Lets talk about the Big Muff Pi Pedal

[littleredguitars2]

i'm seeing these pop up more and more recently and i'm just curious what you guys think of them. ive never really used fuzz but i've always thought i could benefit from grabbing one.

[bucketshred]

Lets not.

(Sorry, couldn't help myself. AFAIK, the normal Big Muff is still killer. Take a look at Nine of Swords Fuzz pedals, they are mean!)

[Telerocker]

It's a fuzz. It fuzzes. Just test one in a shop, you will experience if a fuzz is something for you. I'm not a big fan. Lows are most of the time too flabby for me, but some people get great tones out of fuzzboxes.

[Dave Sloven]

In my mind fuzzes like the Big Muff are for people who want a sound like Sonic Youth (on the one hand) or Electric Wizard (on the other).  Am I wrong?  I have a Metal Muff but I don't think that is a fuzz pedal, it seems more like a regular distortion pedal (more along the lines of an HM-2) with a 'top boost' function, and to be honest I've never really found a good use for it.

[Plenum n Heather]

I do not own a Muff, but I do have a Death By Audio Fuzz War. It's amazing.

[juansolo]

Muffs are MASSIVELY variable. Even ones that are reputedly the same thing. It comes down to the circuit being insanely forgiving on the parts used and that EHX stuck whatever they had into them. The do have a character, but they can vary from full on Electric Wizard to David Gilmour depending on what's in them and how you use them.

This is an interesting read: http://www.kitrae.net/music/music_big_muff.html

As I've gone along, I've kept a spreadsheet of muffs that I've built or were interested in, it can show just how different they are: http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/muffbuild.html For example compare the '71 Triangle and the Triangle columns. They're supposed to be the same pedal!

[tekbow]

Muffs are actually a very versatile pedal. fuzzes are just difficult for some, some hate em, some can't be without em, but love em or hate em, they're hard to get the hang of which is why a lot don't bother. I actually consider the muff a distortion pedal.

They're not suddenly experiencing a revival though, they've just come on your radar and your noticing them more ;)

I have a bunch of muff, some of which i want to get shot of, because there's only so much muff you need, or can cope with. I made the mistake of putting the muff on a pedestal, and muff ruled my life for a while. But finally i withdrew from the muff, exhausted.

Juans right, muffs are variable. a lot of the different kinds haven't been intentionally revisions, the circuit just constantly evolved into distinct types. everything else was in between. the only one separate/distinct in sound to the hereditory lineage is the IC/opamp muff. and it still sounds muffy

[Dave Sloven]

I knew we'd get to the muff jokes eventually.

[tekbow]

Thank you, I'm here all week, please remember to tip your waitress  8)

[xXNicFlairXx]

In recent years i've found my drive pedals are getting lower in gain. I went from Big Muff to Rat and i've now settled on a Blues Breaker mk1. I used to be crazy about heavily fuzzed-up tones but nowadays i prefer to roll the gain back a bit and let the natural tone through.

[tekbow]

so you play your amps pretty low gain?

[Kiichi]

In my mind fuzzes like the Big Muff are for people who want a sound like Sonic Youth (on the one hand) or Electric Wizard (on the other).  Am I wrong? 

Yes cause you forgot the Smashing Pumpkins! ;)

[xXNicFlairXx]

I tend to set my amp just at breaking point and then roll my guitars volume back to clean it up. I can then play clean, up the volume to get break-up, stomp on my overdrive to get a dirty sound and then i got a treble booster after for when i want that bit more.
I still pull out the Muff from time to time to rock out, i just find it a bit one dimensional.
By the way the Muff i have i got from a friend, it's a black Russian Sovtek Muff with creamy-dreamer mods. i have no idea what that is, anyone shed some light on this?

[Andrew W]

I have one of JuanSolo's Darkside pedals which is muff-ish (I think). I find that if I put into my amp when it's overdriving a lot on the power section it does very little for me but if I use it on the amp when it's just breaking up it sounds huge. If you listen to David Grissom's track "Sqwawk", it's that kind of sound and I love it. Tons of sustain, some sparkle in the grit and a thick but not too muddy tone. Love it.

[juansolo]

Yep, that's a Cornish G2 clone. It's a mild muff in the world of muffs, wrapped in Cornish's buffers.