# Help with how to set trimpot on Procrastinator?



## Pete's Pedals (Jul 14, 2019)

Can someone help me understand how to set the trimpot in the Procrastinator, besides by ear (or is that the only way)?  I have an ohmmeter.  

i'm surprised there is nothing about this in the instructions...

Thanks.


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## Nostradoomus (Jul 14, 2019)

It’s a wet/dry mix so by ear should do just fine.


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## Pete's Pedals (Jul 15, 2019)

Nostradoomus said:


> It’s a wet/dry mix so by ear should do just fine.


Really?  It doesn't seem to be that way.  I thought it had something to do with voltages, but I will test out as a wet/dry control.


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## Pete's Pedals (Jul 15, 2019)

Found the SG-1 Service Notes.  This is what it says:  "Adjust VR3 (the trimpot) for -25dBm reading.  This value is when supply is exactly 9v and will vary with the voltage, e.g., -22dBm at 11v DC."

It shows a picture of an audio signal generator going into the pedal and out of pedal to a millivoltmeter.  Also shows the control settings for setting the trimpot:  Sensitivity at midway and Attack maxed.  So it seems to be saying:  At 9v power going in, an audio signal of (according to this service note) -20dBm at 1kHz, adjust the trimpot so your millivoltmeter shows -25dBm.  

Does all this mean that a fancy signal generator is needed to input the exact type of signal to get the correct output to measure with a multimeter (assuming mine reads millivolts...)?


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## zgrav (Jul 15, 2019)

Those specs are because the company wanted consistency in the finished product, but it certainly doesn't mean everyone would agree it was the right setting.  If you followed the factory set up specs and did not like how it sounded, wouldn't you then just use your ears to set it?


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## Pete's Pedals (Jul 15, 2019)

After more research, here are the clearest instructions (and most helpful) for setting the trimpot using only one's ears:

Set the Sensitivity to mid-way.  Set the Attack fully clockwise (slowest swell).

While softly playing an individual note on the guitar, adjust the trimmer to the longest swell possible without volume loss.  

It seems most will find a place between the halfway point and about 3/4's clockwise.  On my Procrastinator build, the sweet spot (if half way is noon) is about 2 o'clock.

Using the effect, as others have written, requires some finesse.


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## !obey (Jul 21, 2020)

i just finished building mine and wanted to throw in my two cents and qualitative/anecdotal analysis. the trimmer setting was important to getting a balanced response across all strings. without adjusting the trimmer, it seemed as though i could get good gate/swell on unwound strings and the wound ones would be below the threshold (assuming i was picking consistently). this wasn't fine-tuneable enough using just the pot. after adjusting the trimmer, i could get a *much* more uniform thresholding across all strings. also, this seemed to be independent of where on the neck i was fretting, although there is still a more pronounced response difference between wound/unwound strings as the sensitivity pot is turned toward extremities


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## Kroars (Sep 12, 2020)

Pete's Pedals said:


> After more research, here are the clearest instructions (and most helpful) for setting the trimpot using only one's ears:
> 
> Set the Sensitivity to mid-way.  Set the Attack fully clockwise (slowest swell).
> 
> ...


Oh my lawd, this helped me soooo much!  Thank you kindly!!


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