Lovetone Meatball Filter Effect, c. 1997

Lovetone  Meatball Filter Effect,  c. 1997
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Item # 11250
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Lovetone Meatball Model Filter Effect, c. 1997, made in England, serial # MB 0521. Born in 1995 in , Lovetone FX began as the project of Dan Coggins and Vlad Naslas. Lovetone is credited as being one of the major players in the beginning of the boutique guitar pedal boom. Musicians had grown tired of the fairly simple, sometimes mundane stompboxes and largely inaccessible major rackmounted effect options on the market, and developers like Lovetone saw an opportunity. They decided to fill their giant aluminum enclosures with some of the weirdest and most colorfully named offerings for the modern guitarist looking to experiment.

The company ceased production in 2001, just after the release of their final and coveted invention, the ? Flanger with No Name. Dan Coggins continued the stewardship and maintenance of the Lovetone line on his own as Dinosaural, passing ownership back to Naslas in 2009 and returning again in 2013 as Coggins Audio. The two have since also collaborated with Thorpy FX to make updated (and certainly smaller!) iterations of some classic circuits to the modern boutique market.

While players across genres and generations enjoyed the Lovetone pedals, the 1990's provenance and acclaim the line made them popular with fuzzed-out rock and shoegaze icons like Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., and the Greenwoods of Radiohead. The Meatball specifically was also audibly used by Kirk Hammett of Metallica on the albums surrounding its release in the late 90's.

The charmingly named Meatball, originally based around the simpler but beloved Mu-Tron III, is an extremely shapeable envelope filter with a lot of possibilities. Flange, phase, autowah, and other psychedelic modulation can be easily coaxed out of the two-fold, one-stomp Meatball, which also boasts an effects loop for extra weirdness and excellent studio utility. The Meatball's Trigger section allows you to control the internal trigger of the envelope, including the option to roll off the trigger entirely in the "off" position and use the Meatball purely as a static filter. You can also set the threshold of the trigger with the Sensitivity knob. The Filter section, surprise surprise, allows you to sculpt the filter itself.
 
Height is 7 1/8 in. (18.1 cm.), 7 7/8 in. (20 cm.) width, and 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm.) in depth at deepest point. This Meatball has some minor cosmetic wear, with minimal scratches on the sides where it was likely nestled in on a pedalboard for years alongside its other Lovetone compatriots. The knobs are all original on clean original pots, and the original stomp can be used as an aide to swing open the trapdoor enclosure which opens from the bottom to reveal the date and serial number, as well as the PCB within that is fully unaltered.

The pedal comes with its original instruction document but lacks the original box and power supply. It runs off of a 9V battery via snap inside, or off a 9V power adapter with the 3.5mm jack, less commonly found today but a popular choice for pedals of this era. Overall Excellent - Condition.