J Mascis

J Mascis is the guitarist, primary songwriter and, after the band's first album, lead vocalist of Dinosaur Jr. Born in Massachusetts and now living in Amherst, he played drums in his first hardcore band, Deep Wound, formed in 1982, and has also played in J Mascis + The Fog, Witch and Sweet Apple¹². For a player whose career stretches back to the mid 1980s, one piece of gear sits at the center of everything: the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff. His trademark live electric guitar sound has always been a Big Muff, and he has said it plainly himself:

He started with pedals as soon as he started playing the guitar, he told Lee Ranaldo in an interview for Stompbox Book, "because I was trying to recreate some of the dynamics of the drums"⁴. That drumming instinct shows up in how he uses gain: stacking fuzzes, pushing overdrives in front of Muffs, and setting treble boosters upstream of his Ram's Head to get contrast between rhythm and lead parts live⁵.

The Big Muff at the center of the Dinosaur Jr sound

Mascis's first Muff was one of the larger, Howard Davis-designed Deluxe units from the late 1970s, and that Deluxe Big Muff is what you hear on the first two Dinosaur albums. It was stolen one night, and he moved on⁶¹. Kit Rae's Big Muff history records the Deluxe Big Muff Pi as used by Mascis on the debut album by Dinosaur Jr, released in 1985, where the thick distortion it yielded was as much a part of his signature sound as anything else¹⁰⁶. He later transitioned to vintage version 1 and version 2 Big Muffs, often using one particular favorite Ram's Head, and that pedal became the backbone of Dinosaur Jr's live sound¹¹.

The Ram's Head story has a specific beginning. On the first tour of the States, in Arizona in 1987, he found the Ram's Head Big Muff that he still used at the time of Kit Rae's 2011 interview, and it remained his main Big Muff from then on, in the studio and on tour¹. At that interview the pedal was well worn, with tape residue, a #2 sticker, and replacement knobs and pots¹. A shop he found on tour, Guitar Maniacs in Tacoma, Washington, sold him a blue Ram's Head next, then a purple one, and that was the start of the collection¹.

Guitar World's review of his signature pedal puts his use of the Ram's Head in context: he uses the Big Muff, specifically the 1970s Ram's Head version, as the basis for all of his drive sounds, sometimes solo, but often stacking it with other gain providers¹². Premier Guitar's reviewer noted that Mascis leaned heavily on the Ram's Head to lend mass to the folk-rock underpinnings behind many Dinosaur Jr tunes⁵. Kit Rae's history of the version 2 Ram's Head points players straight to Dinosaur Jr for examples of the raw lead tone and wall-of-sound use of that pedal¹³.

Fuzz pedals and vintage Big Muffs over the years

The Ram's Head is the constant, but it has never been the only fuzz on the board. Over the years his fuzz choices have included:

• Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi, his trademark sound since 1984³
• Univox Super Fuzz, a vintage favorite he both uses and collects¹
• Jerms MK1.5 and MK2 Tone Bender, part of a fuzz arsenal MusicRadar cataloged¹⁴
• Lovetone Big Cheese, used on Farm and listed among his fuzzes of choice¹¹⁴
• Analog Man Sun Lion, a Rangemaster and Sun Face fuzz combo he got in 2007 and toured with through late 2008¹⁵¹
• Roland BeeBaa Fuzz, another Farm-era pedal¹
• Z.Vex Double Rock, a custom two-in-one Box of Rocks he requested from Z.Vex, of whose distortion pedals he has long been a fan¹⁶
• Dr. Scientist Frazz Dazzler, on the 2010 to 2011 boards, combined with an overdrive¹

His stacking habit is his own description: "I was using the Tonebender on most tracks, then adding different fuzzes with it, sometimes three, usually just two"⁹. On the album Farm he ran the Super Fuzz, Roland BeeBaa, Analog Man Sun Lion and Lovetone Big Cheese into a Vox Super Berkeley or a tweed Fender Deluxe¹. The Stompbox Book feature on his collection names more: a Big Cheese and Meatball, Creepy Fingers and Godzilla, a Fuzz Factory, Jangle Box, Dope Priest, a fOXX Tone Machine and a Fuzz Face².

The collection itself is a big part of the story. He had around ten Big Muffs in 1997, grown to approximately forty by 2011, all vintage USA Big Muffs from the early to late 1970s, in purple, blue, red and black¹. A downstairs corner of his studio features more than 40 vintage Big Muffs with an array of paintjobs, knobs and road scars². His love for Big Muffs was displayed through that collection in the documentary Fuzz: The Sound That Revolutionized The World¹².

The Wren and Cuff signature pedal

Mascis's favorite vintage Muff, that early 1970s Ram's Head bought on tour in 1987, became the model for a signature pedal with boutique maker Wren and Cuff. Matthew Holl of Wren and Cuff approached J with the idea of doing a signature pedal based on his favorite vintage Muff, and the two worked together for more than two years to ensure the final unit was a dead-on replica of his treasured pedal¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹. The result, the Garbage Face, is a full-size dual volume fuzz and treble-booster pedal: a faithful recreation of his favorite Muff circuit with a vintage germanium transistor treble boost, selectable output volumes, true-bypass operation and a lifetime warranty¹⁸¹⁷.

MusicRadar described it as housing his 1970s Electro-Harmonix Ram's Head Big Muff and a germanium Dallas Rangemaster-style treble booster in one enclosure¹⁴. Premier Guitar's reviewer found it effectively replicates one of the most vital sections of Mascis's live rig in a single pedal, noting that his solutions for rhythm/lead contrast over the years included stacked Big Muffs, overdrives in front of Muffs, and treble boosters upstream from his Ram's Head, exactly the combination the Garbage Face puts in one box⁵. Pedal of the Day's review was blunt: "Well, it worked, and this pedal is absolutely incredible"²⁰.

A smaller version, the Garbage Face Jr, was also built from that same 1987 Ram's Head¹⁹. Wren and Cuff say there has been no break in their relationship with J and that the Garbage Faces have not been discontinued²¹.

The Electro-Harmonix signature Ram's Head

In August 2022 Electro-Harmonix honored Mascis with his own signature Ram's Head Big Muff Pi, a special-edition fuzz and sustainer pedal based on the celebrated 1973 V2 Violet Ram's Head Big Muff Pi, the version used by the guitarist of Dinosaur Jr²³⁶. It comes in a compact enclosure with special artwork and his signature printed on the chassis, in a white and violet finish²⁴²⁵. Electro-Harmonix describes it as paying homage to the sonic center of his tone of equal parts thickness and clarity²⁵. Guitar.com reported the silicon fuzz pedal is described as being sonically more articulate than other Big Muffs, with a smooth and aggressive response and a focus on string separation and dynamics²⁴.

Reviews were positive. Premier Guitar found it offers heaps of the balanced but scorching tone colors that make the music of Dinosaur Jr so melodically monstrous²⁶. Guitar.com's reviewer wrote that if you want to recreate the famously massive Muff tones of the Dinosaur albums, "this pedal will absolutely get you there"²⁷. Guitar World's verdict: "Ultimately, Dinosaur Jr. fans are going to love this. For everyone else, it's a fuzz pedal that is more usable than some of the more wooly examples"¹². That review also noted a standard Ram's Head reissue lists for $15 less than the signature model¹².

The board today: Boss tuner and RV-5 reverb

Beyond fuzz, the rest of the board has stayed deliberately simple in spirit. Despite the amount of gear he uses, it has always been set up to be as intuitive and uncomplicated as possible²⁸. His touring pedalboard is a monstrous 70 pounds, an ongoing project with custom elements alongside a variety of Muffs, tubes and wiring techniques². Back in summer 1986, touring with Sonic Youth, he shredded through sets with a small pedalboard².

Two BOSS pedals are fixtures. The RV-5 Digital Reverb is still a permanent fixture on his board²⁸. The RV-5 is a digital reverb pedal whose Mode knob selects Plate, Hall, Room, Modulate, Spring or Gate reverb modes, and Pedal of the Day's review praised its rugged enclosure, sturdy knobs and a stomp switch that "would need to get run over by a semi to break, maybe"²⁹. For tuning, he uses BOSS chromatic tuner pedals and is a fan of the TU-3S mini tuners, which he has used in his main rig and on a small fly pedalboard²⁸.

His 2010 to 2011 boards were built around a Custom Audio Electronics RS-5 switching system from Bob Bradshaw¹. Bradshaw had put together Mascis's first rack effects and switching setup back in 1997 for the Hand It Over tour, featuring a Ram's Head Big Muff and a Triangle Big Muff¹. The 2010 to 2011 pedal list gives a full picture of the rig around the switching system¹:

• Vintage Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi
• Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Electric Mistress flanger
• Dr. Scientist Frazz Dazzler, combined with an overdrive
• Z.Vex custom Double Rock (two Box of Rocks)
• MC-FX Super Fuzz
• Analog Man Sun Lion
• RMC wah
• Tube Works Real Tube Overdriver
• KR Musical Products Mega Vibe
• Custom Audio Japan Twin tremolo
• Boss RV-5 Digital Reverb
• Eventide Time Factor delay
• Boss tuner, mute switch and CAE power supply

The 2012 board swapped the Sun Lion for a Jerms Mark 1 Tone Bender and treble booster combo, dropped the Frazz Dazzler, switched to an MXR Carbon Copy delay, and added an EHX POG2 and a ZVex Lo-Fi Loop Junky¹. He has also used a univibe clone live since the early 1990s, and is among the players associated with JAM Pedals' RetroVibe³⁰³¹.

The guitars out front

Mascis prefers Fender Jazzmasters and Telecasters and has his own signature Fender Jazzmaster, making him one of the select band of Fender endorsees with not one but two signature models, a Fender and a Squier Jazzmaster¹⁹. He favors old instruments: "I'll buy a lot of refinished ones where the headstock's been cracked or something but they still have the sound, but they're a little bit cheaper"⁹. Guitar.com's review of his signature Muff noted he is no stranger to signature models, from the Squier Jazzmaster to the Garbage Face and the Ram's Head Big Muff Pi²⁷.

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