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I liked the bubbly-font Greenie I had - instant grunge. Approximately one usable setting on the tone knob and a horrible horrible bypass. Maybe that's why he's looking for alternatives to the original.

I have the wren and cuff tall font and it sounds just like one of my old green russian muffs. A good pedal imho.

StopReferencing wrote:I liked the bubbly-font Greenie I had - instant grunge. Approximately one usable setting on the tone knob and a horrible horrible bypass. Maybe that's why he's looking for alternatives to the original.

Yeah....the original is cool, I do love the funky big box and it has a certain mojo......but I think I would rather spend the same money or a little less and get something like the Wren and Cuff which from all reports I have heard is dead on, in a smaller box, way more reliable, and backed by a builder that really goes above and beyond as far as backing his products in my dealings with him.

Well my Tall Font Russian arrived.
First impressions: Its gets the closest I 've heard to a real tall font.
I A/B'd them last night and I found it lacked a little of that low-mid chunk of the original, had slighlty less gain and a bit less sustain.
I did buy a bunch of green muffs some years back and there is a bit of variance in them, so I guess everyones fav greenie might be different.
Still its closer than the Musket (which is another fine pedal in its own right, and on my board).
So yeah, I won't be selling the old big muff any time soon, but it might get retired from gigging. I'll have to try it with the band to see how it goes in RL.
Oh and build quality looks top notch.

Boxbie wrote:It makes me think that most of these cloners are chasing some aspect that I don't dig.... ...To me the sound is about massive bar chords, not evh style wailing.

When I put together a "clone" of the "green muff" it sounded like horseshit. It took a lot of experimentation and tweaking to come to my Eau Claire Thunder, so I think you might be right. And of course, chords above all else!!!

Ok so I had another go with an additional muff, and, whilst there were differences between all three, the wren and cuff held its own really well.
It wasn't as bassy as the real ones, but I would hazard its within the tolerances of the real ones.
The volume spread was more even, with the real ones it jumps a hell of a lot in the first quarter of a turn. Which is a handy improvement.
Whilst it wasn't my favourite, is was really good and I can see how the slightly greater hi-mids would cut a mix better.
hers a pic:

The de-painted one's mine

I'll shut up about big muffs now. Thanx for your patience

I just wanted to add a couple things:

1 - Due mostly to this thread I bought a original tall EHX font russian off the TGP emporium. Its my favorite fuzz/distortion and I have many. I recommend them to anyone who's interested. As others have said, the buffers are terrible- I keep mine in a true bypass loop to fix this.

2- I built a green russian clone from a kit from general guitar gadgets. With careful tweaking I can get the tone to match 99-100%. I have a true bypass looper and I put them in separate loops to test them. If you set the knobs the same they dont match up - but with a bit of patience the clone will do every cool sound the original makes very nearly exactly. The clone actually has a more usable tone knob too as the original is kinda limited to a small useful range.

Just some of my honest observations- hope they help someone

The problem with trying to identify the "best" vintage green muff is the variability in components...I own a bubble font green, and three identical big box black muffs...and they DO ALL SOUND QUITE DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER. So what you may be searching for is an approximation, or the sound coming from a combination of someone else's rig--and you'll never know what any one example will sound like with yours until you try it. Add to this the reliability problems, the bypass, the size and the cost, and you see why the clones and tributes become a consideration.
Kit Rae's site gives more info than you could ever imagine, you could spend days there.
The muff circuit is very similar across versions, far more than you might expect, ESPECIALLY with respect to the Russians. I learned a TON by buying a couple broken black ones (believe me, they're out there) and repairing them. Once you're familiar with the circuit, try changing the tone stack and/or the feedback filter caps, and you'll start to HEAR which version you want.