SKU: 4971532933

Wren and Cuff Tall Font Russian

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Description

Wren and Cuff Tall Font RussianMaker: Wren and Cuff Model: Tall Font Russian Condition: New Description: I have literally hand wired (meaning point to point, no proper circuit board, on perf board) over 150 muff and muff related pedals in the early days of Wren and Cuff, then many many more after getting proper PCB boards. Why I mention this is because as you might imagine, my ears have become very accustomed to the nuances and intricacies of these pedals. Ive spent many hours

Maker: Wren and Cuff

Model: Tall Font Russian

Condition: New

 

Description: 

I have literally hand-wired (meaning point-to-point, no proper circuit board, on perf-board) over 150 muff and muff-related pedals in the early days of Wren and Cuff, then many many more after getting proper PCB boards. Why I mention this is because as you might imagine, my ears have become very accustomed to the nuances and intricacies of these pedals.

I’ve spent many hours digging for some slight difference between a vintage pedal I love and one I’m building for one reason or another to be sure I could truly nail the sound. I’ve had my employees flat out saying, “Sorry man, I just can’t hear a difference”, then giving me the, man, this guy is crazy look. Why I mention this is to say that after all the muff type pedals built under my belt, The Tall Font Russian was the toughest pedal to nail.Why did I choose the Tall Font S****K version to recreate? After a conversation via email with an acquaintance who plays in a very successful band this quest began.In his words, after being asked about his affection for these pedals he said: “Yet to find anything close. And (after) hearing a lot of players, rarely do I like their distorted/fuzz sounds. I really think there is a reason the s****ks are so collectable. I prefer the first series green ones with the screws on the side. The series after this had them on the top. I don’t like the civil wars or any others besides the green ones. In a pinch, I’ll use a screws on the top one, but it has to be green.”

 

I was curious why he didn’t follow the standard, civil war muffs are the best Russian muffs belief. After some investigation I found that they’re very, very, similar in tone, parts, and values. Very close. But to me, 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 to me there is a rudeness to them that sets the TF’s apart from the C-War.

As usual with our muff-type pedals, I found that transistor selection was very important. After removing the transistors from vintage units then testing the gains I found some inconsistencies between vintage units. After some obsessive listening tests I went with one particularly sweet sounding pedal and matched the gains as closely as possible using a mix of trannies. I also was surprised to find an important biasing resistor and a capacitor that were a much different value than stated on the components and schematic. Discovering this helped to find that sound I was looking for!

One of my favorite traits is a “boxy” quality to the sound that was the toughest thing to reproduce. Wish I had a better way to describe it, but “boxy” is what it is to my ears.

It almost sounded right, but I couldn’t get a certain growl I heard on the vintage pedal and the boxy thing still wasn’t quite right..Finally, I tested the pots and found the actual vs. stated pot values were over 30% “off” in some cases. IMO this inconsistancy is partly responsible for one unit sounding particularly sweet and another sounding so, so. In other words, those absolutely crappy pots created a happy accident. After custom tweaking those pots, I realized that this was one of the things responsible for keeping the low-mid range from getting to mucky and is also a factor in the more over-drive type quality these Russians can produce. I found the growl! The kooky values  found can’t be purchased as such so we have to mod each pedal’s pots ourselves to get the desired values.
As far as I know, we’re the only company that goes as far as to modify the pots for a S****k clone.

This boxy-growl also helps make them particularly great on bass, and fantastic for raunchy, less friendly guitar tones ala The Black Keys, White Stripes, Mars Volta, and many others seeking a nasty F-You snarl (not saying the afore mentioned bands use these exact pedals, just using their tones as a reference). With many other desirable muffers (and our 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.

Sadly, my quest for this tone resulted in a couple of butchered vintage pedals, but the end result was worth it.

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.

In short, they could be a big pain in the ass.
Our TFR features:

• 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
• 3PDT foot-switch for real true-bypass operation
• Genuine USA Davies “Daka-ware” knobs
• Expert clean, tight, wiring that makes the insides just as beautiful as the outside
• Incredible attention to detail

 

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    SKU: 4971532933

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    4.1 ★★★★★
    Based on 13 reviews
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    ASH3
    Louisville, US
    ★★★★★ 3
    Nice romance, but one glaring flaw for me
    Format: Kindle
    This story had a nice romance, and the two main characters were likable with the exception of the one, not only never standing up for herself, but overlooking illegal acts because she’s too weak to stand up to her father. Outside of her relationship with her father and ex-husband her character was enjoyable. The book could have easily been four or five stars had it not been for one glaring flaw for me. The fact that Lance didn’t at least end up in jail for embezzlement makes my blood boil. Real life is far too full of mediocre men failing up! I don’t want to read about it in my romances novels as well. The two main male characters in this story were appalling and neither one of them ever had a single consequences for their actions! In my romance books, I want to see the “bad guys” get what’s coming to them.
    WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
    Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2025
    T
    Verified Purchase
    theladysparks
    Waukegan, US
    ★★★★★ 5
    likely my favorite read of this entire year
    Format: Kindle
    Noah Blue has finally made it to the big leagues with her webcomic's success, as she lands a full-time job at the company responsible for the relaunch of the cult classic Queen Leisah. The comic is expected to be a smash hit, with movie deals already in the works. Noah's career is taking off, but there's one obstacle standing in her way. Sage Montgomery's natural talent has brought her to the top of the charts for eight consecutive years. Although her career has hit a plateau, she believes that working on a high-profile, mainstream comic will help her breakthrough. She expected complete creative control over the Queen Leisah relaunch, but instead, she must share credit with an artist who has been her rival since college. This artist has a real chance of surpassing her in skill. Sage and Noah must put their rivalry aside and cooperate, or at least make it appear that way. They thought the biggest challenge would be working together, but the real challenge turned out to be falling in love. Touching her was like diving into a warm pool, the heat soothing yet close to being unbearable. I wanted more, but I wasn’t confident I'd be able to handle more. That I was worthy of more. This book was probably one of the cutest books I have ever read and I'm so glad that I picked it up so early in my 2024 reading year because now I get to spend the rest of 2024 shoving it at everyone I know because this is a book I need every person to read. If you look at my entire January wrap-up and decide to only take one of my recommendations, let it be this one. It will leave you feeling all of the things and I don’t know if there is a cuter couple than Noah and Sage. I'll start my talking points with Noah, a fellow people-pleaser who worries a lot internally about whether or not she belongs at her new job with people she sees as the best of the best. I related to her for the people-pleasing aspects and it broke my heart to hear how her family talked about her art career. I absolutely loved her personality and if I could have a fictional character go shopping with me and help me pick out outfits because her style and overall vibes were immaculate. I loved the realness of her struggle to the top and the reality of what pushing yourself like that can be like. And then there is Sage, the oldest daughter who is literally taking on the entirety of taking care of her family on her own shoulders and feeling like she needs to be in control of everything all of the time, also super relatable for me personally. Sage’s growth throughout this book was probably one of my favorite points. The healing journey that she goes on throughout was inspiring and really beautiful which had me emotional at times. I loved the realness of how burnout was spoken about throughout this book. And I especially loved the way that her bisexuality was talked about in the book and how it can feel like people expect you to just pick a side. This book really delivered the rivals-to-lovers aspect of things and I really appreciated the term rivals being used as opposed to enemies because it just fit them so much better. The way that they started in direct competition with one another only to realize it shouldn’t have been one to begin with and the two of them just rooting for each other even at the expense of their own losses was just absolutely beautiful. Their chemistry as a couple was off the chart and from start to finish I was rooting so hard for them. I appreciated how open and direct they were with their communication and how their friend group grew closer and helped along the way. Outdrawn was seriously so cute and I know I’ve already said it but I can’t help but use that word when describing this book. I definitely recommend it to literally everyone and cannot wait to read more of Deanna Grey’s books! - rivals to lovers - sapphic romance - bisexual rep - lesbian rep - Black romance - comic book artists main characters - workplace romance - banter for days - slow burn - lots of pining - opposites attract - grumpy/sunshine
    WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
    Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2024
    R
    Verified Purchase
    R. Calixte
    Waukegan, US
    ★★★★★ 4
    A refreshing romance read after a recent stent of mediocre reads
    Format: Kindle
    Well to be quite frank, over the last month or two, I've downloaded a ton of free romance books, got to love Kindle Day, with that being said I kinda can hit a snag as far as reading a ton of books that are meh as in the author delivering something short and sweet and free. And this book, I felt like the author took time to invest us in the back story to make an enemies to friends Trope really, really work and feel flushed out and .... Hmm not as dimensionaless as I've been enduring. Of course this book isn't free unless you have Kindle unlimited, which I do so maybe that's why I'm kind of lumping it into some of my Kindle day reads because I didn't pay anything for it. Even though of course I did with the subscription. It just felt refreshing. Now does it mean that the story didn't have flaws... it did. That comes in the form of the sex. If we were to give like a chili peppers rating on how steamy it was. I will give this about a notch over Pg13 as far as how substantial and how much the author was able to kind of, I don't know, give us the eemf. I love the consensual stuff. It was great but it... I don't know, something just felt like it was missing. like how in the photo booth scene in this story describes a kiss. It could have been better. But overall, I enjoyed the story
    WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
    Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2023
    C
    Verified Purchase
    CJ Simmons
    Battle Creek, US
    ★★★★★ 5
    One of the best romance books I've had the pleasure of reading
    Format: Kindle
    This is one of the best romance books I've had the pleasure of reading. Every character, no matter how much page time they received, was fleshed out with flaws and backgrounds and personalities all their own. Sage and Noah, our FMC's, were relatable and lovable. The rivalry didn’t feel contrived, and the progression towards love felt natural. By the time Noah and Sage were falling for each other, the writing had completely dragged me, as the reader, along with them! During Noah’s POV, I was absolutely as smitten with Sage as she was, and the reverse rang true during Sage’s POV. And the bickering! The way these women teased and taunted each other had me kicking my feet and giggling. What really touched my heart though, and what will stay with me for a long time, was the exploration of asking for “help” vs looking for “rescue.” How asking for or accepting help, or putting up personal boundaries, doesn’t reduce your personal strength or worth. How it’s necessary and often a way of letting your friends/loved ones show their own caring. Noah and Sage were both strong women. Neither needed to save or be saved by anyone. They met on equal footing and formed a deep understanding of each other because of it, which only enhanced their ability to lean on each other and support each other once they learned to allow themselves. In turn, that actually deepened their bond and brought both further happiness.
    WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
    Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2024
    C
    Verified Purchase
    Crispy pages
    Lowell, US
    ★★★★★ 5
    4.5 SO CUTE
    Format: Kindle
    Sapphic rivals to lovers?? Family angst??? I often wonder why I even pick up contemporary romance or dark romance stories because they almost always disappoint. Either it’s too much hetero nonsense or boring plotting but this book makes me think make it’s not the genre, it’s the books I’m picking up. I am so in love with the main characters, I loved the witty banter and jabs between these too and also how they sweetened over time. The dialogue was too cheesy for the most part ( more on that later ) and reluctant working together in forced proximity was *chefs kiss* The family angst was in perfect balance with the romance and felt so relatable, I loved to see the development of both characters learning to stand up to their parents. AND ( spoilers ) THAT ONE SCENE WHERE SAGE TELLS NOAHS FMAILY TO GIVE HER RESPECT AND LET HER FINISH HER SENTENCES BEFORE BUTTING IN??? Weak in the knees. Weak in the knees. The smut was perfect( SO MUCH EXPLICIT CONSENT !!! ) , but I think for most people they will want more than we got, especially when the last 10% of the book was a little.. drawn out? ( pun absolutely intended ) in fact the ending being a little slow and out of balance with conflict was one of the only reasons I didn’t give this a full five stars. My other nitpick was that a small portion of the dialogue and the carnival date was a little cheesy. My expectations got higher as the book went along, but once they started dating the clever dialogue got a little too cheddar for me. Overall I would 100% recommend this book and I could see myself re-reading this one or picking up other books by this author.
    WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
    Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2024

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