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My very tired looking Electro Harmonix 'Russian' Big Muff from the early 1990s.
You sent a cheque to Russia and a few weeks later one of these brutal things would turn up in a minature wooden shipping crate branded in Russian which I wish I still had.
This is a Sovtek 5AR4 type Vacuum Tube.
It is made by Sovtek, which is a Russian Company. This was made within the past few years ( not vintage ).
Time to retube both monoblock amp after 7 years of abuse!
RIP, My Sovtek KT-88. The last 7 years had been so wonderful that no words will describe how grateful I am. Thank you for being such a good friend for all this time. Thank you for lending me a shoulder to cry when life is being sucks. Thank you for having some time to listen to all of my nonsense. Thank you and thank you for being such a great friend!
Technology from a lost era a trio of vacuum tubes glow hot after powering a Fender BASSMAN 100. The mighty 6L6GC is a power tube - Soviet and Chinese tubes can be seen. Tubes are to be used in biased matched sets for best results. Yugoslavia made the best tubes until NATO destroyed the facility.
Amp is a take on a Mullard 5-20 using a 6CG7 as the phase splitter with a CCS in it's tail. It uses a GE 6267, Electro-Harmonix 6CG7, EL34/6CA7/KT77 and a Sovtek 5AR4. Output transformers are Sowter UP21S. (6K6 / 43% UL taps with a 4/8/16R tapped secondary.)
Schematic for those that are interested.
'97 Russian Electro-Harmonix/Sovtek Small Stone phaser pedal repaired and ready to play. From Matt's personal collection. This is now my favorite phaser pedal. I love the strength of the effect with the color switch in the up position. It also feels rock solid and is undeniably cool looking in a very olive-green military drab sort of way. Love the knobs on these old Sovtek built pedals.
Actually, that's a tasty Tung-Sol 6SN7 in the front, a birthday gift from my friend Doug. Despite the exotic-sounding name, Tung-Sol tubes were made in Newark, New Jersey.
This is My Guitar Rig
Orange OR120
Homemade Speaker Cabinet with 2x12" Celestion SPKR0063 Speakers
Jagmaster (Japanese) with Gibson's 490 & 500T pickups
Moogerfooger Low Pass Filter w/ Jim Dunlop Cry Baby as Expression Pedal
Ibanez TS 9
DOD Supra distortion
EH/Sovtek Big Muff Pi
Fender Footswitch Modified to Double Looper
DOD Stereo Chorus
Ibanez Swell Flange SF10
EH Pulsar
EH Deluxe Memory Man
Line6 ToneCore Verbzilla
My take on the Big Muff, using the "Der Muff Green Russian - Distortion kit" from Das Musikding as a base and the Blackout Effectors Musket Fuzz as an inspiration for mods. It has the Focus (Lowend) and Mids knobs as found in the first incarnation of the Musket and a smoothness switch I came up with myself.
Read all about it on the Workbench of the UK Les Paul Forum: Done a bit of Muff research.
E-H/Sovtek Small Stone, side. This pedal was purchased by Matt on eBay for less than $30 including shipping, because the pot shaft had been broken, making it impossible to change the speed of the phasing.
E-H/Sovtek Small Stone, original broken pot and replacement pot ready to go in (placement tab bent out of the way and lugs wired together). The pot on the right is original, the pot on the left is the new pot ordered from Small Bear Electronics ( www.smallbearelec.com ). They have a great selection of Electro-Harmonix and Sovtek replacement parts, as well as lots of other cool stuff. Check out their site!
updated view of my stompboxes addiction.. collection, i meant COLLECTION!!
(first step is to admit it, I know...)
Thanks to a fellow audio friend who bought over some of his 12AX7 tubes so I can try them in my own system. All are new production with the exception of the Ei of which are no longer made. From left to right... Ei Gold Elite, Chinese 12AX7B, Mullard, Genelax Gold Lion, Sovtek LPS version, and Tung-Sol.
The GA5 is electrically identical to the Epiphone Valve Junior + a tone control. (Which is just the bass control from a Marshall-type tone stack)
Out of the box it sounded ok, kind of dark but loud. I've heard other 5 watt amps and they are almost loud enough for rehersals with an acoustic drum kit!.
It came with an Electro Harmonix 12AX7-EH and a Sovtek EL84/6BQ5.
The amp was dead silent, no microphonics, no ghost tones, no hiss. Previous revisions were fitted with "some unbranded 12AX7 Chinese preamp tube" (Ref: www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2203) that according to some had issues with microphonics.
Mods
1. Changed input resistor R1 to 1M.
2. Added a treble pot and a middle switch to the tone stack.
3. Added a master volume pot after the tone stack.
Currently the pots and switch are just hanging out of the front until I decide where to put them. But I'll probably put them in the back as I'm not yet ready to destroy the simplistic look.