George Dennis GD-020 Mono Volume

Very Easy to use. Plug and Play. Simple. The action is very smooth, and it is very well built.

I am VERY unhappy with how this pedal changes tone.
I find that my Les Paul looses a lot of warmth, and comes out sounding very tin like. It really sucks tone. Not as bad as the crappy Ernie Ball pedals, but seriously I cant use this pedal as my guitar sounds like it is plugged into a crappy digital amp.

Due to this reason I will NOT recommend this pedal.

Ive only had it for a few days. It is really well constructed and seems built to last.

I emailed George Dennis about how to Mod this pedal so that I can lose less tone, and I received an email response within a day. Very quick response.
I was unable to really understand what he was saying, as it was in very broken English, but I did appreciate his attempt to offer me advice.

I like how well the pedal is built, and how well it opperates, but I am very unhappy with how it effects my tone.
I can imagine this pedal being great for Lead Guitar and Solos, as it makes the guitar more thin sounding and it can cut through a mix,
but I wanted unaltered guitar tone through this pedal and I am very unhappy with my tone while using this pedal.

Of course, it's easy to use. It's a simple volume pedal.

The pedal is smooth and has been trouble-free, BUT...
the tone does change.

I use Monster Pro cables and tested the sound with my Gibson ES446 direct to my Fender Vibroverb Custom via Monster Pro cables and with my George Dennis pedal added.

The tone does change; it's thinner through the pedal. I tested it with a new battery and with the proper ac adapter.

I play with no effects except a tiny bit of reverb, so my tone is super important and maybe more fragile than someone shaping tone with effects boxes.

My bassist uses a different brand volume pedal and had the same problem, but his tech soldered a capacitor to his pedal to help prevent the tone from thinning (it didn't fix it, though).

Inside the George Dennis pedal, it's more complicated than some super simple pedals I've examined: 7 dielectric capacitors (the cylindrical ones standing on end I think), 4 or 5 other capacitors, 16-20 resistors (2 on the mini-board for the AC input/battery, 1 microchip, and some other stuff.

Very reliable. It never failed.

Many guitarists might not notice the tone thinning. Try using Monster Pro or Klotz cables, though, and you'll notice it when adding this pedal (or probably any other vol pedal) to your system.

I'm still in search of a great pedal, but may have to make something that attaches to the guitar's volume control in order to avoid thinning the guitar's tone.

It works but, unfortunately, I think all volume pedals effect the tone even when set to full volume. That's why I recently went back to using the volume control on my guitar instead -- at least at full volume the tone sounds great.

I'd like a volume pedal that doesn't sit between 2 cables; I'd like one that attaches to the guitar's volume control, not adding putting something else between my guitar tone and the amp....

I found this site by searching for other volume pedals and possible George Dennis volume pedal hacks to reduce or eliminate the loss of tone quality.

Absolutely a no brainer. Input and output jack. Install a 9V battery or use other 9V power supply.

Absolutely a quiet pedal. No added noise or hum. Absolutely no tone suck, either. Does exactly what it is suppose to with no tone altering. Pedal action is smooth.

This thing is build well. Really nothing to break or adjust. Optical design so no potentimeter to get wear out, get noisy, dirty, or scratchy. No thin metal rod cable like the Ernie Ball pedal to fail or fall out of adjustment.

This is one awesome pedal at a great price in these days of overpriced, overrated boutique pedals. This pedal does exactly what it was designed to do. That is to increase or decrease the volume by depressing or ease back on the pedal without coloring or altering the tone. There is no noise or coloration of the tone. This pedal is well made with essentially no parts that will fail. If lost of stolen, I would definitely replace it with another like pedal.

couldn't be more easy really. it's the volume pot of your guitar in pedal form! mono, one input, one output.

this pedal operates completely silently: it contains fibre optic technology instead of crackly pots. it doesn't noticeably deteriorate tone. i use this in front of either a tonebone hot british distortion or a visual sound route 66 overdrive. for live use, in between songs and during silent passages within songs, i just step on the vol pedal to shut off the signal to prevent any unintentional feedback or string noise caused by moving my hand etc -i use it like a noise gate in that respect, as well as for swelling in notes, feedback, and chords, which is what i orignally bought it for. i don't normally give '10' ratings but i really cant find any fault with it!

fine. used for about 7 years now from buying it new. one of the battery lead studs that the 9v battery snaps into came loose once when i pulled out a battery but i tightened it back on no problem. i use an adaptor with it anyway with the battery as a back up should the lead get pulled out. there's not much to go wrong with this pedal. it's well built (in the czech republic), with no pots to get gunked up with dust, and has solid looking allen bolts for the pedal pivot. the pedal itself still has a smooth glitch free action after 7 years. the rubber pad on the footpedal is hard wearing too.

never needed. if it broke down i'd just get a new one since they're so cheap (compared with ernie ball). it's performed faultlessly for 7 years so far.

the only niggle i can think of is that the dc power input socket is a bit close the the 'out' jack plug for my liking, because it can get in the way of angled patch leads. i wish they'd locate it a bit further away.
it may only be a volume pedal, which isn't very sexy, but i find it indispensible for live playing, and this one is a good one, and top value for money.

It's a Volume Pedal. The only wierdness is that the base has
markings for "frequency switching" but there was no switch. I thought
this might be for Hi-Z Lo-Z since the pedal is advertised to work
either way. But after corresponding with the designer (see below)
I assume that this marking is there erroneously.

My only complaint is that the power adapter is a Mini-plug style,
not the "Barrel" which I have come to prefer.

The volume pedal is DEAD Quiet .... no hum or buzz, and there is NO
audible signal quality loss to my ears. I don't claim to have "golden
ears" but this thing really sounds tranparent to me.

It seems to be built like a tank. I only give it a 9 because I haven't
had it long enough to give it a 10 with confidence.

I'm using this in a Low-Z effects chain, so I emailed George
to ask if I needed a modification for Low-Z and where he would
recommend I place the Volume in my chain. I had an answer back
in LESS than 24 hours (No need to modify it, Best place is
directly after my Buffer box).

I had been shopping for a replacement for an ancient Morley (the old
"chrome" version) which had too much hum for studio work. I prefer the
electro-optical system as Pots are --- well, Pots. The only other
"Pro" Optical volume I had come across was the Goodrich, but they
no longer make that model. I stumbled across this pedal on the net
and am very happy to have found it. If it were lost, I would DEFINITELY get another. At this price, I might get a 2nd just to have
around.

It's a volume pedal. You plug two cables in, a battery or an adapter and that's it. Very easy to make this "strings"-sound.

I'm using:
A Harper-Strat > Schaller Yoy-Yoy > Marshall Guv'nor > GD-020 Mono Volume > Nobels Xtreme-Distortion > Rocktek EQ > Marshall Valvestate Stereo Combo > FX-Loop (A lot of Ibanez Delays ect. and a Vibratrem)

Yo can see, I'm an FXetishist, and I'm used to humming. So there would be no difference, if this thing would hum, but a single test shows: it doesn't.

I guess it is really dependable, cause it's not made like so many other toy pedals, but I have it only since a few weeks.

I mailed to George Dennis to ask vor an AC-adapter (see below), and one day later the master himself mailed back in quiet fluent German, that I can get it there and there in my hometown! Wow, thanks George!

Best customer service I ever experienced!

I play mostly experimental things, but for a volume pedal, it's not really important, which style you prefer. It's silent and it works. The only bad thing that is to mention, is that it eats batteries and that the adapter has to be a special one. The usual Ibanez/Boss-things do not fit in the jacket. So it's only 7 over all. Sorry, George.