Buffalo FX Patriot MkII

The Buffalo FX Patriot MkII is a fuzz pedal from the French boutique maker Buffalo FX, first announced in February 2019. It is an update to the original Patriot, and its circuit is based on the extremely rare Civil War Muff, the version of the Big Muff that David Gilmour used on Pink Floyd's Pulse live album¹²³. Buffalo FX designed it to replicate the sought-after Gilmour Pulse tone, and with the MkII the maker took that goal a little further by adding controls to cut the low end and boost the midrange¹.

Guitar World's coverage pitched the updated fuzz unit as offering "David Gilmour-like" tones², and Bjorn Riis of the Gilmourish fan site, quoted in the announcement coverage, went further:

The controls

The Patriot MkII carries the familiar Big Muff control set plus two shaping controls that set the MkII apart from the original Patriot. The announcement lists Drive, Level, Tone, Bass Cut and Mid Boost controls¹, while Guitar World describes the same knobs as Sustain, Level, Tone, Mids and Lows². The two accounts describe the same panel in different words: the drive/sustain knob sets the fuzz amount, level sets the output volume, and tone rolls between darker and brighter.

The two extra controls are the point of the MkII. They let you cut the low end and boost the midrange without affecting the original tone, which matters because a stock Big Muff circuit can sound huge on its own but disappear in a band mix, where its scooped mids leave the guitar fighting to be heard¹.

The pedal uses Russian NOS clipping diodes, the same type of new-old-stock parts that give vintage-inspired fuzz its character, and its component suppliers include MMK, Wima, Epcos, Vishay and Panasonic¹²⁴. Power and signal jacks are top-mounted rather than on the sides, which gearnews.com noted makes it well suited for use on a pedalboard, where side jacks eat horizontal space²⁴.

History: from the original Patriot to the MkII

The MkII is an update to the original Patriot, Buffalo FX's muff-circuit fuzz¹². Buffalo FX had been building vintage-circuit fuzz before it: Vintage Guitar reported in 2012 that the French maker was releasing its take on the classic Tonebender MkII circuit alongside a revised version of its original Buffalo Fuzz⁵.

The Civil War Muff itself has a short but storied history. According to Anaconda Sound's Big Muff history, Electro-Harmonix released the Red Army Overdrive in 1991, and it became the Civil War version of the Muff a year later, in 1992⁶. The nickname came from the pedal's two colors: light blue for the Union uniform and gray for the Confederate uniform of the American Civil War⁶. Gearnews made the same point, describing a blue and gray paint job that reminds players of the colors worn by the North and South during the war⁷.

What the Patriot line is built around is a specific recorded tone. The maker describes the MkII as designed to replicate the sought after Gilmour Pulse tone, with the MkII taking it further¹. The original Patriot reproduced the muff circuit, and the MkII refines it with the bass cut and mid boost controls¹².

The Big Muff family has spawned many variants over the years, from the Black Arts Pharaoh and LSTR to the Blackout Effectors Musket, Frantone Sweet and Mojo Hand Iron Bell⁸, and the Patriot MkII sits in that tradition: a boutique builder's recreation of one specific, rare version of the circuit, aimed squarely at players chasing the Pulse lead tone.

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