Morley Little Alligator Volume Pedal

I use this pedal as volume control for a keyboard emulating a hammond. A smooth sweep of graduating volume is paramount. It was easy to set up,and is wide enough to find in the shadowed darkness under your keyboards while playing.

I use this pedal with a Roland VR-760 and a KC-550 amp. at first all was fine. It lasted about 8 months. The smooth volume inclination and decrease soon disappeared and the pedal developed spikes in volume.I understand this pedal works on a light sensor not a volume pot. I could not find anyone to repair it anywhere locally or on-line.

NO It has created more problems than it has solved.

I cant seem to find anyone to help me with this product. I would send it off to get repaired. At least try it once more.....I would not buy another one. NOTE: this was used in live performance 2-3 times a week.

I play in a cover/original rock band that well known in South Florida. I have been playing keys for 30+ years.{I use to drag around a real B-3}. If stolen I would laugh and claim it on insurance.HA HA I compare this product with the Ernie Ball volume.Excellent at first,but volume spikes and uneveness had me repair/change pot twice.Still doesnt work smooth! Keyboard players that need hammond sounds need a pedal that is smooth graduating volume with a long sweep[ thats so you can pump the volume]I use a Boss now that is consistant,cheap but noisy as hell.

Very easy, plug it in, set the Min. volume and play.

The taper might be a little bit wierd at first, but once you understand it, it's better than anything else out there.

Had it over a year, still works perfect.

Not sure.

I'd buy it again for sure.

simple

I use it after overdrives. My first one went down after a year and then bought another one at it was a fluke. from toe up to about half way down there was no sound. Emailed CHAD@ morley and explained the issue. he wouldn't email me a RA# the pedal goes in the trash and morley is now on my ****list

might last a year if you get one that works properly

see above

not as smooth as you'd might like but for cheap i didn't notice any tone suck. They don't last

I've never used a volume pedal so the reviews about the taper being strange don't apply. It is a bit quick but takes virtually no time to get used to - toe down, toe up - pretty easy

In front of an amp, it does suck the high's out if you use it on its own. If you buffer with, for example, a Bad Horsie, no problem. I bought this to put in the effects loop of my Hiwatt SER so in that capacity there is again no impact on the sound quality. I don't believe you should put a volume pedal infront anyway

Stein Shizenhause - a nuclear device would be required to damage this pedal

Never had to use them for any Morley pedal I own

I think this pedal is great, it works well, it's smooth, no noise, it's better than my mates Boss volume pedal for sure

Just plug it in, set the minimum volume on the knob for the toe up position (heel all the way down to the floor).

At first the taper may seem a little tricky / sortof all or nothing / v. quick and it may seem non-linear - jumping in the centre. However, this is not actually the case. One or two people have mentioned that this pedal goes past parrallel with the floor and actually goes more toe down, this is true however there is no volume increase during this period more toe down period, it is more of an off position / ensures fully on. It barely goes past the parallel but it is enough to be 100% confident the pedal is set to max, I really like this feature. It is also the reason for the apparent strangness in the taper, the taper runs linear from the toe up position to the parrallel position, then has no increase in that little bit past the parrallel

Therefore, it may be a little tricky at first but once you get used to the positions (takes no time at all) to swell on your foot, then it becomes very simple to use. A final reason why some say all or nothing is the taper is I think maybe a little shorter, so it is nice and sensitive, a good thing in my opinion. Again with a little practice I could get the accurate and sometimes fast little swells I was looking for.

The feel of the pedal is very smooth, so it is easy to control. There is no spring in it like the bad horsie, its a simple pedal, you rock it where it you want it and it stays.

I reccomend buying the morley power supply, if its anything like the bad horsie it will nibble through batteries quite quickly, unless you unplug the input jack (disconnects the battery when you do)

Using an all tube amp (cornford) with various electro harmonix effects and a morley bad horsie (wah-wah) using various guitars, a descent les paul gibson, american strat and a descent ibanez.

Sound quality depends on placement (especially with a tube amp), but it does sound excellent in the right place

Generally, I did not notice any noise whatsoever (I placed it in my fx loop and on minimum it was like my amp was not even switched on)

In front of the amp / before pre-amp: Heres the tricky thing, Before the pre-amp means it acts like the volume knob of a guitar. That is when you decrease the volume you drive the preamp section less, which equals less volume, but also means you will have a less / a drop in distrotion. The other bad thing is noise, if you amp produces a hiss (most do) then the loudness of the hiss stays at a constant level and the guitar goes quiet, meaning on slow gentle swells you will hear the hiss to being with before it is drowned out by the guitar. I feel I must write this in caps *THIS IS NOT THE PEDAL, IT IS THE PLACEMENT OF THE PEDAL* - which alters the input into the amp. I would not recomend this pedal in front of an amp, in fact I would not recomend any volume pedal in front of an amp. so...

FX loop: Once I positioned the pedal here it was absolutely excellent, I dont hear any colouration of my sound (refraing from using the word tone) if there actually is some, it is certainly not bad nor very noticible. Especially once you get used to the taper, i could produce the sounds I was looking for.

The only one negative thing I think there is a very small volume difference to the pedal on max compared to no pedal in the setup. That being the pedal on max is ever so slightly quiter that no pedal. In the FX this is not a problem what so ever, infront of the amp however you will notice an ever so slight loss in distortion (effects of quiting the input signal to the pre amp again), again a volume pedal shouldnt be typically put there (learn how to use your guitar volume knob)

Only thing left to say is the pedal is designed to be placed either before the amp or also in the FX loop. Some pedals are not designed to be placed in the FX loop, because this pedal has, it is just one more assurance that the pedal will be preforming as it should when you place it in the FX loop.

Optical circuitry whatsits works great, smooth and no added noise.

Have only had it a couple weeks so cant really comment, but it is very well built, quite heavy as well.

Like all morley pedals, it comes in that thick strong bendy plastic (like what you buy those small mp3 headphones in). I bought it on the internet and they shop did not package it in a box or foam etc, they just put it in a black bag. When I opened it, the top corner of the plastic was all cracked + streseed (obviously someone had dropped it or something) + its probably been bashed about in a delivery truck. Concerned, I opened the packaging, not 1 dent nor scratch on the pedal. Plugged it in, worked perfectly. Reliability? - thats good enough for me ;)

If it is like my Morley bad horsie (very similar construction)then the reliability will be excellent (I can vouch for that one). That electro optical whatsit circuitry (no pots) means no scratchness as the pedal ages, so thats bonus.

Never dealt with them

However, on their website they do have all the manuals etc avaliable online.

Very good product. I use it on clean, semi-distorted and fully distorted sounds, works a treat on all.

I really do like the way it goes just past parrallel to ensure and give me the confidence it is 100% on. Taper very smoothe, very accurate. Noisless. Put it in you fx loop. The minimum volume knob is real good as well, can get a nice rhythm to lead boost from it. Morley are really comming up with innovative pedal ideas. ((Their Bad Horsie wah is the best on those lines, no toe down switch it just comes on when you start to use it, excellent))

Plus it looks cool and has a fun name ;)

It's a friggin' volume pedal, man! What could be simpler? One word of caution however: If you're accustomed to the long, forgiving sweep of an Ernie Ball and you utilize a lot of volume swelling in your playing, this pedal will take a little getting used to. At first it will feel like an on-off switch but adjusting the minimum volume knob down will help give it a smoother sweep. Just don't expect it to behave like an Ernie Ball.

Also, keep in mind that the size of this pedal may be a concern to you if you have limited space on your pedal board. The Morley is a beast.

I've noticed in reading other reviews that opinions are widely varied on this pedal's sound quality. Some people love it, some people hate it. My own experience with it was that it sounded great out of the box but over a period of about 6 months the quality deteriorated to the point that it was completely sucking both tone and level out of my sound. This was particulary noticeable when I ran my Strat through it. I sent the pedal back to Bill Wenzloff at Morley and it was returned back to me in about 7 days. Bill told me that they replaced the optics in it and the difference in tone and level was obvious the minute I hit the first open E chord on my Strat. The pedal sounds absolutely transparent. I can detect no difference in tone or level whether I run it between my guitar and the front end of my Fender Twin or just plug the instrument straight into the Twin w/o the pedal.

I would strongly suggest to anyone who is having tone or level problems with this pedal to contact Morley and see about sending the pedal in to them for evaluation or repair. This pedal is a DEFINITE winner. If yours isn't, it may simply need some minor adjustment.

Jury's still out on this one. The only reason I'm scoring this one a little low is because it had to go back for repair after it was only about 6 months out of the box. On a positive note, Morley was great about handling the repair. It was turned around quickly, it sounded great when it came back and I only had to pay for the outgoing shipping. Morley did the repair for nothing and paid to have the pedal shipped back to me. Bill at Morley tells me that the optics should last for about 10 years. We'll see how it does over time.

Again, support was top-notch. There was no voice mail maze at Morley's office to try and navigate through. I called the tech support number shown on their website and got right through to Bill

I play mostly rock. I play a variety of guitars including a custom shop Strat, a 1957 reissue Les Paul Custom, a gutted and re-pickuped Parker P38, and a 1979 Fender Lead II (it's the first guitar I ever owned and I just can't part with it). I am currently running through a 1995 Fender Twin Amp (the 100 watt version) and I run a myriad of both analog and digital pedals through the front end of the amp. I've been playing for over 20 years and have been playing semi-pro for about the last 8 years.

The Morley is a great fit for what I do considering the number of pedals I'm running in front of it. It's really important to me to be able to identify a problem in my sound quickly. Nothing is worse than fighting your gear during a sound check when your about to go on in 5 minutes. The fact that the Little Alligator is an optical pedal just means that I shouldn't have to worry about a potentiometer going out or getting scratchy in the middle of a gig. Not to mention, the optical aspects of the pedal provide a consistent amount of gain in your tone throughout the entire pedal sweep. I'm giving it a 10 even though I had to send it back for repair so soon. Morley's response to the initial problem was great and so is the result of the repair.

Very easy - a no brainer!

Any potential customer needs to understand that when using this pedal in front of a amp it needs a buffer circuit in front of it, otherwise it'll load your signal and you'll loose highs as you decrease volume. I don't have an FX loop so I can't comment on that. When using it in front of an amp, just use a buffered pedal before it and it sounds perfect - 100% transparent through the volume range of the pedal. Plus no pot replacements to deal with over time.

Built like a tank. It'll last years.

N/A for me. But I hear good things about Morley customer support.

This is a great value and a wonderful volume pedal. Smooth linear sweep. Just remember the buffer circuit before it and you'll get no coloration. The L'il Alligator really makes it hard to justify 5x increase in price for boutique pedals that will be no more transparent or reliable.

Easy. One input, one output, one knob (minimum volume), no pot switch. Power supply or batteries. Personally, I never use batteries for powering my effects so I don't know heavily this unit drains them, but I gather it's quite thirsty. Go for the power supply - you don't have to use the Morley one. I use my Boss p/s. I only lose the unit 1 point on ease of use because it's so wide (like a lot of Morley units). On stage, along side my pedalboard and wah it takes up a lot of room, and some venues have tiny stages. When you've also got a jack sticking out either side, it can be a pain. Still, we're all grown ups and you just deal with it somehow!

I run a hot rodded strat through a pedalboard into the front of a JCM900 50w head and 2x2 cab. Hard rock type sound, occasional clean channel use. I put the Little Alligator in the FX loop (remembe to turn your loop level up to max). It is the only Morley volume pedal designed to go in the FX loop as well as into the front end. I bought it to do rhythm/lead volume boost and the minimum volume knob makes it very quick and easy. Using it as a conventional volume pedal for volume swells etc. also works perfectly. I don't know why people are saying it cuts into their tone. In my FX loop, it took no distortion or tone away from my sound. When you back the pedal off, the sound stays EXACTLY the same. Only the volume changes. The taper is a bit swift, but it suits me down to the ground. Great piece of kit - real pro gear.....and no noise!

Built like a brick sh*thouse. You'd need a sledgehammer just to put a dent in it. Nice solid reliable feel on the 'grippy' foot surface.

No idea.

Does exactly what the advertising says and is a quality piece of equipment. Very much the answer to the 'how to get a volume boost for solos' problem, with the added versatility to do anything you could want from a volume pedal. Most importantly, used in your FX loop it WILL NOT COMPROMISE YOUR SOUND. If I lost it somehow, I would replace it immediately. I am a pro player, and this will never leave my setup.

No Manual, sort of catalogue. Easy to set up..plug and play and mess about with the vol min/max setting

OK; reading the reviews, its a split between ok and not ok. I have to say that in the fx loop it cuts down the other pedals ie takes the highs and distortion out. I play a USA Srat into a Marshall AVT50 with a Boss Blues Driver and Boss Chorus. If it goes in the fx loop on its own and put the pedals into the amp then ok - but I did want to lose some cables off the stage! If you put it in front of the amp in a chain, the OD channel has a huge volume difference with the clean channel ie not balanced, so its not practical. In terms of working as a volume pedal, its fine. Its getting it to work without the effects being affected and without cables everywhere.

I have gigged with the Morley PVO and its solid and I do jump on them a bit. I reckon my kids will inherit them both!!

I contacted Morley re the above issues on my PVO, which is why I got the steve vai (designed for FX loops) They were very responsive, but buying a steve vai model didnt solve the problem of the PVO which were the same as mentioned earlier. Having said that top marks for support.

I play in a band doing classic rock 60's, 70's ans Oasis etc. We're about as old as that as well. I have to cover a lot of sounds rhythm/lead hence I wanted a volume pedal to punch thru some solos across the clean/od/blues/chorus settings (I'm not accurate enough with the Vol knob). The pvo and steve vai got good reviews in the Mags and here which is why I bought one and then the other one. I reckon I'll keep experimenting and if I crack it I'll post again. But as some reviewers have said I think alot depends on amp/guitar/effects set up as to how its going to work for you. If anyone has an idea...

Very easy to use in as far as understanding how it functions. Not very fond of the taper though. As volume pedals go, I find the sweep to not be gradual enough so most players will have difficulty in using the pedal for gradual "country-esque" volume swells. Very easy if using as a volume switch for "rhythm" vs. "solo" volume levels. A great idea. So I compromise at 5.

I have to give it a 5 because it most definitely alters the signal of the guitar. That's with two different amp/guitar setups and another set of ears besides my own. With a Strat, it sucks the jangle and cluck right out of the guitar. I had my doubts because some reviews seem to be given out of malice. I'm telling you, truthfully, that I wish this pedal would work for me because the minimum volume knob is a brilliant feature that I would like to have made use of, however, the pedal has another side-effect that some may like, but I do not, in which it gives my Strat a more Gibson-like sound by noticeably cutting the highs.

I have no opinion. I will have owned the pedal for a week prior to returning it. It doesn't seem to be a cheap pedal. I think it would stand-up to road use.

No occasion

I think this pedal would be more appropriate for use in hard/heavy rock where there is no chance that you might ever be playing clean due to the amount of attenuation of the high end of the guitar. It's a brilliant concept for any guitarist that has had the problem of being able to switch between rhythm levels and solo levels with the greatest of ease. Anyone looking to get "pedal steel" swell effects will not enjoy this pedal.