"Muff Minor" - the wheel re-invented?

frequencycentral · Post by **frequencycentral** » 14 Apr 2009, 17:51

I'm messing about with the Big Muff circuit on my breadboard right now. This is something that came out of it that I thought was really cool sounding. It's the second stage of a Big Muff with a couple of component values changed and a pot added to control the diode clipping. It goes from slightly dirty boost through to nice gritty clipping. I've tried it with BC208, BC107, BC238 and BC547, sounds nice (nasty) with all of them. Si diodes are good, Ge create too much volume drop really. Clipping reduces volume by it's very nature, so the more clipping is dialled in the less volume, so increasing the clipping requires you to increase the output volume (Boost pot) to maintain the signal level. The Clip pot reduces the amount of signal reaching the diodes, so with the pot at maximum resistance the diode have very little to clip, so the signal is 'almost' clean. The circuit can provide simultaneous clipping and boost with both pots maxed out.

I'll wait for someone to pipe in and tell me that all I've done is re-invent the "Blah Blah Whatever Fuzz", in the meantime I'm having a little dirty fun with it.

analogguru · Post by **analogguru** » 14 Apr 2009, 20:15

frequencycentral wrote:I'll wait for someone to pipe in and tell me that all I've done is re-invent the "Blah Blah Whatever Fuzz", in the meantime I'm having a little dirty fun with it.

Hmmm..... At least the "Crunch"-control in the Way Huge Swollen Pickle MkII does exactly the same (with a 470kA potentiometer).

BTW, 47k at the base of the transistor reduces the overall gain a bit much.

analogguru

frequencycentral · Post by **frequencycentral** » 14 Apr 2009, 20:26

analogguru wrote:BTW, 47k at the base of the transistor reduces the overall gain a bit much.

I'll remove it altogether and see what happens, thanks guru!

re. the Poll - the donkeys seem to have it at the moment!

frequencycentral · Post by **frequencycentral** » 14 Apr 2009, 21:31

It's worth playing about with the value of the 47K resistor in this circuit. Removing it completely gives loads more gain, but you lose the clean boost facility. Maybe I'll try lowering the value (the BM is 33K) or making it switchable. It does look quite like the though Muffer doesn't it?

RnFR · Post by **RnFR** » 14 Apr 2009, 21:58

jack orman's had something like this going for quite some time now. scroll down on the page for the muff boost.

http://www.muzique.com/schem/projects.htm

nice try though! look like a fun little circuit. hey, great minds think alike right?

edit:
oh sorry! i should've said you've reinvented the blah blah whatever fuzz. next time i'll get it right!

briggs · Post by **briggs** » 15 Apr 2009, 12:02

I've been playing with this circuit a bit, trying to coax something Honeybee-ish out from it's depths. I'll post it up when I get back to my books

It is a fun circuit to experiment with!

frequencycentral · Post by **frequencycentral** » 15 Apr 2009, 12:46

Just checking on how the voting is going:

Hey Zack - you can't vote for yourself - that's as bad as laughing at your own jokes!

jw23mind · Post by **jw23mind** » 29 Dec 2021, 12:56

A "half-muff" is a nice circuit. The first 2 stages followed by 2-pole LP filter (no mid scoop). Works great for a fuzz bass tone; not too much saturation but still sounds fat like a muff.

"Muff Minor" - the wheel re-invented?

How cool is this?