Green Russian muff reissue.

skunkwerx

Had one, was underwhelmed, sold it. 

Picked one up again and was still underwhelmed. 

To me it just sounds like a bassy overdrive. Nothing like what the demo’s on youtube sound like, where its quite fuzzy and gainy. 

Tried it with the only amps I have had, a Katana 50, a Katana 100 combo and now recently a Katana 100 head with separate 2x12 cab.

Initially thought it was solid state amps being meh. But sounded pretty much the same through Blackstar Series one 10. 

I’ve had two so highly unlikely either was defective. So not that. 

Anyway today I thought I’d try again. 

Its a muff so doesnt seem to mind buffers, though when I last tried it without one in front I cant remember if I noticed any difference anyway. But its after my Boss tu-3. The oc-3 is in a true bypass loop because I dont like its buffer lolz.

I found a setting that actually makes me want to use it! 

The tone is way way up! I never bothered turning it so far before because I thought it would just be thin and fizzy and shit. 

There is still a little low end but, up here its turned nice and er, snarly is the best way I can describe it. Gain/sustain doesnt even have to be  that high either but I like more than most do. Theres a mm of movement beyond where the tone is set atm, where the bass end does appear to cut quite drastically, but I dont think it sounds bad after that either. 

It’s basically how I want it to sound though now which is great. Though still not exactly like some youtube demo’s I hear.. but it does make me wonder how loud/whether their gear is making it sound different etc. 

The tone below that setting, well the bass end comes in very strong and it loses the snarly grittyness, the Muff/fuzzy aspect goes. 

What I also noticed was, it (and my other muffs) sound better the louder I turn my amp or the pedal volume. (Not ideal for home, but today I turned up a little, not by any means loud loud but the neighbours could no doubt hear it thru the thin walls like a loud tv. 

I think my rig overall is quite dark. The katana + its 2x12 closed back and bedroom/home volumes seems to sound quite bass heavy, but again, it sounds much better if I can turn it up.. its overkill for my needs and I would have buyers remorse but, meh! Lol. 

The guitar is an Ltd phoenix with a Seymour Custom 5 humbucker, which I’ve always thought sounded dark. Its certainly darker than my Ltd with Emgs. 

It got me to wondering whether this is what I’ve been missing.. That because my rig is dark and bassy, this sounds better as its now set. 

Though my metal muff still made the boomy rig sound like a tin of wasps so go figure.. 

I’ll try and record some audio through the Katana’s usb recording thang tomorrow and upload. 

MattBanshee

Brilliant pedals through a nice loud valve amp with headroom. Shouldn't ever be plugged into a transistor amp though.

munckee

I have a Frederic green Russian on my board, I have a klon clone after it and the two together sound great. 

skunkwerx

MattBanshee said:

Brilliant pedals through a nice loud valve amp with headroom. Shouldn't ever be plugged into a transistor amp though.

How so? 

MattBanshee

skunkwerx said:

MattBanshee said:

Brilliant pedals through a nice loud valve amp with headroom. Shouldn't ever be plugged into a transistor amp though.

How so? 

Because they sound like a metal dustbin full of wasps through a solid state amp

pintspiller

I part-ex'd a Sovtek Big Muff for £10 credit towards an SD-1 in a shop almost twenty years ago. It didn't sound quite as good as my Crest Fuzz Face, but I didn't realise I'm those days that some pedals prefer a clean amp rather than attempting to boost the overdrive channel!

earwighoney

I have a Green Russian clone and it's works really well with single coil pickups (in particular Tele ones) but I'm less than convinced with it with HB's.

Babones

Having compared the two, I much preferred the Way Huge Smalls Russian Pickle to the EHX offering.

stonevibe

Babones said:

Having compared the two, I much preferred the Way Huge Smalls Russian Pickle to the EHX offering.

Ditto, I find the Way Huge version a lot better and with better construction as well.