I want to build myself a Rams Head Muff clone. Help!!

[KaosCill8r]

I hear a lot of people try to clone them and they just sound lousy. Then you get the big builders like SUF or Wren & Cuff that seem to get them sounding right. I want to build one and get it sounding right. I know I could go out and chase up vintage correct "mojo" parts but I really don't think that's what makes it sound right. Or is it? How do I build it and get it to sound close to perfect?

[KaosCill8r]

Seriously no one. I thought there would be a lot of Big Muff lovers and builders around here. I looked at the The Big Muff page and while there is a lot of info and schematics of all the different versions there, there isn't a lot of info for people who want to build one and get it right. I know with all the part substitution that went on at EHX in the 70s they were hit and miss to get a good one. But I thought maybe by now there would be info out there about what parts to use and how to properly use them to get a good clone built. I have access to a pcb and NOS BC239C transistors and other NOS parts like 3n9 tin film tone caps from that era. I guess I'll just have to get the parts and go for it. Thanks anyway guys.

[Hypnodrone]

I did one of Fuzz Dog's MultiMuff PCB's. It sounded very similar to my old original Rams Head. Unfortunately I sold the original so I can't do an AB comparison. The main difference was probably in the background noise and not in tone / gain.

Mojo bit's usually won't make any difference unless you compare them to cheap chinese off-spec parts. In pedals I find that mojo basically is accumulated death, parts decay and beer spillage adding to a certain level of noise floor.

[KaosCill8r]

I did one of Fuzz Dog's MultiMuff PCB's. It sounded very similar to my old original Rams Head. Unfortunately I sold the original so I can't do an AB comparison. The main difference was probably in the background noise and not in tone / gain.

Mojo bit's usually won't make any difference unless you compare them to cheap chinese off-spec parts. In pedals I find that mojo basically is accumulated death, parts decay and beer spillage adding to a certain level of noise floor.

That's where I'm getting my pcb and basic components from. Fuzzdogs Lee does some really good kits. I'm in the middle of doing his Megalith kit and his Scrambler kit.
I don't so much need to worry about the beer spillage factor as I don't gig anymore and I don't eat or drink in my music man cave. I don't think there is much problem with NOS parts decay. I think it's the salvaged parts that can have problems with decay. I think the heat from soldering, then de-soldering and running a signal through leads to the decay. not to mention the decay that happened before it was de soldered and reused.

[tabbycat]

have you checked out the pdf in the multimuff pcb listing on the fuzzdog site? p6 has the boms for all the variations. http://pedalparts.co.uk/docs/MultiMuff.pdf

also some really useful info in this thread http://freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=25303

my first rule of mojo is to look carefully at gut shots of the pcb for the original pedal. if the original uses ceramic caps then i do. if it uses green caps, i do. and so on. people hate on ceramic caps/green caps/carbon resistors, etc, because they are cheap and rough-and-ready, but those bits are what a hell of a lot of the pedals we gas for so badly used.
vintage trannies are more trouble but if you've got a dmm that can read off hfe you should be able to get pretty damn close to anything you can't find exactly. someone like lao wiz here can probably build the perfect muff in his sleep. maybe rattle his cage sweetly?

i may well join you in a grand muff-off soonish. i still haven't built my last fuzzdog orders but his multi-muff pcb is next on my list.

[guitarslinger21]

If you want to be safe, just buy some 2N5088's. They are consistent, high gain, smooth, and non-temperamental. In fact, it's SUF Matt's favorite Transistor to use. Pretty sure he uses it in all of the non-classic muffs that aren't op-amp'ed.

[tabbycat]

"6. Transistors: When in doubt, use a 2N5088" (from keen's law's, a must-read for pedal builders).

http://www.geofex.com/effxfaq/keenslaws.htm

a few more suggestions on transistors from mark at gfx

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SZzinuajzrY/UR_Lu4KAtiI/AAAAAAAAE6E/rPAQ4ox_Wyc/s1600/EHX+73+Rams+Head+Big+Muff.png

lots of ideas re transistors, caps, resistors and diodes in the thread that accompanies it.

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/ehx-73-rams-head-big-muff.html

[mcfx138]

I believe the last couple of RAM clones that I had built awhile back I threw some BC549c's in there. I picked some that had a higher hFe and somewhat similar. Seemed to work real nice for me but as always, tone is subjective. ;-) Good luck! :-)

[KaosCill8r]

I believe the last couple of RAM clones that I had built awhile back I threw some BC549c's in there. I picked some that had a higher hFe and somewhat similar. Seemed to work real nice for me but as always, tone is subjective. ;-) Good luck! :-)

Thanks mate.
I ended up building the Rams Head clone a couple of weeks ago and I also built a bubble font Green Russian Muff clone at the same time. Never bothered with any vintage NOS transistors in them. Just used 2N5088 to keep it simple and affordable. They both sound really awesome, but I might be biased because I built them. But I can get sounds very similar to YouTube demos of the real deal muffs they are based on so I'm happy with them. And I never really chase anyone else's tones with effects. People who chase other guitarist's tones end up in the buy then flip cycle of blowing money. And they are never satisfied with thier sound after all that money wasted.

[amnesiac305]

Personally, I don't think muffs really warrant any "mojo" parts. They are pretty straight forward builds. You can play with subtle changes in values in both the tone stack and the clipping diodes. This can have a pretty dramatic effect on the sound. I recently built a muff that has rotary switches for many points in the circuit. It is interesting to hear the effect of these minor changes.

[Dogbrainz]

I've built 2 Madbean Rams Muffs with 2n5088's.
Both seemed identical and sounded great to my ears, using all cheap Tayda chinese parts.
They definately seem on par with demo's I've heard of originals.
I haven't AB'd it with an original but personally, I wouldn't bother splitting hairs over it.

[mictester]

Forget "mojo" parts - they won't make the slightest difference. My 1973 BMP has 0.1µ inter-stage capacitors that actually measure 0µ30! They were probably wrongly marked 0µ33 parts that EH got cheap because they were "out of spec".

Don't believe the values that you see in published circuits - they're a reasonable starting point, but it's always worth experimenting with values to get just the sound you want. I've never liked the tone control on my original Muff - it turned out that the pot was the wrong value! EH's quality control was virtually non-existent: Can you get sound through it when "on" and "off"? If so, it's a pass!

Start with the "known" values. Don't waste your time selecting mojo parts - EH never bothered! Don't go for really high gain transistors - in the early 70s Hfe was much lower than with modern components. I built one recently and tried 2N2222s throughout. It sounded great, but hissed horribly. I changed out the transistors for the lowest gain BC107As I could find, and it still sounded great, but I lost the hiss! I've built great sounding Muffs with CA3049 transistor arrays for the transistors. These have fairly low gain, and I confuses the hell out of people when they see a Muff with an IC inside it!