at the low end of the fretboard where other
Muffs can get mired in muck.
Cranking the volume all the way—a setting preferred by many Ram’s Head users—
does nothing to blunt the Caprid’s capacity
for detail. Even when you roll the tone
knob all the way off at these heavy levels, the
Caprid remains focused and incredibly rich
with overtones and color. With volume and
tone at these opposite extremes, the sustaining, savage growl of a barred F chord run
through a blackface Fender is easily among
the most delicious distorted tones I’ve ever
heard. And there aren’t many fuzz pedals—
of any type—that can swing that trick.
The tone knob, meanwhile, is beautifully
reactive and effective. Cranking it wide open
and going full throttle on the sustain and
volume uncages a fire-spitting monster that’s
at once deadly, blindingly beautiful, and full
of intricacies. You can move from singing and
stinging lead tones (that sound particularly
smooth with neck pickups and humbuckers)
to fast chord arpeggios that retain amazing
note-to-note balance. Roll the sustain back a
bit and plug in a Stratocaster and you have
RATINGS
Pros: About as smooth a Muff-type pedal as you’ll hear.
Lovingly built. Works incredibly well for big chords. Great
sustain.
Wren and Cuff Caprid, $279 street, wrenandcuff.com
Cons: Authenticity comes at a price.
Tones
Ease of Use
Build
Value
the combination of tooth and sustain that’s
typical of Gilmour’s Animals tone—perhaps
the definitive Ram’s Head lead tone.
The Verdict
Unless you’re willing to brave the vagaries,
risk, and expense of the vintage Muff market, the Caprid is about as complete as a
classic Ram’s Head experience as you can
get. The pedal is built like a battleship and
Wren and Cuff nailed the design idiosyn-crasies that made old Electro-Harmonix the
coolest-looking pedals in the shop.
Whether the Caprid captures the perfect
Ram’s Head tone is impossible to say, given
the unique voice of each original. But the
Caprid is a spectacular-sounding fuzz by any
criteria. It’s capacity for note-to-note detail—
even when chording in the most extreme
gain settings—is extraordinary. Lead tones are
classically Ram’s Head—singing, aggressive,
and responsive to varied input from a guitar’s
volume and tone controls—and snarling
and savage enough to get out over a raging
maelstrom of drums and bass. If there’s a
drawback, it’s that you’re not likely to get a
Caprid on the cheap. And at 279 bones, less
obsessive Muff fans might find the Caprid
too much for a relatively simple circuit. But
Muff fans that savor the design elegance and
civilized-to-savage personality of the best vin-
tage Ram’s Heads are bound to be thrilled by
what the Caprid can do—and consider this
lovingly crafted homage a bargain.
