Lovetone ? Flanger with no name

Read the manual, experiment, use your ears: it is virtually impossible to get a bad sound out of this, so don't sweat the lack of obvious 'classic' (heard that before...) flange sounds - this does everything from subtle phase through to flange and chorus, of course it's complicated! But try and get that range of sounds out of your 3 knob 'one sound, either fast or slow' Boss pedal. This has replaced every other modulation unit on my pedal board.

'Pristine' like the rating says: I never even knew the meaning of the word until I started buying Lovetone pedals, I can't believe the crappy, overpriced, dull, unimaginative, tone-killing gear I used to use before this. Lovetone pedals are exceptional - even in the world of boutique effects - for being totally transparent and not degrading your guitar tone. This is not just about true-bypass, but about what it does to your sound when it is on - when you've paid upwards of #2K for a custom shop fender or gibson, you want to be able to hear the tone of that guitar, not the sound of a #60 japanese effects pedal.
So, to the guy trashing the ?Flange for being 'weak' - this is WHY it is a great pedal, not a reason for sending it back; you will never find a more transparent unit on the market - and the effect sounds are simply beautiful, warm, organic, smooooth, and FAT. Yeah, it's hard to get the same sound twice, but rather that than the same sound over and over and over....
If you know what I mean, then you know; the difference here is like the difference between a digital synth and vintage analogue - (but better made,) - it's REAL folks.

100%, I have gigged and toured this unit, it is super reliable. The casing won't feel as heavy as an mxr or boss pedal, but it's tuff enuff. I probably wouldn't throw it in a bag with a bunch of other effects, and all my gear is flightcased - but why wouldn't you take care of something that cost this much? For a circuit this complex I am amazed it has lasted this well, (5 years and counting) I've had fuzz pedals that were less reliable.

I can't fault Lovetone's customer support: I have been buying pedals from them from almost the begining and Vlad has always been exceptionally helpful and approachable. A lot of 'boutique' companies are either hard to get hold of, or just don't want to know you once you've handed over the cash - Vlad will ring up to see how you're getting on with your new pedal, if anything goes wrong they'll do everything they can to solve it on the phone, and if that does'nt work they'll fix it for you.
A lot of the early pedals had unreliable bypass switches, (a problem with the fulltone 3PDT switches at that time,) Lovetone have sent me replacement switches whenever I asked for them, without complaint.
Finally, it's been years since I last bought anything off them and the company has been bust and re-started in that time, but Vlad still e-mails me to check that everything is still working - when was the last time boss did that for you?

I wrote this review to balance the injustices expressed elsewhere on this page - I know everyone is entitled to their opinion, well, here is mine....
If this were lost or stolen I would be gutted: it is literally irreplaceble - I don't know if they even build them anymore - and this pedal has been the core of my set-up for years now. What is there to complain about? The sound quality is second to none, it is the most versatile and adaptable pedal I've ever owned, infinitely customisable, looks cool as...
It is like an analogue multi effects unit: it has replaced all my chorus, flange, phaser, trem and vibe pedals - selling them all just about paid for it - and the best echoplex you ever heard.
This is the secret weapon of this pedal, and one that needs to be mentioned because it is not covered in any of the other reviews: with a delay pedal in the loop, (I use a EH memory man, but I believe any unit would sound good,) it does an exceptionally accurate imitation of an echoplex - I know this because I own one, I have done an AB test, and with eyes closed you would be pushed to hear the difference. Plus, it keeps your tone-sucking, dodgy-bypass, souless, digital delay pedal out of the signal chain and all warmed up in that gorgeous 100% analogue circuitry.
My 'swiss-army penknife' pedal board - the one I take everywhere, to every session - uses a Lovetone Cheese Source, into the ?Flange, with a EH Memory Man in the echo loop. It is simply the most USEABLE effects board I have ever owned, and can produce almost any combination of fuzz, distortion, overdrive, trem, flange, chorus, phase and echo - plus some completely new sounds, undescribed by science - from just 3 pedals. The sound quality of all these effects is amazing; transparent, warm, detailed and rich, the units are dead quiet, reliable, and every sound engineer I've met has absolutely come in their pants when they see - and hear! - them. My Lovetone pedals have never, EVER, failed to produce the goods when I needed them, and I have a cupboard full of boutique pedals that never made the grade, or just bored me, or only sounded good through one amp, etc., while year on year my pedal board stays the same: LOVETONE.
If you ever get the chance to buy one of these pedals - it won't be mine - do so without hesitation and keep it, forever.

Okay...so this is a really hard question to answer. Yes, it is easy to get a good sound out of it. How likely is it that you'll get the sound you anticipate? I'd say it's pretty damn unlikely at first. The controls are very complicated and they interact in unusual ways. For instance...Manual controls the delay time (like most Flangers as far as I know) but the control sweeps so far as to get everything from a Flange, to a Chorus, to a thick Phasey sound (and even a hissy slapback if you go too far). This is directly tied into Depth which is exactly what it sounds like. It controls the depth of the LFO that bends delay time. Here's how they interact...as Manual increases and Depth increases, the amplitude of the LFO can get outrageously large creating a frequency range that can go well below anything you've ever heard and extremely high for a typical Flanger (which this is anything but...). This can make the Manual sweep completely in and out of a Flange into a Slapback echo and back again.

...and this is just the first two controls on the panel. Rate controls, well, rate...except that you'll probably never need to go past 1/4 of the way up as this control can go so far it gets you into psuedo-ring modulator territory (though the Space Mod side can give you a wicked tremelo like this!!!). L/P Gain controls headroom for the unit which is very useful for my situation (see below) and the last two knobs focus on feeback/regeneration. Of course, the unique aspect here is that you can generate positive or negative regen giving a radically different sound either way (getting considerably darker on the negative side of things). Also...the Reaction control will push the unit into self-oscillation opening up a door for Theremin-like effects (using the included light-jack - which works best in bright light by the way). I've barely even been able to tap the various inputs and pedal controls. Just know that this little box can sync up with CV or even a mic feed your drummer's bass...

Back to my opening statement...it's easy to get a really good sound out of this thing since every sound I've pulled sounds great but you'll be shocked at the variety of this unit. It is only a flanger in the sense that it functions on the same principals as a flanger. Vlad and Dan, being the analog gear space cadets that they are, took this thing into the outer galaxies and never looked back.

One last tip on the controls...read and then reread the manual. Read it again. Play with the controls. Read it while playing with the controls. Then e-mail Vlad or Dan and play with it again. Then...you get the point.

I use this with my saxophone. That puts me in a unique situation as it's unusual to evaluate guitar kit from this postition but hopefully this offers new insight. My rig currently looks as follows:

EHX Microsynth -> LT Meatball -> LT Cheesesource -> LT Doppelganger -> LT ? -> EHX Memory Man

Despite a long chain, there's no noise in my line unless I push the ? into ring-mod territory or I deliberately draw it out of the Microsynth or Cheesesource. That goes to show how transparent these effects are. I don't believe that any of LT's gear is true-bypass. None of them alter my sound in an obvious way when they're off though so I can say that they don't load your signal.

As far as the ? goes...the sounds are thick and rich and sound as authentic as any class-act Flange I've ever heard. The tone is true to the classic flange sounds your hear on old Hendrix and Beatles recordings but the unit's versatility makes this thing as modern as you want it to be. The best thing...the effect never changes the tone of your instrument unless you go out of your way to distort it. The clean, basic flange (which isn't as hard to get as many have claimed - they tell you in the manual) never warps your tone. It just adds it's warmth and sweeping shimmer.

I've said this about other Lovetones...it's built well and clean. I trust it to function and to last. There are stronger builds but I can put my faith in this one.

Simply put...these guys take their work seriously and they take great pride in keeping these things going. You're in good hands.

I play a wide variety of music ranging from fusion and funk to indie rock. I can't say that this unit is perfect for everything as Flange is an effect best used in moderation (at least in my book) but when you need that sapce vibe, this effect has it and it has it in spades.

My ideal effects unit can get the sounds that people expect, but much more importantly, can get sounds that inspire and drive me into territory that hasn't been reached yet. Where would music be without people who seek for new sounds? The guys at Lovetone continue to inspire and enable those of us who are trying something new.

PS...all you Lovetone users out there...e-mail if you'd like to trade settings and tricks. These things are so complex, I can only imagine there's a whole world of sound I haven't discovered yet!

It's very easy to get a good sound out of this pedal. Only thing is, it might not be the sound that you initially had in mind. That takes time and tweaking. It's a real project to comprehend the way each knob/function interacts with the rest. The manual is a tough read. It helps, though, and should be studied at various stages as you get to know the pedal. I will be learning new tricks with this flange for a long time.

Heritage guitar with humbuckers=>Ernie Ball volume=>RMC3 wah=>analogman modded TS9=>Lovetone ?=>Boss DD5=> Laney LC30.
I have run the DD5 through the effect loop for the echoplex sound that others have commented on. I like the sound but can't pigeonhole my delay sound. You have to be flanging in order to activate the delay and sometimes I want it to be clean.
The pedal is not noisy~it's very quiet and it's sounds are alway high quality. It can do a deep flange, a Vibe-like sound, great tremolo, and many, many other things.
The pedal can get out of control if you aren't careful~it self-oscillates and can shriek very loudly.
Sometimes the effect is very subtle. It can do tricky things to your volume, too, even when the effect is not engaged.

I think I can depend on this pedal~however, I am still babying it. The pedal is very light! The switches have been clean so far~nothing has gone wrong. I have had it for 8 months now.

Vlad in England was helpful enough~he called me to ensure a good, safe transaction.

I play rock and jazz. This pedal is good for a subtle effect over a chorus or during the peak of a thick jam. I love the versatility although that can make it hard to reproduce a sound.

This thing is not that simple but I still got some great sounding stuff happening right away... there are endless possibilities to discovery with this box, which is the fun of it. I keep finding new cool settings. There is a manual the first page of which (the warnings!) needs to be read just to make sure you don't blow a speaker before you learn how to run the unit. Otherwise you can just play around with it, then check the manual for the fine points.

The sound quality is tops like all Lovetone stuff... super clean all ANALOG processing. It's very exciting to play with this pedal with your guitar. I will also try on drums and other sounds. I've had a blast playing with this thing, and I haven't even tried the trigger and CV inputs yet. I can understand some of the complaints of other reviewers -- it is a bit tricky to get a smooth, classic flange out of this device but it can be done. This pedal's strong suit is not what you are familiar with but going where no pedal has gone before, the sounds run the gamut from beautiful and/or subtle to crazy and sick... but always very musical. I also agree with the reviewer who mentions the lack of the sine waveform... it is a bit limiting to have only saw tooth and square wave forms to choose from. A sine wave would have been great to get some smoother sounds. But I'm not at all unhappy or disappointed with the ? Flanger, don't get me wrong -- it's probably the most versatile, musical and fun pedal I've ever owned. Elements of tremelo, vibrato, phasing, chorus, ring modulation, short delay/echo, analog synthesis can be used as separate effects or combined into crazy soundscapes. It does a fine fast Leslie sound and a nice Univibe thing too. You can even play this pedal like a synth or theremin without plugging an instrument into it! Running it in stereo with two amps is a gorgeous sound. I give it 9 rather than a 10 in this category only because of the sine wav thing. I don't know how technically difficult technically it would have been to include this feature but it would have made an already killer device a little bit more versatile.

It seem very dependable but I have never used Lovetone pedals on a gig, they are kind of big and it's too hard to quickly find and recreate favorite settings. This is mostly a studio tool for me but I don't worry about it breaking.

I also own a Lovetone Meatball pedal, and used to have the Wobulator -- I have never had any problems with anything but I have communicated both by email and by phone with Vlad, the creator of Lovetone pedals. He seems very helpful and friendly. BTW, Vlad does not always keep these pedals in production, if you are thinking of buying one I would get it soon, who knows how long he will keep making them. I was really happy to pick this one up second hand and I feel confident Vlad would help me out if I had a problem with it.

Live I play mostly R & B and blues, roots rock etc. but in my home studio I enjoy being more creative and modern. I've been playing for about 30 years as a pro, although now it's more part time. I would definitely try to replace this if something happened to it. I just love good sounding gear and I really appreciate Vlad's creativity in coming with innovative designs that combine the old and new. I think the ? Flanger is Lovetone's crowning acheivement! It just does so much, it is incredibly versatile. It's not that practical for gigging but it could be done if you wrote down all your setting. In the studio I can see it will be a goldmine for coming up with all kinds of original sounds, on all kinds of tracks. I give it a 10 just because you can do so much with this pedal. It incorporates elements of some the other Lovetone pedals (the trem, ring mod, phaser, etc) into one great sounding unit. I think in the future if it falls out of production the ? Flagners will become one of the ultimate collectible pedals.

I've had my ? for about 16 months now, and have considered reviewing it here many times. It's a complex pedal. Many knobs, positive negative feedback on two separate signal paths, one with regen which will self-oscillate. It's tough to explore all it's nuance in a short amount of time.

I've flopped back and forth between the ? and my Lexicon Vortex, Lexicon PCM80, Korg AM8000R, Lexicon LXP15. And while I *really* LOVE much of what the Lex boxes patched to a mixer, I've found that having taken a long break from the digital stuff and coming back to it, has left me a bit surprised in that I'm now actually preferring the ? for it's sound. Not the same midi controllable flexibility, but it's a *great* sounding pedal.

It flanges on the Time circuit.

It vibratos on the Space circuit. (amplitude modulation with a fixed depth.)

Rate goes form waaaay slow to very very fast, and this is for both circuits.

Here's the twist... when you turn on both circuits, you get interaction which seems to create phase shifted sounds. With the depth around 9:00 and manual (time) between 9:00 and 12:00 you get a huge variety of vibe sounds which took me a LONG time to really figure out. At this point I'm not even interested in another phaser or vibe unit since I've been exploring this particular range of the unit. It's awesome. Increase depth and regen and you get into all the classic flange sweeps and then beyond into twisted mangling.

Had a problem with my first unit... see below.

Had a problem with my first unit, which Vlad was kind enough to talk with me several times, on HIS dime. He called me back at a music store where I could play through the unit to demonstrate the problem... After 2 call-backs he walked me through resoldering the leads on two of the pots which corrected the problem, but it came back about a week later. He replaced the ? without question. I trust Vlad to fix one of his pedals if it's broken.

The more I use it, the more I love it. I'm going to put an insert point on my pedal board so I can just pull it off and put it on a stand to better manipulate the regen and speed knobs while standing. It's becoming a major player in my setup.

This is a tough one folks! In one respect its very easy to use considering that pretty much anything you tap into on this pedal soundwise is fantastic. The other side of the story is that its impossible to decide on a sound cause you just love so many and if you do find a certain sound its hard to recreate again because the unit is so sensitive even to the slightest movement of knobs. The manual is very in depth(about 5 full pages small print) but in order to comprehend it you must have graduated from GIT w/honors. It should definitely have had a definitions section and samples of use section for the trigger/gate and CV control inputs.

If I could give the unit a higher rating I would. The sounds are endless and absolutely gorgeous. This unit is definitely not limited to flanging. In fact probably the hardest sound to get out of this thing is your ordinary everyday flange. The unit is very quiet in most cases, it can get a little noisy when you turn up the manual or action knobs but for the most part is dead silent. The included light jack which is basically a voltage control and affects the LFO, getting bassier and more modulated as light dissipates and cleaner when there is a lot of light. When you make the unit self oscillate you can get Theremin control of the unit using the light jack which is basically a whole another pedal wrapped up inside of here.I could go on for days but lets just say this pedal rocks ass.

So far its been perfect and just at looking from the build I don't expect any problems in the near future.

I emailed Vlad once and he responded within the same day. Prompt and courteous and he answered all my questions.

Absolutely brilliant innovations. This is the kind of product that I personally look for. A product that goes above and beyond the norm and brings you to uncharted territories day in and day out. Hey the price is steep but your paying for something that is head and shoulders above the competition in every respect.

What a wacky pedal. This thing has 8 gazillion knobs and jacks which can be pretty intimidating until you read the manual (which was obviously written by an engineer). Once you've read it a few times and spent a few hours fooling with it it starts to make sense. Not a plug and play machine.

I am using this in the loop of my MESA/Boogie Triaxis. This is the best sound flanger I've ever heard, and Ive tried a whole lot of them. Trasparent sound that doesn't eat your original tone, and quiet, too. Every sound in this thing just screams warm tone for days. Awesome.

This thing seems well built. The flip top is ingenius, but the metal seems light compared to other pedals. It looks like it would survive anything, but it doesn't inspire the same sort of confidence as a MXR chassis does.

Vlad is awesome. Fast, courteous responses via email; usually next day.

I have to give this a low score because of the usefulness of it. While it does sound great, it is either too subtle or too insane to use musically. The LFO uses either a trangle wave or square wave, not the sine wave we are all used to. The flange seems to ramp up too fast, and you loose all the wooshy-ness that flangers should be great at. The oscillation curve is just too harsh; if it had a sine wave LFO available it would be perfect. Overall this is a great pedal if subtlety is not your gig. I'm sending this back to exchange it for a Meatball.

I'd been holding off on saying anything about this pedal for sometime now as I wanted to feel that I knew it well before speaking my mind. It's a shame that the anonomyous gimp below me (yes pun intended) didn't stick around long enough to really find out what it can do. It's not a walk in the park by any means but I think any pedal that comes with a warning is worthy of a sniff just for the challenge.

It sounds luscious - I really like it. The normal flange type sounds are very cool but I particularly like how you can add the slightest self oscillation into it and then tweak the manual control for the strangest sounds ever. Experimenting with the odd and even harmonics really opens the pedal up.It sounds great on everything I've run through it - bass, synths, vocals and drum machines. It sounds fantastic stereo but I generally run it mono to free up the desk.

I've got a 3 3 year old Lovetones and they are all going strong. Be nice to them as you would any highend piece of gear. I don't think I'll put it on my board as it is more fun on the aux of the desk.

They're great. It's a fact and they don't deserve the feeble anon bitchery. Lovetone don't disguise the fact that their gear is expensive and will require experimentation. That's the key word here tpday dear readers - experiment! I'm just glad they not anything new for awhile because I can't afford anymore.

I like to play with toys. The ? is a great toy. I love the CV aspect of all the Lovetones and how they interface so nicely with old gear. The FX loop/tape echo simulator is too cool. It mangles drums in just the right way. The Meatball is still my favourite but I think that's just the whole first love thing manifesting...
As for all of you guys that managed not to sell theirs! send me an email if you want to swap patches :)

Wow. Vlad and the lovetone gang has done it again. I praise them for putting so many functions in one pedal, but hey wait,....what about the sound quality???? Plug this 550.00 puppy in, twist the knobs and what do you get....hummm...a weak chorus/flange, well crank up the resonance and you got an annoying oscillator that doesn't even effect the guitar tone at all. If I wanted that I would have bought an awsome pedal from common sound.com for 150.00 for the freakiest shit ever. Thank you lovetone for the prettiest pedal with the most amount of knobs that sounds like shit. thank god I sold it, otherwise I would have been extremely pissed off. O.k. but on a more positive note I learned that it is combinations of one trick poney pedals that you can get the amazing tones from. Peace.

this is an addendum to my review below. i opened this thing up the other night only to discover that all of the chips on the small circuit board (the main board is trace side down and i didn't want to go through the immense effort of getting it off the pedal and checking it) have their numbers scraped off. bad bad bad. not quite as bad as dumping gook all over the board to obscure the design (ahem, fulltone) but this means that if the ? ever goes bad, you *have* to send it to vlad. if he had a zvex-esque policy of "if it breaks, and i'm alive, i'll fix it" then this wouldn't really be a a big concern to me, but since you get a one year non-transferable warranty, this makes me really nervous. i already seen the havoc played by this kind of stuff 25 years down the road (the ARP 2600); i'm sorry, part of making a quality product is making it so it'll be sustainable forever. this just isn't right.