A unique distortion/fuzz that stands out

I play mostly garage rock/blues rock/alternative. I happened to fall in love with this pedal at the NAMM show. Each year I attend I like to make a short list of 5 or so things that excite me and that I plan to possibly buy over that year. I was hanging out at the JHS booth and spent way too much of my time playing with this bright orange little box.

So this is based off the Lovetone Big Cheese, which admittedly I know very little about. Officially it's classified as a "fuzz/distortion" pedal, which I would completely agree with. What motivated me to buy it was... well, I can't get enough of dirt pedals. They're so easy to switch in and out, and you never know when you find one that just hits a sweet spot.

Not much to say about the build quality, it's JHS so ya know it's gonna be solid. The bright orange paint and simple graphic is pretty distinctive and will pop on the pedalboard.

The bread & butter of the Cheese Ball and the knob worth discussing is the mode selector switch which has settings OFF - 1 - 2 - 3. The OFF mode is supposedly the brightest and lowest gain mode, but I quite like it. The pedal sounds very open and jangly in that mode, the gain knob is nice and responsive and the tone knob is disabled. This is probably more the Cheese Ball's distortion side, wouldn't quite call it fuzz yet.

Setting 1 is totally different. It's very mid-scooped. Not in a metal tone kinda way... more like a 90s grunge/alt-rock sort of vibe. In fact I love it for that. I almost consider mode 1 to be like a bonus pedal within a pedal. The mid scooped sound is not as unwieldy, and thus plays well with other pedals, like overdrive.

Setting 2 I probably use the least, just because it's neither here nor there. From setting 1, it adds more gain and more mids. This is the point where it starts to sound more like a fuzz pedal.

Setting 3 is a beast, and we've landed in fuzz territory. In fact, if you turn up the gain knob it gates the sound, kinda like your speaker is on the verge of dying. Very velcro, as they say. All in all I would say you need to experience this pedal in OFF and setting 3, with setting 1 being suited to a very specific style of rock.

I was a little hesitant that played through my setup the Cheese Ball would disappoint me considering I initially played it at an exciting music gear trade show, but all fear was put to rest when I heard it ripping through my Blues Junior. I have a Gibson ES-325 I adore with Gibson mini-humbucking pickups that pair really nicely with the Cheese Ball (the cheese puns are unstoppable). In an ocean full of drive pedals vying for my attention, the JHS Cheese Ball is unique enough where I can confidently say I'll have it for a while

From Gear Setup

It's all about the Cheese

The JHS Cheese Ball Fuzz/Distortion is an accurate 1:1 replica of the original circuit from the 90s legendary Lovetone Big Cheese-Pedal (which is super rare and almost unaffordable). The original was at home on the pedalboards of some of the greatest names in the music industry - The Edge, Jimmy Page, Radiohead and Gary Moore, just to name some.

First impression

The pedal with it's orange finish comes in a standard JHS cardboard box with instructions, four rubber feet, a JHS pin, a sticker and a guitar pick. It weighs 265 grams (9.347 oz) and measures 120 x 65 x 57 mm (4.72 x 2.56 x 2.24 inches). The purple cheese slice design is a nice reminiscence of the Lovetone Original. The pedal is handmade by JHS in Kansas City, USA.

Details

Although the Cheese Ball doesn't merge an infinite number of separate circuits under it's shell, it offers a huge variety of fuzz sounds. The entirely analogue circuit works in a stable, full metal enclosure, the activity status of the True-Bypass switch is indicated by a bright LED light. Compared to Lovetone's Big Cheese, which is a lot more heavy and massive, it's a much lighter and more elegant stompbox. The retro touch comes in with the placement of the input and output jacks on the right and left side of the pedal.

To use the fuzz you will need a 9V DC power adapter (which is not included), battery operation is not an option. The pedal interface runs with 3 pots and a switch, all together equipped with purple Chickenhead knobs to match the purple graphics which stand in a nice contrast to the orange enclosure. The knob positions are distinguishable from afar thanks to white scale marks.

There are 4 main controls (1 from upper left to 4 below on the right) 1 - Tone (from Dark to Bright) - a standard brightness control to dampen / cut or push / boost the highs. 2 - Mode - a Four-Step selector switch for 4 tone modes: Off - Delivers a bright vintage orientated fuzz sound with less gain, the Tone Pot is deactivated. 1 - Delivers a kind of muff-like mid-scoop sound with a lot of sustain. 2 - Delivers a huge more mid-orientated fuzz sound with a lot of gain and a lower / restrained attack. 3 - Delivers the most aggressive gated-fuzz-sound with the most Gain-Reserves. 3 - Volume - Controls the overall volume of the effect. 4 - Gain - Controls the overall amount of gain, from slightly crunchy to hell distortion.

Conclusion

The JHS Cheese Ball Fuzz/Distortion-Pedal is a thoroughly professional stompbox, combining high quality craftsmanship with convincing sound quality. Four modes provide a wide range of fuzz sounds which allow to recreate almost any characteristic or familiar fuzz sound, which makes it an attractive alternative to it's much more expensive big brother.

Pros

• It's a replica of a rare pedal legend
• Four Tone and Gain settings
• Authentic Fuzz-Sounds from the 60s to 90s
• High quality product
• Versatility

Cons

• sounds could be a matter of taste and will not suit everyone

...I highly recommend getting one!

Four-Way Fuzz is Versatility!

The Cheese Ball is a clone of the Lovetone Big Cheese. I’ve never played an original Big Cheese, but I now understand why it garners the respect it does. Thankfully, JHS has brought the discontinued pedal back to life in the form of the Cheese Ball.

The Cheese Ball is a bright orange pedal in a standard enclosure (2.6” X 4.8" X 1.6”) that requires a 9V center negative power and uses 9mA. The orange and purple colorway pays tribute to the original Lovetone, which is kind of cool, even if I don’t personally love the color scheme. I’m just happy it’s in a more pedalboard friendly footprint that the original Big Cheese. I wish the input and output were top mounted, but hey, you can’t have it all.

I know there is a controversy surrounding Josh Scott in general, and specifically this particular pedal. But since I could never afford a vintage Big Cheese, I’m selfishly glad he brought back the circuit.

The controls on the pedal are pretty straightforward and very responsive (Some would say almost overly sensitive). You’ve got a Volume, Gain, Tone, and a four-position rotary knob, which controls the tone and gain voicings of the pedal.

The first position (OFF) bypasses the tone stack entirely, so it’s the brightest position. Playing with single coils with the volume down, it cleans up nicely. In fact, I use it on this setting more than I originally thought I would. However, it’s not velcro fuzzy here. In fact, I’d argue you could use this as a overdrive distortion here depending on how your volume knob is set.

Position 1 has a scooped midrange. In fact, think a Big Muff type sound. It’s a chugging massive sound, so it covers that sound if that’s what you’re after.

Position 2 balances out the midrange frequencies but with the tone controls engaged and brings plenty of gain. I probably use this setting the most, personally. It’s gnarly fuzz with a ton of gain on tap. The JHS website says that this setting cuts through the mix, and they’re not wrong!

Position 3 is crazy gain. So much so, it’s easy to gate the pedal! I play with this one as a novelty, since I’m not personally into the whole sputtering amp sound, but it is nice to break out every once in a while, if the mood strikes. I should say that while this isn’t my cup of tea, I can see how if you’re into the gated fuzz vibe, this pedal plays really well in that space and it might be its stand out feature.

Overall, this a very cool pedal that can do distortion all the way to all out gated glitchy fuzz. The four-way position switch makes sure it covers a ton of ground and gives you a really versatile pedal. It’s rad!

Preferred Settings + Usage:

Great sounds - wish I could hear them!

I wanted a fuzz that gave me a tinge of that sputtery, velcro, dying-battery fuzz; aggressive & far removed from the silky-smooth Big Muff tones I typically go for. I'm happy to say that the Cheese Ball is all that and more; the four voicings in the pedal provide plenty of variety, but the 2nd (more gain, more sputter & a touch more midrange) is where it sounds best to me. At bedroom levels, the pedal is perfect, however, I quickly discovered that it simply wasn't loud enough for gigs with my band; even with the volume dimed completely there was a substantial drop in volume when I turned it on, and I all but disappeared (I'm used to working with fairly mids-scooped pedals, so I'm fairly certain this was a straightforward matter of not having enough volume on tap). I have corrected this by simply putting a TC Spark behind it in the same loop, and the pedal sounds great and cuts through fine like that, but be prepared for that going in!