So two days ago Randel07 sent me his pre-retail Miracle Rabbit (not a prototype) for my Singing Tree. Now I consider myself a muff fanatic and this is supposed to Mellowtone's take on muff style sound (indeed, the guts of the circuit betray that signature Muff 3 gain stage, at least by my amateur appraisal) and I'm a huge Mellowtone fan so I was excited.
This pedal, in all my years of muff diving
is by far the most enveloping, soothing and out-right "blanket of sound" muff I've come across, while still retaining that signature muff fuzz/distortion cross over. It has two knobs "level" and "expander" which I will get into. First, let me explain the short history of amps I've run this through.The first day, I was playing with my folsky/rootsy band, in which I like to use my musket dialed down for a classic muff sound. I tried the MR through a Fender Quad Reverb at relatively low volume (Gain at 4 1/2, Master at 4) and it was a bit disappointing. It got slightly lost in the mix (though, using a Fender, the midrange isn't so pronounced) and the "level" knob seemed to peak out in volume around 1 o clock. I assumed it was the low gain and master volume that was probably choking it so that's okay, as I wasn't all that interested in playing the pedal through my Fender. When it began to come to life was through the Marshall JCM 800 100 watter.
I put it though the JCM 800 and all the great muff characteristics were there with that "organic" mellowtone flavor. What I love about mellowtone pedals is that Eric likes to give you control of the compression of the fuzz/distortion sound. The singing tree had it's threshold knob, my wizard fountain has it's "twist" knob. The expander knob does the same thing. Counter-intuitively though, I find that the left-most (7 o clock) setting on the expander gives you the most "wide" and "expansive" sound while dialing to the other extreme compresses both the dynamic and tonal range into a thinner, thrashy sound akin to a Hyperion or Shin Ei or some settings on an Arc Flash (drawing comparisons to pedals I own/owned). Great for biting leads. Also, much like most Mellowtones, dialing up the compression (in this case, the expander knob) cuts the volume a bit, so you must compensate with the level knob. So, with the Marshall, like I said, cool muff sound, definitely worthy of calling itself a muff-esque pedal, and then adding some not-so-muff sounds with the expander cranked. It competed well with my all time favorite muff fuzz, the Musket, with simpler controls. The only problem was that, again, the level seemed to peak out, this time around 2-3 o clock, and I couldn't squeeze any more gain out of it. The Musket still had the edge over it here. So, great muff circuit, and if it's anywhere near the price point all the other mellowtone pedals are at, then I say it is a great pickup....BUT THEN....
HERE IS WHERE EVERYTHING CHANGED
Yesterday, the same day I tried the MR on my JCM, I put KT88s in my JCM (which will be discussed in a later thread).
Holy shit.
The added headroom, dynamics and tonal range of the KT88s pushed the MR into new, undiscovered territory. The "level" knob peaking out problem was gone. The KT88s could handle the full gain range (as opposed to EL34s, which I assume probably began to compress and breakup a bit) available in the pedal and if you know anything about muffs (or at least how I feel about them) you play them bitches with the level/volume ALL THE WAY UP. The expander to the left most/counter clockwise gave the pedal the bloom-iest, smoothest and most enveloping wall of sound, exactly what I had been looking for. With chords, the low mids and bass just boom, and give that goopey, saggy sound, like standing ground zero right when the Ghostbusters blew up the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
Lead notes (again with the expander turned leftmost) were round and fat, that "violin-like sustain" you hear muff-minded cork sniffers talk about but with a little bit of instability, some textural spikes when you gave it a little bend or vibrato. BEAUTIFUL. I play a Jazzmaster with Fender vintage pickups, so they are very low output. Usually when doing chords and rhythm with a muff, I like to go with the middle position, just to thicken things up and switch to the bridge for single notes. Not needed with the MR. The MR thickens up the bridge pickup enough that I don't even have to switch. Awesome.
One thing I want to make notice of: over on the Mellowtone forum, Eric asked everyone how they wanted the tone stack, and it was decided that the MR would have a flat EQ and it totally does. It's nearly transparent. That said, referring back to when I played on the Fender, if you scoop your mids, or play with a less middy amp, you may get lost a bit. In my case, running a Marshall with the mids pushed to about 6, the MR was totally perfect.
Continuing on with the expander knob, dialing up towards 12 o Clock gives the pedal a little more grind and articulation because of the compression, closest to a tradition muff sound. Continuing past 12 into 2-3 o clock, you start getting that thrashy, metal on metal sound. Very cool...in fact, I almost feel bad at this point because I don't know when Eric is going to release these for retail and the MR is probably the best muff you can buy at the price.
Finally, comparing it to my Musket side of my Twosome, the sheer thickness of the MR, it, and I don't want to start anything, beats the Musket out .
That's okay though!!!! I still love my Musket, it is by far the most innovative and drastic improvement on the muff circuit that I've ever come across. It still does things that the MR can't do due to its sheer versatility, and that's fine. The MR isn't going to replace my Musket, but when I need to just go to the next level and cover the audience in pure, blanketed fuzz you know the Rabbit is going to get stomped.
Also, has anyone noticed that Eric put a rabbit on the pedal, just as Blackout put a rabbit on there's?
Just sayin...
Start rolling these out Eric!
