At Mascis’ request, Tym Guitars cloned the Fuzz Munchkin from his live rig Ram’s Head Big Muff during repairs. The limited edition commercial run was made with Mascis’ permission. The pedal’s history is documented in a three-part blog entry.

The Tym Fuzz Munchkin Pt 1

So, to my surprise at the end of that last tour a package turns up at my workshop addressed from "J Mascis" and inside is THE Big Muff. WTF ? I get an email from J saying "The muff is having issues, can you fix it and clone it while your there ?"

The Tym Fuzz Munchkin pt 2

J emailed and said "you got it" ................. I was SO happy. I'd done it. Now for the next obvious step. "Hey J, can I make these and offer them to sell ?" To be honest, I thought J would say no. This is his secret weapon. This is Dinosaur Jr live. I've worked with lots of bands and some are .......... secretive about their gear. Others don't care because they know it's not just their pedal, or their guitar, or their amp ........... it's THEM, and let's face it, J Mascis is J Mascis.

The Tym Fuzz Munchkin pt 3

The official J Mascis Fuzz Munchkin comes with a limited edition T shirt only available with the pedal and have J's hand drawn "Munchkin" printed on the front and are available only in, you guessed it, purple. The first one hundred pedals are serial "numbered" with song titles off all the Dinosaur Jr albums. These also have to be hand stamped adding more time to each build. As I've said this is a privilege for me and I'm so honored that J and I have a relationship that has allowed me to do this. I hope that people understand that when they buy something like this they are supporting a VERY small niche of a small market that still cares about what they do and why they do it.

(...) So, anyway, here we are. The new Tym guitars official J Mascis Fuzz Munchkin. Reverse engineered from the "ramhead" BM J bought back in 1987 and has used as his essential live sound ever since. These, like all my effects DON'T take batteries and have external 9V power only. I have added more filtering to this circuit than J's original had for people who use cheap power supplies. If you still get slight "squealing" with everything on full with a cheap supply it's like any high gain transistor circuit, get a better power supply. The bypass switch bypasses the volume control completely so you can get J's rhythm and lead sound in one pedal. J uses his Big Muff with a bypass loop with the volume down as his rhythm sound and then the pedal on full for his lead sound. The Fuzz Munchkin gives you both in one pedal.

(...) "Tym tried to harness my sound in a little a box and I think he's got it. Step on the Fuzz Munchkin for a good time. Dial down the volume for cleaned up rhythm then hit the bypass switch and the flood gates are open, the volume control dissapears, all sanity dissapears, its just searing lead tone cranked all the way up. So now if your sound sucks you must lay blame somewhere else, your amp, your pickups, your fingers, but don't blame the Fuzz Munchkin." J Mascis.