When I built my first Muffin I had no idea that there were so many variants I could build (or that they even existed to be honest....hahah).
Some of you have been following my "Fuzz Journey" since I started building pedals and posting about them here. More like a taste test through time with some classics, and some modern fuzzes. I like them ALL hahaha, but there's still so much more to try. The Big Muff's are just super appealing to me tonally and my goal is to build all the "biggies" at some point.
With the first Muffin board I decided to start with the
Triangle as it was (I think) the original. I love that thing! It's a close call whether it or the Gnat (Burns Buzzaround) would be may favorite fuzz. (Actually a very close third would be the SolaSound Hybrid Tonebender, but I digress, this post is about Muffs). Shout out to my main enabler
@szukalski for turning me onto the Gnat!
Anyway, back to the Muffs. So all this interest in the BMP is one aspect of a larger story of chasing some of the Gilmour tones and gear.
There are other pieces to the puzzle but it's a fascination that's been enabled by the likes of
@Big Monk and
@music6000.
I'm still not sure I know exactly what a Green Russian Muff is except that it was made by Sovtek for a while during the Mig amp days.
But with all the chatter about it, I decided to try building that one next.
I actually had this enclosure drilled and painted and ready to go yesterday but that got bumped by my
Mosfet Driver build.
I had a busy work day today and wasn't sure I would have much bench time, but I was chatting offline with
@steviejr92 this morning and he was like "So what's on the agenda today?" Which got me thinking....."Man, I've already got the enclosure drilled and painted for the Muff and the parts ready to go....I can skip lunch and knock it out....." hahaha, so I did!
Aside from an initial unforced error which we won't dwell too much on........ (put the trannies in backwards.....and soldered them in
) it was a smooth build. I followed the BOM in the build docs for the Green Russian. The only subs I made was in using my vintage Telefunken BC239A's instead of 2N5088's. I didn't check the gains of the 5088's I had on hand but I'm pretty sure they're generally on the higher side. So I went through my stash of 239's and picked 4 that were all around 430 Hfe. I also forgot the 239's are backwards pinouts to the 5088's. I think I made the same mistake on my Triangle build but since I socketed those it was a quick fix. One this one, since I already knew I'd like these Telefunkens, I went ahead and soldered them in. So it was a bit of a pain getting the old ones out without melting anything and get some new ones in correctly oriented.
Oh I also decided to try Log pots instead of Linears that I used in my Triangle, I didn't like it for the sustain and swapped it back to Linear when I fixed the trannies. I think I'll stick with Linear for both volume and sustain my next one.
Definitely a different flavor Muff than the Triangle, to me it sounds warmer, rounder and smoother with less "bite", but loving it. I've fallen in love all over again with my PRS Vela since re-wiring it last week (un-doing all my trick wiring and pretty much restored it to stock configuration but with upgraded electronics.) And it sounds glorious with this pedal.
This is an "Army Green" paint color I ordered off Amazon. It's a lot lighter than I thought would be but I like the brand, it dried pretty fast but still scuffs easily. I may try a satin gloss or semi gloss top coat on it next time I use it.
Anyway, very cool build! Looking forward to the next one....!
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Egads! there's a crooked capacitor....!!! I'll need to fix that tomorrow.....
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