Lovepedal

An overdrive pedal that imitates the sounds of Fender’s 1950s tweed amps. Two knobs : the left one is a master volume control, and the other one controls the overdrive level. A three-way switch: To the left: the legendary 5E3 circuitry (Tweed Fender Deluxe) Middle position: High Power Twin sound (50′s Fender Twin ) To the left: Master Volume Tchula (a mix between the 5E3 and High Power Twin). Each of the three positions offer three very distinct sound flavours: The 5E3 provides less volume but more crunch. The High Power Twin offers mort volume and headroom. The Tchula is an elaborate mix of both, like a good 15W amp on the verge of crunching... While this pedal perfectly emulates the signature sounds of Neil Young or The Rolling Stones, it’s far from being a one-trick pony. After 3 years tweaking it, the Les Liu is IMHO a great, very versatile overdrive that can provide you with unexpected and exceptional sounds. Of all the OD pedals that I’ve owned (inclusing boutique models, Boss and so on), this is the one that sounds the slosest to a real amp, both soundwise and in term of behaviour. It’s very dynamic, and reacts greatly to every playing nuance (whether you have a strong string attack or go softly) as well as the guitar’s volume... It gets along well with each of my axes (an SSS strat with Alnico 3s, a ’75 Les Paul Deluxe with P90s, a PAF-equipped Epipgone LP…) and the sound is always impressive. I use it with my Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue and i discover a totally new amp... just SUBLIME ! As it’s not a conventional overdrive pedal with the traditional “volume-tone-gain” trinity, the Les Lius might disappoint you if you were to treat it as a mere overdrive pedal: please understand that it does not offer two interdependent channels, but rather a global master setting and a gain stage for even more juice – and when I say juice I don’t mean boost but overdrive. Treat it like a real amp, and it’ll serve you well!

- Three controls, volume, gain, and “glass” - Switchable ICs - Buffered bypass - Soft touching switching - Solid, reliable construction - Gooped! - Almost total lack of manual, labels, or information - Powered by 9v battery or standard boss style adapter - Purple LED indicator UTILIZATION On the surface, the pedal seems a little difficult to use, as none of the knobs are actually labeled. Sean at lovepedal seems to be trying to attach some mystery to the pedal. But after a little noodling, its clear that the left knob is for volume, center is glass, and the right one is for clipping. While the pedal is sometimes advertised as true bypass, it uses a soft touch switch and not a latching one, so definitely isn’t. People seem to be divided about the soft switch.It’s a lot smoother to engage, and you don’t get annoying click sounds. The Circuit is gooped which can be a double edged sword. On one hand, it is a lot more difficult to repair. On the other, the components are sealed down and shouldn’t give you any issues. SOUND QUALITY Pretty much the smoothest and creamiest OD pedal that I’ve ever had the pleasure of using. It’s supposed to be based off a tube screamer circuit, but is far more refined. Pretty much perfect for those slow melodic solos. It also responds VERY well to picking and dynamics. Not quite a Honey Bee, but very responsive. It is more of a low to mid gain pedal, not really going to get you a thick heavy overdrive if that’s what you’re after. Stacks very well with pretty much any type of dirt pedal though, which is really awesome. The Glass control is really powerful, almost acts like slowly pulling a blanket off of your amp. OVERALL OPINION For a smooth low-mid gain OD pedal with a lot of low end, this is one of the best choices on the market. I did end up selling mine, but will probably be picking up another at some point. There is a lot of criticism directed against Sean at Lovepedal over things like discrete components, releasing different versions of what is essentially the same pedal, etc. I tend not to worry a whole lot about that, but judge each pedal on the way it performs. This is the only Lovepedal I’ve used so far and have been very impressed. These were discontinued for a while, and very difficult to get a hold of, but have been since been rereleased in a slightly different color.

If you haven't heard of or tried a Lovepedal product, do yourself a favor and give one a spin! Possibly the most popular of these pedals is the Lovepedal Eternity. The Eternity is an extremely warm and natural sounding overdrive with amp-like qualities. Touted by some as a Tubescreamer ripoff or copy, the unit is actually anything but; sure it's vaguely based on the TS circuit, but that's where the similarities end. I'll get into the tone in a bit. There are several versions of the Eternity available, and each circuit is slightly different. Mine is the black box with blue led, and "chicken head" style pointer knobs. There are three controls: Level, Glass, and Drive UTILIZATION This pedal is very easy to dial in. Three knobs and a warm overdrive tone. You really can't make this thing sound bad. Dial with you ears, and not your eyes as the Glass control and the Drive interact with each other in a unique way. This isn't your basic tone and drive eq section, so resorting to basic tube screamer settings won't warrant the best results with this pedal. SOUND QUALITY Glass is a bit different than your average "tone" control. It acts almost like a treble booster and doesn't merely cut off or add presence. Taking the glass control through its range is a cool experience, as the tone never becomes dull or lifeless, or thin and flat like on a TS9. The Eternity's Glass control is useable throughout its entire range. The Drive is beautiful and warm and just a bit crunchy. Also important to notice is how the Glass and Drive controls interact with each other. With the drive set low, you can really open up the Glass control and get a very clear and gritty overdrive. Crank up the Drive and you may need to back down the Glass knob so the tone doesn't become too cutting. The E's tone is not compressed compared to many other overdrives and TS clones. It is open sounding and very clear. All of the Lovepedal products I've played have a signature sound in the high mids/high end. It's hard to explain, but it's like a dry sizzle that is just barely present. I like it and it adds a complex overtone to the gain of this pedal! This is warm amp-like overdrive at its finest! OVERALL OPINION Sean at Lovepedal has been crafting some of the finest hand-made stomp boxes available at any price point. He has truly built a better mouse trap! If you're sick of overly compressed, bright and thin sounding overdrives, do yourself a favor and grab a Lovepedal! You won't be disappointed!

- Level knob (aka volume) - Drive knob (aka gain) - small Tone knob (somewhere between a bass knob and a low pass filter knob) - Glass knob (somewhere between a treble knob and a high pass filter knob) - on/off LED - external 9 volt power connection - internal 9 volt battery connection - true bypass - chromed box UTILIZATION The Tone and Glass knobs work a little different than most would expect, but once you understand what they do, tweaking them to get the desired frequencies is fairly easy. The Drive knob also is a bit interesting. If an amp is not cranked very much to begin with, you can hear the clean strings below the distortioned ones. You can get some really cool tones by turning it down. The volume doesn't just add more noise to the signal; it very much allows you to get your clean sound to match the volume of your overdriven sound. SOUND QUALITY I've been mostly using this with my Matchless amp and it sounds fantastic. It really retains the sound of the amp while adding just the right amount of gain, sustain, and compression to really make it sing. I can really get fantastic low to mid to high gain Vox tones with this with ease, all of which sound and feel like a tube amp. The pedal doesn't feel stiff, it feels smooth and bouncy. It's very fun and addicting to play. Despite me getting a rather bright tone out of it, you can still get darker tones as well. Not quite Dumble territory, in my opinion, but fairly dark and rich sounding. It really depends on the amp, however. OVERALL OPINION I'm generally not a fan of using pedals to overdrive an amp or as pedal distortion. The sound and feel is never quite there. Many times, the level of the noise is louder than that of the actual notes. Lovepedal managed to make a pedal that defies these general limitations. If you are looking for a good, transparent mid gain OD box, you owe it to yourself to try the Lovepedal Kalamazoo.

Overview The Lovepedal Eternity "Burst" overdrive pedal is one of many discontinued editions that Lovepedal has released over the years. The Burst overdrive in particular is one of the more notable models and is somewhat elusive, appearing occasionally on sites like eBay and other secondhand markets. Lovepedal has gained much of their popularity from high-quality, boutique overdrive pedals, and the Eternity Burst is no exception. Hand-built in Ohio, the Burst overdrive features 3 knob controls: Volume, Gain, and Treble Cut (or "Glass" as it is labeled). The pedal is very "touch sensitive" and musical, allowing the guitar player to dig in for more grit, or back off for less of it. The controls are built to handle one extreme to the next: the gain can be set from a subtle boost to an all-out clipping distortion; the treble cut can take the tone from warm and fuzzy to bright and chimey; and the volume goes completely from 0 to 100. This pedal covers a wide array of tone, contained in a very simple box. My Experience There are few times this pedal is not on when I'm playing electric guitar. This is not because I don't like playing clean, but rather because I can clean up my sound by adjusting the guitar volume or backing off my guitar strings. Some describe this pedal as transparent, but I would disagree. I think the Burst overdrive adds a certain distinct character and fullness to my guitar signal, and I prefer to leave it on for that reason. Specifically, this pedal has a great tone for classic rock and blues, but paired with delays and reverbs it can take the sound to a whole new level. It makes ambient soundscapes sound huge (especially for me, because my guitar has low-output single coil pickups). On its own, it adds just the right amount of crunch for guitar solos, and rhythm sounds too. Pros and Cons The Burst overdrive is well built and the controls are very easy to figure out. It is powered by a 9V adapter or a 9V battery, although I prefer the power adaptor. Like many boutique, hand-built effects, you have to unscrew the entire back plate of the unit to replace the 9V battery, so it is much more convenient to use the AC adaptor option. Another important thing to note is the the pedal may need replacement "IC chips" from time to time that snap in and snap out of the pedal circuit. My Burst drive actually "died" on me once, but when I replaced the chip, all was well with the world. Bottom-Line Like any overdrive pedal, my opinions about the Lovepedal Eternity Burst are highly subjective. As I have said before, the Burst overdrive is not a transparent pedal. It will noticeably change the character of your sound, but if it's the right sound for you, then you may never want to turn it off.

Lovepedal's Magic Vibe is a Uni-Vibe style chorus pedal for guitar. Of course you can use it for other electronic instruments, but guitar is what it's made for. The pedal has true bypass and is super small. It's an analog pedal that has 1/4" connections for input and output. When I've used it, we powered it up with a 9 volt power supply, but I'm not sure if it will also take a battery. It's not rackable - it's a stomp box. UTILIZATION The Lovepedal Magic Vibe is the simplest pedal in the world. All it has is a foot switch to turn it on and off and a single knob to control the amount of the vibe effect that you'd like. It is however a sensitive knob and can effect your sound a great deal just when you move a little bit. A manual definitely shouldn't be necessary, although I haven't seen it so I can't say that there couldn't be some useful information in there. SOUND QUALITY The sound of the Lovepedal Magic Vibe freakin' rocks. It's super lush sounding and makes your guitar sound other worldly. It's similar to a Uni-Vibe but isn't a direct copy of it's sound as I find it to be thicker and even lusher than the Uni-Vibe. For those not familiar with the original Uni-Vibe or this type of effect in general, it's not your typical chorus effect as it's somewhere in between a chorus and Leslie rotating speaker effect. It's awesome and this is one of the finest representations of it that I've heard. OVERALL OPINION Lovepedal's Magic Vibe is definitely a special pedal. I like how simple and small it is yet it emits such a large sound. I don't know exactly what one of these will run you, but it's not going to be cheap since it's true bypass and a unique design from a boutique company. Still, it's a great tool in the studio and if you're a pro looking for this sound, Magic Vibe is a must try!

This is a new company that I have just discovered. I've been searching out different companies' pedals for a while, as I'm getting tired of hearing the same boss tones all the time. This one is an ovedrive, but that's a bit misleading as it actually has a lot of tonal range, and has a little bit of compression thrown in for good measure. It really can go from a light overdrive to a lighter distortion depending on your choice of gear. UTILIZATION It has the typical volume, drive, and tone knobs that you'd expect, but also adds some really cool extra features in the two toggle-switches. The first one switches tonal range (it's a three-way switch so you can get a detailed tone selection between that and the knob.) It also has another toggle switch that changes between a relatively straight, dynamic signal, and a more compressed one allowing for more dynamics or smoothness, depending on what you need. SOUND QUALITY This pedal is interesting, in that it really can do a whole lot of different tones. With a Strat or Tele, it can do anything from a mild, slightly gainy boost, to a warm overdrive, even a ripping high pitched rock sound. With a Les Paul, it can get a great Smooth, creamy lead tone, and with another distortion can really tear things up. The added tone switch really almost makes it three different overdrive pedals, as the tonal difference can be that big. The compression switch, while not always necessary for me, does make it easier to use if you're going for a clean boost for a solo or something, but I find that for rock music I tend not to need it. I still like having it though, just in case! I'd say that it mostly sounds best on Tube amps, as do most pedals and most instruments really. OVERALL OPINION Overall, this is a really awesome pedal. It makes me want to sell at least one other one I own! I think the best thing about it is the range of tones. While it has a a few options in terms of sound, I like it because none of them are bad, and all are in fact useful for me quite often. I'm confident that this pedal will have something for just about everyone, assuming you play anything that requires overdrive.