4 knob 2 switch Civil War Muff

[henryadams]

So I just finished a project that I'm pretty proud of. It's a Civil War Muff on a Mad Bean PCB. "But," you ask, "a Muff with 4 knobs, 2 switches, and 2 LEDs? Surely, you joke!" I do not.

I love muffs, but their achilles heel is that they get lost in the mix because of their super scooped mids. I had a NYC Muff that I modded with 2 cornish switches for a mid hump, and it was wonderful, *except* that there was a huge volume boost, and I was afraid to flip the toggle switch with my cowboy boot.. Soooo, for this guy, I put the mids pot on a switch. Now, I can kick it in, there's no volume boost, just a thickening, an increase of presence, and I'm not worried about snapping it off.

How does it sound? Well, the Civil War is really, really awesome. Nowhere near as scooped as the NYC, very big bottom end, not as much gain, a bit grittier, not as much sustain, though the sustain knob is more useable (from very dirty OD to very singing fuzz sustain, whereas the NYC was super singing sustain to sustain for days on end). It's a much better sound, to my ears, and I love it.

Now I've got muff-itis, and am thinking of a violet ram's head clone....

This is my second madbean build...Mad bean rules.

[irmcdermott]

Guts? Please?

[henryadams]

So, I'm not showing the guts only because I'm a bit of a sloppy wirer. I actually wired up the pots really nicely, and I thought to myself, "this looks beautiful," but then the switches and jacks killed me. It's an art.

If you want to know how I wired the mids switch, though, I posted that over on the mods forum.

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

Looks good. I really enjoy the mids knob addition. Gives the pedal a lot more variety in its sound. Did you change R18 and C10 at all?
I strongly suggest you to build a Violet Rams head. Its a sick sounding muff that resembles more of a classic fuzz almost. Jumper the emitter resistors for Q1, Q2 and Q3 to add a nice bit more of gain!

[jkokura]

Without any guts, it's just a pretty enclosure with some knobs on top...

Jacob

[henryadams]

Well that's the sound of the gauntlet hitting the dust....

Ok, if you want guts, you've got 'em.

Like I said though, they're a bit messy. I have the hardest time trying to keep the switch and jack wiring neat. I discovered with this build that SHORT pot leads are key, and I tried short switch and jack leads as well...I also tried doing the twist together trick, all to no avail (though this looks better than my SHO build, and waaaaay better than my tubescreamer. Talk about a box of spaghetti). Finally, the tape: its just a marker so I know which wire goes where.

I'd love any tips from you guys who can make it look good as well as sound good.

[gtr2]

Really cool build.  Great idea with the mids switch.

Josh

[jkokura]

Thos guts look great! You will surely get better as time goes on, so don't be so timid about your skills! As long as it works, it's great.

Jacob

[henryadams]

Thos guts look great! You will surely get better as time goes on, so don't be so timid about your skills! As long as it works, it's great.

Jacob

Thanks. And I just "liked" your facebook page, too.

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

That doesn't look bad at all! If you ran all those wires under the PCB and jacks it'd be as neat as can be. Not that you need to!