I sold my EHX RI Green Russian muff a while back. I liked it OK at home and on recordings, but with a band, engaging it was like hitting a kill switch - just made it inaudible to me, unless I cranked it til it drowned everyone else out. I got tired of worrying that it had crapped out and I was now silent.

Now I find I'm missing something that my WH Fat Sandwich and my DOD Carcosa can't give me. What Muff-type pedals work for you in a live/loud context?

Yeah I had the same experience. It has something to do with the midrange. The only Big Muff I ever liked was the Balls Effects version, which was a regular pedal, not a charity run. I used that more for traditional lead guitar at the time, not so much wall of sound rhythm stfuff

When playing by myself I love Big Muff's, but yeah, in a band situation they just can't cut through to save their lives. I really like the old Earthbound Audio Supercollider for bass, if you set your amp right it keeps the meat of your signal intact and sounds brilliant. The older Muff's with the tone bypass are also more usable in band situations because you can bypass the tonestack.

What works for me here is throwing a clean boost after the fuzz. it can bring back the beef. I built an EQD Arrows clone and it is just lovely for taming the fuzz pedals. YMMV.

Dwarfcraft Eau Claire Thunder / Baby Thunder would get my vote.

Not sure if you're using it on guitar or bass, but that's always been my experience with Muffs as well. The huge mid cut in the stock tone stack makes it sound huge and awesome by itself, and absolutely inaudible in the context of a band.

If you're a bass person, look for a variant with a clean blend (ehx bass muff?); if you're a guitar person, look for a variant with a dedicated mid control (EQD hoof? basic audio tri-ram?).

Another option would be to get into the supa/jumbo/bum fuzz world of tone benders. They're muff-adjacent (circuit-wise), but have their own thing going on and a much different tone stack. I have one of these and I love it so much I traced it and built a bunch of them for pals. The B&M fuzz is in the same wheelhouse (see: edwyn collins' 'girl like you').

Find a way to run it in parallel (there are pedals that do this if you don't have a 2 channel amp/effects loop). Keep the sizzle but maintain the clean(ish) transient.

The tone control has been mentioned a bunch here and for good reason. For some the stock tone control is awesome and works great. For others its the sticking point that makes Muffs suck. Thus you get people that only love the tone bypass version. My standard Muff uses the standard tone control, and then the PRF charity one took the Pete Cornish approach and replaced the regular tone control with a treble roll-off.

The Abominable Electronics Hail Satan Deluxe works for me. It has both a mid control and a clean blend, so depending on what you need you can adjust and cut through better. I THINK it would cut through fine on its own, but I always used it stacked with an OD. If you want to save a few bucks they offer a mini version, it has the mid control, but it doesn't have the clean blend which is key for my needs.

mdc wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 8:43 am Another option would be to get into the supa/jumbo/bum fuzz world of tone benders. They're muff-adjacent (circuit-wise), but have their own thing going on and a much different tone stack. I have one of these and I love it so much I traced it and built a bunch of them for pals. The B&M fuzz is in the same wheelhouse (see: edwyn collins' 'girl like you').

Would you mind sharing the schematic?