First, used with guitar the Meatball may not be the spectacular holy grail of...whatever you were expecting. But put some effects in the loop (od/dist and delay)and my God! You have now made a completely new effects pedal. Once I did this, then I understood.
Second, used with a stock, passive bass it becomes an extension of the instruments' electronics and opens up many possibilities.
Third, used with a keyboard it warms up a digital synth or piano and does all sorts of sweeping, tonal alteration and filtering.
I used a Wal bass sample for my current track and put it through the Meatball for a couple of mixes; again, now I understand and one of those mixes will be the master.
There are so many reviews/opinions on this thing that I'm not going to get into details. It can sound amazing or ugly and terrible, depending on what you do with it. It can also produce low frequency sweeps to blow your amp up. I have no idea what 'pristine sound quality' means when assessing this unit, but it isn't noisy.
Reliability/Durability:
It's a little delicate so I wouldn't gig it at all. I suppose it is bound to go wrong eventually. I'd have to get it fixed. Lovetone had a particularly interesting style and design, didn't they?
Ease of Use:
Ah, the Lovetone Meatball; work of genius or waste of time? The answer is of course in the way you use it. It is NOT easy to get a good sound out of at first, and if you are a guitarist looking for a standard touch-wah then this pedal is far too much, and no better than a Boss for those 'wacka-wacka' funk parts. But it was originally partly designed and developed for/by a guitarist! If you are a bassist or keyboard player, then you should be very impressed indeed. There is something determinedly home-electronics bonkers about it;every parameter can be tweaked and there are pedal inserts and an effects loop. The manual gives you just enough basic info to eventually work out what's going on. I've had mine for 3 years and I don't use it much but there is nothing else quite like it, and when needed it really delivers.
Customer Support:
They've been out of business for a few years now. If it goes wrong I'll try them first then somebody like Pedalmods UK.
Overall Rating:
Because it's very expensive and not that useful at first you think you've wasted your cash. Persevere with it, because when you find the right use for this thing it is absolutely mindblowing.
Conclusion; very specialist but stunning with correct application.
Is it the World's most vicious touch-wah? I don't know, but the fact that people are now making beefed-up clones of this pedal says quite a lot. To get the most out of it, you must have some idea of what it can do to/for whatever music or sound you are trying to make. And yes, these do come up on eBay, increasingly rarely - about three or four in the last 2 years; like the other Lovetone pedals it can be seen as purely collectable, but it is also an unique and occasionally indispensable sound modifier.
