Green Russian Appreciation...

[NaBo]

I just completed a green russian big muff with the parts substituted onto a tonepad layout.  All I can say is, I REALLY understand why this is many people's favourite muff.  Absolutely incredible range of sounds... two-inch-speaker trebliness to "rave"-worthy bass frequencies.  Slight dirtiness to sustain-for-days fuzz.  It's not hard to find great tones in seconds, i dunno why people speak of "sweet spots" with muffs.  Almost everything I heard was definitely sweet  

And, even in downtown toronto, unshielded, and wired with a mess of gator clips, this thing is whisper quiet.  The GGG version I built, and most of my other overdrives and distortions, pick up RF like mad for now, but I can actually crank the volume on this one without being severely annoyed by the blaring of at least 6 discernable radio stations during short breaks from playing.  Which is cool.

I think I may have found the muff for me...  still have the swollen pickle to check out though  :wink:

[snorky]

Sounds interesting.  Is there a list of parts substitutions for the green russian version?  How is the sound different from the "standard" version?

Thanks for the report, I might have to try one of these.

- Mark

[puretube]

just wondering: which circuit (schem) is it you used?
The "El Gran Mango"?

[NaBo]

puretube-
The schematic i used was the one available at GGG. I traced through the tonepad layout with it to make sure the connections were all the same, then it was just a matter of subbing the parts in.

snorky-
The schematic at //www.generalguitargadgets.com shows the changes to a 'regular' BMP.  I've just posted the //www.tonepad.com layout i used to go through the schem and make the necessary changes in my layouts folder: http://aronnelson.com/gallery/NaBos-Layouts/green_russian_parts.  As far as the difference between a usa bmp and the green russian, I think it has more "usable" sounds across the sweeps of the pots.  It especially feels like it has a nicer tone control...  It goes from really warm and smooth to a nasal grating fuzz, with a whole lot of classic, FAT rock sounds in between.  I haven't had the chance to really sit down and play with the 'original' circuit at length, so I can't comment too much on that, but compared to the GGG version (which looks like a bit of a hybrid between the original bmp and the green russian) it feels more "in control" feedback-wise...  What I mean is, when the sustain/fuzz pot is at full, you get all the sustain/fuzz without the noise and uncontrollable feedback (which is either good or bad depending on your taste or the situation).  Hmm... don't know what else to say... Like many things, it's hard to describe with words.  You just have to hear it, and "feel it" by playing through it.  :wink:

I'm kind of sad though cuz my Gibson SG Deluxe is strung with super light strings now cuz it's all i had... I'm being robbed of fatness... my tone and playing is kind of sucking lately...  Oh well.  Home in a month, then I'll put a nice new stiff set of 012's on and set it up nice.  Then I can really hear what this baby is capable of.  I may end up increasing the size of the input cap though, already I can tell some bass is being cut with the neck pickup on...

Anyway, I suggest breadboarding the basic muff circuit and subbing in the different values. Personally I love just about every muff sound I've heard...  im a muffaniac...  so i decided to build a few big muff varieties on pcbs, since even though I'd use only one at a time and the differences between them can be subtle, I could always just wire in a different PCB if my taste changes down the road.  At the moment though, I think I know which one will end up in an enclosure and on my pedal board!

[mrsage]

I love my "green" big muff.

It's an original from the early 90s, but I rehoused it and put new input/output jacks and a Boss-style power supply on it.

It's one of my favorite muffs (though I also have a triangle muff clone and an IC muff clone as well...those are both great). Amazing tone in the Russian, although I've had 3 or 4 different green russian muffs, and they've all sounded different. I don't think they were that focused on QC or consistency at the time. Some sound amazing (like the one I kept) and others just sounded a bit flat...

http://tinypic.com/4g2o28

[puretube]

thanks, NaBo - I always wondered what`s the difference between the versions - now I can check out...