Which Mudbunny?

[pryde]

Hello,

I am looking to build a Muff using the mid control option and am wanting a Jack White-ish type sound out of the pedal. There are different build options listed for the mudbunny and am not sure which BOM to order ( i.e. rams head, russian, etc...)

Thanks for any advice!
pryde

[raulduke]

I would build the mayo personally but thats just my preference as it is my favourite muff!

I think Jack White uses a relatively new NY Reissue Muff which is high gain and more closely related to the Triangle/Mayo than the Rams head or Russian variants.

[keysandguitars]

I just etched a mudbunny board and am trying to decide this myself. I'm looking for the Gilmourish lead tone and have been reading up on his. From what I've read so far, it seems to be a Ram's head. I had no clue there were so many muff's out there...

raulduke, what makes the mayo your favorite over the others? Have you built or owned more than one?

[pryde]

I hear ya about all the different variations  . I guess i would like an "all around general" muff build if that existed. I do like the Smashing Pumpkins and Jack White type of muff sounds though.

I also ordered the Wolfshirt circuit which i will build first as I learn up on all that is muff 

[TNblueshawk]

Here is all the Muff info one can stand in one nice neat location

http://www.bigmuffpage.com/

[greysun]

Not to rehash an old topic, but I'm just trying to make sure I get this right...

I went to Blueshawk's link, which is AMAZING - and here's what I'm gathering based on that detail (and other musings online - and please edit me if I'm wrong. I'll edit this post with changes). I'll list the original big muff version and compare it to the madbean version.

Madbean version - Big Muff Type
-------------------   ---------------
Triangle - V1 Triangle and V2 non-violet rams head, circuit varies wildly (think hendrix)
Violet Rams head - V2 ram's head (and maybe the current little big muff), less bottom, more clarity
Creamy Dreamer - V3 Op-Amp Big Muff, more scooped, heavy bottom (think siamese dream, or the current big muff)
Civil War - V7A Russian and Red Army, less scooped mids, VERY heavy bass/dark - good for bass
Green Russian - V7C Russian, less gain, fatter bottom, grittier, more sustain but not as smooth - good for bass
Mayo - (I may need some help with this one)

Thoughts anyone (especially on what the Mayo compares with)?

It would seem as though the Russian circuits (civil war, green russian) cut through better in a live setting as the mids aren't as scooped. The triangle and ram's head are more typical of the original muff sound, and the creamy dreamer is the extreme version like something the pumpkins used on siamese dream or silversun pickups. Adding a mids mod may get you these sounds that can cut through in the live setting better.

[ToasterMe]

Not to rehash an old topic, but I'm just trying to make sure I get this right...

I went to Blueshawk's link, which is AMAZING - and here's what I'm gathering based on that detail (and other musings online - and please edit me if I'm wrong. I'll edit this post with changes). I'll list the original big muff version and compare it to the madbean version.

Madbean version - Big Muff Type
-------------------   ---------------
Triangle - V1 Triangle and V2 non-violet rams head, circuit varies wildly (think hendrix)
Violet Rams head - V2 ram's head (and maybe the current little big muff), less bottom, more clarity
Creamy Dreamer - V3 Op-Amp Big Muff, more scooped, heavy bottom (think siamese dream, or the current big muff)
Civil War - V7A Russian and Red Army, less scooped mids, VERY heavy bass/dark - good for bass
Green Russian - V7C Russian, less gain, fatter bottom, grittier, more sustain but not as smooth - good for bass
Mayo - (I may need some help with this one)

Thoughts anyone (especially on what the Mayo compares with)?

It would seem as though the Russian circuits (civil war, green russian) cut through better in a live setting as the mids aren't as scooped. The triangle and ram's head are more typical of the original muff sound, and the creamy dreamer is the extreme version like something the pumpkins used on siamese dream or silversun pickups. Adding a mids mod may get you these sounds that can cut through in the live setting better.

Just thought I'd mention that the Creamy Dreamer wasn't used on Siamese Dream, AFAIK it was (probably) an IC Muff paired with an MXR Distortion II. Don't know about Silversun Pickups though.

[greysun]

I'm just trying to get something to compare the creamy dreamer to - Billy Corgan said that 98% of the distortion on siamese dream was run through an Op-Amp big muff running on battery straight into a JCM-800 modified with KT88 tubes. (Here's the link to that: http://glittercop.blogspot.com/2009/10/billy-talks-about-effect-pedals-used-on.html ). The sound was more extreme because there are a minimum of 8 and as many as 40 guitar overdubs in any given song, which leads me to think that the creamy dreamer would replicate that sound most.

Thoughts?

[Haberdasher]

I just threw this mudbunny together the other day using tayda parts almost exclusively (in other words it was CHEAP to build).  It's an all ceramic mayo using mlcc's for the 100n's.  I don't really know if the ceramics make it better or maybe i'm just more partial to the mayo variant, but this thing eats my triangle's lunch.  I really built it just for a goof but I'm going to have to box this up for sure.

[night-B]

Ceramic caps are good to go in that case. Their only disadvantage is that they are at 20% instead of the 5% for the film box type.

[Haberdasher]

Ceramic caps are good to go in that case. Their only disadvantage is that they are at 20% instead of the 5% for the film box type.

Yeah, I should have mentioned I ordered about 20 of each value and sorted through them with a tester until I found values that were very close.  The mlcc's were all in range though, I think they were all about 96n.

[night-B]

Ceramic caps are good to go in that case. Their only disadvantage is that they are at 20% instead of the 5% for the film box type.

Yeah, I should have mentioned I ordered about 20 of each value and sorted through them with a tester until I found values that were very close.  The mlcc's were all in range though, I think they were all about 96n.

At 0.01$ each this is a really cool deal! I should use em more often. I've seen ceramics for the 100N caps on some basic audio gut shots too

[greysun]

not to rehash YET AGAIN an old topic, but I've done a little more research...

The Creamy Dreamer spec was a mod to the russian big muff in the late 90's, early 00's, had less bottom than I thought, and it wasn't the sound from Siamese Dream (I knew all along that he used an IC big muff v4, but I was trying to compare muff-for-muff sounds *giggle*). He used the IC muff for most distortion on SD, and used the MXII along with the muff for solos from what I can gather (so ToasterMe was right on that one for the solos).

They say that a skreddy mayo is probably pretty close to the IC muff sound without being an IC muff, but that most big muffs can get within range of it.

I'm debating getting an IC muff board from haberdasher just to see what happens - That would probably get me as close as I can get. Can I add a mids mod to that, though?

So I guess I throw this next question over to mad bean himself - are your sub-circuits based on the schematics of its predecessors (e.g. is your parts list the same as the skreddy mayo, or the creamy dreamer from the late 90's, or the violet rams head, etc.), or did you base the schematics by ear?

It doesn't matter, but I'm curious for sure.

Anywho - just thought I'd add some wisdom - thanks, guys!

[TNblueshawk]

Nice info Mike.

I like my triangle better than the Creamy by the way.

[greysun]

Yea - I read that the creamy dreamer is a little crunchier with less bottom, so I may steer clear of that one and focus on either the Mayo or the Violet Rams Head. Have the Mayo board together, just have to get a test rig going.