Inside

What you see here are the innards of a volume pedal which had its base plate removed & tilted sideways. If yours becomes dysfunctional, the chief culprits are labeled above:

• A: Rack gear. This contraption looks like a saw blade, it's attached/ connected to B. The rack gear moves up & down as you rock your treadle. The rack gear might snap under intense use.
• B: Pinion gear: The pinion gear you see here is rather large, in many wah units, the pinion gear is attached to the pot's shaft as standard issue. This contraption might break under intense use as well. The manufacturer usually applies lubricant between these gears to prolong their good lives. We know that moving parts which are in contact with each other wear out over time.
• C: Pot. Over time, the pots in the volume & wah units wear out or they disintegrate internally & you'll hear scratchy responses instead of smooth volume swells/ wah voicings.

Volume, up!!

Apologies if I'm hitting hard at rookies but there is a need to turn the guitar volume up when trying the instrument, in fact, turn it all the way up!

Why is this crucial? The guitar's volume knob doesn't control loudness as primarily as the amp's volume knob. Its more exclusive job is to vary the amount of current flowing through so when you have an amp's drive/distortion channel engaged or using a distortion pedal for that matter, a turned down guitar volume won't manifest maximum ouput. Instead of hearing a full-on drive/distortion, you'd hear a crackle-grade buzz. This is the reason why a BOSS Metal Zone sounds like it's milder DS-1 Distortion sibling; something is amiss- it's the guitar's volume knob not turned up!

BOSS: FV-50

My latest pedal is battery-free; a volume controller, BOSS FV-50.

My ZOOM volume pedal couldn't cut volume entirely because it's quite aged & the pot requires some looking into. Rather than parts replacement, it's wiser (cost-wise) to invest in a fresh unit. I prefer eliminating volume during play than utilizing a noise suppressing pedal these days as the threshold control does affect tone, also, when I lower the guitar's volume knob for some vintage tone crunch, the weaker signals from the guitar get totally gated-out during play.

Zoom: FP01

This is perhaps one of the most unglamorous pedal I own, it's a volume unit, Zoom's FP01 (made in Italy). I bought it 10yrs ago & as evident, it's in pristine condition. I'm recalling it from retirement because my noise reduction unit (Carl Martin) had been put aside since its battery ran out & I prefer cutting off signals to the amp when I pause during play rather than depend on an NR unit to keep things quiet.