EHX English Muff'n tube overdrive!

[Baloney Balderdash]

I just recently bought an EHX English Muff'n, already owning the Black Finger (and previously owned, but being stupid enough to sell, the LPB 2ube, 2 channel/stereo tube preamp, where you could bridge the 2 channels and use it as tube overdrive as well), tube driven optical compressor (though I use my Black Finger with the compression dialed very low, basically never kicking in, more so as tube preamp stage, dialed in with the input gain driving the tubes to just on the verge of breakup, as an essential part of my always on basic "clean" tone), in the same series of big 2x tubes pedals.

 

And I am truly impressed with the English Muff'n, this pedal is an astonishing sounding overdrive (despite the Muff moniker it is actually a Marshall-esque voiced tube preamp/overdrive).

 

Unfortunately though it is quite noisy when engaged.

 

However I just swapped the 2 stock EHX 12AY7EH tubes with 2 EHX 12AX7EH tubes, and beside the pedal obviously not being capable of quite as low gain overdrive settings but on the other hand also being capable of higher gain overdrive/distortion as/than before, it is actually also a whole lot quieter (as in much less noisy) dialed in to deliver about the same amount of gain (9 o'clock Vs. before maxed gain knob) as before the tube swap (relative high gain overdrive (but not distortion), and not any more noisy than your average drive pedal), but also the drive it delivers is considerably tighter sounding, which I prefer.

 

So unless you need just breaking up/light tube breakup sounds and prefers a warmer more mellow tone (still plenty of warmth though, just with a slightly more growly character) I can warmly recommend swapping the 2 stock EHX 12AY7EH tubes with higher gain EHX 12AX7EH tubes (or whichever brand 12AX7 tubes you prefer).

 

Perfect for classic traditional stoner and doom rock.

 

In any case I can confirm that tube swap seems to make a substantial difference to this pedal.

 

This is how the pedal looks (not my specific unit, just a random Google photo of it):

 

 

It has now become my main pre-reverb overdrive pedal in my setup.

 

Here is a pretty great YouTube demo of it, used on bass:

 

 

I am interested in hearing from other people having owned, or currently owning, and eventual actively using, this pedal, or other from the same series of big 2 x tubes EHX pedals, and their experience with them.

 

Edited July 18 by Baloney Balderdash

[dudewheresmybass]

@Cosmo Valdemar

[Cosmo Valdemar]

Briefly owned one, didn't work properly, sent it back.

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 17/07/2024 at 15:24, Baloney Balderdash said:

I just recently bought an EHX English Muff'n, already owning the Black Finger (and previously owned, but being stupid enough to sell, the LPB 2ube, 2 channel/stereo tube preamp, where you could bridge the 2 channels and use it as tube overdrive as well), tube driven optical compressor (though I use my Black Finger with the compression dialed very low, basically never kicking in, more so as tube preamp stage, dialed in with the input gain driving the tubes to just on the verge of breakup, as an essential part of my always on basic "clean" tone), in the same series of big 2x tubes pedals.

 

And I am truly impressed with the English Muff'n, this pedal is an astonishing sounding overdrive (despite the Muff moniker it is actually a Marshall-esque voiced tube preamp/overdrive).

 

Unfortunately though it is quite noisy when engaged.

 

However I just swapped the 2 stock EHX 12AY7EH tubes with 2 EHX 12AX7EH tubes, and beside the pedal obviously not being capable of quite as low gain overdrive settings but on the other hand also being capable of higher gain overdrive/distortion as/than before, it is actually also a whole lot quieter (as in much less noisy) dialed in to deliver about the same amount of gain (9 o'clock Vs. before maxed gain knob) as before the tube swap (relative high gain overdrive (but not distortion), and not any more noisy than your average drive pedal), but also the drive it delivers is considerably tighter sounding, which I prefer.

 

So unless you need just breaking up/light tube breakup sounds and prefers a warmer more mellow tone (still plenty of warmth though, just with a slightly more growly character) I can warmly recommend swapping the 2 stock EHX 12AY7EH tubes with higher gain EHX 12AX7EH tubes (or whichever brand 12AX7 tubes you prefer).

 

Perfect for classic traditional stoner and doom rock.

 

In any case I can confirm that tube swap seems to make a substantial difference to this pedal.

 

This is how the pedal looks (not my specific unit, just a random Google photo of it):

 

 

It has now become my main pre-reverb overdrive pedal in my setup.

 

Here is a pretty great YouTube demo of it, used on bass:

 

 

I am interested in hearing from other people having owned, or currently owning, and eventual actively using, this pedal, or other from the same series of big 2 x tubes EHX pedals, and their experience with them.

 

Also I've found out, the secret to using the EQ and making the pedal sound optimal is cutting EQ, rather than boosting, High at around 10 o'clock, Mid at around 11 o'clock, and Low around 10:30 o'clock sounds really great, in particularly.

 

As an alternative to completely flat EQ (with that I mean EQ knobs at noon position) if you think that is too clanky. 

 

Edited July 29 by Baloney Balderdash

[obbm]

I've had one of these for about 18 years but it's never been used much.  The tone stack is a traditional Fender design, the same as many pre-amps/amps.  The bass and treble controls are boost only and the mid control is cut only so flat should be min bass and treble and max mid.  I modified the voicing of mine by changing the capacitor values to match the Alembic F1X. 

 

[Baloney Balderdash]

28 minutes ago, obbm said:

I've had one of these for about 18 years but it's never been used much.  The tone stack is a traditional Fender design, the same as many pre-amps/amps.  The bass and treble controls are boost only and the mid control is cut only so flat should be min bass and treble and max mid.  I modified the voicing of mine by changing the capacitor values to match the Alembic F1X. 

 

Well, flat response is definitely very far from what you describe (it isn't noon position either though, which I called flat EQ), and usually isn't with cut or boost only EQ controls, entirely depends on how the preamp is otherwise voiced, which is usually set such that you that you can sort of emulate both boost and cut compared to flat response with the cut or boost only EQ controls.

 

Also while the tone stack might be a traditional Fender tone stack, the preamp itself is based on a Marshall.

 

 

Edited July 21 by Baloney Balderdash