Big pedals to trip over...

Those few that have read this blog have probably picked up a couple times that I have a fondness for Lovetone effects pedals. These tasty beasts (and beasts they are) were made in England on and off for about 10 years or so in the mid 90s to early 00's. The range of effects was diverse and interesting, even their simple overdrive and fuzz designs had something esoteric going on. Someone is still paying web hosting on their site, which you can review to your leisure, they still have the flash sound files to listen to.

Lovetone was a marriage of the design expertise of a chap called Dan Coggins, and the marketing savvy of a chap called Vlad Naslas. I chatted with Vlad on the phone one time when I was a poor student and was [ ] this close to buying a £349 + £10 shipping Flange with No Name ? from him. I didnt in the end, seeking one out on ebay for a much more reasonable £270 (still a lot, and I regret selling it ever since). He seemed a cool guy if a bit short on time.

Lovetones finest

Anyhow, the line was started with a couple of standalong noise makers called the Brown Source Overdrive and Big Cheese distortion. I think they originally sold for something in the order of £150, reasonable especially when people pay that today for Zvex's offshore derived Vexter series pedals. Everything about Lovetone was made in the UK AFAIK, I know the PCBs were fabbed in the UK, and many parts Ive later come to realise actually can be sourced at Maplin. I doubt Lovetone used Maplin directly, but perhaps they started out, much like me, at a Maplins, buying some bits many years ago. Im going misty eyed as I write just imagining...haha.

These devices have the standard Vol Tone Gain combo, with a natty 4 way switch for different tones, inc a tone bypass option on both. The Cheese had a fourth gated setting reminiscent of things like the wolf computer, and Fuzz Factory, and all things 8-bit sounding. Very cool. Along the way the Lovetone line was followed by many a top band and producer, and were always pitched as at least equally (if not moreso) useful in a studio environment than on a pedal board. Certainly this is the case for the more wacky and involved processors. Ill likely get to those later in another blog...

So, these days, Lovetone is long out of business and the remaining pedals change hands for absurd amounts of money on the free marketplace that is the internet, or more typically eBay. Even the Big Cheese, which at a guess I would say was the largest produced item next to the Meatball, changes hands for over £400 without exception. Over the years this has created opportunity for cloners and the like to make their own versions. OLC came up with a variant called the Chunky Cheese, which is what I am basing my Cheese on. I also had, but also (again regrettably) sold on another clone called a Fromunda Cheese which had a nice hammered gold case, and was drilled so you could adjust the gate trim from the outside. Very cool. Wish I still had it.

Now then, onto my clone. Lovetone saw fit towards the end of their run in business to offer a large version comprising the Big Cheese and Brown Source in one pedal, named fittingly the Cheese Source. At the last time of marketing (via Dan Coggins Dinosaural brand) the CS was sold direct for £350. Of course that seems "cheap" dare I say it in face of £600 and rising on eBay these days.

My clone consists of the OLC Chunky Cheese which I have made on perf board (first attempt, never say never again, but it wasnt as easy as vero to pull off) and a Doug Hammond Tone Source on vero. The Tone Source is Dougs ode to the Brown Source, and changes a couple of things, adds more tonal options etc. You can read about it here. 

Layout is my own for the Cheese

Here is the Doug Hammond Tone Source

Here are some pics of the Cheese Side. If I am honest I think its a decent attempt for a first perf.

Quickly wired up to verify.

Here are the guts of the final pedal. This took some debugging, and I will replace the drive pot on the source side at some point, right now Ive fudged a 100k pot down to about 20k using this handy page: Analog Alchemy. I had to get rid of some popping using pull downs on the footswitches but i think thats all linked to a grounding error that i have now solved. Anyway, no tone suck with this so they can stay.

Its not the neatest thing in the world, and its in a massive box (!) shame on me. But hopefully its robust which is what matters. And the sound. Wonderful. The Big Cheese has gotta be one of the classics. Its really rude and fuzzy and great. The Tone Source, like the Brown Source, seems best at providing boost, and colour. Theres definitely lots of tonal variety thanks to Dougs revisions, and the tone pot really works and has a lot of scope. There is barely any drive here at all though - think more like the low gain ODs that people seem to love, like the (dare I say it) BJFe Honey Bee. It all seems to work like it should, and you can patch in effects with the source in and cheese out, kinda like an FX loop. I tried a flanger in there and it worked a treat.

As for the outside aesthetics, there was only ever one thing in mind. Direct replica of the original. Only real difference is the LED position (Lovetones use large PCBs with onboard LEDs). However I think it looks fantastic, and yes ,I have located the original knobs (Maplin of all places - astounding).

Here are some glamour shots for the beast. FYI the box is an Eddystone P/N 26827PSLA 188x120x57mm from Rapid for around £10. Graphics are on white decal vinyl. I might do the front and sides at some point, as yet undecided.

The original unit for comparison sake

Overall its one of the coolest things I've ever done. If you had told me back in February when I picked up a soldering iron I could make a Loveclone in 6mths Id have laughed it off... There are a lot of firsts in this build too - First Perfboard, first FX send and returns with break jacks, first build with rotary jacks, first build that wasnt 1590b or bb sized enclosure. And first Lovetone clone. Yes, thats right, keep it peeled for a certain pink monster looming on the horizon...

Over and out!