THE LEGEND OF LOVETONE
It's been 18 years since one of my all time favorite pedal companies called it quits. Naturally, I’m referring to Lovetone Pedals. Much like the British version of The Office, this pedal’s cultural impact far outlasted its short lifespan.**
**I’m not hating on the American Office, I’m just saying the Brits are good at quitting while they’re ahead.
In this article, I'm going to walk you through some of the history and gush about every single pedal they made. My goal is that at the end of this article, you can help me keep the amazing legend of Lovetone alive.
The History
In 1995 two guys from England decided to start a pedal company. They produced some of the more groundbreaking work I’ve seen in pedals over the next six years, then they ceased production of their pedals in 2001.
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that in six short years they changed the pedal industry for good. I need you to place yourself back in 1995 for a second, and as you listen to me fangirl (fanguy?) over these pedals in a moment, I need you to think about what a pedal was and what it had been. Lovetone changed the game when they brought in something radically different.
Fist off, let's talk first about how you even purchased a Lovetone pedal. Circa 1995, you went to a store and bought a pedal, or you ordered it through the mail. That's a radical change from today where we get on Google, check things out, maybe watch a demo video or two, clickety-clack on the keyboard, and then it's at your doorstep within a few days. This just wasn't an option in ’95, which means that even when Lovetone pedals were being made, they were incredibly rare. In my opinion, that’s the truest form of boutique.
Now, let's talk about them sonically and visually. There was nothing like it available in the mid ’90s. Basically, Lovetone took everything normal, sane, and comfortable and they threw it out the window. You can see traces of Lovetone throughout modern pedal production, in pretty much any company where pedalmakers are encouraged to think outside of the box. People don't feel weird about making a crazy pedal anymore because Lovetone kicked that door down--let’s be real, they kicked it down and shredded it into pieces, like that one machine in Monsters Inc.
Like the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, musicians saw Lovetone pedals and realized, “Hey, we can do that, too.” Lovetone gave permission for pedal makers to have more fun, to not take themselves too seriously. I think we can all agree that it’s a dang good thing they did.
So, without further ado, let's take a look.
The Doppelganger
I'm going to start with the Doppelganger. The Doppelganger is a phaser/vibrato that has two LFOs, meaning, you could do some pretty crazy stuff because you can put those against each other. This pedal also features expression pedal inputs. You have a host of knobs. You have waveform. You can even switch between phaser/vibrato here and turn it on and off.
And if you want to get weird (let’s be honest, we all do sometimes), then you can choose between one or two LFOs. TLDR, this is an awesome pedal!
The Big Cheese
Next up is the Big Cheese. This is hands down the most widely-known pedal that Lovetone ever put out. It's on a lot of famous records and tons of guitarists have used it: Radiohead, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, Pavement, and U2, to name a few.
It's a fuzz pedal. This is a fairly simple operation, but the sounds are really, really awesome and versatile. You have a “curds” knob, a “whey” knob, plus a “hog” and “bee” knob. You can choose your type of cheese with the little click switch, plus you have whey control. It's pretty amazing. This may be my favorite, just because it's so accessible and usable.
I actually have the Blackout version of this in my personal collection. I talked to Dan Coggins (the designer), who said there were two of these ever made for a dealer in England. Got ahold of this guy, bada bing, bada boom, I now have a crazy rare pedal.
The Meatball
The next one is the Meatball. This is also really well known, though not as well known as the Big Cheese. But if you're a bass player, this probably pops up in your search for fun effects. Kirk Hammett actually used this on a random intro of a Metallica song. The more you know.
This pedal is really versatile. It features an envelope trigger, also called an envelope follower filter. It’s basically an auto-wah effect, but it does some really fantastic sounds. There's too many controls to even go over, but look up a demo on this and you won’t regret it. The Meatball is extensive and it's nuts what all of this pulls off. You've also got effects loops that let you put other effects into it, so they're triggered into the envelope, expression pedals, and so on. Long story short, even with the vintage price, you get fantastic bang for your buck with this pedal.
The Wobulator
Now, we come to the Wobulator, a dual LFO tremolo stereo pan effect. Yes, that's a mouthful, but it does a ton of great things in the trem category. Because you can choose from so many different waveforms, shapes, depths, and put the LFOs against each other, it does so much more sonically than your typical tremolo. You could create some amazing effects with this.
As usual, you've got all kinds of inputs and outputs. You've got click switches. You can enable the left and right in your pan. There's even LFO triggers and stuff. It's pretty amazing. Depending on the version you get your hands on, it also comes in a few custom colors.
The Brown Source
Next up is the Brown Source, AKA, the most normal, simplified pedal you'll ever see from Lovetone. It's an overdrive pedal and it has drive (high and low, like a tone control), a tone click switch, and a volume control. I think Brown Source is playing on the term Brown Sound, as in Marshall Overdrive, and it does that really well. Even apart from that, The Brown Source is just a really unique, open, airy, easy-to-use, uncompressed overdrive that is fairly unique from a circuit design standpoint.
Bonus: these are actually pretty affordable when they pop up at online auctions, so this could be a solid gateway into owning your own Lovetone.
The Ring Stinger
The Ring Stinger is one of the craziest pedals in this brand, and is also one of the hardest to find. A lot of people search high and low for this because of the range of sounds it offers.
Basically, this is a ring modulator, simple analog synthesizer, and an octave fuzz. Does it sound crazy? Yes. But that's just what it is. You have VCO inputs. You have an LFO depth pedal. You can do carrier in, VCO out. You can chain this into things. You have different LFO selections here.. It has different waveforms, plus they did put a blend in it, too.
Also, it's pink. I'm a fan of pink. This may be the best looking one. You be the judge.
The Flanger With No Name
Next is The Flanger With No Name. Sometimes it's just called Question Mark or “?”.** Think of it as a symbol, kind of like Prince used to do.
**Coincidentally, “Question” is also the name of one of the most underrated superheroes in the DC universe, but that’s another article for another day.
This is a Stereo Flanger, but more than that, it's a stereo modulation device. This is even how they marketed it because it does a crazy amount of chorus, vibrato, flange type sounds. It's also a simple synthesizer. You can set it up to do rhythmic percussive synth. Basically, this pedal just has nutso sounds. You can make sounds with this that I've never heard any other pedal do. You’ve got a ton of settings. You've got a ton of switches, as usual. You do have an effects loop. You have a trigger for the gate. You have a CV in for a pedal. You can play mono or stereo.
Basically, this is a fantastic pedal.
The Cheese Source
Lastly, let’s take a look at the first Lovetone pedal I ever owned, the Cheese Source. The Cheese Source is simply this: it's the Big Cheese and the Brown Source. Buzz and overdrive, two in one. I don't really need to explain anything else. That's what it is. See my descriptions for the Big Cheese and the Brown Source and mix them together Mad Lib style, and you’ll get the general idea.
Basically, the entire Lovetone pedal series is super important to the industry and to guitar and what they allowed to happen after them. To paraphrase a meme, “Lovetone walked so that the pedal industry could run.”
This collection took me about 10 years to acquire, slowly but surely, meeting a person here, seeing something there, and I just want to give a big shout out to two people who helped me find a couple of these units that are very weird. Your names are L and H, and you know who you are.
Moral of the story: go out and play a Lovetone pedal. You’ll enjoy yourself. Trust me.