JHS Pedals' second collaboration with EHX unearths lost alternative OpAmp Muff - the Big Muff 2 - after a rummage through Bob Myer's Workshop

So back in the 70’s EHX’s Mike Matthews commissioned both Howard Davis and Bob Myer to make the next generation of Big Muff - using the newly release OpAmps / IC’s rather than the individual quartet of Transistors. Each engineer came up with their own version - and Mike picked out the Howard Davis one for production - which then became the 1978 EHX OpAmp Big Muff.

Meanwhile Bob Myer’s version sat abandoned and forgotten in the mist of time - until Josh Scott and Daniel Danger came upon it while recently rummaging through the Bob Myer workshop.

A decision was made to push that prototype into production - and here we have it as the JHS x EHX Big Muff 2, using 2 x Dual OpAmps.

JHS has elected to go with the somewhat vintage correct larger size of enclosure - while I kind of expect there to be a compact variant too eventually - as happened with the Lizard Queen.

The Big Muff 2 goes for $249 on the JHS Webstore - possibly the eventual smaller version will be on the  EHX Webstore, while for now all the cards as such are with JHS.

A book by Josh Scott, Daniel Danger and Dan Epstein - ’Made On Earth For Rising Stars : The Electro-Harmonix Story’ has been made available at the same time - for $55, while that doesn’t ship until Spring - which means some time in the first quarter of next year presumably.

You have the usual 3-knob control topology here - with a somewhat differentiated output profile :

"Where the original Big Muff delivers that iconic ’sweet violin-like sustain,’ Bob’s two dual Op-Amp approach pushes into more aggressive, cutting territory. It’s the Big Muff DNA with a sharper edge, more volume, and the most pronounced low-end and midrange of any EHX Big Muff ever. It expresses Bob’s vision of aggressive sustain and cutting presence, with the familiar Big Muff control layout you know and love.  It’s the sound of what almost was."

I own over 115 Big Muff types - I obviously like that genre - the question is do I try to swing for this limited edition run of 5,700, or do I wait for a likely eventual more compact pedalboard-friendly variant. At the moment I’m leaning towards the latter!