Guyatone SV2 Slow Volume

What can I say? Two knobs: Speed and Threshold. It's stupid easy.

Never used the Boss SG-1. But this pedal sounds pretty darn close to using my volume pedal (have a Morley little alligator). Retains my original tone pretty well.

I use this clean in before gain. After gain the swells don't kick in very well. Before? Perfect.

I don't have a problem with notes fading (abruptly or slowly) on me as long as I have the threshold around 10 oclock. They sustain pretty well.

I'm a slow gear fan nowadays for ambient music I'm writing. I have a Pigtronix Attack/Sustain, Ebow, Volume pedal and this little guy. For ease of use and sound this is my favorite.

Volume pedals are nice but I like to play progressive swell leads and it's hard to sync my foot with my playing. Plus the fact of wear-n-tear on the pedal. Had 2 volume pedals before and they didn't last very long. Don't want to break this Morley.

Pigtronix ASDR has a more synthy envelope quality which I have use for but clips easily if you're not careful and tends to end abruptly.

Can't imagine anyone not liking this. Works like a charm and so easy.

super easy, great small pedal.
about 2 inches by 3 inches.

if you don't have a lot of space get this.

if you have a volume pedal already don't waist your time.

worked well but it's like an auto volume to give you sweeps.

if can also get the sound by turning down the volume on your guitar hit a note then turn the volume back up.

so you will just get the sound from the middle, off when you hit the string on when you let the note ring then off before it's out.

great pedal, strong and reliable just don't need 2 or 3 of the same thing.

never tried

if you don't have anything else like this get it, i heard that the BOSS slow gear is almost the same thing but this is a better value.

2 knobs - very easy. One for signal input, the other for output.

Didn't squash my tone, but the effect is very poor. Works well for open strings, but is very problematic otherwise. Notes that are still ringing may disappear when run through the Slow Volume, regardless of settings. Seems that the 'processor' isn't very intelligent.

overall, it's useless. if I can't count on it to perform properly 100% of the time, then what's the point?

Two knobs, standard power supply jack, couldn't be any easier. The knobs aren't really there to give you a variety of sounds; you use them to get the effect working the way it's supposed to with your setup and playing style, then leave it there. This is not difficult at all.

It's a one trick pony -- either you want this sound or you don't. But if you do, this little box delivers. I hear no added noise or any other degradation when it's on; I just get a violin-like swelling attack, which is just what I wanted.

Any quibbles one could have about the sound produced are really quibbles with the nature of how it is done (threshold-triggered volume envelope); you can't really blame the SV2 for that. For instance, if you're holding a note and pluck another, it obviously will not swell in.

Does anyone here seriously buy two of everything and bring spares to gigs? Are you rich? I really have never seen anyone doing that.

It looks as reliable as any other Guyatone.

No clue.

Like I said, it's a one-trick pony; if you need that swelling violin-attack sound for something, and you don't care to become an expert volume pedal dancer, this little guy is just what the doctor ordered. And as far as I can tell there is no other option for it on the market.

Only giving an 8 because, well, it's just the one trick. Might have been nice to maybe throw in an envelope lowpass filter while they were at it.

This is an improved copy of the Boss SG-1 Slow Gear. If you can use that you can use this. this one is easier but it still takes some time, thought, and tweaking for best results.

Set the threshold for the volume at which the swell will be triggered. Set the speed for how long it will take to reach max volume. Easy enough if you have a steady signal source, however you're probably playing a guitar. It's up to you to keep your playing dynamics controlled for predictable results. This is not an easy pedal to use. You must play into the pedals strengths.

It is NOT an envelope follower. An envelope follower is a filter that that responds to the volume of your playing by sweeping a filter. If you where modulate volume by that method you would have an expander and it's not an expander either. It is a triggered envelope plain and simple. It only reacts by opening at a preselected speed when the threshold is passed.

This is somewhat like a noise gate, and you can use it like a noise gate by setting the speed very fast and the threshold to only close at the level of background noise.

Has much better clarity than the SG-1 on longer swells. Classic uses are violin sounds and backwards sounds. You can also use it to clip of you initial attack which is great for organ and synth tones when used w/ other pedals.

I have to say that most of the bad reviews tell me more about the intelligence of the user than the quality of the product. There is a reason the SG-1 got discontinued: guitar players are stupid for the most part and want the pedal to do all the work. If it's not bone-head easy they will get all upset and cry. A poor workman blames his tools.

I'm impressed with the design. Good pots, jacks, switches. Solid housing. The rubber ring that holds the bottom on will not last though.

If you want the classic SG-1 sound this can't be beat. It outperfoms the original at a much lower cost. I wish it had a release knob, but that would just further confuse the people who can't figure out how to use it with two knobs.

Only two knobs and an on/off button. However figuring out new ways to use this pedal could take a life time.Nonetheless EASY. Much of the use of this pedal depends on your picking technique. I don't think it even came with a manual.

Dillion dr-500 into 2 Fender Deluxe 112's or a Laney gh50l II with a fender cab loaded with eminence legend speakers. Dimarzio pick ups in the Dillion and electroharmonix tubes throughout the Laney head. It's not noisey. Expect Jeff Beck like volume swells and some Steve Morse like violin bowing tones from this machine. Truly cool. NOTE: you must use a stacatto picking technique to get the most from it. When you get the picking down and playing at high volumes (which I do more often than I should)This small box can send chills down your spine. It can truly be breathe taking . If you goof your picking up no biggie the effect just goes away. You can leave it on play and get lil or no change in tone and then whip into some stacatto lines and bingo the effect is there. If you have ever listened to Jeff Beck Steve Morse or Eric Gales and heard their volume swells or violin like tones or reverse reverb type effects then you know what this box will do for you. I leave it mostly on a variation of the bowing effect that they demonstrate on their web site. It sounds lame on thier sample demo. I suppose they just wanted to give you an idea of what the effect actually does. In my rig it sounds heavenly. If you are just honing your axe or have not figured out how you want to sound yet, you might not be ready for this pedal.

It's not failed in the year I've had it Guyatone is reliable stuff. Should be no need for a backup.

never had to..Their web site is great.

I play whatever I feel like playing. This machine can be a very creative tool. I've been playing for 22 years now. I've only taken myself seriously the last 5 of those years. I love the bowing/violin like tones this lil box can produce. It's a lot of fun. Not something you want unless you're ready to get very creative. Beats the heck out of wearing your pinky finger out on the volume knob. I don't have pinky cramps any more since I bought this lil item. If it were stolen I would buy another in a heart beat. It's that much fun.

theres an input and output, two knobs, and a footswitch to turn it on and off. easy as pie. oh yeah, an AC adapter hole in the back too, better get out the book.

I give this a 7 for a few reasons. I dont have any huge complaints though. First of all, I swear my tone gets killed a little bit. Second of all, I hear a tiny bit of 'static buzz' when its used. And third, it cuts off the notes early sometimes when letting them ringout real long. On second thought, that might be due to the threshold knob...im not totally sure what it does.

I do have excuses for this though. I'm using a crap AC adapter. The manual and unit say to use a certain kind, 9v 200somethings. I plan on getting one, and then updating this review. Im sure this will help the buzz and tone, but I dont know about the note cutoff. Maybe I need a compression pedal, and maybe its that knob.

Nothing has happened to it yet, and i did get it used off ebay. Its small, and its metal, so I think it will be okay, except for the knobs and jacks. Theyre all plastic...so they could get hurt pretty easy. They havent yet, but they could. But seriously, what pedals dont run this sort of risk

haven't used it. i can say though that the paper it came with was in pretty broken english. not like it matters.

Overall I LOVE this pedal. Its my favorite pedal, next to something basic like reverb. You can really get some very very cool effects with it. I play some weird music, and it comes in handy for both my guitar and keyboard. Even one of my bandmates hear me playing some crazy stuff with it and he was asking me how i was making such cool sounds. Couple this with some reverb and delay, and watch out! Seriously, this thing is so cool. My main complaint though is that the speed knob doesnt go further. When its turned to 100%, I wish it was at about %60 or so, so you could get the effect even further. That does not mean that the effect doesnt go pretty far though, I'm just really into effects that can go insane distances. Anyway, go buy this! If I lost it or some asshole stole it, I would get another one ASAP! I cant live without it.

estremamente semplice da usare: nelle intenzioni del costruttore, il potenziometro "speed" dovrebbe determinare la rapidita della salita del volume rispetto all'attacco della nota; il potenziometro "threshold" la sensibilita dell'effetto rispetto alla pennata: a valori piu alti, l'effetto risponde a colpi di plettro (o dita) progressivamente piu intensi ma...leggete il resto...

il set up con cui ho testato il prodotto e il seguente: ibanez "artist" elettrica - SV2 - testata pearce G2R connessa a due casse MESA BOOGIE: e stato usato il reverbero della testata.
SV2 non ha alcun fruscio o rumore di fondo (non ho usato un alimentatore ma una pila).
Il prodotto evidenzia pero due grosse carenze:
1) il controllo "speed" non e realmente progressivo: nel senso che, a valori piu elevati non corrisponde un aumento realmente progressivo del volume, ma solo un intervallo temporale maggiore tra attacco ed emissione del volume (non so se rendo l'idea)...insomma, tra attacco ed emissione del volume, con il potenziometro a 10 c'e .......il vuoto.
quanto al controllo threshold, il mio giudizio e anche peggiore: nel reclamizzare il prodotto la Guyatone non avverte i potenziali clienti di un aspetto a mio parere essenziale: e cioe che il controllo threshold praticamente taglia arbitrariamente la nota senza attendere il naturale decadimento della stessa conseguente al terminare della vibrazione........una cosa simile e semplicemente inaccettabile!!!! Guyatone avrebbe dovuto descrivere la cosa mettendo in guardia ogni potenziale acquirente: tanto valeva che continuassi a sfruttare l'auto swell del DL4 della Line 6 che non produce un orrore simile.

ho acquistato il prodotto per sperimentare un' po'....non e essenziale per cio che faccio (jazz per hobby)...suppongo sia meglio provare ad usare un pedale del volume.

le funzioni sono descritte in un foglietto che riassume le funzioni di tutti gli altri micro pedali Guyatone: naturalmente manca ogni cenno ai difetti (o, se vogliamo chiamarli in altro modo, alle "caratteristiche") da me riscontrate. Inoltre non viene dato alcun consiglio o suggerimento su set up ideali con altri effetti...e date le caratteristiche del prodotto (nato per essere usato non da solo, ma accoppiato a delay, riverbero ed altro) il mio giudizio non puo che essere fortemente negativo.

Se ne avessi conosciuto i difetti non lo avrei certamente acquistato:.....il taglio arbitrario della nota e semplicemente .....antimusicale: tra l'altro mi chiedo come mai nessuna ditta abbia pensato a produrre un semplice auto swell, magari digitale come quello del pod (che, per inciso, funziona alla grande)....magari la Line6 potrebbe farci un pensierino.

this is NOT a bass pedal. it might work with guitar but not bass. the tracking is TERRIBLE. you have to play inside a very narrow zone and have NO other notes ringing to get a swell. if you play too fast, or too quietly, NO sound registers. it is very selective. half of what i played didnt come through. it acts more like a bad noise gate by cutting off your sustain. the speed pot didnt allow me to get any of those whale song swells that i heard on the website.

i play bass in a space rock band.

Ease of use is a 10. The manual is basicly a folded one-sheet with general directions for all the pedals in the line, & is useless. I'm taking off on this because nowhere does it say on the pedal or in one-sheet what kind of power adapter to use. The pedal basicly says "Only use a Guyatone 9V AC-2 power adapter." I had to go dig thru the web site to find out it was DC 9V 200 mA -- basicly a BOSS style power adapter will do. Why not just wright this on the bottom of the pedal?

I'm running Washburn PII/'94 Mexican Strat -> BOSS TU-2 Tuner -> SV-2 Slow Volume -> Line 6 FM-4 Filter Module -> BOSS PS-5 Pitch Shifter-> BOSS OC-2 Octave -> BOSS SD-1 Overdrive -> BOSS DS-1 Distortion -> BOSS CE-2 Chorus -> BOSS PH-1r Phaser -> MXR Stereo Chorus -> Analog.Man modded BOSS TR-2 Tremolo -> BOSS DD-20 Giga Delay -> BOSS RC-20 Looper -> Alamo Futura Valvestate Combo.

The advertising says it makes whale sounds... um, ok. Reverse delay? ....I suppose. What this unit is really good at is taming the velocity sensitive presets on my FM-4. The SV-2 takes all spatter sounds caused by the pick attack, for smoother transitions into synth swells & the whole lot. Definately a usefull alternative to using a compressor in front of the FM-4, since I don't care for compression. Work best at the beginning of your chain, or before a distortion unit as the gain monkeys with the threshold settings of the unit.

I suppose one could overlook the plastic input/output jacks & nuts, but can you overlook the bottom plate being held on by a rubber gasket? Sure, it's sound as a tank now, but what happens 5 years from now when these babies are out of production & the rubber has desintigrated? In the future, I think this design feature alone will put them right up there with all those DOD units with their missing plastic battery covers. You'll wind up finding them in pawn shops with the only thing protecting the exposed circuit board from a beer soaked stage is a layer of duct tape.

Never dealt with them.

Their web site gets a plus for its Flash demonstrations of the pedals.

All in all, this satisfies almost every twitch that the BOSS completist has ever had watching SG-1's go for ungodly prices, lacking the funds to buy one, just for the experience.

I'm sure in time this effect will go the way of the Gonkulator -- get overlooked by most, then discontinued & deemed collectable when some metal dork starts using it.

For noise makers like myself that are too lazy to use a volume pedal, and for those with a penchant ambient swells, this is a definate keeper.