Hello there, and welcome back to yet another great review article for you! If you are a regular reader, you are probably aware that I frequently test various guitar pedals, primarily overdrive and distortion pedals, in an effort to find the best-sounding ones for my rigs.
Table of Contents
This time, we will have a look at one of the meanest and brutal distortion pedals in the market, the Electro Harmonix Metal Muff with Top Boost.
As I always do, I will provide as many details as possible about the legendary Electro-Harmonix company and its brutal distortion pedal, the Electro-Harmonix Metal Muff with Top Boost, which features a proper Metal Muff circuit with a top boost option.
I will also share a no-talking style demo video in this Electro Harmonix Metal Muff with Top Boost review, as well as original photos of the product.
TL;DR
EHX Metal Muff Distortion with Top Boost can be easily considered a legendary high-gain distortion pedal that has stood the test of time! It was first released by the company back in 2006 and is still going strong.
Metal Muff with Top Boost is an extreme, high gain distortion machine with a top boost feature. It offers an amp-like controls, such as a distortion control as well as a three band EQ. The onboard EQ circuit is an active one and it allows you to shape your distortion sound significantly. Top Boost feature is basically a high frequency boost that you can shape and apply on top of the distortion circuit.
EHX Metal Muff w/ Top Boost is not a small pedal and beware that it will take a lof of space on your pedalboard. If you are worried about the size of this pedal, you may also consider the EHX Nano Metal Muff Distortion, which was released back in 2021. Note that, Nano version doesn’t feature a top boost circuit, but comes with a built-in noise gate and not to mention in a smaller, more compact enclosure.
In my opinion, this pedal offers a limited use as the minimum amount of distortion is still pretty much a high-gain distortion sound. So, if you are thinking about boosting a crunch or overdriven sound on your amp, it may not be the right choice. However, if you have only a clean amp and are looking for an extreme high gain sound, Metal Muff might be one of the best options out there.
It’s affordable, built like a tank and accessible virtually in any online store, local dealer or in used marketplaces for gear. Personally, I didn’t enjoy the top boost feature, so I thought maybe the nano version could have been a better choice for me. So, keep that in mind that you have options here.
cigilovic.com can recommend EHX Metal Muff with Top Boost for players who are looking for an extreme high gain distortion sound to completely transform their clean, pedal platform amps. If you have a tighter space on your pedalboard and not interested in the top boost feature, I’d recommend you also check out the Nano Metal Muff version.
Let’s start with a quick introduction to this legendary brand, Electro Harmonix, for those who have never heard of it!
About Electro Harmonix
EHX was founded by Mike Matthews back in 1968, and it’s known for being the pioneering company in analogue and digital effects in the industry. Mike Matthews was born with an entrepreneurial spirit and was already into any kind of business he could get his hands on. He was also taught piano by his mother when he was five and got infected with the passion.
Later, he started playing piano in bands while also booking all his gigs and promoting rock & roll bands in the area. After he graduated from university with an electrical engineering degree and an MBA, he got himself a job at IBM, but still kept booking and promoting gigs. While booking gigs, he even met Jimmy James, later known as the legend Jimi Hendrix and encouraged him that he could sing! Best Tools For Guitars at Stewmac.com
Mike Matthews also designed the Foxey Lady pedals while he was supporting the making of fuzz pedals in Maestro. Later, he decided to start the EHX company and released its first-ever product LPB-1 Linear Power Booster, in 1969, which is still in production today!
Next, he released the legendary Big Muff Pi pedal, which created a huge following of guitar players such as David Gilmour, Billy Corgan, Carlos Santana, Jack White and many more.
This pedal was even used by Jimi Hendrix while recording his albums! EHX was able to generate $ 50,000 in its first year of activity and later reached $5 million, employing over 250 people from diverse backgrounds. In 1978, Mike Matthews was the small business person of the year!
EHX also became one of the largest suppliers of vacuum tubes by connecting its business to legendary Russian tube manufacturers and repositioning the brand with a strong focus on this field. Today, when you are after a vacuum tube, it’s highly likely you are going to go for an EHX vacuum tube under Electro Harmonix, EH Gold, Genalex, Mullard, Sovtek, Svetlana and Tung-Sol brands. Check out the best guitar pickup company, Seymour Duncan here!
EHX is also known for many progressive pedal and effect designs, such as a wide variety of Big Muff fuzz pedals, Memory Man delays, 16 Seconds Delay, Pog and Hog pedals, which are octave generators, Ravish Sitar pedals with variations MEL9, SYNTH9, C9, KEY9, B9 and BASS9
Electro Harmonix Metal Muff with Top Boost
Electro-Harmonix Metal Muff is a high-gain and modern iteration of the EHX’s Muff pedals. The intention was to build the best heavy metal distortion pedal. Note that this pedal was released in 2006, and it’s still on the market, actively purchased by loads of musicians all around the world.
The EHX Metal Muff features three EQ controls just like an amp. With the “Bass“, “Middle” and “Treble” controls, you can have total control over your tone.
There’s also a “Top Boost” feature, which means that you have another boost circuit targeting the higher end of the spectrum.
The Metal Muff offers a huge amount of gain and saturation with a very effective set of EQ controls.
Note that these EQ controls are active and can cut or boost signals based on the circuit design. For instance, Bass control can cut or boost up to 14dB, while Mid control can 15dB, and Treble control can cut or boost up to 10dB.
Top Boost is there to provide extra bite by boosting a narrow band of high frequencies. This has been a general overview of the pedal. Let’s jump to the tech specs section and the demo video!
Electro Harmonix Metal Muff with Top Boost Tech Specs
| Electro Harmonix Metal Muff with Top Boost | Tech Specs |
|---|---|
| Circuit | Analogue |
| Bypass | Buffered Bypass |
| Audio | Mono |
| Power Supply | 9.6VDC-200mA power adapter included (optional 9V battery not included) |
| Dimensions (cm) | 12.07 × 10.16 × 5.72 cm |
| Current Draw | 25mA |
| Year Released | 2006 |
| UPC | 683274010489 |
As you can see, it’s clearly a straightforward pedal design, featuring a pretty much standard control layout with an additional top boost option. Metal Muff with Top Boost is a huge pedal, and it will take a lot of real estate on your pedalboard.
Before we jump to the detailed review section, let’s have a listen to the Metal Muff sound demo below.
For the demo, I used the loops that I had already recorded in my Boss RC-5 looper pedal, as I just wanted to do a quick demo. In these loops, I used my FGN Boundary Odyssey, Cort M600, Fender American Standard Strat, Ibanez AR300 and Epiphone SG Custom Ebony guitars.
Apart from the guitars, I used my usual setup featuring my Marshall JVM410HJS, st. Rock REACT: IR II, RME Babyface PRO FS and Genelec DP8020 DPM. Ads - Check out these ads to support this web page
For the effects, I only used Wave Alchemy Magic7 as my reverb plugin. As the Metal Muff offers a huge amount of gain and saturation even at the lowest distortion settings, I just had to use the clean channel on my JVM.
Electro Harmonix Metal Muff w/ Top Boost Review & Sound Demo (no talking)
As you can hear, Metal Muff offers a huge amount of gain even with the lowest distortion settings, and I think it can only be used on a clean amp rather than boosting an overdriven channel.
Electro Harmonix Metal Muff with Top Boost Review
So far, I have owned multiple EHX pedals, and overall product quality has been pretty much standard and consistent with all of them. Metal Muff is not an exception!
As with all EHX pedals, the Electro Harmonix Metal Muff with Top Boost comes in a cool package with nice graphics on it.
There’s this infamous EHX logo on the sides with the official EHX website label.
Here, I’m also sharing the bottom of the box for future reference. There is the serial number as well as the barcode of the pedal.
As with all EHX pedals, Metal Muff also comes with a huge amount of bubble wrap, both on the pedal and in the empty areas, to protect the product. Of course, one could easily criticise why not make the package smaller, and this would be a valid question :). Music Plugin Deals at Pluginboutique.com
I believe they use a variety of package templates, as this empty area would normally be occupied with another box for the power supply that would come with some of their pedals.
And, yes! There’s no power supply included in the box contents.
Apart from the pedal, you have the typical EHX brochures, manual and warranty card. Since I got mine from Thomann, the distributor also added a German version of the manual, which is cool for the German-speaking customers!
As I mentioned, Metal Muff is gigantic! It’s pretty tough to hold this with your hand. But luckily it’s not that heavy. I would say the build quality for this price tag is impeccable. It’s built like a tank, very sturdy, and all the knobs and switches are top-notch!
On the bottom chassis, there are already installed possibly four 3M pads (the thicker ones). And, these are installed in the correct locations so that you can unscrew the bottom chassis without any issues.
The Electro Harmonix Metal Muff with Top Boost is an extremely simple pedal to use. There are no FX Loops, Send and Return jacks or anything. There’s just a single input and output. On the right-hand side, there’s a single input for your guitar (or any signal coming from other pedals, depending on your rig).
And, there’s a single output on the left-hand side. That’s all!
Verdict
As I mentioned, I have been purchasing a lot of boosters, overdrive and distortion pedals to experiment with my rig these days. Although I’m not a big fan of overly compressed, high-gain guitar tones, I still want to test them with my rig. Ads - Check out these ads to support this web page
Of course, I rarely go for high-gain distortion pedals. But I still wanted to see whether these could be a solution for extremely high-gain sounds.
EHX Metal Muff with Top Boost was always on my radar, and I was even considering the nano version, which is the smaller version with a built-in noise gate. However, I ended up with the original version.
Check out the EHX Nano Metal Muff here
As stated above, this pedal is actually a very old pedal! The first date of availability on Thomann is even 2006. So, here we are talking about a pretty legendary design with a huge amount of history.
Metal Muff with Top Boost is a gigantic pedal. It is going to take a lot of space on your board. So, beware that you may need to allocate some space for this pedal! Tone-wise, even the minimum amount of distortion this pedal generates is crazy high.
If you are considering this pedal as a booster, don’t! It’s so dominating even with the lowest settings of distortion. The EQ on the pedal is an active one, and it’s so effective. You can really change the overall tone and response of the pedal in the most extreme ways.
While the active EQ gives you an infinite number of possibilities to shape the tone and response of the pedal, it also makes it pretty difficult to dial in, as even a small change in one of the three EQ bands makes the pedal sound very different all of a sudden. So, you have to be really careful with the settings.
I would not expect a significant string separation with this pedal. However, I still wanted to show you how it would react to open chords, arpeggios, and used some of my loops to provide proof that it was not that bad!
Regarding the top boost feature, I must say I don’t enjoy it too much. It is very extreme and makes the overall sound of the pedal like a chainsaw in my opinion. When you engage the top boost circuit, you should absolutely adjust the EQ based on your settings and the amount of distortion you prefer with the distortion knob.
So, based on the limitations concerning the minimum amount of distortion this pedal provides, I would say you can only use it on a very clean amp. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to get a good sound. IK Multimedia Tonex - Cutting Edge Guitar Tones!
If you are into this kind of extreme distortion sound, EHX Metal Muff w/ Top Boost might be a really good option for you. For instance, you only have access to a classic, clean amp, and you want to completely transform your amp into a metal machine. Then, this is your pedal. Otherwise, I wouldn’t prefer this kind of distortion as it’s not my style.
Given the price tag on both the original version and the nano version, I think it is not going to damage anyone’s bank account to get one of them and try it for yourself.
As I mentioned, I didn’t enjoy the top boost feature and found the pedal extremely big for a fairly small pedalboard. So, now, when I reconsider my purchasing decision, I’d say I wish I had purchased the nano version.
It is cheaper, smaller and comes with a noise gate. So, that’d be my advice for my readers! 🙂
Where to Buy Electro Harmonix Metal Muff with Top Boost?
Interestingly, considering its potential narrow audience (in comparison to classic drives and distortions), the EHX Metal Muff with Top Boost has stood the test of time. It’s been actively available across the globe since the mid-2000s.
EHX also released the nano version back in 2021, and also fairly priced both versions. That means, you can get one of these virtually from any online store or local dealer without busting the bank! As almost always, I got mine from Thomann.
Check out EHX Metal Muff with Top Boost on Thomann here
Also, don’t forget to check out the nano version, as it’s more affordable and comes with a built-in noise gate, but not with the top boost feature.
Check out EHX Nano Metal Muff Distortion on Thomann here
There are also used ones listed on Reverb. Luckily, since this pedal is so popular and has been around for a couple of decades, there are many used ones on Reverb. For sure, some of them are still listed brand new by the dealer on Reverb. But you can still find used ones for really good prices.
Check out my EHX Metal Muff with Top Boost on Reverb here
Thanks for visiting my blog and supporting me so far! I will hopefully see you in the next review here!
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