deepestend
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- Feb 21, 2003
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CMC Effects Fans
- Thread starter kleinenenten
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- builder cmc distortion fuzz muff pedal reverb.com
Got the TFR about a week ago. Finally tried it out yesterday. Sounds so good. Missed that TFR fullness. Real test will be at rehearsal this Friday.
deepestend
Commercial User
- Feb 21, 2003
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What's your take/description on the difference between the tall font and civil war? curious to hear how someone else would describe it.
I didn't A & B them for too long. Civil War is definitely grittier and seems louder maybe cause of the extra mids. TFR is thicker and fuller. Still scooped but the Shape and diodes help with that. That's my simple take on these two. The recordings @kleinenenten made are pretty spot on.
A few days before the TFR showed up I was thinking the Civil War is more than enough and probably don't need the TFR. Always sounded great at rehearsal. The TFR gives me that thick fuzzy fullness. Like those thick San Marcos style blankets.
To make things even "fuzzier" (haha!), I find the Bubble Font to be right in the middle of both of these, and it's my favorite as a result. It combines my favorite parts of both the Civil War (the grittiness you mentioned) and the Tall Font (bass response), reins them each in just enough, and makes a perfect fuzz tone for my needs. I think you also nailed the perceived loudness - it's got to be the mids. On identical settings, they all work fine in the mix (my previous recordings all have pretty much identical settings for each pedal) - it's just a matter of your personal taste in fuzz. The Civil War's mids cut through more and probably give the impression of more volume, the Bubble Font cuts a decent amount, and has a bit more low end heft, and the Tall Font cuts least but has the most low end.
Love that Tremond! It's one of my favorite Rats, and I never hear anybody talk about them. What tone are you going for with those settings? Seems like it would be a darker tone that fills in the background. Bet it's awesome! I keep all the knobs right at noon, with tone about 1:30 and volume as needed. Clipping off. Plenty of grit and cut, with enough bass to support everything. And kinda "bouncy", if that makes sense.
Love it too!
Never thought of the tone as dark but I guess it is. Your other assessment is pretty spot on too. Rarely is it out front and in your face. It's the tone I heard and loved growing up in the 90's and 00's. Bands like Sonic Youth, JAMC, The Wedding Present and tons others.
Yeah, I aim for a more "Voivod-esque" tone with my Rats, but the Tremond can do pretty much everything. And it's much easier to tweak than my Volt Thrower, which can also do everything, but has almost too much range in the controls.
deepestend
Commercial User
- Feb 21, 2003
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Got my replacement TFR board from CMC and installed it in my old TFR. Replaced some of the coupling caps with larger values and made the first set of clipping diodes LEDs. Also switched out the Germaniums for some higher gain ones that I had lying around. Sounds about perfect now!
Looks like CMC has temporarily closed up shop. His Reverb page says he hopes it's only for a month or two. Let's hope he's right! There are a few more pedals I was hoping to buy some time!
deepestend
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Yeah, same here. I know things are a bit wild stateside right now. I can only imagine for a lot of people that are running a side business that cash flow is a stress they may not want to deal with at the moment.
I look forward to him coming back though. Him and RCO do an outstanding job making excellent builds at reasonable prices that aren't full of premium or mojo parts and they get the job done just fine.
I look forward to him coming back though. Him and RCO do an outstanding job making excellent builds at reasonable prices that aren't full of premium or mojo parts and they get the job done just fine.
deepestend
Commercial User
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100% this.
He's always changing his offerings, unlike CMC which was usually pretty consistent, and if anything, slowly expanding his offerings (until recently!). So it helps to follow RCO on Reverb, and if you really want, you can send him a message. I did that, and he saved a slot for me and made a batch of the pedal I wanted, while reserving one for me as well.
I've got RCO clones of the Volt Thrower, Dunwich ODB, and have had the Wizard Fuzz, Way Huge Conquistador, and Pharaoh Supreme. I absolutely love the ones I have, and there were certainly no concerns with the ones I no longer have. I just found I didn't need those tones (or had redundant tones, as I found another actual Pharaoh Supreme for cheap and passed along the clone). I think I may have had a few others, but they escape me at the moment. My experience with RCO has typically been that I have ordered clones of boutique or hard to find pedals, which is sort of the opposite of CMC where many of his offerings are slightly altered "standard" circuits that are still in production in various incarnations as highly altered boutique clones.
RCO also has amazing support - I actually have TWO of his Volt Throwers (one of which was the previously mentioned "requested" pedal) and TWO of his ODBs, and when I noted that the ODBs didn't quite sound identical, he verified with me that he had actually changed Opamps between the two pedals and sent me a duplicate set (with alternate options too!) to match my first one - and did it completely free of charge. I can't recommend him enough.
deepestend
Commercial User
- Feb 21, 2003
- 6,249
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Hope so, too. Love my dirt emitter. Just haven't had the need for any new pedals lately.
If memory serves, he had a Supercollider clone at some point? But he doesn't really have a standard selection - he seems to just build random pedals, and it may be months or years until he builds more of the same. (It was about two years between my buying the two ODBs I have.) There are a LOT of fuzzes he's made, but I can't say I know what most of them are, or if they're based off of Muffs originally. They're mostly clones of modern pedals (sometimes with an added tweak) derived from some old out-of-production effects. I've found it easiest to follow his shop on Reverb and see what he's built and if it interests me. I don't see any Muffs currently, but I don't know much about the current clones he has in stock - perhaps the current pedals are based on Muffs?
