Ernie Ball EB6181 VP JR Volume Pedal

I really really like this volume pedal. The action on it is very smooth and ideal for what I want to use the pedal for. I am using this on a cello that is running from a Schertler YELLOW blender into my pedal board. I have the volume pedal chained after my digitech whammy, mojo mojo overdrive, and Earthquaker bit commander. Then the volume pedal connects to my reverb, delay, and loop station. I found that the bit commander has such an intense sound that sometimes boosts the signal entirely too much, even if the level is set low. So the volume pedal allows me to set an appropriate listening level so that I am not blowing the ears off of anyone at a gig when I'm using the bit commander.

The signal is very clean and clear and it's brilliant that it's passive and does not require power.

The pedal is the junior version of the Ernie Ball, but it still takes up a sizable amount of space on my PedalTrain Classic 2, next to the Xotic X-1 wah and the Digitech Whammy.

Feature-wise, it's great that this pedal has a tuner out option so your tuner can be switched on at all times. I have a TC Electronic Polytune Mini connected and sometimes there is a pop when it is switched on and off. However, utilising the tuner out slot frees me from that pop. Overall a brilliant, brilliant, pedal.

I bought the VP JR to help me control my amp distortion gain (kind of expression) as well as the volume itself. Oh man, it does exactly that!!
I was hoping for an improvement of my distortion tone control, got that entirely and more.
I can control my gain very easily and effortlessly and it sounds a beast when used with clean and delays, reverbs, etc.
The overall material quality is superb, very robust and neat. It's more solid than a brick.

It only has one con. I tend to get some signal loss when using the VP but it's barely noticeable. Otherwise a 5 star volume pedal.

Ernie ball really upped their game on this one!

I needed a low impedance volume pedal for ambient swells. A high impedance pedal would effect the amount of dirt in my signal and I didn't want that. The sweep of the Ernie Ball is great, it's what made me decide to spring for it in the end.

But the exposed innards will gather dust quite quickly and the string is notorious for breaking. I just made peace with the fact that this pedal will give me problems as it did have the best sweep, and it is a kind of best of the rest pedal.

I feel like the market is crying out for a pedalboard friendly sized low impedance volume pedal without all the issues of the VP JR.

Use it for volume swells.

Since this is a low impedance pedal, I put it on the fx loop of the amp.

Mind that there must be a buffer before the volume pedal. If the fx loop of the amp is not buffered (the volume drops a bit when engaging the fx loop), then, use a pedal with a buffer in it and place it right before the volume pedal (I had to do that with my 1992 boogie mark iv)

pros:
no need for a power supply
sturdy
spring action yields great feeling

cons:
need a buffer
the string and spring have been known to break over time (mine still good :) )

I use this pedal after my guitar effects and before the amp.
It is very stable. I guess you can throw it out of the window, jump on it without breaking it. Although the name says "junior" it is not a small pedal. It has a nice size but I wonder how big the "normal" pedal is. :)
Because I use it after my effect pedal chain I choose this version, there is another one with 250kOhm for using it directly after the guitar.
The biggest volume change is in the last part, so in the beginning you have to move it more, to change the volume significantly.
The pedal feels very good under my foot - the amount of power your foot needs is very good adjusted. It's not superlight changeable so it doesn't feel loose.
THE standard volume pedal! Must buy!