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player opinions

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff

Name: Adam
Band: The One Inch Wonders
Model Year: -----
Price Paid: $50
Performance
This works amazingly well. Three knobs, and basically any combination of them sound good for something. It is a fuzz extraordinare. I love it for Pumpkins-style stuff. My favorite pedal ever!
Performance Rating: 10
Sound Quality
Billy Corgan uses it, so did Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Bush, and many others. They know what they want, because this thing sounds amazing. My only gripes are that there is no true bypass and no adapter socket for wall power. I usually use it with tone and sustain cranked, and I adjust the volume so that it matches with the pedal turned off.
Sound Quality Rating: 9
Construction
Metal case, built by Sovtek for EHX like a Russian Tank. I got it used but there is no way anything could possibly go wrong with it.
Construction Rating: 10

Name: Matt
Band: -----
Model Year: 2001
Price Paid: $80
Performance
It has 3 knobs so it’s really easy to use. It does what it promises by giving you a Fuzz sound. It does everything that it promises. It’s the perfect gig pedal.
Performance Rating: 9
Sound Quality
It have my Big Muff going through a AVT50 watt Head and a Marshall 4x12 Cab. It’s not very noisy. Generally when the pickups are distorted or in this case Fuzzed out they are a little noisy. It gives my Epiphone G-400 (a re-issue a of a 61 Gibson SG) a heavier sound ala The Melvins, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, and early Nirvana (Pre - Nevermind). Like all other re-issue Big Muffs, this one doesn’t have a true bypass and thus takes some volume from your guitar.
Sound Quality Rating: 9
Construction
It’s made out of steel, of course it’s reliable. I use this pedal when ever I go to my band practices or when I play gigs.
Construction Rating: 9

Name: Barry C.
Band: Ember (local in neighborhood)
Model Year: Circa 199?-2002
Price Paid: $000
Performance
This (silver) model of Big Muff is certainly true to what it does. With only three knobs it’s not very difficult to figure out. The Sustain does what it says, and offers a good range as well as the Tone knob. And thank God this one has the input and output on the right side. I used to have the Russian-built counterpart to it and got frustrated a lot, especially with the lack of an AC adapter. That’s no longer a problem with the one made in the USA. The only major problem I have with it is the feed back if too much sustain is used. But I’m not blaming this on the Pedal because set up may very well have something to do with it.
Performance Rating: 10
Sound Quality
Well, it’s like this. I make my own music that’s a combination of metal and Pumpkin-ish like alternative. For metallic, scooped mid palm mutes I would not use the Muff and would, instead, revert to my Metal Zone. But this fact doesn’t take away from the glory of this great big, glorious pedal. It has great sustain that sounds just totally wicked when you vibrato one of the top strings. Especially Great for power chords and single note riffs that give a thick, engine-revving sound. On its own, though, It does little justice for first position chords, solos and octaves. Unfortunately I do a lot of that (except for solos), but I recently bought a Boss EQ pedal and unlocked a lot of the potential the Muff was hiding. Those open chords and Octaves sound beautiful now. In fact, the whole tone is refined and not running overly muddy, like it used to. But it still lives up to its name same. It’s supposed to sound muddy.
Sound Quality Rating: 9
Construction
If you’re curious about the sound of a Big Muff, or are on a tight budget, I would suggest the Russian version. But if you’re serious with investing in quality, go with the U.S.A. version. This thing is fairly reliable, so far. The metal casing will never be comparable to BOSS, but it beats the Russian version, which has a tendency to come down with a case of footswitch by-pass disease (the effect and volume shorting out unless you stomp on it extremely hard). I would certainly buy this pedal again if it were stolen or broken. Overall, It’s a great pedal. There is a little bit of room for improvement unless you use an EQ, but it’ll hold its own by itself just as well.
Construction Rating: 10

Name: Gambit
Band: Myriad/Neon Lights (UK)
Model Year: -----
Price Paid: -----
Performance
It works well, a little noisy. So easy to use I would be surprised that you could play guitar and yet not be able to use this. Descent build, solid. The battery compartment could do with being a bit better designed (ie hold the battery tightly instead of it bouncing around inside.)
Performance Rating: 8
Sound Quality
It makes a heck of a noise... pure fuzz, nasty square-wave fuzz, which is good, because that’s what it’s for:) I’m using it going before my Digitech XP100 (reviewed here also) and going into my Peavey valve amp which is on maxed out scooped distortion that can kill pigmies from 10 meters (kinda pumpkins but more extremely scooped mids). My Big Muff settings are all on 10 — sheer madness I know, but it suits my sound. Using it like a normal person, it sounds a bit mushy. You really have to add it to an already distorted sound to get its best characteristics. With my sound it wails when not playing anything. It’s used for solos or just mayhem muse/pumpkins riffs. My settings can’t really be described in too much detail because it would fill about half of this sites content but with vol and gain on 10, the tone is usually either on 10 or 8ish. REALLY mad frequencies enter the riff if tone is on 10 and 8 creates a simple boost of fuzz rather than pure insanity. I’ll have some examples of my mad sounds on my bands site once we do some new recordings (the singer wrote all the songs that are on there now using his multi-fx) go to www.mp3.com/myriad. In summary then.. it can be a little too thick and mushy at times but if you find a place for it, it can wail. I was looking at getting a Fender Blender for some sick fuzz, but I’ve now got it using my setup with the BIG MUFF. It could use a better eq section, 3 band is always ideal, 2 would be better. But at this price it’s a bargain — if used properly.
Sound Quality Rating: 10
Construction
Built well apart from battery compartment (see above.) It looks good on the floor and can generate endless funny in-jokes with the band.
Construction Rating: 7

Name: Xaphan
Band: -----
Model Year: -----
Price Paid: $10
Performance
It performs well, one thing I noticed however was that the input and output are on opposite sides from most pedals, I can only guess that this is due to the fact that these are made in Russia. This doesn’t affect the performance at all just gives the pedal a bit more personality.
Performance Rating: 10
Sound Quality
If you are into classic rock you will want this pedal. Although I don’t really research anything older than Nine Inch Nails, and don’t really like classic rock I have heard that Jimi Hendrix used the big muff and I believe it, the big muff has that classic distortion that you’ve been looking for.
Sound Quality Rating: 8
Construction
Here is the reason I got this for 10 bucks, a friend of mines roommate owned this and ripped out the battery and the wires connected to the battery while he was drunk. The battery door is also missing, But none of this is the muff’s fault and I would say that this pedal is as durable as they come.
Construction Rating: 10

Name: Bootsy Baby
Band: Mistress
Model Year: -----
Price Paid: £50
Performance
Yep, my first one died after one month and it was too far to travel to take back. But the new one just kills.
Performance Rating: 10
Sound Quality
Sounds like I’m playing through mud and that’s exactly why I bought the thing. Tune down, play old Sabbath riffs through Orange cabs and Hiwatt heads and if that doesn’t sound heavy, you’re deaf.
Sound Quality Rating: 10
Construction
Made outta metal. Solid!
Construction Rating: 10

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