Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi USA Reissue

Very easy to use.

What's that you say.. it made you deaf.
I'm trying to recall the sound because mine is in a box out in the garage. i think it's the 70's model that's apparently worth a lot of money these days. It was my second pedal after a fuzz box stopped working and i enjoyed the sustain. Don't remember the fuzz quality just that it was loud and lacked any kind of tone control. i don't think the sound was bad and what I think a lot of people are doing is plugging into a high scale modern amp and are expecting a seventies sound. I use a Crate 30 amp and the amp is just too thick for the Big Muff. when I plug it into an old amp it overpowers the amp but that's what you want. You have to go out and buy a new amp but while the old amp lasts you'll hear why the pedal was so popular.

Not so good. I'm writing this review because I'm thinking of getting another Big Muff and wanted to see what people were saying about it. My Boss pedals are still working as is my Pod and most of my other pedals. I've got the Hendrix and the Clapton pedals and I'm not thrilled with them either as far as Harmonix pedals go. Not much for the price. The Big Muff lasted a while and just went dead and I never bothered getting it fixed.

It's in a box out in the garage. Thirty eight years in a box. When it broke I bought a Cort Effector with effects built into the guitar the way the new Stratocaster is made. I't doesn't sound like a Fender but it has two humbuckers and sounds ok. Then I bought a Fender guitar and the feedback had the neighbors running for the bomb shelter. If I want to get down in the gutbucket I use a Boss Super Overdrive and a Boss Blues Driver on clean with the guitar at full volume. The Muff can give you the volume and sustain but you don't get that dirty bottom that I like that sounds like John Lee Hooker tellin' some college boy in a Beamer that he don't know crap about the blues...

I think it's a good pedal but maybe for a kid just starting out on an electric guitar. Jimmy Hendrix did his thing and he ain't coming back. Buying something because it may sound like Hendrix is silly. Get a harmonizer or a Pod or a synth or something from Boss that has a hundred amp models and a hundred effects and stay interested. I like the Big Muff but it's limited.

It's pretty simple, just three knobs for Volume, Tone, and Sustain. You can go from slight break up with the Sustain low, or full out grunge fuzz with it set high.

I'm using a Fender 60's Strat into a Korg CR-4 4-track cassette recorder because I don't have an amp at the moment. Through a cheap solid state amp, or something with very small speakers, like my Korg, it doesn't sound that great. I used this on my friend's Twin Reverb, however, and it shines. I played a few tunes: "Foxey Lady", "Time" by Pink Floyd, and then changed it up a bit and played "Breed" by Nirvana and "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" by The White Stripes. It nailed the tones, especially the solo from "Time". It is kind of a one trick pony, in the respect that it does what a good fuzz should do. Very thick, harmonically rich, and it can get pretty nasty. Pair it with a good tube amp, and it'll shine.

I've only had it a few days, and it seems pretty sturdy, but the switch seems a little fragile. That could just be me, though.

Haven't dealt with them, so I couldn't tell you.

I play a wide variety of music, anything from blues to indie. This suits my needs for stuff like Hendrix, Floyd, just about any grunge, and my favorite band, The White Stripes. You can't go wrong with the pedal that all the big names use, and you also have to bear in mind that they use the exact same thing you go into a guitar store and buy.

Very easy to use `cause what ever you do, it`s same cheep sound.

I`m playing Gibson 335s deluxe and tube combo Marshall amp. This setup works fine for me. I was hoping to get some vintage boost and sustain from this pedal... nothing but the noise...
If you want to kill your tone, plug in.

Never used it on stage.

I am playing for nearly 20 years in various music styles.
Through this period of time nothing can get between guitar and amp.
Anyone who worked in studio knows that only good sound to record is the original one. Guitar and amp. Thats all. If you don`t have the sound, go back and work it out. Producers job is to alter it and pack it in the whole picture (song, album etc.). Of course I`ve tried a lot of stuff. Still got a few pedals, BOSS, that is. Chorus, Flanger, Compressor. I do not use them.
The only thing I use is Dunlop cry baby Wah. Dynamics of altering your sound with this pedal can not be replaced with no producer.

yeah its easy to use, and thats about all that can be said.

ABsolute piece of junk. I am playing a Fender Strat into a 1987 Marshall Silver Jubilee combo. As soon a I turn the Big Muff on, it squeals like a pig. I have tried every setting under the sun, and its still no good. THis piece of shit pedal is the NOISIEST pedal Ive ever played. Terrible terrible terrible.

Hahah woulde I use this at a gig? Youre kidding. This is the worst pedal ever made, and I want my money back.

No idea, bot considering the quality of this pedal I am guessing their customer service is shit as well.

If you want a Hendrix tone, then look elsewhere. In factm, of you want a pedal that actually works, and doesnt squeal like a pig, then look elsewhere.

if anyone has any idea how to make this pedal sound atleast HALF decent, please email me - heightdown@hotmail.com

It has a stiff and cheap-feeling footswitch and great big chicken knobs, which, try as you might, you can't get a decent tone out of.

I only bought the damn thing because I had the delusion that I could get a tone like either 1980-era Adrian Belew or Mudhoney. In short, I couldn't. I just got this horrendous wash of cheap-sounding fuzz. I was using a rather old Squier Strat and a brand new Epiphone LP 100 - neither of them the greatest guitars in the world, and I've since owned finer, but they sounded a lot better when I wasn't playing them through the Big Muff.

The soldering in the input and output jacks failed within weeks. Not being good at soldering in tight corners, I was unable to fix it. It was the most expensive pedal I've bought and the biggest waste of money.

In retrospect this may have been the wrong pedal for me. When I used it, it certainly sounded nothing like it did when the people who inspired me to buy it used it. But even when it worked, I almost never turned it on. It ruined what tone I have (with, like, a Squier Strat and an LP 100, I know, I know) and substituted a horrible blurry fuzzy noise. The thing is now cluttering up my office and I have no idea what to do with it, seeing as it doesn't work. My only consolation is that the Russian model I tried out in the shop sounded even worse.

Very easy 3 big chicken knobs-very easy
It only does one sound but you can increase the volume and the sustain dramaticaly.

Its definatly more of a Fuzz pedal then Distortion pedal, I've using it throught my Epi Valve junior 5w as a seperate channel effectivly, I've used my PRS Custom 22 and a Fender Japan Tele- Did'nt notice the sound being too different between the two guitars, obviously the Prs's humbuckers were alot more meaty.
The sustain is great! real violin like "think Santana-Smooth".
The big issue I've got is with the low-E string it buzzes no matter how weak the level or sustain control and I've tried all my guitars so i believe this is a genuin trait of all big muff pedals but for solos and smooth lead riffs this pedal is great, i do like it, i can see alot of recording oppotunities with it and it works great with a valve amp.

Looks strong as hell and I've never had any issues wiith EH pedals before.

N/A

Well my opinion on the sound should be clear now its pretty good but one issue which knocks a few points off! Also another issue I've got is the size i like big pedals but this one does'nt have too much stuff in side so why does it need to be massive?
The price is great though, mine was ??49.00 which is good value for a quite good pedal.

Easy pedal to use. Three knobs to adjust. Volume, Sustain, and tone. Volume stays around 9 pm position while I vary the sustain and tone knobs. Big square metal box. No manual. Just one small slip of paper with brief explanation of the three knobs. That's fine. No need for lengthly manual.

I play my LP through a chain of pedals that include this box, a Keeley moded Boss BD2, a wah pedal, and a tube screamer into a Fender amp at times or else a Mesa Lonestar amp. I can dial in the sound I after. However IMO when you increase the sustain too much it sounds very solid state/artificial.

I think the pedal is quite solid and will hold up. Nince big knobs with a red indicator light. However I believe there is real potential to scratch and dent the bright aluminum surface stomping on the button. The battery compartment door is secured with a small screw. Nice feature unless the battery dies and you don't have a screwdriver to remove the screw. It does have an AC adapter jack that overrides battery use, but unlike other pedals, it uses a small mini jack instead of the more typical adapter jack.

Don't I'll ever need support on this pedal.

I've been building my pedal collection towards getting various sounds and tones. I do like this pedal because the three knobs provide a good variation/latitude of tone, sustain and fuss. It is not an expensive pedal and I recommend to anyone who is after the fuzzy sound.

this is one of the easiest pedals to get a good sound out of. there are three controls, and its simply a matter of fine tuning. i have yet to get a truly bad sound out of it!

So, I am playing either a Fender Strat 70's reissue, or a Schecter gryphon through usally just this pedal, into a Peavey Delta Blues 210, set to clean, with the EQ all at 12, reverb at 4, and tremelo set to 3, and 3.
I find that with the pedal switched off, it is very transparent, and dosen't affect the sound at all. when switched on, there is a little hum, but not obtrusive. I'm gonna give it a 9, only because you can hear the switch ever so slightly when you tap it with your foot.

there is no question that this pedal was built for use. its in a big metal box, with a rugged metal switch (Caveat... see above section)
I would be totally comfortable gigging with only one.

never dealt with them, so can't say.

there's a volume knob, tone knob, gain ("sustain") knob, and on/off switch. Pretty straightforward.

I'm using this with a Frankenstrat I put together, into an AVT20X Marshall combo amp. I've also used it in combination with an Ibanez TS-9 and chorus pedals like the Visual Sound H2O and the Analog Man chorus.

The sound is great; this kind of fuzz is one Hendrix made famous, so of course you're gonna get a Hendrixy solo sounds like that when running it through a Marshall. Put it through a Fender and you'll get a much shriller Eddie Hazel sound. Put it through a chorus and you have Instant Frusciante.

If you turn down the tone and gain knobs you can get much more subtle fuzz effects. With the tone all the way up it can be edgy for solos and with the tone knob down it sinks the sound into a very creamy warm fuzz.

There are four negative issues I've had with the pedal. The first is that it is such a high-gain pedal that it will inevitably be quite noisy. However this is to be expected and may not necessarily be a bad thing depending on how you look at it. In the EHX manual it says the guitar, amp, etc. should all be properly shielded.

The second negative issue is that the pedal tended to muddy some of the lower notes at high gains. however for the most part it's pretty clear as far as fuzzes go.

The third issue is that I experienced some sort of "clipping" or "shorting out," for lack of a better term, when bending high notes higher (like bending the 14th fret of the high E string up, or something). This especially happened when there was a drive pedal after the Big Muff Pi. The solution is to put the boost or drive pedal, in this case, the TS-9, BEFORE the Big Muff Pi in the chain as opposed to afterwords.

The fourth and final issue is that if you run the signal through a wah before the Big Muff Pi, unless you have an awesome wah like a Fulltone Clyde or something fitted with a FoxRox Retrofit, the sweep will become almost imperceptible. I guess this can be fixed by turning the gain down on the Big Muff, but still. I'd say it's better to just get a better wah and use it with the Big Muff Pi anyway ;D

Ahhhh, I don't know. The case is made of the same type of metal and style used in the 70s, so it's very flimsy for something you're repeatedly stomping on. Why not move it to a tougher case?

In general, I've found EHX to be an amazing and creative company, but nevertheless somewhat sketchy. (You know what I mean.)

Never had to deal with 'em.

I play funky rock, rocky funk, acid rock, earth and space or whatever. Lots of Hendrix, Chili Peppers, and the like. I love this pedal. If it was stolen, I'd [insert violent act of revenge here]. Seriously, though, I'd get another. It's such an amazing pedal and at $80 NEW it's dirt cheap and an amazing bargain for such a good pedal. You can get lots of different fuzz tones out of it, from subtle and creamy to loud and screaming. Before you buy it though, try it out on the model amp that you own. It sounds wildly different through different amps.

All in all - with a name like "Big Muff" how can you go wrong?

There's three knobs - the volume knob controls the output level of the pedal, the "sustain" knob basically controls the amount of fuzz, and the tone knob has the greatest impact on the overall sound of the pedal, going from a smooth bassy fuzz to a harsher, "buzzier" sound.

I'm giving this a 7 because even though the controls are fairly simple, it's going to take a lot of messing around with them and probably the controls on your amp to get the sound you're looking for out of it. The "manual" provides slightly less information about the pedals controls then the above paragraph.

First off, I've been reading the previous reviews and I have to say this - if you bought a big muff thinking it was going to be a super versatile distortion pedal, or worse yet, a "metal pedal", then you are an idiot and need to do a little more research before you buy things.

I didn't buy this pedal looking for my "favorite artist's tone". I bought it because I wanted to add some versatility to my sound. I design and build tube amps, and my usual setup is just Guitar-->Amp. I do play a little bit of "stoner rock" type stuff which is the reason I bought this pedal. For the blues and classic rock type stuff I usually play, this pedal doesn't really have a place.

To me, the Big Muff is a fuzz pedal, nothing more. You can get a couple pretty distinct different sounds out of it and tweak them a fair amount, but let's not kid ourselves, this pedal does one thing and it does it very well.

As I mentioned before, I usually run this pedal into amps of my own design, however it does sound pretty good into my '65 Gibson Hawk. That's another thing to consider. Just as the sound of this pedal is not for everyone, it sounds quite different through different amps. There's always a possibility that it just might not be compatible with your current setup. I mostly play a solid maple 1980 Gibson 335-S which is tuned down to C standard right now. The pedal really sounds good with humbuckers, and gets pretty much the exact sound I hear in my mind with this guitar. My other one is a heavily modified strat copy with GFS Boston Blues. I typically only liked that guitar playing clean but this pedal really brings it to life. Definitely a cool sound with this one too.

I would also like to add that I have not had a chance to A/B this with a Russian Big Muff yet.

Seems like a pretty sturdy pedal. It hasn't broken in the time I've had it, and I wouldn't mind gigging without a backup.

Never had to deal with EHX, hopefully never will.

I play everything from blues to classic rock to stoner rock. This pedal's good for the stoner rock, but I'm pretty much a straight into the amp guy for everything else.

If it were stolen I'd buy another. Nothing else really sounds like a Big Muff. I bought it knowing full well what the pedal can and can't do. I like it for what it does, and there's nothing else I really want from it. I do also like that it's true bypass.

I looked at a lot of other Muff clones and briefly considered one of the BYOC "Large Beaver" Muff clones, but I wasn't really after a vintage fuzz sound so I decided the USA Reissue was probably my best and most cost-effective option. If I wanted a good vintage style fuzz I'd be going for a germanium-based Fuzz Face clone.

It certainly helps "make music", you have to know how to use it though.

One other thing I'd like to add is lately I've been running an EHX LPB-1 in front of it. I can keep the "sustain" knob low for rhythm playing, and stepping on the LPB-1 (boost pedal, also highly reccomended) has pretty much the same effect as turning up the sustain knob for a bit of a solo boost. Makes this pedal a little more versatile for sure.

Overall, I highly reccomend this. However, it is not for everyone and my advice it make be 100% sure you know what this pedal sounds like, what it's capable of, and what it's not. If you want a more versatile "metal pedal" have a look at the Metal Muff.