Carl's Volume Box and MFD Pickups

[mikemjr12]

Stumbled on something last night that I thought people here might find interesting/useful.

I was running a Carl's Custom Guitars Volume Box through the effects loop of my Quilter Pro Block 200 amp. If you're not familiar with Carl's Volume Box, it is a passive device that creates a smoother volume taper for amps like the fender hot rod series that go from 0 to deafening real fast. It's just a potentiometer that you typically run through the effects loop of your amp so that you can crank the master volume of your amp and then take that volume down to friendlier levels. Super nifty device that's only like $30 shipped new.

Anyways - I was running this through the effects loop of my quilter pro block and using my 2016 G&L SC-2 (10-46 strings and saddle lock bridge) through a few pedals. I could not believe how unbelievably smooth and creamy tone I was getting from the setup. I was able to push the master volume on the amp from say 5% volume to around 25%, so I was able to open up the amp more at quieter volumes, so that helped. But the Carl's Volume Box is somewhat known to rob you of the high end and darken your tone, which in this case, was awesome with the MFDs.

I would remove the box from the equation and just didn't like it as much. Really bright and it was hard to dial it out. Then I would pop the box back in the loop and it sounded so much better (at least for solo noodling). I tried running my Fallout with the volume box in the loop, and it was too dark. Sounded much better without it. But the MFDs sounded great with it in.

Anyway, that's all I've got. I ordered a JHS black box to attenuate volume with my Fallout since those apparently don't suck as much treble and I still want to be able to crank the master volume. I've got a Doheny coming soon and will see how it sounds with the box. Though that has the PTB system so maybe it's not necessary with that guitar.

[Palmtree]

Hey Mike,

I play MFD pickups into a Hot Rod Deville 410 and recently got a JHS box to control volume better. I found it pretty transparent tonally which is really nice. I've retubed the 410 for lower power output and am very much enjoying the "new" amp. Still has the volume to peel paint when I want, but is much more enjoyable now.

Palm