big cheese pedal Lovetone Big Cheese Fuzz Effect (1997) – RetroFret

big cheese pedal Lovetone Big Cheese Fuzz Effect (1997) – RetroFretLovetone Big Cheese Model Fuzz Effect, c. 1997, made in England, serial # BC 0302. 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

Lovetone Big Cheese Model Fuzz Effect, c. 1997, made in England, serial # BC 0302. 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.

A fan favorite for its campy name and sharp cheddar paint job, The Big Cheese was the third pedal developed in 1995 by Lovetone; it's a fat fuzz that doesn't allow the metaphor to die at any point. Gain is substituted for "Curds" and volume for "Whey," and then various tone sculpting options including a tone selector that allows you to scoop or boost the mids, or to go "Swiss" gated mode. The brash, wild fuzz works best when cranked up high in a rock setting. Lovetone would later make the Cheese Source, a big-box dual pedal combining the circuits of the Big Cheese fuzz and the Brown Source overdrive.
 
Height is 5 1/2 in. (14 cm.), 5 5/8 in. (14.3 cm.) width, and 2 1/2 in. (6.4 cm.) in depth at deepest point. This Big Cheese is in stellar condition with no major knicks or cosmetic wear, only some slight 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 Big Cheese 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.