UTILITY MUFFIN — Stomp Under Foot

Feral Feline

Feral Feline

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www.premierguitar.com

Zappa’s Big Muff Reborn! The Premier Guitar Stomp Under Foot Utility Muffin Review

There are enough awesome, hyper-accurate re-creations of classic fuzz pedals that it's tempting to say we've seen and heard it all. But while legendary fuzzes like the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff (and most of their many permutations) have been copied to an exacting degree many times over, variations o
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I've read all that I can on Kit Rae's site, regarding Zappa's modded Muff, could probably get close just building on a generic Muff board, but would still like to see this SUF creation given the PPCB deep dive.
 
Dang. I’ve been planning on selling a line of Zappa-themed pedals for years now, and the Utility Muffin was the name I was gonna use (I mean it’s the obvious name for it) for the direct clone of Zappa’s modded muff. The graphics i designed were actually pretty close to that too! Great minds think alike, eh? That’s what I get for taking way too long to actually get it done lol
 
Bricksnbeatles said:
Dang. I’ve been planning on selling a line of Zappa-themed pedals for years now, and the Utility Muffin was the name I was gonna use (I mean it’s the obvious name for it) for the direct clone of Zappa’s modded muff. The graphics i designed were actually pretty close to that too! Great minds think alike, eh? That’s what I get for taking way too long to actually get it done lol
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Haha, so a fellow Fripp & Zappa fan here. :)

I've been lobbying @PedalPCB for months so he create his version of Son of Kong without the XLR complexity (https://www.deadendfx.com/product/diddy)...

For your Zappa line, I presume you got a Muff, Zapper, Duophase, Diddy/SoK, Squidward(Green Ringer) and some kind of Flanger?

I presume you already got this book: https://www.amazon.com/Zappa-Gear-Amplifiers-Keyboards-Equipment/dp/1540012026/
 
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Dali said:
Haha, so a fellow Fripp & Zappa fan here. :)

I've been lobbying @PedalPCB for months so he create his version of Son of Kong without the XLR complexity (https://www.deadendfx.com/product/diddy)...

For your Zappa line, I presume you got a Muff, Zapper, Duophase, Diddy/SoK, Squidward(Green Ringer) and some kind of Flanger?

I presume you already got this book: https://www.amazon.com/Zappa-Gear-Amplifiers-Keyboards-Equipment/dp/1540012026/
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Yeah, those are all among the Zappa pedals (using my own PCBs though). Technically no diddy actually, but I did manage to track down info on the EQ that Midge designed for internal installation in Frank’s guitars, and I put together an smd layout so I can make them on a 1” x 2” PCB as a drop in kit for guitars— that one actually came about because I’m planning a replica build of the red d’mini ‘strate’ as a travel guitar for myself. Quite a few other pedals too though, largely the more obscure stuff including some of the horn effects units that Bunk and Ian used. The utility muffin was the first one I came up with, and that idea was actually what inspired me to start making pedals back in the summer of 2015. I do have the book— I was eagerly awaiting that one for soooo many years, and when it finally came out, it was well worth the wait.
 
Dali said:
Haha, so a fellow Fripp & Zappa fan here. :)

I've been lobbying @PedalPCB for months so he create his version of Son of Kong without the XLR complexity (https://www.deadendfx.com/product/diddy)...

For your Zappa line, I presume you got a Muff, Zapper, Duophase, Diddy/SoK, Squidward(Green Ringer) and some kind of Flanger?

I presume you already got this book: https://www.amazon.com/Zappa-Gear-Amplifiers-Keyboards-Equipment/dp/1540012026/
Click to expand...

What about the Minnow (FSH)!

Well, there's too much gear he used to list everything, but that one is important to me to include on my Barking Pumpkin Board.

What I've got thus far, in terms of PCBs or Vero etc if not actually built yet...


Vox Wah-wah
Maestro Boomerang and other wah-wah pedals
Maestro FZ-1
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff(s) V3 w/ 74k Limiter resistors etc, but I'm not going to rack 'm.
Electro-Harmonix Small Stone
Dan Armstrong Green Ringer
Ibanez FL-303 Flanger have to do own layout, but have schematic
MXR Flanger
MXR Distortion+
DBX Boom Box (Meatbox clone)
Alembic F-2B Preamp
Systech Harmonic Energiser
Mu-tron III
Mu-tron Bi-phase
Mu-tron Octave Divider
Oberheim VCF-200 Voltage Controlled Filter
Pro Co Rat
Echoplex Got the "plex" part, but not the tape-echo-echoechochochochchhh


Also have many pedal-sims for most of the amps listed in his arsenal.


Lots left to get though, but above all — collecting bits for the “Electro Wagnerian Emancipator”. 😸
 
Dali said:
My lobbying effort worked... ;)

www.pedalpcb.com

FreakZEQ - PedalPCB.com

Compare to Spontaneous Audio Devices Son of Kong
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I was very exited to see that in the ‘Coming Soon’ section this morning. I was working on an SMD layout of just the EQ section (well, not exactly— it’s a replica of the EQ that Sloatman put in Frank’s guitars) of that a while ago, but I lost momentum after both of my hard drives bricked. Now that I have my computer up and running again and managed to retrieve my cloud backups, I should finish that up and toss in a few guitars to test it out.
 
Bricksnbeatles said:
I was very exited to see that in the ‘Coming Soon’ section this morning. I was working on an SMD layout of just the EQ section (well, not exactly— it’s a replica of the EQ that Sloatman put in Frank’s guitars) of that a while ago, but I lost momentum after both of my hard drives bricked. Now that I have my computer up and running again and managed to retrieve my cloud backups, I should finish that up and toss in a few guitars to test it out.
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I'm very interested in a 'Strat-ready' PCB of the EQ like Frank had in his Performance Guitar. :cool:
 
Dali said:
I'm very interested in a 'Strat-ready' PCB of the EQ like Frank had in his Performance Guitar. :cool:
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I’ll hook you up with one when I eventually get around to getting a batch of the PCBs made up. Only thing is, they’ll require a fair bit of potentiometer surgery if you want it to have the same layout as Frank’s— I’ve done it a ton of times and it’s pretty simple, just requires a CTS concentric potentiometer (I use this one) and two additional pots with the correct values. You just gotta open the concentric pot and replace the wafers with the wafers from the other pots, then seal it back up.
I actually started the project because I’m planning to build an exact replica of Frank’s red D’Mini ‘Strate’ as it appeared on the cover of the February 1983 issue of Guitar Player magazine, but the yellow performance Strat and the Hendrix Strat are both planned for the semi-near future as well.
 
I know exactly what you're talking about...
Bricksnbeatles said:
I actually started the project because I’m planning to build an exact replica of Frank’s red D’Mini ‘Strate’ as it appeared on the cover of the February 1983 issue of Guitar Player magazine, but the yellow performance Strat and the Hendrix Strat are both planned for the semi-near future as well.
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This one. :p

1624652141466.png
 
Dali said:
I know exactly what you're talking about...


This one. :p

View attachment 13006
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That’s the one! I actually don’t have a copy of that magazine (though as of yesterday I do have the leading bid on one on eBay), but I do have a few other cool pieces of vintage Zappa-related print media that I’ve still yet to frame.
https://imgur.com/a/qeBmPFO
https://imgur.com/6SwThMN
https://imgur.com/Ct5gr3f
I also have a drumhead that I’ve gotten signed by Adrian Belew, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Eddie Jobson, Denny Walley, and Jean Luc Ponty (almost got Walt Fowler and Ed Mann too, but I forgot to bring it with me when I met both of them) which I’m going to frame along with a print from Cal Schenkel
 
Bricksnbeatles said:
That’s the one! I actually don’t have a copy of that magazine (though as of yesterday I do have the leading bid on one on eBay), but I do have a few other cool pieces of vintage Zappa-related print media that I’ve still yet to frame.
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I can send it to you if you don't win the bid.

But I will keep my Zappa's MXR Digital Delay System II :p
 
Bricksnbeatles said:
That’s the one! I actually don’t have a copy of that magazine (though as of yesterday I do have the leading bid on one on eBay), but I do have a few other cool pieces of vintage Zappa-related print media that I’ve still yet to frame.
https://imgur.com/a/qeBmPFO
https://imgur.com/6SwThMN
https://imgur.com/Ct5gr3f
I also have a drumhead that I’ve gotten signed by Adrian Belew, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Eddie Jobson, Denny Walley, and Jean Luc Ponty (almost got Walt Fowler and Ed Mann too, but I forgot to bring it with me when I met both of them) which I’m going to frame along with a print from Cal Schenkel
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Wow, he looks so young & handsome in that shaving advert! No doubt taken about the same time he introduced his bicycle composition to the world on The Steve Allen Show.

😹


Let me know if you have any spare PCBs from your run if I'm not too late to sign up for one. 🙏
 
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