The Morley EVO is a volume pedal from Morley, announced in November 2009. Writing for MusicRadar, Simon Bradley called it "the newest volume pedal from Morley," and its headline feature is what Morley calls Electro-Optical Volume circuitry: "no pots to get scratchy, wear out or need replacing"1. That matters on a pedalboard because a conventional volume pedal controls level with a potentiometer, a mechanical contact that can become noisy with use. The EVO's optical approach is aimed at avoiding that failure mode.
Morley's press material described the EVO's sound as "A smooth, studio-quiet audio taper"1. Like the other pedals in the same announcement, it has "bulletproof, road-worthy cold-rolled steel housing construction" and is "Hand Assembled in the USA"1. The UK suggested retail price at announcement was £74.99, and the pedals were "available in the UK now" as of that report1.
The optical approach
The EVO belongs to Morley's line of electro-optical pedals, in which the pedal's movement controls light reaching a sensor rather than turning a pot. For a player, the practical difference is that there is no mechanical wiper to wear, so the pedal should not develop the scratchy or cut-out spots that aging volume pedals often do. MusicRadar's report framed this as the pedal's defining feature1.
Where the EVO sits in Morley's range
Morley has made optical volume pedals across several lines. The Morley Volume Plus and Morley Mini Volume Plus are the company's optical volume pedals in standard and mini formats, and the Morley Power Volume Wah (20/20) combines optical volume with a wah. The EVO itself also appears in Vintage Guitar magazine's history of Morley's rotating wah pedals, where it is described as "the flagship EVO wah with volume and echo," a version of the design that added wah and echo to the volume function2.
The EVO was announced in November 2009, and the price and availability reported at the time were UK figures. Players comparing it with current Morley volume pedals should note that the company's range has since expanded considerably.
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Sources (2)
- Four new Morley pedals, MusicRadar, 2009-11-18
- The Morley Rotating Wah, Vintage Guitar magazine, 2014-02-03
