He makes some ok sounding stuff and he does seem like a nice guy, I was just using him as an example. His assembly is very poor though, well it was/is but lately, like the past month or so I have seen some better enclosures being done. Its the circuit assembly and wiring that is horrid though.
If people are happy paying 150-180 for that then that’s their concern. I certainly wouldn’t pay that much for a cobbled together pedal by someone who’s only been making pedals for 2 years or less.
If he, and some others, just spent a little more time on quality and precision they would have an ok product.
What I said still stands though. I know a few overnight solder jockeys now classified as respected “boutiquers” and I know other guys who have been designing pedals for over 30 years and are EE’s who get little to no recognition for their contributions to the pedal world.

Its that kinda thing that bugs me to a certain degree, seeing inexperienced people sell there “quality products” to the public and get all this recognition and respect yet they know basically very little about building pedals, they are just tweakers.

I could sell my pedals under my own name, they would look and sound a shit load better than some of the stuff on the market today but I don’t want to be classified as one of them people I’m complaining about as I haven’t been making pedals for 5 years yet, although I have been into electronics since I was a kid. If I were to sell my pedal designs I would license the design out to another company and have it be totally anonymous. If no company wanted to do that I would consider making them myself but that would take a lot of procrastination and consideration.

I have no problem with DIYers selling pedals, that would make me a hypocrite as I’ve done so myself in the past. There’s some really good quality stuff out there like skinpimp, John Lyons, SUF etc they put in some real effort in their production and deserve recognition for that. Its just the crookedly drilled enclosures, paper decal, taped up snapped of perf board, and spaghetti wiring pedals I don’t like seeing people pay $180 for , its a rip IMO!!!

If you’re gonna make pedals, do it right and have some pride in your workmanship and patience in your work!

After having listened to all of your clips I concur that the v2 was certainly better, but for me at least certainly not $300 worth of better than a current Little Big Muff. Some might be able to hear the subtle differences (NYC Ri was certainly more hollow sounding than the others) but I have to admit I really struggled to hear much difference between the rams head and lbm. All the better for me – I’ll throw the saved cash at echo flangers and the like.

I think strictly for marketing reasons any vintage BMP reissue should “look” exactly like the original. The current vintage pedal reissue market (MXR, ProCo, Ibanez, Colorsound, DOD, et cetera) have proven that works. People are buying the reissue script Dynacomp, like me for example, because it is made with the exact script version circuit so it sounds like the old one – and looks like the old one. There was clearly a market for the real vintage script font pedals and MXR took advantage of that and reissued it. Replicas of the vintage version were already being made by boutique makers using their own graphics, so there would have been no point in MXR making a reissue that had the sound of the original but did not look like the original. You could already have that. The same goes for the vintage BMP replica market. There are dozens of makers and you can currently get just about any vintage BMP version circuit.

When I think back to when I first played a Big Muff in the mid to late 80s, I would have loved to have my own Triangle Big Muff, but there was no place to get them back then (no local shops sold vintage pedals, no ebay), and I would not have been able to afford one anyway. I sure loved the way it soundeded – was blown away actually – but I loved the looks and cool knobs too. Had there been an exact reissue from EHX at a decent price I would have jumped on that in a heartbeat.

Chances of this happening are slim I think. Mike Matthews does not seem to be interested in the reissue market. He has said EXH already has the Big Muff territory covered and he prefers to make pedals that he can continue to make for many years rather than limited edition short runs. He also said if they could make a Big Muff sound better than the ones they already sell they would be doing it, so the folks at EHX must not care for the sound of any of the vintage units. I love the sounds of the current Big Muffs, but they are like night and day to the vintage V1, V2, and V3 BMPs I own.

Are there DOD reissues other than the 250 overdrive and the 440 env. filter? I mean, most of the FX line is still in working order but reissues of the FX45/FX76/FX32/FX33 in proper cases/TB stuff would be awesome. or a actual proper working/no-tone-suck version of the FX22?
I’d buy those.

EHX is about the future, not the past, that is why Mike wont make vintage correct RI’s IMO.

And the RI’s (other EHX pedals) that do exist are classics. Not every minor change in the vintage BMP’s are classics IMO, not to mention all the one off big muffs out there that someone accidentally put some wrong values in and that 1 and only pedal may be viewed as a classic by some, how is that going to be reissued?

No two muffs sound the same and I’ve only ever heard one stock green sovtek that sounded good, the rest sound crud, I assume the good one is a fluke, not to schem, a mistake. Similar can be said of various other muffs.

IMO BMP’s got good from the IC onwards, then the 3034, these two are the best muffs and what I consider classics. I really dont care for ramsheads muffs except one version, or the triangle muffs whatsoever.

I’m sorry to say, Kit, that your website allowed me to pick up an amazingly great clone of my favorite BMP, and more versatile and smaller besides. It’s interesting and helpful to read opinions regarding the sound and usability of Muff clones from the point of view of someone who has a lot of experience with the real thing.

Given the current availability of good Muff sounds from a variety of sources, I can see EHX not wanting to invest the time and/or money in trying to reproduce the given sound of any of the past versions. Why try to compete with all kinds of small builders in a small pond, when you can make something unique like a HOG… or even just a Freeze… and be in a pond by yourself?

Would I pick up a Muff from EHX at this point? Sure, especially if it was something new which hadn’t been cloned to death in terms of sound…..

I have 2 BMP boards I’m about to put together. 1 is a tonepad board and one is a GGG board. I’m thinking about building a triangle and Civil War muff. What VHE values did find worked best in your violet?

I will revert my previous statement that it’s “absurd” to think the vintage ones sell so much because of the looks. But I don’t think they sell so high strictly because of the looks. Sound, collectors market, and looks all play a big role but the sound is the biggest part. Same goes for the vintage green electric mistress. People don’t pay for those for the looks for sure. It’s about the sound that the current rI DEM can’t replicate….though it does get close.

I think to NOT reissue pedals is a bad move for EHX. Personally, I haven’t been too intrigued by anything they’ve released lately except for maybe the freeze although they have come up with some brilliant pedals. Just nothing I would use. They could also reissue the pedals looks and all and sell them for half of what the boutique makers charge. It really doesn’t take alot of time and money to build a big muff. Like Kit said, he could lone them his ramshead or give them the specs on the transistors and other components. Make it true bypass and add an led plus original graphics and could sell them for a minimum 80.00 and still atleast double what they put into it. Or they could sell them for about 150.00 or so and I guarantee they’d sell.