NPD! EHX Ram’s Head Big Muff Reissue Review!

[telemnemonics]

What is the difference between a Rams Head and a Violet Rams Head?

This has many answers and the generally agreed on answer is that the violet is a little brighter.
Much circuit difference is lost in the sweep of the pots where it's impossible to set two same pcb same parts specs pedals for the exact same sound because pots vary in full resistance as well as along the sweep.

I eliminate those variables the way I use muffs though, because I want full brightness.
So I start with sustain and tone knobs full up, then adjust volume for the same level.

It's important to first understand that the sustain knob is not like a distortion knob and doesn't get clearer sounds as you turn it down.
What turning the sustain knob down does is cut treble and boost bass.
To my ear turning down the sustain knob also delivers more scooped tone by boosting bass, and the least scoop is found with sustain up all the way. cutting the sustain just a little cuts some treble without bringing bass into dominance, but also there are mids in that treble content, like the mids on a Marshall mids knob. The extra mids of a Russian is more low mids.
Less treble and more bass actually sounds more distorted and less clear, where we generally expect less distorted and more clear when we turn down the gain knob on a dirt pedal.

So I have two Rams and three Violet Rams, and they all sound a little different.
I actually find the Vick Violet Ram is not as bright and clear as the two Chicago Stompworks Violet Rams, and the Vick is also more grainy where what I love about the Violet and a good basic Rams head is the ability to get totally pure grit free high notes.
The Chicago violet is really hard to tell from the Chicago Ram, I can get as much variation from pick attack as I can assign to circuit difference, and I run them through a dual loop pedal so one stomp switches between the two seamlessly.
Even switching in a held sustained note they are very close, but setting all knobs in the middle of their sweeps you simply cannot fairly state that one sounds brighter and the other sounds darker.
Even two identical muffs on a board can deliver two distinctly different sounds and it's IMO worth having several!

The Large Beaver Ram is a little less bright than the two Chicago violets and the Chicago Ram, but more like the Vick violet in brightness while a touch more grainy. This with the Vick and the Beaver set to stock mids.

I also have two Civil War era Russian circuits from SUF and Big knob, plus the SUF is the Civil Unrest with the added mids knob.
Interestingly the SUF is a little more grainy which seems to come with higher pricing.
I love the less grainy pure sounds more than the grainy sounding muffs, and we can easily add grain with pick attack but cannot remove the basic grain a given build has with softest pick attack.
The mids knob on the SUF is a masterful bit of circuitry and can even go past the scoop of the stock circuit, but that means you have to bring it up a little to get the stock amount of scoop.
All these Russians are a bit more grainy than any of the Rams.

Noise is a big issue with muffs and each sample has a slightly different noise level, which can be reduced by lowering the sustain knob which also cuts treble where some of that noise is generated.

 

[telemnemonics]

I went with the Russian and really like it. For real heavy fuzz settings it helps to put an EQ in front of it and boost treble a touch.

My take on it is while there is variability among the EHX Pi offerings, with just a touch of EQ you can probably make any one of them
sound like any of the others. I was using a GE-7 for this but lately have been using an Orange Two-Stroke. I also think I probably should
have just bought the Maxon Fuzz Elements Water FWA10, which is a Big Muff circuit with a parametric EQ in front of it. It costs $179, though.

This one is interesting!
News to me, I thought I had all the muffs I needed, though I'd like to find a used SUF Violent Uprising.

Thank you for stopping me from buying a third Big Muff.

How did that work for YOU?
Made me want more muffs not less muffs!
And I have uh, IDK how many but easily ten or more!

 

[radiocaster]

OOPS. yer right. Newer ones are center neg. Forget I said anything.

You can get a polarity reversing attachment, uses a standard adapter plug. There are even attachments for 1/8" adapter jacks on pedals. They're like 2" cables, I've got a couple.

 

[reckless toboggan]

Here's a good shootout between the originals and the re-issues (and a good explanation of which versions of the originals the ri's are meant to be), although he needs to update it to include the ehx rams head ri. It's not perfect, as he just tests one position of each ri pedal against the original, but it gives a good idea of the sounds between the pedals.



IMHO, the EHx ri rams head is the Gilmore tone that most people think of (although he actually had several different muff tones)...IMHO the Rams Head is very synth-y, noticeably synth-y when played on it's own, but it really stands out as very synth-y when compared a/b to the others...it almost sounds like a keyboard patch.

That's not the tone I think of when I think of big muff.

IMHO the ehx triangle to is the most versatile of the EHx ri's.

The rams head gets that tone, the green russian gets that tone, the op-amp gets that tone,... but the triangle can get triangle tones but can also get tones in the neighborhood of most of the others, for say a gigging situation. Whereas the rams head isn't going to get you a green russian tone, and vice versa.

The great thing is that the EHx ri's are so inexpensive and great sounding, that they are a really good value, and you can get all 4 EHx ri's for the price of a single booteek that some of the builders are charging.

I own all of the EHx ri's, plus a host of around 20 other big muff circuits/clones, (the Green Carrot Pumpkin Pi is exquisite) from various booteeks, in addition to another 20 or so other fuzz pedals of various original and cloning circuit origins.

I owned the original big box Green Russian, got it when it was first released in the 90s and had it til the mid 2000s, it formed the core of my board, sometimes I used other boosts, distortions, and fuzzes in front of it to shape the EQ and tone. My Bixonic Expandora ex2000 (set to distortion, kind of like a Rat tone) into my Green Russian sounded very much like the Op-Amp Big Muff.

Got to play an og triangle a few times. Good lord.

 

[beninma]

I think having delay and or compression turned on with the muff are critical aspects of the Gilmour sounds too though. An analog delay smooths out the edges of the Muff.

When I play those songs I feel zero desire to have a BMP variant that’s smoother/less raspy than my op-amp.

 

[chris m.]

Fuzz guys are in a whole 'nother pedal rabbit hole..... I've always wanted to like fuzz but haven't. I actually had an original
BeeBaa way back in about 1978. Quite a famous vintage pedal now with boutique copies available. I think I gave it away or
sold it really cheap when I got my hands on the first generation of the Distortion + pedal.

I tried a couple of Fuzz Face variants and it just wasn't for me. Turns out I really do dig the Big Muff approach to fuzz. But since
fuzz really isn't my thing I suspect I won't end up owning tons of them and geeking out on the subtle differences among them....
not that there's anything wrong with that!

I'm generally finding two use cases for me (I play in a funk band, after all). 1) Going for the David Gilmour-esque singing lead tone.
Works great for that and I can actually use that live on stage. 2) Having fun making really hardcore fuzz chord tones at home and
when recording my own stuff to DAW. That over the top, crazy fuzz would work if I were in a different kind of band, but I'm not,
so I just use it for my own entertainment and when doing little side recording projects for fun. I have a big Orange head that I almost
never bust out. Sometime when the family is away I want to break that out and play into it with the Big Muff cranked and see what
kind of mayhem tones I can summon from it.

Here's a little side project I did with a buddy of mine, Danny Gill. He plays the shredding lead. During his lead the underlying rhythm
is me playing through the Russian Big Muff Pi straight into my Scarlett Focusrite. The tone is kind of meh, but it is fuzzy. Next time I will
either run it through my Joyo AC Tone into the Focusrite or mike an amp to get a more 3-D, proper fuzz tone.....

This track, "Stranger Strings", is inspired by the TV show, Stranger Things. Hence the cheesy synth tones. My buddy's over the top
shredder solo is the perfect 80s complement to this tune....and he also laid down the bombastic drum track for me.

 

[50ShadesofOrange]

This one is interesting!
News to me, I thought I had all the muffs I needed, though I'd like to find a used SUF Violent Uprising.




How did that work for YOU?
Made me want more muffs not less muffs!
And I have uh, IDK how many but easily ten or more!

My GAS was averted by the reminder that the differences to my tin ear wouldn’t warrant another flavor of the same pedal.

Prior to that reminder one can further shrink the differences with a little eq, I found myself pricing the Ram’s Heads.

 

[Lies&Distortion]

This has many answers and the generally agreed on answer is that the violet is a little brighter.
Much circuit difference is lost in the sweep of the pots where it's impossible to set two same pcb same parts specs pedals for the exact same sound because pots vary in full resistance as well as along the sweep.

I eliminate those variables the way I use muffs though, because I want full brightness.
So I start with sustain and tone knobs full up, then adjust volume for the same level.

It's important to first understand that the sustain knob is not like a distortion knob and doesn't get clearer sounds as you turn it down.
What turning the sustain knob down does is cut treble and boost bass.
To my ear turning down the sustain knob also delivers more scooped tone by boosting bass, and the least scoop is found with sustain up all the way. cutting the sustain just a little cuts some treble without bringing bass into dominance, but also there are mids in that treble content, like the mids on a Marshall mids knob. The extra mids of a Russian is more low mids.
Less treble and more bass actually sounds more distorted and less clear, where we generally expect less distorted and more clear when we turn down the gain knob on a dirt pedal.

So I have two Rams and three Violet Rams, and they all sound a little different.
I actually find the Vick Violet Ram is not as bright and clear as the two Chicago Stompworks Violet Rams, and the Vick is also more grainy where what I love about the Violet and a good basic Rams head is the ability to get totally pure grit free high notes.
The Chicago violet is really hard to tell from the Chicago Ram, I can get as much variation from pick attack as I can assign to circuit difference, and I run them through a dual loop pedal so one stomp switches between the two seamlessly.
Even switching in a held sustained note they are very close, but setting all knobs in the middle of their sweeps you simply cannot fairly state that one sounds brighter and the other sounds darker.
Even two identical muffs on a board can deliver two distinctly different sounds and it's IMO worth having several!

The Large Beaver Ram is a little less bright than the two Chicago violets and the Chicago Ram, but more like the Vick violet in brightness while a touch more grainy. This with the Vick and the Beaver set to stock mids.

I also have two Civil War era Russian circuits from SUF and Big knob, plus the SUF is the Civil Unrest with the added mids knob.
Interestingly the SUF is a little more grainy which seems to come with higher pricing.
I love the less grainy pure sounds more than the grainy sounding muffs, and we can easily add grain with pick attack but cannot remove the basic grain a given build has with softest pick attack.
The mids knob on the SUF is a masterful bit of circuitry and can even go past the scoop of the stock circuit, but that means you have to bring it up a little to get the stock amount of scoop.
All these Russians are a bit more grainy than any of the Rams.

Noise is a big issue with muffs and each sample has a slightly different noise level, which can be reduced by lowering the sustain knob which also cuts treble where some of that noise is generated.

Thanks for the Ram thesis!
That is kind of what I thought, but I have never read anything about that particular comparison.

Have a had a Ronsound Civil War for a while. I got on a Muff kick this winter and ended up with a Barber Exacta (Ram), a huge EHX NYC/Black & Red or whatever it is, and some Chicago Stompworks (Violet, Green Russian, and one with a red LED who's name escapes me) models.

The Barber is the nicest of them, on my main board. But hard to say which is my favorite. The huge EHX sounds huge by itself, but gets buried/mids/blah blah blah.

I might look for a newer EHX op amp or Ram. That Pumpkin Pi sounds good in demos, but it costs more than what I paid for 4 of the others.

 

[telemnemonics]

I have mixed feelings about spending big for a muff.
My favorites cost me around $40 each used but are stock circuits.
Then I paid more for large beaver, SUF civil unrest and three blackout effectors musket and blunderbuss all of which have valuable added features and push the sounds further.
A $100+ for a stock circuit is just plain wrong though IMO!

Gilmour had Cornish building custom pedals yet chose a basic stock Rams head for a lot of his sounds and they lack nothing.
Flange delay and boost notwithstanding of course.

 

[Lies&Distortion]

Another question: I also picked up a Catalinbread Formula 55. I was trying different pedals into my various Muffs. The F55 worked pretty well, but after a while the Muff started making a high pitched whine. I figured it was the Muff. Tried a different one, same. Suspected the F55 so I removed it. Whine still there!
I was a bit upset. Did I just blow up 2 pedals??

The next day I tried another Muff. Same thing! I pulled the F55 again. Tried the first two Muffs that had the whine - it was gone!

Any idea what was going on? What would cause the noise to persist for a while then go away??

 

[FuzzWatt]

I have the Op-Amp reissue and I generally love it, it matches up really well with either channel on my Orange.

It makes a lot of hiss/waterfall noise when you're not playing though, especially if the amp is also cooking/on the gain channel.. obviously it has a ton of gain. I am curious though if you've played both and can compare the noise level of the Ram's Head. Same thing with the boutique ones you've tried.

The noise levels are something that gets ignored in most video reviews.. they play all the tricks to hide the noise. I know hiding the noise is part of the game but I'm still curious.

I literally just discussed this yesterday with my guitar teacher. He suggested using it for a part and it sounded fantastic but the noise was pretty obnoxious every time we stopped to talk.

I realize this thread is getting long in the tooth but I didn't see a thorough answer to this and thought I'd give it a whack.

I have the following Big Muffs/BM variants; a 1995 V7C green Sovtek, double muff, V9 NYC, BM w/Tone wicker, Rams head reissue, V7D Black Russian clone, and an Ibanez OD850 which is a lawsuit era clone of a 70s muff.

All of them are noisy. The Rams head has the most noise of any of them. Highest noise floor. Also has the highest output by a long shot. It can get loud! I love the way it sounds, it's in my top 3 of favorites, but yes, if anyone is wondering, it is noisy. It's an amazing fuzz and a fantastic value though, so you take the good with the bad.

 

[beninma]

Interestingly I got a Humbucker guitar recently (Reverend Charger HB) and the Op Amp Big Muff Pi is quite a bit quieter with that guitar.

It's really kind of crazy how different it behaves. I guess that's the cool thing about analog effects though.

It actually doesn't really do the same thing when you roll off the guitar volume either. On my single coil guitars the Muff gets really dark when you roll the volume off on the guitar, even though the guitar(s) have/had a treble bleed. The tone would still be useful with a bridge pickup, but not with a neck pickup.

With the humbucker equipped guitar it doesn't do that really.. it's never as bright and cutting as the single coil, but it retains more brightness with the volume rolled down. Who knows, it could be something different about the treble bleed in the Reverend. However all these guitars have very nice treble bleed behavior when you're not using the Big Muff.