Yet ANOTHER Stomp Under Foot review - "Green Russian Muff"

[SUPROficial]

I got my Stomp Under Foot "GRM" a while back but wanted to hold off on writing a review of it until I had a chance to use it on a gig in "real world volume level" conditions.
Of course the first thing I peeked inside and it is as nice on the inside as it is externally.

My photos don't do justice to the sparkly metallic green finish.



It has that grunting raspy quality that the green Russian Muffs have, something I haven't been able to get out of the current NYC reissue Muff or Little Big Muff.

I should add that as much as I appreciate Gilmour (especially his pre-Muff, spaced-out era from Saucerful of Secrets to Pompeii) that is not at all the type of sound I am going for personally.

I'm using it in a band...not sure how to describe it, maybe like Vincebus Ereptum-era Blue Cheer covering Junior Kimbrough? I asked my girlfriend for an outside opinion and she said "it sounds like what might have happened if Hendrix was really into abusing solvents instead of hallucinogens" - I should marry that woman.

Anyway...on a Muff I normally like to keep the sustain relatively low and run a volume-sensitive fuzz that can go from clean to full-on w/ the guitar's volume control in front. With my setup the modern NYC reissue and LBM that I have are either obnoxiously boomy and murky until I dial in more treble than desired (NYC), or just kind of dead sounding in terms of response to picking dynamics until the sustain is turned up to where it feeds back too easily (LBM). Most importantly they're too smooth and neither of them have that raspy texture of the Russian Muff. Some folks say the black ones sound the same but I haven't had any luck with the ones I've tried.

The Stomp Under Foot GRM Muff immediately produced the familiar raspy grunt I had been missing, it was actually very hard to dial in a sound that I didn't like or couldn't find an application for (where as with my NYC and LBM I find the usable range of tones to be extremely narrow).

I am impatient and hate having too many knobs to tweak (translation: I am a Luddite and the six knobs on a Musket Fuzz frighten and confuse me), so the fact that pretty much the entire tone and sustain range beyond what I normally use sounded useful to me is definitely a plus (translation: I could drunkenly set the controls all wrong on a darkened stage and there's a fair chance I wouldn't notice until later).
I wish there was a more universally agreed upon and concise set of linguistic terms for describing tone.
Failing that, I guess I'll say the Stomp Under Foot GRM has the "hey look at meeeeeeee! I'm HUUUUUUUUGE!" tone.
Is that adequately descriptive? No, I guess not.

The real test, however, was how it would behave at gig volume.
Unfortunately that was a longer wait than I expected because the gig I had immediately after getting the pedal was a sonic disaster...you know the kind...where you get to the venue and the "regular" sound guy is being replaced by a twitchy cokehead with a rockstar complex...you have an hour to soundcheck and the first 10 minutes of it is dedicated to the soundman talking about all the "big names" he has worked with (even though you couldn't get drunk or stoned enough to actually imagine any of those "big names" gracing the stages of the dive bars to which this soundman's career is clearly confined to). Then another 40 minutes spent on the kick drum. Another 5 minutes on the rest of the drum kit, and finally another 5 minutes for the rest of the band, including vocals. If a dive bar soundman ever sprang from the pen and imagination of Charles Bukowski, surely it was this guy.
Needless to say I couldn't really pick out any tonal nuances that night. Hell, I could barely tell if a fuzz was on or not, so I just drowned my misery in flat lukewarm beer instead. The full review would have to wait some more.

Enough about that.

Then there was last night's gig, nicer venue, great stage sound, big enough stage to get some distance between myself and the amps and hear them properly.
Interesting night. First there was the sullen looking but very dapper middle aged Japanese businessman (he stood out like a sore thumb among the 20-something hipster crowd) who struck up a conversation with me by pointing at my Acid Mothers Temple t-shirt and saying "I know that band, sounds like cat in blender, hope you don't sound like that"...but that's not the point of this post.

I am really impressed with how well the GRM maintained definition - no easy feat, since I'm using it in a band where I pick (rather sloppily, I must add) with my bare fingers, which makes it even more difficult to get a balance between hugeness and some semblance of clarity. I'm still jazzed enough about it some 12 hours later to write this gushing review. In fact I've been telling all my friends about how much I dig this pedal all day long, all three of them must think I'm repetitive.
Especially the ones that don't play guitar.

I should add that ordering from Matt by email was a very pleasant experience.
If he ever thought, even for a brief moment, "jeez, shut up already" while replying to my messages, he never let on for a second. If he can make a paranoid misanthrope like myself feel like a valued customer, imagine how pleasant such a transaction would be for a normal person!

[mike361]

Boy, These could be the next big thing. I have a old green russian that I love but seems to sound best cranked. Wondering if the modern clones need volume to sound good? Anyone compare a clone stompunderfoot to a vintage russian ar rams head?

[SUPROficial]

Originally Posted by mike361

Anyone compare a clone stompunderfoot to a vintage russian

I did, but only at home at moderate volumes.
The original got uncontrollably wooly at low sustain & tone settings, even at bedroom volumes, the SUF did not. The original would also squeal pretty easily when driven by another fuzz, even at low volumes. The SUF withstood a cranked Bosstone in front of it at high stage volume, I got loads of sustain and beautiful controllable feedback that would bloom at the tail end of notes on any string all over the neck but no squealing whatsoever. I am completely blown away by how great it sounds.

[frankandstephen]

Can't say enough good things about Matt (and Stomp Under Foot) - my son has two of his pedals right now, one the Tri-Fuzz and the other the Limited Edition Mean Green Screamer, and both are just wonderful pedals and equal to anything the higher-priced boutique makers create.

[BluesHarp]

Could I get your girlfriends name and number?


Good review.. enjoyed it.

[ShavenYak]

Originally Posted by SUPROficial

First there was the sullen looking but very dapper middle aged Japanese businessman who struck up a conversation with me by pointing at my Acid Mothers Temple t-shirt and saying "I know that band, sounds like cat in blender"....

Well, if anyone would know what a cat in a blender sounds like....

[mattpas]

Thanks for the great review.
It's great you had a chance to really try it out at that second show.