Electro Harmonix Russian Big Muff

The Russian Big Muff is a family of Big Muff Pi fuzz pedals that Electro-Harmonix built in Russia from the early 1990s until 2009. Electro-Harmonix lists the final version, the black box Big Muff Pi (Russian), as a Fuzz / Distortion / Sustainer, discontinued in 2009, with independent volume, tone and sustain controls, true bypass, and a 9 volt battery included¹. Along the way the line ran through several distinct versions: the Sovtek Red Army Overdrive, the blue and gray "Civil War" model, the green Russian, and the black Russian in both large and small boxes²³.

Electro-Harmonix describes the Russian Muff as "a pinch smoother than its American-made comrade," with slightly less sustain but the same recognizable Big Muff sound¹. Reviewers and historians broadly agree: Delicious Audio's buying guide characterizes the Russian Muffs as smoother and lower gain than earlier Muffs, with a huge low end⁴.

Why Big Muffs were made in Russia

After Electro-Harmonix went bankrupt, Mike Matthews was no longer able to pay a US workforce to build pedals at a competitive rate, so he took production to Russia in the early 1990s and used ex-Soviet factories to build his classic fuzz effects⁸. He founded Sovtek, a name combining the words Soviet and technology (tekhnologiya), contracting production to the ExpoPul factory in Saratov, Russia⁹⁵. In the early 1990s Matthews worked out a manufacturing agreement with an ex-Soviet manufacturing company in St. Petersburg, and the Russian Big Muffs were born¹⁰. Sovtek, the Russian company that owned Electro-Harmonix at the time, first made amps popular with vintage Marshall lovers before releasing the Red Army Overdrive in 1991¹¹⁹.

The Sovtek Red Army Overdrive

The Red Army Overdrive is technically the first Russian-made Big Muff, though it was not marketed as a Big Muff at the time because Mike Matthews had yet to reacquire the Electro-Harmonix name after bankruptcy¹². Josh Scott of JHS Pedals is blunt about it:

JHS dates it to 1991 and calls it the very first Sovtek pedal, "the very first modern Electro-Harmonix pedal, a kind of 'post-bankruptcy/new wave' Electro-Harmonix"¹³. Kit Rae's timeline places the first Russian-made Big Muff circuit, released by Mike Matthews/Sovtek, in 1990¹⁴, and Derek See at Stompbox Book notes the Red Army Overdrive was built in small numbers in 1991-92 and "was nothing short of a Big Muff with a different name"².

The knobs read volume, tone, and distortion¹³. The first edition, circa 1990, had black hockey puck knobs, a green box bottom, and three large 430pF capacitors in the circuit¹². The second edition had gray knobs, a gray box bottom, slightly different graphics, and the 430pF caps replaced with two identical 1nF square flag caps in each of the three positions¹².

On tone, Kit Rae describes the first edition as sounding very close to the later Civil War Russian Big Muffs, with almost identical circuit component values¹², and characterizes it as a mix between the V1 and V3 Big Muffs with a fatter bottom end, brighter and less scooped mids, and less gain¹². Premier Guitar's review of the JHS Crimson calls the Red Army Overdrive "a Big Muff in everything but name," noting small differences between some component values in it and the Civil War that followed, but with the circuit and sounds as near twins¹⁵. The second edition, by contrast, sounds similar to the grittier green Russians that came later, with a very dark sound, thunderous lows, and a smooth, clear tone¹².

The Civil War Big Muffs

The Civil War is the blue and gray Russian-made Big Muff Pi Version 7, built in St. Petersburg¹⁴⁵. Kit Rae dates the green and gray Version 7 to circa 1992-1993⁵, while anasounds places the Civil War version a year after the 1991 Red Army Overdrive, and Stomp Under Foot says it was released around 1993 as the second evolution of the Russian muff⁹¹⁶. Kit Rae's timeline gives 1990 or 1991 for the V7 as a rebranded Red Army Overdrive¹⁴. The nickname comes from the blue and gray colors of the two sides of the American Civil War, light blue for the Union uniform and gray for the Confederate uniform¹⁴⁹¹⁷.

The Civil War circuit is based on Bob Myer's original Big Muff design, with no true bypass and 9V battery power only⁵. Wren and Cuff describes it as very closely related to the Tall Font Big Muffs, with "a bit darker and a bit fuzzier tone," less output than most other Muffs, and a character "cherished for their woody sustain and presence"¹⁸. Kit Rae's take on the V7 sound is a mix between the V1 and V3 Muffs with a fatter bottom end, brighter and less scooped mids, and less gain⁵; the V7A, circa 1993-1994, was very dark and bassy with a smooth, clear midrange and a musical clarity that stands out in a live band mix slightly better than most USA-made Big Muffs⁵.

Premier Guitar's review of the Wren and Cuff Box of War, a Civil War clone, sums up the reputation:

To most fans of the breed, the reviewer writes, the Civil War, named for its blue-and-silver color scheme and 19th century fontstyle graphics, "is the king of them all"¹⁹. That reputation benefited from its association with David Gilmour, who used an early Sovtek Big Muff to power his leads on Pink Floyd's '94 tour and the Pulse DVD¹⁹²⁰. Kit Rae points to Pink Floyd's Pulse live album for examples of lead tones using this pedal¹². The reviewer found the Civil War tone unites "silky smooth harmonic content and super-rude crunch," with cello-like, singing musicality and sustain for lead players¹⁹.

The versions within the Civil War era:

The V7B is a very rare transition model to the Tall Font Green Russian graphics, with the same circuit as the other Civil War versions and the Tall Font that followed⁵. Later Russian-built Big Muffs were green and, later still, black, but the original blue and gray ones are the most sought-after versions⁸.

The Black Russian: large box versus small box

Electro-Harmonix switched to a new, more resistant black paint in 1998⁹. The Black Russian was the last version made in Russia before production relocated to the USA, and it is currently the last version considered a collector's pedal⁹.

The large box V7D used a folded sheet metal box, all black with yellow graphics, black dimple top or chicken head knobs, six outer screws, and a metal battery door¹²⁷. Its tone is the same as the last V7C Bubble Font Green Russian Big Muff Pi, just a different box color and graphics⁷¹². The small box V8 kept the same footprint, used chicken head knobs and small footswitches imported from the USA, and shipped first in a wood crate, then a corrugated cardboard box to reduce cost¹²⁷. The smaller box and fewer screws were an attempt to keep the cost down⁷.

On paper the circuits are close, but they do not sound identical. Kit Rae found the small box V8 nearly identical in tone to the V7C Bubble Font and V7D Black Russian, but with slightly less clarity and slightly less bottom end on the examples he has played⁷¹². Anasounds reports that the Green and Black Russian circuits are supposed to be identical, but their tests found important nuances, with the Black Russian more massive and with more bass, ideal for bass and formidable on very low tuned guitars⁹. Chris Wolstenholme of Muse used a Black Russian⁹. Delicious Audio's builders guessed the Black Russians were built a little cheaper, with lower-tolerance components producing a highly variable sound from unit to unit⁶.

The V8 was discontinued in 2009, when the manufacturing costs the St. Petersburg factory charged New Sensor eventually outweighed the demand⁷. It was the last Big Muff ever made in Russia⁷. Kit Rae notes the V11 Bass Big Muff sounds very similar and was intended as its replacement¹².

Build quality, controls and mods

The Russian Muffs have a mixed reputation for reliability. Analogman states plainly that "these pedals sound great but are built poorly, with parts that can't easily be replaced and break easily"³, and offers a true bypass mod using a relay controlled by the stock switch³. Wren and Cuff calls the Civil War a rare, much-loved, but cheaply made Big Muff¹⁸. The large Russian-made footswitches on the older large box versions are no longer available²¹.

The controls are the classic three-knob Big Muff set. Russian-made Big Muffs used Russian-made pots, usually 100k linear taper, often with a logarithmic volume pot, and EHX also used 150k pots at times²¹. The tone control pans between a high-cutting section and a low-cutting section: turned down it sounds very bassy, turned up it cuts the bass and gets very bright²².

The midrange scoop is the circuit's best-known trait. The tone stack is a passive circuit of just 5 components, two RC filters (a high pass and a low pass) mixed by the tone potentiometer, and it scoops the mids²³²⁴. On a stock Big Muff, both filters still affect the midrange with the knob at 12, producing the signature scoop²⁵. Brian Wampler, writing in Premier Guitar, notes a common complaint: "the stock big muff tone control takes out too much of the mids. In a band situation this can make the guitar tones seem to disappear a bit"²². Gearnews makes the same point about the originals, heavy on bass and squashing the mids²⁶, and Premier Guitar's Box of War review warns that any Russian-style Muff risks trading girth and growl for presence in a mix¹⁹.

Wampler's article covers mods for the black box Russian version specifically²², including a mids-restoring mod that replaces the tone stack with a traditional high-cut control and adds a 20k potentiometer in place of R18 for separate bass and treble controls²². The parts list calls for C1: 1uf, R8: 22k, R13: 22k, removing R19 completely, a 20k pot in place of R18, C12: .01uf, R22: 1M and C9: 1uf²². He describes the result as "nice, big and full, something closer to a Queens of the Stone Age type of tone"²², and notes the same modifications can be done to any Big Muff-style pedal by cross-referencing schematics²². Coda Effects documents the same territory from the DIY side: the Civil War, Tall Font and Bubble Font tonestacks all share R5: 22k, R8: 20k, C8: 0.01uF and C9: 0.0039uF (796 / 1855 Hz), and lists flat-mids and mids-bump component values for builders who want to reshape the scoop²³.

The V8 circuit was a favorite for modders because it was very easy to change components for customizing tone and gain⁷. Guitar.com's buying guide adds that swapping clipping diodes is a common modification, with red LEDs giving an open, less compressed sound and germanium diodes a squishier, more compressed one²⁵.

Players and clones

Original Russian Muffs made before about 1999 are highly sought after and expensive²⁷. Documented players include David Gilmour with the Civil War model on Pink Floyd's '94 tour and Pulse²⁰, and Chris Wolstenholme of Muse with a Black Russian⁹. A Premier Guitar reviewer who bought a Sovtek Big Muff more than two decades ago still calls it, hands-down, a favorite among many fuzzes acquired since²⁸. The original sold with its own wooden box for 59 dollars²⁸.

The circuit has been widely cloned. Kit Rae lists Civil War clones including the Stomp Under Foot CWM / Civil War Fuzz, Blackout Effectors Musket, Montgomery Appliances Civil War Fuzz and Wren & Cuff Box of War⁵, and green/black Russian clones including the EHX Bass Big Muff, Stomp Under Foot GRM Fuzz, Blackout Effectors Musket, Earthquaker Devices Hoof and Absolutely Analog Green Russian⁷. Electro-Harmonix itself currently offers a Green Russian reissue, once again in large or small enclosures², covered on the Green Russian Big Muff Pi page, and the Sovtek Deluxe Big Muff Pi carries the name forward. For the wider family, see fuzz pedals.

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