Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi

Well, three knobs Volume Sustain Tone. Doesn't get much easier than that. They're all self explanatory and no problems with the controls!

Well, this pedal has been run through a Peavey Studio Pro 40, a Vox Pathfinder (into a 1x12 ext. cab with a Jensen C12N), a Peavey Chorus 2x12, a Fender "Evil" Twin reissue, a Univox U65Rn (1x12 18 watts), a Paramount PA100 (1x12, 35 watts) a Peavey Festival Series Head into a Peavey 1x15 bass cab (set up for guitar, though with an Eminece 151 Legend) a 70's Fender Bassman into an 70's Marshall cab, and for bass a SWR Workingman's 1x15 combo and a Crate 1X15 combo. It always gave the right amount of fuzz/sustain/feedback no matter if a Fender Jazz Bass, a Strat, SG, Les Paul or a crappy DeArmond knockoff were put in front of it! It did the task put in front of it with a warm fuzzy sound, even if it did muddy with the volume and (or) tone cranked.

I have to say that this pedal with it's substantial size and heft was not that reliable. The pots were replaced in 2000 and the pedal was bought BRAND NEW 1999! I, twice was forced to use my buddy's Danelectro FabTone which has been soaked in gallons of beer and cocktails and was never phased! Considering the Big Muff was primarily used for recording and used for less than 15 shows it's VERY disappointing that it finally died, and that it only took 6 years. The switch is broken and the ground wire needs to be completely replaced. I've had problems with it since 2001 and don't want to spend parts and labor fees on a $60.00 pedal. (The pots were replaced by a tech buddy of mine on the sly and everything else he's repaired for me is still working just fine!)

Never dealt with them and the warrnaty's long expired!

The Big Muff that I had was EXTREMELY wonky, which is sad because it did sound fantastic when it worked! It made tube amps roar with a visceral growl and warmed up the cold built solid state disrtotion of other amps. It sounded great I just wish it had lasted. The biggest complaint beyond durability was the input/output are on different sides than other pedals so a longer cable is necessary for them! I will probaly get another, but I will be more selective this time around! The old FabTones offered more control and my Boss pedals don't complain even when they geytleft out in the car and it gets to 45 below zero, but none of them (NONE OF THEM) sounded as good as the Bigg Muff!

3 knobs and an on/off switch so it's very easy to use, although it can take a bit of tweaking to get the sound you are looking for. Although the knobs are labeled sustain and tone, they both seem to control a mixture of the two. I also find that you have to adjust the volume control depending on what you are using for apmlification.

I play an Epiphone thunderbird bass, and have two Big Muffs on my pedalboard, as I have an Akai Unibass pedal which can create a guitar signal from my bass sound. One Big Muff is for the bass signal, which is placed after a Line6 FM4 and somtimes a Boss BF-3 flanger, and the second Big Muff is for the distortion on the guitar signal, and goes into a guitar amp. I have them both set at sustain almost full, and tone 3 o'clock. The distortion sound is what i was looking for, although it is very distinct meaning i am tempted to get a different type of distortion to use as well. My bass doesn't have amazing sustain, but the sustain in the Muff is awesome My only complaint is that it can make a lot of noise on it's own, so you have to get used to turning it on and off exactly when needed to avoid unwanted squeals.

The pedal itself is built like a tank and has never failed on me, although I always try to keep a spare battery just in case.

I play in a progressive rock band, and the Big Muff sound fits well, but as i mentioned before, it is a very specific sound so you may want to use other distortion pedals as well. If i ever lost it or it broke i would certainly replace it.

It is easiest-to-use piece of equipment in my rig!

Usually when using this pedal, it's the only thing between my 1979 SG and Music Man 212 amp. It's kind of noisy but I don't really care. It's got a great Billy Corgan tone and I just use it for whatever, it's pretty versatile.

It's built like a small metal box. I wouldn't gig with a backup because I'm too poor.

Never had to deal with them.

I play literally every style of music and this thing works great. If it were stolen, I would definetly buy it again. When I was in the market for a distortion pedal, I also considered a Boss DS-1. I didn't even try the muff before I bought it, it just had me with the coolness factor.

It's definately very easy to use. It only has 3 knobs and just fiddle around and you can the sound your after pretty easily.

The sound quality is alright although it soundas a bit hollow sort of if you know what i mean. I'm not sure if it's my guitar (a piece of poop squire strat) but i just cant seem to get that really full sound. When used with the overdrive channel on my amp (behringer ac112) i can get this although i would prefer not to have to use that. It definately has plenty of distortion.

I would hope with the size of this thing it is pretty durable. I havent really tested it's durability yet but it certainly looks durable.

For the price i paid it is definately a good buy. I bought to try and duplicate that awesome smashing pumpkins distortion but i'm still searching for it. But this pedal will suit probably all other styles of rock when used with a decent guitar and i would say it would help using it with a tube amp.

This pedal is really simple to use. I baught it after hearing it's sound on many muse songs , such as hysteria and fury. So im using it on a bass. Its really easy to use, Volume, Tone and Sustain. I use it on max sustain, minimal tone.

This thing sounds really good. With my settings as above, it sounds really phat, keeps a lot of bass, i used to use a Bluesbreaker 2 for my bass, and the bass tone would drop out. But this pedal does it all, really low bassy to really high trebbly. Like you could set it high and go for a mad solo, or keep it low and steady. However, as soon as you hit more than one note, like if your articulation is poor, you might not get on so well, because it seems to collapse. I havent really tried this beast on guitar, no need to i suppose. So it gets an 8, not a 10 mainly due to that more than one note thing.

It's very reliable. Battries dont last long tho. Its pretty strong, but not that good. The top layer of metal comes away from the black box, especialy when pulling the jack cables out, they are really stiff!!

Never had to speak to EHX. Hopefully never will

not sure about the above price, my gf baught me it for valenties day. Its a good match to what i baught it for. My other gear- Whine-O wah, and thats it. I would probably replace it if lost, and it certainly helps me make music.
overall a good buy

pretty simple. volume, eq (labled tone), and distortion (labled sustain). pretty easy to get the sound your looking for. just set the amount of distortion you want and play something while turning the tone knob till you get the right sound. sometimes tricky trying to get sounds with more note definition at higher distortion. just screw around with it and its not that hard.

ANALOG!!!! I LOVE ANALOG!!!!!
im pretty poor so i use a fender 25r as my amp and a cheap washburn i bought at half price but ive tried this out with other amps and guitars. however on all of them this thing has been very noisy. it does have an obscene amount of sustain though which is always good. the main factor in the sound is the tone knob. turned down its very thumpy and creamy and muffled. it gets very undefined and muddy at the low end. in the middle however it gets beutiful and crunchy. decent note definition and the sustain is good too. but for the real sustain freak turn the distortion and tone all the way up and this thing screams. the tone up makes this thing really hold notes. i dont really do crazy solos as much as i like to do a mix of rythym and lead. chunky rythym parts with little breaks in and out for short solo riffs. so i keep the tone around the middle. a gate control wouldve done wonders for this pedal but they are so popular as a classic pedal i dont see them including one any time soon. the noise problem would be solved and you could dial in the right thickness of tone as well. no gate and pretty noisy but still a nice crunchy sound.

the top seems pretty solid and is made of metal. the sides and bottom however are plastic. maybe its just me but i really prefer my pedals to be all metal and to be able to survive a several flights of stairs drop. i wouldnt gig without a backup.

never dealt with them but ive heard that ehx is helpful.

i play psychedelic, experimental, funk, synth, jazz, rock. its an interesting breed of music and my influences are frank zappa and the unicorns. those and the best band of all time HAMPTON GREASE BAND. remember that name. their album is out of print as its columbias second worst selling album of all time (that and all their songs are 20 minutes long so theyve NEVER been played on the radio once). so look on ebay for their cd "music to eat". believe me if you like zappa or improvisation this will become your favorite band. but anyway. overall this pedal is pretty nice. if your looking for sustain the best pedals are: big muff, fuzz factory, and swollen pickle (if you can find one or even afford it). so besides the lack of a gate knob this is decent and very reasonably priced. if it werent on sale and i didnt trade for it the price was 81 dollars. less than an mxr distortion plus and a lot better sounding. the mxr d plus is one of the beat up pedals i traded for this and this is much better. im addicted to psychedelic fuzz and this is on my list of the best distortions. (1. way huge swollen pickle, 2. zvex wooly mammoth, 3. zvex fuzz factory and fuzz probe, 4. big muff.)

PS. does anyone know how to get a really growly LFO sounding fuzz out of this? listen to the wooly mammoth sound clip at www.zvex.com and youll see what i mean

Three knobs. Volume, Tone and Sustain. I bought mine new and still I didn't get any manual. But as they say, it'd not needed.

I'VE READ ALOT OF WEIRD REVIEWS ABOUT THIS PEDAL. SAVE SOME TIME AND READ THIS ONE INSTEAD!!

Ok. Here's the deal. I know lot of people use this pedal as a drivepedal playing grunge music such as Mudhoney mostly because of their album Superfuzz Big Muff released in 1990 according to UBL. I remember it was 1989, nevermind.
And I also know some people may play stonerrock using this pedal as a drivepedal too, for getting that Kyuss sound.
Sure, it works. Fine with me. But this is NOT where this pedal has its sweetspots!
For you SERIOUS MUSICIANS out there, this pedal should be used for playing guitarsolos or melodies.
When playing one tone above 12th fret with neck pickup you get this amazing round sound that doesn't sound distorted with amazing sustain. Play 2 tones at the same time and the tone will get heavily fuzzy and the sustain will drop off immediatelly.
This reaction can be both for good and bad, but it's a fact that you have to deal with.

Personally I think the Big Muff PI sounds best believe it or not through the FX loop because it cuts off some fuzz and by that increases that amazing sustain.

Speaking about what happens when you adjust the knobs I'll start with the tone knob.
Turning the Tone knob to about 8 o'clock and the sound will be very bassy. Turning the knob clockwise and the pedal will sound more treble (and the sweep is totally crazy, everything from deep dark to rediculous sqeeky treble). But turning the knob all the way to left the sound will totally flip, adding some treble to that bassy sound. Sounds like having the tone knob at 10 o'clock but cutting off all mid tones.
I haven't had any use for this specific sound yet but I'm sure I will some day.
I usually have the tone knob between 12 o'clock to 2 o'clock. All other tone settings sounds usually too bassy or too treblish.

The sustain knob controls the amount effect really. First I thought it just added more fuzz, but after getting to know the pedal better I realized that it actually add sustain just as the knob says. Sustain and fuzz actually goes hand in hand, but I understand now why Electro-Harmonix chose to name the knob "sustain" instead of "fuzz".

The more sustain you use, the more difficult it will be to play cause every little unwanted sound will be heard. Like pick noise, when hitting the string will cut through.

I usually have the sustain knob between 11 o'clock and 2 o'clock. Here the pedal still gives a huge amount of sustain without having to deal with unwanted pick noise. I only use a higher sustain setting when legato* playing. (*long tones without pausing)

If a somewhat Jimy Hendrix sound is wanted, this pedal can do it but there other pedals out there that WILL do it BETTER. Check out Fulltone's pedals.
Anyway, for these old school fuzz sounds a.k.a. Jimy Hendrix cut off all sustain or almost all, and boost some tone and you have a '60s fuzztone that works enough to me. I'm not that into that old school fuzz sound that much.

Summing up the Big Muff PIs' "sound quality" it's a good pedal but I wouldn't like it as much if I didn't have the ability to play it through the FX loop. But I bet it's a matter of taste.

This is funny, reading the other reviews. Some say "It's built like a tank" while others seem to consider it more to be solid as a cardhouse.
The truth is that this pedal is NOT built like a tank but it is solid enough. Solid like a tank is Fulltone or MXR.
It might feel like a week built pedal because of its' enormous size which makes the pedal light weight because it still has only one circuit card like any other distortion or fuzz pedal.
What I find quite disturbing is that under the pedal a battery hatch is located that is attached with a screw. This requires a screwdriver when replacing battery and with the hatch open you are literally inside the pedal. You wouldn't want to drop the battery inside the pedal.
But hey. This IS the coolest pedal out there!
It's built out of one chrome plate and one black plate screwed together. The top chrome plate is painted with black and red color (that will come off sooner than later) saying Big Muff (and a pi sign) which stands for Big Muff pie, muff as in the female genitals and muffpie as in pubic hairs. In other words, a big seventees bush! =)

I read someones review about the Big Muff causing strange feedback during liveplay. Might be true, I still haven't used this pedal live, but I guess cutting some sustain and problem solved.

Reliability sum-up.
This pedal is well built, and yes the knobs are made out of platic but they doesn't feel cheap by any means, and I'm really a person disliking cheap knobs and buttons.
This pedal has yet never let me down in any way. A battery lasts longer than other pedals in my possesion.
This pedal has TRUE BYPASS. Don't belive anything else.
I'll give the reliability rating a 9, saving the 10 for Fulltone pedals and the Orange channelswitch. =D

Have never dealt with Electro-Harmonix.

I'm going to use this space make set straight any doubts about whether this Big Muff or the Russian Big Muff is the real thing.
This Big Muff is the bigger chrome one from USA. This is the original.
The russian version is smaller and dark green, almost black.
DO NOT BUY THE RUSSIAN BIG MUFF!!
Why? The best reason. The russian Big Muff can ONLY be powered with battery! You can not use a battery eliminator!
The other obvious reason is that it simply doesn't sound as good.

If using this pedal right it can be used in almost any kind of music.
If stolen or lost I would not buy the Big Muff again right now. I don't have any use for it at the moment. But I guess I would eventually.
What I love about this pedal is it's cool looks and it's even cooler name. I love playing in neck position on my Gibson LP over the 12th fret to achieve the most of its round sound.
I don't like the battery hatchet. If it had tendency of falling off or being difficult to attach I would hate it, but it's not.
I just don't like the screw and that the battery doesn't have its' own little room.

I give the overall rating 9, because I think some people would really dislike the size of this pedal. When having a pedalboard, this beast takes alot of space.
I also personally would like this pedal to be somewhat less fuzzy, but it's my opinion. It's matter of taste.

Pretty idiot proof...3 knobs..volume, sustain, tone...if you can't set it, maybe you should look into percussion. Didn't come with a manual...got it on e-bay. Pretty easy to get usable sounds out of, tweaking are variations on the overall Big Muff theme...fuzzy sustained distortion ala Mudhoney. However, I have the black russian model...and I absolutely HATE the reversed input/output jacks, it's a pain in my pedal board, also am not thrilled about the lack of an AC jack. Two points dinged for these.

It's very quiet when not engaged, very distorted when turned on...like it should be. Not the distortion for everyone by anymeans, it's like a blend of fuzz/distortion, but it's exactly what I wanted for replicating that mark arm/screamingtrees/mudhoney/early nirvana/grungy wall of fuzz. The knobs give you variations of this sound in lesser/greater degrees.

Seems a little flimsy..the metal seems thin and the plastic input jacks are kinda chintzy, but, I'm pretty careful with my stuff, so i don't sweat it. I'm po'..I always gig without backups, except extry batteries and strings.

Haven't dealt with EHX, but have heard very mixed reviews about their service...but, I have started judging companies by the level of service available on their website..for that EHX gets kinda low ratings..no online registration (huh?!? I thought that was an industry standard these days), no online manuals (again with the huh?!?)..so from a service stadpoint, they seem pretty average.

I like it a lot...it's grittier than my OD (Dano daddy-o), but it's not a real squealy full out metal dirtbox either. it fills the gap nicely.

This pedal is simple to use and most of the controls are self-explanatory.

I have the older Russian Big Muff (army green color). It's great for practices and recording, when you control the variables of your situation better. You can get anything from a thick, heavy rhythm guitar tone to that Billy Corgan lead tone, just by moving one knob. However...this pedal is way too tempermental to use for live shows. For 3 years, I used it when playing live and, much to my and the sound engineers' dismay, the Big Muff would cause all sorts of feedback. I used to think that it was my amp or guitars, until I played a show where a sound engineer who was originally from Chicago controlled the sound. He had controlled the sound for several of the Smashing Pumpkins' local shows before they had become so famous, and said that the E-H Big Muff is known to cause hard-to-control feedback when playing live. If you're really into experimenting with feedback, then by all means, use this pedal live. I found a distorted tone I liked better by just using the 2 built-in overdrive channels on my Marshall VS-100 amp. My set-up (when using a Big Muff live) was: Fender Jag-Stang, Squire Jagmaster (older Japanese version), or Danelectro Hearsay through a E-H Big Muff, E-H Small Stone, Boss BF-1 Flanger, Danelectro compressor, and a graphic equalizer ran into a Marshall VS-1 amp.

Reliable in all areas except tone (see above) when playing a gig.

Never used it.

I've had the E-H Big Muff for about 9 years, and I've been playing that long, too. If it got lost, I'd buy a vintage one (70s model maybe), but definitely not a reissue, because I've been reading about a lot of problems the reissues have. I don't really use the Big Muff too much anymore, but I'm still glad that I have it.

Easy. Three knobs. I didn't get a book, but you don't need one. Mine came in a wooden box. Sustain knob controls how much distortion you want. Tone and Volume are self explanatory. There is no input for an AC adaptor but I use a Godlyke power supply set, and it comes with a piece that plugs up to the 9V battery connector, that then plugs into an AC adaptor daisy chain.
My pedalboard has the Big Muff after a Dunlop Crybaby Wah and a Boss DS-1 distortion. Behind the Big Muff is a Boss BF-2 Flanger, a Dunlop Rotovibe, and a Boss RRV-10 half rack reverb. All plugged into 20 watt MEGA amp which I use for recording on my PC.

The sound is superb. The sustain can go from no distortion at all, to thick and warm fuzzy distortion. The Boss DS-1 has no fuzz and no sustain. That is why I got the Big Muff. The big muff has long sustain and good fuzz. It is not a fuzz pedal but it has a fuzz-like quality which is good. The Big Muff sounds similar to a ProCo Rat 2 distortion (both have good tonal ranges and sustain) but the ProCo Rat 2 doesn't have as much fuzz quality.

I don't do gigs but I don't think I would need a backup if I did. It is big and sturdy.

haven't had to mess with em

The style of music that I play is that ol-school R&B sound that has guitar solos in it. AKA (Isley Brother's Ernie Isley...The Gap Band, Prince). I also like some of Jimi Hendrix's stuff.