My EHX English Muff'n Impressions

[assboglin]

So I got to spend some time with the pedal today, I'll do soundclips sometime if I get a chance. I'll mostly be comparing it to a Fulltone Bass-Drive Mosfet, which is kind of a standard in bass overdrives in my book.

The English Muff'n is basically a distorting preamp like off of an old vintage guitar amplifier (EHX is going for 60's era amp designs, think Marshall and Vox). It has volume and a bass-mid-treble tone stack just like a guitar preamp, as well as a dedicated gain control for controlling the level of distortion. This thing is pure classic rock. Don't even think for a second that it's not pure classic rock. It is.

The amount of bass this thing can put out is ridiculous. It makes the Fulltone Bass-Drive Mosfet sound wimpy and without bass in comparison. Huge to the point of getting muddy swells of bottom end is easily available. I actually had to roll the bass below noon to even it out with my clean signal. The pedal didn't get too bright or too dark by moving the treble knob, just a nice wide usable range of treble available, and I preferred the mids with a healthy boost.

The sound of the pedal was extremely natural, it sounded exactly like my guitar put through some dirty tubes, and with proper EQ on the tone stack there is little other coloration whatsoever, just your bass tone, plus the distortion. Beautiful, but unfortunately doesn't have the clarity of the Bass-Drive. The gain goes all the way from clean to more gain than I would ever use with the stock tubes, and you could easily put in dirtier tubes for more gain. If you want tube grit, this pedal can give you the perfect, real tube grit. I like a little bit more than that, gain between 11 o'clock and noon about. But if you want it this pedal could be great for "tube-ing" up your sound without getting too dirty too.

In comparison the distortion on the Bass-Drive (I mostly use it in compcut mode at 9 volts) is much tighter and more controlled, less gnarly, and less touch sensitive. The Muff'n is more gristly and hot and sounds even more right in a classic rock oriented band than the Bass-Drive. And the distortion of my Vox AC15 is pretty rad, but I think the Muff'n kicks it's ass. I was thinking about hauling around the AC15 in addition to my bass rig to add a little dirt but I think the Muff'n makes hauling a separate amp pointless.

My complaints about the pedal are of course it's footprint, it's big and inconvenient, just like the power supply. The power jack is on the side which can make it hard when you've got another pedal right next to it on a tightly packed pedalboard. And is it just me or does anybody else hate pedals with the input and output jacks on the top and not on the sides? Well I guess that's kind of moot when the pedal is as big as it is in the first place. And I do wish the bass was a little tighter like the Bass-Drive, but since it has so much more bottom, what can you expect? Is the pedal's inconvenience worth the tone? That's what I'm going to be deciding after I try gigging with this thing some. Not sure between it and the Bass-Drive which one takes the cake, but for now I'm digging the Muff'n's hotter, meaner tone.

[bassbmx]

Nice review! The Muff'n has been on my GAS list for a while now. Unlike some other pedals that come and go, it's always been one that I really want.

The only reason I don't already have one is because a few other things have come up recently that have required a bit of cash; old Hofner bass, recording our album etc...

It's high on my list for '08 purchases though:

-Meatwad
-Muff'n
-BMS
-NV610
-Metro UV70

[ko stradivarius]

I just got my used muff'n (that sounds weird) today. Do all English Muff'n pedals have that goofy 2 prong power jack on them? The store I bought it online from threw in an EHX adapter but it has the traditional "barrel" tip on it.
I can't even try it yet.

[98dvl]

All the Muffin's have the proprietary EHX jack (It's 12V BTW). It's a PITA. So is the size of the pedal, and the fact that the input and output jacks are on the top side of the pedal (I do hate that BTW).

If you have the room on your pedalboard, turn the pedal 90 degrees... that may help, depending on your board layout. That's what I usually do. If you have a pedaltrain, you can just route the input and output lines under the pedal to the connecting pedals.

I just picked up a Behringer BDI21 (yeah, I know... but it's a good pedal).... Last night I A/B/C'd compared the Muffin', BDI21, and My M-80.

Each has its goods and bads... But, of the 3, I like the Muffin' best... The touch sensitive "grit" the muffin' gives rules!

[ehque]

Pretty much the same experience i've had with my muff'n, down to the gripe with the power supply.

One thing though, i noticed the bottom end falling out at egad gain levels, basically anything beyond 3 o'clock (which is a lot). I found that turning up the output countered this, but the face-melting sound was a bit unbearable for the audience by this point.

[assboglin]

I think I've decided that I like the Bass-Drive more for it's controlled-ness and even-ness when hammering out basslines but I like the Muff'n more for soloing and doing fancy stuff because it's more rowdy and expressive.

[K-T]

good review , arrrrr!!! my G.A.S pain, ouchies!

[Hookus]

Good run down of the Muff'n. I have owned one for about a year now, and it always has had a home on my board. I never use it for full on overdrive, I have always used it more like a tube preamp pushed right to the edge of the point it starts to OD. Then I get a good tube growl when I dig in, along with a nice compressed tube sound. I used it almost 100% of the time when I was running my SVT-4. During my brief stint with an SVT-CL, it was not necessary, and the early 70's V-4 I use now sounds insane, so tubing up my sound is pretty unnecessary. I have always used a Proco Rat for a hardcore distortion, so now the Muff'n just sits there taking up lots of space. I keep it around in case I switch amps, but may just sell it, don't know. Really a fantastic (about the best, IMO) tube OD pedal, and I think if I sold it, I may regret it later.

Yeah, the wall wart and jack layout sucks.