Cheese Ball

Is it a Fuzz? Is it a distortion? NO! It’s … cheese balls? 

Some of the most enjoyable things in life are only enjoyable when you’re in the right mood. This applies to pedals too, wahs and dotted 8th delays for instance! Not always a go-to but when we do we tend to become Hendrix or The Edge for the rest of that playing session and maybe into the next. This pedal sits nicely in that camp and to keep a theme going, the original design (Lovetone’s Big Cheese) can be heard on the opening track Discothèque of U2’s 1997 album POP.

Tonally this sits somewhere nicely between low tuned distortion and aggressive fuzz. The harmonically rich character gives life to an effect that could otherwise be a mess but instead has inspired countless musicians through the 90s including the mighty Jimmy Page AND John Paul Jones.

The controls are simple but give great variety, the volume and gain are as standard on most clipping circuits. The four-way selector knob is where the fun is found, to start within the OFF position the tone control is completely bypassed which results in more volume and seemingly even more harmonics.
Position 1 scoops the mids for the 90’s metal tone, that’s right you too can be 14 again!
Position 2 brings the mids back in with a bit of the hump allowing for the most “normal” tone the pedal offers.
Position 3 isn’t what you’d expect, the gain bumps up a fair-sized notch and a gated effect pops into life-giving more clarity and choppiness to both lead work and the obligatory power chords.

All the positions available inspire creativity in very different ways and such is the beauty of the original which JHS has recreated in their own way with the Cheese Balls.