And it is interesting. As i built it, it has a fair bit less fuzz to it than the tranny version, but, is strangely wayyyy more massive and sketchy at it.

It actually has almost an octave effect to it, which i think is what goes to thickening the sound the way it does, and which becomes more apparent on single note stuff up the neck. But it is not like a normal octave up/down sort of effect, more of a glitchfuzz almost.

Once you play with it, you realize that there is no way that the Siamese Dream fuzz was anything but one of these. With an OD boosting it, it is almost weirdly "right on" to the sound of that record, rhythm and solos. That is pretty much common knowledge these days, but not too long ago, lots of pedal makers were adamant that it was some more standard type of big muff. Once you meet the ICBM(which also has a glorious abbreviation, no?) you realize that the sound really is right there in front of you.

Cons: Muddy like a motherfucking monsoon. Powerchords = awesome, anything else = "what the hell am i playing?" Also, i wish it had more blast all on its own. I don't think i would ever use it just by itself, it is too loose, and with too little edge to it. It should probably have had a boost in front built in from the getgo.

But yeah, i have built a lot of shit, and usually it turns out to be disappointing. This one isn't disappointing, but it also isn't what i was expecting from it. By itself it isn't really much but that silly big muff midscoop and a little gunkycrunch. Boosted, it is actually pretty cool!

Anyhoo, i know some of you lads around here are SP/corgan fans. You should start scoping your local thrift stores w/ screwdrivers (actually the '78 one should be obvious from the outside with its tone cut switch - i don't know that any other muffs from that era had that) and see if you can score one of these for playing with. Actually, nowadays i know of a couple doods who are making copies of them now also. Worth czeching out if you like that sound. For what i use a Muff for, i think i prefer the ICBM actually. If it was a little clearer in how it sounded with things other than power chords, i would say it was for sure.

Huh. How fucked-up sounding can you get the thing, boosted?

And yeah, the abbreviation is righteous.

It is not overtly glitchy like a fuzz factory or something. But a combination of the way the low end responds and the odd borderline not-quite-an-octave play together makes for different feeling noisemaker than a normal Muff.

If you listen back to Siamese dream, that has got to be about 98% boosted ICBM. Like, that record(the actual record though, not so much the youtube i am about to poast), is pretty much exactly what a boosted ICBM sounds like.

Forinstance(just picking the first vid that popped up), listening to this one:



All of the solos sound like he has some sort of octafuzz going on. Especially noticeable on the bent/held notes, kind of an octave and a little bit of an 'explodey' sort of quality to the way the guitar sounds. I would not be surprised if in fact there is no octave on them, but rather just a boosted ICBM plus some delay. I don't know for sure that that is what went down, but that is how the thing behaves.

More than anything, i guess i just assumed that there was a lot more going on with the guitar sound on that record than perhaps there really was. Just sort of chalked it up to more than likely being too many tracks of too many guitars with too many pedals, big budgety 90s rock record style.

But now that i have properly met the ICBM, i think he might have had a lot less going on for the tracking of that.

And that is my favourite fuzz ever.

You have nerdskillz, you should build one!

There really isn't too much to it:

http://analogguru.an.ohost.de/193/schem ... _OP-78.gif

Actually a fair bit simpler than the transistor version!

And there are even pcbs out there for it: http://www.guitarpcb.com/apps/webstore/ ... ow/2420040 (though the sound sample he has there is a modded version, and sounds a bit different than the stock one)

No time to start new projects.

BOOO!

Excuse to listen to dig through my boxes of CDs and blast Siamese Dream when I get home: achieved.

Also, just the phrase "boosted ICBM" is fantastic. Like, no one's around so you totally walked off with this missile...

Probably going to be my next fuzzz purchase. You can never have enough fuzzz.

For the sake of Science, i just made a Big Muff out of a bunch of Super Hard-Ons.

It is like the Transgender Sexual Innuendo Fuzz.

Nothing exceeds like excess, and this exceeds on several levels.

What's going on that would allow you to make one out of a bunch of the other? Is it a gain stage thing?

Yarr, like the standard big muff is four stages of hot npn transistor action.

The SHO is a single mosfet gainstage. I just put a stack of the SHO stages in place of the Muff trannies, then into a baxandall tonestack. I have to mess with it more today. I don't know if it is useful, but it is a bit different.