Lovetone Ring Stinger

The sounds of the Ring Stinger are not for the faint of heart. I would go so far as to say, that it's designed for the player who prefers to experiment with sounds...to create the next big thing that everone will want to be able to do. well, if it happens with the Ring Stinger, it will be a cold day in hell before anyone just goes to the store to buy..."that guy...with the fuzzy...octave...ringing thing...you know???". I love that it deconstructs the notionof what a guitar can sound like.
Like all Lovetone pedals, you CAN just plug in and go, but the learning curve can be a bit much for the Boss stomp box crowd. The instructions are only the beginning of what this pedal can do in the right hands. For the novice, this pedal will seem very useless...poor novice...get back in the shed...hee hee hee

As with all Lovetone pedals, the tone is what it's all about. I play Tele Jr's, and Gretsch Jets through my Dr. Z Route 66. The Lovetone pedals do not offend the Route 66. I went with Lovetone because I prefer to experiment with sounds...not so much emulate the sounds of others. I like it when people ask me how I pulled this sound or that sound on my recordings...I'm a bit of a tone freak in that respect. It would be nice to have all of the lovetone effects in one box...it would also be impossible
Oh...yeah...the Ring Stinger is a Ring Mod/ Octavia pedal. The ring mod is absolutely insane, with selectable everything. The Octavia is it's own unique sound, and would do well in it's own box. It is a much different tone than the Big Cheese. I actually pulled it out after cutting some fuzz tracks w/ the cheese. The engineer said "MAN...could you get any more over the top that that?"...to which I replied "Why yes, I can."

I have been sporting Lovetone for...4 years I think :). It's like having a best friend...you kinda forget when or how you met...but it seems like they've been a part of your life for longer than you can recall.
I seldom take these out to shows, as I cold not replace them if stolen. Lovetone pedals are not exactly growing on trees. I have a few other boxes that I take out...none of which could emulate the Ring Stinger.

After many years of mighty stomping, I think my Doppelganger finally needs a new switch...must contact Vlad...which leads us to...

Lovetone support their products! Nuff said. I assumed that they would be hesitant to provide support from across the pond, but Vlad and Co. are the best.

It's hard to render an overall rating to a pedal this forward thinking..this unique. I have been playing seriously for 5 years. I own the entire Lovetone range, and am currently waiting for the new industry redefining pedal...the ?, stereo flanger :). If my pedals were stolen or lost, I would try to replace them, but at over 2500 american (low estimate...probably closer to 3k for all of them)...I doubt that I could. I love the versatility, and that lovetone enables the user to shape his / her own voice. I do not really "hate" anything about them, though i dislike the limited availability...but hey...that's what makes them the stuff of legend :). I cannot honestly compare the Lovetones to other products...there is no one making effects that could provide an apples to apples comparison. The pedals are not for everybody, but in the right hands, they are indispensable...and for what they do, they are a great value. Hey, I've heard some serious multi thousand dollar studio boxes that couldnt come close to doing anything that the Lovetone pedals do . :)

Jesus! This is one scary box! Not really sure what is going on, as I have only just got it, but will try to explain some of the messed-up sounds you can get. It is very easy to go over board with this thing, and slap everything up to 10, which kills any trace of an actuall note or (heaven forbbid) a chord from your guitar. After an hour or so of creating crazy-arse analogue synth effects, I realised that you have to start low and build up to the sound your looking for. And the knobs and switches are pretty confusing (LFO? VCO? Yeah, right....). But give it time, and it (slowly) reveals itself. Atleast the instructions clarify things slightly, but they do admit that it baffels them too.
It is a beast. And I will tame it.

Ok, at the moment I'm just using this straight into my little Park 10R amp, playing a Les Paul standard. So, the Ringstinger is billed as primarily a ring modulator, but tweeking the knobs and using either the LFO or VCO or both, you can get some weird sounds. With just the LFO (Low Frequency Oscilator) on, you can dial up lovely tremelo effects, from very sutble to onoffonoff chugging. The LFO has two different waveforms, chainsaw and square, and this can either control the frequency modulation, or the pitch mod. On pitch you can get an odd chorus/phaser effect, stuttering on and off. The great thing about the pedal is that casue it uses a real LFO and not a chip to mess around with the frequency of the signal, it is constantly changing. Meaning the speed of the tremelo changes slightly as your note rings on, giving it an ace analogue sound. I love this. It sounds so much more interesting than a usual trem pedal. With the LFO off, the other foot switch switches between the VCO (voltage controlled oscilator) and a fuzz octave distortion.

The fuzz it pretty good, very fuzzy, with an octave effect that comes into play the higher up the neck you play. With the VCO on, you get the ring modulation. This is nice and lo-fi, and you can "tune" it to the note you are playing using the VCO frequency knob (or untune it, for a large slab of dirge). The freq. can be tuned up to about 2 octaves above the note you are playing, or down below our hearing range. This introduces another interesting effect. When this is done, the pedal goes weird and the note becomes a tremelo (again?) of scratched record sounds and burbling oddness. And if you now reduce the "Blend" level, and increase the pure guitar signal going through the pedal, you get your guitar, with a strange old record/clicky tremelo/lo-fi backing sound. Um, hard to describe. Makes your sound just different. With both the LFO and VCO on, it become a basic synth thing controlled by yer guitar. You can do crazy Chemical Brothers sounds, rumbling phaser sounds (which continually change and never sound sampled), and just plain silly sickening pitch wobble stutter mayhem. I like it.
It would be impossible to list all the sounds, as every control seems to interact with everything else, so experiment is todays watchword. Pedal noise is low, but with the processed level on full and the drive level right up, there is some guitar sound cross bleeding, but this is easily sorted.

Cant comment, as I've only had it for a few days. Seems like any other pedal. Nice easy battery entry, but they recomend using a mains adapter, as it eat batteries. I wouldn't throw it around though. It is alot more complex that yer standard RAT.

Vlad is a good bloke, who didn't seem to mind my anal questions and e-mailed me promptly after each burst of jibberish. Good work fella!

I play radioheadish strangelove-esque ambient Smith-like stuff. This is fantastic for getting bizzzzzz-ar unique sounds. I cant really compare it to anything, so I wont bother.
Overal, I'd say it is a fun, exciting, fucked-up piece of kit, which demands time to get your head round it (jump straight in and it'll sound shite, and you'll wonder why you bothered. I know I did) but once you do, there are so many sounds to tweek out of it, you'll end up loosing afternoons to it. If only it wasn't so expensive....but it looks damn cool, I'm just a sucker for a good body......

it sound great, but i really don't know how to use the thing musically! its got a bunch of knobs that sound really weird as you tweak them,and plus its got this light sensor input jack where if you wave your hand over, or foot, the thing reacts to the motion of your foot! its absolutely crazy....

but in terms how easy it is to use, i really don't know because this thing sounds just horrifying (in a good way)

I'm running it into my american standard strat and into a Mesa trem-o-verb or a fender twin... i like Radiohead and i try to get their sound. anyway this thing is amazing... you cant get anymore analogue than this! its the wierdest sounding pedal I've ever heard. I bought a meatball before i picked up this thing and i thought the meatball was bad.. and when i got this... oh man... words cannot describe it... weird is just not enough.

there is no doubt in my mind it wouldn't work.... just bring another battery... they really suck battery to the last drop

vlad is great.... he'll keep you posted and if you have any questions, just give him a call or send him an email.. he'll get back to you quickstyle.

If you have ring stinger or any other lovetone pedal send me an IM or email.... I'd love to talk to someone who owns one... i don't know anyone who has one ( but that's cool!) so far i have a doppelganger, meatball, and ringstinger.... looking for a cheese source.


I'm sure these pedals, if not already will be highly sought after and be seen as prized pieces of equipment... so if you have one, HOLD ON to it, unless you want to sell it to me.