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Quote:I think I know why you think your vintage muff sounds better.
Because you want it to. Your brain and ears can do crazy things, and this whole thing could just be psychological! I also disagree about the components or handwiring being better than the machine made pedals. The 70S EHX pedals have some of the worst soldering I’ve ever seen on a commercial product.
There is definitely something to the Clever Hans and confirmation bias in there, but, despite the abrasive tone of the original post, there is also something to be said for a good vintage big muff vs. a modern mass-produced one. (although it has nothing to do with superior build quality; some of my old EHX gear looks like it was put together in the dark…by people wearing boxing gloves). I have a bunch of big muffs, so I’ve done a lot of A/B/C comparisons, and my ears tell me they get both noisier and fizzier the younger they get. Although that mid-scoop thing might not work out so great depending on what other instruments you’re playing with.
I was lucky and found a really nice v2 ram’s head (w/ FS36999 trannies, which are Fairchild 2N5133 right?); it’s smooth, not overly noisy, sounds great, just the way I expect a great big muff to sound. My v3 red/black 3003 w/ BC239C trannies also sounds great, different but great nonetheless. More aggressive than the ram’s head. I have a v6 3034 w/ S2N5088, which is noisy as hell, and in your face. Not my favourite. So I put in a gating capacitor, and now it’s usable but sounds like a cross between a superfuzz and a muff. I also have a couple of IC muffs — a 3003B with on/off switch and a 3003 w/ tone bypass — and they do sound more like distortions than fuzzes to me. More top end and more fizz than either of the vintage transistor muffs. I like the sound of the tone wicker–it’s one of the few new pedals I’ve been excited about–but it’s really too noisy (with or without wicker on/off tone on/off) so doesn’t get used much. I could see kicking it on for solos when there’s no break in what you’re playing but other than that…
My go-to big muffs are the v2 ram head and a D*A*M ram head though. My amp is an old 70s Traynor and is quite bright, so that interplay might have something to do with it, although my guitar (ES335) is quite dark.It’s all subjective, and I don’t see any reason to get all SHOUTING AND WRITING IN ALL CAPS about it
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Mudhoney wouldn’t have been Mudhoney without those noisy toppy (3034?) Big Muffs and noisy/gated Superfuzzes, and I don’t think a triangle muff (yes, I used to have one; and yes I stupidly traded it) would overly suit Jack White. But I’ve read both David Gilmour and Robert Fripp say that it’s not really the gear that’s important. Fripp says any fuzzbox will do (I wonder if he truly means “any”?) The rest of us fetishise the gear, while those guys just get on with it.And this is just misinformed flamebait anyway as noted above (last IC Big Muff was produced almost 30 years ago:
Quote:Quit making those hideous Big Muffs with opamps that sound like all the other mediocre overdrives out there.Quote:Smooth is definitely not something I’d say I look for in Big Muffs. I want it to be super fuzzy and mean.Vive le difference
(I have a Superfuzz and a Roland when I want mean and nasty
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