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KitraeMember
Muffs work great with compressors. They can help punch up the clarity of notes in solos or add some crunch to chords. I use an old Boss CS-2 and a Dynacomp with mine. My CS-2 is practically always on when I use a Muff.
But – if you don’t like the tones you get with the BMTW, a compressor is not going to change that. They don’t alter tone much, just compress what is already there.
KitraeMember1″x 3/4″. Width of the bar on top is about 7/16″.
Making one, or are you looking for something similar?
KitraeMemberSorry. That’s the Muff. I missed “knob”. Which knob are you talking about? There are about ten different ones.
KitraeMember6″x4.5″x2″
KitraeMemberYour pix all seem to have been deleted, but here is info on the Ram’s Head versions.
http://www.kitrae.net/music/big_muff_history.htmlKitraeMemberI have been working on it for a few years now, inspired by Ron’s great EHX site, Gilmourish.com, and a few others. Collecting Muffs is my main hobby. Kind of an addiction, actually. It’s an ongoing thing that I add to every now and then when I get new info. Seems like just a few years ago it was a tiny website, now it has grown into a monster! It’s fun though.
KitraeMemberI added some sound clips to my Big Muff Sound Clips page comparing the BBM to the Black Russian Muff so you can hear how similar they are. They are really close, except for some loss in clarity on the low notes when using the BBM, especially the E string. For mid range lead stuff, they sound practically identical.
http://www.kitrae.net/music/Music_mp3_Big_Muff_Sound.htmlKitraeMemberMr. Matthews said it was really about cost vs quality of continuing to have them made in Russia, but I’m sure meeting the EU environmental/health regulations was adding to the cost as well.
KitraeMemberQuote:Obviously you are not reading the post it is suppose to be funny not taken seriously…Unless they would take my advice and make a nano russian muff…Also i would like to take issue with the suppose it cheap enclosures on the Sovtek Big muff …I own the last issue Russian it’s enclosure is the same thickness and size as the NYC Big Muff PI reissue
I’m referring to the previous Russian Muffs. They started in “tank” like, heavy duty, thick cast metal enclosures with double layered sheet metal tops in the early 1990s. Throughout the years they kept getting thinner, eventually changing to all sheet metal boxes, then smaller, single layer sheet metal boxes. As I understand it, all those changes were made to help keep the cost to the consumer low as raw material and parts costs kept going up.
KitraeMemberThe BBM not exactly the same as the Russians, but it’s pretty darn close, and in the smaller size too.
According to Mike Matthews, the Russian Muffs were discontinued because the cost to make them in Russia kept going up, and the quality of the component parts in Russia kept going down. That’s why the enclosures kept getting cheaper and cheaper. The sound was not as good as it once was either, IMO. I don’t blame EHX for dropping it. The last few years they could not even get foot switches in Russia. They had ship them from the west. It did not make sense to keep making them in Russia any longer with that situation, especially when they had the BBM on the market to take it’s place.
EHX could have probably marketed the BBM a little differently so that guitar players knew they were going for the same sound as the Russian Muffs, not just for bass players. The whole reason I think the BBM was made was due to the fact that bass players loved the Russian Muffs. It’s definitely based on the Sovtek tone, so I think EHX already makes what you are asking for.
KitraeMemberI asked Mike about it a few months back. He said to wait a few more months, so I’ll email him and see if there is an update, and any info he wants to release yet.
KitraeMemberI’m sure that is a date code, but I don’t know if it is a code for the pedal build, or just something the sheet metal maker or the coating factory added to date their work. I have several black Russians with these stickers, two in the large black box like yours. One has the same date as yours, but different circuit board color and different cap and transistor types. That tells me this may not be a final build date code. The St. Petersburg factory may have gone through a lot of different circuit board parts in one week though, so who knows.
I should probably add a note about the date stickers to the website.
KitraeMemberQuote:This is from 98, they only made the Big Box Black Muffs for 2 years from 1998-2000, same circuit as the green muff.Not super important, but circa ’98, meaning around that time. They may have been in production in that color in ’97, and I know retailers still had some as late as 2001, but that’s as close as I have been able to nail the time down based on info I have and dates people have told me they bought them new. The first time I personally saw that the green had changed to black was 1998 or 1999.
Did it have that Carling switch when you got it?
KitraeMemberQuote:whoa!!! how is your muff stash mate? very nice. i am blown away with the history and who uses the muff. did boston use the muff say on the first recording? anyway , i am stoked to be apart of it. i don’t know if the collector thing has bit me…maybe it has( two ruskies,a reissue and a tone wicker). how are them big black russians! way nice. like my green one but black. wow. i may look into the bass muff being what they are based on. cheers kitrae. i did read your site months ago which was so informative. your site also helped me put ebay back into perspective. i actually walked away from the search for awhile. again, thanks for the information and replies. thank you to all of you muff folk who have filled me in…i will persevere with my tone wicker. it’s just so convient being it has a boss type 9vac adaptor jack.aloha.Glad you liked the site. If I remember right, that Boston guitar sound was a 70’s Marshall amp with an attenuator on it to soak up the power from the tubes and give that amp on 10 sound at low volume. I think Tom ran that into a wah pedal with a fixed setting to get the mids tone he wanted. Some of that stuff does sound Muffish, but it wasn’t a Muff
KitraeMemberEven the Sovteks? They started production in 1990. I assumed they were widely available in Europe by the mid nineties.
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