Lovepedal ProValve Overdrive/Distortion SOUNDCLIPS

Ok so to be perfectly honest I wasn't 100% impressed with the sound of this pedal at bedroom volume, which is what these clips were recorded at. But now that I've had a chance to listen to the clips over a decent speaker setup (you've got to at least have a subwoofer to feel these clips bump, they do) I'm pretty floored! I can't wait to get this thing out to a gig.

Now, this thing is mainly meant for guitars with single coils, and I think it sounds a little more as intended with my Jazz (obviously with single coils), but it's really great and meaty with my SG Bass too! It's also very touch sensitive, but for most of these clips I'll just be hammering away... sorry. It's about the . Definitely keeps my bottom though. I'm really impressed at how meaty it sounds with my Jazz Bass, which does sound a little anemic on it's own I think.

Anyways, enough rambling, let's get to the clips. Here's with my Jazz Bass with the gain at minimum, still very meaty and growly:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=889952&songID=7208063

And yeah, I know I mislabeled the two Jazz clips. That's the min gain one. Here's with the gain at nine o'clock for some Larry Graham style distorted bass:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=889952&songID=7208055

I kinda like that, maybe not as much as the first clip but it's still cool. Anyways, here's with the SG Bass, both pickups, gain at 9 o'clock:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=889952&songID=7208066

That has some serious booty to it I think! A good deal of crunch too. Now here's the SG Bass, BRIDGE PICKUP ONLY (don't listen to this clip if you don't like me playing like a rhythm guitar) doing a Neil Young song (Cortez the Killer) chords and some nice sustaining leads.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=889952&songID=7208073

I think this pedal sounds good for leads. Very distorted... leads. But who cares what I think! What do YOU think? All feedback, positive or negative, appreciated.

 

Ok I added a poll, so check these out and vote! You don't have to, but if you feel that this pedal sounds "ick" I would love to hear precisely what it is that you don't like about it... if enough people don't like something about my tone I can try to avoid doing that... you get the gist.

 

No, hey man, we're cool! I paid about $150 for this used off from eBay, it's normally like $215 or somewhere thereabouts. That tune from the first clip is one of my band's original songs. I wasn't on the original studio track so the original version of the bassline is very clean and boring, I like to give it a lot of extra push on the bass when we do it live though! I do think it's a cool bassline, and I use that one a lot for demo'ing pedals since I work in different octaves and as such and it can help me demonstrate the character of most overdrives I've played pretty well.

And yeah, like TheBigO said I do demo new pedals pretty much weekly. I've done a lot of soundclips on this forum, if you ever feel like checking them out just seach for threads containing the word "soundclips" in the title. I've done clips for a few pedals that are definitely worth checking out I think.

 

That one's kinda my favorite too! I think it's definitely a good sound for that riff, it's kinda growly but still has some bottom there too where the clips I've done with that riff and my Jazz are sometimes a little anemic I think.

 

Yeah, it is kinda nasty! Check out my Fulltone OCD clips if you haven't, I think that one gets even nastier! (Have to scroll through the thread to find the "real" bassline clips I did though).

 

Yeah, call me what you will but I'm not fond of having the carrots option! I'd rather have more votes about how people really think something sounds, even if it means I'm left out on that inside joke that's been going on on this forum since before I got here! (Seriously, what's the deal with the carrots option?) And thanks for the feedback!

 

Thanks! I do agree, I think the Marshall-ish sounding pedals are great for my style, which is definitely not everyone else's. I agree about the Box of Rock too, I've actually been thinking about selling my Box of Rock since I ordered this pedal (and everyone knows how much I love that Box of Rock). Judging by my own clips I do kinda like this one better! It's really friendly on the bottom end too, and almost too touch sensitive. I meant to do a clip to demonstrate it but I can go from a basically clean sound to a high gain crunch just by varying my touch. It's pretty cool, but doesn't quite do palm muting the way I wish it would... maybe that's different at a real volume though.

 

Glad you dig it! Credit goes to the guitar player in my band for actually coming up with that bass riff. It's cool because that's actually one of the songs that the guitar doesn't double the bass part in too. If we ever actually put a tour together (it's tough we're all busy people) I'll have to let you know if we'll be in your area. We're not the greatest live band, but we have fun!

 

Yeah, I hear you.

Yeah, this is a pretty fat sounding pedal even with my Jazz which is really cool, if I use my Jazz in the studio I'll probably have to put this pedal on it. The Sparkle Drive sounded good with my Jazz too but definitely not as fat, go figure it is a Tubescreamer.

So it looks like so far people can dig the tone, that's great! If you haven't voted yet please do so, I appreciate the feedback everyone!

 

If anyone would be so kind, I've got a bit of a dilemma... I really only want one dirtbox on my board, but I can't seem to decide whether I should be using this one, or the Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive. If you could check out these clips and my Sparkle Drive clips here:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=499446

And tell me what you think I'd be grateful for some opinions on the matter! Thanks!

 

Yeah, good advice, thanks! I've actually been using more and more distortion on my sound lately, so I guess I've got to decide which direction I want to take it in. I kind of like having a good deal of distortion, my bandmates don't mind. And I can clean the ProValve up either with just playing lightly (for a change) or by rolling off my volume some, which I guess I'd be willing to do live if I had to.

Hmm... the only thing I'm really concerned about is that the ProValve isn't as "tight" sounding as the Sparkle Drive when I'm in dropped C#... but I could just stop being lazy and put some new strings on my guitar, and not to mention the ProValve is thicker than the Sparkle Drive, so I guess it's a trade-off... hmm... Thanks again for the advice, you guys have got me thinking.