Big Muff Pi Ram's Head Shootout: Electro-Harmonix / Wren and Cuff / Vick Audio / BYOC
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- Опубліковано 9 вер 2024
- Last month, we did a shoot out with an original Klon and a few Klones. For our next shootout, Johnny from Alchemy Audio was gracious enough to lend us an original Big Muff Ram's Head. We paired it alongside two of our favorite clones as well as a BYOC kit that Johnny assembled for us to see how they stacked up. Dig in to one of the greatest fuzz pedals of all time.
Dig into more Ram's Heads on the Reverb blog: goo.gl/LG9dlA
EHX just ruined these boutique pedals market and it's kind of hilarious. Good for EHX for finally doing what we've all wanted them to do though
How so? The vintage rams heads are still selling for as much as ever on reverb.com Just like every other insanely priced old pedal.
@@barneyrubble8255 EHX makes no money off of used pedal sales. They do however, make money off of their Big Muff Reissue pedals.
@@nitegoat1369 I know, my point is it's lowering the price of the big muff rams heads from the 70's. No matter how many knew ones they sell. Vintage pedals seem to be going up almost a 100 dollars a year now. If people weren't buying them....the price would go down.
Not really. EHX were really inconsistent with Big Muff circuits in the 70s-80s. Back then, when EHX would run out of a certain component for a pedal, they would just replace said component with anything close enough lying around the office, complete the build and hope for the best. The reissues are great, but in light of EHX's inconsistency in the early days they really are just another flavor among dozens of variations out there.
So, this video isn’t relevant anymore - thank you, EHX!
Vick Audio sounded best throughout but the Caprid and BYOC sounded better at full gain. I would go for the Vick Audio one.
I just heard the new Ram's Head Big Muff on UA-cam and it sounds GREAT!
Apparently, it is just now being released; it's probably not in Canada yet.
Same, not in Australia just yet, Give it a good 2-6 Weeks
The Wren And Cuff crushed everything, really no surprise.
"Now we're going to properly dime everything out and see what we got" ---> jumps straight into "out there" (Dinosaur JR) :) :) :)
So now EHX has re-released the Ram's Head Muff. I don't see a reason to buy from another brand. Only the Vick Audio makes some sense because it has a mid switch on it.
Had no idea I need a Big Muff!
Do your research, there are tons of different Muffs and way more Muff clones. Ck out Kit Rae's site for the best info. I have a bunch but my personal favs are: Mojohand fx Collosus, Catalinbread Manx Laughton, Stomp Under Foot Civil War and Arc effects Big Green Pi. Cant go wrong w those but they all sound very different
Surprisingly, I think the BYOC handles the field on this one.
JediGuitarMaster429 I thought the Vick Audio was pretty darn close as well. Oddly the most expensive clone, the Wren and Cuff, sounded too bright to my ears. It didn't sound bad at all, just didn't have the balls of the original.
he managed to get a shit tone of of a great pedal
Interesting. I thought the vintage Ram's Head was the worst sounding overall and not even that great for a vintage Ram's Head. The best was the Caprid. The Caprid is a great clone but is a little 'middier' than most Ram's Heads (at least in my experience. I own a Caprid and bunch of vintage Muffs for comparison). The other two sound more like later Muffs to me - very similar to the early 80s nyc Muffs.
About EQing - I don't know anyone that runs all the knobs cranked. A common setting is volume around 4-5 (or more if you don't mind going waaaay over unity), tone around 5-6 and sustain around 9-10. Muffs typically have a huge volume boost if you crank the volume knob but they just sound so good when you crank one into a clean amp and push it into breakup!
That vintage Ram's Head is definitely not functioning properly ... liked the Caprid best out of the 'clones', agreed.
Dying battery.
Those old ones are inconsistent. For example, Gilmour's sounds pretty bad in live bootlegs, but he boosted and blended it with a Power Booster, Comp, and various other effects, and ran his Hi-Watts LOUD which means you can get huge tones from the RH at lower sustain settings - so it would sound great if you were there at the gig. But the bootlegs from the desk sound really nasty, same with his Fuzzface on DSOTM live bootlegs.
The difference between each of the clones pales in comparison to the difference between nearly any two Ram's Head Muffs. Each unit is so different.
Sorry guys, but I don't like it.
I think, that this video actually proves that Muff should not be run into a breaking up amp.
I like my muffs with clean high headroom amps. With dirty amp muff sounds too compressed to my taste and loses some of its great harmonics. That's exactly what I hear on your demo: too much compression and too dark overall tone.
Also it seems that the original Ram's Head on your demo is faulty(maybe some bias issues, or a faulty transistor).
To me, this actually sounded like a muff being run into too clean of an amp. Muffs have too little compression, and therefore they feel nasty to play with IMO.
Strat>Comp>E-Lady Flanger>Muff>Booster/Line Driver and/or Boss GE-7 EQ>Boss CE-2>Delay>High-Headroom British-voiced amp=Gilmour
i agree muffs sounds great through clean amp
Vick Audio FTW!
The Caprid sounded huge and for me it won this shootout. The Vick had the most note definition, emphasizing the attack of the single coils, but seems to have been built for smaller setups. The OG sounded too splattery through this setup, almost like an octave fuzz. The BYOC sounded very muffled until it opened up at higher gain settings.
I think the clones sounded better. For the most part, I could tell very little difference between the Vick Audio and the BYOC.
The Caprid had booming base sound coming through. I like It!
The guy on the right looks like he's colder than the one on the left
What's cooler than being cool?
@@deadlegs187
What?
If you wear a scarf inside, I automatically hate you.
Alot of people do it who had like neck surgery to cover the scar idk
@@jamesenter2095 That dude was definitely covering up some supa nasty neck scars, just gatta feelin 'bout it
Unless your from Aerosmith or a glam band from the 70's
@@johnforrestal covering up that scar that took his balls off...that's th one...snicker snicker
they should come out with a pedal called a mcmuffin or muffin top
Zoddthe Immortal that’s what the English muff’n is for
Muffin top should have a treble booster too, thus the "top"
Are you sure that Ram's Head is working as it should??? To me, it sounds like it is not... Some bias issues perhaps???
The wren and cuff is amazing, per usual. I'm surprised you didn't put the JHS muffuletta rams head setting in that.
LOL just noticed the date, that pedal may have not be out at that point!
Awesome video, guys! I have no idea which I like best. lol I will say this, though: This video gives me new appreciation for modern pedal builders and the excellent effects they build! I don't know which I like best, but it's definitely not the original. (I know, I know. Blasphemy! lol) It is what it is. :)
it seems that the Vick Audio Ram's head sounds way better than either of the other ones, especially for that Dinosaur Jr sound, which is probably what im going to go for.
Why is the guy on the left yelling at me?
the original DEFINITELY is not working properly. fail
I agree. Sounds like the bias was off a bit. The attack was a little more gated than usual.
I've been messing with muffs about 8 years. I bought a used EHXV8 2000's NYC (the one you might find at any shop). Loved it. 'Till I played it on a band. God, that sucked. I had to increase the volume too much to hear me, and it was messy and ugly. Not the Gilmour-White sound that I wanted. I tried messing with eq, guitar pickups, but nothing changed at all. Later I would use a TS808-like ovedrive pedal before the muff, with very subtle gain, 1 hour tone and some volume. It gives more voice to the pedal. I also tried use it in front of a tube amp with some gain, almost crunched. It gives some beef to the fuzz.
Then I started trying other fuzz pedals: the Black Arts Ritual and a handmade Wooly Mammoth. I also tried Fuzz Face-like pedals. I found my sound on the Mooer Triangle, a V1 muff-like pedal. It has considerable less gain and distortion than the modern muffs, but it cuts better through the mix. I could also use it with low volume, or add some drive before to make it sing and sustain. I looking forward to test a ramhead now.
The funny part about muff pedals is to set the gain and eq correctly. If u can't manage to cut through the mix with low volume, you won't cut at all at more volume, and it sounds ugly. And you must learn that the pedal alone makes no miracle. It's a carefully choice of guitar and amp to get THAT sound. And last thing: some may call the muffs fuzz, some may call 'em distortion. It's neither one. The muff is a muff. Period.
Lower the gain increase volume put a boost or overdrive in front of it and maybe an eq at the end of your chain (which you should anyway) and you can get good tones I agree a big muff by its self trying to play live with a band is not ideal.
Renan Gonçalves Flores An overdrive behind the muff works really well.
#4 Was The Best,,,!!! #2 as runner Up,,,:)
I was puzzled by this comparison; I have a '75 Muff and I used it much like Johnny Walker described--the volume knob was wonderful in it's smooth-boosting ability characteristics--but I'd have tone no more than midway and sustain mostly UP. Then one day I plugged an old LPB-1 (Linear Power Booster 1) also from E. Harmonix into the Muff, and WOW
The Vick audio is really sensitive
To me, but dialed in it really cool
Vick audio wins! Flawless "vicktory"!!!
Rams Head for me!
Would love to see you do a superfuzz shootout!
You guys should probably mic the amp a bit better
none of the clones was even close xD (they all sound good!!!)
Vick Audio a bit much for me, Wren and Cuff a good balance but was the most present when dimed. BYOC closest to that particular rams head but as everyone knows - they are variable from unit to unit. I bet those who don't really want a rams head voice like the vick best? :)
How do we know what pedal he’s using
A lot of the distortion seems to be coming from the amp. Not a bad thing, Muffs into dirty amps can be great, but in the demo, they barely sound like Big Muffs. More like a nasty germanium fuzz, on some of the later recordings. The EHX one almost sounds like something is internally wrong with it.
Was a fresh battery used on the original? It sounded a lot like what happens when you use a dying battery with the BMP.
I think a lot of people overlook batterys when they use big muffs and especially fuzz faces.I've found it makes a huge difference what type you use and how drained a battery is.I use duracells all the way,won't use anything else,although I would also use EHX batterys if I could get them as easily.
You say wide traces are a faithful recreation but smaller traces would reduce noise surely?
The original sounds like it's misbiased
I feel like the Rams Head sounds so much better than the Russian Pis.
my caprid's on the way :-)
you know what enrages me about these muff reviews. the guitarist uses the neck pickup instead of the bridge pickup on the stratocaster. not giving us the true experience on the muff on stratocaster and hence giving us a muffled (no pun intended) muff sound not letting the true aggressive tone of rams head out.
When when WHEN will SOMEBODY do a side by side of a caprid and an NYC? It's the video every muff whoever should see, and nobody will do. I want to buy a caprid, but if it's not significantly different in tone from my NYC, I'm going to feel extra stupid.
i have an opamp big miff that the dude who owned it before me moded to a rams head. i wana change it back but don't know how to. the grass is always greener...
Nice Scarf 🤣😂
The Crapid WINS for me
Ok, but what does it sound like with all of them on at the same time??
You didn't show what pedal he was switching to in the demo.
+Powertuber1000 The switcher is labelled
Does this guy play only downstrokes??
man, you're on so many comment threads.
+Duke Ukulele Just an observation mate. Looks unusual. That's all. 😀
I'm not dissing you at all, ive just seen you in about ten comment sections in the last few days
+Duke Ukulele oh. Forgive me! We must have similar tastes. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🔊 Rock on 😀
+Howard Forton clearly u didnt watch the video entirely, he did use alternate picking..
Is it cold in the studio where this video was filmed?
Craig - funny you should ask. A little known fact is that Reverb.com shares space in the same building as Abe Froman (the sausage king of Chicago). As a result, the temperature is always cool due to the massive storage coolers located within the building.
***** THE Abe Froman? White shirt, sweater vest, devastatingly handsome?
Hopefully not too faithful of a reproduction. The people who did the originals must have been drunk, judging by the globs of solder dripped liberally over the board, and they broke often, probably due to a combination of shoddy work and cheap parts. But their curcuits were extreme and unique, so people loved them anyway, but the quality was nothing like today. No way I'd pay hundreds for one of the old shoddy ones.
i use one
Alright, I have to point out how wrong Out There by Dinosaur Jr. was played.
He's not using a Capo, so it's understandable
From which song is that riff at 7:00 ? I kinda know it but I don’t remind
White stripes-icky thump
hate when the player stays on the neck pickup the whole demo. most people use muffs with the bridge pickup, it's woolly enough as it is let alone on the neck.
The Vic audio is a duplicate of that schematic iviark did I while back on tagboard effects.blogspot
i couldnt make out what signature jazzmaster that is he said?
Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth
thanks
What's the riff he's playing at 6:54? It's so darn familiar but I can't remember what it is to save my life.
Caleb Mills It's Icky Thump, isn't it?.. It is... It is Icky Thump.
+Caleb Mills Yup jack white lol
What riff is he playing after that, the last one? It sounds like The Kills but I can't remember the song.
What is the last riff he is playing?
"Out There", Dinosaur Jr
The original rams head sounds like a piece of crap through that amp
That guitar and amp sound dead together.
So did me and my ex wife
cool and well put together video but the pedals sound like poop thorns.
Can anybody demo these correctly? ALL fuzzes sound like shit into a clean amp. They have to be in front of an amp thats already overdriven to sound any good.
michael Woods Nice hint ! I'll try that. I agree with the shit tone heard here (before the delay is turned on... my god...).
michael Woods That's actually completely false. Gilmour's amps especially were pristine clean. You need a high headroom.
+boonexy He had a boost pedal before the Big Muff for added dynamic response. That's the real key here.
Joseph M No, Gilmour didn't, he drove his Big Muff signal with an overdrive, not before
+boonexy My intent was to say that I agree with you. He never used overdrive on the actual amp itself (Hiwatt). My bad on the pedal placement though.
In this demo the Ram is my least favorite...
Count how many times these dudes said Uhm and Ah! It is very distracting.
This comparison was a complete waste of time, the original Rams Head is clearly not functioning properly. But maybe that was on purpose, in order to better market the clones…FAIL!
or just buy a new bigmuff for 100 lol
not same circuit, not same tone
Terrible review, that amp sounds horrible, muffs sound better running through literally any other setup, it’s like amateur hour around here...
OG ram sounds like shit
Caprid sounds like an improved OG
Vick sounds more modern and crisper
Byoc is a pretty great equal ground
My money is going to the byoc.