Favorite Big Muff + Guitar

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Thu May 10, 2012 9:08 am

i really enjoyed playing with the muff overdrive I got from chrismakesgod yesterday. first day love affair and all that

Its supposed to be like the original muff pedal and also one stage of the double muff, not like the big muff at all but it does wonderful things spanking a big muff in the chain afterwards

Post by **Mike** » Thu May 10, 2012 9:17 am

I've been a big fan of teh Green, Violet's Ram's Head and IC versions since I built them.

Hated my NYC muff - crap bypass, never got above unity volume even with max sustain. Complete shit.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Thu May 10, 2012 10:02 am

timhulio wrote:
Fran wrote: i did have a 1980 Big Muff Deluxe
That's the IC Muff in there, which sounds way different to other muffs.

Apparently this is what J Mascis used on the first couple of Dinosaur Jr albums.

I've had a Black Russian Muff, Fredric IC Muff, MBM Green Russian with extras, EQD Hoof and a Magnetic Effects IC Muff with mids knob and my favourites are definitely either of the IC Muffs with my Jazzmaster.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Thu May 10, 2012 10:21 am

timhulio wrote:
stewart wrote:When I was a nipper, word on the street was that the Russian ones were slightly inferior
The black ones definately,

Why, are the parts garbage, teh plastic jacks? A matter of taste surely?

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Thu May 10, 2012 10:27 am

Yes it's definately a matter of taste. It's been so long since I've played one but I recall them having a reputation for sounding quite harsh and trebbly compared to the previous Russian muffs and contemporary USA RI.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Thu May 10, 2012 10:50 am

timhulio wrote:
stewart wrote:When I was a nipper, word on the street was that the Russian ones were slightly inferior
The black ones definately, the green ones have always been sought-after round are way.

When I was a nipper, people eulogised about something called a 'Creamy Dreamer'. Sounds positively obscene.

See, it wasn't so long ago that people loved the green russians but shunned the black ones. Now secondhand prices have more than doubled. I'm not that fond of the NYC reissue, but thought the Little Big Muff reissue was a cracker.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Thu May 10, 2012 11:55 am

Mike wrote:Hated my NYC muff - crap bypass, never got above unity volume even with max sustain. Complete shit.

Maybe they sorted those issues by the time I got mine. 2004 or so. I usually have the volume at about 11 o' clock, on the very rare occasions that I use it (I like mids!)

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Thu May 10, 2012 11:58 am

I noticed the Black ones have jumped up in value, is Johnny Greenwood using one now or something?

stewart wrote:(I like mids!)

Lulz. Sigworthy.

SGJarrod · Post by **SGJarrod** » Thu May 10, 2012 4:28 pm

most people hate the NYC Reissues cuz of the clipping cap choices EHX made.... these newer reissues have larger cap values in the clipping stages, this = less lowend

All of the Russians and most Triangles used .047 clipping caps, the Ram's Heads were usually .1

Almost all of the NYC Reissues are 1.0 uf.....

more info... http://pisotones.com/BigMuffPi/psst/BMP_versions.htm

Concretebadger · Post by **Concretebadger** » Thu May 10, 2012 5:54 pm

I used a NYC reissue for years but never really like it much - it was the only affordable option at the time. The tone is 'plastic-y' if that makes any sense; it was thick and fuzzy and compressed but lacked character and didn't feel natural at all. No true bypass either. The sustain started really high and didn't do much past the ten o clock position and to top it all the enclosure is stupidly large. Yeah, I know, that's how they've always been...but WHY? What the hell's the point of a pedal that takes up more floor/pedal board space than it needs to? It could fit in a Small Clone enclosure just fine. Sometimes, emulating the traditional style is understandable; in cases like that it's pointless bollocks.

The wooden box was nice though.

The only other Muff I've tried is the MBM IC version and I prefer it over the NYC reissue every time. It's not as compressed but has more 'expressiveness' and the sustain knob actually *works*. I asked for separate bass and treble knobs, which are really handy for taming the excesses of top and bottom end. The only side-effect of that is that there's less volume overall, but for my setup the volume jump when I use a dirt box is too much anyway so I actually prefer it that way. It's more manageable and is as close to 'versatile' as I'd expect a Muff to be.

toez10 · Post by **toez10** » Thu May 10, 2012 6:41 pm

Ive got a green muff made by haze, and it rips with everything i run through it : rickenbacker 620, strats, teles, and definitely my shortscale basses.

Green muff it

NickD · Post by **NickD** » Fri May 11, 2012 12:15 pm

I've got a green russian that I settled on a few years back. I've had an NYC and a black Russian and didn't like them as much.

I've had a couple of DOD FX52 classic fuzz pedals, which are meant to be a Big Muff copy. I wouldn't mind another actually...

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Fri May 11, 2012 3:18 pm

aen wrote:Eau Claire Thunder.

I loved that one as well. Is it based on a particular Big Muff?

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Fri May 11, 2012 4:44 pm

NickD wrote: I've had a couple of DOD FX52 classic fuzz pedals, which are meant to be a Big Muff copy. I wouldn't mind another actually...

I had one of those when they first came out and loved it, still consider buying one now for old time sake

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Fri May 11, 2012 7:31 pm

timhulio wrote:It's been so long since I've played one but I recall them having a reputation for sounding quite harsh and trebbly compared to the previous Russian muffs and contemporary USA RI.

Yeah, the black ones were harsh and trebley. My friend Alex in high school had a green Muff that broke after he dropped it down some stairs, so he got a black one and I noticed an immensely more fizzy and painful quality to his Muff bits (phahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha) when I went to see his band next compared to previous gigs; he did say to me once that the Green one seemed to have been way nicer.

aen · Post by **aen** » Fri May 11, 2012 8:45 pm

taylornutt wrote:
aen wrote:Eau Claire Thunder.
I loved that one as well. Is it based on a particular Big Muff?

Well, first I built a "green muff" and it sounded like total horse shit. So I switched out quite a lot of parts, and then added some treats.

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Fri May 11, 2012 9:20 pm

aen wrote:Well, first I built a "green muff" and it sounded like total horse shit.

aen · Post by **aen** » Sat May 12, 2012 12:17 am

Well, there are quite a few variables contributing. (Tim you know all this, but in the interest of discussion...)

variances in transistors will change the sound in the same circuit. Im using 2n5088s. When I was making boosters with those, there was only one supplier I could buy from to get a clean boost. So who knows which one of my two brands is closer to Sovtek's?

Then there's component value drift. A green muff built to spec today is not going to sound like Your Favorite Green Muff From Yesteryear, because caps and resistors values change over time.

But I guess I made the right changes...

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sat May 12, 2012 10:25 am

I don't have anywhere the breadth of experience as you guys but I had a wooden box NYC and it did 'huge' well for what I wanted. One of my favourite things was splitting my signal into the muff and a Dano mogwai Fab into separate amps, muff dialed for the bottom end and dani for the top. You kind of got the huge muff thing but with a crisp distortion thing that combined nicely.

I love playing with my Mike IC Muff which I'll never get rid of as it has meaning to me and sounds great. Oddly it sounds best in the effects loop of my blackstar ht5 amp than in front of it, which goes against received wisdom. Might have something to do with the funky valve design on that amp. Can only judge with my ears as I know nowt about the technicalities of the amp or pedal.

Concretebadger · Post by **Concretebadger** » Sat May 12, 2012 10:33 am

Dave wrote:I don't have anywhere the breadth of experience as you guys but I had a wooden box NYC and it did 'huge' well for what I wanted. One of my favourite things was splitting my signal into the muff and a Dano mogwai Fab into separate amps, muff diaper for the bottom end and dani for the top. You kind of got the huge muff thing but with a crisp distortion thing that combined nicely.

I love playing with my Mike IC Muff which I'll never get rid of as it has meaning to me and sounds great. Oddly it sounds best in the effects loop of my blackstar ht5 amp than in front of it, which goes against received wisdom. Might have something to do with the funky valve design on that amp. Can only judge with my ears as I know most about the technicalities of the amp or pedal.

Conventional 'wisdom' is more of a guideline than a rule...if it sounds better for you in your effects loop, go for it. I'm probably not supposed to put an RV-5 before my IC Muff, but I love the 'waves on a shoreline' effect it gives the attack on the strings.

The Fab Tone is roughly four fifths hissy, loose raspy rubbish and the bypass isn't great either but with a bit of patient eq knob tweaking there are some really cool sounds in there. I must admit I'm a fan of them, but never thought of running one in parallel with a Muff before. Duly noted.