Alright. I first heard about the Tall Front Russian from Wren & Cuff from their periodical newsletter (you mean you haven’t signed up yet?!?) and of course immediately checked out the clip of their upcoming pedal. Needless to say I HAD to have one, but I just couldn’t drop the cash at that moment (a really new development ::rolls eyes::). I acquired my Tall Front Russian in a trade over on Talkbass.
The Tall Front Russian is an attempt by Matt over at W&C to recreate a particularly awesome Sovtek Russian Green muff. He chronicles his journey to recreate this particular muff and to bring this pedal to life over on his site (very interesting read). Anyways, here is the nitty-gritty about the Tall Front Russian:
- True hard-wire mechanical bypass
• Standard “Boss-style” 9VDC (-) tip power supply jack or 9V batt operated
• Small foot-print
• The best jacks available mounted off the circuit board
• Alpha pots
• CLIFF brand foot-switch
• Genuine USA Davies “Daka-ware” knobs
• Expert clean, tight, wiring that makes the insides just as beautiful as the outside
• Incredible attention to detail
Just like it says above, this pedal’s construction is top notch, just like my other two Wren & Cuff pedals which will never leave my board. This pedal also comes with the optional (FREE) clean blend, which I highly recommend. Even if you are someone who doesn’t like to use clean blends with your fuzz pedals, this is a neat addition to the circuit because you have the option of going 100% wet or blend in your clean signal with Matt’s patented approach. Side note - this shit is not just hype. His clean blends really do have a noticeably different sound; much more musical and natural sounding than traditional clean blends. The trick to using the blend feature on Matt’s pedals is to remember that the Volume and Clean Blend knobs work together. As you bring more of your clean signal into being, you then turn the Volume knob clockwise to bring back more of the fuzz signal. The two work together to bring the Heavy.
Whether or not this pedal actually emulates the famed Sovtek Russian Green Muff (like the one Grygrx reviewed recently) is up for debate, and considering that I don’t have one at my disposal at the moment, I can’t say for sure. What I can confirm is that this is one kick ass fuzz pedal. The controls on this fuzz are labeled Volume (duh), Distortion (sustain), Tone (traditional mid -scoop) and of course the clean blend knob that is located on the side of the pedal.
Right off the bat I noticed that this pedal was much more scooped in the Mid - range frequencies than the Pickle Pie B (you remember our first review right?). I normally run my Pickle Pie B with the Tone control set at around nine o’clock, but with the Tall Front, I preferred the tones that I got when the Tone control was set past noon and closer to 3 o’clock honestly. I think that, at least on bass, the true character of the fuzz really comes out in the upper Tone settings. This pedal really starts to snarl then. It could be that when playing more lead type lines on guitar the lower Tone settings will help you get that thick 70s fuzz tone (sick). When you start boosting the mid-range and upper frequencies on this or any fuzz pedal, you start to experience a perceived loss of low end - even if the pedal doesn’t actually loose any of the lower-range frequencies. In times like these, I just dial in more of my clean tone (I did mention that was a FREE upgrade, right?), and all is well with the world.
Comparing this pedal to the Pickle Pie B is quite a challenge, because not only are they very different beasts, the Pickle Pie B is hands down my favorite fuzz ever (with the Earthbound Audio Supercollider coming in a close second [review soon!]) and is pretty much impossible to beat for me. It brings that heavy, doom sound that I really dig. The Tall Front Russian is a superb pedal, and the tones that I was getting playing with a pick on my frankenstein Fender Precision were just incredible, snarling tones. I wish I was in a heavy band where I could use my Precision because that tone was so sick. I will say, however, that the Tall Front has an overall lower output than the Pickle Pie B, so not quite as DOOM, so take that for what you will. I’m going to let these clips do the talking for me. I recorded two clips with each pedal, one finger-style and one pick-style and tried to make a broad showcase to show the full range of the two pedals.
So if you are looking for a Green Russian muff, but don't want to deal with the backwards jacks made out of plastic, missing knobs, battery option only (yuk) and ridiculous size, I highly recommend taking a look at the Tall Front Russian from Wren & Cuff.
There are also a slew of clips of the Tall Front with guitar and bass on Wren & Cuff's site.
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