Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi (Reissue)

three knobs not that hard to figure out. sustain as you already know is the amount of distortion and sustain. the tone know appears to be passive. it is Russian made (usa made sucks for the bass)

I use it on the bass and I was not sure at first because most pedals boost the treble and cut the bass making a bass sound weak, but I tryed the usa bass big muff and the russia big muff and actually choose the russian made over the one made for the bass. it distorts it well for the bass I normally have the sustain and tone at 3 o'clock and the bass volume max for max distortion. this still could use a bit of a bass boost but is not needed I use it with a vintage p bass and a yorkville bass amp. the sound is synthetic so if you are looking for a warm tube overdrive this is not it but if you just want to distort it is great. bassist like cris from muse and I think the guy from queen of the soneage uses it. I also let my guitarist use it with his les paul and ibanez and it sounds great nice deep tone with the lp.

when I first got it, it worked great but then after a couple of weeks the stomp box when activated nothing came out no sound at all. so anyways I like to fix my own stuff so I opened it up and after looking at it a while I noticed a small gauge in the microchip. so I soldered it and sure enough it works fine now. I am positive it came like that so maybe it was just a bad egg. now that I fixed it I would depend on it. it is the only distortion pedal that I use.

as I state in all my reviews I like to fix my own stuff, and I trust me. it saves me having to hassle with customer service. so no I have never dealt with them.

this is a great pedal works great for the bass and my guitarist uses it too with his les paul and it sounds great with that also. I actually like it better than the usa big muff made for the bass it is a bit gritter. if it was stolen I would replace it in a heartbeat I will always have one of these laying around.

Only three knobs...not very hard. I was kind of confused in the beginning at where the distortion knob was...it's the sustain knob. I'm stupid. No manual, but it's pretty self-explanatory.

It sounds good, i mean GOOD, but its not as much a versatile distortion as it is a fuzz pedal (which i use it for). It makes good Hendrix sound. This is my rig: Fender HSS Strat> Digitech bad monkey (as a clean boost)> Maxon od808> Russian muff> EH Stereo Electric mistress> EH Stereo pulsar> EH Holy Grail> Keeley line6 dl4> Line 6 Spider III half-stack (I use a lot of Electro harmonix). It works great with chorus. But the reason why it has an 8 is that it is VERY noisy. It personally doesn't bug me very much but i know it will bug others.

I can completely rely on this pedal. Yeah its kinda loosey-goosey but thats the Russian experience! Never used a backup.

I know guitarcenter has the best service available other than robert keeley. But i'm not sure about electro harmonix itself.

It's only got 3 knobs, so operation is very simple. I can get a usuable sound from pretty much every setting. The input and outputs are for some reason reversed (crazy Russians!), and the pedal itself is enormous, so you may have some trouble fitting it onto a board. You'll need longer than usual patch cord connectors. Mine has no AC input, which some folks complain about, but I've only had to replace the 9V in this thing a few times - it's really efficient. I'd rather have a nigh immortal battery in there than another friggin AC adapter anyway.

I play either a Gibson Les Paul or a USA strat though a Fender Roc-Pro amp (which I don't like much but that's a different story). Engaging the pedal produces quite a bit of hum, especially on the strat, but that's the nature of the beast. I haven't tried it, but perhaps a noise gate would cut out a lot of that. The Big Muff produces one of the most in-your-face sounds of any pedal ever made, so if you're looking to create a jet-engine roar with your guitar, this pedal works perfectly. I find it's best for power chords, double-stops, or solo stuff. Rolling the sustain (ie distortion) all the way back will give you a fuzzy sounding overdrive, which I like, but can still make chords more complex than power chords sound a tad muddy. Maxing out the sustain really allows you to hold notes forever, especially with humbuckers. My Gibson weighs a ton - its natural sustain coupled with this pedal will create sound that sustains as long as I fret the string. The tone knob has a huge range, from trebly hive-of-bees buzz to bowel rattling roar. Fiddling with the knobs will get you a range of sound anywhere from Smashing Pumpkins to Hendrix. I never try to exactly emulate anyone's sound, but you can get pretty close by just casually messing around with this pedal.

The pedal doesn't have true bypass, but I play noisy rock anyway and don't really care.

Mine's over 10 years old and the only thing wrong with it is the pots are a bit scratchy. It has the 'cheap' plastic inputs, but I've never had a problem with them. I worry about the wires that attach to the battery breaking, so I'm careful when I change the 9V, but nothing bad has happened yet.

Never dealt with them. Mine's way beyond warranty.

This is my favorite pedal, and I use it in almost everything I write, which, again, is loud rock n roll. I've been playing about 20 years. Sometimes kind of country, sometimes kind of punk, sometimes kinda metal, sometimes kind of ambient. I'd be obligated to replace it if something happened to it. I got this when I was a noob and didn't realize there were different models of Big Muffs, but I don't regret it. I love the sound of this thing, and having compared it to a handful of other fuzzes, I still love it. On my wishlist would be inputs in the right places, not so damn big, visible position markers on the pots (mine is old and has nearly invisible divots on the knobs), and true bypass. And better clarity on high strings would be great.

Can't get much easier

My main guitars are 68' & 55' Fender Strats and Gibson Les Paul Studio... but it sounds great all the others!
My rig: Ibanez Wh-10 Wah; Boss DS-2; EHX BIG MUFF; MXR 90 Mod Phaser; Electric Mistress; Danelectro Talk Back (reverse delay); Boss Analog Delay.

built like a tank, I have had mine for 7 years used it on the road everynight and it is still rocking!!

If you're a beginner or middle of the road level guitar player and/or looking to replicate your heroes sound and/or looking for a good overall overdrive/distortion pedal, this pedal is NOT for you!!! This is a pedal with too much personality for someone still searching to find their own sound!! DO your research and take your time and don't spend money on pedals because Frusciante, Hendrix and Billy Corgan have them, trust me, you will never sound like them!! But when you find that you're specifically looking for a Fuzz Pedal, (not a general distortion or a flanger or a phaser... A FUZZ) for your own sound, specially to play solos and single note type of stuff, the Big Muff is the KING of the Jungle!! From the moment you open that wooden box you're graduating from a guitar player to a rockstar!! This thing has the greatest tone ever, not only fuzzy but THICK and organic, every note means something!!! The sustain is incredible and as a "Fuzz Pedal" it's versatility is unbelievable...
I really hope that this review is helpfull to you, I'm being as honest as i can be but the bottom line is that it is all a matter of opinion...

3 knobs, volume ,tone and sustain plus a footswitch. Simple
It can take a little while too get a sound which isn't completely unusable but thats mainly a matter of playing with the tone.

My setup is:
Gretsch Corvette - crybaby wah - Digitech whammy - Digitech Bad monkey - Big Muff - Boss dd-6 - tuner - laney Lv200

It seems to make no noise when not on though as soon as it is on its untameable shrieking into feedback the instant you stop playing, all apart of it's charm! I generally go all out with this pedal with volume and sustain at max wiht tone leaning slightly to the treble side and on the bridge pickup this thing sounds amazing. Forget the neck as its just gets too muddy to do anything except solos above the 12th fret. this is remedied though by simply using it in conjunction wiht an overdrive pedal like a tubescreamer or my bad monkey. This boosts and cleans it up to a much more usuable level. You can setainly see why this pedal is used by everyone form jack white to billy corgan, it's just a powerhouse.

I feel this pedal if left alone would perform admirably at a gig and i would use it without a backup wihtout a second thought.
Unfortunately i couldn't leave it alone. I decided to replace the power scket wiht a boss type one so that it could work wiht my daisy chain. Worked fine for a while and it was a very easy operation. then its started to crackle and i traced the problem to the solid core wire connecting the circuitry to the footswitch. This stuff cannot take much damage and wiht the slight movement it had incurred whilst I worked on the pedal it had broken. Simply fixed and now works fine but i thought i'd just warn anyone considering working on one of these.

I play mostly bluesy or garagey music. Think the birthday party or black keys and for this style of music its fantastic. In fact any style where you just want to level the floor in a single step then this pedal is for you, unless you play jazz...
I've been playing for a bout 4 years and including the above i have a fender jazzmaster and a washburn hb-32 semi set up for slide.
I would certainly buyone of these again thoug i'd be interested in trying the deluxe wiht a built in compressor.
It seems to be the only reasonably priced fuzz on the market that has any prestige or makes any sense. I tried out the new boss fuzz pedal and though that was more versatile it was digita so comes no where near this.

Very easy to use, 3 knobs, Volume, Tone and Sustain, ONly an idiot cant figure that out.

My set up: Marshall MG30 DFX > Ibanez CS-9 > Ibanez PT-9 > EH Big Muff > Ibanez TS-9 > Ibanez Weeping Demon > Epiphone SG G400.

The pedal on its own and while its running through other pedals makes absolutely no noise.

Im using it with my Marshall MG30 DFX and it sounds crap while its on the distortion channel. The distortion on my amp is crap anyway, So I dont know if that is why the Big Muff Sounds crap.
It does however sound great on the clean channel, With the Bass and Treble both set to 12 o'clock.

Plugged straight into the amp, This pedal gives a warm, fuzzy tone, Which isnt really that good for pinch harmonics, tapping etc.
The Big Muff works amizingly well with the Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer, The combination of the two is great for metal guitar and bass.

If I was ever to play a gig, Id definatly use this pedal, with no need for a back up.

The metal casing looks a little flimsy in comparison to pedals like the Ibanez 9 series, But it looks tough and durable.

Never had to deal with them, It came with a warranty, But if it ever breaks Ill probably just take to a shop to be repaired.

I mostly play metal and this pedal is perfect for it.
If it were stolen or I lost it, Id buy another one straight away.

The only things I dont like about this pedal are the input jacks on the top instead of the sides, Whats all that about? and the input jack for the power supply, Instead of being the standard AC one on pretty much all pedals, Its the electro harmonix one, I hate it.

Other than those two things, This is a great pedal that Id recomend to anyone.

Not so easy to get a great sound out of this for me, though I HAVE and think it's a good pedal. It's kind of a wild pedal and can easily turn into a ton of noise (grunge people might consider this a plus?)

Mine was made in NYC, and just got it in 07.

A little frustrating that it has a weird power supply, maybe there's some reason it's not DC? I'm not an electrician, I'm just annoyed easily.

The input/output jacks are at the top of the unit, which doesn't matter to me, but again, is kind of weird for no reason. Maybe the Lil' Big Muff isn't like this, but I haven't heard that pedal.

The rest of it is very straight-forward.

I have a Fender Blues Deluxe, and love its clean tone. Damned if I'm gonna mess up good tone in exchange for distortion, I like to just step on some stompboxes instead and see how I can dirty it up.

My signal chain is as thus: Strat->Boss CS-3 compressor->Snarling Dogs "Blues Bawls" Wah->Ibanez TS9 tube screamer->Big Muff->Ibanez AD9.

At first I almost got rid of the Big Muff. It was kind of fun at first, but my Strat's noisy enough, and I felt like I was getting more static and white noise than anything else from the Big Muff, plus it immediately muddied up my sound and cut out all the high end. On a lark I threw it in next to my Tube Screamer and turned it on expecting an unholy racket, only to find...

The Big Muff and Tube Screamer in conjunction are f'ing KILLER.

These are NOT expensive pedals by any means (The TS-9 model is about 70 bucks), and I'm getting sounds that have the neighbors applauding. (by applauding I mean NOT complaining to the building manager.)

Anyone who's got something like a Marshall half-stack and can pull up that saturated gain anytime they want will never understand the heart-break of loving your clean tube-amp tone, but still wanting to lay on some filthy distortion when the situation calls for it. This effects combo is a great solution. It still rings true as my original tone, and keeps all my amp's characteristics, but it's thick and dirty and vicious. I personally consider the phrase "sounds like Hendrix" to have lost all meaning, but when I want to make him roll over in his grave with a half-assed imitation, this is how I do it.

Previously I was using the TS-9 and the distortion from my Snarling Dogs pedal in conjunction to do my dirty work (the snarling dogs BLUES BAWLS basically has a tubescreamer complex combined w/ a wah pedal). But this is much much much better.

I'm giving it a 7, because on its own I probably wouldn't have kept it, but like I said, I have DEFINITELY found a use for it, and am not shy about saying it is now a major part of my sound.

I've only had it for a few months, but it seems pretty sturdy. My only concern is that it's basically a large hollow tin box, and I suspect stomping on it too hard could do some damage.

Haven't dealt with them.

Overall I'm going to give it a 7, as on its own it's not so special. If you were to throw $100 more at this purchase you could probably leave the Big Muff in the dust. But like I said, I'm MORE than pleased with what I've coaxed from it, so don't be afraid to buy one and give it a shot, just keep your receipt in case it's not for you.

I have the Russian version. Three knobs with clear labels. Pretty simple.

I play a MIM P-Bass Special with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders in both the bridge and neck. I have run the bass through an Ampeg BA 115 and Hartke HA 1200. Plainly, it sounds great. I had been looking for a more aggressive distortion than my Ashdown bass overdrive, and the Big Muff does the job. What I really enjoy is that it doesn't totally lose the low end when I kick it on. I mean, it gets really fuzzy and doesn't stand out in the mix all that well, but I still feel like I retain some bass presence. I tend to use this pedal in a band with only one electric guitar, so it's nice to be able to add a little grind of my own when he's not chunking on power chords.
I feel like I can get a good range of sounds by messing with the tone and sustain knobs, so I have no complaints about versatility.

I just got it so I don't know, but it seems really well built and I have done well with my other EH stuff in the past.

I really love this pedal.

No manual. But, there's only three knobs to fiddle with. No problem. Quite a variety of sounds are capable. I really liked the sound when the knobs were all at the 2 o'clock area. This is a 2006 model with true bypass. Black paint with yellow text and logo.

Wow, this thing is incredible. I AB'ed my Dunlop Jimi Hendrix system classic fuzz and was able to get almost the same tone from the Big Muff. Plus, I still had plenty of room to go. Wow! Now I see why there are so many users of this pedal. I find the fuzz gets harsh when the tone knob is cranked but turning it down yeilds some nice smooth sounding vibe. For the price you can't go wrong. It's very versatile.

Ok, I see there's a lot of mixed reviews on this subject and I'm going to say that although it's of cheap construction, I still find it reliable. Especially when it's on the pedal board. Unfortunately, I can't understand why the jacks are reversed and there's still no ac adapter jack? I mean after all these revisions it still has these flaws? What gives? The electronics seem to be improved though, I think the caps aren't as cheap as before plus it is true bypass. It has the 9 pin switch but it isn't switchcraft, so it will break down sooner. The pots aren't the greatest either but some contact cleaner will keep them going for years to come.

I've haven't contacted them and I doubt I ever will. If it breaks down, I'll fix it myself. I don't mind noodling with this stuff.

Overall, I really enjoy this fuzz. You can imitate most guitar legends with it. David Gilmour is an avid user of this product and I can see why. But, what frys my ass is the lack of an ac adapter input and the reversed jacks. Again this is a budget item so I shouldn't bitch, the overall usefulness of the product is stellar and a blast to use. And, the price is as cheap as dirt. I wish I would've bought one sooner.

Yeah, pretty simple. 3 knobs.

I love it. I plugged it in and turned everything to full, then tweaked the tone knob down slightly, and there's my tone. Obviously it changes from set-up to set-up, and from what I hear, Muff to Muff as well. It has a bit of Pumpkins, a bit of MBV to it, but I think it till keeps the character of your playing intact. I play in a noisy grungey style (Sonic Youth, Daisy Chainsaw, Melvins, Nirvana, early Hole) however, and I can see why this might not suit your needs if you want something really clean and clear sounding or really high gain metal distortion.
It's got enough fuzz to have a bite and snarl to it, but not so much to swamp you and your playing.

Havent had it long, but I'd gig without a back-up, although you'd need spare batteries. Built well though.

Never dealt with.

For my playing, this pedal is perfect. My sound is characterized by strange 70's cast-offs through an MXR Blue Box, fuzzed up with the Muff, and run into a dirty Marshall amp with all EQ and pre-amp gain on 10. Basically I sound like a chainsaw. I've been playing around 6 years.
The best thing about it is the crankability. The worst thing about it is the lack of power supply input, so you need batteries.
I bought this as a replacement for a Boss HM-2 and it kicks that box's ass.
I'd buy it again if I had to.

The unit is easy to grasp, just three knobs. But one big fault i have with it is if you turn the volume below 12 o'clock, it goes silent. Why have a volume control that only has any effect over halfway? Also, only runs on 9V batteries, no adaptors. annoying as hell! But, like i said, simple.

I play metal/grunge/garage rock, with some psychadelic flourishes. I LOVE the sound of this pedal. My friend has a ProCo Rat, and warned me this unit wouldn't be versatile. It isn't, but i wanted a fuzz and i got a great one. This unit has one of the fattest sweetest tones out there, but too much buzz.

The casing is built like a tank, but whoever built the electronics was a moron. The volume control was all loose and eventually the pedal failed. When i opened it up, the soldering job was awful. EHX must improve their quality control. I am getting the volume control replaced. All in all, the thing's a brick, but the fiddley bits not reliable.

never dealt with 'em.
i live in southern australia, they are in nyc.
bought this from Allans Music, they kick Billy Hyde's ass.

Love it, but needs adaptor power, more reliable componants. I have played other fuzzes, but this has so much more sweet tube-like tone.

My brother had a Russian Muff when I was in my formative years, so I was fully acquainted with the pedal's chops when I bought mine. I do remember it being very easy to make it sound like I wanted (which was dark and murky, especially on the bass).

My favorite bassists (Les Claypool and Beefcake the Mighty, to name a couple) don't use the Muff, so imitating them with it is pointless. But, in conjuction with my Morley wahs (one bass, one guitar), and my bass (defretted ESP six-string), it sounds off-the-wall bizarre. Like a synth-trombone hybrid. And it's just a fretless bass.

Noisy? That's the point, really. But it's a dark noise, which suits my bass playing well. I knew, from the first time I heard it in action (my brother running it through his J-Bass), that this was the distortion I wanted.

One thing to remember about the Russians: they're working with Cold War machinery, which means sloppy tolerances. I guess this is why the AK-47 is the most widely used firearm in the world (sloppy = efficient, in this case). Dependable? I've only had luck with the Russian pedals.

It's built like a Russian tank. Seriously.

Gig without a backup? I have in the past; no reason not to in the future.

Never had to deal with them, and I hope to keep it that way.

For the seventy dollars I paid for it, I think I'm getting something out of it. And it just works with every style of music I play (which tends to be a mix of whatever I want to do at the time - hip-hop is the biggest influence, though). As I said, I'm quite familiar with this pedal (having used it for almost ten years).

If someone were to steal this thing, I'd be a bit upset - I don't like things stolen from me - but not to the point of resorting to drastic measures. Fortunately, they're cheap enough to buy a spare if needbe. So I did. Unfortunately, I don't have room for an amp, so it's a bit useless.

Compared to the US model, this sounds darker and drier, which works much better for the bass (for me, anyway). But it works so well on the guitar, too, that I'm not about to get rid of it.

I will say this, though: aside from wah pedals (I use Morley exclusively), I'm a loyal Electro-Harmonix customer. It's because of this pedal (I now have two, plus a Russian Smallstone phaser, which I picked up last week).

The pedal works like most distortion/overdrive pedals; level, tone, Drive. Mine has the battery cover (not all do), which is nice when you don't have a screwdriver handy. Input, output, stomp switch, and, brace yourself... a effect on LED!! If you can operate a Boss, or Digitech, this will feel right at home.

Here's what I've found with Big Muffs; no 2 ever really sounded the same to me. I don't care if it's an original Sovtek, or the reissue, the all seem to vary, not unlike Sovtek heads. Mine sounds good, not too fuzzy, just the amount of crunch I need. I realize alot of bass players like using these, but mine doesn't quite work well for it, others might though. I would say mine sounds right in the ballpark of an MXR Distortion +. I use it through an old Silvertone 1485 (all tube 150 watt 6X10 piggyback) and this pedals great to add to the drive, or distort when I'm in civilization and can't crank the amp to break up the tubes.

The pedal is built like a brick shithouse. Unfortunately, the idiot who used it before me decided to change control settings with one of his/her 2 left feet and the pots are bent, but still operational, I can't fault EH for that. The only thing I don't like is the fact that there's no AC jack, which isn't a big deal for me in that when I play guitar, I only really use this pedal. Those with pedalboards, may have to mod. The stompswitch, pots, and jacks are standard, so if replacement is necessary, it shouldn't be a problem.

I use this for more eighties underground/punk type sound, but it will work well for rock. My suggestiopn would be to try out the actual Big Muff (Russian, American, NYC, etc.) before buying one. Mine Sounds great so I'll rate it high, but for what it's worth, I've only met a couple people who didn't like theirs. They're kinda like children that way.

Made in Russia ... fearsome black box with fifties knobs ... cardboard package ... no manual ... but what could a manual tell you about three knobs labelled 'Volume', 'Tone' and 'Sustain' ... except that the one labelled 'Sustain' should have been labelled 'Fuzz', and the one labelled 'Volume' should have been labelled 'Gain' ?

The bottom line with this beast is experimentation, which no manual can help you with in this case. The guitar and the amp (not to mention any other effects you may have) alter the behaviour of the animal ??? and animal it is ??? so much that you just have to let your fingers do the twiddling and your ears tell them which way to twiddle.

As many reviewers have said, there really are only just variations on one sound with this box. But, if you can find that one sound with your setup, it's indescribable. However, the knobs are very sensitive to position and interact with each other in unexpected ways, and as is the case with my EH Electric Mistress, familiarity will, eventually, breed undying love, if anything will.

It's three knobs simple, and three knobs bloody fiddly. Therefore, a five.

I don't want to get the sound of my favourite artists (although I wouldn't mind having their skills at my fingertips; Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Ian Moss (Australia's most prominent guitarist, of the band Cold Chisel (Jimmy Barnes) fame, David Gilmour and Jimmy Page, in that order), but I do want to get the sound that *I* want, and have been wanting since my early teens, since I heard my first Gibson Gold Top ... god, that's a long time ago. I've always used amp distortion, never getting around to 'the pedal roundabout' and not wanting to. But on the other hand, I've never quite been able to get the sound, or the sustain, I want, especially as, having small hands, I reluctantly chose a slim-knecked Strat over the ever-desirable, meaty-sounding Les Paul; like skimmed milk compared to cream.

My Strat sounds about as good as a Strat can sound, but ... it's never going to be capable of that thick, creamy howling growl that a Les Paul can put into an overdriven Fender Twin. And that's the sound I'd given up hope of finding, since being stuck with close neighbours and an amp (a Fender Deluxe Reverb '59 Repro) without channel volumes (yes I know; but I bought it over the internet, and I'd never played anything so 'old', so didn't know that an amp could come without channel volumes, so didn't think to ask). Nor did I expect to find the sound in a transistorised unit: I was thinking in terms of lots of dosh and a valve inside.

So, now in stomp-box territory for the first time and seriously short of cash, though I'd been a lead guitar player for thirty years and couldn't contemplate a life without some dirt in it, I still held back. Until, in a music shop to buy a lead, I saw a couple of Big Muffs; one for AUD300, made in the good ol' US of A, and one for AUD200, made in Russia.

I got hold of a Les Paul (yes, I have one at home now; couldn't stand the thin, waily Strat any more, although I still have it) and a Fender Deluxe Reverb to mimic my home setting and asked for the US made one to try. It sounded awful; so awful indeed that the salesman pulled a face after a lot of knob-twiddling, said it was the only one in stock but there must be something wrong with it. I don't know what they're supposed to sound like, but this one had one sound only, like its Soviet sister, but that one sound was from Hades, not Heaven. It was harsh, ugly and unmusical. Not even a metal-head would touch it. So I tried a succession of other pedals and, finally, the Soviet Muff Pi, not expecting much. At first I didn't get much either, so purchasers, don't go on first opinions; give the beast a chance. And try another if you don't like that one; they probably vary ... such as having earth leads connected and suchlike <g>. I got a good sound out of it at last; a sort of creamy howl with a fair bit of fuzz underneath, especially on the lower strings; but not too much. And a sort of octavizing effect, like the point when you're just about to break into guitar-amp feedback ... a sound to die for.

Then I got it home and really got stuck into it, although somewhat hampered by the fact that my Les Paul was in dock getting its pots replaced so I had to do the testing with the Strat, a guitar which, with all its qualities, does not pack the punch of a Les Paul, so is not a good substitute. But I discovered that the 'Volume/Gain' knob on the Muff more than made up for the Strat's deficiencies; this box has massive amounts of gain!

Then I read some of the reviews on this site about the beast, and one reviewer, who said hardly anything else, said, "Simple. Turn the 'Volume' and 'Sustain' knobs to full"; the one thing I hadn't tried, because of the sheer din which erupted every time I touched the 'Volume' knob. So I tried it. After diving for the volume knob on my amp, turning it down from 2 to 1 and hit the strings again. A creamy howl which went on and on ... and on. That octavizing, almost-feedback sound, and sustain in sackfulls. Full 'Tone' was the final t

I can't afford two, so I'd gig wirhout a backup. But if I could afford two, I'd take two. Solid as a brick, but a bit unpredictable as a carpet python, I suspect.

When I took the thing apart to see if I'd scored a tranny version or an IC chip, I was rewarded with good news and bad: the good; it was a tranny version, with well-spaced components which would be a joy to work on. The bad was that, in addition to an earth lead hanging loose and idle where an assembler in a hurry had forgotten to attach it to the bolt provided for that purpose (poking out of any of the four feet) ??? and there wasn't even a nut rattling around in the box for me to use, so blutac is doing a temporary job until I can get out into the workshop and hunt down a nut with Soviet-style thread (anyone got any clues? Metric? AF? Whitworth? Gawdnose?). No wonder it was so noisy at the shop; it's much quieter now ... so purchasers, take note. Check for loose wires if you get a noisy unit. The other bad news has been mentioned before; plastic jack sockets held to the circuit board only by their solder (but there's a lot of solder, and about eight sturdy 'legs' per socket, so it's not as bad as it might be). But I'd be gentle with those sockets. Pity the only way to power off is to unplug the input jack ... there's no power switch nor 9V socket (although it shouldn't be too hard to rig one; there's plenty of room: and the same goes for a replacemeant socket or two when the originals die. That's one advantage of having lots of free space in the box; you can mod it without bending over backward. Oh, and you need pliers to get the battery compartment lid, which is supposed to be thumb-push, open, it's such a bad fit. This has been mentioned before, so it's clearly a design fault.

Haven't had the unit long. Never dealt with them. No idea.

I've been playing rock, blues, R & B, various, since the seventies. And yes, the Muff Pi, Soviet style, gives me the creamy growl that I associate with that era, and which, along with endless sustain, I've been craving for since about then too. So, along with the EH Electric Mistress ??? which gives me a very David Gilmour-esque tone ??? I have a simple but great setup. And it does more than match my style of music; it enables me to play things I didn't have the sustain for before, so it's expanded my horizons. With a brass slide and an endless creamy howl, what would you be doing? I'm exploring new territory. If it were stolen I'd buy two more, as I hear they're rare.

Let me start by saying that I will try to make this review as comprehensive as possible so you don't have to sift through a thousand other ones. Sound good?

I have the black Russian Re-issue of the Big Muff Pi. This pedal takes a while to get used to, but usually only takes a couple of minutes to get a great distortion out of it. However, it requires significant modifications to sound great, which I will explain in the Sound Quality section.

There was no manual when I got mine, and it came in a cardboard box.

By itself, this version of the Muff is decent sounding. For the 60 dollar price tag, it is a great pedal for the musician on the budget. However, I am a high-end gear using musician, and I like my distortion/overdrives to sound pristine and exceptionally good. So, when I first got the Muff, I was underwhelmed. Even with the tone control all the way to the left, the distortion is thin and has no body; forget about the low end. It can get away for a couple of gigs, but after a while you will be pining for something with BODY, with that "oomph" that you can feel as well as hear. So this is what I did.

First off, I installed a true bypass switch; this is key, since this box is a real tone sucker. Then, I installed a 5 way rotary selector switch that increases the mids and low end more and more with every click. Perfect! With these relatively simple mods, my Russian Muff is sounding EXCELLENT!

I play it through a Fender 65' Twin Reverb Reissue, a Z Vex Woolly Mammoth and a Z Vex Fuzz Probe from a Gibson SG Standard. This pedal sounds best through a good tube amp, and with the mods, this pedal SINGS. The sustain is great, the distortion is full and biting, yet with round edges so it doesn't sound choppy or compressed. It is perfect for loud, in your face fuzz. With a tube amp such as the Fender, it acquires dynamics, and sounds louder or softer depending on your picking technique. Open chords will EXPLODE out of this pedal, and single note runs sound clear and precise.

I will say this, though; this pedal is not for metalheads, or for those who want serious chunk. There simply isn't enough gain for this kind of music. It is perfect for rock and roll, blues, and alternative, and that is IT. I would suggest getting another, high quality overdrive or fuzz pedal and combining them with the Muff for a thick, clear fuzz, or just use the Muff by itself for a lower gain fuzz.

The Russian Reissues aren't as rugged as the USA ones, but they are still good. As long as you don't chuck this thing off of roofs, you're good. It can withstand kicks, drops and scuffs, but I don't think it would withstand falling out of a window.

I would definitely use this at a gig without a back up, as long as it had new batteries. The lack of a 9V adapter output is a real drag, so I'll dock some points for that.

This pedal is so cheap, you can buy another new one and save yourself the hassle of EHX customer support. Don't bother them, it takes too long to resolve problems and it takes a week for them to answer a question.

I play indie, and this pedal is a great basic distortion for me. By itself, it isn't too great, but with the right modifications and amplifer, it sounds heavenly. I couldn't imagine my setup without this pedal.

If it were lost or stolen, I would get another one and do the same mods; it costs cheaper than spending 300 dollars on a boutique pedal.

I wish it had a 9V adapter output! Jesus, Electro-Harmonix. It's common sense, is it not?

Well i have the first russian reissue pedal, known as the civil war big muff. Real simple to use, just 3 knobs: volume, distortion, and tone. Can take a while to get the right sound out but its awesome

This pedal is the best pedal i have ever used. My setup is as follows: Musicman SUB bass, Zoom 506II, Boss DD-5, Boss ODB-3, Sovtek Big Muff. The muff jus sounds awesome, so loud n fierce, you can get some seriously good sounds out of it, dunno why the ever changed the circuit board from this one to the shitty black ones that are all over the place now. I can get a perfect muse sound out of this, just sounds awesome! if you ever see one of these rare pedals, snap it up its immense

The thing is built like a tank ,it weighs a ton! the metal is soo thick, i really dont think you can break this thing, only problem is the plastic input and outoput jacks held on to the circuit board by solder..not the best

Its long discontinued, i dont think id get any support

I play alternative/rock music, and i couldnt hope for a better distortion. I have owned a 1978 ny big muff, and it jus doesnt compare to this one, this baby kicks ass! but i warn people, the black and even the green one are not a patch on this pedal, so dont go out buyin the more comment one after reading this!

New Black Russian re-issue
3 Knobs, Input, Output and a stomper for switching ot on/off. Simplicity itself and the way all Overdive/distirtion pedals should be designed. Guitarists are for the most part idiots, this is idiot proof. Only niggle is the lack of a 9v unput to supply mains to it.

For the price this thing is awesome, it totally kicks my old Boss DS2 into touch. Lovely range with the tone control which you can turn with your foot which is well handy for gig situations. The Muff sounds like the Muff which is to say great fuzz/buzzsaw american overdrive, there is not a lot of subtlety here. Be warned it will colour your sound and make everything else sound like it and noise becomes a factor at hi-volume. Ultimatley the Black Russian one is not as good as the old Green ones and I haven't played the NYC built ones, but in terms of sound, the cost/ quality ratio is excellant.

Hmmmm...this is where it get's sticky. The battery compatment lid will come of next time I pick it up and it is made from quite thin metal. I've had no actual problems but I wouldn't want to use it to defend myself.

EH have warrantys that mean I would have to pay for shipping back to NYC to have repaired. Kinda makes the warranty pointless.

Generally I prefer getting distortion from ODing a valve amp. However, this ain't always convenient which is why we buy pedals. This has far more personality than any Boss distortion which helps me get over my reliability misgivings. It is also cheaper than the Pro-Co's which are the real other mid-price option on distortion. Essentially I would recommend a Pro-Co if you want a tight overdrive and a Muff for a looser, funky, brasher kind of sound. Get both and you will have all bases covered for eternity.

really easy. just three knobs. volume, sustain, tone. thats it.

amazing sound. always sounds good. best overdrive pedal existing if you ask me.

until now it always worked

never had to use it. don't know.

fantastic pedal. just buy it and be happy with it. i would buy it again if it was stolen.

Made for Luddites. vol/dist/tone. This is the Green re-issue version with the outer casing. And the ground up tank parts.

I give it a 9 for what I play and how I use it. My Big Muff fronts the chain to both a git & bass amp, while a third chain runs independent to the git. Various distortions, compressor ensue.
Pedal's specialty is deep, resonating tone. The higher 1/3 of it's range is kind of tinny and loses that deep warm character, especially if distortion is turned up. The distortion runs from warm-fuzzy to real fuzzy, but does not do 'searing' or 'screeching'. Volume capacity is generally more than you need. Unison is around 11 o'clock on the dial. A powerful and potent effect in front, but previously placed pedals may step on it's sound quality in undesirable ways.

Okay. On the one hand, it's double cased body could break your toe if you dropped it. Military grade parts in the chassis. Meaning they barely melted it before they pressed it, you can see the outline of all the little bits of chopped metal in the case. It's guts work great without fail, being armored and all; it's peripheral parts are another story. The footswitch knob came loose, the battery cover was useless and stripped almost immediately; the battery terminal has broken numerous times. I just read the input/output jacks are attached on the inside by solder only. They haven't broken yet. Knobs/pots all well-attached and working. I bought this new at some point in the early '90's, and while it is old, I also have an mxr dynacomp and an ada flanger that are much older and have never said 'boo' once.
I don't have backups for anything, I make sure it's freakin' working before I haul it out to a gig. I consider it dependable.

Sorry, don't speak Russian. I fix it myself.

I was dissatisfied with the Big Muff for a long time before I figured out where it works best. It is the primary compoment in my 'sound' and it's flavor is Meat. The closest counterpart I have to it is an E13 SodaMeiser, which is great and loud in it's own right, but the Big Muff can ably overpower it anywhere along the chain. I'd have to say I have a certain affection for this big-ass pedal. If anyone ever tries to roll you for your gear, you could kill them with it. Considering what it's made of, it already has.

a dead monkey could figure it out. foot switch and a couple knobs. it DOES take a bit of fiddling to get a nice tone though. the longer you have it the more familiar it becomes, obviously.

when i bought this I was looking for a good mid-late '60's fuzz tone and I think I have found the box that does the trick. I can get the same tone that Kieth Richards gets on the first few notes of "Satisfaction" with this thing. it goes from muffled low end tones(hence the name), to high end, thin sounding fuzz typical of many late-60's garage recordings. a bit of a volume drop when you turn it on, but if you tweak the volume on the pedal to match that of the clean of your guitar when you switch it off, you can get them to sych up pretty well. one should note that the amp is as important as the pedal as far as tone is concerned, and this guy sounds best through all tube amps for sure. solid state doesnt do analog pedals justice. right now I play an Epiphone Casino> Stereo Memory Man> Small Stone> Big Muff> Fender Twin Reverb or Pro Reverb. as you can see I use EH stuff alot, and that's because I love the warmth and organic qualities they evoke with their products.

to be honest, I have mixed feelings about this one. I have had several EH pedals, and so far, I have no complaints as far as build and workmanship. I had a Memory Man deluxe that took a beating for 10 years or so with no problems. same with alot of my friends. most of them have Big Muffs sitting around and I havent heard any complaints. mine is the black Russian reissue, and it does seem a bit flimsy, what with the thin casing and lots of unused space inside and all. when I first plugged it in, I was worried that it didnt work because no LED came on. important note: it seems as though this pedal only registers as on when all inputs and outputs are connected and the battery is hooked up. when I plugged in completely the light came on and it's been a dream. I'm still reserving judgement though...the repeat horror stories I hear from others regarding EH in general make me wary. but hell, the thing is inexpensive. I don't see what all the fuss is about. if it breaks, suck it up and buy another, or get something else and quit bitching!! analog electronics are fickle systems sometimes. my experience with EH has been very good so far. the tone is soo worth it, and I LOVE every EH pedal I've heard or owned for that reason.

havent needed to contact yet.

I got exactly what I was looking for here. it could be a bit bassier/fuller, but whatever. it's perfect for that buzzy, nasty 60's sound for sure. not a fancy pedal by any stretch, but if you are into traditional, classic tones, this sucker is pretty cool.

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).

A three knob stompbox. As simple as can be.

I got this pedal free from someone who doesn't even play guitar. I was just planning on playing around with it once and then I was going to trash it because i thought it was a useless Russian-built piece of garbage. I must admit I couldn't have been more wrong, and I still can't believe it. I'm playing an American Standard Strat into THD Univalve with a 1-12 cabinet loaded with a Vintage 30. I was expecting a muddy, useless sound and instead the damn thing screamed! I got total definition with growling lows and searing, singing highs. It shouldn't sound this good, but it does. I've been playing for 20 years and the tone this thing gets with my rig is a sound I've always wanted but have never attained previously.

It seems cheaply built but I tend to baby my gear so I don't expect it to break down on me.

Never dealt with them.

I play blues and classic rock. I could see using this pedal for both solos and some massive power chords. This pedal is now an integral part of my sound.

3 nobs turn em all way to right no more questions!

Godin hblg and mexican tele -maxon sd9-boss hyper fuzz-traynor valve 40. This little baby is te black russian model I a/bed it next to the green one and this had mojo. I love noise so this guy nails it in a musical way making things creamy when you don't want the string attack of overdrive. The fun is mixing the muff with other disortion and overdrive then putting a phaser in there for good measure. I'm taken by noise when used properly in music ie; Godspeed YOU!,sonic youth,Explosions in the sky, mogwai,mercury rev,a nothern chorus... I think this pedal does the job for those tone attention moments. I gig with a keyboard player and bass/drums this sound can really fill out a tone area that I can't explain just experience....FUZZ RULES!

hmmm... I recently gigged with it no problem. Have only had a couple of months so wait and see. The plastic inputs don't give me much confidence but for the price would'nt take a heart attack if it exploded tomorrow. It's not like I paid $300 on a zvex.

can't speak russian!

playing 25 years used to have a little big muff then the 80's came along and someone convinced me to trade it for a boss ds-1. My memory makes me think the little muff was dirtier than the fuzz's coming out now ,but my memory is more fuzzy now -funny how things work. If this thing got lost/stolen I'd pick it up again cheap. Open to try new things like the maxon sd9 I picked up 2nd hand 'it can get fuzz when turned to the right. I recently used these 2 pedals together live thru a blues deville at a christian music festival-what glorious looks I recieved Laughs.

Extremeley easy to use.
Set volume, tone and amount of didtortion - and away you go!

I use this with Jazzmasters and whatever amp. The amp doesn't matter as long as it is very loud and neutral - because the big muff will shape your sound.
The big muff sounds best with full volume and full sustain.
Works very well after my digitech whammy and MXR phase 90.
Personally I prefer the russian made big muff to the USA version. The russian one frankly has more balls.
For in your face loud fuzz/distortion there really is only one choice. Suits garage, punk rock, noise and post rock.
Okay it is a bit noisy ( a little bit of buzz etc.) - but who fucking cares? It rocks!

This pedal has been with me for a few years now and works 100%.
The casing is secure.
Had a small problem with one of the jack sockets - but was easily fixed. I must admit I do have a back up - just in case - but these things are so cheap it won't break the bank.

No idea

Don't spend all your hard earned cash on some 'boutique' pedal or over priced amp. You'll never find that 'perfect tone' if you have no soul.
These things are cheap and sound great! Buy one and just play. Play fucking loud! and then relax.

3 knobs to change tone distoriton and volume, one button to turn it on and off. it's labelled pretty self explanitory, but i guess if you were illiterate... but then again if you couldn't read this review wouldnt be worth anything to you anyway so, eh?

I play a Squire Strat Silver Series through a fender delux 85, and can get a resonably chunky distorto sound out of it, but when i play it through the Big Muff it makes anything else sound piss weak.

High screachy highs (obviously) if you want it, big chunky distortion (huge chunky distortion is a better description), great sustain.

THIS IS THE DISTORTION PEDAL!

This thing is a perfect example of soviet engineering. This thing is built like a tank. even the same colour as a tank. it is pretty simple to construct, so don't worry about the whole soviet thing they can't stuff it up, but it doesnt break. It chews batteries but don't they all.

i have only had one problem with this, the battery leads broke (it doesnt have a battery door cause mines a beat up peice of shit), i took it to an electrician, he fixed it, and he even told me it was built like a tank. "could run it over with a mack truck" i think were the words he used.

i havent tried, i don't think they make them anymore.

I play everything but metal (you don't count zeppelin as metal do you?). This thing is very versitile, but if you want a distoriton pedal you arnt going to be playin surf music. The strat really limits the sound, i'm sure a les paul'd sound awesome.

This thing is a old Big "green" Muff Pi. olive green, made by a company called sovtek, it even has russian writting on it, how cool is that.


This is the Distoriton pedal!

they don't make them anymore so if you see one you should buy one, if i had to get rid of it id definatley get a new one as soon as possible, if i could find on

easy to use, but not as easy as some might think. alot of people bash this pedal because they dont take the time to tweak it. you can get some REALLY great sounds from this pedal. you don't need some $175 boutique clone-muff. it did not come with a manual, and it did not come in the famous wooden box.

sounds great. first thing i did was open it up and to my surprise, EH is now making this pedal TRUE BYPASS! thats right folks, a black, russian, big muff reissue. it has the 9-lug true bypass switch, with one wire going to each of the lugs. i use my squier fat telecaster with a duncan 59 humbucker in the neck, and a duncan Jerry Donahue single coil in the bridge. i go from my guitar, to this fuzz, into my 50 watt Ampeg Reverberocket 1x12 combo. this pedal nails the Weezer blue album fuzz, as well as the Smashing Pumpkins siamese dream fuzz. best thing about the pedal is the true bypass, and the tone knob has a really wide range. that makes this a fairly versatile fuzz.

solid. built to last overall, but be carefull with those plastic jacks. plus you see alot of these pedals still around from the 70's, 80's and 90's.

incredible value. $54 from music123 w/free shipping. thats a great price for this classic fuzz pedal (w/true bypass). i play fuzzy sludgey riffy stoner rock mostly, while dabbling in classic rock/blues rock. i don't see any reason to pay the extra 20 for the US version. like fuzz? you should already own this pedal.

Oh come on! It's got three knobs/dials, volume (level of effect), sustain (distortion) and tone (anti-clockwise bottom end, clockwise top end). Easy as "Pi". Quite versatile and easy to find those "sweet spots". No manual, but if you need one for this, you probably can't read anyway.

I tried this pedal with my guitars, a Strat, a Firebird, a Tele, an unbranded 60's semi-acoustic and an early 70's Arbiter S.G. copy. Through humbuckers, with the sustain up and tone down, this pedal is creamy and syrupy, a la "Cream" era Clapton. With single coils and tone up, you can get a really dirty gritty garage/psyche fuzz, like any of your favourite "Nuggets" bands. However I found my grail when I played my semi-acoustic Soundmaster ES-335 copy bass and Audition amp with this pedal. Wow! Warm fuzzy, sustaining, earth shaking, fantastic! A bit like Macca's fuzz bass sound on "Rubber Soul" Sounds good with flange and echo.I would imagine if you used it with a compressor it would sound even better. I'd say this pedal was a fuzz, rather than a distortion, so probably not for your "Nu-Metal" sounds.

Built in a Russian munitions factory to what seems to be the same standards of a tank. Chassis seems very sturdy, but I would have prefered it if the input/output sockets were metal. I'd feel confident about gigging without a back-up.

Never dealt with them

I play mostly 60's/70's style psyche/garage/rock and this pedal is perfect for that. I'm sure if you were inclined to, you could get some grunge type sounds out of this. I used to use a Boss HM-2 pedal on my bass, but this blows it out of the water. I'd definately get another one if it broke or was nicked. I own a few other fuzz/distortion pedals, a Fulltone Soul-Bender, a Zoom Ultra-Fuzz, a Boss HM-2 and an Electro-Harmonix Graphic-Fuzz. The Big Muff can hold it's own against these and also has it's own unique flavour. It would be nice if it had an input for an external power supply, but no big deal, as batteries seem to last a long time. If you're looking for a good retro sounding fuzz, I'd reccomend this one. It would be nice if it had separate treble and bass controls, but it hasn't and I've learnt to live live with it.

if u play with the right nobs, my big muff will purr, if you play with the rong nobs, it will purr louder.

70's fender jaguar-my big muff-wahwah-old distortion feedbacky thing-500w peavy USA bass stack.
wow really noisy and amazing. setting vary kus song sounds vary.

my muff sounds great always, it always makes the right effects

peavy usa bass

from cobain-hendrix-thurston moore...
all effects are great, but distortion and chorus are the best

yes i never have not used it ata gig except when i didnt have a big muff.

yes but i prefer bakup becaus some people think my big muff is to loud

N/A
my big muff has never gone wrong

alternatie punk rock, it fits just fine
ive bin playing 5 years and is better than any other pedals i have used
if it wer stolen i would cry. then buy/steal another one
i love the name, say it with me, BIG MUFF
i hate nothing bout it
i compared it to a digitech grunge pedal and my muff won handsdown
i wish it had a wah attachd to the side

3 knobs, volume, tone, sustain (gain). turn up the volume, it get's louder, turn up the tone it gains more top end, turn down the tone you get lots of sludgy bottom end, turn up the sustain for the amount of fuzz you want. pretty damn easy to use, and its versatile enough to lend it self to both electric guitar and bass guitar (i have used it for both applications in rehearsal and gigging situations without any problems). to be fair it did take some fiddling before i found 'the sound' for me, but it was the first pedal i had purchased and i went through different amps and guitars plus other FX before coming to my sound.

my setup is:
fender '69 champion mustang reissue > Marshall ED-1 compressor > Jim Dunlop Cry Baby Wah > Nobels ODR-S overdrive special > Boss OS-2 overdrive/distortion > EHX BIG MUFF PI > Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble > Boss PH-4 Phase Shifter > Yamaha Digital Delay > Line 6 Delay Modeller > Into a Peavey Classic 30.... gasp, yes a large setup

When used correctly this pedal is meaty as hell, and really can leave my distortion pedal whimpering in the corner pleading for mercy. The best way to use this pedal at a high gain setting is to switch it on only when you're playing, otherwise there is an annoying 'shhh' humming noise, so pretty much switch on - rock - switch off.

I've found it easy to use with my Peavey amp, its an all valve amp and the vintage fuzz tones lend themselves perfectly to this vintage style valve combo.

the pedal can easily produce images of Josh Homme from QOTSA, but then with some twiddling, and a wah pedal you're pulling shapes like Hendrix in no time, with your original take on of purple haze.

When using it with a bass i found it lends itself more to passive basses after using it with my Musicman SUB bass, but when i plugged in my Fender J copy it sung, sweet tones were flowing from the amp, and it could really beef up the sound so all fears of dropping the bottom end out of your sound can be abolished. I used the pedal with my VP Jazz copy into the big muff pi, an older boss CE-2 chorus pedal, straight into my Peavey 1978 Century bass head, driven by a peavey 1x15 cabinet with Black Widow speakers.

this effect pedal is creeping its way into more and more of my playing now as i am playing more and more, the tone is awesome, lead lines almost fly off the fretboard (i'll note here that i'm no shred monster, and generally stay away from soloing, but interesting modes and lines sound so good with this pedal its hard not to play them...) and chords are given a sludgy makeover and erupt from the speaker.

the only reason i drop a point off the 10 is because of the annoying hum when not playing when the unit is at high gain levels, but this is quickly remedied by either switching off the unit, or using some form of volume pedal/kill switch in your effects circuit

this pedal is huge, and as a result sturdy as hell, the paint job is nice, but in the end that doesn't matter and so EHX agree, and as a result of this, after extensive use the paint does chip off, but in the end you just look more hardcore. i've played many gigs without backup, and i'm confident in saying that i doubt i'd need it. it something were to go wrong with this pedal, then i would definately get a replacement. also its easy to fall into this false feeling of security, but i can definately rely on the American maufacture. although saying that, i've never played on a russian unit so i'm on the lookout so i can make comparrisons.

Never had to get in touch, but the dealer i bought it from are distributors so i'm sure gettin in touch wouldn't be too much of a challenge.

i play a mix of music, but tend to write my own material (as sad as it sounds...) my favourite bands include: biffy clyro, radiohead, queens of the stone age, siKTh, interpol, and their sounds influence me alot, but not necessarily in this area (QOTSA being the only band who's sound resembles the Big Muff), but i have found my own voice through the pedal, and it really boosts the sound when it needs lifting.

i have been playing for about 3/4 years now having started on bass, and moving onto guitar, the pedal is great for both, and i use it alot on recording. a list of my current guitar set up is listed above.

if this pedal were to go missing/stolen/broke whatever, i would probably definately replace it, it is becoming more and more part of my sound.

as far as loves/hates are concerned i love the tone and ease of use, hate being such a strong word i lean towards diliking its size as its a bit big for a compact pedal board, but then size adds to the character of the pedal, and makes it look more interesting than just having a load of multi-coloured boxes all the same size... i'm so shallow...

i did not compare this product, as i was in a rush to a rehearsal, so i quickly nipped into the local guitar shop and tested it quickly and bought it, and to my dismay it sounded pretty awful at the rehearsal - a quick shift of volume, and a swap of bass to a passive model later and the problem was quickly abolished. i only wish i'd tried the double muff as well.....

i think it enhances my sound, and helps me make a better noise, as i don't see too many folks using these these days, so i enjoy it.

This review is for the Sovtek Green Muff. You know, the Russian version of the Big Muff Pi, that is very green. And ugly.

As far as usability, the Green Muff has three knobs. They are your basic idiot knobs, turn until you like the sound. You don't get much easier than that.

Son of a bitch! If I don't stick a fat stogie in my mouth after playing with this baby then I'm doing something wrong. The Green Muff is the redheaded stepchild of the American Big Muff Pi. She's a bit edgier, a bit more gnarly, and if you ever expect to tame her, you're an idiot.

You can get that fat, bassy thump for all of your rhythm work just as easily as you can get that searing lead that borderlines on feedback every time you back off. Robin Trower only wishes he had this much sustain.

She works just fine with my Hiwatt DR-103 and my Laney AOR Pro Tube 100. These are my main amplifiers, and boy does she ever sing with them. The Hiwatt is perhaps the best amp I have ever used for effects, and the muff sounds as natural as you could possibly hope for. With the Pro Tube 100, the phrase 'Marshall killer' comes to mind. If you aren't annihilating little children and small animals in your immediate vicinity when using this stomp box with either of these amps, you're doing something wrong. (sidenote: the Green muff works fine with Marshall amps too, d'uh). It is also worth noting that I use two Fender Showman 4x12 cabinets loaded with Celestion G12T-75s, and fuck me running, the Celestions take this sound like a champ. Never much enjoyed running this pedal through Vintage 30s or the likes, though.

The one amp that I have never enjoyed using her through is modern Fender equipment. She doesn't like any of the Blues or Hot Rod Deluxe amps, and any of the modern heads I have put her through seem to be gnashing their teeth at the very thought of it. Eh, whatever. The older Reverbs and Bassmans seem to react just fine, and they sound great.

To my ears, the Green Muff enjoys my Fender guitars more than my Gibson guitars. I chalk it up to the fact that I enjoy the sound of single-coils more than I do humbuckers, but the Texas Specials I run on my main axe seem to do the job just fine.

From Pink Floyd to Nirvana to Mark Knopfler, the Green Muff will do exactly what I want it to.

A guy I knew once said that his Green Muff would frequently malfunction through takes in the studio. He would be in the middle of a solo and it would cut out. The knobs were missing so it only had one setting. When she would cut out, he would throw her against the floor and walls to get her to work again, and voila, he would finish the take.

I am unsure as to what this says about Russian engineering, but the fact that it doesn't *completely* crap out like other pedals when it starts to malfunction says a lot. I, myself, have never had any reliability troubles, and my Green Muff is pretty damn old. She's got kick marks and metal on metal scuffing and everything. She still works like a charm.

For me, the Green Muff is one of the best purchases I have ever made. I've spent a long damn time trying to tame her, and have finally come to terms with her. I can get the sound I want and she can be as damned crazy as she wants, and it works just fine for me. For playing modern rock, she's got that crunch that I desire. For playing classic rock, she's got that fat bassy tone that makes for some of the best rhythm lines. For playing your blistering lead, well. You got it.

Call me a zealot, but for $80 used, this is the best beat-to-shit, ugly-as-sin, population-controlling aural weapon of mass destruction I've ever owned.

Three knobs. Tone, volume and distortion. duh.

Depending on what type of amp you run it thru., it can sound cool, or like ass. When I run it into the front end of an all tube amp, it can sound good. Either with the amp clean or distorted. Can sound good.
Running into the front end of a solid state amp, it sounds harsh, brittle and "ass-o-phonic". (Copywrite Eric 2004. Pat Pend. etc.)
The tone knob is very sensitive and has a ton of impact on the tone. It can go from rumble to brittle.

I bought it used. No problems. Build pretty stout. Battery cover sux. (as on all the EH pedals that I've owned.)

Don't know

Overall I think it's something that anyone with a tube amp could use to get some heavy distortion. Not "holy grail" or anything, but overall pretty useful for the $$.
It needs true bypass because it does seem to suck tone when it's in your chain. Use an A-B to bypass it.

3 knobs. I was able to get the sound I wanted within seconds at the store.

This is the black Russian Muff. I spent a long time researching fuzz pedals to see which one would give be a thick nuggets-era fuzz, and allow me to use controlable feedback, and this does both. I played some others, but this is excactly what I was looking for, and at a great price to boot. It's certainly not "pristine sound quality," but that's the point. Able to produce great thrift-store buzz like Beck, and raucious feedback peels a la Syd Barrett, but also usable stum-fuzz like Jeff Mangum.

I've had it for about six months, so I'm not qualified here.

don't know

I play psych-pop/fuzz-folk, and that's what this pedal does. I've been playing for 9 years. I don't consider myself a guitar player, I'm just a musician who happens to play guitar a lot, so I can't speak for you strict guitar-o-philes. They probably have some digital Line-6 pedal or 60's fuzz-face with transistors made out of condor-teeth or something anyway. But it helps me make music, and that is what matters. I wish it had an adaptor plug, but I can live without one.

Well it has three knobs (volume/sustain/tone) so its pretty easy to get your sound out of it.

At first i didnt really like this big muff. It was way to blurry/muddy. But after a few days using it and trying a few settings i found the sound i wanted. I play alot of smashing pumpkins, nirvana and silverchair. Billy Corgan uses an old one (must be the us version though). A little note here: its not a pure distortion pedal, i think its more of a sustainer then a distortion pedal. I used it in combination with my Boss DS2 and man, the tone is brutal! Very very fuzzy so you can use it as a fuzz box too!

Its absolutely reliable. Its build like a tank (its russian so who knows :p). Knobs do look a little bit fragile but who cares... id definately gig without a backup...

When i got the pedal it didnt have a 9V connector so i was kind of worried about that. I contacted EHX through email and got a reply within two or three days. Very quick...


And no, it doesnt have a 9V connector, so you have to use batteries...

Good pedal, built like a tank. I bet it doesnt fit in anyones effectcase cause its huge!! Its great for dark tones, or in combination with another distortion pedal. Also, if you use a stratocaster and you dont really like the distortion that comes out of your amp you should buy this effectbox, it adds alot of sustain! If i lost it id be bummed, but probably id buy the usa version next time. There also seems to be a "double muff" so id go for that one :D... never the less, if you can get your hands on it for a descent price id go for it!

Now here is the catch Ease of use it is stupid simple looking but you have to mess with it a little to find its place in your chain on your pedal board as well as your amplifier setting, once found mark it and leave it for your rig and amplifier it is set!! If using another amplifier and setup it may need to be tweaked again!!

Depending on what amp you?re running this through it has its own sound!
I have the Flat Black frosted Russian model I picked it up at a local Pawn shop for $20.00.
I am running it through a BUDDA Verb~Master 18 Watt 4x10 Amplifier and it simply kicks ass.
I have Three Srtatocasters with various different sets of single coil pickups from Fender custom shop Texas specials to Rio Grand Muy Grande Tall boys and Half Breed!!
I have a Telecaster with a Kinman lead pickup and a Believe it or not GFS Austin Mini humbucker in the neck position This mini bucker is the Sweetest Mini Humbucker I have ever installed into a guitar and cheep in price too, Guitarfetish on Ebay sells them works great on a Tele!!
I also own a 1980 Les Paul with Seymour Duncan Seth lover in the neck and a Covered JB in the bridge; I have an ES-335 with SD Seth lovers in both positions!!
A various array of Pedals and a slew of amplifiers!!
My opinion as far as what pickup sounds best with this pedal is a Humbucker hands down! Power Cord heaven and leads with the JB sound screaming I can dial in a lower sustain on the Muff and get that Dickey Betts and Marshall tucker Les Paul lead adding a Boss EQ helps to fine tune this sound to a Tee!

On the road Dependability?
First thing I would replace is the Cheesy Plastic input output jacks, and yes this can be done with a fine tip soldering iron and some wire and good metal jacks also a steady hand helps!!
Go through it and look for cold joints and tighten things up also install a true bypass setup with a 9v adapter!!
No pedal is dependable Cheep or Expensive they break when you don?t need them to!!
(Always have a backup, you don?t have one the FX Elves will get you trust me, or some Ass Hole with a pitcher of beer will have a bead on you walking to there table!!)

Never had to use it!! and I don't Speak Russian!!

R&R, Blues, Metal, Jazz and country 25+ years!
Over the years had lots of stuff some I wish I never got rid of!!
Nothing to compare it with Fuzz Face is a piece of Trash in my opinion! This box is a BIG MUFF!
Has a Usefulness like all pedals but if you are a sloppy player it will let every body know it!!

I had an original early 70's Muff Way back when (JEEZ I FEEL OLD!!)
And I hated it, but I had a EH Electric mistress at the time too and That was the best Damn flanger I owned!

very easy to use, level adjusts volume, susutain adjusts sustain/distortion, and tone adjusts the tone. easy to find yr sound. very easy to find the mudhoney sound ;)

i use this with a strat, a doubble fat strat, a p-pickup bass, and a gretsch electromatic bass. it sounds good on all of 'em, it does what it is supposed to, distorts and sustains. on bass you can make it sound kinda like a synth sound.

hell yeah its dependable! little black box, easy to kick the knobs out of setting if you don't look where you step, but whatever. if you're wild then rig up a guard like on them little dano pedals so you dont f-it up. i have read some complaints about the plastic inputs but i have had no problem with them, inputs are really easy to replace if they ever broke so don't let that deter you.

never had to...

this is a good pedal, i like a variety of distortions and this is good by itself or used in the next level up with another distortion pedal. i love to kick my boss overdrive/distortion on and then throw the muff on top and rock my soul to pieces. it also makes great feedback if you crank it up!

This is for the Russian Green pedal. Very easy to use, and alot more tones available than most people think.

Totally disregard that earlier review saying these pedals sound bad and aren't rare. Its a freakin Big Muff. They have their own sound, if you don't like it, get a different pedal. This pedal can do anything from Black Sabbath (Guitar and Bass), Pink Floyd, Grunge, Santana, you name it. Yeah it does not sound like a distortion pedal or an overdrive or a metal pedal. It sounds like classic Hard Rock Fuzz. I really like my Russian Green pedal, I have tried out several at shops over the years and never got sold on one, till I found this one. The tone knob sweeps from very bassy to bass-middy to middy trebly to trebly punky. Just a slight turn gives you quite a bit of variation. Alot of people have said this pedal is made for singing leads but does not work for power chords. What the heck?? All I use mine for is power chords and riffs. I don't actually like the lead sound as much as the power chord sound. It just nails that dark angry Sabbath tone from Master of Reality. I don't know where else you can get that kind of sound. No digital processors can get that.

Pretty tough.

I play rock and instrumental music. I am a Stomp Distortion Box freak. I have at least 10 different ones for different applications. Real Tube OD, Tube Screamer, Sonic Distortion, Grunge, Wasabi OD... Most of them can be made to sound like one another to some extent. This one is in a class all by itself, I can't get this sound any other way.

The three knobs are straight forward and easy to use. I spent about an hour fooling about with it to find some good settings.

I play a rickenbacker 650 through a fender DeVille combo. This pedal sounds GREAT. With the sustain cranked up and the tone a little above half way, you can get great sounding bar chords and leads. It's more versatile than a fuzz face, and with a bit of adjustment, you can just the sounds you want. I'm not into metal, but you can definitely get that sound with this pedal. My guitar doesn't produce a lot of noise, but even so, I am surprised by how little noise i get when it's cranked up. If you're looking for long sustain, this is DEFINITELY your pedal. You can also turn the knob down a bit and get a nice distortion sound that let's your guitar's tone cut through.
Also, it sounds fantastic in front of some light chorus.

I'd use it without a backup. It's a very solid little thing. The battery seems to live a long life. I wouldn't hit it with a baseball bat if i were you, but other than that it's not gonna break.

Never had to deal with them.

I play rock and alternative rock. I usually play clean, but this is a perfect pedal for when i need some big sounding powerchords or solos. If it was stolen, i'd be very sad. I really don't have the kind of money to just go get another one right away, but i'd definitely get another one as soon as possible. My favorite part is the tone knob. Moving it about and adjusting the EQ on my amp, i can really get a good variety of fuzzy or slightly funky tones. I love the sustain, so smooth sounding. I'd like it to have a switch to scoop at the mids, but nothing's perfect. I was recently recording a song using some mild overdrive, and it sounded good but really was just lacking that special something which can make a song. I put my guitar through this pedal instead, and it sounded great. Full, expressive, and pretty dirty, if you want it.
Lovable, hateable, it's really all a matter of opinion. All i can say is that I highly recommend this fuzzbox.

This review is for the green russian big muff. Easy to "use" getting a good sound is another thing.

This is the worst big muff ever built. If you pay more than $40 for one you are a fool, because that's what I paid for mine brand new in 1993 and it wasn't on sale. These sound god awfull. They can barely play two notes at once. They are also NOT rare in the least. There are hundreds of thousands of them out there. There are way more of these than dod grunge and even vintage bigmuff pedals in the world. They are common don't believe the hype. A local music store used to pay $10 for them and had a stack of hundreds in the back. This is like the metal lunch box fad. a few people buy as many as they can find for nothing then artificialy boost the price claiming they are rare. If this is rare than so is your stryper tape!

It will dependably sound like a wet fart.

Looks cooler than a road kill or dod pedals. To bad it sounds worse! Don't say tonesnob didn't tell you so foolish child!

you will spend 30 minutes to get a god sound

My setup: fender strat plus u.s.a./cry baby wah/big muff sobtek(black paint)/small stone Sobtek/Dunlop rotovibe/boss delay, chorus, flanger/marshall valvestate 8080
Sound quality:Is the best fuzz/distortion I have played in 10 years.I dont like boss distortion pedals like metal zone/ hevy metal/distortion. I like rat and z vex fuzz Too.
I can play my strato with a chili peppers sound and when y turn on my Big Muff it sound like Kyuss or queens of stone age guitar sound.Then My strato sounds like a Les paul with a lot of sustain and become in a realy fat monster. You can sound like the doors, sonic youth, Kyuss, queen`s of the stone age, king crimson, hendrix, smashing punkins, primus.
I have a big fat sound with more personality than boss pedals.

Is god I never have a problem with it in a gig.

I`m from Argentina.....Forget it.

I play funky psicodelic indie and dark mixture. I have playing for about 10 years an the last 5 I have played with my big muff. This fuzz help me to sound more personal, heavy , raw and strange than others stomp box that i have trayed.
If it were stolen I will try to find the same big muff because is the only distortion with I can sound like me.

very easy to use. nothing really to discuss. three knobs; volume, sustain, tone. tweak those knobs to get dirty leads to thick distortion.

my set up is; G&L Legacy with emg sa-dd6 digital delay-mxr dyna comp-big muff-ds1 distortion- fender deluxe. this is the distortion i have been looking for. of course i am always evolving, but at this stage in my evolution, this is awesome. my boss distortion is great, but i got to say, for what i was looking for, the big muff is it. it is pretty noisy, but all distortions are, and for a distortion unit, it really isn't that bad. just as all the other ads and reviews say, you can dial up anything from classic to modern rock. for my style it is perfect. i am in a band and we do all origanal tunes and this unit is perfect. if you're into distortion\fuzz, this is your unit

it seems dependable, but the construction could have been a little better. it will defenatly go wherever i do

can't say

great unit!

So easy even a woman can work this thing.

I expected to get a fuzzier sound out of it. I couldnt get anywhere near to 'Siamese Dream' sounds or Mudhoney's 'Touch me I'm sick'.
I'm using a cheapo Epiphone strat knock-off and a Behringer Ultratwin 210 2x30W amp with this pedal. I'll buy a better guitar soon and will see if my opinion of this pedal will change with it. Sofar I am slightly disappointed.
I think I'll try a USA reissue as well soon.

Box and switch seem to be sturdy enough. Input/output jacks not so good. Battery compartment is a joke.
Talking about batteries, this baby drained a brand new battery within a week while it was not in use/ switched off!! NOT COOL! Now I have to unplug battery after use. Jees.
Like I said, I'm gonna try the USA version. Should easily beat this POS when it come to quality.

I guess I should e-mail them.
We'll see.

Nothing to add.
Send me an e-mail if you have any comments or tips.
sonic_smoke@<no-spammo>hotmail.com

It has three knobs(Volume, Sustain, and Tone), all large enough to be used by barefeet if neccisary(sp). in my opinion there is no way to get a bad sound out of it. However, it is my experience that when the sustain is all the way down(to the left) there is no note. I assume this is because the note does not sustain at all when the sustain is gone. Slightly annoying so it loses one point.

Can you really judge the sound quality of this? It does what it was made to do, which is to make a guitar signal bend to the power of the big muff.
I use this with my bass(hamer short scale) and it is probably the most fun thing to use as far as bass effects go. The tone knob is very very very morphagious, in other words tone all the way down is just pure bass tone mayhem, and it starts to get sharper and lose its punch the higher you go up, but it still sounds reallly F***in cool no matter where the tone is.

BTW, I'm using the Black reissue 'cause i think it sounds much less trebely and contained than the NYC one, My belief is that a fuzz box should not be completly controlable, thats part of the appeal. I would choose the black one over the sliver one everytime.

As it does as a distortion/sustainer, well i wish my girlfriend was as dirty as the tone this beast puts out and the sustain is a good minute long at full.

If its true that it was made out of old Soviet/Russian tanks i think its reliable, but then again I don't ever remember someone talking about the outstanding strength of Soviet/Russian tanks either.
I have to gig without a backup because I don't have another one.

Never dealt with them, since I bought this used.

I play QOTSA fuzzy heavy rock, old school punk/ punk era music (Misfits, Richard Hell and The Voidoids, etc.) and Pixies style loud/soft music. The Muff Fits all of them, although depending on the style it is used more sparingly(loud/soft) or almost all the time(fuzz rock). This will fit more or less into pretty much any style of music, with the possible exception of Easy Listening. Bottom line, I absolutly Love this Muff!

Simple to use, as has been said. Three knobs, one footswitch, though the input and output jack sockets are backwards, that's not too much a problem.

This is the current Sovtek (Russian) reissue in a plastic-coated aluminium (I think) casing.
I've been after a particular buzzing and sharp distortion sound for a while now, taking note of David Gilmour of Pink Floyd's sounds on parts of The Wall.
This pedals does it all thankfully - it has a nice trebly sound with the tone knob turned all the way clockwise which with a bit of phase gets you the Another Brick Part 2 chorus sound. Perfect.
It obviously does a lot more and thankfully there's no unwanted noise - keeping the volume knob at a reasonable level that is.
With a bit of compression this fits into an effect line beautifully.

It does need to be stressed again that this pedal has a very distinctive sound, and really ought to be one of many in a guitarist's setup.
I like the idea of having more than one distortion type at my disposal and this one cuts through the others for a nice, tidy and occasionally muffly sound. It growls.
I'd recommend a bit of reverb to add space to it though, as it's dry sounds only seem to work within a wet mix.
It's also great fun for the Bass, any Muse fans will find what they're after here.

Choose your sounds carefully peeps.

It's pretty bloody reliable. As mentioned earlier, it seems to have heavy plastic-based paint over thin metal, so it's a little stronger than it looks.
I'm not into stamping full-blooded onto my pedals, but I'm sort of confident this one would manage.
I would use this at a gig, though I'd be weary of technical hitches, you can never be sure. It's very distinctive though, so I'd be happy enough given it's build and value for money.

I've not had any dealings with Electro-Harmonix, but I got a small folded warrenty card with this one, though I didn't sent it off just after purchase, so I'm fudged.
Still... ho-hum.

This fits my musical styles and aspirations and is easily my favorite distortion. It's an acquired taste though, some people won't like it's harsh, buzzing sound.
If you're after the 70's Floyd sounds then go for it, if you want metally shinanigans then go for something a little more obvious. Boss do plenty to cater for that stuff.

It's cheaper and harsher than the US reissue, but I've no major gripes with it.

Really easy to get awesome tone outta this thing. Just sit there and play with the 3 knobs till you get it right.

'61 Gibson SG reissue->Muff->40w Pignose Tube amp. I too have a green soviet model of this pedal. It's really easy to coax an awesome soud from this pedal. Great sustain, smooth compression, and screaming distortion.It's raw, but then again that's the point of distortion....

I had it for 6 years without any problems, then one day it just stopped working. There is no visible damage to circuit board, and all wires are okay too. It will pass the sound through the peal, just no switching the effect on. I'm going to change the switch soon to see if that is the case, but for the 56$ I paid it's really reliable.

From what I hear don't bother with EH support.

If i lost it I'd get a new one. Mine is busted right now and I'm in the process of getting a new one. When the other one is fixed then I'll have 2!!! I'm in a Hard Rock 70's styled Glam Rock band so it helps get that ballsy 70's rock tone that other pedals just cant get. I've played pedals from 30 bucks to 400 and the Muff tops them all.

Has three knobs, and I found the sound I wanted pretty quickly.

I'm using a Gibson SG Standard, from guitar to amp my effect chain goes like this Dunlop Cry Baby -> Boss CS-3 Compressor/Sustaner (Japan) -> Big Muff Pi (Russia) -> Boss BF-2 flanger (Japan) -> ISP Tech Decimator noise reduction pedal -> Guyatone MD-3 delay -> Crate GX-15 practice amp or Marshall VS100 half-stack. The Big Muff overall is pretty quiet by itself I think, when the compressor/sustainer comes into play it's a job for my ISP :) The Big Muff certainly isn't for everybody, but I get THE sound I was looking for, it just sizzles. Like one guy said you can get a early Black Sabbath type of sound out of this thing. Something I would like to point out is there is no AC jack, but I am amazed at the battery life of this unit. I play a LOT of guitar, many many hours everyday. I'm still using the same 9volt Energizer battery I put in it two or three weeks ago! Ohh, and in reply to the guy that said it made his Dunlop wah sound like a cheap volume pedal: Yep, it will.. I have to assume you put it before the wah. Any distortion pedal will make a wah sound exactly like "a cheap volume pedal" or "synthy" coming before the wah.

So far it has been reliable, but I can hear something is loose rattling around inside it... so I just don't know at this point. I really don't like the "feel" and the crunch sound it makes when you plug the cables in. It feels kind of cheap and hollow. It has worked great for the whole month duration I have owned it. So, I'm kind of right in the middle when it comes to determining the reliability. It'll be just my luck, it'll break the day after the warranty ends.

I play mostly hard rock with some classic elements, so my distortion sound is key, and I have been very picky about finding the one for me. I probably went through a dozen different units before I found this one that I consider to be "the one". I wanted that chunky sizzly fuzzed out sound; kinda a Mudhoney sound, and that is what I got. Overall, I love it, I am very happy with it.

Three knobs. All described before... How could it be easier and remain versatile? Only wish it had adaptor jack, but you can plug adaptor to battery socket, because it has stands... Nice.

My steup is:
Squier Strat >> Big Muff Pi (RU) >> George Dennis GD60 (Wah) >> Custom amp (AC-30 preamp, 2xel34 power amp into Weber Silver Ten & Weber Blue Pup)
The sound could be describe as great. If you want that tone Edge (U2) had during solo in Sydney on Love Is Blidness, get this pedal. If you like fuzzy distortion with lows, deep lows, get this pedal. I set the sustain three o'clock, volume at 12 o'clock and tone to 8 o'clock. Great for fuzzy rhytms or smooth leads. I love this pedal. Ultimate pedal for me. Essential for my sound.

It doesn't feel as safe as USA RI looks but... I baby my pedals... common if it broke down it could be a bad one or all Ru's are crappy.

I have never dealt with them, and I hope I'll never have to.

The style I play depends on songs. Certain songs are rock'n'roll, some are jazzy, some are bluesy, some are more folk-like... Generally I could compare our sound to U2 a bit. Pedal is really great in my gear. I will buy Deluxe Memory Man and will rebuild my Boss BD-2 to TS-808. Anyway, I use Big Muff on three songs and will you it more. I love it, really. I only wish it had an adaptor jack.

It only has 3 knobs, but you can get a muddy crappy tone if you dont have the settings set correctly.. depending on the application of course.

My setup is PRS Tremonti SE->BOSS TU2 Chromatic Tuner->Crybaby wah->big muff->Randall RG100SC. I use this as both a solo boost and for rhythm, but usually just use the Randalls onboard distortion for rythm if the particular song has palm mutes. In saying that, this thing was not designed for pop punk or nu metal type stuff because it doesnt have that whoosh sound you get when palm muting. Anyway, Ive found that this pedal has an amazing tone, i love this thing. It also makes my solid state Randall sound like it has tubes if you set the settings right. And even sounds better when the amp is cranked?? weird.. and its solid state.

Actually, I was a little displeased with the quality build of this thing. Although the box it came in was really cool, this pedal feels like its made out of cheap plastic. Just doesnt feel sturdy and metallic like dunlop crybaby wahs do for example.

I cant answer this yet.

I play rock.. and well, a lotta different stuff. And like I said, this wouldnt be a good pedal for any type of music that consist mainly of palm mutes so that kind of lowers its over all versatility. But I dont mind since I usually use this as a solo boost. Ive been playing for I guess around 4 years, other gear I own is a Fender 4x12 which I havent run this thing into yet but im sure it would sound great. For its price of roughly $50 you CAN NOT go wrong.. I fell in love with this thing as soon as I got it.. you can go from a classic clapton lead to a korn rhythm if you set the settings correctly.

on/off
input and output
3 knobs, volume, sustain (gain), and tone. pretty easy. whoever rated ease of use a 3, is a moron.

Great sound, better than the USA Big Muff RI (soundwise). It can be nasty and fuzzy or smooth and creamy. It can be noisy, but thats expected seeing as though it's a distortion unit. I used this with a Fender amp and an SG and a Strat. Great sustain out of this thing, great for leads. can be muddy for rhythm if you dont tweak it properly. for what its supposed to do, it sounds perfect. its obviously not the perfect tone because that is subjective. also, no one believes in ONE perfect tone.

holy piece of shit, Batman! as someone said earlier, the input and output jacks are soldered right on to the soundboard. which created a problem when the damn output jack broke on me. not only could i NOT replace the jack, it basically ruined my whole damn pedal! i rigged it to work but shortly after, my on/off switch shot craps on me. so i got that fixed and later the pedal just fell apart. all within a year. i know not all of the big muff pi RI pedals are this bad, but C'MON!!! i don't trust them anymore.

Quite sad really. I loved this pedal. After this one broke i got the NYC big muff pedal, but it wasnt the same. the russian SOUNDS better but the NYC one is BUILT better. well, i sold the NYC one, now i'm in the dilemna of which one i'm going to get. I know that the chances of me getting a piece of crap russian big muff are pretty small, but i'd feel safer with the NYC. plus, i didnt like how the russian one didnt have an adapter jack and the output and input jacks were reversed compared to the norm. i've been playing for 4 years, i think and this pedal definitely remains close to the top of the list as far as sound goes. in fact, i also had a fulltone distortion pro that sounded great, but it shot craps on me. maybe i just bad luck with good sounding pedals... ah well. i think i'll get me another NYC big muff.

Three Knobs may be easy on a boss pedal, But this pedal will really seperate those who can find tone from those get lost in it. It's not easy to use. You really have to think about the mechanics of what the pedal does and get creative to find it's place in your setup.

This is the bazooka of distortion. It has only one mission, smack your signal so silly that it becomes a sustained buzzsaw that cuts through any mix with a GIANT WALL OF ROCK POWER. So, There are a fewe catches to this thing. I use laney tube amp with a Vox cabinet and that is really loud, Now This thing will suck alot of power out of your signal when it's not on. So I compensate this by getting the hottest pickups I could, Tele Texas specials in my main guitar. And Seymour duncan distortions in my slide guitar that I replaced the ceramic magenets with alnico 2's. This is a simple change. So in that the big muff kind of mellows these pichups out and I get a very pretty sound that doesn't make my clean channel breakup. I also put an old Ibanez compressor in front of the big muff. So I'm cramming this thing with a strong pickup signal that gets calmed down, and then The compressor takes that signal and shoves it through the muff. I turn the volume to about 2 o'clock and the sustain to about 9 o'clock and the tone at 3 o'clock. This makes my sound trebbley enough to cut through anything my drummer does. (He love's my tone and raves to everyone we meet about my rig.) And I still have way more than enough bottom end.

This box was designed in the 70's and it looks the part. I do depend on it, but if it breaks I can fix it with a saudering gun and some patience. I don't rely on companies to do what they already don't want to do. It hasn't gone out yet. nuff said

Who cares?

I play clapton style blues with a shred metal influence. Nothing to fast but impressive enough to be cocky about. My Tone is wonderfull and I have yet to meet the band I couldn't cut through like a chainsaw and leave them slack jawwed saying "What the !@$#%$#% was that!" Your pedals do what you tell them to. try putting them in different order. Or try thinking about you signal. Is it stong/weak, bright/dark, thick or thin or muddy? Think about it. You'll get it.

Mine is Russian re-issue. Black with 3 knobs Laney-like, yellow litering says Big Muff, Pi, distortion/sustainer, electro-hramonix.... and something in Russian (probalby "made in Russia") packed with big wooden box (great). It's so easy! 3 knobs: Volume, Sustain, Tone. There's no manual because everybody could use it without any problems! :)

Well, at first: I am using Fender '84 Telecaster with Seymour-Duncan Distortion humbukcer in the bridge. My amp is pure tube Dynacord REX (head) from 1965 (40W on 2xEL34) going thru Marshall 1960AV 4x12 cab.

Pedal is noisy. But, man, every distortion pedal is noisy! Sound GREAT GREAT GREAT! This was the sound I was looking for. In the past, I used Exar Distortion, Koda Super Overdrive, Boss DS-2 and dist. from Marshall JCM900. Big Muff kicks them all! I can get exactly the same sound as Weezer on "Blue Album" and "Pinkerton", also very good sound for Ozma and The Rentals stuff. And probalby perfect to Placebo too! One thing - if you turn the Sustain (means drive of course) down to "0" you'll have plenty of distortion too. Oh, by the way, don't turn Tone knob after a half because is really thin-sounding then. I always keep Sustain knob at maximum, Level at 2/3 and Tone near to 1/2. Sound BRILLIANT!

I would say, yes, I can depend on it. It's HUGE. About 2 times larger than a Boss stomp box. It will be my fav pedal from today. Also I looked what's inside and it looks good. There's a lot of free space inside. Battery is well placed with "hooks".

I've never dealt with them and I will probably not :P

I was looking for a Weezer sound, and I found it. I was looking for creamy distortion with balanced highs and lows. I got it with this pedal. I got the sound I was looking for years.

By the way IT DOES NOT SOUND LIKE A NORMAL DISTORTION OR OVERDRIVE! It sounds really different comparing to Boss, Marshall, DOD etc. For example - you cannot palm-mute even if you have a killer-output humbucker and even Sustain is set to maximum position! So forget playing punkrock like Green Day, Blink-182 or Offspring. This baby has only ONE colour of the sound. You can get early Weezer snd Placebo stuff playing power chords and nice oldies guitar heroes sound (Hendrix). Also good for Pink Floyd solos - remember "Sorrow" from "Delicate Sound of Thunder" (live album, 1988)? - The intro describes Big Muff sound as much as Weezer's "No Other One" from Pinkerton album.

This pedal sounds awesome - every time you play the same chord, Big Muff sounds different - that's cool. It's not normal pedal like Boss DS-2 which sounds good but sound is the same in every situation. Big Muff rocks!

easy if you know how to tune you amps knobs.

this review is for the Black and yellow one. ive played it through a fender deluxe 1x12 and a marshall JCM800. its prety usable for both amps. the output could be little better, the tone knob is pretty well laid out, its sensitive and usable. the gain is nice and crunchy. to me this pedal could hang with most metal music(no scooped mids stuff) and is ideal for hard rock,blues and grunge.

seems like it is build well

i just bought one but im returning it ONLY BECAUSE i think the MXR Distortion + is better for me. However if you dig crunchy non-basey fuzz, get this. It really does suit many forms of music.basically anything but nu-metal stuff and speed metal. its a must for retro musicians and collectors of vintage kind of stuff.Like i said i would keep it had it not been for the MXR D+, I would buy it again in the future.

How hard can it be? Stomp on/off, 3 dials for volume, distortion and tone.

My setup: Vintage VH51 guitar >> JHS Volume pedal >> Boss AC2 Acoustic Simulator >> Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi >> Digitech X Series Delay pedal >> Digitech X Series Reverb pedal >> 10 Watt practise amp.
This pedal is not noisy at all under normal conditions, maybe slightly noisy when distortion is more full-on. A volume pedal will allow you to control all noise anyway.
The only way I can describe this thing is that it's... creamy. Beautiful, vintage-style distortion. You can go from a punchy but subtle bluesy tone to a heavy Hendrix style attack, and then keep going on for grunge and white noise. The pedal really suits a thicker-bodied guitar, it hums with tons of warm tone and just begs to be played. A lot of people say this thing has its own personality and I have to agree. The notes become a bit less distinct with the dial all the way round but if you're using it like that you're probably hammering out power chords anyway... personally I prefer to set the dial at about 9.00 or slightly further for a beautiful, bluesy tone. You can get a garage style fuzz if that's your thing but with a small amount of reverb and delay, maybe some chorus, you can sound highly sophisticated. All strings are very satisfyingly clear, and two-note harmonies are beautiful. Great for lead playing, which is what I do mostly. If the tone's not set right you can either sound as fat as a bus or as tinny as nail but it's not hard to dial in the perfect sound. I used to use a ProCo Rat but found it too harsh and bare-sounding - none of that with this beast. This is THE pedal for Cream-style blues-tinged rock, but is just as suitable for grungy Pumpkins rock or even softer Pink Floyd solos.

No problems at all. The dials are a little bit weak, but there's no way for them to get damaged unless you do something incredibly stupid.

No problems.

I play quite a range of stuff, and this pedal is more than capable of providing for all of them. I'll always make sure I have at least one as I use it every single time I play - I wouldn't pick up my electric without it. The batteries have lasted for ages too - very good value. I wish the volume dial was slightly less sensitive - it's quite easy to catch and suddenly black out or deafen yourself - but this is a minor point. It looks good too, much more attractive than the tacky American version. If I had to strip down to one pedal, then this is it - indispensable for tone and sound. Just try jamming along with this and try and resist it. Beautiful.

Easy to get a good sound out of this pedal. Mine is the Black Reissue with yellow lettering from Roooo-ssia. 3 dials, Volume , Sustain and Tone. For Low-Mid songs Vol 12:00 Sustain 3:00 and Tone at around 10-12:00 ....For the treblier (sp.?) songs Tone goes to about 1-3:00 ....
Guitar Volume and amp settings to taste for whatever venue. Still have not yet explored all the possibilities with this pedal in conjunction with the rest of the gear.....Has anyone yet explored ALL of them?

My setup, and this is important for all of us readers trying to get a handle on what we are researching before plopping $$$ down on Ebay....
>>>>72 Strat or 00'Powerhouse Strat> Boss Tuner>Boss CS-2>CryBaby>Micro-vibe>Big Muff>Distort-O-Matic>Dan Armstrong Blue Clipper>Fish and Chips EQ>Deluxe Electric Mistress flanger>Cool Cat Chorus>Digitech PS1002 delay>AB sw>Rocktron Replitone 212 and Peavey Delta Blues115, both AMPS on the CLEAN(Replitone is on Vox AC-30 setting) channels.
So that both my Tube amp and Solid State amp setup sounds great!!!!!
Works for BOTH!
My influences are The Floyd(any ERA)Rush,Who,Kinks,Stones,Jimi and lots of dem ol' Dino- bands....guess I'm old! My distortions are used 1 at a time, never in combinations with other distortions......I know this is a Fuzz...BUT...This reissue feels more like distortion and that's OK.....My Clipper and Clipper wannabe(DOM) and this Pedal give me 3rd 4th and 5th gears to suit whatever mood...
My story reflects very simply what another poster said....
"Guitar and AMP is your Tone!!! These Pedals are the sauce that you pour over that tone"....I can cover any bands sound that I care about covering....with the exception of those Hamer and Gibson Bands...Playing with these single coil strats allows me to add or color my tone in many ways, as where Humbucker types will have problems with this pedal from the MUD that they will produce...I always thought that those Gibson purists should just play clean ol' Joe Pass and not mess with THEIR tone.
My thought on this pedal is.....
I am happy as hell with this pedal.....Can the original 1st or 2nd editions, USA reissue etc etc ...Be better than this?
I truly feel that ALL Big Muffs have their own signature, aside from the installed components...But "they ARE ALL different in performance", as another experienced poster put it...
It also works with every other effect very well....EXCEPT another Distortion! Overdrive yes........But NOT distortion!
I believe everyone needs to try about 6-8 of these things to get the one they really want....I'm getting ready to fork over $$$$ for a vintage one soon, just to check the hype...and if I don't see a HUGE improvement ...It will go on Ebay......
Oh yes......before I get good enough to just play clean (which is how it is supposed to be), I am currently and knowingly coloring my tone to hell and loving it.....More than 5 effects in a chain is a no-no...But shorty cables help a little! LOL
Late..........

On/Off swithch is pulling it's crap...so I will swap that out soon....No biggie! That's what lightening storms are for...idle time to repair and maintain things!

Don't need 'em with all these disposable pedals on Ebay and Musician's Friend supplying the rest of 'em!

Love my Floyd,Kinks Who,Clapton etc......versatile enough to pander to all, but doesn't favor to them at 100%...maybe 90-95%... This pedal is well worth it and I am very happy. ...
There ....I've said it!
Get one....or 8......keep the best - sell (or mod) the rest....
Enjoy!!!

3 knobs...

ok....this review is for the GREEN russian big muffs....not the silver usa reissues, or the black russian muffs. which in my opinion suck a fucking fatty.
and dont think im just saying this because im biased for some reason....i've owned all three of the aforementioned pedals usa green and black. the green muffs sound absolutely the best. that sound that you think of when you hear big muff comes from the green one.

it weighs like 6 pounds and its made out of 2mm thich steel....reliable? as a weapon? yes. the only problem you might come across is the wires to the battery might come off.

i dont really have an opinion for EH. but i will say that i bought a tube zipper and since i shelled out $275 for the shit i wanted to send in the warranty card....needless to say it was returned...so i dont know how much support you will get

if you want a huge round phat chunk distortion similar to siamese dream, then look no further. yeah yeah, it wont sound exactly like corgan's dream sound through your shit ass squire, but almost....dont think that you can plug this in and substitute your guitar in one of those jam-along things and play today with the record....but if you want a big muff find one of these. the new reissue muffs could be the cheapest pedals ever. i had one for 3 months and almost completely smashed the metal casing from stomping on it. christ it is called a stomp box. the black russian models sound even worse than the reissue models, which sound half assed and weak as all hell. these are getting more rare by the day so if you find one, keep it. even if you arent playing on it at the time. these are beautiful, overwhelming distorion pedals that noone should be without.

Very easy to use! Just set your tone before and turn it on...

VROOOOM! This is a fuzzy-creamy Fuzz-Pedal which can get dirty if used with some(!) distortion on your amp... No true bypass. If you know it you hear it... otherwise... So I shouldn't have tell you!
From vintage to grunge to almost heavier stuff. Even koRn uses it to form their sound!

Built like the titanic. But you don't cross the atlantic with it, do ya?

Never dealt with those guys with the worst website I've seen in Fx-business....

I play some kind of modern-heavy-blues with some influences from punk and metal. Sounds weird and it really is. So the muff was the right decision! I would buy it again and again and again... I wish it would have an true bypass (hey... i never mentioned that, ok guys?!) and maybe a second switch for a 2nd setting or a boost. But damn: Those are not the features to expect from a 50 buck fx, are they?!

Very easy to use! On/Off-Switch, Input/Output, Volume, Sustain and Tone-controls... It is not the one on the pic above, I got the black one, bought in 2002.

I am using it in front of my Crybaby-Wah which goes into my Tech21 PSA-1 going into a MesaBoogie 2:50 / Marshall 4x12-cab. I play a Fender Strat Plus and I am playing some versatile styles of music in my band.

The BigMuff sounds great for some solo-stuff. It is definetely a warm fuzz which can be creamy or very dirty (in a good way). You got to test some different settings to find your personal tone! You can get some Hendrix-like-vintage sounds or heavier grunge-stuff (Neil Young,Pumpkins etc.). I also use it for some Santana, because it has got lots of sustain! The only thing I really miss is a true bypass, because the Muff steals some treble and presence when turned off. Grrr! So it's "just" an eight here...

It is built like a tank. I heard that the older Muffs are built out of old sovjet-tank-metal... Maybe just a nice joke, who knows?!

I gigged with it for about 20 times and I had no problems with it so far. Maybe the switch would be the first thing which will break one day... You just can run it with a batterie. I have to change the batterie after 10 hours of playing, so it don't takes long that you spend more money on the batteries than on your BigMuff :( I which it would have a DC-In...

Never dealt with them. Maybe it is cheaper to buy a new one with guaranty if you have some trouble :)

The Big Muff forms my individually tone. I definetely could play all the songs without it, but I don't want to, because in that case I would sound like everyone else with this boring Hi-Gain lead with delay and compression. I would buy it again. And to you out there
who don't know if the Muff is your thing: Buy it for 50 bucks! You won't make a mistake. In the worst case you bought a toy in a nice wood-case. If it would have a true bypass and an DC-In I would be very happy to have a perfect pedal! So it's just a 9...

How easy is it? Switch it on in front of an amp; that's how easy. No manual, no patches, no firmware--pure delight.

I use a 1981 Ibanez Blazer with a Peavey Classic 30 (I have a review in regarding the DigiTech RP 200 if you want some more details). The Muff sounds great as a boost on the clean channel or as a sort of hyper-overdrive on the dirty channel. One thing I adore about The Big Muff is that it sounds almost better with a solid-state amp; lots of distortions don't. This is important for the occasions when I play bass (I've got a Peavey T-40--they're highly underrated; perhaps the most tonally versatile bass ever made). The simple controls for level, tone and distortion combine to make a toneful and musically useful fuzz.

Never a problem. I use it mostly at home, but I find it hard to believe that anyone would have the trouble with the switch that some reviewers are reporting. Maybe I'm just gentle with my equipment, but it really seems as solid as a rock.

I've never needed anything from them, so I really can't say.

Everybody should have one of these. It is quite capable of giving you tones so gnarly, you'll find yourself snickering, contemplating the high-volume havok you could wreak with it. Fan of Sabbath? Queens Of The Stone Age (just caught them live--brutal, marvelous stuff)? Zeppelin? White Stripes? Get one of these and go to work. Mine was a gift from my wife (nice, huh?), so price isn't really part of my rating of it, but the Russian version is relatively inexpensive and woth every cent.

Well... three self-explanatory chicken-head knobs. No manual required.

at first, I was pissed off that I wasted 50 bucks on it... but then I realized that the tone knob itself has a few sweet spots... then you have to consider that the same pedal could sound like shit on your rig and good again on mine.... the instrument, knob settings on amps strings, playing style... it all affects the sound... so don't give up on it right away. I use mine with a bass. I like the volume around noonish, the sustain cranked all the way up, and the tone in a position where there is still low end rumble, yet just enough high end to get the job done. Experiment, experiment, experiment!!!!

built almost like a tank, I'm sure those damned input/output jacks are gonna break soon... they're plastic. otherwise, I throw it around against shit to see what happens.... im tough on my gear to test it, but I do not recommend others doing so unless they know the risks!

Never dealt with them yet... we shall see in the future maybe, but I hope not!

If you are patient enough with the tone knob... you can find any tone you want. It is a bit tricky, cause mine has hard to find sweet spots, so listen cafefully... it might be from using it with a bass... all that low end might be tougher to cut through? another great fuzz is the pro co vintage rat... at least try it.

Very easy to use. It has only three knobs: volume, tone and sustain. This last one also gives distortion on humbuckers guitars.

This thing sounds great! I play in a Smashing Pumpkins tribute band (www.justmade.supereva.it) so it's perfect for me. My setup is as follows: Gibson Les Paul Standard(Burstbucker V on the neck, DiMarzio Superdistortion on the bridge), Boss Chromatic tuner, Ibanez tubescreamer, Marshall Guv'nor plus, Boss FZ3, Big Muff, Small clone, dod phaser, Boss digital delay, Marshall JCM 800 stack. The Muff perfectly nails the Pumpkins' Siamese Dream album sound. It's incredible, thick, creamy, fuzzy. I also have an original American Big Muff, 1977, and it sounds great too, but it reminds me more of some Hendrix stuff than the Pumpkins. The Russian Muff is quite versatile as well. You can get some nice Pearl Jammy sounds out of it, and some Neil Yong, if you turn the sustain know almost all the way down. It sounds quite warm, but when I'm playing P.J. tunes I keep my Tube Screamer around, it's much more suitable for that. Anyway, it's not the kind of pedal I would recommend to metalheads, anyone lookin' for some Metallica kind of sound(go buy a Guv'nor or a Jackhammer). I didn't give it 10 because, on the clean channel it somehow seems to kill a bit the guitar tone.
As any other fuzz-like pedal it is a bit noisy, especially when you turn the sustain all the way up, but I like noise and feedback, so, for me, it's ok.
One of the greatest distortions-fuzz ever, dirty and, of course, beautifully analogic.

You can depend on it, but I wouldn't use it on a gig without a backup, since the switch tends to break easily. Fortunately, it is not very expensive and you can replace it.

If stolen, I would buy it again and again. A must have for any guitarist who loves hard rock! I'm not giving it 10 because (this is my only complain) it only works with a 9v, so you can't power it off the wall.

Very easy to use. Just the slightest touch to any three of the knobs can change it dramatically. I love that. On the down side, there is no way to power it off the wall, you have to use a 9v. (This is the Russian model, black in color If you want the USA model, its another catagory). -3 points for the lack of wall wart input.

I've owned 2 of these. The Black reissue (that I've just sold) and one I used to have, also Russian made, but olive green in color.They were virtually the same. I've run them through solid state and tube amps (right now I'm useing a PRS through a Mesa Boogie Heartbreaker). It souds like crap through solid state. Very tinny and harshly metallic. The Tube Amp suits it very well.Obviously not for modern heavy metal, or nu metal, although you can get some great artsy sounding lines that can set a song apart on the heavy side (KORN uses it). Cool Buzzy violin like sounds though. Better used with single note lines or power chords than full blown barr chords.
NOBODY SEEMS TO REALLY KNOW WHAT TONE IS. I've read several of these reviews and haven't found one yet that points out that this unit SUCKS THE TONE RIGHT OUT OF YOUR AMP. It killed my tone, especially on the clean channel. I lost the beautiful chime. So the pedal is now useless to me. I have heard that you can have a true bypass put into these and that will fix it. Personally, Id say buy the USA made version. -5 for sucking the tone from my amp.
Tone isn't just sound its a feeling that goes with the sound, a depth and dimension.

Never had a problem yet. Seem to be built like tanks. Will never know though, I just sold mine.

BUY AMERICAN AND KEEP YOUR TONE. THIS PEDAL IS A TONE THEIF!!!!!!!!!

very easy to use this pedal. Just make shure you start with all the buttons on zero, if not you a well able to blow your amp

4/5string bass, ampeg SCT 400-T and a 4*10 h&k amp. I like the sound of the pedal, althougt it does mis something. I don't know what, but it is a little bit too cold. i run it throug an additional ibanez tube king compressor to give it the additional warmth. There is no noise of anywhay, and the bypass really is a bypass (and that is a big difference between a zoom/behringer/... fuck*ng pedal and a real pedal)

it is a tank

never dealth with them

very good pedal, but i would like to have at least two of them. (will come pretty soon i guess)

I have the black Early Russian Sovtek version with yellow letters. Three knobs for Sustain, Tone and Volume. The input and output jacks are the wrong way round. Apart from that it's easy.

I use a tele with the following effects: Big Muff>ProCo RAT>Boss DM2>MXR Blue Box>Boss Blues Driver>Volume Pedal>EH Frequency Analyser.

This pedal does one thing and does it well: Fuzz. It's got the classic big Muff sound: Heavy fuzz with lots of bass. I prefer the Russian to the USA reissue. To anyone not sure the USA reissue does sound different to the Russian. The USA is very smooth and compressed. The Russian is dirtyer, harsher and not as fuzzy. Fuzz should not be a pristine sound IMHO. The pedal is very heavy and you've got to be careful not to be covered behind a wall of fuzz so it's powerchords or single notes only. Very dirty evil sound. Perfect for Sabbath type stuff and noise freakouts. The pedal has a good sustain and will give a good Santana type tone if you use your neck pick up. There's not much variety between the fuzz on low and full on but the tone knob is useful for sludgey sounds through to tinny sounds. Lots of volume and gain. The pedal is not noisy - no more than any other fuzz. I've found that it does not react very well with my other pedals. I use my RAT as my main distortion because it sings more than this one. This is an ugly but loveable troll of a pedal.

It's very well built. I've heard that they are not as reliable as the US Big Muff so I was worried when I bought it but it seems just as fine to me. The case is thicker than the USA and and circuit board is held well in place. The in/out jacks are plastic though and give a worrying "thunk" sound when you put in a jack. No AC adapter.

My EH Frequency Analyser broke and they replied to my email in less than 2 days. I didn't have a guarrentee so it cost $15 to get it repaired. It cost them more than $15 to send it back to me in postage (I live in the UK). I couldn't ask for much more- they made a loss to help me and it wasn't even in guarrentee.

I play noisy indie/lo-fi and this pedal is used for loud noisy bits. It's not a main distortion and fuzz should not be an pristine sound. It has a very disgusting tone but it cuts through with single notes very well. I prefer this to the USA Big Muff which is too smooth and compressed for me. Good fuzz pedal.

Yeah, it is easy to use.

SG special & ms-2 mini stack.
Noisy, turn the amp up and you can hear all the hiss. Thats why some people offer to mod it with true bypass i think.
Not a lot of option with this pedal(in term of tone), pure one trick pony. But it done the trick well.
Some people refer to pink floyd and smashing pumpkin, But i dont try to be like them using this pedal, even though i like them both. This pedal is good for experimenting(weird sound, artsy noise)

No, it always need an adjustment. even though i'm just rehearsing. The battery connector, the input and output jack, etc.
I wouldnt use it without a backup, but i'm still using the pedal for it sound, some people say that its better than the USA RI. Wow

dunno

rock and noise pop, yes this is a good match for my style.
6 years of playing, i own marshall drivemaster.
Its essential in my whole sound, but every people have different opinion. Me, myself are planning to buy a z-fex fuzz factory or a super duper 2 in 1 to add depth in my whole sound.
I love wierd stuff, this should get a 9 if it holds up better. 6 for relliability problem

Three knobs, two jacks...pretty damn easy

I use a few different Teles (with the traditional pickup configuration and one with Lace Sensor) and a Strat through mostly Vox and Fender hybrid amps.

This Muff (black with yellow letters) seems to really only have one setting. I didn't detect much difference in tone or distortion from 3 o'clock to full up. Rolling the sustain back even further does clean it up though. With the sustain rolled all the way down, no signal gets through unless you boost the volume. It's kind of a cool weird, lo-fi clean with a hint of grit tone.

I keep the tone right at 12 o'clock. It's just too snarly for me past that, as I tend to have a bright rig to begin with.

Overall, the Muff sounds a bit more ragged and trashy than my DS-1, and not as tight and focused as my Ibanez Tone Lock fuzz. It certainly adds another flavor to my rig (which dirtbox-wise has: The Muff, a DS-1, an SD-1, a TS-9 reissue, a PE Yardox, a Boss Turbo Overdrive, and an MXR Blue Box). It's great for the trashy garage rock that I like to delve into sometimes. It's also great for low-end grind ala My Bloody Valentine.

FOr me, this pedal is more useful texturally than musically (though it's not "un-musical"). I doubt this will make it into my main rig (though it definitely will compete with the DS-1 for my Nirvana-wannabe rig...and my main pedal rig rotates constantly...the only thing that hasn't been removed is the old Boss PN-2 I have), but I could see this being a great tool for adding backing tracks to a recorded guitar line.

But I was slightly disappointed at the seeming lack of variety of tones. Tweaking the sustain doesn't seem to do as much as you'd think, and the tone control seems very limited in its use. The DS-1 has it beat hands down in this respect.

I think this it will be pretty reliable at all. Doesn't seem quite as solid as some of my others, but I think it will withstand a fair amount of satge abuse before calling it quits.

I love playing just about anything, but my real love is stuff like shoegaze, britpop, Nirvana-ish pop punk, and even some good old traditional electric blues. I've been playing about 14 years.

I really do like this little pedal. It's trashy, loud, and simply a great garage pedal. I think this pedal would probably cut the best through a band out of all the distortions I own.

It definitely feels the cheapest, with the big hollow clunk you get depressing the footswitch (that's because of the big honkin' chassis though).

It definitely sounds the cheapest, but in A VERY GOOD WAY. For all garage domination, I wouldn't look further than this pedal.

And for around $50 bucks, it's a pretty decent deal. You don't get much...but it is a sound that is somewhat hard to duplicate. I could kind of get the DS-1 to cop a little Muff vibe, but it just doesn't have the raw edginess that the Muff has. It's kind of like a country club guy trying to use street slang. It gets the basic feel right, but it doesn't have that gritty snarl the Muff has in spades.

It's easy to get a sound on it's own, but as I try to get good sounds mixed with my two overdrives, it's hard to balance the three. It's really hard to use if you plan on turning it off during a song, because the sound when it's off is so much different than the distorted tone that it doesn't seem to fit. That's why i'm using the overdrives, so the od sound kinda glazes the muff sound, so that when the muff is off, it's just glaze. Get it?

This is a very nice, organic, and thick sounding distortion. It's not like most of the lame mesa and digital sounds all the nu metal losers get.

It's so huge! It would break me before I broke it.

I have a cool mod I made to my big muff. I hate the reverse jacks! What I did today was unscrew the jacks, unscrew the screws that fasten the circuit onto the box, and I turned the circuit board around. This turned the jacks around without having to rewire anything. The only drawback is that I can't screw the circuit back on, so it's just kinda flopping in there. But it's definitely a solution that works.

Its very easy to use. Dont need a manual to use it. I have the black russian with yellow lettering.

I use gibson sg special and an marshall jcm 900 halfstack. Its noisy when i use the clean channel of the amp, but i think all distortion pedal are noisy. it sound cool when it work properly. But i cannot palm mute with it. It sound thin when i do. But i can relly to the channel b of the jcm 900.

The big muff work well for 2 years, but now when i last use it at rehearsal, it kill the sound of the amp. i use it with the clean channel and the amp dont produce their normal tone and volume. The volume become so small i can't even hear the guitar. But when i plugged the cable directly to the amp the amp are normal. I think its the jack or something.

I never dealt with the company

I play mostly rock and a little blues and it sound good. I been playing for 5 year and this is my second pedal, the first is a marshall drivemaster. i would buy a us reissue if this got stollen. I love the sound but it must have reliability. So i give it a 7 for the reliability.

Really Really Really easy. Kind of fool-proof.

This is low-sound quality, but that's the point! It can be very brash, yet very gentle. On low gain settings it reminds me of Elastica and The Ramones or something. With gain all the way up and the tone down a little, it nails Juliana Hatfield's "Total System Failure." With gain half-way and tone all up and using my bridge pickup, I can do the fuzz solo on this one Fiona Apple song on "When the Pawn"

Yep

Quite simple to use. Self explanitory.

This is what I am some what dissapointed with. This is probably one of the noisiest pedals I own. I was told that the pumpkins use this pedal - If you are going for that particular type of distortion this will get you by until you want to spend some money. If you really want it, you must get a fender blender, over drive, compressor, electro-harmonix micro synth, and a distortion pedal (Boss MT-2 works well). A combination of these will put the distortion that people only dream about in your hands. The big muff will get you in the ball park, but the sound quality is absolutly horrible. Get a fender blender if you want distortion. This is nice to have in your collection, but I hardly ever turn this on. IF you do get one, adapt your own power supply or buy an american one. Russian ones are terrible, but the US big muffs are great - vintage ones.

Its electro-harmonix, say no more. Great.

Wonderful. I bought a vintage micro synth with out the manual. I emailed the support, and 2 days later I had a manual in my hands for free.

The vintage big muffs and USA reissues are wonderful, but stay away from the russian models. Pay a few more dollars for the higher quality. If money isnt an issue, get a fender blender if you want this sound.

Its got three knobs for Volume, Sustain (amount of distortion) and Tone. An input and an output - how much simpler do you want it? Turn the knobs round a bit til you get a good sound...

Squire Standard Strat with Kent Armstrong Hot Rails in the Bridge and Neck into a Boss OD-3 Overdrive into the Muff through a Boss CT-6 Tuner into a Laney LC-15r amp. Great bedroom set-up that only lacks volume for gigs. The Muff more than makes up for the poor distortion from the amp so the amp is set clean and the overdrive or distotion comes from the pedals. THe Muff has a huge amount of bass that helps the slightly tinny nature of the amp, great distortion but not the horrible generic fizzy stuff that cheapo pedals often kick out. Very organic, warm and full, completely suited to the hot-rails. More than enough gain on 12 o'clock setting on the sustain knob, volume pushed to about 2 o'clock and tone on 2 o'clock, but of course sometimes you just HAVE to turn the sustain up all the way...

Hmmm....Flimsy knobs but metal case, looks like it will last as long as I'm not chucking it out of windows or driving over it.

N/A

Sounding like other players? Why would I want to do that? I play Manic Street Preachers, Oasis, Clapton,everything from the fifties to the ninties and beyond, any decent guitar based rock really. I want my own tone that doesnt copy, I want my own version of the well-known songs I play and with the Muff I have it, especially with the completely different very middly carachteristics of the OD-3. Mines a quiet one it seems Overall the sound is a great chunky bit of rock. I'd replace it but prob with the US version. It could do with a true-bypass and a AC input. Played it in the shop with a Tom Delonge Squire strat which was amazing so I'll have to get one of those too...musically it gives me the extra option of the high gain sound I cant get from the OD-3 and will definitly help my playing as it sounds so good you just want to play better.

well, 4 options= volume, sustain (i love that option), Tone
i don't like however that there isn't an A.C. adapter plug on it, so you HAVE to use batteries, and the in and out jacks are switched meaning input is on the left and output is on the right.

As far as the sound: i love it. i swear it came from heaven. Electro harmonix company is like the head of all roman gods: Zues.
The pedal was used by BLACK SABBATH, and you get that exact sound he used, sustain: all the way up, tone:4 1/2 o' clock. it's a creamy fuzz petal what else can i say? i love it. Mudhoney used em, Korn, all those guys.

i use this with primarily mustangs, 1 wish single coils and the other with humbuckers. And occasionally i'll break out my Jag-Stang equiped with a dimarzio super distortion. Here's how my setup goes:
fender mustang (humbuckers or singles)---> EH BIG MUFF--> EH SMALL STONE---> Marshall 100 watt Valvestate head on boost channel with a Kuston 4X12 cabinet---> Marshall mini stack (with a Y-Splitter cable)

you don't really get feedback that much and i have a heavy duty loud rig (unless i use my mustang with single coils)
all sound perfect
you get the exact sound of BLACK SABATH
if you want a vintage semi fuzz/dist. it's the best.

it's reall tuff with a heavy duty good quality on/off stomp switch.
however i can't use it without a backup only cause it doesn't have an input for an A.C. adaptor, so i carry my PROCO TURBO-RAT, wich i don't care much for.

Another thing i don't like is, everytime i'd stomp it in the middle of a song, it'd screw up the settings, so that's easily fixed with some good ol' redneck solution: alabama chrome (duct tape)

never had to deal with em

i play Grunge/60's trippy psycadelic stuff. i'm in my own band and our influences are Mudhoney, Nirvana, The Meat Puppets, Alice In Chains...etc
i've been playing 6 years
if it were stolen i'd just steal another one. Or just try out another fuzz. i'm a fuzz Junky.
i love the sound of course, i love the vintage "box" style look.
i used a Boss ds-1, a Proco Turbo-Rat, and my long life companion Boss mt-2 (metal zone 2). But my mt-2 was road worn, beat up, wore out, i was reall depressed so i thought i'd save it and give it a better or "safer" home and traded it in for my BIG MUFF.
out of all the "dirty" effects i've had my EH BIG MUFF is my fave.
i wish i had: boss ds-2, just any old vintage fuzz, i'd love to have. Yes it helps sooo much for me to make music. i use it any where anytime, everytime, All the time.
i absolutely love this pedal it's my love. However the metal zone is a fave of mine it has taved me manytimes, it'll have a speciall place in my career forever.

Very easy to use: just power on, move the knobs to make your sound and play.

My setup is: Fender American FatStrat -> Jimmy Hendrix Wah -> DOD 280 Compressor -> MXR Distortion+ -> EHX Big Muff -> EHX Small Clone -> Guyatone Vintage Tremolo -> Morley Deluxe Flanger -> ROSS Phaser -> Danelectro PB&J Delay -> BOSS Noise Gate NF-1 -> Laney LC30. Talking about BIg Muff is talking about a classic pedal. Some people love it, some hate it: I'm in the middle ot them. I bought this pedal because my reference guitarrist (David Gilmour) uses it. I thought it will turn me in a David Gilmour, but later i see i failed...not the pedal. This pedal has a very tonefull distortion sound, which starts with a closer, low-frequency sound and goes to a high-frequency and screaming distortion. I confess i have it for 6 months and until now I couldn't find my sound on it. In fact I use it to give some bass tone, volume and sustain to my MXR Distortion+. It isn't my favorite distortion pedal, but I keep it in my pedalboard to honor this giant manufacturer (Electro Harmonix) and to help my Distortion+ with some sustain and power.

This is a tank!! When I bought it i couldn't imagine how Big Muff is really "BIG". It is built 2mm metal plate and has three knobs (vintage style). You can keep it for 30 years or more if you don't let it outside in the rain. I think you can play soccer with it and later play a gig.....LOL

I don't have good memories with the Electro Harmonix support. I had a Vintage Deluxe Memory Man (from 70's) bought used and damaged from a friend. I emailed them asking if they could fix my unit and they answered fast that they could. I sent my pedal to US (i'm brazilian) and 30 days later they gave me a bad new: they couldn't fix my unit and I must pay a U$ 50,00 dollar bill if I want the pedal back. I claimed them to help me but the best I got was a U$30 dollars-hour engineer to "try" to fix my unit or the pedal in the trash. I choose the last! That's my experiment with EHX.

A good pedal but I recommend a very good equalizer to help you to get your sound.

3 knobs. i marked the positions i usually use with a black permanent marker. past that, just stomp/jump on it.

when i bought it, i tried it out with an epi bass thru a sovtek 100w tube head and a crate 4x10 cab. it sounded like god. i like it for my aria pro 2 zzb custom using an old yamaha 30-115B. it sounded great with my original setup (epi s-310 strat and kustom kla-10) as long as the overdrive was on (very joey santiago). wasn't too happy with it thru my marshall micro-stack playing my ibanez dt-350 on a clean channel. i think it was more the setup (high action, 10-46) in that case, but it tended to sound tinny. i generally don't use a clean channel, but i have to dock it for that. with the overdrive on 8 i get alot of natural harmonics which is what i usually go for. in any setup it seems to be a good match for my boss bf-2.

dropped it like 50 times, many of those on concrete. never had any problems. i've also jumped on it to switch it in army boots. the guy at the shop swore up and down that it was made from recycled tank parts.

never tried customer support. if it breaks, i could probably fix it myself. it's just solid-state electronics.

it's great for punk rock, and not bad for "alternative". unless using it for bass tho, i'd recommend using it on top of another pedal. to be honest, i mainly bought it cuz it was od green in a wooden crate with cyrillic all over the lid. it gets people talking. but as far as sound goes, i can't say i'm disappointed.

three knobss...nopatch or editing, damn easy.

atfirst i bought it 2 months ago, it sounds like pile of a junk through my washburn bad dog amps...then i question my self, what is wrong, then i try to mod it circuits by myself THEN

God, now it becomes killer super thick distortion not a disgusting fuzzbox i got 2 months ago.....god, creamy distortion, good note and chord definition, BUT NOT FOR SHRED !!!.

then, i play it through my new marshall jcm 2000 TSL head and 4x12 cab.... oh my god i'm in heaven........

High quality tube amps + Amazingly modded distortion boxes = Sound from heaven....

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TO MOD IT BY YOURSELF, EMAIL ME and I WILL TELL YOU HOW TO MOD IT BY YOURSELF ....... NO, I WILL NOT CHARGE YOU !!!!

I JUST HATE SMART ASS WHO MOD ONLY FEW CAPASITORS AND RESISTORS ($4) WITH CHARGE $50

god, sheet metals,,seem pretty sturdy

i can fix it by myself !!

i play Classic rock, Blues, rock, alternative, Neo-classical.

i have lefty am. std strat -> Vol pedal -> Cry baby 535Q -> TS 9 -> Big muff -> Jack hammer - >GE-7 equaliser -> DD-3 -> CE-5 -> BF-2 ->TR-2 tremolo -> Washburn bad dog (NOW JCM 2000 TSL HEAD through 4 x 12 cabs)

SOUNd Killer, thick dist mod by my self, if u want to ask me how to mod it, email me..... free

This pedal is very easy to use, no problems with any bullshit-knobs: there aren't any. "Volume", "Sustain", "Tone" is all you have. The Volume knob is excellent: open it halfway and you've got your original signal-output. Open it further and you'll get excellent feedback. The sustain-knob is like a "distortion"level-knob, the tone-knob, well you can guess.
Alle very easy to use, what are you able not to understand as a "grown-up"?

Excellent! If you like a killer-fuzz/distortion pedal, this is it. I use it for bass, and it gives the amazing wall-of-sound-freak-out-fuzzzzz-distortion sound I like so much in combination with a good tubesound. I use a Bassman 100 with a Dual Showman 2*15" cabinet and it gives great low as well as good mid and high.
If you put the volume-knob out further than half-way, you get a superb feedbacksound out of your tubes. This is really one of the best features. The Tone-knob takes you where you want to be in the sound spectrum of your band. You can make your bass sound like a heavy guitar, as a thick-I-hate-high-bass, or a marvelous bass/mid-distortion bass. I use a light '85 Japanese-Fender-P-bass, which sounds good with it. I assume a Gibson Thunderbird or likewise bass will sound awfully good. This is THE distortion-fuzz in the field. I know no better pedal than this one for excellent sound, as well as for a large spectrum of distorted sound.

This Russian piece of machinery is really the biggest pile of shit I have ever seen! What totally unreliable dun. Do not buy the Russian (Black) pedal, buy the American. The Russian one has the in- and output-jackets soldered right on the electric board. This gives the whole pedal a rumble with every tiny move you make. I think it will fall apart within the coming year, not playing over 20 times a year. The knobs are good, no problem with them. The case is good as well. The case will hold out, whatever you do with it. The jackets will be fucked whatever you do with it.

Never tried.

I play sixties-fuzz-rock, some experimental impro-music too, like noise and stuff. This Big-Muff is excellent for these kinds of music. Great for Stoner-rock too. This is what you should have as a bass-player if you dig distortion and tubes.
I play for about 8 years now, I own a Avora-fuzz as well, which hasn't got the tremendous feedback-sound. It doesn't deal as well with low as the Muff does.
If this Russian thing was stolen, I would in no case buy a Russian Muff again, go for the American one! Choose reliability.
I love the sound, the feedback, the low still getting into my amp after putting the Muff to work. I hate the unreliabel nature and the rumble that goes with it. Favorite Feature: Feedback-possibilities, Sound like a Caterpillar on Gravel.
According to alot of people it should have a "by-pass" switch to bypass the tone-knob. I like the tone-knob, for it gives great sound-possibilities. This pedal helps making music allright; it offers a great gravel-biting sound spectrum.

This is the Russian (Sovtek) version (black w/ yellow logo & chicken head knobs). This is pretty much THE most popular fuzz box on the market. There's not a whole lot you can do that will make it sound bad. I'm particularly pleased because I can back off the volume (so as not to deafen anyone nor destroy my practice amp) and I still get a great fuzzy tone. Turn up the volume and sustain and it only gets better! :o)

Again, this pedal always sounds great. I can get sounds that range from Smashing Pumpkins to Pink Floyd to Jimi Hendrix, etc. I use a Mexican-made Fender Strat and a customized Phantom Strat copy (with a tele pickup, seymour duncan classic stack, and seymour duncan hot rails). In my effects chain, the muff almost always comes first, then feeds my vox wah, DOD harmonic enhancer, Dano chorus, and whatever other effects I feel like using. I also use a ProCo Rat 2, but the Muff sounds nicer and isn't quite so nasty with the harmonics. The Muff's fuzz is much more user friendly.

My biggest problem is that this thing has a HUGE output. I usually put a compressor in my effects chain just after it to tame the sound and save my other effects and my amps (a Dean Markley practice amp feeding a Vox Pathfinder for now).

I've had the muff for about a year and I've never had to change the battery. (I use it almost every time I play.) I'd gig with it without a backup, but i'm just daring like that.

I've bought cables and t-shirts through the company and had no problems. In terms of actual help and support, I've never dealt with them.

I play everything from modern rock to classic rock and blues. While it's a little too wild for the blues (at least what I'm able to play), it works great for a modern and classic rock sound.

If it were stolen, I wouldn't sweat it 'cause you can find these things everywhere! For all I care, the theif can have it...I like to share the joy!

Nothing else to say that hasn't already been said.

Fairly easy to use....3 knobs (Volume, Sustain and Tone). Volume is pretty self explanatory, sustain increases/decreases length of note/notes are left to "ring", Tone changes sound of distortion.

Yuck yuck yuck. I don't know if it's just this Big Muff (Russian built, black case, yellow lettering) or applies to all Muff's, be it originals to US re-issues, but this one sounded awful. I'm using a Gibson LP Custom, through this pedal, a Boss MT-2, and Akai Phaser into a Boss 50w combo. I can't blame the sound of the BM on the amp, because it sounds great with the MT-2, and other pedals I've owned/sold.
One thing that I fell for is that you cannot change the LEVEL of distortion, as in decrease/increase it. It has a basic distortion setting, and not a very good one at that. Sustain is excellent, but the Tone.....god damn! Turn it right down, and it sounds like it's being played through a 10w practice amp. Turn it all the way up, all you get is a horrible raspy fuzz noise which I don't think anyone would like to be heard playing with. From 11 oclock to 2 oclock is where the only bearable sound is obtained. And guess what. After 5 minutes playing with my amp AND MT-2, I got the same sound as the muff. Thats when I decided to take it back.
Not only does the distortion sound awful, but the pedal regularly makes wierd peak/fall sounds while playing some basic power chords. Going back and forth from B5 to G5, the pedal was really following it's own agenda. It sounded like the it was overdriving the distortion at points, like it was struggling to output its own sound! I had to resort to playing the MT-2, even if it wasnt the sound I was wanting.

No, you can't. Again, I don't know if it's just this russian bersion, but I would really depend on it for important gigs. Firstly, it has no DC9V input, therefore having to rely on 9V batteries. You can connect it via adapter, but the adapter cable has to go underneath the pedal and mine eventually broke after several hard stomps. Secondly, the on switch is fairly difficuly to pres down, and can make it hard to activate the hunk-of-junk exactly when you need it. Thirdly, the input/output are reversed (compared to Boss) so basically messing up all the cables and order of my effects. Also, the input/output jacks are plastic, and also don't hold your cables in particularly well, and can often become loose and cause annoying hum, just like pulling the chrod half-way out of your guitar. Not good. Also (gee, never realised how much I hate this pedal :-), because of the layout of the pedals knobs, anyone with an aduly shoe size is gonna be continually kicking the knobs out of place, since they are so damn large and easy to move.
The battery connection in the back is also very shabby. Overall, this is a very badly thought-out pedal. Yeah, I know it was made decades ago, but c'mon, this is 2002.....

Never had to phone/email them, although that also would be hard seeing as it comes with NO manual, or contact info. I was hoping the Customer Service people weren't russian...

This is pedal is well and truly gone. Took it back yesterday. Bought a Boss MD-2 instead. I would maybe buy the Amercian Re-issue Big Muff, but I would be very cautious. Overall, a bad product. Design is awful, sound is terrible, looks ugly. Try and buy the American version if you can, from whaI've heard, it's far more reliable and much better sounding.

this is the black sovtek model. three knobs - volume/tone/sustain. i recommend you sit down with this pedal and spend a while getting to know it, the range of sounds is pretty wide. after a couple of hours i found the perfect sound easily enough. make sure to try it through your amp at volume though - this baby is loud!!!!!1

i play a les paul - big muff - ross chorus- orange slave100. this pedal is without doubt the fattest fuzz i've used - my old tubescreamer has been retired!!!!! super thick black sabbath right there. noisy, loud, insane - get some!!

sure i can, and if it breaks - hey, #45 and i'm off again. mind you, tape those massive control knobs down before you stomp on in on stage

nah

this slays. i've been playing 25 years and cant believe i didn'tget one sooner. wasted years!!!!!!!!!1

I have the black one and it is easy to tweak the eq for different tones the sustain and tone knobs are very sensitive just a little turn and the sound changes drastically for different sounds.

The sound is great really fat thick fuzz and distortion is obtainable with this thing,i'll run my guvnor plus or tube factor into the big muff and get a huge sizzling wall of fuzz great for hendrix or trower stuff,as others have stated on lighter settings you can get david gilmour's tone on comfortably numb very easily with the muff.

so far so good i've had it for a couple months but i've heard stories about this thing falling apart the craftsmenship that goes into this thing is subpar but hey for 60.00 bucks its not that bad if the switch goes i would definitely have it modified because i love the sounds i get from it.

never dealt with them.

I really wanted a heavy vibed fuzz distortion and checked up on the muff,it gets me the sounds i'm after i really dig blues and classic rock ala hendrix,srv,trower,beck and doyle bramhall with the big muff i can get tones ranging from lite to heavy and a mountain of sustain excellent pedal for the price just don't step on it to hard.

Three knobs and a foot switch. How hard can it be??? Though changing battery (no adapter connection) you need a screw driver.

Sound is worth of money paid but sometimes weird noises come out of it all the sudden. You can definately get a Smashing Pumpkins sound from it.

No this pedal will never gain my trust. I've had problems since day one. I regard it as a god damn toy. Sometimes it works sometimes not.

If I would like to have this pedal fixed, I should pay for nearly everything (posting it to U.S and back). E-Harmonix only pays new parts and fixing. I live in Finland so posting it to U.S would probably cost as much as the pedal itself...

I play metal so it's great pedal for me when it works. Sometimes I hope that someone would steal it. I hate it's toy-kinda-action. Everything except the metal box seem to be worthless. Do yourself a favour don't by this pedal. It's probably pure luck if you get a good one.

3 knobs and a stompswitch.. really easy, no worries there!

Ok, this effect sounds good but it is super cheap and it only has one sound... there I said it!!

I'm more worried about the sound when it's not on, it doesn't have true bypass so your sound will suffer greatly. No professional session guitarfreak would ever use this as their main distortion but the sound IS pretty cool, really crunchy rock fuzz (reminds me alot of the guitar sound on the first Weezer album)

Don't depend on this, it's actually built like shit!

Just buy it if youre looking for a really rock and rollish effect, it's really cheap!

This is the black Russian one with the yellow writing on it. It's a pretty simple pedal. It has a volume, sustain (gain), and tone. It's pretty easy to manipulate, and getting a good isn't hard.

Man, they weren't kidding when they said sustain! I got this unit chiefly to replace my Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face, since it's sound is pretty static. The Big Muff Pi has a smooth, distinctive sound that kind of sings the longer you hold a note. The tone control lets you alter the sound enough to keep you entertained for a while, and the sustain just holds and holds. The volume is pretty powerful, so use your own discretion.

As far as the sound itself goes, this is where it all gets great. It's fuzzy, but not like my Fuzz Face (which I didn't particularly like). It had a definite sound of distortion, but too fuzzy to sound like a Rat pedal. It was nowhere near overdrive, but I saw that coming for sure. The best way to describe this pedal is "Big Muff". It's got that Big Muff sound. Not a fuzz, distortion, or overdrive. And let me tell you, the Big Muff sound is superb. Like I said before, it'll sing until your hand gets tired. If the tone knob is down near the 10:00 - 11:00 position, you can get that nice round Hendrix tone (think solo from "Castles Made of Sand") or that fat Tony Iommi sound. Crank it to the 3:00 position, and it brightens up quite a bit (which I think is what David Gilmour did, along with a bright-set eq.) The sustain of this pedal is like none other. It's hard to get a bad sound out of it.

I have the EHX Holy Grail Reverb, which has held up quite well, but a lot of previous reviewers have spoken badly about EHX's reliablility. I myself haven't had a problem with them yet, but only time will tell.

Never dealt with them.

I play a lot of blues (really bad for that) and a little acid rock (really great for that.) I'm quite satisfied with my Fuzz Face replacement. The fuzz face doesn't compare. Period.

I feel like there are a few pedals that everyone should own, some of which are the Ibanez Tube Screamer, A Vox or Crybaby Wah, and for a while, I thought the Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face was one too. However, when I got ahold of the Big Muff, I've since thrown the Fuzz Face onto eBay. I really have no use for it, as the Big Muff does everything that the Fuzz Face could, but better. The Fuzz Face did one sound, albiet fairly well, but still just one sound. The Big Muff, however, is an infinitely more dynamic pedal, able to replicate a bevy of classic rock sounds. Please, for your own sake, get this pedal, because if you're reading this, that means you may be interested. Don't deprive your sound of such a rich, full, and gorgeous fuzz sustainer any longer.

3 knobs - volume/sustain/tone. sounds pretty easy, but it took me weeks to get the sound i wanted out of this pedal. the controls are pretty sensitive, particularly the tone knob, which sends the gain from low and bassy to hisst fuzz very quickly. i'd advise anyone new to big muffs to take their time getting to know this pedal before gigging it.

i play a gordon-smith sg custom>big muff(or ds1/boss fuzz/tubescreamer -depends on mood)>50 top head. i rely on the valve amp for my tone really, and use the pedals as "colour". that said the big muff really does peovide something different. it's definately a fuzz as opposed to a distortion pedal, and for really rich,thick cream/grand funk/early sabbath fuzz it's the business. it sustains for ever, and has a super-heavy sound. that said, try getting a metallica-chug out of it and you're lost. where this pedal really excells is in single note stuff or open chords.if you dig stoner-rock this is the one for you, it's got that real kyuss-y low end. it's really loud too, noticably louder than most other pedals i use. it's also a bit noisy, and quite temperamental - at one gig it made loud hissing noises when off, but mysteriously after the gig it stopped. weird.

here's where the problems start. as i've said, the muff has made some weird noises at times, and i definatelty wouldnt gig without a back-up. in fact, ive stopped gigging it all together. the problem is that the knobs are huge, and kinda loose. if it gets knocked over during a gig (which happened quite a lot at my gigs)and a knob turned at all, the sound could change all together. i guess you could tape the knobs in place(i've seen it done a lot). i bought a boss fuzz, which sounds very similar, and is indestructable. that said, in the studio i always use the muff.

not dealt with them.

i play heavy sabbath/black flag rock, and this pedal suits my style perfectly. it's probably the thickest sounding fuzz i've used (though the boss fuzz is pretty close).i love the way it sounds different to most overdrive units, especially the sustain.if it was nicked i'd buy one of the usa reissues, purely because the control knos are a better shape. it was pretty cheap, and really if you are into fuzz you cant afford to not have one of these pedals!!

It has 3 knobs!!! One for your volume, one for your distortion/sustain level, and one for tone. It did not come with a manual, I don't think I'd need it, but some people would like it.

I use a Fender Stratocaster, with a princeton 65 amplifer. W/ Sustain @ Max, and my guitars volume knob maxed out, this is a 100% noise free pedal. I get a nice Lagwagon and Hendrix sound out of this pedal.

The switch is a little hard to push down on, but this pedal seems reliable so far. I've only had it a couple days, so I haven't been able to see how the battery life is.

I've been playing for 4 years now, and this is my new favorite pedal. Of course, it isn't the sound for all of my music needs, but it is definitely worth buying. I love everything about this, except the fact that the input/output knobs are reversed.

Pretty easy really... It has only has three knobs, but it takes a little tweaking on the tone knob to atain the right sound.

I am using it with a sovtek mig 50 amp, sovtek 2x12 speaker cab, and a epiphone lp-100. I have the same problem as sombode mentioned earlier - it is too bassy and muddy, and if you adjust the tone it rapidly changes to a horrible tinny trebly sound. It takes a bit of tuning to find the 'right spot'. Having said that it sounds quite a bit bassier than my clean sound, but condsidering it is not my main overdrive pedal (my main pedal is a marshall shredmaster) i am quite happy with its unique sound.

If you are into Smasing Pumpkins (as i am) this pedal is a must for playi8ng along with. Think of tracks such as rocket, hummer, mayonaise, for a guide as to what a muff sounds like. It is not 100% the same, i think Billy and James have had their muffs modified...

Downside to the pedal is that it sounds crap when you palm-mute the strings. It is really only anygood for strumming, power chords, and riffs...

Overall I would recomend it as a pedal to add to your collection if you already have a versatile overderive pedal. The big muff is not all that versatile.... For use in the right context i give it an 8 - i have a knocked of a couple of marks due to its lack of flexibilty with the tone control...

many people have complained of the production quality of russian sovtek gear. Personally I have never had much problems with it, and the pedal is solid. I will not give it a raiting because i have not had it long enough to judge...

Na

Like any pedal and sound, it is all a matter of taste and context. Thius pedal used in the right context is perfect. I would recomend this pedal for those with tube amps (sounds nice with the sovtek mig50) or with marshall JCM 800s (billy corgans choice of amp) but chances are it may sound fine with many other tube amps or even solid state amps. My bet is that it sounds better with single coil pick ups, but untill pick up my new G&L ASAT i can not say exactly what it sounds like with a tele. Billy corgan uses lace pick ups with his strat and the pedal seems to sound good, but again his is not a stock russian made model. (I'm not sure even if it is a russian model - could be american...)

Overall im giving it an 8 considering its cheap price, cool looks, and distinct tone.

Pretty easy to use. What's hard to do is to get a sound you want from it. The tone changes drastically even when you nudge the dial a little. You have to spend a lot of time trying to get the right sound from it. A manual doesn't come with it, but it's not really necessary.

Fender standard strat > Big Muff > Amp
At first, it sounded really muddy and deep. I figured the bass was too high and I turned the tone knob a little to the left, trying to get more treble. The sound quickly became TOO sharp. I checked the EQ on the amp, and I was still unable to get a desirable tone out of this thing.
The sustain is hard to adjust as well. The Muff has no definition, sound really muddy and messy, too fuzzy. I tried to correct that problem by turning down the sustain, but it didn't work. It still sounded terrible.

Not reliable. Poorly constructed, with many problems regarding the knobs, and especially the input/output jacks. My guitar cord loosely fits into the input jack, and this caused a lot of problems, especially when I foolishly tried to play a live gig with it. Because the cord was so loose, sometimes it didn't connect properly. This resulted in my guitar becoming virtually "unplugged" at one point, and no sound was coming from the amps and the PA. My guitar was "muted". I had to spend some time halfway through a song, to try and re-adjust my cord.

Never dealt with EH.

I play a lot of classic rock and alternative rock, including some other stuff, (ie. Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Smashing Pumpkins, The Cure, etc.) I've been playing guitar for about three years now. I have a Fender American standard strat, which I modified by putting Lace Sensor pickups in it.
The Big Muff reissue (non-US version, black one), is a complete piece of junk. I was initially looking for a heavy, super-gain fuzz, for the type of sound heard on Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream album. I was completely disappointed by it, because it sounds ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE (I cannot stress this enough). I hate it so much that I wish I could just throw it out of my window. I still haven't been able to get rid of it yet.
You CANNOT get a good sound outta this thing. I've tried adjusting the pedal knobs (the sustain, the tone), I've tried adjusting my amp eq, I've even tried it with different equipment. It just sounds horrendous all the time. Also, it screwed me over during a gig when the connector cable came loose and there was suddenly no sound coming out from my amp. Since then, I've tried the USA-made Big Muff Pi reissue (the silver one, which was much better), and a few other fuzz pedals. I have to say that out of all the fuzz pedals I've tried, the black, Russian-made Big Muff was the worst. It should never have ben made!

It's quite easy to tweak an average sound, but at my russian version, the potmeters are very loose, and get out of position a bit too easy!There is no need for a manual.

This one is more difficult.....I use this bugger with my Fender strat (mexico standard) and my hotrod deluxe amp. This pedal has a kind of problem with my amp....The sound is not that mushy as I hoped for, but it sounds very "separated"! It's not very noisy, that has to be in order to the somehow low gain-level this unit delivers. It's called a distortion/sustainer, but it's quite more like a low-gain fuzz-box. It also should be said that these units sounds different for each model....I have no definite favorite artist, but Black Debbath I really like. And I can ALMOST get that sound! (They use flextone)

It's made of panser-steel, and should not break down very easy! But It has one weak point...The switch has to be pushed HARD, if not, tha sound may disappear. (I've had that nightmare-experience on a gig....BAD!)Battery life in this box is really awesome....I've had mine in hard use for a year, and it's still going strong! I'm gigging time and time over again without backup...( I'm just a poor student for Gods sake!

I bet they are friendly! One thing!: Don't buy the usa-muff...it sucks big time! But the russian one is quite good!

Don't buy the usa-muff...it sucks big time! But the russian one is quite good!

Very easy to understand, 3 switches, no problem. Mine didnt come with a manual, but then it was second hand.

I put my les paul through it into a marshall practise amp and it seriously messes with the sound, if you're looking for a unique noise with alot of options this baby should do nicely. To me it sounds like "frances farmer will have her revenge on seattle" and "radio friendly nit shifter" both by nirvana on "in utero".

Not broken yet and i stamped on it hard. It was already slightly buckled from the first user, but they must have dropped an elephant on it. Solid as a tank, and yes, this is the russian one, NOT the american one. Ofcourse i'd gig it without a backup, nothing else sounds like it and i dont think ill be able to find another with my limited funds.

dont have a number to ring, second hand with no manual.

VERY cheap, worth every penny. Unique sounding, very loud, it fits with my heavy rock style and would fit anybody doing anything grunge or noisy. If it was stolen i would probably cry for ages. it looks very cool and i dont think this will ever break, compared to my friends jackhammer this wins hands down. maybe if the battery holder was connected to the box in some way or the knobs were easier to read in the dark it'd get 10.

Very simple to use. Only three knobs....Tone, Volume, and Sustain.

I bought one of these after reading many of the reviews posted here. I did not find it as noisy or harsh as many described it. I'm using it with an all-tube Laney Pro -Tube 50 head and Marshall cabinet. Even with my cheap Mexi-Strat, it was fairly quiet. The trick with this pedal is to back off the volume and sustain knobs a little. I'm running both at about 1:00 and I'm getting a rich full distortion that suits what I play well...Sabbath, Kiss, Zep, and various other dinosaur rock! The distortion is very bass heavy. This sounds more like a distortion unit with just a hint of fuzz, rather than a standard fuzz box. Sustain is great, harmonics stand out well, and it doesn't muddy up my picking as much as I thought it would. With a wah, it works great for "No Quarter". I'm well satisfied with it.

I've heard a lot of horror stories about these. Apparently Russian workmanship is not all it's cracked up to be. Mine has worked fine so far but it sounds like one should keep a solder gun handy just in case! I have several other distortion and overdrive pedals, so a back-up is not a problem.

N/A

I've been playing for about 12 years now. Any pedal that is useful to you, and this one is, is worth the $50 price tag. Sounds great for dino-rock and is even passable for nu metal if you crank the volume & sustain knobs a little. I didn't find this any more/less noisy than any other distortion unit I've owned. One thing I will mention is that like any other effect, it sounds MUCH better on a tube amp. Solid state amps just do not bring out the tonal qualities, so don't judge any type of effect by what it sounds like on one of these piece of crap amps. Do yourself a favor and get a tube amp first! Even an old Fender Bandmaster head I picked up in a pawn shop for $200, sounds fantastic with a few effects in front of it. I learned that lesson long ago...stick with tubes!

okay....the big muff is meant to be cranked...sustain at its max...tone to taste...you should never have the volume at less than half...that totally defeats the purpose. really and truly, the muff is plug and play. i've never played a pedal i've had to screw around with less.

it sounds terrible if you're into razor sharp metal sounds. it sounds terrible if you're a good guitar player. it sounds terrible if you like to play solos. it sounds great if you do what i do....which is...uh, i don't know. i can't help liking this pedal. i write songs that are sort of mutated country with big rock sing along parts--this is where the muff comes in. its completley bass heavy, you lose all tonal characteristics of your guitar and amp, it makes my tele and twin sound like...i dunno, what a tele and twin would sound like wrapped in a wool stocking after you've drank a whole bottle of 1800....and it pops when you step on it, too! if you're into "nu metal" this pedal just might make you sound like a real musician (sorry, had to take a shot at that crap) the muff is gritty, real, and horrible. i love it.

i spilled a beer on it and all it got was a little sticky and aromatic. i wouldn't go throw it off a building, but if you use it like a normal human being uses a pedal, it should last at least until the warranty runs out

i don't speak russian....so i hope i don't have to.

like i said, i play stuff thats supposed to sound bad, and the big muff fits. my band has also covered songs by grandaddy and nerf herder, and i use the muff for that too. hell, i even used it to play highway to hell in this hillbilly bar once. so i guess its versatile. really there's only one sound you can squeeze out of it, but its a good one. its the greatest distortion pedal i've ever played, and i own like 10. it makes me feel like j mascis. that can't be bad, right. classic rock sucks, but there haven't been any good inventions for the guitar since that era. long live the muff.

i bought the green russian made version with black lettering. (it looks darker than the one showed in the picture at the top of the page). there are three knobs: Volume, Tone, and Distortion, and then there's of course the button to turn it on. i found it quite easy to get a variety of different sounds. you can lower the tone to a bassy industrial sound or turn the tone full and get a wailing lead sound. the pointers on the knobs (they were just little black dots) wer pointing in no particular direction making it hard to tell where they were pointing from far away. i'm going to get new knobs if i can though.

i'm using an Epi Les Paul Standard. this pedal is very loud and very disturbing when turned full blast. however, unlike other distortion pedals, when this pedal's distortion knob is turned down, you can get a whole new variety of sounds. i found that in other distortion pedals, if you turned the distortion down, it lost it's fullness and was really crackly and ugly. this pedal however is amazing on all levels of distortion. i prefer to keep it at about 70%-100% distortion to get that cool pumpkins tone. you can also get really awesome harmonics on this thing. the tone knob really works well, allowing u to get a bassy tone or a very trebly tone. the range is very noticable. the volume adds tons of volume to ur overall sound as well. for those looking for a smashing pumpkins sound, definitely try this one out.

it was heavier than i expected which is a good thing. there are a few things i'm scared about though. first of all, the knobs are plastic and may snap off. but not unless it's dropped hard. it feels like it's built like a rock. it's made completely out of metal except the knobs, input/output jacks and the battery cover. which leads me to another thing, i know this doesnt affect the performance of the thing, but i'm really scared that the battery cover will either snap or fall out and i'll lose it. it just looks so cheap. and it would be a hassle if i lost it because it holds my battery in place! also, the indicator light looks like it will break. if it was smaller, it might be better. otherwise, it's a sturdy hunk of metal and it's very unlikely to break. i would certainly use this without a backup.

havent dealt with them. i dont think i want to be talking to russians! :P just kidding...

i play lots of styles of music. i use this pedal mostly for pumpkins, guns n roses, pearl jam, and pretty much anything that has distortion in it! :P if it were stolen, i'd buy another one if it was cheap (not that it's a bad pedal, i just dont have any money!). i love the variety of sounds u can get. it's very easy to find ur own sound or mimic the sound of a favourite band. i dont hate much about it, just the battery cover problem! i wish this thing was a little smaller (i dont know why) and maybe if it had better quality parts. i like BOSS pedals better because they're compact and built to withstand the end of the world. this electro-harmonix pedal though feels like if i drop it hard, it will break something inside. i dont know why, it's just the way it feels. anyways, this pedal is very excellent and i love it and if you want that pumpkins sound, get it. if not, at least try it out. i ASSURE you you'll like it.

This pedal is really easy to use.
Only 3 knobs, volume, distortion, tone.
I really just had to play around with the tone till it sounded nice.

Big Muff's rule. Magic Dirt (Aussie band) live by them.
I play it through a Fender Deluxe 112 Plus amp and a Fender Strat with Dimarzio humbucker bridge pickups.
It has lot's of beef to it. It has the tone I've been after for years.Myself and the other guitarist in my band both use Big Muffs. The sound we get is unbeleavably good.

The fact it's made of metal it'll probably never fall apart. It always sounds good, at any volume.
I've thrown it across the room after a really bad show. It bounces and bounces but never breaks and still sounds good.

I play noisy early 90's grunge music. This pedal works really well. I used to use a Boss Turbo Distortion DS-2. I used to think that pedal had balls. I was wrong.