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Electro Harmonix NANO Muff Overdrive
List: $90
Electro Harmonix (EHX) NANO series pedals made a late 2006 debut, offering the player a scaled-down version of its various offerings. The NANO Muff is a fundamental offering of its fabled Big Muff fuzz units however, intentional or otherwise, this Muff isn’t a true clone.
Build/ features
It is reassuring to know that EHX made no compromise in terms of durability with this scaling down exercise, the NANO units still sport the tank-grade anodized aluminum chassis & base plate. However, true to its intentions, the NANO Muff here is the epitome of bare essentials featuring only a footswitch & black volume knob, battery access is still the ‘traditional’ base plate removal access. The livid name & series label saved the Muff from a mundane physical presence.
Rating: 7.5/ 10
Tone
1. Fuzz
As mentioned in the introduction, if one looks to the NANO Muff in the hope of a massive fuzz voicing, chances are, one would be in for utter disenchantment. This Muff here is loaded with a preset fuzz threshold, the volume knob is effectively a level enhancer, and it does not meddle with fuzz intensity. Keeping this in mind, the Muff as a stand alone unit sounds less fuzzy than its other bigger incarnations. There’s definitely less gristle from a pedal which is supposedly the benchmark for its ilk.
2. Drive-type booster
Moving away from the expected fuzz mentality, the Muff has a smooth, less protrusive drive voicing which makes it a very suitable drive-type booster pedal. It yields more pleasing results in conjunction with another mild drive pedal, an intense type unit or simply your amp’s dirty channel. The Muff will add cream to any raunchy distortion however; watch your primary drive settings because higher levels would serve to accentuate more fuzz in the mix, which was strangely absent from the Muff output when it served to be a stand alone unit.
Reviewer’s notes: The NANO Muff has no problems boosting my
• CRATE Power Block
• Ibanez ValBee
• Dano’s Black Coffee
• Boss Blues Driver/ Distortion
• NANO Pocket Metal Muff
As you’d note, the NANO Muff is adept at boosting an amp/ another pedal.
3. Boosting the Muff
Another interesting development would be the boosting of this Muff by a mild drive counterpart. What you’d hear is a fused saturation with enough transparency to give the Blackstar (CMAT Mods) a run for its money. Despite giving off a mild drive, there is more than sufficient depth to appease the shredders among us.
Reviewer’s notes: I enjoy the following combo
• Ibanez Tubescreamer TS7 + NANO Muff
• Boss OD3 + NANO Muff
If you are too used to a hard distortion type drive intensity (think Metal Zone et al), the above combination would perhaps, give you another perspective of ‘intensity’. There’s saturation aplenty but nothing’s too metalesque.
Rating: 8.5/ 10
Issues
Be informed that the NANO Muff here is averse to a daisy-chain powering. There is a labeled warning proximate to its external power outlet (refer to above pic), details of this peculiarity is aptly explained in the instruction manual. If you have to allocate an adaptor for the NANO Muff, do provide an independent unit, no problems would entail. Similarly, if you designate the pedal to battery power, it would work absolutely fine.
Conclusion
Seriously, how many of us here would look forward to owning a fuzz pedal with limited intensity to be used as a primary drive unit? Nevertheless, there would be countless proponents here who would be using a pedal of this nature in conjunction with their myriad others to achieve a unique voicing. In this light, the NANO Muff is excellent. Do not dismiss this petite derivative as a poor man’s fuzz unit; it’s a deserving number in its own turf.
Overall rating: 7.5/ 10
Likes:
• User-friendly
• Tough exterior
• Less fuzz character- excellent booster
Dislikes:
• Battery access (base-plate removal)
• Averse to daisy-chain power supply
• Less fuzz character- too mild to be a primary drive source
Worthy competitors:
• Ibanez Tubescreamer
• BOSS OD-3
• Carl Martin Crunch Driver
• Behringer Tube Overdrive TO100
