Electro-Harmonix English Muff'n

Easy. Just like adjusting your amp.

Pros:-
Does what it says on the tin: a very nice imitation of that slighlty gritty Marshall or chimey Vox (depending on how you set it) OD/distortion. Sounds really nice with some delay to give a nice fat but edgy (not in the U2 sense) lead sound. Plenty of gain; goes from slight overdrive to full blown distortion.

Cons:-
This pedal does not do smooth; there's always some grit present and I personally found the pedal to be far too bright unless the treble was set below nine o'clock, which limits what you can do with it.

The pedal is supplied as standard with two 12AY7's which is just plain wrong. I highly recommend changing the right-hand 12AY7 for a 12AX7 or ECC83. This smoothes and warms the tone nicely. Changing the left hand tube doesn't make much of a difference.

Good sturdy build quality and no problems in the six months or so that I had it.

Sold it recently to help pay for a TC Electronic Nova System but if I ever go back to using individual pedals the English Muff'n is definitely a pedal I would consider owning again.

It's easy to use. It just has a few knobs. No brains required. Just turn them and listen to the way your sound is manipulated. If you can't operate this, you are a total knob.

Let me start by saying that this is one of my favorite pieces of gear I own. I have to admit, I was very confused when I first read about it. I didn't know what "british" amp it was taking its inspiration from as "british" is a tad vague. "hmm, If I buy this, I will either sound like hendrix or the beatles, but which?". The price was right so I took a chance and am very happy I did. My ears hear great old school marshall tone.

I didn't really like this as a distortion pedal into the distortion channel of my particular amp but love it into the clean section. I've come to treat this pedal not as a "distortion pedal" per se ,but rather, as a preamp in and of itself. A preamp in pedal format. In other words, I no longer think of it as a distortion pedal. I use distortion pedals into it and use it as like a I would an amp's preamp section. Sounds great without distortion pedals in front of it too.

It is capable of a decent amount of old school marshall like distortion and the lead tone is very charismatic and melodic and lively.

How reliable? I have had it for well more than a year and I have had no immediate technical concerns or issues. I have no opinion here. It's too early to tell. Will it work 5 or 10 years from now? We'll see cause I intend to keep it that long. I'm sure any competent tech can fix this if something goes wrong.

I thought of contacting them once to find out what tubes its supposed to come with stock because mine came with different tubes than what their ad copy stated. Mine came with two 12ay7's while the ad copy said "12AY7 cascading into a 12AX7". Then I heard other people saying they have (or put) two 12ax7's in theirs. But, in the end it didn't matter. I've got a lot of tubes and have had fun experimenting with them. I never contacted them and don't know what level of support they give customers.

overall I am very happy with this device. It's The most tone per dollar I have ever paid for.
I like this so much I have considered buying a dedicated power amp for it. Until then, It sounds great into all of my amps.

Pretty easy to deal with this stompbox. 3-line EQ, gain and volume.

Using it thru Gibson SG Standard to Marshall TSL602 tube combo. Sounds great on combo's clean channel. I could vary sounds from clean with a lil breakup to fat-sounding distortion you can fing in those ol' Plexi heads with lo-wattage.
I can nail the sound of great clean guitar wich suits both rhythm and lead styles of playing (Beatles, Stones, U2, Smiths) Then it goes crunch and dist. They're also great for punk rock and good ol' hard rock. From AC/DC and Black Sabbath to NOFX and Offspring. The most I like about is the FAT creamy sound which also sounds good with my girlfriend's Gibson SG Bass.

Played about 5 gigs thru it. This power supply makes me mad 'cause I'm afraid it'll break up some day and it's hard to find.

Never dealed with EHX but those CD's with demo videos and those guy from 65Amps 're cool.

I like to play many styles of music from early Beatles to Foo Fighters and Offspring. It's suits well. The controls are easy to tweak so I can just dial into my amp and play wonderful stuff. I'm playing for 12 years and as I've mentioned before I owe Gibson SG Standard guitar (worked for it as seafood processor in Alaska, hehe) and also some EHX fx-boxes: Holy Grail Reverb, Pulsar Tremolo, Clone Theory Chorus/Vibrato and DOD EQ.
I've changed my VOX Bulldog for it. I wish it has 2 channels (as Vox) but the sound is still better :)

Easy. Like dialing a good sound out of an amplifier, the controls are similar to a lot of basic guitar amps.

Great sounding pedal, or a preamp if you like. Variety of the tones is amazing, you can go from just very slight tube warmth to fuzz-like tones. Also if you have an amp (especially a tube amp) that has only volume and tone controls, this is great pedal. cause you can control treble mid and bass too.

My main amp is Fender Pro Reverb 1973 (no master volume) and I play mostly Les Paul and Stratocaster. This pedal is a very good match for this gear.

Only negative thing I can say about the tone controls is that the treble is just for boosting, not for cutting, cause when treble is on 0 it is already quite bright.

I've had it for about 4 months. No complaints, everything is working great.

No experience.

I play retroish rock, with this pedal I'm usually going after Jimmy Page circa 1973 type of sound, and it works really good for me.

I've played guitar for about 20 years and this is the first overdrive pedal I'm really quite happy with. It is not for every type of music or for everybody, I would imagine, but for what it is, it is great.

You can dial in some good settings the more you play with it

I think this pedal sounds pretty good at getting you a British crunch like from a vintage Marshall.
I wanted a pedal to help my Fender tube amps (Blues Junior, Deluxe Reverb) sound more British when I played rock otherwise I love my Fender amps for blues/jazz.
NOTE - when played through the Blues Junior or Deluxe Reverb (Vibrato input) it does not sound that good with this pedal or any other overdrive/distortion pedal because of the bright capacitor which gives you an awful high end sound, so I modded my amps to engage or disengage the bright capacitor when I want.
The bright caps on Fender amps only sound good with cleaner sounds for that sparkly high end but with gain it is not very pleasing.

The only problems with this pedal are:
- the ****** Electro Harmonix 12AY7 tubes it comes with
- the pedal also is too trebly. Best to turn treble control down to zero

** I recommend replacing the first tube (one on left) with a TungSol 12AX7 which gives it more gain and tightens up the high end. The stock Electro Harmonix 12AY7 are low gain tubes and have a very loose splatty high end. If you want that old Marshall crunch use the TungSol 12AX7.
** I tried two 12AX7s but it was too much gain and you could not get a cleaner crunch so a 12AX7 in the left and a 12AY7 (or even 12AT7 which has a bit more gain than 12AY7) in the right sounds great.

My favorite setting for getting a good crunchy overdrive from a fairly clean tube amp is:
OUTPUT - 3 o'clock
GAIN - 9 o'clock
TREBLE - zero
MID - 3 o'clock
LOW - 8 o'clock

If you turn up the LOW on this pedal too much it makes your low end loose and muddy, it is best to turn up the bass on your amp.

So far so good with mine.
But our local dealer here in Canada said they have sent quite a few in for repairs

No idea

I play vintage and modern blues, swing, be-bop, rock n roll, rock and vintage metal (70's-80's)
I have been playing for about 25 years and am a tone nut. I think a players tone is more important than his skill for getting noticed - although I have both ;>)
For tube pedals I have tried the Vox tube pedals which I was not too impressed with / the Radial Tone Bones which I like as well but are a bit nasally sounding and noisy / the Seymour Duncan tube Mayham pedal which is the ********* pedal on earth, the websites video makes it sound good but I could not get a good sound out of it.
I would like to try the Blackstar HT tube pedals but no local dealer carries them and I do not want to commit to buying one until I can hear it myself.

I give this English Muffin tube pedal a rating of 8 as it could be better, but so far the best one I have tried. I really like that it uses high voltages to drive the tubes which gives more of an authentic amp sound and I like the fact that you can easily swap the tubes.

Input and Gain with an EQ to use underneath it. Can't say much here as it's not rocket science.

Well I borrowed this from the Music Lab as they've been kind enough to let me try out pedals whenever I want. I tried every single distorotion/overdrive pedal that they have including a Boss OD, MXR hendrix octave fuzz, and many....many more and I have to say that this thing is fantastic! I am running through a '74 plexi 50 watt with a fender 50s strat. I played with this pedal for about 2 hours and just loved the range of sounds you can get on it. With the gain on about half, the input on 3/4, and all eq down except a touch of bass and mids you get an awesome Hendrix "Bold as Love" sound. Flip your guitar toggle to bridge and now your playing "paint it black" by the Stones.

Turn the gain almost all the way down and the input all the way up, dial in some bass and a bit of trouble and now you've got a fantastic SRV sound......through a marshall plexi???!!! Yes that is what totally blows me away with this pedal. It has a great range of sounds which DOES NOT MUDDY UP my marshall. In fact, it is a very clear, punchy sound. Of all the pedals I tried this was the one I could put down. I will go back and buy it today.
If you are looking for more of a distortion versus a drive you might want to try the EH hot tube as it looks exactly the same with an added drive knob on top of gain and input.

It didnt break after 2 hours. That's all know on this.

Couldnt tell you.

I play a range of music from country, blues, to jazz and rock. I could see this pedal having multiple uses depending on my setup for that particular night. I've been playing for about 10 years and have acquired several pieces of vintage gear throughout that time. If I bought this pedal and it was stolen I would just freak out cause I barely had enough money to buy it the first time. I imagine this pedal could only get better with different tubes in it but by no means is that necessary. It cooks straight out of the box.

This is a pretty interesting pedal design. The volume and gain knobs work like usual, but the EQ section is in what I guess is referred to as a "tone stack" configuration, which means that it is an integral part of the amplification circuit. I've never had any experience with this design before. With treble mid and bass all turned all the way down, there is no output even if the volume and gain knobs are cranked. The default position is mid turned all the way up and the bass and treble knobs all the way down. I've never used a tube pedal before, and it is *very* interesting the way this works when compared to solid-state pedals. The output volume of the instrument feeding the pedal, the volume knob on the pedal, the gain knob on the pedal, and the EQ settings all affect the sound. And it isn't just about distortion. The actual sound of the instrument can be changed in a way that I don't know how to describe in terms I'm used to using. You can get a lot of tube-overdrive distortion from this pedal, and I love it (it sounds like "real distortion" to me, which makes sense since it's distorting using the "proper" technique of overdriving tubes), but there's a whole world of sound alteration in this pedal that doesn't have anything to do with what I would normally associate with overdrive. You could say it truly is a preamp pedal with a lot of character, which can very powerfully shape the sound of the instrument feeding it. I give it an 8 for "ease of use," which is in my mind better than a 10, because it means that there is some subtlety and nuance in the way it's used.

I play guitar and keyboards through this pedal. One thing I was very interested to note is that, unlike with my solid-state distortion pedals, I don't have to use a noise gate on this one. I guess that's because, when the tubes aren't actually being driven by a signal, they're not making a lot of noise. The circuit is quiet, much quieter than transistor or diode pedals I own.
This pedal, like I said above, can do some pretty kooky things to the sound fed to it. I was a little disappointed to find that it's easier than I had expected it to be able to make the distortion from this pedal sound a lot like the distortion from my other pedals. Grainy and not-smooth. Maybe the solid-state pedals really *are* good at emulating tube distortion! At least at hight levels. But they are not capable of just grabbing the sound and taking it into weird territories. Actually, this pedal has made me realize that simply cranking an amp into distortion is a pretty superficial aspect of the whole "rock" sound, and that most "distortion" pedals just trade on that most superficial aspect of that sound. There is a lot to the tone shaping that happens on the way to full-blown distortion. It makes me want to explore other tube preamps and maybe tube power amps.
I have already found other pedals to get the "sounds of my favorite artists," but I can honestly say that this may be the first effect I have bought that makes me feel like I am taking ownership of my own sound. It really goes in deep, unexpected, non-superficial directions. It's the first effect I've used that makes me feel like, "Oh, I get it." It has, for want of a better word, authenticity. It's not emulating a sound, it just is exactly what it is. Which, as a musician, is what I aim to do too. As I grow musically and begin to differentiate my own musical identity from that of my influences, this pedal was just the right piece at the right time. It is a partner as I move into unexplored psychological territory.

It seems rugged as hell. I mean, the knobs themselves, when you turn them, feel so solid and smooth that they feel like some kind of military bunker equipment. In pictures, the tube guard looked a little flimsy, but it is tougher than snot. The box is this thick, solid metal. The whole package is obviously designed to last. I would have no hesitation taking this to a show. I've never actually tested it or abused it or anything, but like I say it just gives the impression of strength.

Never contacted them.

I play kind of, like, whatever you want to call it. Rock, pop, eletro-funk disco metal. This pedal is really the Sound of the Modern Era, so if you play anything remotely popular, it is bound to suit your needs. I've been playing about ten years, and gone through a wide variety of pedals from Boss, Digitech, Ibanez, etc. This is actually the first piece of tube gear I have ever bought.
This pedal is really essential to my rig now. If something happened to it, I would definitely buy another one. I also would like to check out the Mesa Boogie V1 Bottle Rocket after trying this one out, seeing as how there is apparently a lot of potential for sound out there with these types of pedals that I didn't know about.
There's really nothing wrong with this pedal. I still have this vision of the ultimate in creamy honey-glow timbre that this pedal doesn't provide, but it is way off the charts compared to what I was accustomed to in drive pedals. Not only does it easily add to my music-making, it really *is* my music making. As far as I am concerned, it belongs on every track of every song.

This thing is easy alright!
it's like setting up your amp: gain, volume en EQ.
It's a very versatile pedal, take your time to finetune the EQ's to get a wide spectrum of different overdrives.

I use my muff'n with a DeArmond Starfire special of a Fender Tele, through a Randall RG50TC, most of the time with a EH holy grail and a compressor.

The tubes sound great, and are easy to replace, but i've got the standard tubes in them now.
For 'american' overdrive i just use the disto channel on my amp.

Like said before, this is a brick.
I don't use any backup for this pedal (as it's so versatile you should have to own 3 different pedals to ack this guy up ^^), i don't think i can easily break this badass.

Haven't sent a lot of e-mails, but i've always got good replies.

I play in a postrockband, and i can really use a good muff that i can tweak so my pedalboard doesn't get too big :p
I really like EH-effects, i also own a holy grail, a wiggler, and a 16seconds digital delay.
Other effects are a line6 echopark, behringer tuner and compressor, and a dunlop wah.
Also a Boss GT8 for studiowork.

The only thing i really don't like about the English Muff'n is the power supply with the 2pin connector.
The only thing that can power my whole effectsboard is a Burkey Flatliner pro, because it has a 1000mA output, what the muff'n needs. But i had to make my own cable to connect the muff'n, and i don't like making my own stuff :p

It's a great pedal, really versatile.
Easy in use, but fun to take your time and tweak.
I would definitely buy another one if this was broken (not most likely :p) or stolen.

Easy to get a great authentic tube distortion from crunch to high gain that will mesh well with a variety of amps IF you take the time to understand the very interactive and sensitive tone controls. With a bright amp like my little fender amp, you will surely want to keep the treble on zero! The midrange carries a lot of high end with it starting around 10 oclock and it is very interactive with the bass knob. And for godsake don't neglect to try 12ax7's instead of the stock ay7's!

I first want to give a big thumbs up to Electro Harmonix for their modesty. Although I liked it immediately I was fully prepared to open it up and find that this was yet another low voltage diode and op-amp assisted tube-fraud. Boy was I wrong! This is a full blown tube preamp running on HIGH VOLTAGE (280 Volts) which is accomplished with a large torroidal transformer inside. EHX strangely does not bother to mention this HUGE selling point. I have read ignorant complaints about this pedal being unnecessarily large. The pedal couldn't possibly have been made any smaller to contain a complete high voltage tube preamp complete with beefy power supply caps.

I gave this pedal a very difficult job and it came through with flying colors. For fun I recently bought a cute little Fender Champion 600 which has a fantastic chimey clean tone but is absolutely incapable of generating crunchy type distortion. Pedals that normally send my vintage marshall into distortion bliss like my old DOD 250 and vintage MXR distortion II could not put a dent in it. So I wanted a distortion box that could generate a fully cooked natural tube distortion and deliver it to the front door.

I was not trying to turn a 5w tube amp with a 6 inch speaker into a marshall. Instead, I wanted a pedal flexible enough to blend in with the personality of my amp and this pedal does just that. I get great old Zeppelin approved tones with this pedal and there is enough gain for fairly saturated soloing as well. The tone controls are so active that I thought for sure they were active meaning powered, thus I erroneosly assumed there might be an op-amp powered eq section inside ala ADA MP-1 etc. But amazingly they are passive.

For perspective I also tried it into my tweaked-to-perfection early 70s spec Marshall 50w half stack. I normally get my tone on that amp by overdriving it hard with a vintage DOD FET preamp pedal (a very simple pedal with only 5 parts inside). I could not get quite the same clarity to my guitar tone nor the attack but I got a fully respectible high gain marshall tone. This is no fault to a deficient design just that a full preamp with a complete tone section going into a another amp with another tone section could not compete with the purity of my FET boost straight in. That doesn't mean I could not easily great 80's modded marshall metal tones because I did! It was a bit noisy but two cranked tube preamps stacked together what do you expect? (You should be very suspicious of ANY high gain tube distortion pedal that ISN'T noisy).

So, I think the best use for this pedal is probably for non-master volume type amps that cannot generate much if any distortion on their own.

Now some tips. I swapped a higher gain 12ax7 in the first position which brought me more clarity to my guitar tone and better dynamics. Then I swapped the other one and got more of the same. I think it sounds MUCH better with 12ax7's and to my ear lower gain tubes just crap down the sound making it less responsive and sort of honky. There is also some bizzare interaction with the voicing of the treble knob and a fender amp. With a Blues Junior and my little Champion, the treble knob adds in heinous buzzy "kazoo" like texture that completely overpowers then entire tone. Into my Marshall this was way less noticable but even then anything beyond 11 oclock was ugly. Thus I keep the treble on zero and the very interesting midrange carries enough high end starting around 10 oclock so all is well. Like all pedals I'm sure this one will not provide stellar results with every amp and guitar out there.

I know the folded sheet metal box annoys some but I think I think its fine. A steel box this size could have added a LOT to the price too. Oh, I forgot to mention it is indeed true by pass by using a TPTT switch and confirmed with my own very descriminating pair of ears.

As of this writing I am still waiting for an e-mail response to a question after several days. It was a tech question involving modding the tone stack that migh require some head scratching so I we'll see.

I actually find the slight crudeness somehow reassuring because it gives a human element with personality. I like the looks and vibe of this thing. EHX's 70's mad scientist stoner image gets on my good side. I will probably wind up tinkering the tone section slightly, revoicing the rather savage treble pot in particular. I think this is amazingly innexpensive considering that it is a high voltage all tube preamp not to mention MADE IN THE USA for which yours truly will always happily pay more for.

I'm in my 40's and have been playing a long time. I'm usually pretty hard to please and have no tolerance for cheesy sounding gear. Most other tube distortion pedals just can't resist the temptation to blow a good idea and you get a pedal using a tube as little more than a pilot light. Not this one!

5 knobs..

this is a response to the "Roger" review below...,

A. He didn't say what type of amp he was playing it out of. (i'm using a PRS Swamp Ash Special into a bunch of stuff, the muff'n tubed with 12ax7's, a bunch of delays, into a fender "twin" with a thd hot plate)

B. He didn't try to retube the pedal which literally turns it in to a different pedal (sound wise).

C. Unfortunately some people don't have the finances to go out and buy a Marshall tube amp/ arsenal of amps.

D. He seems like a "overdriven tube amp, SNOB."

The right pedal in front of a decent tube amp will give you a great sound, and I guarantee you most people in the audience wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Unless you have all kinds of money to buy a bunch of different amps, a tube amp ran clean with decent od/distorion pedals (fulltone, barber, EH, Zvex, etc...) in front will more than get the job done, I don't care what you "tube amp od snobs" say.

and the English Muff'n does get the marshall sound with 12ax7's!!!!!!

great

great

GO BUY IT AND TRY IT!!!!, ignore the haters below.