Incoming NPD: Violet rams head muff clone

[Concretebadger]

As a Christmas present to myself, now that I've finished shopping for the family, I've bought another muff off the 'bay.

According to conventional wisdom, the violet version is a bit brighter and higher-gain than is normal for triangles and rams heads, so I'm expecting it will pair up well with darker-voiced amps.

I know nothing about the builder (I was planning to order one from North Effects, but he's sadly off the grid atm due to relocation and I'm not sure when he'll be making pedals again). It's going to be £25 plus postage and the enclosure is painted a nice fetching shade of purple, so as a last resort it's a Hammond box that I can use for future projects. I'm just curious as to how it sounds alongside my clones of the triangle, IC and Russian I guess.

[Concretebadger]

Damn, that was fast. It was shipped on Monday by second class post, but arrived this morning

First impressions, based on other muff versions I have at home: lots of gain, but less of the "choked" decay to the notes that you get from the NYC reissues. There's a lot of volume on tap - possibly the most I've found from a Muff. The sound has a tight bottom end and the treble has more bite and sizzle than the Triangle. It's somewhat harsher than the smooth low-middy tone of a Russian, but a bit less grit than an IC. The only odd thing about this particular one is that the tone knob works in the opposite direction (i.e. clockwise for bass, anti-clockwise for treble).

The general build quality is solid enough, but it's clearly a kit-built thing rather than a top-of-the-line boutique box. Between that and the fast postage though, it's perfectly satisfactory for the price I paid for it (less than £30: I expected other people to bid, but no one did).