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I've been in the market for a big muff for a bit, but was having a hard time deciding on which one. I watched a bunch of comparison videos on youtube having only used the NYC Big Muff when I had one years ago. I liked the Green Russian and the Ram's Head (or Triangle? I mix those two up). I saw that there was a Deluxe based on the NYC Big Muff then came across the Sovtek which is based on the Green Russian circuit. I was sold.
The mids section is what sets this apart. With the low Q setting it selects a bigger section of midrange to boost or cut, which sounds better to me than high Q which has a narrower frequency to boost. You can play rhythm with the regular scooped mids then hit the boost to stand out for solo spots. Low Q with both mids knobs around 1-2 gives a real raunchy sound that’s not like any big muff. I've been playing with and without the mids and I can't tell if I'm getting ear fatigue after an hour of jamming around or not. The regular scooped sounds still sound good. It's that classic muff sound, but with the mids on it's like WOW.
I expected more of an extreme boost in high end from the wicker switch. It’s noticeable, just not what I expected. It also seems to raise the noise floor of the pedal a bit.
The gate knob can give you some real staccato sounds on higher settings. Keeping it around 8 or 9 o’clock seems like the sweet spot for keeping my single coils quiet while still letting notes ring out naturally. Speaking of that, I think it sounds better with my jazzmaster's single coils than it does with my SG with it's humbuckers. It could just be the settings I'm using. Still have some tonal exploring to do.
Blend knob mixes in clean signal, which is pretty nice if you’re using this with your bass.
I love it. My only complaint being that I wish the input/output jacks were top mounted instead of on the side so it took less room on my pedalboard. It's not a deal breaker, just preference.
The mids section is what sets this apart. With the low Q setting it selects a bigger section of midrange to boost or cut, which sounds better to me than high Q which has a narrower frequency to boost. You can play rhythm with the regular scooped mids then hit the boost to stand out for solo spots. Low Q with both mids knobs around 1-2 gives a real raunchy sound that’s not like any big muff. I've been playing with and without the mids and I can't tell if I'm getting ear fatigue after an hour of jamming around or not. The regular scooped sounds still sound good. It's that classic muff sound, but with the mids on it's like WOW.
I expected more of an extreme boost in high end from the wicker switch. It’s noticeable, just not what I expected. It also seems to raise the noise floor of the pedal a bit.
The gate knob can give you some real staccato sounds on higher settings. Keeping it around 8 or 9 o’clock seems like the sweet spot for keeping my single coils quiet while still letting notes ring out naturally. Speaking of that, I think it sounds better with my jazzmaster's single coils than it does with my SG with it's humbuckers. It could just be the settings I'm using. Still have some tonal exploring to do.
Blend knob mixes in clean signal, which is pretty nice if you’re using this with your bass.
I love it. My only complaint being that I wish the input/output jacks were top mounted instead of on the side so it took less room on my pedalboard. It's not a deal breaker, just preference.
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