Ernie Ball EB6180 VP-JR 5-stars Reviews

Ernie Ball EB6180 VP-JR

A must have for any pro set up great for doing swells. Build quality is great the Jr is also a nice size compared to it's larger big brother.

Go-to volume pedal

There are many things to consider when purchasing a volume pedal and I've personally found that overall this is possibly the best option at this price range. The volume sweep sounds and feels very smooth, there's perhaps a small "notch" towards the end of the sweep near the toe down position resulting in a small but sudden increase of volume. Personally I find this negligeable and it doesn't bother me.

The build quality is excellent, the entire chassis is heavy duty metal and it feels very sturdy overall. The covering on the footplate also provides excellent grip.

I've heard some users complaining about this pedal sucking tone but I have not experienced that, with it being a passive pedal I believe the way to avoid any tone suck is to not put a tuner into the tuner out jack.

Highly recommended.

Sturdy, simple, effective

This is basically everything a volume pedal should be... sturdy enough to take some abuse, straight forward, and passive!

The only thing I don't like about this pedal is how far it moves, it feels like my foot is at an un-natural angle when all the way down, but I'm sure I'll get used to that.

I can't comment on the "tone-sucking" of using the tuner output on this pedal as I have a Line 6 G30 wireless receiver going into it which has a built in buffer so my tone doesn't suffer with the tuner out, but others may have different results.

I've heard that the string in these is quite fragile, but from giving it a little flick it seems perfectly strong to me, especially as there isn't too much tension on it.

There's a nice little feature of a dip switch just inside the pedal which toggles two different modes, almost like it goes from linear to logarithmic increase. I guess this is useful if there's a specific usage you want from your volume swells, but it's more or less redundant for me as I leave it on linear!

the mercedes benz of Volume Pedals

Ernie Ball Volume Pedals are for me the Mercedes Nenz of volume pedals, the housing is supersolid and even after 6 years of daily usage the volume pedal works as fine as on the first day. i often do volume swells with it, or turn down the volume of the guitar to get a kinda semi clean tone out of the distorted rhythmn channel.

The Pedal works smooth and you can perfect control the amount of volume change.

The smaller VP-JR is perfect for fitting on effectboards where you dont have much space or at home where you dont play with shoes.

Ernie Ball VP-JR

The VP-JR is the pedalboard friendly version of the original Ernie Ball Volume Pedal. Technically the JR is identical to its bigger brother, so if space is rare on your pedalboard you should consider this pedal.

The previous reviews mention already most of the important (positive) aspects and I agree to all of them but there is one negative aspect that was not mentioned yet. The string that is pulling the poti does not seem to be too reliable. I had to change it two times within 5 years and the changing procedure is not too easy. There is an instruction video on youtube, but it never worked as flawless for me as in the video.

But overall the VP-JR is a good quality pedal in a solid enclosure and i would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a volume pedal.

Solid Pedal

Really well known brand and model.

Being the junior version it is still large enough for my size 13UK feet!

This model is a lot more economical in size and seems indestructible, even with most of my weight on it.

And the functionality is good too! :)

Ernie Ball Volume pedal JR

This is a great volume pedal. This is the physically smaller one in the series. It is completely passive and require no batteries or power supplies. The action of the sweep (both physically and the sweep of the volume due to the potentiometer) is great and super easy to control. Since it is completely passive a use of the tuner out may result in some tone loss due to the loading of you're signal when passively splitting your signal into two different paths. A buffer in front of the pedal may help this issue. Even though it has this little flaw it is my go to volume pedal because of the natural sweep in volume and the fact that it doesn't color your tone i the different positions. If you dont use the tuner out it's a no brainer.

Good sturdy volume pedal

A good well made pedal. Feels reassuringly heavy and has a nice smooth action. I have used it with double bass to match arco and pizz volumes, it has performed perfectly every time.