Lovetone Meatball

[johnk]

since building the mutron V, I've been on kind of an envelope pedal building binge lately. after the mutron V, I built a mutron III and I love it, but on that one, i'm going omit the HP and BP settings since I use it with a bass. i'm also planning adding a sensitivity control once I figure it out, so it's not boxed yet.

I did also build and complete a Lovetone Meatball. it was a wiring nightmare with 6 pots and 4 rotary switches but I still managed to fit it into a 1590BB. IMO, it's an awesome sounding envelope filter for bass or guitar. I did add one mod to it which is a 'moog filter' switch that changes the q of the low end in the filter sweep.

here's a couple of pics of it:

[JaviCAP]

Great work, John!

I had problems too with the Sweep control, and had to check the schematics and see that the wiring on this rotary is quite simple.

I used a Retex RM12 (similar size to a 1590DD), but now that I see yours, I'll try to build it in a 1590BB (yeah, masochism  :P) as this is the worst and most difficult offboard wiring that I have ever faced.

Included too the connection to outside expresion pedals:

[JaviCAP]

By the way, John, I see that you have  given a miss to the loop, and this is one of the most important features of the Meatball, but will be hard to find some room for them.

BR

[johnk]

JaviCAP wrote

By the way, John, I see that you have  given a miss to the loop, and this is one of the most important features of the Meatball, but will be hard to find some room for them.

BR

yeah, I just decided to do without it.

[johnk]

btw, I drew up a vero using Harald's but with a diagram showing the rotaries too since his wiring of the seep switch didn't make any sense to me. I also added a small trimmer board to dial in the up and down filters. I also show how the moog filter is wired and that mod really helps tame the uncontrollable q when used with a bass.

[Dave]

John, with the addition of those rotary diagrams, I feel like I can no longer put off building one of these, so thank you (both genuinely and sarcastically). I have one question, did you use proper vactrol in your build, or led-ldr instead?
Cheers
Dave

[Jopn]

Definitely looks like proper vactorals in his gutshot.

[Dave]

Do you know, as soon as I saw someone had answered this thread, I thought to myself "why not just look at the gutshots?". Thanks for pointing this out, its been a long day.....

[johnk]

Dave wrote

John, I have one question, did you use proper vactrol in your build, or led-ldr instead?
Cheers
Dave

they're VTL5C3's.

[Dave]

[Dave]

Cheers John, managed to pick up four of them for £6 which seems like a decent deal.
Cheers
Dave

[dexxyy]

Have you got a link for those Dave? I could do with a few.

[Dave]

It was a one off ebay auction I'm afraid, I'll keep an eye on the seller and see if he lists anymore. Apparently the ones I have are NOS from the 80's, which means.....
C@@L vintage M@j@ Hendriz TONZ!!!!!
Yeah....
Thanks
Dave

[Dave]

Hi John,
Did you verify your layout? Only I've built one and aren't getting any output at all. The sweep LED lights up in one position, and several of the pots seem to turn down the brightness, but I'm not getting any sound out at all. I'll continue to troubleshoot as its probably my fault, I'm just desperate to get this working as I put a lot of time into it.
Cheers
Dave

[johnk]

yep, mine was built off of the diagram that I posted and it works perfect.

[Dave]

Ok cheers John, looks as though I have some more troubleshooting to do then, really want to get this one working.
Thanks
Dave

[Dave]

Ok, so I tidied up my sweep switch wiring which now matches the schematic on the mcmeat project pdf. I also found one or two micro solder bridges so removed those and scored the gaps, and it is still not working. The sweep led lights up in one position, and I am now getting a swooshing sound from the blend pot and a popping sound from the mode switch, but still no sign of guitar signal. I might try replacing the polar components in case they were damaged from the solder bridges, but other than that I'm running out of ideas. I've triple checked component placement and values, I really really want to get this working. Any helpful suggestions would be most appreciated.
Thanks
Dave

[Dave]

AAARGH damnit! I replaced all the polar caps yesterday evening as well as re soldering the switches to the board and got exactly the same result, except now the bloody sweep led doesnt light up at all. I think I might just start again from scratch and if it doesn't work then look at something else instead, a shame because I think this is a really exciting pedal.
Thanks
Dave

[JaviCAP]

Take in mind that this effect is very very highly settings dependant and than in many positions it will get no effect, so when you try it, be sure that you use these settings:



Attack and Colour knobs will rarely have to be moved from these positions at any time. So maybe your pedal is working and you don't know it :P

BR

[Dave]

Hi Javi,
Thanks for the reply, unfortunately I'm not currently getting any output at all, let alone affected output. I'm guessing I've either made an error somewhere or there is a broken component perhaps.
Cheers
Dave