Electro-Harmonix Nano Metal Muff review – a surprisingly versatile distortion pedal that does more than just metal

Few pedals companies have been as prolific as NYC-based Electro-Harmonix over the years. And that tradition continues apace today, including the production of multiple versions of some of the brand’s most popular pedals – but how many Big Muff versions do you need? Scrap that: we all know you can never have too many Big Muffs! 

You can get a total of eight different Muffs in Nano-sized enclosures, but only three of them get the Nano prefix. Here, we are looking at the Muff that is built for the rigours of metal guitar.

Billed as being “built for the player who demands nothing less than hard-hitting distortion and an intense, aggressive sound”, the Nano Metal Muff features three-band EQ alongside the standard Volume and Gain (Distortion) knobs. 

It also features a noise gate with a variable threshold, which can be very effective in cutting out any hiss and hum if you set it just right.

At its mildest, with Distortion at minimum and the output volume cranked up, the pedal is capable of a raunchy overdrive, but it goes way beyond that to full-on cranked-to-the-max distortion. 

Now, that could be true of many distortion pedals, but it’s the three-band EQ that’s main deal here – each knob covers a huge range, so you can really sculpt the sound, maybe tweaking the midrange with a scoop or some cocked-wah resonance, or going further into some extreme tone-wrangling.

It’s black and says Metal on the box, but it’s way more than that.

Specs

• PRICE: $84 / £79
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: Fuzz/distortion pedal
• FEATURES: Buffered bypass, noise gate
• CONTROLS: Volume, Gate, Distortion, Treble, Mid, Bass, Bypass footswitch
• CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output
• POWER: 9V battery or 9V DC adaptor (not supplied) 24mA 
• DIMENSIONS: 70 (w) x 111 (d) x 50mm (h)  
• CONTACT: Electro-Harmonix