Lovetone Meatball

My personal experience with the Meatball Envelope filter. First, I find it appropriately named as this pedal is very complicated to use and is nearly impossible for gigs, being better suited for studio work. This was somewhat frustrating for me. The owners manual did not offer much help either. I will give them points for including a blank settings page to photocopy for documentation. I bought this pedal after reading the glowing reviews and expecting to invest time figuring it all out. For the working musician on time constraints and budgets, I find this pedal difficult to incorporate in a timely manner to live seetings. I will take away any high marks here.

I use lower powered amps (10-20 watts) Siegmund Midnight Special, Marshall Lead and Bass 20, various Fender Tweeds, with almost exclusively single coil pickup guitars, Strats, Teles, Hamer with P-90's. There is some low band frequency that comes through with this, but nothing too bad. The effect is not noisy at all, but as I mentioned earlier, it is very unpredictable making it difficult to use for live settings, which was what I mistakenly bought it for originally. For the life of me I have yet to reproduce the sounds of where it was supposedly used by my 'favorite artist'. I have to give it low points here as well. I have several other effects I can use in place of this and achieve better more reproducible AND predictable results. I have gone back to my regular wah, a fixed wah, tremolo, reverb set up. I have a lot more options with this and more real world application here. I wanted to like this pedal but so far have found it a very expensive lesson learned. I my opinion this effect is better suited for the bedroom guitarist or Doctor (you know who you are) who fancys himself or herself a guitar player and has a lot of time (and money) to fool around with and get some wacked out sounds. I don't want to sound like sour grapes here, I would recommend anyone considering this effect, to seriously think about putting your money elsewhere, unless you already have it all and feel the need to spend a ridiculous amount of money and buy into the hype (I fall in the latter category) Another gripe I have with this pedal is that it doesn't seem to sit well in my chain having tried it in a few different positions in my set up. It isn't all bad, when it does sound good it is really good, but those moments are too few and far between with the Lovetone Meatball. I mean no disrespect to any other person reviewing here, I can't help but think that some people feel compelled to give this pedal a high rating simply for the fact that it was so expensive. I am being honest here.

Hmmm...well in terms of construction and build quality it appears sturdy. The chassis has a unique way of opening which makes access a snap; It folds up like a rag top. I would however not use this for live playing situations for two reasons: the first being the high cost factor and the second being too unpredictable. I find it would even be difficult to make the same mistake twice with this pedal. I also have this fear of having something being spilled on it and we all know how water and electricity mix...

I spoke with the owner on the phone several times, Daniel Coggins I believe his name is, and although he was pleasant and friendly on the phone he did seem to have an as a matter of fact attitude. I will stick to these facts: I have not had the pedal serviced and nothing has gone wrong with it to date.

I guess this is where I sum all this up...We play blues, funk, swing stuff and I like to have fun with effects to try an mix it up a bit. Had this pedal been more predictable, I think I would have found a place for it, but as is, it was nearly useless for my intended application. I have been playing for nearly 20 years and have been through more equipment than I can remember. As I age, I am slowly finding my needs becoming more and more simple. Occasionally I do splurge on something nice and this was one of those times. The most disapointing part for me on this pedal was the difficulty to get it in a place where I could find myself less worried about what the pedal was going to do and instead focusing more on my tone and and playing. If it were lost or stolen I would be grateful and file an insurance claim. I chose it based on the positive reviews here, but a part of me can't help but think that a large portion of the reviews here (for the Lovetone pedal) are from people who spend their playing time in the bedroom with their expensive equipment that they will later sell in 'mint' condition after the novelty has worn off. When you check Ebay, you will find a lot of Lovetone pedals for sale commanding stupid amounts of money for investment purposes. Ask yourself: If they were All That, would people be selling them to make a buck on? Most working musicans know, when you get something truly stellar it would take an act of God to get them to let go of it. For me this is a bad sign as these pedals will get rarely used in the public and be relegated to boxes for the next sap to spend too much money on something he thinks he needs. I have only bought effects from two sources up until this one: analogman and keeley, and they have lived up to my hard earned dollars spent on them. If you are truly considering a Lovetone pedal for your set up, think twice brother on how much money you will be putting out. On the plus side, it has a good resale, and I think this is why you see so many of them being recycled on Ebay and the like. If I could get a refund I would take it in a heart beat and never look back. Anyone want to buy a Lovetone?

As with all of Lovetone's pedals, the Meatball can be a bit intimidating. It has 10 different knobs that can each radically alter the sound you're getting. On the other hand, it is quite easy to get a good sound out of after you've given it a few days of practice. On a box this complicated, the best thing is to treat it like another instrument rather than just a tone enhancer. It needs practice and a period of time to gain familiarity with it to be really tweakable.

A few insights about the pedal...
The "Sensitivity" knob is probably going to be your source of the most frustration. It is extremely sensitive allowing for just about any signal level to drive this unit (huge plus for my situation). The trick is that you have to find a sweet spot where the unit will sound best for whatever noise you're currently making. They give you a pretty big band to work with but you'll hear the effect really clear and controlled when you find just the right spot.

The Attack and Decay knobs need to be used in tandem. The general rule of thumb (in the Up position...) is the higher the Attack, the
even higher the Decay. This is to avoid having the effect decay before the filter kicks in...you won't hear anything but filtering if you set it like the decay to low or the attack to high.

The other 3 knobs are easy and obvious. Colour and Intensity add different characters to the filter sweep...I believe Colour is affecting the width of the sweep and Intensity is affecting the tone but I think theres some big time overlap. I like 'em both cranked on guitar but I like the Intensity at about halfway for my horn setup. Blend is exactly that.

The chicken-head knobs all select the main features of the filter. You can select the type of filter pass (High, Band, or Mid), you can set the range (High, Mid High, Mid Low, Low...). There is a switch for determining the overall width of the filter sweep or even disabling it so that the MB only filters your tone.

The most unique knob on this filter is the Up/Down setting. This lets you flip the direction of the sweep. I know there are a few filters out there that can do this now (and I'm sure they got the idea from the MB) but know that this is the designer original as far as I'm concerned and it is unmatched in sound on this setting.

The manual is a must read. It's confusing in places so take some time with it and be willing to reread it for new insights. The LT guys were nice enough to include a couple of settings to get you starting greatly adding to the ease of use.

This is the king of envelope filters. I've played through a Mu-Tron (which admittedly is fantastic), I've used many digital pieces of junk...The Meatball is the king. The only other filter I like this much is the Moogerfooger which has an amazing sound and flexibility but sounds too analog-synthy for my personal taste.

I use this pedal in a rig with a saxophone setup and a guitar setup depending on the night and gig. It took a lot of playing to get the sound working with the saxophone (had to turn the Sens way down and the Intensity to 12o'clock just to get a good sense of the effect). The guitar was easy. It puts you in the heart of funkland instantly - you'll be able to walk with Bootsy in P-Funk territory within seconds of using it.

If you're into trippier effects can find those with longer decay times and different positions of Attack, Up/Down, and the filter pass and range switches.

Know that U2, Radiohead, Beastie Boys, Bootsy Collins, Sonic Youth, King Crimson...etc all use this pedal. You'll be in good company.

As far as sound quality, this is tops. It doesn't affect my tone at all when bypassed. I don't know if it's true bypass or not but it doesn't matter. It goes away completely when off and induces insanity when on. Exactly what I like.

I say this about all of the LT pedals but here goes again...it's built to last. It's not an MXR or Boss tank but it's well housed and sturdy. You won't have to worry about anything except theft!

The guys are tops. Dan and Vlad love what they do and take care of their customers. You'll get as much support as you need.

I play a mix of Jazz, Jam, Indie Rock, Funk, Fusion, and Blues (not all at once...I just work with a lot of different groups). I can safely say that the MB would be in every rig except for the most reserved of jazz clubs. It works so well with my sax rig, I could get away with just this and a good delay unit (I use an EHX Memory Man). It's so versatile, I don't need anything else to shape my tone. That being said, I've become obsessed with Lovetone. Here's my rig:

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

The rig isn't noisy in the least (though the length of the chain does eat a bit...) and the LT's always give audience members bulging eyes of wonder when I kick 'em on.

If you can afford these guys, do it (price omitted out of mild embarrassment). You won't be sorry and you'll tweak your way into sonic heaven.

P.S. All you Lovetone guys out there...E-mail me and we can talk settings and such nonsense. You know how confusing and adjustable these guys are. I'd love to exchange insights!

The manual for this is pretty good and straight-forward, however this isn't the "easiest" pedal to use just because its so SENSITIVE. To me, this isn't a bad thing; it just takes a little patience. Chances are an over-the-top setting for one guitar would be perfect for another.

This thing either sounds sickeningly wonderful or sounds like crap, but this isn't the pedal's fault. Again, this thing is so sensitive, which is nice, because it will react differently to humbuckers as opposed to single coils. Actually, I have three strats, and the meatball sounds differently for each one...now throw a les paul or hallow body electric into the mix. the only thing i don't like so far (and maybe i'll find a way around this), is that there is still a hint of "band pass" bleeding through the "low pass" settings.

very dependable.

i can't afford a back up, so whether i gig with it or not depends on alot of external factors.

I've never had a problem with any lovetone products, but I've spoken with Vlad from lovetone, and he's a pretty cool guy, and has some interesting ideas (anybody try this pedal with a pedal steel?).

To be honest, I've had this pedal for nearly three years, and I feel I've only scratched the surface. There are so many applications of this pedal, not only solo, but in conjunction with other effects/instruments/studio applications that make the meatball an aural playground. While I mostly use this for R&B and rock guitar applications, you can use this in many other ways. I first heard this pedal used on U2's POP album, specifically the songs "Discotheque" and "Please". These are good examples of how you can get both beautiful and nasty sounds within the context of a band.

A couple of recommendations:
1) Plug the Lovetone Big Cheese (on the "Cheese" setting) into the FX loop of the meatball. You'll get sounds so dirty you'll have to take a shower and/or go to confession.
2) Keep some kind of notes with this pedal. Whether its a notebook or photocopies or the pedal diagram from the owner's manual, you'll want to remember the precise settings, especially for gigging.

Lastly, approach this pedal as another instrument, not simply a generic stompbox. The Meatball is very sensitive and really has its own personality. In other words, you have to learn how to use it.

umm.well, first off- i had the manual. but considering how much homework i did on this pedal before i got it, it didn't help a whole lot in the sound department. though i loved the specifics when it came to a power supply-it's got 9 or 12 volts(12 for more headroom), uses anywhere from 200ma to 1.5 amps and it's got a positive tip.
you can get everything you need at your local radio shack. (unlike a whammy 1 power supply).like i said, i did such extensive reading and homework on this pedal i felt like i already knew how to use it when i got it. i had it in ten minutes. granted, there are HUNDREDS of different sounds you can make with this thing. i certainly thought the manual helped. but after i plugged it in,i found exactly what i wanted almost right away.

JEEEEz. there's nothing you could give this thing but a 10. whoever said this box is a tone machine hit the nail on the head. it's the warmest sound i've ever heard. the mutron 3 for some reason did not impress me that much. maybe i need to give it another shot, but there's no way it could stand up to the 'ball. this pedal having it's own fx loop-holy crap! not to mention(for you guys with no manuals)that you can use a passive volume pedal like an ernie ball as an expression pedal through the pedal 1 and 2 jacks. outside triggering? check out these freakin- options! i've never heard anything like it. utterly ridiculous. i love it. get those awesome mars volta sounds if you roll back the blend knob to about 48%. i use it with a triple rec. gotta watch it though, this thing creates such sub bass that it could blow your shit! sounds great clean. doesn't even sound clean anymore by the time the meatball gets through with your signal! and whoever said this earlier was right, too. however you tweak the pots, it sounds the bomb!

i think you could totally depend on it. would i gig it without a backup? i probably won't gig it at all! not after paying half a g for it! besides, my mentor got a knob snapped off his mutron 3 by a drunken crowd surfer that did a torso plant on his whole fucking pedal board! if you can break a knob off a mutron, uh uh. i trust the pedal. i don't trust the freaking miscarriages galavanting around breaking my expensive ass shit!

couldn't tell you, they have been MIA for awhile now. but i hear these guys are genuinely professional.

as far as i'm concerned this is the best pedal ever. anything this controllable that sounds so amazing is just not natural. vlad must have sold his soul to make this thing. a 10! a 10!

Can sometimes be a struggle to get the sound you're looking for. A basic understanding of synthesis certainly helps while trying to figure out the controls and how they interact. Can be quite difficult to quickly recall settings in a live situation, but this is to be expected due to the complexity of the controls

Very smooth analogue filter section but can sound fierce when pushed. Capable of generating some amazing sounds and a few interesting stinkers too. I originally used it for bass guitar but I now use it as a synthesizer module. It is very versitile in this role due to its generous external control sockets

Had it for a couple of years and gigged it heavily before it developed intermitent faults. Not realy suitable for workhorse duties. A smaller, simpler and more rugged unit for stomp box use may be more practical, though probably at the expense of sound quality. I have retired mine to studio duties

Fairly good during sales and delivery. However, tried to contact Lovetone by post once and e-mail a few times concerning repair of my meatball but didn't recieve any reply.

Generally I think the Meatball is a very good sounding, versitle and quirky machine. Although it is well built, it is perhaps not rugged enough to be used as an onstage stompbox, as the foot switch would suggest. But I'm a clumsy sod with big feet

I got this pedal used with no manual, and it took me a good hour or two to get the hang of it. Now I have some settings that I like, mainly straght ahead "wah" type, either slow or fast and "quacky". Took some work but it does make sense after a little while. I do hope to get a manual from Vlad soon just to learn about the Pedal1 and Pedal2 jacks and anything else I'm missing.

Wonderful sound! I have owned 2 DOD FX25s and an EH Qtron+, and tried many others, and this is by far the best envelope filter on earth! Very clean bypass, which is critical to me as a bass player since it's off 98% of the time. I've used it with lots of different amps including my main SWR Redhead, basses include my Sadowsky 5, Warwick 5, and several cheapie P-basses and it's shined with them all. On the floor I run a Trace Elliot compressor and I've just added an EBS Octabass, and they both work very nicely with the Ball. The effect is quite funky or crazy or whatever you want it to be. I found out after getting the pedal that Mike Gordon from Phish uses one of these and I can see why. I've easily been able to dial in some of the sounds he uses and well as playing with my own settings.

I did bring the FX25 to gigs as a backup the first few months, but I stopped bothering. Certainly I could get through the night without envelope filtration, I've had worse problems on stage! :) I did have to clean all the pots and switches several times when I got it as some of them were quite scratchy. Since then it has been perfect, though, and seems well built. I have no idea what kind of abuse it took from its previous owner, so I feel it deserves a 7.

Vlad seems kind of hit or miss. I tried to get a manual from him when I first got the pedal, and now about 6 months later I'm trying again with more sucess.

I have to give this a 10. It's the best envelope filter ever made! The learning curve may be steep, but for a reasonably intelligent person it's quite easy to get amazing standard envelope filter "wah" sounds as well as 1000s of other effects.

ouah quite hard i was too ready to ship back cause it was a second hand one and it came without any manual . So it take me hours of tweaking , i also own a ringstinger and use to think i could use all lovetone but a manual is quite indispensable even for a french guy , so if someone feel like email me one it ll be a blessing .

can make all enveloppe filter type plus many more but i m on the beginning of my sound journey , it s a perfect choice for someone like me who play in a funk band and in a drumbass band this unit can go quick on the edge or can shape ur sound dimensionnal .i haven t find the good pedal to put in the loop . fun fun fun but not feet evry style .

no problem i have torture my other lovetone and she still do what she want to . fichu caractere ces pedales.

second hand but i repeat if someone can email me the manual i ll be glad . thank lovetone owner support

i play for twelve years and i m building my dream pedalboard slowly cause it s hard to find a good pedal in france . so i bought on the web witout knowing the sound but my nose seems to work this one ll stay in the final pdlbrd,next to the ringsting the keeley comp a talkbox , a teese wha . vlume,baked ts 9. rotospher.moog phaser..i plug in a benson a tele and a luke . i was looking for an envelop filter cause the mutron the tube ziper i tried didn t convince me. this one does

I give it an 8 because no matter how you tweak the knobs, it sounds like the bomb!!! anyway, it's not easy at all at first, but once you figure it out it's not a problem to get a specific sound.

the bomb

a tank

i had read that the company had stopped making pedals, but was still available for assistance.....I emailed them 10000 times to ask a couple questions, and they never got back to me....i dont know if they're dead or they dont like my email address.....

the only thing I would change about this pedal - and the whole lovetone collection - is the sensitivity of the knobs....if you turn one knob of 1mm, it's virtually impossible to get the same sound that you had before you tweaked it....but it doesnt matter, cos as i said, no matter where the knobs are, the sound is the bomb!!!!

Lots of knobs and switches.
It comes with time, after a year or so with playing with it I have found quite a few odd sounds, but unfortunately only two usable ones in the spectrum of music I'm playing. Still very fun to mess with.
The manual is a good starting point.
I am posting this as a up date to my Badly spelled, punctuated and written review from about a year ago (look down the reviews). I am a bit more experienced now and have come to realize how hard it is to use filters, phasers and flanges practically instead of just devises to make silly noises. This may be just me and the type of music I play (strait ahead rock).

Very good. Everytime I use it sounds great.
It is true bypass. I don't like using pedals that once disengaged u can still hear the effect in the background (Boss sd-1, EH small stone US reissue-still a good units when on). I don't have to worry with this unit. I always expect some tone loss with a pedal when turned off (JD crybaby, lovetone big cheese- still good units), it does not bother me, but there is no tone loss with this pedal. There is no hum or buzz either.

Very cool slimy wah noises, rubbery quacks, speaker killing sub bass throbs, when put into the down trigger mode you can get some noises that sound like you guitar is being pulled into a black hole!

Over all some very odd sounds, some very funky sounds but not that many practical sounds for live playing if you are in a strait forward rock band IMO, more a studio/bedroom effect.

The amp I use with it is a Ampeg ss-70 the guitar is a USA fender natural ash stratocaster

Skip if Bored by gear lists

My gear has changed since I wrote my last review, I don't use a Nashville Tele, and never have, I wrote it the week before I went to get a new guitar. I had my heart set on the Nash Tele but when I got into the shop, I saw a beautiful USA natural ash Strat, and got that instead, it is a superior guitar in every way. I have the custom Tele still; it has now been dubbed the Turd. The Amp is the same, Ampeg ss-70. The pedals have changed quite a bit. I still have all units from a year ago (a wah, a rat, a sd1 overdrive, voodoo labs trem, big danelectro delay unit, the 4 lovetone,Meat,Wob,Big C, brown S) but I have bought a shit load more, half I don't use:
Boss: comp/sus, flange, dd3 delay, eq, chorus, tuner and an EH small stone.
But I only ever use the Rat and 4 boss units live; I never use the lovetone units out of my room. Here is my live set up.

Fender Strat-the RAT-Boss ce-5 chorus-Boss dd3 delay-boss ge7 EQ-boss tu-2 Tuner pedal-AMP

I like to keep it simple but it sounds quite good, hope to get a fender twin and a Gibson les Paul soon, it is all a case of money, I only work at the weekends I'm still at college. Soon I will have a very good setup. It pays to get the best, which is why I got lovetone.

Good, like I said I only ever use it in my room so there is never any real danger of it breaking. If I gigged with it I would have to keep it on a board for fear of it being kicked, stood on and generally molested by careless suckers who cant look where they are going.
Over all very well built. I have never had a real problem; the only thing is the switch sometimes gives out a pop, probably because it is dusty.
I would use it with out a backup for two reasons
1) I doubt it would go wrong
2) I could not afford another

Vlad is always helpful, friendly and professional. Even with my stupid questions. Responds to e-mails quickly. Because all their pedals are so reliable I have no experience with repairs. Probably good.

A great pedal, my fav bedroom unit by far, followed by the other three lovetones. I can't find the right place for it in my band setup but I can live with that. When making up riffs it is really fun because it makes you think in a whole new (funky) way.
If you were in a funk/experimental group this pedal would be perfect; anyone else might have trouble using it for anything but a specialty sound.
With pedals I am always thinking 'could I ever really use it?' if I was in a funk band, yeah, but as I am not... no.
But it is still my favorite pedal.

The pedal was attractive to me in the begining because of all of the perameters. The pedal has an extremely slow decay so you can get the swirling swooshies after the note decays. You can also take the pedal off trigger mode and use it as a filter. Too bad it sounds so thin.

I own a qtron, mutron 3 and a Ibanez 201. The meatball by far has the most knobs looks the best and is anything but meaty. Compared to the mutron and the ibanez this pedal sounds like aluminum. I am a tone vintage pedal freak, I shelled 400.00 for the pedal and tried to force myself to like it. It reminds me of a extremely controllable DOD pedal.

My overall rating is not a 1 because I think the pedal was made well. It is way overpriced and sounds thin. Anybody wanting a filter should check out the time tested mutron 3 and the ibanez 201, or if you can find one the original seamoon funk machine.Ohh yea check out frostwave.com they have an envelope filter modeled after the ms-20 filter for 180.00.