Muff or Muff Clone???

[Nostalgic Distortion]

Re: Muff or Muff Clone???

I used to have a Stomp Under Foot Brick Muff & it was a awesome Ram's Head clone! Someone stole it a couple years ago, I was pi$$ed!!! I nearly bought another one because of its uncanny ability to give you Gilmour-ish Fuzz through almost any amp with the turn of a knob but I think the E-D Dream Crusher is going to be a better fit for me overall?

I've only had it for less than a day so I'm far from an expert on this specific pedal but its super easy to use and seems quite versatile! It will do Muffy Ram's Head tones and it's also quite capable of doing vintage Silicon Fuzz Face tones as well! Its kinda a best of both worlds Fuzz pedal & it's built much better than either of them! There's also a lot of fun in between tones that border between Fuzz & Distortion as well as a bit of gritty breakup with all that beautiful Fuzz!!!

[SoundAt11]

Re: Muff or Muff Clone???

I've owned a lot of muffs: a black Sovtek Russian, a the NYC Pi reissue, and clones of the triangle, rams head, and violet rams head.
Too me, the best tone was the black Sovtek Russian one. Unfortunately, it wasn't true-bypass, required a battery to AC adapter, and the cheap Russian parts were about to fall apart. Otherwise, to me, the old Triangle clone is the best. The gain was a bit lower, but it never got too muddy or sludgy.
The absolute worse was the NYC Pi Reissue. It had one usable tone, would not clean up with the volume knob, and was just a mud machine.
You can fine Clones in the $50 range (or slightly less), used on eBay if you watch. Chicago Stompworks makes some nice ones.
Tone-wise, the Siamese-dream tone is achievable with most any Muff, as is the violin-like old Santana tone. I've never gotten very close to the Gilmour Comfortably Numb tone (maybe because I use high-output humbuckers), except with the Triangle.

[Nostalgic Distortion]

Re: Muff or Muff Clone???

I wonder how much money people have spent chasing the Gilmour Rams Head tone? It's such an iconic sound and instantly recognizable as David and his Muff but I think even he moved onto a clone eventually? The fact that Big Muffs are not true bypass is their biggest downside & yes the NYC PI's aren't very versatile, you've got muddy and muddier but if that's the only tone your looking to get out of it they're great!

[Lazarus1140]

Re: Muff or Muff Clone???

I bought the JHS Mufuletta but have had almost no time with it at volume. What I want to experiment with is how close to one sound one can get by tweaking all the various Muff selections.

Two things that I have observed:
The noise floor is relatively low (as is the Pharaoh's)
The Ram's Head and the Triangle selections are easily my immediate favorites.

[dystrust]

Re: Muff or Muff Clone???

I wonder how much money people have spent chasing the Gilmour Rams Head tone? It's such an iconic sound and instantly recognizable as David and his Muff but I think even he moved onto a clone eventually? The fact that Big Muffs are not true bypass is their biggest downside & yes the NYC PI's aren't very versatile, you've got muddy and muddier but if that's the only tone your looking to get out of it they're great!

I'm not 100% sure exactly what he used to record Comfortably Numb, but live he's used a Civil War muff boosted by a rackmount Chandler Tube Driver since the early 90s. You can get pretty close with any Russian Muff boosted with a Tube Screamer.