BJFE Model V - hang on, there's three of them??

[zhivago]

I have always been under the impression that there was only one Model V fuzz made, and a while ago I saved these photos from an auction (I think)





The serial # on this one looks to be a "3"


Fast forward a while later, and I come across this photo here of what seems to be a slightly different one - different paint job, the plate drawing is different size, but more importantly the knobs are labeled slightly differently...I have no serial number of this one unfortunately



So there are at least three in existence?

Are they all Ram's Head versions of the Big Muff? (with a 'Twist Of Bjorn', of course!

I just thought it would be interesting to talk about

[melodichaotic]

Ha...funny. I actually had one for a while....great pedal. Bjorn's take
on the Tri-knob with much needed midrange control.
All the vintage tone was there, but but now with loads more usable

sounds available....funny, after short lived, over-rated, Cornish phase,
I had come across this one, and instantly because of the well implemented
midrange, AND the fact that he nailed all the vintage tone WITHOUT,
mojo parts....certainly not the transistors as that's not what's doing the fuzzing
anyway...the Cornish stuff became evermore an afterthought.

I only sold it because for some reason out of all the vintage fuzzes, I have
a love/hate relationship with the Tri-knob...and this is coming from someone
who's had many examples including not one, but two truly first issue perf board
models(the best sounding ones by far IMO).

Maybe Bjorn can chime in on any other build details/back story...and also how many
have been made...I've only seen one other

[zhivago]

Very cool! Thanks for chiming in!

Sounds like it is a pretty cool pedal

[BJF]

Hi There,

yes I made three units.

The first one had only three controls and was made in a bet and the circuit was exactly the same as an old EH triangular Big Muff except for there were only modern parts used and the stance I had was the
the sound of this circuit lies in the filtering just as Mike Matthews told in an interview and thus not in vintage transistors.
The owner of the Triangular BM is famous studio guitarist in Sweden and his stance was that the secret of sound lied in the transistors...
The story of this is posted on this forum in another thread

Right so this unit was eventually sold to a guy who posted a picture of it and two other guys asked if I'd build one and I did but then told that once reboxed a 70's Big Muff in a large box and gave it true bypass and an LED and also a Mid control and that I thought this mid control made it so much more useful on my amps at least so I'd recommend including that. The two units with Mid control were made sometime apart and also the type of pots used prompted certain layout and therefore the pots are not in the same place on the units while the insides are the same.

Have fun
BJ

[zhivago]

thanks for the info Bjorn! The mid control definitely is a plus for this circuit.

Every time I've used Muff variants I've disappeared in the mix!