Dumb Big Muff question

I used a Big Muff throughout the 70's, you are definitely not imagining things. The reissues are no comparison.

 

The D*A*M Meathead is very close to the rams head bigmuff IMHO

 

If 2 Big Muffs look different, that means they sound different. In fact, even if they look the same, chances are they'll sound different too... and if you think I'm joking, my wife will confirm that i've spent too much time and money comparing every type of Big Muff I could get my hands on(I think that's an even better sentence than ABKB's ). Anyway, I like the early 70's "rams head" version best, and I just got a fantastic D*A*M clone of one- never compared it to a Meathead though...

 

I find the early 70s version (EH-3003) to be alot smoother than the re-issues.

On the other hand, the RI seems alot more aggressive in the midrange.

The thing I'm noticing is that the 3003 seems to have alot more muffled sound, but still keeps definition (for a Muff), even with the tone rolled way down.....whereas the RI seems to not be as bassy, and gets really muddy when the tone is rolled off.


Lastly....I remember my RI having a volume drop when you turned it on...the 3003 I have now has no shortage of volume.

I can't compare to a Sovtek as it's been too long since I've used one.

 

Do you have the "original" Russian Reissue with Green box, shoddy workmanship, ****** switch and black lettering? If so, I don't agree. I bought one out of the first shipment and it is the loudest blattiest sounding fuzz box i've ever played. In front of a marshall it's sick.

 

I'll agree with all of these observations, in fact the unique tone control on the 3003(this is the one I referred to as the rams head) with the definition you describe is probably the main factor to my preference for that model.

 

You need to hunt down one of these:



Seriously, all the later reissues sucked. This one is BAAAD! I bought it new for $40 back in 1993 or 94. They're selling for $125+ on ebay now when you can find them.

 

I think thats the one that ABKB is describing as "tame"- IMO those green ones have roughly the same amount of gain as the old ones but the tone knob is quite different. Even when wide open the green one doesn't get very trebly, but on all the 70's versions you could get some insane treble along with all that fuzz. If that's what ABKB remembers about trying a Muff in the 70's then I could understand him perceiving the green Russian as tame.

 

He mentioned white lettering on his. If that's the case it is one of the later RIs.

 

There are no late-model RI's with a green finish OR white lettering- if it's green it's got to be an early RI. FWIW I've never seen a green one with white lettering either, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist- or that ABKB isn't having a memory puke

 

Heh, I've never seen a green one with yellow lettering either- here, look at this page and see if it looks like any of these:

http://electroharmonix.ronsound.com/articles/sovtekbm.html

Those are all old RI's that basically sound the same- the newest Sovtek BMP is also black w/yellow but it's a smaller box with a different font and sounds totally different, and then there's the NYC RI BMP which looks a lot like the late 70's model.

 

I think the USA RI sound alot like the late 70s/early 80s VerIII Muffs, but not like the early 70s VerI.

 

I've been playing through my 1970's Big Muff Pi Deluxe ever since I bought it in the late '70s, which has a combined Fuzzbox and compressor, with the blend knob and seperate controls - it's sick and devastatingly effective.

The Russian reissue Big Muff I bought for a friend's son didn't sound the same as mine when deactivating the compressor - kind of harsh and grittier to my ears.