• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

3Leaf Audio Club - Episode 2

It is very sad. I’ve been wanting to get one but alas it’s out of my reach.

I have one Ive considered selling since getting an mkii but I paid a high price for it on Reverb & hate to ask that of someone else so Ive just held onto it as a back up.

20220709_201411.jpg
 
Yes, if it’s the pedal I’m thinking about the seller bought a Ghost Doom 2 and they are both listed and priced as if bought to flip. It’ll always be more expensive when it’s not in the US unless someone’s willing to take a loss. That’s a lot lot though. When buying from Spencer and getting it delivered to the UK, delivery is always more expensive than domestic orders and there will be about 25% added on for import VAT and customs duties, plus the customs admin fee. I assume the same is true of Korea. That would still put it at half of the asking price though. If they paid a lot on the secondary market (which I don’t think can be the case here as they are in the Ghost finish - and the Octabvre is stated as new old stock too so presumably bought with the knowledge there won’t be more for a while) then maybe they’ll recoup their funds but there’s no rule saying they have to try to do that and there’s arguably an expectation that when buying at a premium you take the hit. If shipping internationally it puts a sale at likely over $1,000 after taxes. Ultimately, I’ll just blacklist that seller and make sure I never buy from them as I don’t want to support someone like that. If it means that I don’t get a pedal I really want and can’t find elsewhere then so be it.

All of that said, I really like 3Leaf pedals and it’s a bit frustrating that the last half dozen pages (I’m not really sure, I’ve not checked), are about the prices. I understand why but I guess that, absent more stock, it’s not going to get much better unless nobody buys at the current prices and they have to come down. I think there are already signs that may happen though as there are far more 3Leaf pedals coming up for sale than twelve months ago so, hopefully, those buying to flip will be frustrated and realise it’s not quite the cash cow it was a year ago and they can move back onto Klons and guitar pedals.

To try to take things away from prices: now the pedals are out in the wild and people should be past first impressions, what’s the general consensus on the new finishes. I actually really like them although I know a few look a bit more weathered than was perhaps expected.
 
The Meatball clone is mine forever though. It took like a week to get it figured out, as it's highly touchy, but dialed in, it's the best filter I've had, and I've owned a Wonderlove, Microtron IV, Xerograph Deluxe, and a Chromatron.

So is she willing to sell her clones or what?

Not to derail the 3Leaf thread, but in light of the rarity and exorbitant secondary market price of Wonderloves/Chromatrons, my obsession with envelope filters, and regret at selling my Barge Concepts Grinder... I also admit to being a bit curious if Mrs. Cioe would be willing to build a Meatball clone for others as well.

5sg.
 
Last edited:
Thanks! I see an rng and other bells and whistles, good stuff! is SWP controlling sweep direction? and is there an fx loop? you might as well give us a full description, haha!

Here's the project: Spectron Dynamic Filter (Lovetone Meatball)

Here's a close up. Knobs are temporary while we wait for the real ones.

20220711_081719.jpg


My notes, such as they are:
INT is intensity, controlling how bright the lights light up inside when it's triggered.
ATK and DCY are obvious but have a strange property that if the decay is set slower than the attack, nothing happens. For my money, attack works best either all the way counterclockwise for that ultra quick snap or up just a bit, say 9 o'clock, for a more vowel sound. These knobs are powerful, like an XD but more so, so little adjustments go a long way.
RES is called Color in the manual, but it's really resonance. This control combines with, well, all the others, and at extreme settings can make horrid sounds.
SEN is tough because it really has to be all the way up. You have to remember that the Meatball was designed to work with all kinds of signals, so the range on this parameter is huge. For me, it works best all the way up or nearly so.
MIX is obvious. I run mine all the way wet. The pot on this one is a bit scratchy but I don't worry about it.
SWP is a two position switch, up or down. I haven't spent time dialing in a down sweep, but I get horrible squelching feedback with my normal settings when I switch it to down. Adjusting away from those settings gives a huge range of sounds, some of which are very usable.
Band is a 3 way switch for off, half, or full, for whether the envelope detector is off, sensing only upper frequencies, or the full spectrum. I don't do the static filter thing, but the other modes are both very useful.
Q is a 2 way switch that goes from a fixed Q to variable Q. I think of it like a Moog mode and leave it mostly on.
Mode is a 3 way toggle for band pass, high pass, or low pass.
RNG is a 4 way rotary determining range of the filter. I don't find the topmost setting useful and default to second from the bottom.

Jacks are in, expression for intensity, expression for decay, effects send and return, and out. The loop here works like the 3 Leaf ones set without the buffer, so you don't have access to whatever is in the loop with the pedal off. I've thought about putting a Fairfield Modele B in the loop, some sort of always on drive, just because I almost never use a filter without dirt anyway.

The funny this is I've thought about how you would make this a friendlier pedal, because it's not at all. My main things would be resetting the sensitivity potto have a smaller, more useful range for bass, and perhaps the attack and decay pots, too. The range rotary could be made into a 2 way switch without losing much for bass. And I would get rid of both expression jacks, and make the loop buffered. And the funny part is that this is basically how Spencer arrived at the Groove Regulator.
 
Here's the project: Spectron Dynamic Filter (Lovetone Meatball)

Here's a close up. Knobs are temporary while we wait for the real ones.

View attachment 4746157

My notes, such as they are:
INT is intensity, controlling how bright the lights light up inside when it's triggered.
ATK and DCY are obvious but have a strange property that if the decay is set slower than the attack, nothing happens. For my money, attack works best either all the way counterclockwise for that ultra quick snap or up just a bit, say 9 o'clock, for a more vowel sound. These knobs are powerful, like an XD but more so, so little adjustments go a long way.
RES is called Color in the manual, but it's really resonance. This control combines with, well, all the others, and at extreme settings can make horrid sounds.
SEN is tough because it really has to be all the way up. You have to remember that the Meatball was designed to work with all kinds of signals, so the range on this parameter is huge. For me, it works best all the way up or nearly so.
MIX is obvious. I run mine all the way wet. The pot on this one is a bit scratchy but I don't worry about it.
SWP is a two position switch, up or down. I haven't spent time dialing in a down sweep, but I get horrible squelching feedback with my normal settings when I switch it to down. Adjusting away from those settings gives a huge range of sounds, some of which are very usable.
Band is a 3 way switch for off, half, or full, for whether the envelope detector is off, sensing only upper frequencies, or the full spectrum. I don't do the static filter thing, but the other modes are both very useful.
Q is a 2 way switch that goes from a fixed Q to variable Q. I think of it like a Moog mode and leave it mostly on.
Mode is a 3 way toggle for band pass, high pass, or low pass.
RNG is a 4 way rotary determining range of the filter. I don't find the topmost setting useful and default to second from the bottom.

Jacks are in, expression for intensity, expression for decay, effects send and return, and out. The loop here works like the 3 Leaf ones set without the buffer, so you don't have access to whatever is in the loop with the pedal off. I've thought about putting a Fairfield Modele B in the loop, some sort of always on drive, just because I almost never use a filter without dirt anyway.

The funny this is I've thought about how you would make this a friendlier pedal, because it's not at all. My main things would be resetting the sensitivity potto have a smaller, more useful range for bass, and perhaps the attack and decay pots, too. The range rotary could be made into a 2 way switch without losing much for bass. And I would get rid of both expression jacks, and make the loop buffered. And the funny part is that this is basically how Spencer arrived at the Groove Regulator.
Thanks a lot for the details! Yes, simplifying this sounds a lot like the Groove Regulator. By the way, what you describe about ATK/DCY is very similar to the behavior of my GR2.

Oh, RNG is obviously range. (I thought first of some LFO based on a random number generator :bag: )
 
  • Like
Reactions: Stubb
Here's the project: Spectron Dynamic Filter (Lovetone Meatball)

The funny this is I've thought about how you would make this a friendlier pedal, because it's not at all. My main things would be resetting the sensitivity potto have a smaller, more useful range for bass, and perhaps the attack and decay pots, too. The range rotary could be made into a 2 way switch without losing much for bass. And I would get rid of both expression jacks, and make the loop buffered. And the funny part is that this is basically how Spencer arrived at the Groove Regulator.

Bingo! The Groove Regulator & GR2 have everything you'd want from the Meatball & eliminated what was unnecessary... only thing I wish he would have kept is the expression jack :/
 
  • Like
Reactions: Stubb