Lovetone Big Cheese Fuzz

Very easy to use.. certain settings have more gain than others and this can be a little difficult to control live.. but not a huge issue for sure.. i really think every tone from this pedal can be useful..

I use a Fender USA Strat, Gibson 335 Dot, Gibson Chet Atkins and a tele, through a Vox AC30, AC15 or a Mesa Boogie Tremoverb... it sounds insane with the vox! it CAN be noisy, but not as noisy as one would expect for the gain level... the fx always sound great.. I don't know any pro's who use this, yet i can get many of my own wonderful sounds.. i'd rather that for sure!... It works well with other fx.. but i like it for its purity and great representation of the guitars tone.. in fact, what blows my mind with this pedal is how well the guitars tone gets through the insane levels of fuzz and distortion..

had it a week, works great.. feels very high quality..

lets just say Vlad's helpfulness and support made the decision to buy this pedal very easy

I play a sort of radiohead/blur esque style.. i like smashing pumpkins and pulp as well... I've been playing for about 10 years.. my fx setup is..
Lovetone Meatball
Boss LS-2 Line Selector
MXR Dyna Comp
Digitech Whammy
Dunlop Wah 105q
Boss AW-2 AutoWah
Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive
Marshall Shredmaster
Turbo Rat
Boss GE-7 Graphic Eq
Lovetone Big Cheese
MXR Phase 100
Dunlop Tremelo
Ernie Ball Volume
Electro Harmonix PolyChorus
Line 6 Delay Modeler
Roland Space Echo

it blows away any of my other distortion/fuzzes.. i keep them on the board just because im lazy.. i would replace it if stolen. . but it is expensive and would take me a while..

i was trying to decide between the big cheese and an old big muff.. though they have xsimilar charactoristics.. this pedal has WAY more style in my opinion...

this is the best fuzz pedal on the planet

sounds bloody amazing

built like a tank and should last a lifetime

never needed to bug them

this pedal has more fuzz tones in one pedal than i've ever known

Super easy! Way cool! Mucho versatility!

Sounds great. Fat and solid. Tons of gain that gets more compressed as you turn it up. The lowest gain setting is really nice and really equals medium gain on most boxes. The highest treble settings are too bright for me so I keep the tone control (when engaged) around 8 to 11 o'clock. Don't get me wrong though. It isn't a box that's too bright, there's just a huge range of tone in there. You can get very dark, smooth bassy tones. The #2 setting on the four way knob is my favorite. Nice rich distortion that's responsive to picking dynamics. The cheese wedge setting is great too. Higher gain in this mode sound like the "velcro" setting on a Fuzz Factory, only there's more bass and doesn't sound quite so thin. It's a better version of that sound. Lower gain on this mode sound like a cool retro fuzz. Pretty dang quiet too!

I haven't had it long, but have already gotten sounds found in other boxes very easily. (PE Yardbox, Muff Pi, Fuzz Factory, Crews Texas Tornado, S.I.B. Butt Face) The BC has it's own personality as well. Someone tell the Queen to knight Vlad!

Works great. The only thing I worry about is it getting ripped off.

Very helpful. You can reach Vlad to see what's cooking at lovetone@ndirect.co.uk

I also have a Meatball and a Doppelganger. They're all great pedals. Really well designed. Of all the boutique builders out there, I think Lovetone has the most innovative products around. I've waited since 1996 to get this pedal! I'm glad Vlad has started making some of the older pedals again, although on a very limited basis.

I have 22 pedals now (Z. Vex, S.I.B., Prescription Electronics, Menatone, Crews and others.) and the Lovetone stuff is some of the best stuff around.

This sucker is like a dream to use. You just plug in and WOW, your balls are on fire. This baby got knobs like noone else. It's like making dinner on one of those old stoves your mom got. You just mix the different ingreadiants and you're up there with the big boys. It' just like havin fun with Stanley..........

This is the best part. I use the sucker on my bass rig. If you run the signal thrue some 15"s, it's gonna sound like this is the last day on earth. This is not your normal fuzzbox. I guess it's made out of some special material, or by someone who's not HERE.....But the bottom line is that is super fucking great...................

Works just like your mom. It's always there.......

Had some problems with some of the soldering-joints, but the gyys at Lovetone was great with the support. No problem at all....

Scares the shit out of me. THe current band i'm in doesnt't like these effects i use, but who cares. I've got this Meatball too, And combined with the Cheeeze, they rumble. There's something great about all these pedals. Not just the sound, but the combination of sound, design and looks, gives them the power they deserve......

This is a very simple box to grips with. The retro-style "chicken head" Knobs and old style foot switch couldn't be easier to tweak. Battery changing is a doddle due to the fantastic case design.

I have tried this stomp-box with my telecaster and strat and can confirm that it LOVES that single coil raunch!. This thing is so quiet in operation that sound men and studio buffs will love it. One piece of advice I can offer is to make sure that you keep your guitar volume control turned down to about 7 or 8. This will reward with a super dynamic rock tone that cleans up wonderfully as you back off the vol a little more. Turning your guitar up beyond 8 results in a mega-compressed fuzz freak-out, ideal for that 60's garage sound and sweet Hendrixy octafuzz tone. Amps used for this test were a Vox AC30 and a new Fender Twin Amp.

I have gigged this pedal (along side its overdriving brother The Brown Sauce) about ten times now without any problems at all. It opperates great when powered from the mains (9 volt) and its just as silent as when you use a battery.

I have never had to contact Lovetone about a repair but found them to be fine to deal with when placing an order by phone.

I have been playing in bands and gigging for about 15 years now and I am into anything and everything as far as musical styles go. When gigging the Big Cheese fuzz pedal I was playing in a Country-Rock outfit so it was mainly used for soloing and not really for grungey sounding chords. I should add that I have collected, over the years, well over 100 vintage pedals and the Big Cheese is right up there in my all time top 5. Well done Lovetone!!!

This pedal has 4 knobs: Three are like a standarad fuzz ... tone, gain and output (Hog-Bee, Curds and Whey in Lovespeak) The fourth knob is a mode knob which gives you 1=tone bypass; 2=scooped mids thrash; 3=boosted mids; 4 (a cheese wedge) farty pocket trumpet sound deconstruction... Most settings sound good... Forget about the manual... It's fun but who cares?

I use the Cheese in the FX Loop of my Boss GX-700 guitar processor w/COSM preamp modelling etc. Guitar is a 70's strat w/EMG's. In some reviews I've heard this compared to a Big Muff, but I disagree. It has a pinched nasal quality (in a very good way) similar to the Z. Vex Fuzz Factory but is much easier to tame IMO. This pinched sound is pretty much present in all settings and creates the sonic signature of the pedal. It's also a farly quiet pedal for a fuzzbox.

The construction looks to be high quality inside and wiring is tidy and soldering looks clean. The box itself is quite large and seems sturdy enogh. No screw battery replacement is a definite plus!

Vlad @ Lovetone has always replied to my email... I'm giving them an 8 because I've not had to actually have hardware repaired.

I play mostly idomatic and non-idiomatic free-improv and looping when I play electric. I have several fuzzes in a Digital Music Corp. GCX-Expander loop switcher which is patched into a Boss GX-700 guitar processor. There's a Big Muff Pi; Prescription Electronics Experience; Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz; and the Cheese as well as a Waldorf 4-pole analog filter; Wah and Volume pedal. The Cheese has been getting progressively more and more attention as I get more acquainted with it's sound. It seems very adaptable to a wide variety of tweezy tones... For more "normal" lead sounds I use the other fuzzes or distortions/preamps from the GX-700. People seem to love the Cheese a lot though! I'd definitely buy it again if I could find one... I rate it an 8 because it's pretty pricey and I believe Lovetone isn't making them any more...

I was inspired by the review below to put in my two cents for the Big Cheese. Everything the person below said is true. Controls are very straight forward and you cannot get a bad sound. Takes a while to learn how the controls interract.

This is one of the best sounding fuzzes available. IMHO, it does not sound as good as my ZVEX Fuzz Factory, but is alot easier to "tame". It is very quiet. I am running through a clean Fender amp and it gets the a very nice tones--from Green Day med-bright to Dinosaur Jr mud. It works very well with their Doppelganger Phase & Meatball envelope follower which I also own.

Don't know. The wiring and circuit board traces seem very clean and meticulous, however, so I expect it to last. The chassis is very sturdy and professionally detailed.

Nice guys--but who knows when they plan to give it up. They say they will continue to support, but who knows. I got zapped with an import duty fee upon delivery.

I love it. It will most likely have a permanent place in my chain. If you are looking for a superb sounding fuzz that sounds better than almost anything out there and is extremely flexible and will work well with your other effects--buy the BC! If you want various shades of mayhem and the BEST tone out there, get a ZVEX Fuzz Factory! If you are fuzz crazy, like me, you'll buy both! But most of all be careful, both of these boxes can puncture you like blizzard or nails! I'd love to try them with an AC30!

There are four fuzz settings. There is also a volume, distortion and tone knob. On the first fuzz setting you have no control over the tone - only the amount of distortion. The second and third fuzz settings sound different, but still retain the great character that this pedal possesses. On the fourth, or "cheese" setting, turning up the distorion level causes the sound to break up. The tone knob is about the most reponsive I have ever used on any pedal. It always seems to give you a great sound, and has a fantastic range. Extremely easy to get a good sound, simply because everything sounds good.

I've been playing it through bass because I blew out my guitar amp. It really doesn't matter. I think this is the best fuzz pedal I have ever heard. It's sort of similar to a Big Muff (notice the name), but far superior as far as range of sound. I've nailed some Pumpkins tones dead on. I can't wait to try it through a distorted amp. The quality I love most about this pedal is that the distortion is so ridiculously DEEP if you want it to be. And it's dead quiet.

I doubt it's as sturdy as a boss pedal- but it's more than twice the size anyway. I don't see it cutting out unless I really abuse it.

Lovetone's customer service is the best I have yet to encounter. I bought their doppleganger before I bought the cheese. It had a malfunction and they fixed it in record time. They always respond to E-mails within two days, and very often by the next day.

The simple fact of the matter is, Lovetone makes incredible pedals. Radiohead, Metallica, Sonic Youth, and others own their pedals. Check out their website for more names. They are expensive if you're in the US because of the exchange rate to pounds. (You have to buy direct from the company) However, nobody owns them- most haven't even heard of them. And the sound quality is so good and is so distinctive that they are definitely worth it.