept apparently goes back to virtually pre pedal days.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I suspect that the closest commercial product would be the EHX Signal Pad. In principle, it is simply a post-guitar volume pedal, turned into a pot-in-a-box, that stays where you left it. Yes, it simply does what a volume pedal does, but the virtue is that, instead of fiddling with a foot-treadle, or the volume pot on your guitar, the user can just hit a stompswitch and instantly get to where you want.

Given the simplicity of the circuit, it is a trivial mod to add something like a compensating cap to retain a bit of brightness when turned down or alternatively roll off some highs to move the rhythm tone a little further to the background via tone, rather than volume. Many DIY-ers turn their nose up at such things, because the price doesn't seem justified given that t is essentially the cost of a box, a pot, two jacks, and a switch. But for some players who find that it is easier to nail the sound they want from an overdriven amp with their guitar controls up full, the convenience is worth it.

I remember some years back, pedal-maker J. Everman ran the idea by folks on the DIY stompbox forum, and it drew a snide reaction. But as he noted at the time, he decided to start making such units because all these Nashville session guys kept asking him if there was something around that could do that. So, not necessarily something the majority of us would save up our paper-route money for, but clearly something of use for some folks who know exactly what they're doing.


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

maybe something like this...

Volume Box guitar amp effect loop touchy master volume taper fix attenuator 13964543797 | eBay


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

This, in a box. Not the whole amp, obviously, but the volume and tone control. At full volume, negligible loading of the guitar. The 500pf (.0005) bypass cap lets treble through at lower volume settings, but has no bearing when volume is at max. The .005uf cap (realistically, it would be 4700pf) functions as a treble cut at all volume settings. The combo lets the user leave volume full but "round off" the tone, on demand. Or, at lower volume settings, achieve either a thinner bright sound, or a duller one. User's choice. I have no idea what the Signal Pad uses.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Thanks for all of the responses so far. Very much appreciated.

Just to be clear, these two pots and the associated caps are all that are needed
from the schematic.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Yep, you got it.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

mhammer said:


> Yep, you got it.


Thanks.


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## georgemg (Jul 17, 2011)

The first pedal that came to mind for me was the HBE Detox pedal. Paul Gilbert was using one for a while to do just what you are asking for. That pedal had level and three band EQ.










The link below came up in a search for a schematic for it. 

https://effectslayouts.blogspot.com/2019/01/homebrew-electronics-detox-eq.html​


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## troyhead (May 23, 2014)

A volume pedal with a “minimum volume” setting could achieve the same preset volume drop, but then also allow anything in-between the lower volume and the maximum.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

I'm bumping this to say thanks to everyone for their responses and to see if there are any further comments.


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## Guncho (Jun 16, 2015)

I used to use a volume pedal but a precise signal cut is an interesting idea.


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## Guncho (Jun 16, 2015)

Sneaky said:


> I don’t understand how a pedal would clean up an overdriven amp.


By lowering the signal to the amp just like the volume knob on the guitar.[/QUOTE]


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

Guncho said:


> By lowering the signal to the amp just like the volume knob on the guitar.


[/QUOTE]

That was kind of my point. Why would you need a pedal for this?


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## Guncho (Jun 16, 2015)

A) So you don't have to adjust the volume knob on your guitar.
B) So it lowers the signal by the exact amount you preset.

I used to use a volume pedal to do exactly this but my "rhythm" setting would never be exactly the same every time and sometimes would be lower than I wanted it to be.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

As noted earlier, Guncho is not the only player asking for a box that could do exactly what he describes.

Having said that, several pedal-makers have approached those goals from a different direction. The Visual Sound (now rebranded as Truetone) Visual Volume pedal first produced some time in the late 90s, I believe, and since revised several times, used a "ladder" of 10 LEDs (green and red) to show the volume level the pedal was set to. I took mine apart and learned that it used an LM3914 bargraph chip and a dual-ganged volume pot. One side of the pot produces the volume change and the bargraph chip "reads" the other half of the pot to show where both pots are set to. More recently, Ernie Ball produced a volume pedal with a display installed mid-treadle. The display doubles as a tuner, but also shows how much volume reduction the pedal is producing.

Those two pedals are useful for "getting back to" some designated level you need in reliable fashion. But for those who simply want to switch to a given volume setting, rather than "find" it again, a box like the Signal Pad is what they really want.

AFAIC, the "ideal" would be a box that uses electronic switching to select between multiple preset levels, whether in round-robin fashion or more sophisticated random-access fashion. In truth, many Multi-FX units will allow one to establish and store "scenes". The scenes are generally used to store combinations of FX, but they also include volume settings. No reason why a person who uses one of these units couldn't use it as a programmable level-setting pedal.


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## MartyReasoner (May 28, 2019)

Evolution Orange Underdrive


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

has anyone mentioned the neutrik Timber plug?


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## RockinProf (Jul 8, 2019)

I’ve got a Detox and it’s fantastic. The eq is critical to get a usable clean tone from an overdriven amp. Note that this only cleans up a slightly overdriven amp. A compressor is key here too.


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## Guest (Aug 9, 2019)

That was kind of my point. Why would you need a pedal for this?[/QUOTE]
I put a volume pedal at the end of my chain, just before the amp. If I use the guitar volume it changes the way my pedals work. If I put the volume reduction after all my pedals before the amp it drops the overall volume but keeps the overdrives and other pedals the way I want them.


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