A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

In my new band, I'm finally using fuzz for my main heavy distortion sound. Up to this point I've been using my black russian muff, which sounds great - but with the big enclosure, backwards input/output jack and the need for a 9v battery to 9v dc converter - it's a bit cumbersome on my board. i very easily accidentally knock the knobs out of whack while reaching for other pedals.

i've had my eye on the muffuletta for a while. all the classic muff circuits in one pedal? seems like a no brainer - even if i end up using only one setting. but just having played it for a few minutes i feel like every circuit is unique and they are all useable. the russian setting has that nice dark smoothness to it, the rams head is rich and colorful, the civil war has awesome aggression and grit, the pi circuit has that over the top noisy character, the jhs setting actually stands out nicely having the power of the pi circuit without as much noise and some of the grit of the civil war setting, and i really dig the fat slab of the triangle fuzz. it'll be fun to see who comes out on top with my band rig.

i wasn't aware of the cheese ball until i started more seriously researching the muffuletta. this is a clone of the lovetone big cheese - a somewhat fabled fuzz from the 90s, now discontinued that will run you about a grand used. i pretty much instantly fell in love with this fuzz. it's got an interesting control setup where in addition to output, gain and tone you have 4 gain stage settings (off, 1, 2, 3). at the highest setting the fuzz starts to gate itself. having such a range is really nice for dialing in the sound you're looking for. this can be a very aggressive fuzz - brighter, grittier and noisier than a muff, but also very colorful and musical.

my intention was to use the muffuletta with the band and keep the cheese ball at home for bedroom playing, but it may end up happening the other way around - or they'll both end up on my band board. i'll have to have a shootout at my next practice on wednesday.

both pedals look and feel fantastic. i may have opened up a pandora's box for the fuzz world - they've quickly become my new favorite effect. but it seems these two will definitely meet my needs for the time being.

Two months late to respond, but that is cool that you can command fuzz!

I love it, but have a hard time fitting it in to how I play.

Now that you've had them for a while, do you have any different impressions? Are they both still working for you? I've had some interest in the Muffuleta for a while. My current favorite fuzz is my Carcosa, but there's always room for quality big muff...

@aullucci not OP but I grabbed the Muffuletta in trade several days ago. My impression is that it's not quite like having the different Muff circuits in one box. You do get different sounds and some I like, but I've had clones or real muff versions of 3-4 of the circuits it's said to emulate. I can't help but feel the differences were more than this pedal seems to emulate. That's not to say it's bad. It's just not exactly like what I feel it's advertised as (but one could blame my perception).

One thing I like about this is JHS isn't hiding what it's based on.

aullucci wrote: ↑Mon Nov 16, 2020 9:38 am Now that you've had them for a while, do you have any different impressions? Are they both still working for you? I've had some interest in the Muffuleta for a while. My current favorite fuzz is my Carcosa, but there's always room for quality big muff...

Still digging both pedals. The muffaletta remains on my band board as my main distortion pedal. I've been using it on the triangle setting. the only other big muffs i can compare it to are my 90s black russian and a nano big muff. the black russian setting sounds pretty close to the real thing to my ear. the "pi" setting gets closest to the nano. i'm very happy with it - i definitely think it does the muff thing well.

the cheese ball is my go to fuzz at home. it's less creamy and more cutting. not as much gain on tap, but still pretty ripping. interesting and different. I like it on setting 2 with the tone back around 9 and the gain at 3.