The Black Keys Fan Lounge Forum

Craigs list? Or do you mean like a store that you can physically walk into and pick one up? The green Sovtek muff is hard to find. You might get lucky at a music store or pawn shop, but I'm pretty sure they stopped making those so it's not like something that would regularly be in stock. Maybe call up some local places and ask them about it? Online is probably your best bet, though.

Or you can just get a Hoof Fuzz and be done with it. Dan also used one of those, and it's basically the same sound.

http://www.earthquakerdevices.com/devices/hoof.htm

only 2 resistors are different between the black big muff and the green big muff. if you are any good with a soldering iron, you can convert the black muff to green specs for about 50 cents. by comparison, green muffs sell for 2 to 3 times the cost of a black one. if you find a green one in a store, expect to drop about $300. or if you hit ebay, they sell for about $150 depending on condition.

be careful, though. not all muffs sound alike! especially in the case of the green ones. they were made with relatively cheap components which are prone to drifting in value over time, yielding mixed sounds. 3 green muffs will all sound somewhat different. also, the transistors are extremely sensitive to temperature change. not really sure why, but i've owned a few over the past few years, and they always sound different in warm/cold. in the end, i ended up modding the black muff. quick and easy, and i'm left with a (somewhat) more reliable pedal.

I have both the Green & Black Russian Muffs, as well as a Hoof. The Hoof is very close to the Green one, with a little extra tweakablity.

I like to stack the Hoof with the green one for the live Keys sound.

I'm late to the party. I have an original Sovtek Green Muff and I've built my own clones (BMP, Fuzz Factory clone--VERY cool, ToneBender clone--also cool, and Octane clone) and experimented the HELL out of swapping out the transistors (NOS, new, etc). for the Big Muff. Literally trying dozens of different combinations using sockets and measuring their gain with a meter, the results I got were cool but NOTHING I tried came anywhere close to my original green beat-to-shit big muff. I don't know why but it has this thickness that simply KILLS all the others I've tried. I know, I know, I'm perpetuating the mythology of the original muffs and the ridiculous prices they are getting but in my case, that shit is real. YMMV.

Yeah, within the muff realm there are numerous subtle circuit changes (triangle, ram's head, NYC, green Russian, black). Usually a few resistor changes here and there. But mainly, I think it's about this lucky combination of all the old components. I think you are def right about me getting lucky with my muff. I've heard the same thing about their inconsistency. It's the only pedal that I own that I'll never part with.

My Tonebender clone set and medium gain gets me really close to Dan's basic slightly distorted sound (ala I'll Be Your Man) and then stacking the muff on top of the TB takes it right to Thickfreakness.

The Fuzz Factory clone set right can get you close to The Breaks sound--farty and gated, but I think somewhere Dan said that he used an older version ZVex Octane for that recording.

phil, what is your verse guitar sound for TF? For the chorus / guitar break I assume that's when you kick in the Hoof.