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I currently use a custom Civil War Muff on my board, that has a flat midrange response. I love it for leads, tons of sustain and a great violin like sound on the neck pickup.

There are tons of different Muff Variations, though. The Earthquaker Devices Hoof Fuzz, the Blackout Effectors Musket Fuzz, the Cornish G2...Not to mention the vintage EHX ones of course. Tons!
What are you favorites qualities about your favorite Muff version?

I've tried four variations of the big muff: a black russian, BM w/tone wicker, Germanium muff, current nyc reissue, and HOOF FUZZ. The HOOF is my current favorite. I got it because my gas for an mxr sized big muff variant had reached a peak. The tone stack and the variation of the gain control have been my favorite parts.

The gain control's a lot of fun because there's not really an unusable spot on it, like with most big muffs. Low gain gives you this low-fi blues sound that loves to be rammed with an octave up fuzz, and high gain adds miles of fuzz and sustain like any big muff should.

The tone stack is an enigma to me. The shift and tone knobs play together in ways that is glorious. It gives you the mid scooped sound, but with a bite that's not present on the normal big muff. The shift knob at the extremes, gives you the extremes. Maxed it's like a hoard of shrunken screaming monsters. At min it's feels beyond sound, almost to the point where the sound is more felt than heard (at least to me). The tone knob is almost like a fine tune for the shift, but not quite.

I've played a few muffs. I like the old ram's head w/ FS36999/2N5133 the best, although I also had a PNP 2N5087 that was real tight and sounded great. The caps values make a huge difference, but i like the smoothness of the ram's head, a bit of a scoop, not boomy like the Russians, or nasally and too gainy like a 3034.
I think the secret to playing with a muff (ooh err missus) is to back off the gain a bit, tone about 70% so out of the mud but not into the fizz, and turn the guitar down a touch. Loads of nice fluid smooth sustain.

I love that certain grainy, grittiness that the Russian BMP's have. In fact, it's that specific aspect that inspired both the Soviet and Mother Russia. Neither are anywhere close to BMP's in terms of circuits, but I think I captured that grit with them. It's also why they both have Russian-themed names.

devnulljp wrote:I think the secret to playing with a muff (ooh err missus) is to back off the gain a bit, tone about 70% so out of the mud but not into the fizz, and turn the guitar down a touch. Loads of nice fluid smooth sustain.

This.
It helps a tone.

That muffled sound.

Cool, I'm just trying to figure out what are the best qualities to have in a muff. Got some new PCBs in, so I think I'm gonna build a couple more Muffs for fun.

Sustain, LOWZ.
Muff[s] of choice for bass in he real world of doing the "normal" bassist part: Katana Sound Thunder Cloud or GGG Tuned BMP
Muff of choice for everything else under the sun: my old green sovtek.