Bright Onion Pedals Bright Onion Looper with Volume Control

The Bright Onion Looper with Volume Control is a single true bypass loop pedal with an added level knob, made by Bright Onion Pedals. Its job is twofold: it lets you switch one effect (or a whole group of them) in and out of your signal chain with one footpress, and it gives you a level control to tame loud pedals sitting in that loop¹.

The maker describes the pedal as totally passive, which means the audio path needs no power to work. The 9V DC socket exists only to light the LEDs, so the pedal keeps passing signal even unpowered¹.

A true bypass loop with a level knob

A loop pedal like this sits between your guitar and the rest of your rig. You plug the effect you want to control into the loop's send and return sockets, and the footswitch either routes your signal through that effect or bypasses it entirely. Because the bypass is true bypass, the loop's contents are fully out of the path when switched off, rather than being buffered or loaded¹.

The practical use is keeping noisy or temperamental effects out of your chain until you want them: a fuzz that interacts badly with other pedals, an overdrive you only use for solos, or a vintage pedal that colors your clean tone even when "off". One press brings the loop's contents in, another press takes them out.

The level knob is what separates this pedal from a plain single loop. Bright Onion places it right after the return socket, so it acts on the signal coming back from whatever is in the loop before that signal continues downstream¹. In the maker's words, it is there "to tame loud pedals in the loop"¹. If a boost or high-gain pedal in the loop is dramatically louder than your bypassed tone, the knob lets you pull its output down to match, instead of riding your guitar's volume or rebalancing the whole board.

The controls

The pedal is deliberately minimal. Its whole control surface amounts to:

That is the entire interface. There is no second loop, no A/B selection, no tuner mute, and no amp channel switching; those features belong to other pedals in Bright Onion's range²³.

Power and practicalities

Because the audio path is passive, power is optional in a functional sense: the pedal passes and switches signal without it. If you want the LEDs lit, the pedal takes a standard Boss style 2.1mm 9V DC center negative supply, the same connector and polarity as most pedals on the market, so it fits a typical daisy chain or power brick¹.

Other practical details from the maker: the pedal uses Neutrik plug sockets, sits in an aluminum enclosure measuring 110x60x31mm, and requires no user maintenance; Bright Onion Pedals Limited asks that servicing be referred to them¹. The list price is £44.95 GBP as of October 2026¹.

How it differs from the Looper with Amp Channel Selector

Bright Onion makes several single-loop pedals, and the closest sibling is the Looper with Amp Channel Selector. That pedal is also a single true bypass loop, but instead of a level knob it adds a socket for a cable to your amp, so one footpress both engages the loop and selects an amp channel. It includes a polarity switch to ensure the correct channel is selected for the loop². A v2 of that pedal carries the same idea with a switch for amps that accept latching channel switching³.

So the choice between them comes down to what you want the second function to be: a volume control over the loop's contents (this pedal), or amp channel switching tied to the loop's state (the Selector). Players who only need to switch one effect in and out, with no level control and no amp connection, would be served by a plain single loop; players who need to choose between two loops or mute for tuning are looking at Bright Onion's dual AB and ABY loopers instead¹³².

Where it sits among volume pedals

Although it lives in the switching world rather than the volume pedal world, this pedal does a job some players otherwise solve with a volume pedal: balancing a loud part of the chain against the rest. A rocker volume pedal adjusts level on the fly with your foot, while the Bright Onion's knob is a set-and-forget trim for one loop. Bright Onion also makes a Micro Volume Control in the same family, for players who want the level control without the loop switching.

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