Electro Harmonix Bass Big Muff Pi

[Soloshchenko]

Just got one of these and impressed so far. I generally don't like Bass distortion as I find it hard to boost the bass without taking the rest of your bands faces off.

This is awesome though, very warm and fuzzy with a surprising range of tones.

 

[dmraco]

I have a Big Muff too..I actually purchased it for my son who is twelve...he likes it alot...I will haveto say these do not hold a candle to the ones made in the 80s.  they had an addition switch on the back that completely changed the tone profile...if you can find a vintage one...BUY IT!

 

[-CB-]

The Big Muff Pi has gone thru a bunch of changes.

The BEST ones, they say, are the transistorized ones, not the ones with 7431 (741 dually chips... think the # is correct).

If you have a 741 type... you can do a lot by changing out the ICs to highest grade, fast slew.  Try Motorola if you can find 'em.

I dont remember a dual tone BMP, but there was one or two models that let you switch off the fuzz completely, and just use the tone knob as a tone shaper with no fuzz.  That switch MIGHT have left a little dirt in the signal, but not much.  I had one of those, and hardly ever used it.

The last BMP I got, a russian one... I ended up gutting, and building into a clone of the BluesBreaker pedal.  Then I modded that one ever so slightly - turns out Marshall did to theirs too in the same way, except theirs is a dual range, whereas mine is just one (higher) range of grit.  Those are more OD than fuzz, more to my tastes.

Another GREAT OD pedal is the visual sound Route 66 pedal - basically a tube screamer and compressor in one pedal.  Very tasty

 

[dmraco]

the swtich was on the back between the input and output jacks.  three knobs on the top.  the switch was only active when the pedal was ON.  I cannot tell you more...I was 16...it was the eightys...get my drift.....

 

[Soloshchenko]

This thread seems to have deviated onto old Big Muff pedals for guitar. The Bass Big Muff I'm on about is a new EH pedal. The vintage big muffs your talking about are awesome, but they ain't for bass. Stomping on one with a bass will lose you low end which just doesn't work in a band situation whereas the new pedal is basically a very fuzzy bass boost if used correctly. The sound is really quite different from a traditional big muff pedal. 

 

[dbw]

Eh, they probably differ by one capacitor.  :dontknow:

 

[Soloshchenko]

Eh, they probably differ by one capacitor.  :dontknow:

You may be right but having played them the sound is very, very different from a big muff.

 

[dbw]

I wish I could find a schematic, I'm curious to see what's different.

 

[dmraco]

This thread seems to have deviated onto old Big Muff pedals for guitar. The Bass Big Muff I'm on about is a new EH pedal. The vintage big muffs your talking about are awesome, but they ain't for bass. Stomping on one with a bass will lose you low end which just doesn't work in a band situation whereas the new pedal is basically a very fuzzy bass boost if used correctly. The sound is really quite different from a traditional big muff pedal. 

I have found the new Big Muffs work well with a bass.  My sone uses it and get a cool Cliff Burton sound.

 

[Mor Paul]

Russian or American made ones? Apparently they sound different, from what I've heard.

 

[dbw]

The differences among the various muffs are pretty minor.  This is a really good site: http://www.pisotones.com/BigMuffPi/psst/BMP_versions.htm

If you look at the schematics you'll notice that the various versions are the same except a few value changes, and different transistors.  The op-amp version is totally different, though.