Tell me about Big Muffs

26.2

I always keep one around but isn’t really a core part of my sound. You can go down a rabbit hole looking for originals, clones, tweaked versions but I reckon the current EHX minis are about as good as it gets. Small, inexpensive and sound great! 

Alexlotl

Never had a Big Muff proper, but love the Ibanez 850 Fuzz Mini, which I believe is a Rams Head variant with a different tone stack. It has mids and a useful tone knob, but can still do the crazy sustain and great lead tone. Doesn’t really do the scooped boom of doom, which is fine by me.

I bought it just out of curiosity thinking I probably wanted a Rat, but it’s nailed to my board now. 

Gassage

If you want a really cool muff sound for not much money, the Custom Pedal Boards Muff 1 is outstanding.

As is the Boss Digital Metalizer (Gilmour 80s in a box!)

snowblind

Big muff Pi, football pitch sized, was one of my first pedals. When things go right (ie whatever else is in the chain agrees with it) they sound pretty damn good. Recently bought a nano just because of board real estate issues. I have found the muff to be a bit finicky in terms of what you can stick either in front or after it. It will be an impedance matching thing I'm sure but some experimentation is required. For a similar wall-of-sound also try a Boss HM-2 with a TC Spark boost in front of it.

Kurtis

Gassage said:

If you want a really cool muff sound for not much money, the Custom Pedal Boards Muff 1 is outstanding.

As is the Boss Digital Metalizer (Gilmour 80s in a box!)

The behringer VD(!) is really good too. Maybe one of the the best I've heard.
With the gain right down mine did a really nice "torn speaker" sound. Very...errr...vintage distortion sounding.

I've not tried many at all but I did build a clone that I have tried lots of different parts on. Not used it for a bit, not sure which it is closest to now. Think I had germanium diodes for a smooth vintage tone. 

mo6020

I like big muffs so much that I have a tattoo of one…

Dominic

Hmmm
They are very 70's hirsute
I think a Brazillian or a Bald Badger is far more attractive

GavRichList

Dominic said:

Hmmm
They are very 70's hirsute
I think a Brazillian or a Bald Badger is far more attractive

Freudian paedo 

denz32

My first ever pedal was a Big Muff Pi with tone wicker. I had a Fender Twin (which was already way too loud for my bedroom at my parent’s house).

I cranked the volume and sustain on the pedal and plugged it in. I assumed that the volume knob on the Muff needed to be at 100% to be at unity with my amp (don’t ask me why, I was not a smart kid). 

Well, I hit a power chord and I’ll never forget the level of noise. It was absolutely deafening. My bedroom windows were actually shaking. My parents immediately started screaming at me to turn it down from downstairs. The neighbour’s dog started going nuts up the road. 

It scared the crap out of me (and everyone else) but oh man, what an incredible racket. It felt like detonating an explosive. 

jca74

Even better than a big muff, I've had quite a bit of fun with a wizard's sleeve...

InactiveX

My Muff is a homemade EHX Little Big Muff. I got the schematic from here:

https://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2013/01/ehx-little-big-muff-original-version.html

Don't know if you're into DIY, but Muffs are very simple circuits with only a hap'orth of components.

I plug mine in and it's early '90s shoegaze round here.

Boromedic

All I can tell you is that a Skreddy Mayo is the best Big Muff (for me), but a PastFX M1A is very very close for a lot less money. Neither of these needs another pedal to sound great.

IC muffs, I've had the Nano and two clones they all sounded similar tbh. They sound better stacked though for flat or boosted mids. 

I'd love to try a Civil War or clone, but I'll be honest the Mayo is just so so good it's not worth the hassle. The Thorpy is decent but has a modern and calmer edge than the madness of a vintage box.

Boromedic

denz32 said:

My first ever pedal was a Big Muff Pi with tone wicker. I had a Fender Twin (which was already way too loud for my bedroom at my parent’s house).

I cranked the volume and sustain on the pedal and plugged it in. I assumed that the volume knob on the Muff needed to be at 100% to be at unity with my amp (don’t ask me why, I was not a smart kid). 

Well, I hit a power chord and I’ll never forget the level of noise. It was absolutely deafening. My bedroom windows were actually shaking. My parents immediately started screaming at me to turn it down from downstairs. The neighbour’s dog started going nuts up the road. 

It scared the crap out of me (and everyone else) but oh man, what an incredible racket. It felt like detonating an explosive. 

Legend!

ewal

This is a good comparison video of the mini pedals. My favourites are Ram's Head and Russian.

Jonathanthomas83

Boromedic said:

All I can tell you is that a Skreddy Mayo is the best Big Muff (for me), but a PastFX M1A is very very close for a lot less money. Neither of these needs another pedal to sound great.

IC muffs, I've had the Nano and two clones they all sounded similar tbh. They sound better stacked though for flat or boosted mids. 

I'd love to try a Civil War or clone, but I'll be honest the Mayo is just so so good it's not worth the hassle. The Thorpy is decent but has a modern and calmer edge than the madness of a vintage box.

The M1A is a Buffalo M1 clone, which is in itself a clone of a Ram’s Head with a Power Boost circuit in there too. So you’re right, it won’t need any other pedals to sound great, and that’s the reason. :-)

Boromedic

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Boromedic said:

All I can tell you is that a Skreddy Mayo is the best Big Muff (for me), but a PastFX M1A is very very close for a lot less money. Neither of these needs another pedal to sound great.

IC muffs, I've had the Nano and two clones they all sounded similar tbh. They sound better stacked though for flat or boosted mids. 

I'd love to try a Civil War or clone, but I'll be honest the Mayo is just so so good it's not worth the hassle. The Thorpy is decent but has a modern and calmer edge than the madness of a vintage box.

The M1A is a Buffalo M1 clone, which is in itself a clone of a Ram’s Head with a Power Boost circuit in there too. So you’re right, it won’t need any other pedals to sound great, and that’s the reason. :-)

Oh I know what it's modelled on/cloned from, I was amazed how close to the Mayo it got for £120-130 delivered though

LionAquaLooper

ewal said:

This is a good comparison video of the mini pedals. My favourites are Ram's Head and Russian.

This video is useful thanks! I might be in the minority but I like the Op Amp model the best in that comparison. Also like the green Russian one. 

mo6020

Op Amp is my fave, too. 

ICBM

I’ll give you one guess which version I like best .

thecolourbox

ICBM said:

I’ll give you one guess which version I like best .

Is there a model of one on the Boss ME50?