Failed Pedal Lines and Companies

[D.o.S.]

Skychord is back under the old name, I believe, which I can't recall right now. King something?

[popvulture]

Lovetone was the one that broke my heart. I will never love again. How did they fail?! I cannot understand.

The world wasn't ready for overly tweakable super quality hand build enevelope filters or giant spacey flangers with a shit ton of controls

They were just like Chase Bliss for instance, but I guess back then there was only a tiny niche market that couldn't make that type of business profitable

If ever there were a pedal company I'd like to see resurrected, it's them. I feel like people would buy the shit out of those now... but you never know.

Also want a Rand-O-Matic reissue, but that's even more niche.

[repoman]

Maybe you guys could help me find a pedal that I had about 6 years ago, forgot the name and have never seen one since or been able to find out what it was-

It was a octave/sub octave synth pedal called a 'black hole' or something spacey in the name, was a bit larger, like a 1590DD, was painted black with the graphics (kinda plain geometric looking) in white if I recall correctly. I think I might have bought it from proguitarshop (but not sure)? It had about 6-7 knobs on it, maybe one was a rotary position.

It's been bugging me trying to remember that thing and haven't been able to google it correctly. I don't remember much about it except I couldn't figure out if about 4 of the knobs were even hooked up to anything...when I was trying to sell it, some guy came over and fiddledicked with it for about 15 minutes and was like WTF these knobs don't do anything.

It made synthy, sub octave, farty noises.

[D.o.S.]

That sounds like an old DBA pedal on description, save 'plain geometric looking'.

Any way you could link to some artwork/images that have a similar styling?

[Chankgeez]

Lovetone was the one that broke my heart. I will never love again. How did they fail?! I cannot understand.

The world wasn't ready for overly tweakable super quality hand build enevelope filters or giant spacey flangers with a shit ton of controls

They were just like Chase Bliss for instance, but I guess back then there was only a tiny niche market that couldn't make that type of business profitable

If ever there were a pedal company I'd like to see resurrected, it's them. I feel like people would buy the shit out of those now... but you never know.

Those Lovetone pedals were really expensive at the time. I wanted some then and could never justify the price. I think it was that way with a lot of potential customers. If put back in production now, they'd still be really expensive. They might sell better now because of nostalgia or something though.

[D.o.S.]

You could also get into the Frantone thing where a lot of people look and say "eh, so what?" because there are so many more options. Less likely with these sorts of pedals than fuzzes, I guess.

I always thought Lovetone got buried by the Radiohead effect?

[repoman]

That sounds like an old DBA pedal on description, save 'plain geometric looking'.

Any way you could link to some artwork/images that have a similar styling?

It wasn't a DBA. The appearance would be more in the style of like the newest version of the EHX micro synth, with it being black with sections of it blocked off with clean white lines iirc.

[HighDeaf1080p]

Those Lovetone pedals were really expensive at the time. I wanted some then and could never justify the price. I think it was that way with a lot of potential customers. If put back in production now, they'd still be really expensive. They might sell better now because of nostalgia or something though.

Yea, I remember my Meatball was $640US back in the mid to early 90's. That was definitely some bank, so that's probably what the downfall was.

[Chankgeez]

Yeah, I'm glad Frantone's back, but I think Fran's banking on nostalgia to some extent too.

It'd be interesting if she started using smaller enclosures with top mounted jacks or something. Seems like the current market wants shit like that.

[JonnyAngle]

How about Zeibek? I still love my submarines! Oz admitted he didn't factor in his time when he set up the pricing.

[Jero]

Think the Lovetone dudes are still around, lurking in the shadows. Pretty sure gigahearts got a polite indirect c&d or sorts last year.

Also want a Rand-O-Matic reissue, but that's even more niche.

Digit would probably make you one

[echorec]

Charlie Stringer died, and so did Jon Bessent. That was what caused Snarling Dogs and Austone to fold up, so I wouldn't regard those lines as failures. I'm sure there were a couple of other small outfits with similar fates as well.

Lovetone was not run by savvy businessmen. Their customer service was a joke. Despite charging basically 2-3x what anyone else was charging, they still couldn't figure out how to pay their bills, or to increase their distribution. If you e-mailed them to ask a technical question or the specifications of a particular effect, your e-mail address would be saved into their rolodex, but they wouldn't answer your question. They only answered sales requests. I had a friend in the UK call them on my behalf around 2002 and they offered to put me on an impossibly long waiting list for the last of the ? Flangers, which were still around $450, if you didn't have to pay import duties. A couple years later when the Dinosaural guy briefly reintroduced Lovetones into the marketplace, I got my first e-mail from them ever. I told them to fuck themselves and to lose my e-mail address. I had probably contacted them 5 or 6 times about pedals, availability, specs, et cetera. I was ignored every single time, and I knew of many people who had similar experiences. I respected that their pedals were quite innovative for the time, but I did not respect their practices or procedures. I understand part of the high cost was that Vlad was operating out of the UK, where parts were more expensive and harder to acquire. I also understand there were other logistical difficulties like cost of living, taxes, and Vlad's status as a legal alien/dual citizen. I get that, but I have never found anyone who claimed that Vlad treated anyone like anything but a paycheck.

I've seen that Dan Coggins (Dinosaural) has tried to distance himself from Lovetone since 2008, but if he truly was the co-developer for all of Lovetone's best designs, then where are his creations today? Dinosaural has made nothing but dirt boxes to my knowledge. If Coggins is such an innovator, then why isn't he building better stuff for his own line? I've had 3 experiences with Lovetone circuits. I borrowed a friend's Ring Stinger, which was difficult to use and sounded nothing like the online audio clips, unless you had an entire chain of complimentary pedals. I owned a Wobulator, which was OK, but certainly not $550 worth of pure bliss. It had operational problems and I sold it at a small loss. The best experience I've had with a Lovetone circuit was Ian's (GigaHearts) Doppel work-a-like pedal. I personally hope Lovetone never resurfaces and after years of inactivity, that seems like a likely result.

[D.o.S.]

How about Zeibek? I still love my submarines! Oz admitted he didn't factor in his time when he set up the pricing.

This is about the nicest thing I've ever read about Zeibek (and whatever they were called prior) and Oz.Dude flaked out on a lot of very vocal people, if I remember correctly.

[echorec]

Skychord is back under the old name, I believe, which I can't recall right now. King something?

Analogue Haven is selling their stuff (sans the Skychord) as kingcapitolpunishment again, but the Skychord site is the only one online to my knowledge. The Skychord facebook page hasn't been updated in months either.

http://www.analoguehaven.com/kingcapitolpunishment/

http://www.skychord.com/about.html

https://www.facebook.com/SkychordElectronics/

[coupleonapkins]

Yeah, Lovetone

But too many stories of suspicious build quality in line w/ the high prices (even back then, before neo-inobtanium), along with the world being a vastly different place these days (Subdecay, Chase Bliss, Zvex's weirder stuff, the list goes on seemingly forever) has placed it all into perspective (the huge, colorful enclosures are missed, however ridiculous they seem now). I remember trying to buy a ??? Flanger back in the day (their cheapest pedal that wasn't a fuzz), but my emails were never returned, & the phone number just rang & rang & rang - makes perfect sense now!

I want to believe that Frantone would update their boxes so they are up to snuff w/ today's standards, but I believe that's part of their appeal, along w/ the size, colors, overall layout, font choices & knobs (& yes, even the little feet). But I could always be wrong?