My first day at Home Depot was yesterday and that's cool and all. Money and somesuch. Not really what I'm here to talk about.

A few days ago I picked up a second Big Muff Pi by Electro Harmonix. This is the black Russian version made by Sovtek. It's different than the other one I have, an NYC model, in that it's a little smoother, not quite as gritty. It doesn't break up quite as much as the NYC, but of course it's a fuzz pedal so it's going to break up. The night I brought it home I plugged it in and thought it was broken 'cause I wasn't getting sound out of it. Then I realized I had the damn thing in backwards. I switched the cables and did a little A-B with the NYC. My first impression? They kinda sound the same.

See, the russian Muff is known for having a slightly different sound than the NYC, which is why I picked it up. At first I couldn't hear it because the difference in subtle, but now I'm really hearing how the Russian has less "dirt" than the NYC, while also having a little less volume drop when engaged. A guy on shortscale.org said the Russian will get a Queens of the Stone Age type sound, while the NYC gets more of a Smashing Pumpkins and White Stripes sound. I think either way I win.

I was originally going to only keep one of them, but I might have to hold on to both now. Maybe use both in my rig at once. Hit 'em both for mad feedback squeels!

There's also a second russian version with a green casing that's different still. Someday I'll have that one too.