Quote:

Here are pix of one. V3 board, V4/V5 box and graphics, with knobs usually seen on V4(and later) Muffs, not on the V3.

Kit, is that a PNP muff? w. 2N5087s? Looks like they’re in the board the wrong way round for a regular NPN muff. That’s a pretty rare bird if it is…
Gold legs?

Boss DC-2
Failing that, a CE-2. But DC-2 is “spatial”
John Fromel makes a great (better) clone.

Spot on!

Try cleaning the slider switch. Take it out, pull the tabs open gently and use contact cleaner on the metal parts inside (careful, it’s fiddly). It might not be the problem, but I’ve heard distortion due to dirty/bad connections in those switches and it’s a 5 min and free fix. You’ve lost nothing if it doesn’t work.

But $20? you lucky lucky lucky … very good score.

I though the vintage units were mono?

Are those two things supposed to be related in some way? Jack Tilton, Oral Roberts, Ted Haggard, Billy Graham, Peter Popoff, Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, Rick Warren, James Dobson… none of those guys are particularly shy and retiring. There’s also this guy with the snazzy hat

although none of them do the pinch thing every 8 bars, so I’m not sure what that means

(Not even going to get into Ted Nugent and Chuck Norris territory…)

RoHS compliance.
The goal of RoHS is not so much to stop people eating electronics, but to stop toxic components leaching into the environment from waste. You and I know that nobody chucks a Big Muff in a landfill, but the EC doesn’t apparently. They also don’t want things being made using harmful components.
Watch Manufactured Landscapes, this, or this, to see the extent of the problem and how it goes beyond some guy not being able to buy a distortion pedal.