ped Posted April 5, 2023 Share Posted April 5, 2023 I quite like big muffs, especially the green ones with slightly lower gain and full bottom end. I must admit this model passed me by, but I managed to grab one recently for a steal. It has a fantastic feature set, including a clean blend, parametric mids which can be engaged by a separate footswitch and a noise gate. It's like EHX threw everything they could at it. There's even trim pots inside to play with. I previously had the Green Russian re-issue which I liked but it was a bit too wooly and buzzy for me. I prefer a really saggy bottom end and grindy mids sound. Partly that can be achieved with a clean blend but the most important thing to me is the way the treble is dealt with. The 'tone' control is centred quite low to my ears and so the Green Russian never quite did it for me on the top end. However this one has a 'wicker' switch which opens up the top end really nicely, so that you can turn down the tone control to leave loads of range on tap. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osiris Posted April 6, 2023 Share Posted April 6, 2023 As far as I understand it, these are based on the Russian made so called 'Civil War' Muff pedals made in the early 90's by Sovtek, either for or with Electro Harmonix. The various Sovtek models, including the Green Russian and Tall Font, supposedly all used the same circuit design but there seems to be a lot of component - and tonal - variations between even supposedly identical models. I'm sure I picked all this useless information from one of Josh Scott's excellent videos! Anyway, the Sovtek built Muffs are generally said to be lower gain, less fizzy with deeper lows and a less severe mid scoop, and therefore are considered to be more bass friendly than the other Muff variants. This does seem to be the case based on my very limited experience, I bought a Bass Big Muff years ago and it didn't work in a band setting, there was no note clarity or definition, just a fizzy, scooped, blurred mess which put me off Muffs all together. But after doing some homework on the many Muff variations (fnarr), I recently picked up a Green Russian based clone that has an onboard 3 band EQ and it's a totally different beast to the Bass Big Muff. It has a much smoother fuzz character, it's never gets spitty or fizzy even when ragging the treble. The option to boost the mids completely changes the character of the pedal, and, despite not having a clean blend there's still plenty of usable low end. And from looking at the spec of the Sovtek Deluxe, it does all this and more. As you say, this model had passed me by too, there's not a lot of information about it online so it's great to read your initial impressions of it, and hopefully your thoughts once you've got to know it better too, especially as I could possibly see myself picking one up at some point further down the line. 😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted April 6, 2023 Author Share Posted April 6, 2023 My thoughts/experience exactly! I used to equate muff to muffled, but definitely the Civil War and Tall Font sound amazing on bass. I believe this one is the same circuit as the green reissue which sounds according to most exactly the same as an average tall font. This site was my go-to for muff info http://www.kitrae.net/music/big_muff_history2C.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NAS Bass Posted April 13, 2023 Share Posted April 13, 2023 How would you say this compares to the EHX DELUXE BASS BIG MUFF PI? Seems to be a lot of control on that one too - hi and low pass, crossover, blend plus DI? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted April 13, 2023 Author Share Posted April 13, 2023 6 minutes ago, NAS Bass said: How would you say this compares to the EHX DELUXE BASS BIG MUFF PI? Seems to be a lot of control on that one too - hi and low pass, crossover, blend plus DI? I haven't tried one of those, but it seems like the Sovtek has a naturally fuller bottom end to the distorted signal, meaning there's no need for a clean blend or crossover. Certainly the parametric mod control is massively useful for a bassist. Sometimes I find a blended signal sounds like two separate signals at once and not as fat sounding. But then the Bass Muff seems far more popular, so maybe I need to try one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NAS Bass Posted April 13, 2023 Share Posted April 13, 2023 49 minutes ago, ped said: I haven't tried one of those, but it seems like the Sovtek has a naturally fuller bottom end to the distorted signal, meaning there's no need for a clean blend or crossover. Certainly the parametric mod control is massively useful for a bassist. Sometimes I find a blended signal sounds like two separate signals at once and not as fat sounding. But then the Bass Muff seems far more popular, so maybe I need to try one. I definitely agree about blend controls - I've always heard that as two separate sounds and not a true 'blend'. Yep, mids are a bonus and always an old friend! What will swing it for me is which one keeps the 'attack' of the notes in place as they can easily be swallowed up with this sort of effect Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted April 13, 2023 Author Share Posted April 13, 2023 23 minutes ago, NAS Bass said: I definitely agree about blend controls - I've always heard that as two separate sounds and not a true 'blend'. Yep, mids are a bonus and always an old friend! What will swing it for me is which one keeps the 'attack' of the notes in place as they can easily be swallowed up with this sort of effect Yeah very true. Well the Sovtek and the tall font I own both distort slightly differently at the attack of the note and then decays slightly differently, almost like the very front of the wave has more bite and some of the clean sound which then gives way to quite a complex and random 3D sound. It's like the dry sound lives inside the distorted signal and changes the intensity and warmth throughout the pluck of a note. Can you tell it's not easy to describe! A good example is posted on the thread about my EHX green muff 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NAS Bass Posted April 13, 2023 Share Posted April 13, 2023 8 minutes ago, ped said: Yeah very true. Well the Sovtek and the tall font I own both distort slightly differently at the attack of the note and then decays slightly differently, almost like the very front of the wave has more bite and some of the clean sound which then gives way to quite a complex and random 3D sound. It's like the dry sound lives inside the distorted signal and changes the intensity and warmth throughout the pluck of a note. Can you tell it's not easy to describe! A good example is posted on the thread about my EHX green muff Ha, great effort there on that description! I'll check out that example 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.