Ah, the EHX Big Muff: four transistors,
countless circuit re-designs, and depending
on the era, either fantastic or unbelievably
shoddy build quality. Not unlike Pokémon,
many guitarists feel that with the various
Big Muff variants, well, “you gotta catch
‘em all.” Lucky for you, Missouri-based
JHS Pedals just jammed five of the EHX
variants and one new variant of its own
into a single pedal. The JHS Muffuletta is
named after an over-stuffed sandwich—
fitting, since it crams six huge—you might
even say overstuffed—fuzz pedals into
one enclosure and provides a handy rotary
dial for selecting between them. You get
the scooped and darker tone of the Ram’s
Head Big Muff, the better articulation and
note attack of the Triangle Big Muff, the
extra raunch of the Pi, the reduced low-end
of the Russian, the brighter and less gainy
Civil War, and finally, the less compressed
and more mid-focused JHS 2015. Six muffs,
one box. If that’s not a game changer, I
don’t what is.
So there you have it, the 2015 effects
year in review. We had new ideas from
longtime players, collaborations
between the mainstream and the
indie kids, and new innovations on
classic circuits.
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TONE TALK //
8 Ways the Pedal Game Changed in 2015