A year ago this March, after careful analysis and deliberation, I purchased the Mojo Hand FX Iron Bell – I have no regrets; it’s a fantastic pedal and still remains on my pedalboard. In recently completing a few upgrades and configuration tweaks, my attention was drawn back to the current selection of overdrives and fuzz I had on tap. A quick summary: The Barber Gain Changer serves as the foundation; kept on light-overdrive settings, just at the cusp of break-up, it provides a bit of boost and bite, along with some EQ sculpting capabilities. I use the pedal for classic rock chordal progressions and/or blues-esque leads. The Iron Bell was used, often stacked, to kick things up a notch for soaring rock leads from Gilmour to Santana. On occasion, I would use the Iron Bell for some heavier/alt rhythmic selections but found it less than ideal. While the pedal has endless gain, it remains very controlled – smooth yet articulate (great for leads).

The Search Candidates

In trying to find a pedal that would compliment the Gain Changer and Iron Bell, my search immediately returned to a few of the pedals that I had originally considered a year ago. The three top choices that came to mind: the Vick Audio Ram’s Head 73, Mojo Hand FX Colossus, and the Blackout Effectors’ Musket. As is common with most of my gear searches, I place a greater importance on (but not limiting my choice to) the flexibility/versatility of the pedal; it’s ability to play nicely with the other components of my setup as well as having a great range of effect. With this perspective, the Musket entered the decision process as the top contender. That being shared, I did have some concern that there would be a bit too much overlap between the Iron Bell and Musket as they share similar design approach; that being a modified Muff circuit with mid boost capabilities. I’ll address this with a bit more detail below but I am happy to report that each of these pedals has their own unique personality.

Before continuing on, and for others on a similar search, let me share these two invaluable resources, along with a sincere thanks for the work and effort of their respective authors:

GILMOURISH.COM (check out the Big Muff Buyers Guide and Review) – by Bjørn Riis

&

The Big Muff ∏ Page – (check out the Vintage Big Muff Clones Page here) by @Kit Rae

Enter: The Blackout Effectors’ Musket

As Kit Rae shares in his review, the Blackout Effectors Musket is essentially a “Sovtek Bubble Font Green/Black Russian Big Muff circuit with an Electro-Harmonix LPB-1 booster circuit in the front”. A key to this pairing, and something that sets it apart from the Iron Bell is that the user is given full control of the mix between these two circuits allowing the pedal to provide the characteristics of a traditional Muff if so desired. In comparison (or similarity in some respects) to the Musket, and as Bjorn points out in his review, the Iron Bell is very much like a combination of the classic Big Muff and Tube Driver. With respects to my concerns about overlap shared above, these two pedals indeed cover a lot of the same territory BUT, they have more than enough uniqueness with respects to their voice characteristics and effect capabilities to warrant side-by-side placement on my pedalboard.

The ‘voice’ of the Iron Bell has an emphasized ‘nasalness’/mid-based eq bias as a foundation with the user given the ability to adjust to the intensity of the mids from light to heavy. The Bass Frequencies are dialed back a bit compared to other Muff pedals which tends to highlight the stronger mid presence. It has endless gain on tap but the resulting sound is always well controlled which, when combined with the sustain, provides both the articulation and smoothness for lead work.

The Musket’s voice, in contrast, originates down deep from the diaphragm, picking up some raspiness in the throat on the way up, resulting in a much fuller presentation of EQ spectrum. The [Focus] control, depending on some of the other settings, allows the Bass frequencies feeding into the Muff circuit to be ‘tightened’ up a bit – turned fully counter clock-wise, the pedal has a very BOOMING voice. Like the Iron Bell, the pedal has endless gain on tap, which can be further boosted by the ‘pre’ boost control. Where the Iron Bell keeps its composure (the prima virtuoso), the Musket let’s itself have a bit more fun (crazy hair guy); a personality trait which works great for the likes of Smashing Pumpkins, White Stripes, or The Black Keys. A key component that speaks to my emphasized importance on flexibility and versatility, with its three additional controls on top, the user is provided full control over the modified section of the circuit allowing one to run the Musket as a pure Soviet-Style Muff and/or, when dialing different combinations of the ‘Pre’ – ‘Mids’ and ‘Focus’ settings, allowing the pedal to cover a wide range of effect, from overdrive to distortion. There have been times these past few days that I hear the inspirations of classic Van Halen riffs from the Musket. It is through these additional controls that the I have been able to get the Musket to sound and respond very much like the Iron Bell. With both on the board however, I can leave the Musket wide open and the Iron Bell lead focused.

As with all my reviews, I will come back to add and edit as my time and experience with the pedal grows. Over the past few days since its arrival, it has secured a spot on my pedalboard, complimenting my Iron Bell, serving in the role that addresses more of the chordal/rhythmic needs on my setlist.