Greetings- I picked up a Boss FV-300L volume pedal several years back. I find it totally unusable with my new setup - it kills the brightness and clarity of my natural guitar tone. As this is something I don't think I can "hide behind the effects loop" I am sans volume pedal.
Why does an analog volume pedal kill the tone so much? Is this related to impedance? The FV-300L is the low impedance model. The guitar has two Fender Noiseless pickups and one Texas Special, all passive (no further onboard electronics).
Link to bosscorp.co.jp for a picture and size/weight... looking for some information about the electronics now.
Yes, it's the impedance. A low impedance pedal will work with active (powered = battery on board) pickups or in between the stages of some EFX. Your guitar plugged directly into this pedal is going to drop the level and kill the highs just as you describe. You need a high impedance pedal -- usually built around either 250 kohm or 500 kohm pots if a passive pedal. Active volume pedals (NOT pedals for active pups, but pedals with active electronics; read carefully) are designed differently, but will usually have a high impedance input compatible with passive pup guitars.
My personal recommendation is an Ernie Ball Volume passive pedal in either mono or stereo (with panning). These are well built, and always comes out on top in comparos. No tone sucking! These are available in two physical sizes: regular (pretty large and pricier) and compact (Jr. model)
here a listing from MF:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/compare?base_pid=152102&base_pid=152103&base_pid=152107
Note the Bypass "Buffered" is an error. That should be N/A for these pedals. There is always at least 250k ohms in parallel with the input/output at max volume.
-=tension & release=-
