Electro Harmonix EHX Old-School Double Muff Test / Review

Preface:

Good day to all of you fuzz lovers out there. Over the course of the last 5+ years, I had the pleasure to test out a lot of drive pedals. This blog is supposed to help you find not only your sound, but also a device that is well built, nice looking and, ideally, affordable.

And if you are not interested in owning the pedal, the post hopefully makes for a good read on bathroom break!

1. Optics and General Built Quality

As with absolutely every pedal on the market, this part is the most subjective of all. I personally like the bulky, old-school bent sheet metal enclosures EHX has used for what feels like hundreds of years, since we all know that bigger pedals sound better. Compared to the newer version of the Double Muff I reviewed more than three years ago, it does, thanks to the top-mounted output jacks, not even take up that much more space on the pedalboard. There are, due to the use of thin sheet metal by EHX, more disaster-proof pedals out there, but the construction works and I am not mad. Plus, I love batteries doors.

Here is a pic that shows you the nice big iconic MUFF logo on the front, me likey. 

 

And here you can find a gut shot of the insides. A little rough and, unfortunately, the traces for the PCB are on the other side so that you can not make out the signal path. What we can make out, however, is the fact that it operates on four transistors, somewhat aligning it with its Big Muff heritage. From what I was able to find out, they were only introduced in the early 2000s as a fairly cheap way to either boost or distort your signal. 

 

2. Sounds and Tonal Options

It may be controversial, but, to my ears, the old Double Muff sounds strikingly different from its modern counterpart. In a Muff-y fashion, it lacks attack definition at higher Muff 2 values when in Double mode. Furthermore, the high end is less akin to a standard overdrive, thus holding the pedal back from ever being used as distortion without the aid of other devices. 

Before we delve deeper into that, let's start from the beginning. Similar to its modern brother, it offers a slightly dirty boost in Single mode. It moderately cuts the highs and boosts the low mids to fatten up your signal, but it is held back by a single design flaw: there is not much gain on tap. You can force that Muff 1 pot up, but there ain't much happening, unfortunately. Aside from that, Single mode alone is barely more than okay.

What naturally ensues is the flip of that one existing switch up from Single to Double. In a twist, this engages the Muff 2 part of the circuit in front of the Muff 1 part, making the Muff 2 pot act as a Gain switch, upping the distortion by turning it clockwise. The Muff 1 pot is then used as a Master Output knob, doing exactly what is expected of it. It has to be noted that, with a very clean and high headroom amp/preamp that the pedal is screaming into, turning up the Muff 1 pot also gives the pedal some air to breathe, resulting in slightly more treble and chord articulation coming through and lowering the rather extreme compression that is associated with Muff circuits anyway.

Lets go back to the essential tones in Double mode. I tested the pedal with both my 2010 Gibson Les Paul Studio WB and my 2014 Fender AM Special FSR Strat and I have to admit that the pedal just does not work well humbuckers. With their potentially huge output and the amount of low end they carry into the pedal, the sound just clutters up, but not in a good way. Single coils, however, are what the Double Muff seems to be designed for. Both the bridge, middle, and neck position get a unique treatment, with the pedal offering either a nice, fat overdrive with the Muff 2 knob around noon or a crushing fuzz sound when fully up. The fuzz sound positively reminds me of an OP-Amp Big Muff with the tone knob removed from the circuit.

I personally enjoyed the hollow sound of the bridge position single coil in conjuction with an almost completely raised Muff 2 pot, since this offers a nicely compressed, thick, but controllable fuzz experience that can easily be brought into Garage Rock territories  with a flick of the pickup switch towards the bridge position - very nice! 

All in all, the pedal does not cut through the mix extraordinarily well, a feature that it shares with other Muff-style pedals. Lacking the deep mid-cut of the tone stack from other Muffs, however, aids at least a little bit in making yourself heard. On top of that, it has to be noted that I find the pedal, even though I used a fresh battery in order to power it, fairly noisy at higher gain levels. Its not the end of the world, but if you look for a quiet experience, get it in the loop of a noise reduction / gate pedal.

3. Unique Features and Special Use Cases

First off, I would like to admit that pairing the Double Muff with a regular old Treble Booster brought it to absolute life when using it with humbucking pickups. Both in Single and Double mode and, furthermore depending on the amount of pre-boost from the booster, the Double Muff produces either a light overdrive, a thick distortion with very bright and clear attack definition, or a slightly thinned out fuzz experience that just cuts through me mix. 

Furthmore, using the Treble Booster and the Double Muff with my EMG-loaded baritone guitar made the pedal utterly GRIND. The thundering, however somewhat defined low-end together with the cutting, shrill high end and the clear-defined attack surprised me way more than I anticipated and would make for a gloriously filthy sub-track to lightly mix in to your typical amp distortion.

4. Conclusion Time

If you are lucky, you can still get this pedal, in a similar condition to mine, for under 60 Euros here in Central Europe and, at this price point, it is a great deal for a mildly versatile little fun device. Offering a bass-y boost or providing you with a different flavor of Muff, one switch and two knobs do more than you think. Just don't forget to try it out with a different boost or drive pedal. And, please, don't overpay!