ilovefuzz.com

I do really like the way J Mascis' Ram's Head variant sounds, but Tym Guitars seems to be the only folks who know what those values are, seeing as how they repaired, analyzed and cloned J's muff.

From what I understand, J purchased his Ram's Head secondhand after it had already been repaired or modified with different values by the previous owner.

Has anyone purchased a Fuzz Munchkin and analyzed it? I would really like the same circuit on my board but I can't justify spending $250 on a muff clone.

I had one.
It's riveted closed like all tym's stuff. You can't get it open without drilling out the rivets and then yeah, you'd have to re-rivet it.
Knowing the rarity and resale value etc I doubt anybodies gonna be doing that any time soon.
Also Tim is a really stand up guy and I don't think anybody wants to disrespect what he's doing by tracing his stuff what with what he does for the local scene and Australian musicians.
Doesn't look like you'll have much luck

tommasters wrote:I had one.
It's riveted closed like all tym's stuff. You can't get it open without drilling out the rivets and then yeah, you'd have to re-rivet it.
Knowing the rarity and resale value etc I doubt anybodies gonna be doing that any time soon.
Also Tim is a really stand up guy and I don't think anybody wants to disrespect what he's doing by tracing his stuff what with what he does for the local scene and Australian musicians.
Doesn't look like you'll have much luck

Well, merely for personal use/knowledge's sake.. There's no way I'd try and capitalize on it. THAT would be disrespectful after how much research he apparently put into determining the components.

Thanks for the reply anyhow.

Didn't mean any offence.
I just know how much the tym community told me off when I tried to resell mine for retail price
Finding out who traced and cloned their's would lead to a nice flame war i'm sure

So... you're not allowed to clone a pedal, famous for being a clone of a pedal?

that pretty much affirms why I will never buy a TYM pedal.

Rivetted shut is, frankly, retarded.
The fact he is a "stand up guy" doesnt mean its in any way "disrespectful" to figure out what are bound to be a couple of minor changes to what is one of the most cloned / derivatised circuits in existence.
If people wanna get pissy about dumb s4it like that, then I think we all need to start shedding some tears for Mike Matthews et al., and start hating on the Skreddies and Caitlinbreads of the world (which, naturally, would be equally as retarded as the rivetting)

I had a look on his site, obviously being a stand up guy and doing a lot for the community is charging $240 for a Big Muff clone and not even respecting the trade dress of EH, not to mention other stuff on his site.

I can't remember the details off the top of my head but J's Ram's Head has also been cloned (and said clones then sold) by Matt at Stomp Under Foot. Kit Rae, who knows everything there is to know about Muffs, has also identified the circuit as a V6 Pi and posted a schematic. Try here: http://www.bigmuffpage.com/Big_Muff_Pi_versions_schematics_part2.html

The exact circuit also appeared around 1976 in the V2 Big Muff enclosure, without the power filtering, tone bypass switching, and with different transistors. It was used in guitarist J Mascis' (Dinosaur jr) favorite Ram's Head Big Muff. The exact V3 tone bypass schematic later became the standard BMP circuit in the V6 Big Muff Pi, so the Mascis Muff is essentailly a V6.

EDIT: Woops, HorseBoy beat me to it.

Yeah, those Munchkins are hard to come by.

Matt at Stomp Under Foot did a clone for Mascis and every once in a while he makes a small batch of those. But you have to be on the SUF mailing list to get the info and they aren't exactly cheap.

He's also made one called "The Pi" that's more loosely inspired by Mascis' BM and muffs with similar circuits, but that is about to go out of production so you might have to be quick if you want one. It is however more affordable. I have one and it's a lovely, unruly, grungy beast that I would - in lack of better words - describe as a mix between Ram's Head and an Op Amp muff. I haven't had a chance to compare it to the Munchkin but a friend of mine in London's got the Munchkin and I plan to bring my Pi the next time I visit him, so we can do a shootout.

Anyways, here's a link. Good luck.

http://www.stompunderfoot.com/the-pi.html

J is very, very protective about that circuit, so don't lump all the blame on Tym. All Tym's pedals are riveted shut because that's how he makes his enclosures. If you think $240 is too much for a hand built effect pedal you've obviously never dealt with australian prices.

However that suck that happened to you Tom. I know he doesn't personally care about people flipping them for what they paid for them.

dase wrote:J is very, very protective about that circuit, so don't lump all the blame on Tym. All Tym's pedals are riveted shut because that's how he makes his enclosures. If you think $240 is too much for a hand built effect pedal you've obviously never dealt with australian prices.

However that suck that happened to you Tom. I know he doesn't personally care about people flipping them for what they paid for them.

I'd be more charitable with my cost analysis if I could see the guts and workmanship but as it is riveted shut (very bad choice for people who might need to fix the pedal at some point and NOT want to ship back to Australia) I can't, so I have to assume that build quality might be part of the reason for that construction method; it's almost like goop.

I have been to Australia to work and appreciate the value of their currency. In reflection I think $240 AUD is probably just about ok looking at today's conversion rate but stand by the riveting and bitching over resale has forever put me off owning their stuff.

You can get a rivet remover. They sell them at Home Depot here.

Someone send me theirs. I'll post the guts. hahaha

tommasters wrote:I had one.<br abp="995">It's riveted closed like all tym's stuff. You can't get it open without drilling out the rivets and then yeah, you'd have to re-rivet it.

Is drilling out a couple of rivets that big of a deal? They're only pop rivets

edit* - Although i'm not saying that people should do it, i'm just saying it wouldn't be too difficult if you were to do it.

This thread has me so so curious now. Like $400 curious..

greeny23 wrote:This thread has me so so curious now. Like $400 curious..

+1.
Seems like we're back in Schumann-land.