New EH Double Muff

[newey]

Hey, it's almost time for the Holidays, and NAMM is just around the corner. So, we'll be seeing lots of new gear hitting the shelves. Here's the newest from Electro-Harmonix:

New EH Double Muff

For all you fans of the classic Muff pedal, the new Double Muff is advertised as just that- 2 Muff circuits in one pedal. According to EH, in single Muff mode, it's just like the original. In the double mode, you get 2 separate Muff circuits piled one on top of the other, and the knobs for each interact, allegedly allowing one to dial in varying amounts of distortion between the 2.

I thought this was interesting- using the interaction of 2 circuits to create more flexibility. For someone who uses more than one type of distortion pedal on his/her pedalboard, this might replace a couple of those with one unit.

Metal case, made in USA, $61 at MF. In an era of $200+ "boutique" pedals, this seems more than reasonable. I'm a fan of EH products for just those reasons.

I currently have a distortion pedal on my board that I don't like- too "gritty" for my tastes. I may just have to give this a listen . . .

The idea of 2 interacting circuits is something our resident pedal builders might consider trying as well.

The only drawback I see is that the stompswitch doesn't give you the access to both circuits- there's a mini-toggle to switch from single mode to double, with the stomp switch just turning on/off whichever you've preset. But they had to fit it all into a nano-sized enclosure, so I guess some compromises have to be made.

[gfxbss]

I haven't been able to get into the new EH lines... The nano series just doesn't do it for me. Being one of the resident pedal builders that pops in from time to time, the main thing that I would have done different is making sure that you could access each circuit...

I would say mod it to do so, but most of the nano series is all surface mount, and it is probably one board so it would be very hard to do so.....

Tyler

[JohnH]

Interesting to have just those two knobs, which seem like they are basicly volume controls for each half, so theres no dedicated gain or tone. The player is invited to turn down the guitar volume to reduce gain. But in double mode, if they are end to end, then the volume on the first circuit would act like a gain control for the second one.

I need to build a fuzz box.

[flateric]

If you're not fan of gritty overdrive you may not like this, the EHX fuzz boxes tend to be pretty raw and raspy. Much prefer the Tubescreamer type circuits for some smoother drive but then they are not a fuzz circuit.

[ashcatlt]

I've got one of the big green Big Muffs from the mid-90s. Never tried the EH versions. I never use it for anything other than full-out squarewave synthy lead stuff - usually with the guitar's tone knob whacked all the way down. Maybe I haven't given it enough chance, but I've got other things I like better for about anything else. It's always seemed a little muddy and muffled (no pun intended), the filter knob is unpredictable, and it doesn't seem to handle chords, or even doublestops very well.

I did have my bass player plugged into it the other day and we were getting some pretty cool - almost subtle - sounds out of it. His bass has an extremely low (like quiet) output, which might have something to do with that.