I don't know if its my hearing but lately I've felt that my vintage reissue rat (w/ lm308) sounds pretty darn close as my muff (i did some of beraduur's mods) but let me first go through my setup

standard tele->rat->muff->vox ac4tv on 4w volume at 330 looking from front

i have my muff settings: volume 9:00, tone 1:00, sustain 1:00
rat settings: gain 9:00, tone 2:00, volume dimed

i dont like putting the volume very high on the muff, it just gets too mushy. also, i feel like the muff doesnt have that much volume?? with the volume dimed it just gets mushy and notes kinda get inaudible behind a wall of mush. is that wall of mush THE muff sound? i can get my rat to sound like a muff with more clarity and bite.

i dunno what to do, it seems like the muff likes amps with headroom which my vox doesn't. ive owned the muff for years and loved it in the beginning but i was running it through a fender frontman 25r solid state. it had a HUGE wall of sound not the wall of mush that it has become now.

what are some settings you guys use for the muff?

My Muff goes volume and sustain full (volume at 3/4 for shows), tone at just a hair past the middle for my Les Paul and tone at 1:10 for my Dimarzio loaded Strat. It might sound counter intuitive, but midscooping with the tone maybe will give it more clarity in the sense that it'll take out some midrange groan that clouds up chords; it'll certainly give it more bite. I always have the sustain at full (except for the odd cover here and there) so that the compression makes my notes punch out.

I have two 100 watt amps (tube and solid state) and a ten watt practice amp though (that I almost never use), so I have almost no experience with super small amps. I can't really recommend more then d**king about with the settings to try to make it work.

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Talking about wireless pedals...

Two options:
-Buy an EQ pedal - doesn't need to be pricey (mine is a Behringer one that cost £15) but it unlocks your tonal options. My muff now does so much more.

-Mod the muff further- add a switch that takes out the tone control. Gives a noticable volume/gain boost. Did it to mine after my muff sounded too much like my boss df2 and I love it now. Its like setting its character free

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My Rig

"...We should be wasting that space with another discussion about something truly useful, like tits or religion or something......." - Fiveways

I have my Muff's Tone control at just below 12:00, Sustain on full and Volume at just past 12:00. The extra compression sounds great with my Roland, even better through an Orange Rockerverb! Maybe you could try the Big muff w/ Tone Wicker? It does what Jonbye suggested straight out of the box! Also, maybe you could try cranking the Vox and backing off on the Sustain on the Muff, so as not to overcompensate on the fuzz!

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Rickenbacker 330/Gibson Les Paul Standard and a couple of amps, depending on how long the walk to the place is.

FS: Fender Telecaster Contemporary, Orange Thunder 30, Mesa Boogie Studio Preamp, Fender Vibro Champ.

muff is never gonna sound right through an ac4. tried it, various settings, to no avail. too little headroom. you can't get it to sound big. you need a bigger amp.

This. It's more than likely overloading the crap out of the AC4's input as well as fuzzing like a mofo. Save up for an AC30 and be amazed at the difference.

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Stargazer FX Site

I <3 Michel!

sigh thanks though guys i greatly appreciate all the input!

so lesson is muff likes big amps? clean amps with tons of headroom? how does the muff sound through amps like orange or marshalls?

Dinosaur Jr.!!!


I wouldn't say you need a big amp but you need a bit more head room than 4 watts. Sounds great on my orange tiny terror, and my bandmaster. When I use it on the orange I generally have it on 15 watts and very little break up. This sound pretty fat and woolly. On my bandmaster it's tone really shines through mostly due to the headroom.

The main thing is it's just too saturated on an amp that size, that was built to get distorted at low volumes.

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Messy Bedroom Luxe & Reduxe

Good exchange with Cham Clowder.

lol how could i forget dinosaur jr. pumpkins too for that manner

yeah like when i have everything dimed on the muff and the ac4 well past break up on 4w, the attack just goes to ****s lol. it sounds like creamy mush kinda cool but not massive sounding. i guess ill use it only for lead sustain and occassional lo-fi mush rhythm

The Orange Tiny Terror handles the Muff better than anything I've ever used. It's just perfect for stoner jams and stuff!

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Rickenbacker 330/Gibson Les Paul Standard and a couple of amps, depending on how long the walk to the place is.

FS: Fender Telecaster Contemporary, Orange Thunder 30, Mesa Boogie Studio Preamp, Fender Vibro Champ.

My HT-5 handles my BMP fine, at least at 'domestic' levels! As soon as you bring in any distortion after the Muff, whether it's another pedal's or the amp's, you immediately lose the top end and definition - the 'mush' you mention. The only way I can describe it is that the fuzz is smoothed off, which is OK for single notes but will indeed turn it into undistinguishable mess with chords (for some reason, single notes ring out loud through a Muff but it seems to exert a compressiion/limiting effect on multiple notes).

I recall Billy Corgan mentioning how he had his 800 Marshall head's master volume cranked up full but the gain right down, just underneath the point where the preamp began to distort and lose the ability to reproduce the crisp top end of the fuzz.

If your amp's running clean with the Muff off, diming the Muff's volume control could well be raising the volume and pushing the preamp stage over the edge into breakup. It could well be a headroom problem sadly.

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Guitar rig: CIJ Fender Jazzmaster/CIJ Fender Mustang -> TU-3 -> RV-5 -> OD-3 -> custom IC Muff -> PS-2 -> DD-3 -> RE-20 -> LS-2 -> Fender '65 DRRI & Mesa/Boogie F-50

Bass rig: Fender MIM Jazz Bass -> TU-2 -> RAT 2 -> Sansamp BDDI -> RV-3

"...So now you know the true secret to great tone: all the espresso you can handle."

maybe ill try changing the preamp tubes to reduce the gain factor get try and milk out any more headroom i can get

Yeah maybe an 12AU7 or even a 12at7 would work with a muff I think- take the preamp gain down then overload it with the pedal.

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My Rig

"...We should be wasting that space with another discussion about something truly useful, like tits or religion or something......." - Fiveways