Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi USA Reissue

The pedal is pretty easy to use. Plug it in, mess with the knobs a bit. You're done. It isn't exactly the most versatile effect!

Big muff really sounds best with another pedal driving it, or into a dirty amp. Some people will use it for sustain into a clean fender or something, but that isn't really my taste with the pedal.

You will get feedback, so don't quit playing (unless you like that sort of thing).

I'm using a strat and an AC30, but I have used this pedal with Pauls, fender amps, and marshalls. It sounds different in every setup, but still interesting.

Electro Harmonix makes budget pedals. Basically, these things could die at any time -- but that's the way it was in the '60's, man.

I have the "little" version, which seems like it is made in a better case so perhaps it won't die on me.

The big muff is a weird beast.

Its application really depends on what guitar and amp you are using. On lower settings, it can act almost as an OD kind of thing with a ton of low end. On higher settings you can achieve that "singing" Santana sustain (they continue to claim Hendrix used it, but since it wasn't even out until after his landmark albums, I don't really understand that claim).

The reviewer that said he couldn't get Mudhoney tones out of the thing must be doing something wrong, because this pedal is featured on pretty much every Mudhoney song.

In all, it is a pedal that everyone should have in their collection. It is a classic effect that works for beginners and pros alike. You never know when you might need a big muff!

It basically has a very small tonal range, and I wouldn't call it amazing, but it is very useful, especially for sustain.

It's easy. Three knobs and a switch. The manual doesn't say much, but there's not much to be said anyway, hit the switch, twist the knobs, rock your socks of.

I'm using this with a Hughes & Kettner edition 1, and a Fender 60's reissue Tele and an Epiphone LP Standard.
I mainly use the pedal together with the LP. The sustain of both the pedal and the guitar plays well together, and with the sustain knob set to eleven it really roars. I use the LP mainly for my trippy adventures in noise land, and this pedal together with my MI blues boy pedal really violates my eardrums in every sense of the word. It turns the guitar into a wooden chainsaw. With the Telecaster I usually turn the sustain down a bit, and it's perfect for playing White stripes (dead leaves and the dirty ground, bone broke, etc)
The range of the pedal is great, turning the tone knob really makes all the difference, and combining it with other distortion pedals usually results in insane sounds, some more useful than others.

It's huge and heavy. I could probably use it as a stage if i wanted to:)

No idea, never contacted them

It's a great pedal if you like noisy, high-gain sounds. It's awesome for rock, but if you are in a metalcore band or a session musician for Kelly Clarkson, this is probably not the pedal for you.

Straight forward, two inputs, 3 knobs for volume, tone and gain. Would of been nice to have come with a power supply, buttery is teh sucks.

I'm running currently running through a early 80's 57 reissue japanese strat through original blues deluxe. I have a couple of other pedals such as a Holy Grail Reverb and Delay going through the effects loop and there is a tuner before the Big Muff. As most fuzz pedals the Big Muff is very rauncy & bassy, but you can get a subtle fuzz with it with an adjustment of the tone and sustain knobs. I also have a JH Fuzz Face and I much prefer this as it's more versatile. I've got a rather small pedal board so I wanted a fuzz or drive that can cover range of tones this was easily the best and most affordable choice I could of made. This gets quite a bit more fuzz then the JH Fuzz Face in my opinion, it can get a bit noisy with single coils but you could tidy that up with a noise supressor.

I bought this brand new so no problems. I've had a couple of electro harmonix pedals and I've never had a problem.

Never dealt with them, as most massive export guitar companys . I could only imagine they wouldn't be pleasent to deal with.

I play a lot of physcedelic rock that revolves around the 60's period and bands that draw their influence from there such as The Warlocks, The Small Faces, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Jimmy Hendrix, Cream etc and this is great for those. If this got stolen...I'd probably try other fuzzes as I'm a gear freak and buy pedals for no good reason, but I reakon I'd rather go to a little big muff...They don't call them a Big Muff for nothing ! The Big Muff is definately one of the best fuzzez out there bar none

I'm writing this review to tell all those that are *****ing about this pedal: you're doing it wrong! LOL, if you wanted to play death metal, this was not the pedal to buy. I got this used with no manual, but it's real easy to use. Put the volume where you want it, tone almost dimed, & the "sustain" (distortion) between 9 oclock and 12 oclock. I got real good sounds & harmonics with these settings. It's a fuzz box! It's supposed to sound fuzzy. I don't know much about editing patches or firmware, but I think was a good reproduction of the original.

Played it through a small fender tube amp & then an old yamaha twin (both 70's vintage), it sounded great, & a very big sound outta the twin. It's pretty noisy with the sustain all the way up, that's why I keep it between 9-12 oclock. If it sounds weak/crappy, check your battery. Love the harmoics outta this thing. I usually use a Boss DS-1. You could dail in a Steve Turner (Mudhoney) sound with this, if you had a Mustang & Fender tube amp. I will admit that there are some settings where this thing sounds real bad, but if you kep the settings where I have described previously, I think you'll be happy with it.

Not built as well as a Boss, but as long as you take care of it, it will last. I'd gig with it if I was gigging right now.

n/a bought it used.

Been playing 20 years, punk, rock, metal, garage, surf, rockabilly, country, etc., own(ed) lots of stuff, used to have a whole box o' pedals, now trying to get 'em all back, I'd def replace if it got stolen, maybe buy an orig, love the sound, hate the footpads on it, but that can be changed, I like the fact that they kept the reissue like the original. I like trying out lots of different stuff. Great or Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, or garage rock. A nice change from a Marshall or Boss DS-1...

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.