Dan Coggins ends Lovetone pedal servicing after 15 years
April 5, 2024 · 2 sources
Dan Coggins, who co-founded Lovetone and designed its circuits, has announced that he can no longer service, repair or upgrade the brand's original pedals, ending about 15 years of occasional work on them after he left the business in 20081. The statement appeared in builder's notes published with coverage of his Cogmeister Dinosaural pedal1.
Coggins wrote that he continued the "very occasional servicing, repair and 'stock' upgrades of those original pedals for another 15 years" after leaving Lovetone, and that the practice has ended1. He cited the rising resale values of used Lovetone pedals on marketplaces such as eBay and Reverb, which he said made it an issue to insure them adequately in transit1. He also stated that he no longer has any connection or affiliation with Lovetone1.
"However, that era has finally had to come to an end and I regret I can no longer help (nor provide any info) as it is frankly time for me to move on."
The notes also cover his current work. Coggins said he has worked full-time since August 2020 as Analog Design Engineer for Thorpy FX, where he said the company will continue to produce an expanded range of pedal designs1. ThorpyFX had earlier enlisted Coggins for the Deep Oggin chorus/vibrato, described at the time as his first modulation design since his Lovetone days2.
On Dinosaural, Coggins said he ran a manufacturing and repair business under that name between 2002 and 2019, and that the brand still exists as part of Coggins Audio Ltd1. The Cogmeister, which he called his "Gain Masterpiece," is a triple boost/overdrive that supersedes the discontinued Tube Bender and OPA-101 pedals with a new Drive circuit1. It places an overdrive between an input treble booster named Push and an output midrange booster named Solo, each channel with its own footswitch; EQ knobs sit on the bottom row, with a 3-way toggle shaping the Drive's EQ curve, and the top row sets volume and gain for each channel1. No price or availability date for the Cogmeister is given in the notes1.