Electro-Harmonix Double Muff

As previously stated it has 2 knobs and a switch. The switch selects single or double muff. The knobs are pre and post gain. Very easy to use, and you can get a great sound as long as long as you acknowledge that this pedal has a personality disorder, and demands to be first in your signal chain.

Sounds fantastic, though it would be more versatile with a tone knob. On single muff it is a simple overdrive that will push your tube amp into gain. On double muff it will begin to come closer to a distortion pedal, but never becomes "sharp or harsh" but rather sounds more like an extreme overdrive. Its definately nothing like my Big Muff (not a fuzz). It does have some minor hum, but nothing unbareable, and certainly better than a Big Muff.

It is an all around good "classic" sounding pedal. Though, it must be noted this pedal is an EGO-MANIAC, and will act out if it is not first in your pedal chain. If you put any pedal infront of it it will buzz and hum, the overdrive will become grating sharp and noisy (not useable for any genre I could imagine). This makes using any type of envelope filters impossible, because they can not work after a distortion. Remember to respect it's nature and you will love the sound.

Never had a problem yet with an EH.

Never had a reason to call.

I play rock, blues and reggae. Its definately great for blues and rock on double, and works for reggae on single. Been playing for more than a decade. I would say it gets alot of classic sounds, and a few unique as well, I enjoy this pedal but have problems with it's need to be first in the signal chain. If lost or stolen I would stick with my tube-screamer, as that covers most of the Double Muff's territory and has a tone knob. I would recommend that you try it in your rig before you buy it- as stated multiple times -It has a personality disorder, and doesnt get along with others.

Others have described the basic features, so I won't go into much detail. One wish I have would be that the "single"/"double" switch be a footswitch instead of a little toggle. That would make the pedal more versatile for performing. But the two knobs interact similarly to the way the two gain knobs worked on old Boogie amps. Not difficult to get good sounds from it.

The only negative on ease-of-use relates to signal-chain issues. I wasn't sure I believed the reviews people had written regarding placement on the effects chain, but yes! It's true! You can't put anything in front of it. Believe it or not, I thought I was heeding this advice when I put it first in my chain after my tuner - surely a tuner won't be a problem. Wrong. Behind my Boss tuner, the Double Muff has the trebly shreddy tone, just as was described by others. Move it in front of the tuner, and the problem goes away. So, don't be discouraged by this pedal, but just be respectful of it's requirements!

I am posting that under "ease-of-use" because, when used properly, it is not a sound-quality issue. EH should have instructions that say this, and I am not sure if they do, since I bought mine used.

Used this with Fender Twin Reverb. Signal chain is:

Stratocaster/Telecaster
Double Muff
Boss Tuner
Boss Compressor
Fulltone Fulldrive 2
Tube Screamer
MXR Phase 90
Boss Tremolo
Line 6 Delay Modeler
Line 6 Verbzilla

In the first slot, the pedal is fine. I did not notice any appreciable noise from it, other than what you get when you have any distortion pedal.

The tone is good for a vintage, smooth, medium overdrive-to-distortion. The reason I chose this pedal is because it is *not* gritty, and not metal-like, and it does not do any significant high-pass filtering, compared to some pedals.

It is probably similar to my old RAT pedal, with 2 functional differences. First, it has the added "double" feature, which lets you get a more feedback-y tone, while still not necessarily becoming shreddy. Second, it has the LED indicator, unlike the RAT, to let me know it's on. There's no tone control, but if you put it on double, and keep the Muff 1 set low, and turn up Muff 2, that's sort of like a tone control, because it gets more treble in the tone. My preferred settings are in the 8-10 o'clock positions for both knobs (whether you choose single, or double).

Other than the signal chain requirement, which is kind of bizarre, it seems like it may be reliable. I don't think I'd bring a backup, because I have 3 distortion-producing pedals on my board, and if this one failed, I could manage without it.

not sure

This pedal could be used for *everything* in a particular genre of music because it does not kill the low end of the signal - it has a nice tonal quality. I would not, in any way, liken it to the Big Muff, because they are night and day. The Big Muff, to me, is like a niche effect that works best on leads, and is a bit too much for most things - this pedal is more of a meat and potatoes distortion pedal with good tonal characteristics. I would suggest adding a second switch for doing the single/double, and I might even do that as a little project, since it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to do that modification.

Just got this 2nd hand off eBay. It seems to be reasonably new. Came with the wooden coffin but no manual. It's easy to use though - 2 dials and 1 switch. The switch selects between a single Muff circuit or a cascaded double Muff circuit. The dials control the distortion level, or level I'm not sure, of Muff 1 and Muff 2; so you can mix in how much you want of each Muff, or how much saturation/distortion each Muff has, when you have the double switch engaged. In single mode you get 1 Muff circuit and only 1 Muff dial functions. Couldn't be easier really. And in the usual E-H tradition this is quite a unique unit. Easy to get going. So high marks here.

Wow!!! What an awesome sound. I've owned a Sovtek Big Muff from the mid-90s before and that was an inconsistent sounding but fun pedal. Some days it was great, on really hot Australain days it sounded awful. (I lent it to a guy who is now reasonably famous and I never got it back). But, this Double Muff is much better overall, though it does have a Big Muff quality to it, it is very smooth, quite compressed sounding and easy to dial in a good tone. You do have to spend a bit of time in double mode trying to get the right balance between the 2 Muff circuits, but it's not overly difficult to dial in a usable sound.

I'm playing through a variety of very well made Korean copy guitars by Custom Guitar Workshop Australia - a WGR Hybrid (Strat copy with passive EMG Select pups) ST-2 (Strat copy with GFS humbucker in bridge + 2 GFS single coils middle & neck) TE-1 (Telecaster copy with GFS Hot Lead in bridge + Vintage Alnico in neck) Jazz Custom 607 semi-hollowbody (2 EMG Select passsive humbuckers). These are going straight into the Double Muff > Danelectro Fab Overdrive > Front end of a (Black and Silver) Transtube Peavey Studio Pro 112. Through my effects loop I've got a Danelectro Fab Chorus > Fab Flanger > Zoom G1 Multi-FX which I just use for tape delay sounds, nothing else: various presets of 200ms, 500ms, 600ms, 750ms, 1000ms etc. (This Zoom unit is going to be replaced by a more lo-fi product soon).

I've been using the Double Muff on top of my dirty channel. I use a reasonably low-gain, grunty rythm sound and this pedal gives you a really nice gain, and a slight volume boost, for sweet, singing leads. In single mode it's similar but not as intense as the double mode which gives you almost endless sustain. On my dirty channel this is not a Fuzz Face type sound. It's an ultra-creamy and smooth distortion with a slightly compressed quality. Similar to the Sovtek or NY Big Muff with the sustain knob turned up high.

Compression is not as noticable in single mode and the definition is probably a touch better as more top end is retained. The single mode seems to work better on the clean channel of my amp where the double mode doesn't sound so great. On the clean channel the double mode sounds more like a Fuzz Face/60s-type fuzz which is really nasty and low fi. Kind of like a buzzsaw. On single mode you get a light, but slightly raspy overdrive. Single mode would be good to send a cleanish valve amp, like an old Fender, into light overdrive.

It seems to me that the double mode with both dials, more or less, around the 50% mark on top of my dirty rythm sound is the most useable for me. It gives a great singing, musical lead tone, rich in harmonic content that is really smooth. It also helps attain some nice feedback. When I engage my Fab Overdrive, set to preamp boost (0% Gain, 75% Tone, 85% Level), which is next in the chain, on top of the Double Muff you get endless sustain which is great for legato work. The Double Muff also sounds great with my flanger engaged and it accentuates the effect quite nicely.

An absolutely great sounding pedal. It adds an extra layer of gain to my dirty sound and just smooths it all out. It's pure creaminess and I love this sound!!! It doesn't really give you the brass or tuba-type sound that Lindsay Buckingham got on some of Fleetwood Mac's Tusk tracks, it's more of a compressed, sustaining and smooth sound overall. Very Gilmour-esque. But it may depend a lot on what type of amp you use with it.

It's hard to know. My old Sovtek Big Muff always worked but sounded different every time I used it. This doesn't seem to be like that and it's built tough. It has a sturdy metal housing and a strong switch. I'm certain it'll go the distance. But, I won't rate it right now.

Unkown. I usually contact companies via email for advice if I have any issues with their products that I've purchsed. I'm sure they'd be fine to deal with but won't rate this either.

I play blues, 70s-style rock, some jazzier type stuff and a bit of effects-laiden experimental music. Most of the music I play I come up with. I've been playing since '89 and have tried out a raft of distortion devices in that time. DOD, Marshalls, Boss etc and a lot of them were useless in a live band situation. They just didn't cut through the mix. I liked my Sovtek Big Muff but it was too inconsistent. I really like my Danelectro Fab Overdrive, cause it's cheap and even with the Gain knob on "0" it gives me a great volume boost for leads with a classic 80's-sounding gain structure, but the Double Muff sounds great too and it's more of a 70's saturated lead tone - it's now going to live on my pedalboard. It's a good size too, much smaller than the Russian or NY Big Muffs or even the Little Bug Muff. I highly recommended this pedal; I got it for only $100 AU. Nice value for a top class musical-sounding overdrive/distortion unit.

Reasonably impossible to get a bad sound as far as I can see, and it's by no means difficult to get the exact sound you want. Afterall, there are only 2 knobs. Don't bother with the manual.

Basically, on single mode you have a volume knob. The pedal gets louder as you turn it up. That's about it. But that sound in itself is quite a nice vintage crunch, and in this mode the pedal can act as a volume/ gain boost I guess. In double mode, a whole new world opens up. Muff 1 still acts as a volume knob, but now you have a gain knob as well, which can be turned up to a very smooth, dark Big Muff-ish sound (notice the "ish". Not quite the same). When you play about with the 2 circuits, they mingle together in different ways, so you can get a very good range of fuzz tones, through some Hendrix all the way to that great dirty fuzz sound like on Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff. I nailed the sound of "Touch Me I'm Sick" after 5 minutes playing in the shop. Drive it harder and you're in J Mascis territory. Run it through another overdrive pedal (like my Vox Big Ben) and you can get an insanely thick, syrupy Joe Walsh "Hotel California" solo sound.
This pedal is one of the most versatile distortion/ fuzz/ overdrive boxes you'll ever stand on. Hopnestly.

Well, I only bought it today, so what can I say? Seems solid enough. Time will tell I suppose.

Not dealt with them.

Love it. I play a Gibson SG and a Fender Jaguar through this, followed by a Dunlop Crybaby, then a Vox Big Ben overdrive, in a Marshall AVT50. Basics of my playing goes through lots of 60s/ 70s classic and prog rock, Hendrix, Led Zep, Floyd etc, with bits and bobs of indie, post rock and grunge. This pedal can do pretty much all of it. I know I should probably get some chorus and delay and stuff on my board, but for kickass leads with a lot of tonal versatility, this setups brilliant. The Double Muff opens up dozens more possibilities. It makes you want to play more. It does it's job.

Distortion and volume for doulbe muff and vlume for single muff, easy!

I am writing this as an update to my first review (I'm the one who put no opion to everything), I have found that my assumption about my solid-state Crate's byass against pedals made it sound funky and have refallen in love with that classic tone, partially beacuse I just got a Peavey Delta Blues. I has a great tone, however there still are some set backs, it still has to be the first stomp box you run into or else it gets trebelly and noisy and the other problem I'm starting to have is that it cleans up to much with lowered guitar volume. It sounds great with a borderline "too much distortion" tone with the guitar all the way up, but when I turn the volume down to eight for rhythem playing, it's too clean for what I need, I've already got my Bad Monkey set up for the slightly distorted tone.

Seems reliable enough, but I've only owned it for a few months. Also, I put it in a pedal board case so it's really not moving or being exposed to anything so it should last a long time.

Never used them, although it is annoying that you have to spend five dollars to send it in for repairs.

It's a great distortion pedal, I'll just have to figure out how to get around the voulme issue. The only other thing that annoyed me about it was having to use as male converter to use it with my Godlyke power supply so installed a conventional adapter out (I should have gotten the one with plastic surrounding it, it took my hours to figure out how to insulate it from the chassis). If you're looking for that classis 70's fuzz box sound look at this and see if it works for you!

I am very happy with this pedal. It is rather simple to get a good sound out of it. 2 modes of 'Muff to play with (single and double). It is versitle and simple to use.

I play in an original band that charts the waters somewhere between the pop sensibilities of The Go-Betweens and the sparceness of a a now-defunct post-rock band from Melbourne called Sandro. I play mostly clean sounds with some light flanger/ phaser and delay thrown in for good measure.

At the moment, my set-up looks like this:

'79 USA Strat->Telenordia Kompressor->Electro Harmonix Double Muff->MXR Flanger->Boss DM-2 Delay->Electro Harmonix Small Stone Nano->Ernie Ball Volume Pedal (connected to Boss TU-12 Chromatic Tuner)->Flextone Line 6.

I sometimes also use a Maton 12 string acoustic guitar.

The Double Muff is great for crunchy chord work. I don't really solo - so I use it for a colouring agent for my tone. I use the single Muff and have it at about 10 o'clock for a gentle wash of dirt. Together with my Telenordia Kompressor [a truly awseome pedal] - the Double Muff has a high gloss sheen and sounds really punchy.

I could use a setting on my Flextone - but there is nothing like quite like jumping on a box to make you sound like a god. This pedal works for me.

It is very well built. I see no reason for it to die.

Haven't had to deal with them.

I've been playing for 16 years. Before the Double Muff, I had a Boss OD-1 [which I recently sold on eBay]. The OD-1 sucked all the tone out of my signal and in the end became quite a noisey little unit.

As I said earlier, I play mostly clean and play in Single Muff mode with the knob at 10 o'clock. What I like abou this pedal is that I ever wanted more grunt I could easily drive the knob further around and then if I wanted to go insane - kick in the Double Muff and crank it [this could have great potential for recording purposes].

My only criticism is that the 'jump' in effect when you step on it is fairly pronounced. Even at the low setting I use it at - the difference between true bypass and activated effect is large. There is a sizable jump in signal output - but hey - this is an overdrive/ distortion pedal - so what do you expect! If I had my way, I'd probably get a little mod done so I can control the volume output level. This is a small thing. When the band is playing around you and you are rocking your little toosh off...a bit rocking dirt fest is alright.

So overall, a versitle little stompbox. If you want a subtle pedal with a nice overdrive...or if you want a big fuzzed out effect - you cannot go past the Electro Harmonix Double Muff.

The easiest stomp box in the world to use, but you can't put it behind any stomp boxes or else its sound quality will be degraded.

Has a very good sound, very fat and intense, however, the good things stop here! You CAN NOT use this thing with other stomp boxes. Although the bypassed sound and the other pedal's sounds will remain the same, it absolutly destroys the Double Muff's tone. If you put it behind any pedals, it will get an annoying trebly sound and if you put it before all you pedals, it will get overtones with termelo in them (tested with a Digitech Bad Monkey Overdrive, Korg CHR-1 Chorus/Phaser, and Arion HU-8500 tuner). This isn't too bad when you play chords, but if you play leads, it can be very annoying, expecially iwith the neck pickup. However, these problems could be with my particular (Crate GLX65) or a particular vibe that I don't get so I can't be rate the tone. But this does suck, I got it so I would have to mess with my bad monkey in live shows to switch between low and highly fuzzed tones. I am using it as my slight distorter (in two muff mode) beacuse it seems less finicky with those tones. Bottom line, buy it if you want to use one awesome effect or mainly play chord based rhythms.

It seems reliably made and from the battery compartment, it looks parts are easily accessable for when I start wearing this thing down, but I've only oned it for a day so I can't vouch for Electro Harmonix's job.

Never tried

The only reason I wrote this review is to warn people about what happened. There are two things I need to add, first the sounds can gear related and it inconsistantly makes noise. I would check this out thouroughly if I were looking into buying it.

Two knobs, easy.

IMPORTANT: like other guys previously mentioned, put the double muff FIRST in your chain, even before the wah.
Else the DM will become very thin and trebly. I found that out myself. Try it and you'll be amazed. (true bypass effects can go before the muff, I found out, but certainly not Boss effects, which have a buffer bypass.)
I widh it had a tone knob, like the big muff.

When put up correctly, HOT tones and screaming leads.

The box works really easy. Just one knob, one selector switch and that's it.

The box doesn't work independently: the amount of distortion changes when you change the volume on your guitar. So when I just want to put my guitar a little harder, the distortion increases. That can be quite irritating, but sometimes heaven.

I use this stomp box with my Gibson Nighthawk and some different amps (mostly Vox, Fender and Samick). With tube-amps the sound is warm and brings character in your sound. With a transistor-amp, it sound more like noise.

The doesn't make any sound when turned of. But I usually have it switched on with just a little distortion because I am in love with the character of te stompbox.

I always gig with this box, now for half a year. It never let me down.

I always try to guess how a stompbox will survive and I give this one about 5 years.

Never needed customer support

I play most of all pop rock, now performing for my second year. It is a great match, it is now a part my sound. My other gear includes a Gibson Nighthawk, a Vox Valvetronics amp.

If it was stolen, I would buy another EHX effect for I need the tone. Problebly this one, because it works so easy and I don't like endless time trying to find my sound. This box is a part of my sound.

Compared to some boss pedals or line 6 distortion it had more character.

three knobs seems easy enough. try using it alone first and tweak your settings without looking too much at the dial numbers on your amp or the pedal. this pedal will sound different with every guitar, pedal, amp, and variation of the three that you use, so i recommend spending some time just listening to setting changes (rather than using pre-sets).

someone said they bought this pedal because they wanted the neil young "into the black" sound. that pretty much sums it up. you have to tweak your amp settings to get it to be bassy enough though. this pedal can be very trebly if placed at the end of an effect chain. place it second in the chain, right after the wah.

i don't recommend it for straight up guitar fuzz. i think it functions much better as a lead pedal. the big muff (with an eq run after it) is much better at plain fuzz (think weezer pinkerton, neil young tone on weld).

it is noisy, but that is why i bought it. i use it in front of all kinds of stuff: snarling dog wahs, heavy delay, chorus, tubescreamer, etc. this pedal is good at getting gnarly sounds, but not so good at getting refined fuzz or distortion. i guess that is why it is called a "double muff".

i run it through a single coil strat for added noise and feedback. my amps are typically 30 watt 1970's traynors and fender twins.

built much sturdier than the non-NY big muffs. i always have a back up because i break a lot of stuff.

this is where too many of my fellow reviewers tell the rest of us that they 1) play all styles of music (very well and for a very long time), 2) have more guitars and amps than leo fender, or 3) harp about how in the old days the things they played through were built out of pristine redwood from an extinct elfin forest and nowadays we have just lost the drive to make things the american way. tell that to flint, michigan my friend. oh wait. sorry. i too am being an asshole.

anyways, i recommend this thing as a noisy lead pedal (which is what I wanted) or as a novelty distortion pedal. if you want a more balanced and versatile fuzz than go with the big muff.