EHX Big Muff Pi

ELECTRO-HARMONIX BIG MUFF PI
By Adam Ironside

The Big Muff Pi is one of those pedals that has been around for ever. Labelled as a Sustain box it is essentially a cross between a Fuzz and a thick, full Distortion. Mine is a re-issue. There is a LOT of variety in the Big Muff series over the years, each with a unique tone and sound, some of them are worth quite a lot of money and are hard to find.

Features

Three knob simplicity. Volume, Tone and Sustain. In and out jacks, and a sturdy, reliable stomp switch, what else do we need? The Big Muff Pi, despite having a relatively small circuit board, comes enclosed in a rather large case. There is just something cool and ‘retro’ about the way it looks. Also, it has probably the best name for an effects pedal, ‘risque’ or what?

Sounds

The Big Muff Pi is a very versatile box. The cleverly designed tone knob can take you from some of the beefiest fuzz to some screechy, treble-y, fuzzy nastiness and everywhere between.

Volume Knob – Does what it says, sets the output level of the box. There is quite a bit extra boost available to further push your preamp section into dissarray.

Tone Knob – Very cleverly designed and unique tone control. The tone control works by INCREASING frequencies. Roll the knob right down to the left increases the low end frequencies giving you a huge, fat, make that FAT sound. Lots of trouser-flapping low end rumble. Setting the knob right around to the right increases the treble end producing some nasty, fizzy, ear-killing sharp sounds that are just….great. The fun comes from experimenting with the extremly versatile tone knob, there is a position for every occasion!

Sustain Knob – This dials in the extra gain. There is a HUGEa mount of gain on tap with this thing and it is reccommended you use some kind of noise gate or surpessor when running this pedal at high gain settings, otherwise your going to get a lot of extra noise. Rolled right down the Muff gives a nice, almost British blues sounding crunch. About half way round you start to get some nice, violin like sustain and warmth that was popularised by Gilmour in the earlier years. On full, well this thing just screams with crushing distorted fuzz tones.

Overall

What else can I add? Because of the huge gain available this thing does add a LOT of noise into your signal, but becuase of the very nature of this device that is expected and canot be prevented without use of a noise gate or supressor of some kind. It is a very fun pedal to experiment with, extremly versatile and incredibly musical if you take the time to dial in some nice tones. If you hate yourneighbours, crank the gain and tone up and just let rip with some horrible, nasty fuzz!

Rating

7.5 - An all time classic and above average fuzz-distortion box. You will find that most players have owned this pedal at some time in their lives, and most probably still use it.

The Big Muff Pi is available worldwide, probably in your local music store. Check out the EHX site for a list of dealers and distributors.
http://www.ehx.com

Sources: www.ehx.com