Guitar
First off, I'd like to thank my good friend Big Joe Burke for lending me this sick little puppy. The Electro Harmonix Big Muff is considered to be one of the classic fuzz tones, and countless players have embraced the thick wooly sonics of the iconic pedal. Muff's have been in production since the late sixties, and have had many circuit/component changes over the years, usually for reasons of expediency. Countless boutique pedal builders have knocked off their favourite versions of the Muff.
The Big Muff Pi with Tone Wicker updates the classic Muff formula with some added tone shaping features. In addition to the traditional volume, tone and sustain knobs, the Muff w/Tone Wicker adds two mini toggles: an eq bypass, that drastically opens up the sound, and the Tone Wicker, a top end boost. I found the Tone Wicker switch to be extremely noisy, even by fuzz pedal standards. (The tweezy slide lick on the demo's B-part is the Tone Wicker with the tone knob cranked.)
Muffs do tend to be be quite deep and scooped in the eq, and this one is no exception with the tone control engaged; excellent for creating heavy rhythm parts and warm, round lead lines, the pedal dishes out righteously corpulent girth on every note. It also boasts a ton of output through its volume control.
With the tone bypass engaged you get a massive increase in gain, output and upper mids, and a bit less compression. I really enjoyed the tone in this setting, but I do miss the mosquito-esque top end of the tone knob; there's some special magic in how the tone circuit filters out upper mids.
Muff's aren't known to be terribly dynamic, and this one is no exception. Want that Rolling-Stones-fuzzbox-set-low-groovy-sixties-overdrive thing? Better go buy a Fuzzface. Even at its lowest sustain settings the BMwTW didn't noticeably clean up with volume knob tweaks
Opening the unit up we find a pretty standard mass-produced build. BC550C transistors power the pedal- not one of the legendary names pedal geeks hunt for, but they sound pretty darn good. The box is a reasonably sturdy aluminum enclosure. Pots feel like they're on the light side. Honestly, this is not the most impressive build I've witnessed, but at just over ninety bucks new, one can't complain too much. If you want point to point wiring and signatures, go to the boutique builders.
For the demo track I whipped up an appropriately grungy pastiche we'll call "Alice, Queen of the Stone Chains". The main riff and centre channel slide is my Danelectro '63 reissue tuned to open C. The left and right channel drones are a sixties Guyatone double-8 lap steel and my '93 Gibson ES-335.
I won't bore you with all the pedal settings; suffice to say that I used every option I could stuff in there in a reasonably musical fashion. When you're doing four or five tracks of Muffed guitar, it is pretty freakin' sweet to have the extra tonal options; it would be easy to turn it into a wall of mud.
Overall, I would say that the Big Muff with Tone Wicker is a hell of a value in a seventies-style fuzz, with a lot of extra flexibility built in. An excellent option for heavy rockers of all stripes. Blues guys, well, not so much...I did give it a go at a gig the other night on an appropriate tune, and it was okay, but I would lean more towards a fuzzface or octavia for louder, nastier blues duties. Perhaps not the sturdiest build in the world, but the price/performance quotient carries the day. Every studio should have at least one Muff; this one's added tonal juice makes it a strong contender.
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Guitar
Big Muff Pi with Tone Wicker- a review
First off, I'd like to thank my good friend Big Joe Burke for lending me this sick little puppy. The Electro Harmonix Big Muff is considered to be one of the classic fuzz tones, and countless players have embraced the thick wooly sonics of the iconic pedal. Muff's have been in production since the late sixties, and have had many circuit/component changes over the years, usually for reasons of expediency. Countless boutique pedal builders have knocked off their favourite versions of the Muff.
The Big Muff Pi with Tone Wicker updates the classic Muff formula with some added tone shaping features. In addition to the traditional volume, tone and sustain knobs, the Muff w/Tone Wicker adds two mini toggles: an eq bypass, that drastically opens up the sound, and the Tone Wicker, a top end boost. I found the Tone Wicker switch to be extremely noisy, even by fuzz pedal standards. (The tweezy slide lick on the demo's B-part is the Tone Wicker with the tone knob cranked.)
Muffs do tend to be be quite deep and scooped in the eq, and this one is no exception with the tone control engaged; excellent for creating heavy rhythm parts and warm, round lead lines, the pedal dishes out righteously corpulent girth on every note. It also boasts a ton of output through its volume control.
With the tone bypass engaged you get a massive increase in gain, output and upper mids, and a bit less compression. I really enjoyed the tone in this setting, but I do miss the mosquito-esque top end of the tone knob; there's some special magic in how the tone circuit filters out upper mids.
Muff's aren't known to be terribly dynamic, and this one is no exception. Want that Rolling-Stones-fuzzbox-set-low-groovy-sixties-overdrive thing? Better go buy a Fuzzface. Even at its lowest sustain settings the BMwTW didn't noticeably clean up with volume knob tweaks
Opening the unit up we find a pretty standard mass-produced build. BC550C transistors power the pedal- not one of the legendary names pedal geeks hunt for, but they sound pretty darn good. The box is a reasonably sturdy aluminum enclosure. Pots feel like they're on the light side. Honestly, this is not the most impressive build I've witnessed, but at just over ninety bucks new, one can't complain too much. If you want point to point wiring and signatures, go to the boutique builders.
For the demo track I whipped up an appropriately grungy pastiche we'll call "Alice, Queen of the Stone Chains". The main riff and centre channel slide is my Danelectro '63 reissue tuned to open C. The left and right channel drones are a sixties Guyatone double-8 lap steel and my '93 Gibson ES-335.
I won't bore you with all the pedal settings; suffice to say that I used every option I could stuff in there in a reasonably musical fashion. When you're doing four or five tracks of Muffed guitar, it is pretty freakin' sweet to have the extra tonal options; it would be easy to turn it into a wall of mud.
Overall, I would say that the Big Muff with Tone Wicker is a hell of a value in a seventies-style fuzz, with a lot of extra flexibility built in. An excellent option for heavy rockers of all stripes. Blues guys, well, not so much...I did give it a go at a gig the other night on an appropriate tune, and it was okay, but I would lean more towards a fuzzface or octavia for louder, nastier blues duties. Perhaps not the sturdiest build in the world, but the price/performance quotient carries the day. Every studio should have at least one Muff; this one's added tonal juice makes it a strong contender.
- Huge Lot Of Hand Wired Custom Guitar Pedals In Oshkosh Wi Area - At Good $
This seller has been building some nice pedals and he is offering them for a pretty good price. Note that he doesn't do any screening on the pedals so the knobs are not marked and there are no logos - still he's got some cool DIY pedals...
- Some Custom Clone Effects Pedals In San Diego - $35 To $65
These look like good prices on these pedals if they sound as good as they should. The Vox Tone Bender in particular is a wild pedal and BYOC makes a good replica. guitar effect pedals (PB) Reply to: mailto:[email protected]?subject=guitar%20effect%20pedals%20(PB)...
- The Danelectro French Toast Octave Fuzz - Sick Things Come In Small Packages.
Danelectro French Toast Octave Distortion - Muffy fuzz with a strong and consistent octave up. In my last post I discussed coming across a new-in-boxed-set of millennium-era Dano diner-series pedals. The real standouts in the collection are...
- My ,uh, Funky Fuzz Factory Clone.
Fuzz Factory clone: note the radically cross-threaded DC jack...oh, dear. I've been fearing writing this article, because having this built for me turned into a bit of a nightmare; the builder, who will remain nameless in this piece, took...
- The Fulltone Plimsoul -from Subtlety To Saturation
I gave up using any kind of overdrive/distortion/fuzz unit back in 1994, immediately after I got my first really toneful guitar: my 1993 Gibson ES-335 (featured in many pictures and videos on this blog). At that time two significant things happened:...