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Electro Harmonix Ram's Head Big Muff Pi Distortion Fuzz Sustainer Pedal

£9.9£99Clearance
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V2 Rams Head Big Muff - The high pass resistor value started with 33k, which was the most common value. 22k was the second most used, but there were also some variants that used 39k. Many of these were also made with 1µF polarized electros at C1, C2, and C13, rather than 10µF. Another variant exists with the more common 470pF caps at C10, C11, and C12, but few were made. Polarized electros at C1, C2, and C13 also varied from 1µF to 10µF in that variant.

A criticism of the Muff is that it dominates your tone, nullifying all the work you put into choosing your amp, pedals, and guitar. The Pharaoh and Son of Pharaoh pedals seek to fix that issue by being extremely versatile. It can be a light overdrive all the way to an intense fuzz that cleans up with your guitar volume. With two tone controls, a hi / lo input switch for increased headroom, and switchable germanium/silicon clipping diodes, this pedal can be the last fuzz you ever buy. EHX’s response to boutique builders expanding on their circuit is the highly tweakable Deluxe Big Muff. The 90s Russian Muff is the basis, but with a noise gate, parametric EQ, and bass boost switch, this pedal is a tonal powerhouse. The real selling point is the mid boost footswitch, which allows you to cut through any mix without the help of another pedal. If possible use this pedal with a valve amp and not a solid state amp. Like any other fuzz it will sound the best with a valve amp. On a solid state amp, it can sound quite dirty (not in a good way). resistors usually measure accurate to the printed value. Those appear to be metal film, not carbon.With respect to amps, some of the Ram's Head's most distinctive qualities, particularly the detail and air in the midrange, are less distinctive in Fender-style pairings. (Many Ram's Head tones were made downright Russian with a Bassman downstream.) With a brighter Marshall in the mix, though, you can more distinctly hear the Ram's Head's midrange sparkle and throatier voice. The board was used on the 2001/02 semi-acoustic shows, 2005 Live 8 and 2005/06 On an Island recording sessions as well as several guest appearances between 1999-2012. The G2 was also featured in David’s 2006 Pete Cornish All Tubes MkII On an Island touring board and used for many of the performed songs. Picture to the left shows David’s early 1987-88 Momentary Lapse of Reason touring rig. Notice the #2 Big Muff featured in the setup. To the right is the Sovtek “Civil War” Big Muff Pi, David’s main distortion unit for the 1994 Division Bell tour. Ram's head = very similar to Russian but it has less definition and goes more towards OG triangle in terms of mud. Still very powerful and bassy

It is not documented whether David actually used the P1 or perhaps the #1 ram’s head for the recording sessions. Possibly both. It is also not known why David chose to have both the P1 and the #2 rams head (on top of the stage board) on the tour. He might have used both perhaps with different settings (one with high gain settings and one slight milder in a combo with the Colorsound Powerboost). But one of the most striking things about the Ram's Head is how often it seems to borrow the best attributes of each Big Muff version.CIRCUIT GUIDE - Without getting into too much detail, below is a simple Big Muff Circuit Guide using a typical version 1 and version 2 Big Muff PCB trace, with stages broken out by color, and a schematic with explanations of some of the individual section functions. The colors shown on the circuit photos match the corresponding colored sections on the Circuit Guide schematic. Keep in mind that my notes about how the individual components affect the circuit are a rather simplistic guide. Changing a value in one stage affects the circuit in other areas. There is a give and take each time something is changed, a very complex interaction, so experimentation is key to altering or creating a Big Muff circuit to get the most desirable sound. Using this may help with an undertsanding of why one particular vintage or modern Big Muff may sound better/worse/different than another, or in creating or modifying your own circuit. The Big Muff is a very forgiving circuit, and there are multiple ways of achieving different sounds. HOHNER TRI DIRTY BOOSTER - Another very good clone of the BMP. This one appeared on the market around 1974 or '75 from Hohner. Component values are similar to a few V1 schematics, but it does not follow any of them exactly. An extra .022µF cap was added in the tone section between lug 1 of the tone pot and R8, presumably to widen the tone pot sweep, although I hear little difference when it is removed. Not long after this demo, I replaced the 5088 transistors in the SUF clone with a set of high hFE Fairchild SE4010 transistors. These seemed to get the clarity slightly closer to matching the original FS36999 transistors in the 1973 Big Muff (though most 4010 tranys are actually very low hFE), but in a blind test I could not tell which was which. I was also able to test a set of supposedly vintage 2N5133 (thanks to Darrin) transistors with hFEs in the 800s against the modern SE4010s and 2N5088 transistors. Based on my experience with these in vintage Big Muffs, I thought for sure that the 2N5133 tranys would make a much more noticable difference. Surprisingly, there was not much difference, if any. Later, I pulled all four FS36999 transistors from a 1973 Big Muff that I had apart for repair and measured the hFE. Two measured in mid 160s, one 184, and one 204. Hardly what I would call a hight current gain.

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