Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi (Reissue)

Easy to use definetely, it takes a while to get the exact sound you want, but sounds good after that. The only thing worth mentioning is the In/Out jacks are changed around from the normal pedal setup.

It's fuzz it's supposed to sound trashy, I usually jsut use it with the distortion on my amp to beef it up and give it sustain. The sustain lasts for DAYS on end, and the feedback is always useable never bad.

I bought it two years ago and have changed the batteries 2 times, it hasn't broken or needed any servicing, I sometimes use a Fender Blender along with this, but if you're buying a fuzz pedal get the Big Muff, it is the king of fuzz.

Never dealt with them

0It fits perfectly into my style of music, it has a dark thumpy tone, and sustain that lasts, for days. If it were stolen I'd probably buy the US reissue, or I'd get the new Little Muff, to save board space.

Simple. Dial in the volume, set the amount of fuzz and then tweak the tone.

This brand new Russian made Bid Muff sounds incredible. It has a nice volume boost and a thick,creamy fuzz that sounds very musical when pushing my old Marshall cranked.

Here is my setup: Fender Strat, Keeley true bypass switch (For my Boss tuner),Big Muff, MXR mooded Phase 90, 1974 100 Marshall Superlead with a M.V. mod., Marshall 2X12 with vintage 30's.

After trying several other fuzzes, some costing up 200 bucks, this wins hand down! It amazes me how sometimes the best is the cheapest.
From what I understand, it's F'n true bypass too! I'll have to take a look and see for sure.

I can depend on it. It's staying on my pedalboard with the cables plugged in plus, I have it powered with my power supply.

I would and will use it at gigs without a backup.

Don't know

I been playing for 25 years and play all kinds of music. Right now I'm playing classic rockish/blues/country type stuff. This Big Muff gives me the type of fuzz I want for heavy parts and solos. It's a perfect match for my Marshall amp.
So many pedals just won't work with it. I bought a Keeley Fuzz Head and the Big Muff blows it away! The Fuzz Head sounded like crap no matter how I set it up or how I set the internal components (cap values, drive and tone control wheels on the circuit board.) It amazes me how something 59 bucks sounds so much better than something that's $199.99!

I found that depending on my guitar and amp I had to tweak the tone slightly, but it's not hard to work out... twist the sustain and volume all the way around and you're set!

If you own one distortion, it should be this. Simply sublime man...

It's a pretty hardcore pedal... had it for nearly a year and not a single issue.

No problems yet.

I got this pedal while I was in the US and wow... although it's more expensive in the UK if I'd known how good it was I would've bought one long ago. In fact, I might buy another. Or three. Then I can see just how much it takes to overload a Fender Twin!

Its so simple, three knobs, volume, sustain, and tone. The hard thing is getting a good tone out of the thing.

i play a fender standard stratocaster through a fender pro junior tube amp. This thing can create or it can cause pure chaos. it took me a few days to find a tone i was comfortable with. i read another users review and he said he turned the tone down all the way(on the pedal) So i use my amps tone and dont even use the tone knob on the muff. Its too much chaos. The type of music i play is mainly alternative rock like radiohead, the verve,and oasis. Or i play classic rock like the beatles. This pedals sound is perfect for what i play considering it has that fuzzy rock & roll sound.

This pedal is very reliable. I have the black russian model and its build like a tank. The only thing is the knobs on it fall off easily, other than that this thing is awesome. I mainly play in my home so i dont know what its like at a show, im sure it works like a charm.

Never had to get it repaired. Very dependable.

Like i said before i play mainly alternative rock and its perfect for the music i play. Ive been playing for about 2 years and i like it just fine. If it was stolen or lost i would most likely purchase another one. I love the fuzzy sound it gets, but finding a tone your comfortable with was tough for me. It doesnt get in the way with my playing. Once i found a tone i was happy with it was perfectly okay.

ok im talkin about the black russian model. have to spend a lot of time getting a good tone for just 3 knobs.

some people were saying this is only good for fuzz and grunge type of distortion and not good for metal...not true. I'm a huge fan of Adam jones of Tool and love his guitar tone. Although Adam doesn't use a big muff I can get a similar tone with my setup using one.
my setup> american fender strat> crybaby wah> big muff> baseman70> jackson 4x12 and marshall(vintage 30's) 4x12 cab.
boss bf2 flanager, and boss dd2 delay go thru my effect loop.
I set my big muff between 11 and 12 o'clock and my tone is backed all the way to 9 o'clock. I can really get that "overdriven like crazy but clean enough to hear what going on" Tool distortion with this setting. This pedal is pretty noisy but its feedback is very usable and can be controlled unlike feedback from say a mic. The pedal is very transparent and doesnt suck your already weak by nature guitar tone. By the way I use emg active pickups with a humbucker in the bridge position (putting a humbucker in an american strat took some serious body-work and skills from a local guitar tech who never says no to my crazy ideas. for anyone cosidering something like this it should be noted most techs will laugh at u and remind u how great the stock pickups are and wonder why u would wanna chop up such a nice piece of equipment...valid point.

built like a tank
battery cover sucks

this is a noisy pedal with sustain anywhere above 35%. If u can harness feedback you will love this pedal.
not your typical distortion pedal but I love mine.
If your a heavy compression, high thresh-hold soundgate type of guy this pedal probably isn't for you.

This is the rare first reissue of the Big Muff made in Russia. It has controls for Volume, Distortion, and Tone. Pretty easy to use although there is tons of tone options available with slight tweaks of any knob. For example running the pedal with the volume at 12oclock as a destinctly different tone than with it at 11oclock, even with the Dist and Tone in the same place.

Very unique pedal, I have yet to find anyone else that has one other than Michael Gurley from DADA. It really isn't an Overdrive pedal, although you can get somewhat of an overdrive with Distortion set to 1. If you like the Big Muff, you'd like this

Tank,Russian Tank. It is completely different inside than any other big muff. The insides are very well built and look like they were made in the early 60s.

Its a great pedal, I have had other Muffs, but this is definitly my favorite.

This is a super easy pedal on the surface -- but the kicker is the variation in the tone is wild:

Knobs are VERY sensitive - sustain ranges from near nothing/flat to ULTRA SCREAMING. Tone is wild as well: from a super crackling crispy tone to a fat, bottomy booming bassy tone.

with the sensitivity it takes a while to zero in on your tone.

FYI I have the Sovtek reissue (russian made)

This is a great distortion pedal. I grew up on Marshalls and now on a boogie lonestar. This is no way no how like those tube amps. Its got a huge sound that is just crushing. Dont expect a light sweet distortion or a classic crispy tone. (use your tube amp for those tones). This is a thunderous blast. Its not my standard distortion tone but its very cool to have in the arsenal - a mean big sound.

I have only had it a little time -- I understand these things are warriors -- proven simple easy and bullett proof.

never dealt with these guys.

Cool pedal -- not the worlds best but a very good tool for the wall of sound crushing big in yo face distortion.

Quite easy. The usual three knobs for volume, gain (here called 'sustain') and tone.
Tone knob cuts bass and boosts treble when turned clockwise, boosts bass and cuts treble and mids if turned the other way.

A question of taste. Obviously designed to produce old-fashioned fuzz distortion. Like Hendrix' "Foxy Lady" or early Black Sabbath.
It really alters the tonal character of any guitar, making it sound buzzy, dark and muddy with very little treble bite, if the tone control is turned to the left. When more upper mids and treble are added, it will sound thin, harsh and piercing - add some wah and your guitar lead sound will cut through any mix. Aggressive transitor-type distortion then.
It cannot be compared to modern distortion boxes in terms of versatility, it sounds really unique.
If you want creamy tube overdrive, you'll be disappointed.
I put a graphic eq in front of it to boost the range from 200 Hz to about 1,5 kHz, when I have the Muff's tone control turned down completely to get the best bass response out of it.
It works good and I use this setup to get a much better tonal definition from my Strat's neck and middle pickups.
Without additional eq, their sound will simply be 'drowned in mud'.
"Big Mud" :-) Hit two notes and the box won't know what to do ...
It literally knows no frequencies above 2kHz - I can move the eq's controls for upper mids and treble up and down, but it makes no difference at all.
So I think the Muff as such is kinda problematic but offers some interesting options when combined with additional equalization and/or wah. You may get the Hendrix/Trower lead sound, especially with additional vibe or phasing.
It is noisy, even with moderate gain, a lot noisier than most of other stomp boxes I have owned.

Solid metal box. Looks dependable. If the plastic input and output jacks were made of metal, I would give it a 10 ...

Never contacted Electro-Harmonix yet.

Quite a good remake of the orgininal Muff.
Get a copy of Mudhoney's LP "SuperFuzz-BigMuff" from 1989 (an anthem to this box) and you`ll hear how close the Russian Muff gets to the original sound.

Three knobs, and a switch. Set the sustain (gain, drive, whatever you want to call it)from 9:00 to max, volume wherever you need to, and tone at about 1:00-2:00 and you have a good ripping distortion.

This thing rips! I've been told my whole time playing (drums 18 years, guitar about 4-5 years) that the big muff in general is as shitty a distortion as you can find. well....WRONG! I pluged this baby in and found myself with some of the sounds I've always been looking for (Nirvana, grungish/industrial sounds). This is the Black Russian model and while I've been leary of trying one out for sometime, I finally broke down and tried one along with the USA version and came away with the russian one ( the USA model didn't sound as good to me, but don't let that stop anyone else frome trying it out). The only thing that bugs me is the small amount of noise that this thing produces, but that's what noise gates were invented for. I tried this pedal with a telecaster (total grunge sound) an Ibanez GAX-70 (good heavy rock and metal sounds) and a yamaha strat style with a single emg 81 wired in the bridge position (Metal and industrial sounds) and this thing passed every test. I don't think I'll ever be getting rid of this pedal. For sound I give it a ten. but for the noise involved I'm gonna take one point off.

Considering that this Big Muff was built in an old russian munitions plant with Military grade parts, I think I can depend on it without a backup.

Very simple:

VOLUME - how loud do you want your crap?
TONE - how muffled or how trebly do you want your crap?
SUSTAIN - how much crap do you want?

I have used it with a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender USA Tele, through a Laney VC30 (class A tubeamp).
It's incredibly noisy - whatever settings you dial in, there's always an annoying buzz. When you mute your strings (for short pauzes between riffs or whatever) there's a hollow, very middy noise... like if you play with an acoustic guitar through your overdrive channel.

As for the effect: it's not very good. To say the least. I HATE it.
It effectuates my playing style for the worse. It kills ALL dynamics. Its distortion clips in a very unpleasant way.
My RAT is much much better - sounds much more tubelike and open, has nicer upper harmonics, doesn't sound muffled and doesn't suck tone when not engaged.
I can't believe I bought this crappy Big Muff... Yeah, I wanted that Smashing Pumpkins sound. Indeed, it resembles that sound, but than that's the only thing this pedal's good for.

I'm sorry. I really love Electro-Harmonix, but I think their flagship pedal is utter CRAP.

I've been playing for 15 years. Our music is influenced by indie rock (Pixies, Breeders, Hole) and 80s new wave (The Cure, The Chameleons).