Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

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stevejamsecono
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Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

Post by stevejamsecono » Sun May 16, 2021 4:56 am

Hey All,

A dear friend of mine is moving out of Brooklyn at the end of the month and I want to get him a new Big Muff as a going away present because it's a big part of his sound. He's been frequently vexed by the EHX ones (he's on his third Tone Wicker at this point because the switches keep failing), so I thought a nice boutiquey one would do the trick. I wanted to get the weigh-in from the forum Mufferati about it to make sure I get him the right one, as I'm not super-discerning on the sounds differences between Muffs.

The way he uses the Tone Wicker is somewhat unusual,. He has the tone and wicker switches in the off positions and and the gain reasonably low. It's being pushed by an SD1 that's always on though, so it has a nice cutting sound in combination and sounds big and fat without being unreasonable. I'm not into Muffs really but it's a great sound. Also his band rules, so that helps.

https://theroyalthey.bandcamp.com/album/the-royal-they

Given all this and the fact that he has a solid Pumpkins fixation, I'm thinking maybe an op amp-style muff is the way to go since it has the switchable tone control? I honestly have no idea which of the classic Muff variants the Tone Wicker falls into, butt I know that he wasn't crazy about either of the recent Triangle or Ram's Head muffs that I've had. I know Wren and Cuff makes a nice one.

But yeah, TL:DR: Wanna get my friend the right muff that works within what he's used to but at a higher build quality. Recommendations?
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Re: Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

Post by Domm » Sun May 16, 2021 6:45 am

Off topic, my friends and practice space roommates band is called the royal me. Funny

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Re: Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

Post by Pepe Silvia » Sun May 16, 2021 7:06 am

My mind goes straight to the EHX Op Amp Reissue. I have also heard good things about the Keeley Rotten Apple

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Re: Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

Post by stevejamsecono » Sun May 16, 2021 7:22 am

Domm wrote:
Sun May 16, 2021 6:45 am
Off topic, my friends and practice space roommates band is called the royal me. Funny
Clearly a show needs to happen at some point.
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Re: Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

Post by stevejamsecono » Sun May 16, 2021 7:22 am

Pepe Silvia wrote:
Sun May 16, 2021 7:06 am
My mind goes straight to the EHX Op Amp Reissue. I have also heard good things about the Keeley Rotten Apple
I'd thought about going that route but if the problem is EHX quality control I'm inclined not to buy more of their stuff. Rotten Apple is an interesting suggestion, so I'll have a look at that.
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Re: Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

Post by del » Sun May 16, 2021 1:13 pm

An EQD Hoof would be a well built, easily obtained option that might suit your pal's fancy.
And if it ultimately doesn't, that's one of the more re-salable pedals I can think of!
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Re: Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

Post by HNB » Sun May 16, 2021 8:20 pm

Sean Ryan Custom Pedals makes really nice fuzz pedals. :) He has a reverb.com shop.
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Re: Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

Post by fuzzjunkie » Sun May 16, 2021 10:28 pm

Wren & Cuff made an Op Amp clone with tone bypass. The Blakemore Dreamsicle even has a foot switch to bypass the tone stack. Both were highly respected a few years ago for that sound, but I don’t know if either are still made or if used is the only option.

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Re: Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

Post by MechaBulletBill » Mon May 17, 2021 12:43 am

fuzz war?

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Re: Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

Post by Ceylon » Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 am

I haven't tried it myself, but the JHS Muffuleta seems like it would be interesting to a Muff aficionado
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Re: Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Mon May 17, 2021 1:38 am

Not exactly "boutique" but a Swollen Pickle will give your friend a ton of dialable options. Arguably too many but still, they're great pedals & built like tanks.
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Re: Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

Post by jvin248 » Mon May 17, 2021 3:37 am

.

One can never have too many Fuzzes :)


I'd go the path of getting several inexpensive fuzz pedals rather than guessing on a single expensive boutique model.

Check out the 60 Cycle Hum youtube channel, he's found some good options
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... fuzz+fight


The other angle is get a Fuzz pedal kit (I hand built a Fuzz Face a year ago).


You can never have too many Fuzzes.


.

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Re: Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

Post by fortytwo » Mon May 17, 2021 4:09 am

Sounds like he just needs a bunch of switches for his BMTWs.

If you get him something fancy pancy boutique, just make sure that he can switch the tone circuit off, like he does on his TW.

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Re: Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

Post by tune_link » Mon May 17, 2021 4:46 am

As another Pumpkins obsessive I will say that the Rotten Apple by Keeley seems to sound way too low gain in all the demo vids. The EHX one def hits the mark. I don't know how hard on pedals the person is to the point that they broke three Tone Wicker muffs but I've always found the reissue EHX small enclosure pedals to be pretty dependable.

For boutique though I would also rep both the Hoof and Fuzz War. I still have both of those and love them a lot. You can get them to be close enough to each other in sound at times but the Hoof is a variant of a Russian muff and the Fuzz War is (depending on which version you have and where you're getting info on it) supposedly based on some combo of muff and Tone Bender.

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Re: Gifting a Big Muff to a friend. Suggestions?

Post by bubba899 » Mon May 17, 2021 5:00 am

Yeah another vote for the Hoof here. The mid shift control makes it super usable and I think it does lower gain sounds better than a lot of other muff variants I've tried. I also use an SD-1 with it and they match up super well!

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