Wren and Cuff Garbage Face

The Wren and Cuff Garbage Face is a J Mascis signature fuzz pedal released in 2020, built as two effects in one enclosure: a part-by-part recreation of the Dinosaur Jr guitarist's number one Big Muff, an early 1970s Electro-Harmonix Ram's Head Big Muff Pi he has used since 1987, and a vintage germanium transistor treble boost in the Rangemaster style that he uses to slam the input of the Muff¹²³⁴.

The pedal came out of a collaboration between Mascis and Wren and Cuff's Matthew Holl that took more than two years, because the original it copies is not a standard Ram's Head. Wren and Cuff describes J's pedal as an odd 70's EHX Ram's Head with incorrect and drifted parts values, and the recreation process was, in Pedal of the Day's words, "a painstaking, tedious and arduous task, one which took almost TWO YEARS to come to fruition"¹²⁵.

A Ram's Head Muff with a treble booster

The fuzz side is the recreation of J's favorite Big Muff, an early 70's Ram's Head version that has been his main fuzz since he bought it on tour in 1987²⁹. The Ram's Head Big Muffs appeared in '73 with red, blue, purple or black graphics, including the ram's head in the bottom-right corner, and Mascis collects several of those colors himself. What makes the Garbage Face distinct from a general Ram's Head clone is that it copies one specific, well-worn unit rather than an idealized circuit: Wren and Cuff calls it "not just any 70's EHX Ram's Head" but a recreation of a pedal with drifted parts values¹¹⁰.

The other side of the pedal is a replication of J's favorite germanium treble booster, the Rangemaster-style boost he uses to hit the front end of his Muff. Pedal of the Day found that "this boost not only increases the highs, but adds a wonderful mid-range bump as well" when driving the fuzz⁵. A toggle switch lets you set the boost full-range or treble-focused¹¹³.

The controls and footswitches

The Garbage Face has five knobs, a voicing switch for the booster, and three footswitches: one for the fuzz, one for the treble booster, and a middle one that switches between two Muff volume outputs¹¹³. Guitar Pedal X lists the full control set³:

The second volume setup is the pedal's signature trick. As Wren and Cuff puts it, you get "a second volume knob with a footswitch to let you bounce between two Muff volume outputs," so you can jump between loud and quiet fuzz settings without bending down mid-song¹.

The circuit and the Jr version

Following the Garbage Face's release, players asked for a stripped-down three-knob version of just the distortion side, and in May 2022 Wren and Cuff released the Garbage Face Jr: the same recreation of J's early 70's Ram's Head, in a small pedalboard-friendly enclosure with only Volume, Gain and Tone controls, and no booster⁷⁹. Delicious Audio describes the Jr as "1/2 of the original Garbage Face," with artwork by Thom Lessner that captures J's love of bold colors and playful imagery⁷⁹.

For comparison, Electro-Harmonix also makes its own J Mascis Ram's Head Big Muff Pi, and Guitar.com's reviewer noted that the EHX pedal "remains a much cheaper option than even the compact 'Jr' version of the Garbage Face"¹².

What reviewers said

Premier Guitar reviewed the Garbage Face and summed up its sound as "Rich, complex, and searing Ram's Head-style tones," also noting "a perceptible sense of space, air, and headroom in the Garbage Face's output" that gives individual notes room to bloom⁸. Pedal of the Day was similarly positive, writing "We are pretty floored by what Matt & Wren and Cuff were able to create here (with J's assistance, of course)"⁵. In Delicious Audio's reader poll of the best guitar pedals of 2020, the Garbage Face finished in 26th position with one point¹³².

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