Cross-posted from the Fuzz Addicts page:
Well, the CMC Elk/Hizumitas and Ram's Head Muffs came in. Here are my initial thoughts after ~30 minutes of tweaking:
Short version - neither of them is replacing my #1 Muffs on bass (CMC Bubble Font) OR guitar (CMC Civil War). But they are both great additions to my Muff arsenal, with enough differences in tone to keep any/all of them, especially given the price. I preferred them both on Silicon diodes, and only ran through my "Big Rig" - a GK 700RB-II with a matching 410 Neo cab.
And here are some details:
Ram's Head: Not shy on the lows, but not as much lows (or maybe low mids?) as the Bubble Font (or Tall Font). It's definitely gainier than the Bubble Font, as even at 8:00 the Sustain knob had considerably more gain than the BF's Sustain at 9:00. The "feel" of this is similar to the Pharaoh I have, but not quite the same. I prefer the Pharaoh's "feel" slightly, as it seems a bit tighter in the distortion, though this is definitely brighter and able to cut more. However, it sacrifices some of the "heftiness" of the Pharaoh and Bubble Font to do so. It worked when I jammed along to Sabbath, but doesn't have the "oomph" in the lows/low mids. I ended up cranking the Shape knob, keeping Tone right at noon (or slightly before), and Sustain at about 8:00. This gave me similar EQ to the Bubble Font (minus the previously mentioned "oomph" of the BF), but more gain and cut. The dirt "feel" is also looser than the BF and Pharaoh, which I initially thought I'd want, but I think I prefer the slightly tighter distortion and overall more full range spectrum of the BF. The Ram's Head seems like it may do better for slower, looser, and sludgier tones, which I also enjoy. So it's certainly a worthwhile addition, and one I'll keep, but not going to replace my CMC Bubble Font for everyday usage.
Elk/Hizumitas: This one surprised me, mostly because I thought I wasn't going to like it much on bass and prefer it on guitar by a wider margin. The opposite proved true. Out of the mix, I was not impressed. It seemed way too gainy and with too many brittle highs and extended, loose lows. In the mix, however, it really worked. The lows were looser than I'd prefer, but not to extremes (probably similar to my CMC Tall Font, but I haven't A/B'ed them yet) and the highs were crisp, with the brittleness seemingly mixing into the guitar tone. All that being said, to get those extra lows and highs, you are giving up much of the midrange. There is a definite scoop happening, and while it works in the mix, I don't necessarily like that the mids the definition give are being lost. It's not a bad tone by any stretch, but loses some of the body of your tone. It seems that in the mix, this one "cleans up" a bit as it doesn't sound as dirty as it does solo, but still has audible dirt. One final note before settings - this one was LOUD. I had the volume at 8:00 or so, whereas I typically have the other CMC Muffs about 1:00. The settings ended up being Tone about 11:00, Sustain at 9:00, and Shape at 3:00.
I also gave them a quick run through on my main guitar rig, competing with my current favorite guitar Muff - the CMC Civil War. I didn't take as much time to do this one, so I don't have as definitive results yet. Short version is that the Ram's Head can get really close to that Civil War tone, but always slightly looser feeling. Not sure how I feel about that at the moment, but I like them both. The Elk ended up being a bit too loose and almost brittle for me on guitar so far, but we'll see what I think as I keep tweaking.
Tomorrow I plan on comparing the Elk/Hizumitas, Ram's Head, and Swollen Pickle on my #2 bass rig (that is currently running the Swollen Pickle). We'll see what happens.
