VICK AUDIO
73 RAM’S HEAD
REVIEW BY YOEL KREISLER
STREET PRICE $129.00
I think by now it’s fairly
clear, I love my Big Muffs.
I find myself sometimes
awake at night, dreaming
up the perfect vintage Big
Muff to satisfy all my hairy
desires. Usually looking
up prices of Ram’s Head
knocks me out of my starryeyed stupor and right back
down to reality, where
purchasing one of these
models would result in me
draining over half my bank
account. Thankfully, there
are builders out there for us,
the everymen (and women),
who made it their life’s
work to provide us with
these sounds at incredibly
reasonable prices. One
of these unsung heroes is
66
GEAR REVIEW
//
Michael Vickery, of Vick
Audio in Gilbert, AZ (right in
my backyard, more or less).
I reviewed his excellent V-2
a couple of months ago, and
after one of my late night
searches for a vintage Muff
fix, I came across his version
of my favorite Big Muff,
the 1973 Ram’s Head. This
pedal is tight, burly, and just
the right amount of nasty
for singing sustain, violinlike throat, and incredible
clarity.
While the price of admission
alone makes this pedal
worth the time, I would like
to go in to detail as to what
this pedal can do. It’s got
classic Volume, Tone and
Sustain controls, however
Vick Audio 73 Ram’s Head
with a bit of added flexibility
that puts this pedal above
the average clone. It
features a three-way tone
switch to alter the mids of
the Muff. The first mode
gives the mids a boost to
help further cut through in a
band mix (this was and still
is a notorious problem with
many Big Muffs), a stock
mid-scooped mode, and a
flat mids mode. This adds
a whole lot of value and
versatility to this Big Muff,
which again puts it above a
lot of Muffs I have tried.
Plugging into my trusty
Strat, that clear and crispy
Big Muff tone that I love so
much was right there. The
tone circuit has a nice wide