Thoughts on Lovepedal 200lb Of Gold?

[Bruce Reed]

I may be needing a two-button overdrive on a second pedalboard I am putting together. On my main board I have been using an older Fulltone Fulldrive for years. The 200lbs Of Gold has been highly recommended. I do enjoy Plexi-style tone and having a two-stage gain+boost is something I want to utilize. Anyone have experience with the 200lbs Of Gold?

[eclecticsynergy]

I've had the 200lbs Of Gold for awhile and I love it. Excels at big fuzzy sound (has been compared to Disraeli Gears-era Cream tone) but also does well as a medium gain fattener with great sustain. And it has great volume knob clean up, so typical among Lovepedals that it's practically a hallmark.

I wouldn't call it truly Plexi-ish,however. Supposedly the drive side is a modified Fuzz Face cascaded into a Tube Screamer. You get touch-responsive fuzz without woofiness, since the TS tames the lows and adds its liquid feel to single note parts. This pedal has mids and sustain-with-bite - cuts through a mix just fine. And it's equally good with humbuckers or singelcoils.

The boost section is truly crystal clean, unlike many dual Lovepedals that use the Church Of Tone for dirty boost. Here, boost is after the OD and doesn't goose the drive, just pure level increase. Fine for pushing things downstream, of course - other drive pedals or a tube amp.

Magnificent pedal for leads, and totally usable for chord parts too. Along with the original Box Of Awesome & the Purple Plexi, it's a pedal I won't willingly part with. So yes, I give it my highest recommendation too.

I'm not alone in feeling that way, either. Many glowing reviews over on the TGP "Lovepedal Ham Sammich" mega-thread.

Doesn't kerrang like a JTM though.

~

I don't consider this a MIAB, or a foundation drive at all. It's an OD, albeit an extraordinarily good one. A big plus is, it works just as well through Fenders as Marshalls, where most drives with a personality seem to prefer one or the other. The 200 Gold has sounded fabulous with everything I've tried it through, even a solid state Hiwatt in the backline for one show.

~

If your goal is Marshall-esque core tones, you might also take a look at the Lovepedal Vintage Modern. Drive side is the excellent Purple Plexi and the boost side is a Church Of Tone which is itself sorta Brit-flavored. Boost is before OD there so you can also stack drive characters, and both are eminently usable on their own.

If you already have the Plexi tone covered and want killer overdrive with clean boost, you'll love the 200lbs Of Gold.

EDIT: here's one representative post from theTGP thread; this guy says in fewer words just what I was trying to convey.

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/lovepedal-hermida-sns-appreciation-thread-part-deux-the-ham-sammich-lives.1919784/post-26717882

[Bruce Reed]

Dang, I just saw Sebastian's video of the VM and now I am super confused!

[eclecticsynergy]

Vintage Modern is a great pedal too. Definitely Marshall-flavored. Purple Plexi by itself is a fantastic Brit-voiced OD, and having the COT on tap lets you take advantage of the PP's great mid gain sound and use the boost side for more dirt when you want it.

I know that isn't helping you choose.

Looked at another way: while the VM is great, there are many other good MIABs out there.
The 200 Lbs Of Gold is not only epic, but unique - AFAIK nobody else has anything like it.

If it had to be one or the other I'd probably get the 200 Lbs Of Gold myself.

[Bruce Reed]

Since I will be using either a tweed reissue Deluxe or Bassman (nominal headroom on each), Marshall 2061x (no real headroom), or JTM45 (lots on mine) I am starting with a bit of crunch going on to begin with. The 200lbs Gold would be the hands-down favorite if I had a clean amp to start with, right? So, that's why the VM sounds intriguing. Thoughts?

By the way, this may be an exercise in futility in that either of those pedals can be found for sale anywhere. A buddy says he may have "a guy" at Lovepedal that could help, but we'll see. He loaned me his 200lbs Gold for a few days so I'll check it out.

[treyhaislip]

Haven't used that pedal but Lovepedal offers very good quality stuff–enjoyed the ones I've played.

[eclecticsynergy]

Since I will be using either a tweed reissue Deluxe or Bassman (nominal headroom on each), Marshall 2061x (no real headroom), or JTM45 (lots on mine) I am starting with a bit of crunch going on to begin with. The 200lbs Gold would be the hands-down favorite if I had a clean amp to start with, right? So, that's why the VM sounds intriguing. Thoughts?

By the way, this may be an exercise in futility in that either of those pedals can be found for sale anywhere. A buddy says he may have "a guy" at Lovepedal that could help, but we'll see. He loaned me his 200lbs Gold for a few days so I'll check it out.

Enjoy - you're gonna love it. It's a monster into a crunch channel - any flavor. (Full disclosure: never t tried mine into a Vox.)

If you decide to look around for one on the used market, be aware that there's also a 200 Lbs fuzz. Completely different pedal - silicon FF type with highs attenuated and with a "Fat" knob affecting the mids instead of a regular tone knob.

There has been a 200 Lbs Of Tone, too, a silver colored dual pedal with boost after fuzz - but I'm not sure the fuzz side is the same as the Gold, and somebody who has one says the boost side is the Church Of Tone, a crunchy-drive boost rather than the pure clean boost used in the 200 Gold.


Sean has a history of using a name on pedals that aren't the same. Even for Lovepedal buffs, it can get confusing.

As an example, another Lovepedal favorite of mine is a dual drive called the Box Of Awesome.
I know this pedal came in at least two different circuit combinations, and possibly a couple more.

The one I have is grey-blue, and pairs the OD11 transparent overdrive with the Kalamazoo, a cool character drive that has both a Glass knob to boost treble going in and a traditional tone control to roll off the highspost-gain. Each side sounds great by itself and they stack amazingly well together - sweet harmonic feedback even at low volume.

There are later versions of this pedal with completely different circuits in one or both sides.
But they're still called a Box Of Awesome.