Brown Alert??? Cloning Lovetone's Brown Source

So, I'm going to chalk this up as one of the pedals with one of the worst names, yet having one of the best sounds out there. The Lovetone Brown Source was originally released in 1995, and tried to capture the "brown sound" - that elusive distortion tone that so many rock guitarists try to achieve. The term itself was originally coined by Eddie Van Halen, and many different pedals, amps, and combinations thereof have been used over the decades to try and find that perfect organic tone. Actual vintage Lovetone pedals start at $700 and go up into low four-digits from there, so this is yet another pedal screaming for a decent clone. In July of last year, AionFX released four Lovetone clones, including one of the Doppelganger which I completed last year and posted a review of in October. This project, the Obelisk, was released at the same time, and I finally managed to get it completed!

Invoking the Spirit of EVH - the Wolfgang 5051

Despite passing away a little over a year ago, Eddie Van Halen remains one of the most influential rock guitarists of all time. I was a huge Van Halen fan in my youth, and one of my first concerts was their 5150 tour (the first with Sammy Hagar as lead singer). As is common with many prominent musicians, Eddie worked with various companies to develop his own lines of gear including guitars and amplifiers. Starting in 1993, Eddie worked with Peavey to develop the 5150 series which was produced until 2004. He then moved to working with Fender on the EVH line of amplifiers which were first released in 2007. This particular build creates essentially a preamp effect based on the Peavey circuit which can be used either as a pedal directly or in an effects loop - though with the sheer output it seems far better suited to the latter!