Electro-Harmonix English Muff'n

This pedal is so easy to use. Volume, gain, treble, middle, bass. No mystery there.

Since I bought this pedal I've used it at every gig. I've been playing Carvins with Carvin humbuckers and singles, Schecters with both Bill Lawrence singles and JB humbuckers, Carvin with JB Junior and a few others into Marshall DSL 401, Carvin SX300C and a Fuchs OD modded Twin. I just set the tone controls to be pretty neutral and use the volume and gain knobs to set the type of sound and just leave the sucker on. I was really happy with the sound of the Carvin amp, which is solid state, using this pedal in front. My wife attended both the show before and the last one and she prefers the tone of the Fuchs (well, who wouldn't????) and so do I, but even the SS amp sounded really good with this pedal. I've tried a lot of pedals and the only other one that I ever just left on was a Fulltone Fulldrive 2, but that one colors the sound and the Muff does not...pretty damn cool.
I always play live and I don't notice any excessive noise from this unit. I've been using it by itself, just guitar/EM/amp - I leave my pedalboard at home. I don't know exactly how it responds to other pedals, although I did try to run an MI Audio Tube Zone into it as well as a Fulltone Distortion Pro, but running from them into the Muff was when the noise came out. I may experiment if I get the notion, try it with the EM in front of all the other stuff. Right now I'm just digging the way it kicks my amps into the territory of almost falling off the edge without changing the basic tone of the amp. This is what I've been looking for and spending so much freaking money on trying to find.

It hasn't given me any trouble yet and I've played 6 gigs with it, indoor and outdoor. I swapped tubes (JJ's, Nationals, GT's) around in it just to check it out and found that I like the EH AY7's that come in it the best. Maybe I need to get a few more just in case.

No experience with them.

I play 60's 70's and 80's rock and blues...from the Beach Boys to AC/DC and Zeppelin and all points in between. I've been playing for 40 years and have owned lots and lots of amps/guitars/pedals, etc etc etc. I've sold all my Les Pauls, 2 Dr Z amps, Boogies (MKIV and MKIII) and traded away my Marshalls (although I should be getting the JMP 50 back soon...). I mainly play the Fuchs through a closed back 2x12 with Celestion Black Shadow's from my MKIV cabinets since I've been playing outdoor gigs a lot lately. I still own Fulltone Fulldrive2, Distortion Pro, Soulbender, Fat Boost, MI Audio Tube Zone, Tonebone Classic Distortion, Tech21 Comptortion, and a bunch of other wah, vibe, chorus and delay pedals...(as well as bunches of rack preamps, poweramps, effects)...This pedal was a very pleasant surprise. I love the neutrality and the ease of using it to just give a big bunch of balls to my tone without altering it. Highly recommended!!!

Press the damn button has Overall volume knob, Gain knob,
Hi, Mid, Low tone controls! Easy, breezy, no probleezy.

There's a bit of shock in my tone on this review.
My buddies and I just finished a OD pedal contest, anything
and everything went head to head, mods, boutiques, MT-2.

This pedal comes alive, with the tubes, in overall signal boost and power! It's the best damn pedal I've ever heard. At least for my
sound, Heavy Classic Rock. I'm very, very surprised it doesn't have a bigger/better name out there. Maybe the tubes break in a year? Haven't had it that long. It's insane. Playing it through a Gibson Goldtone with a Les Paul standard so far. Cannot WAIT to plug it into my old '72 Twin. There's some anger, some bite your face in this pedal.

I gave it a nine because I HAVE to get that noise suppressor on. There's a little hum in it. The Goldtone is so pure that it is a little annoying in that regard, but plugged into a more powerful live amp, it won't be as noticeable. PLEASE get one and PLEASE put it head to head against most pedals.

Here's the list of pedals it beat in our little contest:

Maxon OD808 Keeley mod
TS9 Keeley mod
MT-2
Xotic AC Booster
Orignal TS9
Fulltone OD
ProCo Ratt (sucks)

Haven't played long enough to comment on this.

No problems yet

I've heard more numbnuts pumping up crap pedals, trusted their input
bought everything under the sun, tested them all out and this pedal hands down is what a guitarist needs.

I have been playing for 17 years and have heard some great stuff and heard mostly crap. This pedal is powerful, tubey sounding, has great NATURAL range (unlike Boss, ProCo, the rest), and will out boost any pedal you can find.

Please let me know why it isn't more popular. The "English" thing, guitarist thinking it will sound like a Brit amp? It doesn't.

the ease of use can be a bit hard to describe becuz although it is easy to turn knobs, it can be hard to find the eright sound with this thing. so ease of use is 5 because i had a pretty hardtime to make it sound good (which was only about halfway decent)

i used this pedal with my billy martin prs, into my peavey triple x half stacked. honostly, this pedal isn't anything terribly new. it is kind of old because it sounds exactly like a big muff. this thing is basically a big muff with a different paint job. why not just buy the muff?

turns on everytime

i called to tell them that i didn't fall for it, and that i knew it was just a big muff in a different case, but they didn't seem to be very friendly about it. i don't get this. they tried to tell me mumbo jumbo about tubes and stuff, but i kept saying "very funny, i know its just a big muff." i even pointed out that the name had muff in it. not very cleaver. i guess they wetre friendly, but they were getting a bit snappy at me.

for my style of hard rock/nu metal/emo (i'm in like, 4 bands) this pedal works fine, but i wish i didn't buy it just because i already have a big muff and thats what it sounds like exactly. oh well. i dont think i would be buying a new one if it broke, got stolen, left behind "on accidnet" at a gig (i play a lot).

Pretty straight-forward : Gain, Vol, EQ. The manual was a 1 page sheet of papaer which is more than enough info to operate this pre-amp.

I play a fender tele>budda wah>English Muffn> whatever amp im around at the time. My rig changes so i can't give a good review for tone freaks but I love it consistently no matter where im playing it. Nothing I've ever played beats it for rhythm I play it w/ the tone a lil dark.

It is a muff so sometimes i wish i had some of the squeal of my old RAT but with some tweaking my tele has delivered great tones ranging from jimmy page, hendrix, graham coxon, to even a lil smashing pumpkins.

I didn't buy this pedal to imitate other players tho and i like that it leaves some room to experiment.If you're daring there are some cool grungey/alt rock sweet spots on this pedal that give u a real unique tone.--

It gets a 10 even tho in a perfect world it would have 2 gain stages to cut through for solos.

I've never had problems w/ it. It runs off a 12 V adapter which is very reliable. I haven't gigged with it yet so who knows really.

Haven't needed to phone em--

The English Muffn is great. Lesser forms of distortion melt in its presence so hide away your old pedals. I recommend it for anybody who wants a cool, powerful, musically overdrive.

I use it for a lot of funky/grunge/hard rock kinda stuff and I love it. Its got a great range and I'd recommend it for anything from classic rock to brit pop.

I wish it had some way to cut through and change settings for a solo but that might make it too perfect. A lil pricey but worth it.

Real straightforward, very easy to use

This thing stands head and shoulder above all the overdrives I've tried before. I'm not an overdrive pedal guy: I've tried tube screamers, Maxon D&S IIs, Maxon Distortion Masters, Maxon OD820s, MJM's London Fuzz...they all have their place and can be made to sound good but this English Muff'n sounded the best and lent the most plexi like complex drive of the lot. Plus it has true bypass which is a must. You can drive a clean amp very hard and not lose clarity...it is a great pedal. I'm sure there are other very good OD pedals and I've just not tried them but I can say that if you're into old school overdrive this is a great choice.

So far so good, a bunch of practices and a couple gigs (i'm a weekend warrior) but only time will tell

No need to contact them? I dunno