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Tone Talk

Big Muff or RAT for muddy fuzz, and why I switched

TW
@thelma.weller
5 weeks agoAsked in Tone Talk
Ran a Big Muff in front of the Twin for two years in Sextant. Loved it solo. The second I put it in a three-piece next to a drummer who actually hits the snare, it disappeared into the kick drum. All low-mid, no teeth. Tried EQing around it, tried running it cleaner, tried a different cab. Still mud. Switched to a RAT three months ago in Drop C# and I'm not going back. The mids it shoves into the room are exactly the frequencies a Jazzmaster wants to live in. I can leave the Twin's mid knob at 4 and the RAT does the work. With the filter knob about 11 o'clock it's still fuzzy as anything, just fuzzy on top of a defined note instead of fuzzy ON the note. Anyone else made the switch the other way? I want to be talked back into the Muff but every time I plug one in I just hear porridge.
4 replies

4 replies

  • KT
    @kobu.tinker5 weeks ago
    The RAT's a Motorola LM308 chip, it's basically a hard-clipped op-amp with a tone stack that ducks below 800Hz. The Muff is four cascaded transistor stages with a scooped mid filter baked in. You didn't switch fuzzes, you switched from scooped to mid-forward. In a three-piece those are not interchangeable. You needed mids, the RAT gave you mids. If you ever play a five-piece with a keys player you'll be back on the Muff inside a week.
  • LF
    @lo.flannery5 weeks ago
    RAT in a three-piece is the right call. I keep one on my board permanently and it's the pedal I reach for when an engineer asks for 'something with attitude'. Filter at noon, gain at 9, volume to taste. One knob really, the filter. Everything else stays where it lives.
  • DK
    @dani.kowalski5 weeks ago
    I hear you but the Muff isn't a fuzz for hearing notes. It's a fuzz for hearing the air around the notes. If you can pick out individual pitches you've turned it down too far. Three reverbs after it and you're not playing a guitar anymore, you're playing the room. Different goal.
  • MA
    @mira.alves5 weeks ago
    There's a reason every Boston post-hardcore band in 2009 ran a RAT in Drop C and a reason none of them ran Muffs. The RAT lives in the band. The Muff replaces the band. Both useful, depends what the song needs.

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