Lovetone Meatball

Used Meatball in very good condition, missing rubber bottom, no box or PSU.  These are rare and hard to come by these days.  We tested this pedal and filtering capabilities are amazing, hence this pedal being used by so many artists since the 1990's.

About the Meatball:

The Meatball is a dynamic filter controlled by an in-built trigger, although turning the bottom left-hand switch to its Off position disengages the trigger so that the Meatball can be used as a static filter. The same switch also sets the trigger to react to either the full bandwidth of the triggering signal, or to only half. In the Half position, bass frequencies roll off at 150Hz, so that random bass rumbles won't trouble the trigger. However the setting is purely for the trigger's benefit and does not actually attenuate the audio. Most of the other controls adjust the various filter parameters, apart from the Sensitivity knob, which sets the trigger threshold.

The bottom right-hand switch offers low-pass, band-pass or high-pass filtering, while its neighbouring four-position switch (with simple Hi and Lo labels at its extreme positions) shifts the filter to different parts of the frequency spectrum in octave steps.

The switch labelled Up and Down sets the direction of the filter sweep, while the Attack and Decay knobs determine the filter's envelope shape. The Colour control adjusts the filter resonance and can be used to dial in synth-like tones which are harmonically related to the input signal. Depending on the other filter settings, the Colour control is capable of creating anything from wild swooping synth-bass notes to chirping high tones, so care is needed! The remaining Intensity control adjusts the depth of the filter envelope, and it can be made to create wah-wah-style sweeps when rapidly turned.

The bottom right-hand switch offers low-pass, band-pass or high-pass filtering, while its neighbouring four-position switch (with simple Hi and Lo labels at its extreme positions) shifts the filter to different parts of the frequency spectrum in octave steps.

The switch labelled Up and Down sets the direction of the filter sweep, while the Attack and Decay knobs determine the filter's envelope shape. The Colour control adjusts the filter resonance and can be used to dial in synth-like tones which are harmonically related to the input signal. Depending on the other filter settings, the Colour control is capable of creating anything from wild swooping synth-bass notes to chirping high tones, so care is needed! The remaining Intensity control adjusts the depth of the filter envelope, and it can be made to create wah-wah-style sweeps when rapidly turned.

Meatball Pedal Inputs
The Meatball provides two pedal inputs for remote real-time filter adjustment. Each input will accept a quarter-inch jack from any passive expression pedal, although Lovetone strongly recommend using the Bespeco VM18L, (which is also available from their UK distributors Dinosaural), because its sweep range is compatible with the Meatball and their other devices.

The Pedal 1 input is wired in series with the Decay pot, allowing you to add extra decay time to the filter envelope as you sweep the pedal. With the pot turned to its zero position, the expression pedal effectively provides the pot's full decay range. In certain configurations — for example, when the Meatball is optimised for auto-wah — the pedal provides an extremely effective way of articulating the filter.

The Pedal 2 input is patched in parallel with the Intensity control, which basically determines the depth of the filter envelope. For the full effect, the Intensity control needs to be turned down so that the pedal performs the entire 'calm to raspy' filter sweep. Both pedal inputs are very useful, and together provide a far more varied and interesting set of tonal change options than a simple wah pedal is capable of offering.

Some of the artists that use Lovetone pedals: Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Stereolab, Nikki Sixx, Simple Minds, John Squire, Metallica, Suede, Blur, Oasis, Radiohead, Matthew Sweet, Pulp, Mike Gordon, Tim Simenon, Adrian Utley, Supergrass, Nellee Hooper, Pete Kember (aka Sonic Boom), Paul Schroeder, Adrian Sherwood, Will Sergeant, Chris Kimsey, Flood, Gil Norton, Chris Tsangarides, Bob Rock, Spike Stent, Dave Stewart, Doug Wimbish, Guy Chambers and Alan Moulder.