Hi metalfury. As you mentioned most Little Big Muffs have their pots arranged volume – tone – sustain. However, the first few thousand Little Big Muffs that EHX made in 2006 had their pots arranged sustain – tone – volume. Like you I recently picked up an older STV Little Big Muff.

I’ve noted a few differences between the two. The STV version has considerably more sustain, and gets much louder as you turn the volume pot up. The STV version is also much bassier. To be honest I’m happy to have both versions to mess around with. I really like the voicing on the newer VTS version, it’s got a tighter low end.

They’re both cool, neither one is better, it all comes down to personal preference.

1) Little Big Muff XO (A modern classic)
2) Frequency Analyzer (Big Box)
3) Deluxe Memory Man XO
4) Muff Fuzz
5) Stereo Pulsar XO
6) Double Muff Nano
7) Double Muff (Big Box)
Big Muff RI
9) LPB-1 Nano
10)Muff Overdrive
11)Germanium OD
12)Small Stone (Big Box)
13)Small Clone (Big Box)
14)Germanium Big Muff Pi
15)Black Russian Big Muff
16)Micro POG
17)Big Muff w/ Tone Wicker (Sold, but I’d buy it again if EHX dealt with noise problem)
18)Holier Grail (Sold, was noisy)
19)Knockout Attack Equaliser XO (Sold)

I’ve got both the nano and big box versions, actually. The ‘single’ setting on the double muff is basically my favourite overdrive sound. Having tried them both side-by-side I’ll admit that I can hear a difference between them, but it’s fairly minimal. I don’t think one sounds better than the other, to be honest, just subtly different. If I didn’t playing them side I probably wouldn’t have noticed any difference at all.