Electro-Harmonix Big Muff USA Reissue

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).

It's been said, but the 3 knobs are indeed enormous and easy to use in the physical sense. I like the labelling for the input/output too as I always forget which one's which!

The only complaint is its size. It's fucking enormous. And the box is bigger. I also use a Danelectrico 'Daddy O' Overdrive pedal which is bigger than most pedals (Boss etc) but the Muff dwarfs it. It can just be a hassle when trying to shove it in a bag with other stuff.

First, I should highlight that I'm playing an Ibanez 1976 ES335 through a borrowed old Carlsbad 100W transistor amp. The Muff sounds great as a complement to my Daddy O. I don't adjust the Muff settings much. It's on half Tone and full Sustain (and high volume). The Sustain is sick, even with my hollow body which can tend to muffle out sustain fairly quickly and jolt itself into excessive feedback. Way better than a Boss Distortion, which for me is too hollow. We're a 'stoner' two piece so the Muff gives the bottom end we need (no bass). I find it best above the 7th fret. It picks up the higher picking on the A-D-G strings really nicely. I'll be honest and say we're trying to get a Kyuss-esque sound and we're kinda there.

Very reliable. It's never kicked out while 'on' which is pretty nice, given it's rarely 'off'. Most of our stuff comes out of the Muff.

I've never dealt with the company. I'm in Australia so will probably never deal direct anyway. Fingers crossed.

The Muff suits my style. The hardest thing was the price. It was $240 Australian, compared to (for example) Boss Distortion at $180ish and Danelectrico at $160ish. I compared it to a Boss Distortion/Metal Zone and Danelectrico 'Fab Tone' which for me were too hollow and metal-like for the bottom end sound I wanted. I was initially amping for a Fab Tone as my Daddy O has been a great pedal.

I was inspired to get the Muff manly from digging Billy Corgan's sound on Siamese Dream (e.g. Cherub Rock). I also dig Kyuss and Tool.

Not hard to set this up. plug it in and it works. Try it in front of your amp , in the loop try to fing a good sound. When you get frustrated with the sound just put it back in the box.

I used this with a 2004 Am Del Strat stock with SCN pups, 2001 Am Nashille Telecaster, 1990 Les Paul Standard stock. Into a Traynor YCV20WR and a Peavey Classic 50. I have been playing since 1976 , I'm 35 years old.
First off this "Big Muff" is REALLY noisey. I know Fuzz pedals are generaly noisey due to the high gain structure of the design but this is WAY to noisey. In addition to this being the loudest pedal I have ever used noise wise, It is also near impossible to get a single useable sound. It sucks all the guitars tone and dynamics at low settings (also introducing massive noise and hum) At high settings I suppose you could almost find a chunky distorted punchy chord like sound. I still have not figured out why EH calls this a sustain pedal. With all the highs it sucks out of your sound there is less sustain than just cranking up a tube amp.
My BOSS Compression/Sustainer CS-3 blows this thing away. I used to think the BOSS pedal was noisey, that's why I wasted almost 80 bucks on this hunk of crap. On top of it all this pedal is HUGE for absolutly no reason at all. If you peak inside you can see this pedal could be 1/2 or even 1/3 the size and everything would fit inside no problem. Due to it's silly size it gobbles up space on your pedalboard for no good reason what so ever. The solder joints inside look like they been made by a 5 year old learnig how to solder, a real mess. To be honest I would say It's a shame that a gimmick pedal like this says "Made in USA" or NYC or where ever the crack head works that assembled it. But hey ....give it a cool name like "Big Muff" and idiots (myself included) are sure to buy it. I will never buy anything made by EH again.

Don't know because I wrestled with this sorry excuse for pedal for only about 30 min before I decided I'd been Had. I'm either going to throw it away or sell it real cheap on Ebay. However it is somewhat flimsy and the box creaks and makes noise when you operate the switch. As I mention the solder joints inside look horrible and I would bet everything I own that someone is probably going to have trouble with this cheesey pedal but it sure as heck won't be me.

Not worth bothering to even contact them to thell them they make junk, I'm sure they must know. Joke is on me.

I play anything from 50's to modern day Jazz, blues, Country and Classic rock. This pedal is not suitable for use with a guitar, period. I don't care what kind of music you want to play this pedal will take you two steps in the wrong direction and you'll be out about 80 bucks. Only suitable use would be a paper wieght if it wasn't so big that it would take over your entire desk. Man did I get screwed.

Very easy to use. I've been using these things for years. I've owned them all. The original, greeny and the USA reissue even several clones.

Sounds great, just like the original. Like the other guy I wish it was smaller. It does take up too much space on my pedal board. And I wish it had more control. I had a Baja Tech Custom Da MOAF. That thing rocked but it got stolen with all my gear a couple of months ago and I don't have the cash to replace it.

Great. Made real well. Don't get the black reissue. I tried one and I fell appart. The greenies are made real well too.

I called them once to see if mine had true bypass and it didn't. But they seemed real cool.

Real good. There are some smaller clones out there like the BTC Da MOAF and the Zero that really rock and are a bit more versital but for the price it packs allot of tone.

3 knobs, but there is a wide range of sounds.

I love big muffs, I have a 70's one and this one. I think that the 70's one sounds a bit better, it is less transistorized sounding and warmer than the new one, it also has a bit less gain. But I play classic rock, funk, blues and jazz, so the newer muff with a harder edge may be better for different kinds of music like metal. I bought this pedal to get some Gilmour, Hendrix and Zeppelin sounds, along with my own music. People keep complaining about it being overwhelming and clipping too much when used with amp distortion. Muffs were never intended to be used with amp distortion, in my opinion. BUT, it does sound great when I use it with a tube driver overdrive INFRONT of it, and then the muff to a tube amp. You can also use a graphic eq to shape the distortion even more. I think that this pedal sounds good with single coils (especially p-90's)and with humbuckers. What is funny is that the big muff's creator, mike matthews of E.H designed it's circuit so that it is the same circuit as a VOX TONE BENDER with an added gain stage, so that it sounds like one of steroids.

the paint chips easy, but so what, if there are still so many e.h pedals from 30 years ago, I think that this one will last for quite a while, besides that, I never stomp on my pedals any way.

never dealt with them

for not much money, you can get alot of cool fuzz sounds that are supposedly true bypassed (I use a true bypassed 3-way looper anyway). If you like fuzz, then you should at least try a big muff, but try it through a good tube amp.

Not complex. One thing i will say though, this unit takes up alot of space on a pedal board, you could easily fit two boss/dod pedals or even three guyatone pedals in the same space so in order to use this thing instead, you might have to make a sacrifice!

Not a particulary bad sound, but again not really a quality 'pedal' either.
I don't know if everyone has the same problem with this pedal but it dosn't really work with the drive channel on your amp. Instead it sort of cuts in and out of your driven sound as someone said below it creates a 'clipping' phenomenon!
With your clean channel it works great but again has only 'one' sound,and although that 'one' sound can sound great especially as a nice deep bass fuzz i prefer the distortion channel on my mesa boogie rectoverb 50, and since its impossible to use both at the same time -it dosn't prove a very 'useful' tool at all. So in all- fantastic if you only plan using it very little.
Its my first fuzz pedal but i already know it pales in comaprison to others out there but i found that a compressor (as always) cocentartes the sound a bit better.To me it sounds very harsh with humbuckers sigle coils work better. I have mixed feelings about it. It has a 'big' sound at times when you need exatly that ( the kind of big tube sound that is impossible to get with a boss ds-1), I JUST WISH IT WOULD WORK WITH MY DRIVE CHANNEL .

A year one and no problems .

I give this pedal a 7. The usa re-issue big muff has a 'big' sound think placebo 'pure morning' and the thing i like about it is that its a very controlable big sound the type that people just stand up and notice ,just don't turn the voume up to high. Compatability with a drive channel though is a no-no, surely someone should have noticed this in prodution ? If on the other hand there are users out there who manage to get this to work that way .Let me know how!

hi, this response is for the German dude below,
big muff is a very loud pedal, if you set the volume on max it's crazy loud! so I think you have a problem with your unit. I usually set mine to 10 o'clock, it's like 4/10
and if you want Kurt Cobain sounds polychorus is a complicated thing, try EHX small clone instead.

I'm from Germany, so please excuse me for my bad english :) I think, that the big muff is pretty simple to use but it's also not very versaitle...

I play a (Mexican) Fender Strat with a Seymore Duncan JB in the Bridge. My effects are a Boss DS 2 (my favourite), the Big Muff and a Electro-Harmonix Polychorus. I have a Marshall AVT 100 Combo (I have been 15 as I bought it, no idea of good sound :)) I wouldn't buy an EHX-pedal again. The Big Muff and the Polychorus don't sound like I thought. I just bought what Kurt Cobain used!! One of my biggest faults. But in fact the Big Muff scares me a bit... I think you can get a creamy sound from it but when I play clean and then i switch on the big muff, it's like the volume goes down a bit! And the volume of the b.m. is setted full.
The sounds sucks playing accords

Nothing to bother, already played a gig (just one song of 8 with the big muff). Seems to be easy damageable

Nothing to do with

Generaly I play for over 7 years and the style i play is Rock, Grunge and other things... If I lost the Big Muff, i wouldn't buy it again!! I dont know whats wrong with my pedal (less loud as normal sound)!! I really baby my whole equipment.

who cares any pedals easy to use unless your retarded

this is the worst pedal ive ever used. the sustain doesnt sustain and there is only ONE TONE and its fucking BAAAADDD its shit it makes my balls bleed

wo FCUKING CARES if its biult like a fucking nuclear bomb, your not going to fucking shoot it or play in the fucking sea with it...so wtf is the point of that WTFFF

never bothered

let me just say...its based on an old pedal which the likes of hendrix used....or whoever i dont really care....it is shit one tone one sound and that sound is fucking poor ....boss mt-2 superb loads of tones oh shit...its got more than 1 fucking nob jesus thats difficult to use ? WTF sustains superb and its fucking loud. muff is as good as a drowning dog in a spoonful of milk ...fs

very easy to use

i play stratocasters mostly. i've used this with two amps; a Marshall JCM 800 2204 and a Marshall JCM 800 2210.

it sounded pretty good through the JCM 800 2210. i run the big muff through the effects loop. no complaints what so ever.
i started using a JCM 800 2204 as my main amp now though. this has no effects loop. for me using the big muff from my guitar straight into the input of ether of the JCM 800s sounds really bad.
the sound of the distortion is WHY to clipped, way too cheap sounding. might be good for metal?

for me- the way i play- the type of music i play the big muff through the input of a marshal jcm 800 sounds like crap. my big muff is now living in a box.
im sure that for other stuff the muff is killer. but after i switched amps it is useless.

i would gig without a backup.
like i said i used to use it when i was using my jcm 800 2210 as my main amp. used it for a few years. never had the slightest problem with its reliability.

never had to use any support

for me- the stuff i play- with the gear i play with, the pedal is no good anymore.