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Bought a Big Muff Pi - BUT! - pedal chain help??

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:03 am
by liams_coke_dealer
i put it in my pedal chain and it sounded totally different to what it did in the shop right..

when i got it home i noticed there was less of a dynamic range and it was totally scooping the mids right out so that Lovely Pseudo- siamese dream tone was missing. I was running my guitar - boss wah - boss compressor - MUFF - Hot Cake overdrive - subdecay noise box - amp. (that is my srtaight through set up).

Should i be putting the Muff first in the chain from the guitar? i have heard that some Fuzz pedals dont work as well if they have something before them in the chain..

Help!

Feel free to suggest a better combination of pedals if u have any ideas as well... the comrpessor is strangling everything at the moment and i dont know if its because of where it is in the chain.

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 3:49 am
by Will
The Muff should be fine anywhere in the chain. Fuzz pedals only need to be first is the series resistance of the PUPs is part of the transistor bias (Fuzz Face, Tonebender, etc.).

What kind of amp are you using?

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 4:04 am
by Skip
put it earlier or first in the chain and see what you get

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 5:19 am
by liams_coke_dealer
DuoSonicBoy wrote:The Muff should be fine anywhere in the chain. Fuzz pedals only need to be first is the series resistance of the PUPs is part of the transistor bias (Fuzz Face, Tonebender, etc.).

What kind of amp are you using?
I'm using a Marshall 100Wattdfx. It's a transistor amp with an effects loop. So it's far from amazing, but really not that bad. (by the way im not using the muff in the loop) i have it in my straight through set up with overdrives and wah and comp etc.

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:18 am
by Will
AFAIK, the Siamese Dream tone is:

Something with 'buckers -
Muff -
Low-input of some Marshall head with KT88s

So your basic amp tone should be relatively clean, a little dark, and just have a hint of crunch. The muff is used on a lower gain setting with the volume run high, mostly boosting the amp.

Muffs on there own scoop a lot of mids, and the high gain means very little dynamic range. You could try using a low setting on the Muff and getting more gain from the amp, though I don't know how well a boosted SS amp will distort. My knee-jerk reaction to the symptoms you described is that you're using too much distortion all together.

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:48 am
by Mike
Dial in more midrange on your amplifer.

Muffs do scoop the midrange, it's right there in the tonestack.

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:53 am
by Doog
Yupppers. Also, your compressor is going to reduce your dynamic range, that's what it's designed to do.

What setup were you using with it in the shop?

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:55 am
by liams_coke_dealer
Hey cheers for the replies...

Umm the set up in the shop was Epiphone Sheraton II to the Muff PI to a marshall Tube Combo

And yeah i know the compressors will do that, but when i use the CS-3 with my Sheraton, it constricts like a motherfucker. Only when im playing with my Jazzmaster does it actually compress nicely. Does anyone else have probs with humbuckers and cs-3's?

And yeah cheers for the Siamese dream help, i wasnt actually going for the exact sound as he used low output tubes in his marshall or something with the amp cranked and what not..

and i was playing with the Mid on the amp too :)

In the shop, anything before 12 o'clock was nice and warm.... in my set up, anything before 12 o'clock is Muddy..

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:26 am
by Doog
It might just the inherent difference between tube and solidstate amps, alas. Or at least the difference in quality between the price range.

Re: Bought a Big Muff Pi - BUT! - pedal chain help??

Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 2:56 am
by foll
what you use your compressor for?

I put cs-2 at the last of my effect chain and set it to have only a little compression.

my effect chain goes like filter/wah (all tb'd)-> fuzz/ boost-> od-> compressor-> modulation/delay.

compressor won't kill the dynamic that much.

it balances the volume therefore the expression on hand can be heard more clearly, and your fuzz/ od receive the signal from guitar more directly.

you can crank your muff to boost your hot cake without unacceptable volume jump at low volume.

I did this to emulate the poweramp compression when cranked...

liams_coke_dealer wrote:i put it in my pedal chain and it sounded totally different to what it did in the shop right..

when i got it home i noticed there was less of a dynamic range and it was totally scooping the mids right out so that Lovely Pseudo- siamese dream tone was missing. I was running my guitar - boss wah - boss compressor - MUFF - Hot Cake overdrive - subdecay noise box - amp. (that is my srtaight through set up).

Should i be putting the Muff first in the chain from the guitar? i have heard that some Fuzz pedals dont work as well if they have something before them in the chain..

Help!

Feel free to suggest a better combination of pedals if u have any ideas as well... the comrpessor is strangling everything at the moment and i dont know if its because of where it is in the chain.