Kleiner Muk (Little Muk) MKIII

Kleiner Muk was developed for a powerful and rich sound, out of a light and compact case.

With its 2 ½ channels and its clear yet efficiently working controls and switching functions Kleiner Muk covers sounds from clean jazz to blues, rock, fusion and more and is also perfectly suitable for acoustic guitars (with magnetic pickups), resonator guitars or mandolins.
-> Video- & audio demos see below.

  • NKMC 1865 1000pix
    Kleiner Muk Portrait
    46x43,5x24,5cm (W/H/D), ca. 16kg
  • klMuk3 vh per hs 2
    Kleiner Muk rear view
    Simply replaceable power tubes.
    The 4 preamp tubes are situated horizontally on the chassis above the speaker.
  • klMuk3 Detail Potis hs
    Kleiner Muk - simple operation
    Because of its smart circuitry only one tone control per channel is sufficient.
  • klMuk3 Detail Ch m
    Kleiner Muk's Channels
    Clean (right side) / Drive + Boost (left side)
  • klMuk3 Detail Master m
    Kleiner Muk's Master-Section
    Smooth decreases the presences.
    With FULL/HALF (center position = standby) & SE/PP 4 power levels are selectable.
    (SE = Single Ended = Class-A, PP = Push-Pull = Class-AB)
  • NKM3 3.1 Rueck detail 2 600px
    Kleiner Muk - rear connectors for:
    - external cabinets: 8 Ohms (int. speaker ON) / 16 Ohms (int. speaker OFF)
    - Line-Out (e.g. additional amp)
    - serial FX-loop
    - 4-way footswitch NFS4-2 or customary 2-way FS

Due to its smart and stable construction, with these features Kleiner Muk sounds like a “big one” and outmatches even some of the more powerful combos.

Everything is possible, from mellow jazz tones with a strong bass or brilliant & twangy clean to fresh blues-crunch/overdrive to singing fat high-gain lead. All available via the footswitch (clean/drive/drive+boost).

Furthermore - thanks to its 4 switchable power levels - you can enjoy a rich tube sound full of overtones in any situation from bedroom level to club stage.

Or simply enjoy the different sound formations in the various power levels according to your own taste.

With an extension cabinet you can reach enough volume for a medium or larger stage. A suitable 1x12" cabinet is available from us. Of course, any other 8 or 16 ohm cabinet will work too.

Testbericht Gitarre & Bass Feb. 2015

Note : Drive gain & tone in the low gain area, volume differences between drive & boost and the smooth control range have been changed/improved since then.

Detailed features of Kleiner Muk:

Clean Channel

  • The Tone control influences the bass/treble ratio very efficiently and well-balanced.
  • The Bright switch brings more brilliance or more twang, depending on the position of the Volume control.
  • Depending on your sound-idea (really clean, twangy or slightly crunchy) you can virtually influence the gain via Volume control.
    And via Tone control (situated prior to the Volume in the circuitry) you can choose which frequencies are crunched more - e.g. basses less and treble more (this is recommended when Volume is wide-open or for guitars with strong bass).

Overdrive Channel

  • The Edge control works similar to the Tone control - full ccw means more mids and bass, full cw means more treble.
  • Boost switch (foot- switchable): This adds an additional tube stage, resulting in a richer distortion structure and producing a very creamy lead sound with high gain.
    For fat sounding guitars or pickups, resulting in a muddy tone at the lower or palm-muted strings, it is recommended to use the Tight switch.
  • Tight switch (to prevent a sludgy tone): Reduces the basses and some of the deep mids at the 1. tube-stage to create a tight tone and to avoid muddy sounds when with high gain (e.g. at high gain with the neck-humbucker on).

Global

  • The Smooth circuit (foot- switchable) creates a softer tone by slightly softening the presences. This can also be used to achieve more bite when switching from a more temperate rhythm play to solo play.
  • The serial effects loop is ready for every conceivable device. You can adjust the send level via potentiometer and the return gain can be set in two different levels.
  • Reverb circuit (foot- switchable) controls the TAD™ spring reverb.
  • 4 power levels are available via 2 switches:
    • Full / Half (center position = standby) switches the operating mode of the output tubes, reducing their power by 50%.
    • SE/PP: SE (single-ended) = Class-A (only one output tube is operating) / PP (push-pull) = Class-AB (both output tubes work).

Tubes

  • Preamp: 4x ECC83/12AX7 from Sovtek (V1, V2) & JJ (V3, V4). They are situated horizontally on the inside of the case.
  • Power amp: 2x 6V6GT from EH, which are very stable in the basses and transparent in the highs and we recommend EH because they are less susceptible against microfonics. All Tubes can be replaced any time with no adjustments needed (Auto-Bias).

Internal Speaker

  • Standard: Eminence 12" Wizard 8 Ohms: well-balanced for all styles of music, powerful in the bass range, not too intrusive in the upper mids and highs, live well assertive, very high efficiency (loud!) (ceramic magnets).
  • Alternatives (optional, on request, additional charge): to get a very soft vintage tone we recommend Eminence 12" Red Fang 8 Ohms (loud, warm sounding bluesy to rocky tone, also clean very well-balanced and stable), or Eminence 12" Eric Johnson (Both have AlNiCo magnets).

External Speaker

  • connected to the 8 Ohms jack the internal speaker stays active.
  • connected to the 16 Ohms jack the internal speaker is off (here you can also connect an 8 Ohm cabinet without hesitation).

Accessories