FUZZ- ELECTRO HARMONIX OpAmp Big Muff ...surprisingly excellent!!!

  ELECTRO HARMONIX OP-AMP BIG MUFF 

Often called the Billy Corgan Big Muff or the Smashing Pumpkins 

$80.00 USD

Muff because ol' Billy put this pedal on the map. He bought a used one at a time when a young new player simply thought a Muff is Muff Is Muff In other words if the day he bought it he was offered a used Rams Head he would have taken it instead. Billie finds the new one to be every bit as good. High praise for a reissue!

Still one asks what's the big deal? 

Well this is the only Muff that didn't use Silicon Transistors for the dirt. The first pedal to use an OpAmp was the ProCo Rat and only months later the Tube Screamer. 

Transistor Muffs have a less dense sound than an OpAmp. The transistors do give you at their best more breadth and dare I say warmth. The OpAmp is raw dense and with a lead weight for a low end! Very very, nasty ...but in the best possible way.

CONCLUSION

I had a listen to all the gourmet clones out there. They were nice enough in different ways. I did not feel they were better..they had all polished a few edges off of the nastiness. One had a fatter bass but the none had that lead weight balzy punch in the lows. I feel that punch is half the sound. In short ...damn impressive and at $80 the price is damn good.

Yep! I ordered one!

HANDS ON

After a few hours playing thru it and a lot of fun I can say it lives up 

to it's fame. It is fat, thick, endless sustain and several sweet spots. 

You move the EQ to roughly where you want and there is a sweet 

pot just a tiny tweak up or down. It is just a tiny resonant point. Love it! 

The lows are heavy and thick and tight and do not vanish when you 

push the tone into the highs. 

My only quibble is that I was expecting a bit more punch on the lows. 

It could be my amp as a Plexi can often round off any sound because 

it does not have the headroom. You trade off headroom for sustain.