After all the Muff-type pedals built by Wren and Cuff, The Tall Font Russian was the toughest pedal to nail.

The highs are more present and clear in the Tall Fonts, resulting in an openness in the highs unique to this pedal. They’re generally not as dark sounding, which gives them a slight gritty edge not found in the war muffs. Some dislike this trait, but there is a rudeness to them that sets the TF’s apart from the C-War.

The trademark boxy-growl helps make them particularly great on bass, and fantastic for raunchy, less-friendly guitar tones similar to The Black Keys, White Stripes, Mars Volta and many others seeking a nasty F-you snarl. With many other desirable muffers (and the Wren and Cuff Tri Pie 70’) the goal is warm, smooth and buttery, but the TFR has a different goal in mind. There is a growl and raunchy yet truly musical sound produced by these ugly green beasts.

The lows have an overdrivey compression that keeps things tight, and the highs have a rich upper-harmonic thing going on that’ll make one understand the affection some have for this pedal. The mids have the standard muff-scoop but it is not as pronounced as some of the other generations. Add to that a less gainy/fuzzy tone overall and you end up with a unique muff with a character all its own. Good stuff.

The bummer about the vintage Tall Fonts? Cheap, cheap, cheap plastic jacks mounted to the circuit-board that beg to be given a hard knock resulting in a cracked circuit board. Equally cheap pots (knobs you turn) that feel flimsy, break easily, and barely hold the knobs in place making it rare to find one with all three original knobs. Non-true bypass tone-suck, no power supply jack, huge footprint, and heavy as hell round off the list of negatives the originals carried.

So pickup your Wren and Cuff Tall Font Russian, and get all the positives with none of the negatives!