chrisanthony1211 Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 (edited) I tried a 3 leaf proton and it was a little tame! So that's gone back to bassdirect and instead I just bought a lovetone meatball off ebay (if you're gonna do it, may as well do it right!) I had one of these 20 years ago when I first started playing on a two week trial from lovetone, I couldn't afford to keep it so it went back. It's taken this long to work my way through quite a few envelope filters and decide to splash the cash. Can't wait for it to arrive! Anybody else got a meatball? Edited January 1, 2015 by chrisanthony1211 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisanthony1211 Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 (edited) Well, this has now arrived and has been gigged a couple of times. This cost me £300, but it's the sort of thing that's likely to go up in value over the years. This beast takes a little taming, but once tamed it is an absolute beauty. There are plenty of tweakable options and it gives that mutron bootsy funk that I like so much, you can switch between low pass, mid band and high pass filtering, with another four stages of funk within each band, for bass the low pass filter works best and depending on what you want, you can get real sub bass "brown" notes or you can filter a little high for mutron funk, you can hook up additional passive volume pedals to adjust attack and decay mid funk. You can have your funk going up, or down, with down giving more of a phaser thing going off. I've gone through plenty of envelope filters over the years since my first meatball and nothing comes close. The EMMA Discumbobulator was the best until I gave this another go, but the meatball blows it out of the water, it really is a great pedal and has true bypass, I only use two pedals, this and a top quality compressor. It doesn't get used every song by any means, but wow when it does get used! I'm pretty sure that these arnt made anymore, lovetone were a boutique britsh company set up in the 90s that made a number of top quality pedals, they crop up occasionally on basschat and always fetch a premium price. Edited January 1, 2015 by chrisanthony1211 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bo0tsy Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 (edited) Congrats on your purchase, never owned a Lovetone Meatball before, but it's on my list of filters to try out one day. With all those controls is it difficult to dial in? I heard the Meatball can get pretty synthy too? Edited January 1, 2015 by Bo0tsy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisanthony1211 Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 To be honest, initially I thought that it would be impossible to tame, but after 30 minutes of twiddling knobs and reading through the instructions it all makes sense, I find it to be quite easily tweaked, and not difficult at all, I can get it to do what I want pretty quickly, it's really quite intuitive and just makes sense once you understand what all the dials do.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edpirie Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Did you try out the GR1/2 or Wonderlove, they're supposed to be simpler copies of the Meatball? I had one of these years ago on an extended odyssey through the envelope filters of the day and just found it too complicated for my needs. In the end I settled on a Mutron as it had the sound I was after with much less scope for error, but I'm sure with patience the Meatball can do that and plenty more besides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisanthony1211 Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 I thought about the 3leaf wonderlove, and tried 3 lead proton which was a little tame for me and didn't cut through the mix, I just thought that if I'm going to get one, get the best, and it was a toss up between the meatball and mutron, I'd love to get them side by side! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 I used to own one when they first came out and it was a lovely thing. I flogged it for a huge profit on Ebay to a bloke in the US when they stopped making them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisanthony1211 Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 I'm thinking those prices are going to keep on going up too! When I'm old and hanging up my bass this will be worth a small fortune! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edpirie Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Prices for these are interesting. Pretty sure I sold mine for £400 just after they stopped making them when there was still plenty of hype in the bass world (Nick Fyffe etc), and fewer other options. Crazy prices need rarity plus GAS catalyst (eg Muse and that Akai thingy). There are just so many more good pedal makers around now. But you certainly won't lose money and main thing is if it's making you want to play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Software, not analogue, tone etc etc etc. I would love one of these to slap into my iPad with presets. I could happily live with something that is only 80% there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Bass Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 The Wonderlove is more Mutron'ish just like the Proton, the best aprox to a meatball is the GR1/2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 [quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1420733797' post='2652784'] The Wonderlove is more Mutron'ish just like the Proton, the best aprox to a meatball is the GR1/2. [/quote] I don't think I agree with that. The Wonderlove is a development of the GR2 circuit, basically the same with a few tweaks here and there, very much still on the Meatball side of things. The Proton is quite different from the Wonderlove and I wasn't a fan, although I own neither of them anymore as overall they both underwhelmed me. Would love to own a Meatball! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisanthony1211 Posted January 8, 2015 Author Share Posted January 8, 2015 I sent the proton back, it sounded good by itself but just got lost in the mix when playing with a band, whereas the meatball cuts through like a knife, being able to select between high pass, low pass or mid filters, and then even being able to tweak those really does help to fine tune your funk! I'm going to let our guitarist and hammond player have a go and see how it sounds with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Bass Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 [quote name='Kev' timestamp='1420741074' post='2652919'] I don't think I agree with that. The Wonderlove is a development of the GR2 circuit, basically the same with a few tweaks here and there, very much still on the Meatball side of things. The Proton is quite different from the Wonderlove and I wasn't a fan, although I own neither of them anymore as overall they both underwhelmed me. Would love to own a Meatball! [/quote] At one time i owned the GR1, the Proton, the Wonderlove and the MXR M82 (i think that there was actually also a AW-3 around). The Wonderlove has a quackier sound, the envelope is more errr "open". My thoughts were that the core sound was closer to the Proton and MXR when comparing to the GR. The WL is a great tool with lots of control but somebody will have to rip my GR from my cold dead hands before i part with it. The GR has a warmer tone (to my ears), the envelope is more "polite" and in my opinion that fits better a bass guitar. I don't like high pitch quacky sounds from an EF. My main regret is that i had to pass the oportunity to buy a GR2 from a friend of mine a few weeks ago, the blend option on these is a plus that i think it would work even better in my sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisanthony1211 Posted January 9, 2015 Author Share Posted January 9, 2015 [quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1420808602' post='2653674'] At one time i owned the GR1, the Proton, the Wonderlove and the MXR M82 (i think that there was actually also a AW-3 around). The Wonderlove has a quackier sound, the envelope is more errr "open". My thoughts were that the core sound was closer to the Proton and MXR when comparing to the GR. The WL is a great tool with lots of control but somebody will have to rip my GR from my cold dead hands before i part with it. The GR has a warmer tone (to my ears), the envelope is more "polite" and in my opinion that fits better a bass guitar. I don't like high pitch quacky sounds from an EF. My main regret is that i had to pass the oportunity to buy a GR2 from a friend of mine a few weeks ago, the blend option on these is a plus that i think it would work even better in my sound. [/quote] The blend option makes a big difference on the meatball, just so many sounds you can get from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Bass Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 [quote name='chrisanthony1211' timestamp='1420814967' post='2653803'] The blend option makes a big difference on the meatball, just so many sounds you can get from it. [/quote] Stop it!!! I'm feeling bad enough for not grabbing that GR2... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassnut62 Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 [quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1420815394' post='2653809'] Stop it!!! I'm feeling bad enough for not grabbing that GR2... [/quote] I've got a GR1 too and despite the blend mix I think I heard that the GR2 is not as good as the GR1, possibly 3 Leaf Spencer was already trying to go more in Mutron direction with GR2 and it seems like maybe nobody can really capture the Mutron sound except Mike Beigel himself and he's started making them again as http://www.mu-fx.com/store Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Bass Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 [quote name='Bassnut62' timestamp='1420817782' post='2653858'] I've got a GR1 too and despite the blend mix I think I heard that the GR2 is not as good as the GR1, possibly 3 Leaf Spencer was already trying to go more in Mutron direction with GR2 and it seems like maybe nobody can really capture the Mutron sound except Mike Beigel himself and he's started making them again as [url="http://www.mu-fx.com/store"]http://www.mu-fx.com/store[/url] [/quote] At the time i exchanged a few mails with Spencer and ended going for the GR1, he said that there were a few tweaks in tone on the newer model but the main reason i went for the GR1 was because of the bypass switch, the GR2 uses a buffered bypass (if i'm not mistaken) so that you can use the fx on the loop even with the envelope switched off. I'm really happy with my GR1 and i don't need to use other fx on the loop, i have a true-bypass only policy on my board to prevent accidents, so i'll keep mine for as long as it may work properly. I would like to try it against the GR2 though... maybe next time i'll grab one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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