I just played around with one for a few hours on both bass and guitar. For bass, it’s basically the same as Bass Big Muff sound, with a similar bass boost/cut switch (The BBM is a slightly lower gain, slightly less bassy version of a Green Russian BMP, with a brighter mid range). The extras here are a separate dry mix pot, a noise gate, and a switchable crossover filter. The crossover is the one to play around with here. When you switch it on via the separate foot switch it engages a high pass filter, basically like a wah filter. If you have ever left your wah in one position (cocked wah) to use with a distortion pedal, that’s what this is. You just kick the filter on or off with the footswitch, so you can use it as the rhythm channel with the BMP circuit, and kick it off for solos, or vise versa, depending n the settings.

There is a wide filter range with the HPF pot, but right at 12:00 is a nice cocked wah sound for guitar, especially with the neck pickup on a Strat. Flip the input switch to the -10db position and you can get some nice overdrive type tones with the HPF.

Dial the sustain to max and the blend pot down to around 75% and it adds some nice smoothness to the BMP distortion. Any less and it really just weakens the guitar tone, but switching on the HPF with the blend dialed down gives some interesting low gain tones.

Below the HPF pot is a low pass filter pot, but it does very little with the guitar signal at any position. It’s more effective when mixing in some dry singnal using a bass guitar and the HPF filter.

The noise gate is not really for reducing noise, since this circuit is relatively quiet anyway. It’s more of an effect here. Dial it up high and it cuts off the initial pick attack when playing hard starts and stops on bass. Dial the distortion down and you can get some sputtery gated effects on both guitar and bass, but it is very subtle.

Overall I like it. For guitar, it’s a very good Sovtek Big Muff related distortion, and the HPF adds another interesting color to the sound. I guess if you have a wah pedal and a BBM or Sovtek BMP, you don’t really need this, but it’s a fun pedal.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Electric Mistress.
http://www.metzgerralf.de/elekt/stomp/mistress/index.shtml

I think the specific info you want is here.
http://www.metzgerralf.de/elekt/stomp/mistress/align.shtml

That’s basically what I have been told as well. EHX is not interested in reissues.

Even if they were, just saying we want a “Ram’s Head” reissue is not as easy as it sounds. As far as circuits and sound, there is no one Triangle or Ram’s Head circuit. That just refers to the enclosure and graphics. There were dozens of different sounding circuits with differing component values inside Triangle era and Ram’s head era BMP’s. Which do you pick? You can literally pick a dozen Ram’s Head era Big Muffs, and 7-8 of them will sound different from all the others.

That said, I would love to see the current large box USA Big Muff circuit revised to have more of a vintage early to mid 1970’s BMP sound. We all know the demand is there for it. I have quite a few vintage Big Muffs that I could offer up as examples. That all sound different, but all are very good, and very different than the current model. I would happily supply EHX with schematics. I just don’t think they have any desire to do this.

The Russian Big Muffs were replaced by the Bass Big Muff. Similar component values and sounds, so doubtful EHX would be interested in making another version when what they currently have fits the bill for them.

That’s an early V3 from around 1977. I have a little bit of info here about the V3.
http://www.kitrae.net/music/big_muff_historyB.html#Version3

The Fuzz goes over here, the Muff in the middle, and the Distortion over there

Seriously, I think what people are trying to tell you is there is no firm description for the sound of any of these that defines one as specifically this or that. Whatever the first pedal that fit the bill for any of those terms was in the very beginning, there are now so many variations and pedals that cover the range that it is impossible to categorically state this pedal is this and that is that. There are basic pedals out there that still follow the basic original circuits. The Little Big Muff still sounds like a Muff. The Fuzz Face still sound like a fuzz. The Tube Screamer still sound like an overdrive.

A Big Muff to me is just that – a Muff. There are characteristics that define the Muff sound over other pedals – scooped mids, double clipped, fat octaved distortion, sustain. I can almost always tell when I am listening to a Muff circuit. The Swollen Pickle you mentioned is a Big Muff circuit. A Fuzz Face (or even the Germanium Big Muff) has characteristics that define it as fuzz to my ears, that are very different from Muff. I can almost always tell when I am hearing a Fuzz Face type circuit. Turn the sustain down on a Muff and dial the tone back and you can get fuzz-like tones. Dime the sustain and crank the tone up and you get some high gain distortion. Dial Fuzz Face down and you get a fuzzy overdrive. Dime it you get distortion. Then you have dozens of hybrids, like the Musket, which can do light overdrive, deep fuzz, and full on high gain Big Muff distortion. It’s a Big Muff and Linear Power Booster circuit combo. The Skreddy Lunar Module does Fuzz Face tones, light to heavy overdrive, and a nice fat high gain distortion. The Germanium Big Muff is a fuzz face style circuit with an overdrive circuit built in. Practically any overdrive, Muff, or fuzz type circuit distorts enough when the gain knob is maxed to be called distortion. The Leviathan is called a fuzz by Wampler. It does Fuzz Face tones, warm overdrive, monster tube screamer type tones, even Muffish stuff (almost), and clearly distorts. So what is it? Whatever you want it to be. See the problem?

It really does come back to what your ears like, not what term something may or may not be labeled. Just listen to some demos and try one. See if you like it.

Marc nailed it pretty good with the Mayo. The Mayonnaise MK II hits it too, though not quite as dark sounding. The best ones to use for Pumpkins/SD tones are the op-amp clones from Euthymia and Stomp Under Foot – the ICBM and Pumpkin Pi. EHX does not currently have anything quite like the old op-amp Muffs.