That's A Muff Outta Ewe! Ram's Head Clone Build

If you've read enough of my previous entries you'll know sometimes I'm a ball of contradiction. I'll say I don't like fuzz pedals, while talking about how much I like a fuzz circuit I've just built. I don't know what it is. Maybe I'm still growing up, and appreciating fuzz for what it is. Today's entry is about my latest build, a Ram's Head Big Muff clone. In the past I've built a few BMP tone circuits, because they're low component, very simple to build and are quite good at shifting tone. That's probably why people tend to like them. That being said, I never thought I would actually find myself building a Muff clone. What actually started this was probably when I built the Rotten Apple clone. I liked it, but my build wasn't Muff enough.

I did build the Muff Fuzzes, but they're a completely different creature from the actual Big Muff circuit. I resisted long enough and felt it was finally time to relent and build a Big Muff clone. While researching which version I wanted to build I noticed the Big Muff circuit has changed quite a few times. The Ram's head seemed to be the most interesting variants to me. I don't fully know why it's called a Ram's head, as the face on the enclosure looks more like a hippie version of the Gerber baby to me, but what do I know? All it took was finding out the Ram's head was David Gilmour's secret weapon. I figured that's enough for me to want one at my disposal.

I checked the layout website's and settled on Dirtbox Layout's V2 Big Muff Ram's Head '74. Almost all of the Muff layouts look the same, with a few small changes here and there. The only part I didn't have were the transistors, so I did some research for suitable replacements. After a little while I found one person suggesting 2N3904s so I used those. Does mine sound like a Big Muff Ram's head? *shrug* To me it sounds similar to a Big Muff. I'm sure to the ears of someone who has played hundreds of Big Muffs it may not sound anything like one. That's just how things work. Some people say no two Big Muffs sound alike, so maybe mine isn't far off. Regardless I built it, I like it and I'm sure I'll be able to do something with it, which is really all I want from the pedal circuits I build.

This won't be the last fuzz circuit I build this year. I've got one more planned and I'm hoping it turns out as well as the demos of the circuit sound. I've wanted to build a clone of this circuit for a while now, but it's notoriously difficult to get right. Hopefully this one turns out alright. I may even build another Muff clone. Who knows. With this year's kits I will need to find two more circuit to build so that I can end the year with 150 total circuit builds since I started in 2020. I've built so many clone circuits, and eventually came around to build clone circuits that I never thought I ever would that I'm running out of circuits to choose from. While the pedal market is vast, the topology isn't as deep as one would be led to believe. I'll just have to dig deep in the layouts and see what appeals to me to finish up the 150th build.