Tell me about Big Muffs

Dave_Mc

Websmurfer does a bunch of classic muff circuits on Ebay for about £30 as long as you aren't unlucky and someone else wants it that week and bids it up (just wait until the next week if someone else bids, he usually puts more up every week or two). I don't think he does an Op-Amp one, though, unfortunately, but he seems to do more or less every other one that I'm aware of...

I've said it before but I don't know how he does them for that kind of money, you'd be struggling to buy the parts for that, let alone counting the labour (and it'd be extremely reluctant and unskilled labour in my case!)...

ICBM

thecolourbox said:

Is there a model of one on the Boss ME50? 

Yes, but it’s not great.

I’ve actually wondered about getting a tatty DS-1, removing the distortion circuit and building an IC Big Muff circuit into it, retaining the Boss switching…

Shipwreck

I have a MadeByMike DreamBox on my board for ever, really. It's Siamese Dream in a box and whilst I scarcely use the Dist II channel (it is fun as an overloading/skuzzy mode, mind), the IC Voicing (which to me is more spongey) with Mids and Tone is really great. With a bit of scoop you get a sort of Deftones-ish drone-y tone and with mids pushed it's a lot more amp-like and present. I tend to use it lower gain with higher volume which I imagine is somewhere in the RAT ball-park but it's really versatile imo once you've bonded with it 

merlin

ICBM said:

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

Mine too. 

jeromegreenday

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.

I'm glad you mentioned the Skreddy Mayo. I'm a fuzz head, it's a perverted, cult world. Fuzz junkies revere the fuzz pedal above all overs. Overdrives mean nothing to me. The opening post mentioned liking Smashing Pumpkins, the Skeddy Mayo with it's 2N5133 transistors will get you that tone. There are tens of thousands of posts on the internet about what is the best transistor for a big muff etc. I sleep so much better knowing I have 2n5133 & NKT 275 red dot fuzz pedals.

theatreanchor

The new TPS is all about the Big Muff. 

LionAquaLooper

theatreanchor said:

The new TPS is all about the Big Muff. 

Yep I watched it last night. Really interesting episode. I couldn't believe the tone they got at one point when they set the BM to low sustain (or "just when the bacon starts to fry" as Dan put it).

I wonder if that "frying bacon" technique would work on the Op Amp Muff. Its a Big Muff but is op amp and only 3 gain stages as opposed to the usual 4. I don't even know if that's even relevant TBH lol. 

Airmiles

Dave_Mc said:

Websmurfer does a bunch of classic muff circuits on Ebay for about £30 as long as you aren't unlucky and someone else wants it that week and bids it up (just wait until the next week if someone else bids, he usually puts more up every week or two). I don't think he does an Op-Amp one, though, unfortunately, but he seems to do more or less every other one that I'm aware of...

I've said it before but I don't know how he does them for that kind of money, you'd be struggling to buy the parts for that, let alone counting the labour (and it'd be extremely reluctant and unskilled labour in my case!)...

Thanks for the pointer @Dave_Mc - Civil War incoming!

Dave_Mc

Airmiles said:

Dave_Mc said:

Websmurfer does a bunch of classic muff circuits on Ebay for about £30 as long as you aren't unlucky and someone else wants it that week and bids it up (just wait until the next week if someone else bids, he usually puts more up every week or two). I don't think he does an Op-Amp one, though, unfortunately, but he seems to do more or less every other one that I'm aware of...

I've said it before but I don't know how he does them for that kind of money, you'd be struggling to buy the parts for that, let alone counting the labour (and it'd be extremely reluctant and unskilled labour in my case!)...

Thanks for the pointer @Dave_Mc - Civil War incoming!

Nice! I haven't tried that one- I've got his triangle and ram's head, which are both excellent, I'm not sure which I prefer!

JD50

A wealth of Big Muff info
https://bigmuffpage.com/