Electro-Harmonix Big Muff USA Reissue

Three controls, easy to use but needs time to nail the exact sound you want

I have the current USA re-issue model Muff, and stock standard I was disappointed with the sound (probably more suited to modern grunge/metal more so than the classic 70's sound I was chasing - and for which it is marketed!). $5 worth of electrical bits and peices, and a local electrical tech fixed that for me by rewiring it close to early 70's model specs - and now has an awesome sound. EH should be ashamed to be marketing this is a true re-issue, cause as a stock version it had a completly different sound to when rewired to original specs - luckily the the curcuit board hasn't radically changed over the years so allows for relatively easy modding.

Can see now why people rave about this pedal, nice smooth singing sustained distortion/fuzz - very musical and responsive. Very useful for David Gilmour and Rory Gallagher type lead sounds, but very adaptable to just about anything (in a word "BIG")

Rig:
Strat or Tele through -
Modded Dunlop Wah
Modded Big Muff
Original Marshall Guv'nor Pedal
Carl Martin Red Repeat
BBE Soul Vibe
BBE Boosta Grande
circa 1971 Marshall Super Lead

Haven't had it for long, and nearly destroyed it doing home mod before sending it to a local tech. Very simple and straight forward stomp box which seems roadworthy enough. Easy to repair and mod if necessary.

Haven't dealt with EH, and given the mods I had done on it would say any warranty would be stuffed!

Classic late 60's and 70's blues/rock. Hendrix, Floyd, SRV etc.

With some cheap easy mods this pedal is exactly what my sound has been missing.

BEWARE: Stock standard I don't think the USA re-issue realy lives up to the hype and expectations when the advertising mentions names like Santana and Gilmour and terms like 70's sound. But with some cheap and easy modifications it can live up to its former glories.

This product is fool proof. Nothing complicated here folks. I'm sure others have gone into detail, so I'll give you a basic rundown. 3 knobs. One volume, One tone, and one sustain. Since I bought it on ebay, it came in its original box, but no manual, which I didn't end up needing anyways. The volume knob controls, well the volume. The tone makes it more bassier if you turn anti-clockwise, and more sharp/treblely when you turn it clock wise. Lastly, the sustain knob controls just that - sustain/distortion.

This pedal has a very unique sound, I'd say the distortion sounds that became famous in the 70's. Although Jimmy page didn'y always use pedals for distortion you can defenitely get some led zep tones with this pedal. Keep in mind that this pedal has cut back mids no matter what, so you might like that or you might not, but it sure sets it apart. Many famous guitarists have used this pedal such as John Frusciante of the Red hot chili's and David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, which kind of tells you something. If you want to hear what the pedal sounds like for solos, listen to the solo in the RHCP song "I could have lied". The band Bush (sorry I dont know the guitarist's name) uses this a lot, and a perfect example of how it sounds when you turn the sustain knob down and use it as a fuzz can be heard on their song "Swallowed". At the beginning of the song he is playing chords softly so it provides a light distortion/fuzz. Then when the chorus comes around he strums harder so it provides more distortion. To me it sounds great (it didn't always fit my style though, but read on). Also the song Glycerine is a great example.

Well I bought one that had been used for a few years since It was 1/2 the store price if I were to buy it new. I dont regret it at all, this thing is a trooper. Although I haven't gigged with it, I sure as hell have had quite a few intense jam sessions in which ive practically jumped on it and it still works. I've had it for about 7 months now.

I haven't had to deal with the company, which is a good thing since I've had no problems what so ever with the product.

I didn't always like this pedal, I'll admit. When I first got it I was actually estatic and thanked god that I finally didn't have to press the damn channel button on my combo amp to play a solo. After a while though I wanted to get some metallica tones, which is what I was covering at the time, and this pedal wasn't the best for that master of puppets saturated distortion. Eventually the pedal died and I didn't bother to replace it. I ended up lending to my friend and kind of forgot about it. A few days ago however, I finally bought a tube amp (Epiphone valve junior head+speaker), and I decided to give it another try. WOW! huge difference between tube amp and solid state amp. The sound is fuller (which I know is because of the amp) and it is a lot more touch responsive. I realize that I was dumb to ever stop using the pedal. If you mix this pedal with an overdrive pedal such as the Boss BD-2 (blues driver) you can get some ridiculously rich tones.
At the moment my gear is just a Highway one strat w/ MIM pickups (hope to uograde soon), then Big Muff->Vox Wah->Epi valve junior, and it sounds sweet.

Very easy. Only three knobs.

I would say this is down to what you expect.

It's not a do it all sound. It's great at what a fuzz pedal does. Filthy, big sound etc... No subtle type thing works with this.
The sustain is huge. I set mine to vol full/tone 3/4 up and sustain 1/4 up. It is a quite pedal i found, the vol has to be on full for me. I have an Aramat Fuzz and the two are worlds apart. The Ararmat is the best ever. The muff is good but not amazing.


I personally think it works best with single coils. Otherwise it is a little too dark. A great rock n roll tone. But as i say not for everyone.

Very good.

The pedal is a little cheap in feel.

Good pedal. Great for the right band/music.
no for evryone. Make sure you can find a use for it. I don't really use mine much. Great for trashy rock n roll.

It??s very easy to use, I never read the manuals unless it??s necessary. Not the case with this one. Three knobs, that??s it.

Very Good pedal. I have been looking for a sound like this one for ages. I have been playing for almost 15 years as an amateur, befor I had the MT-2 metal zone, and the tube works distorsion. My setting: Fender Strat Deluxe, cry baby wah, Big Muff, Boss Chorus, Digitech reverb and Fender Pro Junior tube amp. I was looking for a distortion pedal since long time, and I resisted to buy the big muff until now because I didn?? want to go for a cheap, solid state option. I bought it together with the EH Hot Tubes, and I compared this one with it and with the MT-2 and Tube Works. Well, finally I have to admit I was wrong, sometimes the most expensive option is not the best one. Those pedals would be great for 70??s classic rock, and if you are willing to twaek a lot, but the tube ones lack range of frquencies and get muddy on the low end. The MT-2 is simply not as well thought as the EH big Muff. Now it is my main pedal, and I think it will stay like that.

Sure, metallic case, big and light. I have impression I could throw it against the wall and spit hard alcohol on it, and would still work fine.

Never dealt with them.

I play all kinds of music, but I have to admit I play a lot alternative rock. This pedal has the tone of Nirvana, Muse, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, and stuff like those. Despite of this kind of tone, it is also appropiate to play just classic rock, but I guess if you are going to play only that, there can be even better options. I sounds really good with my strat: no noise at all (noiseless pickups), big sustain, sweet but powerful sound, really good for rithm and even better for solos. I think I will use it together the tube works on mid gain, so I can have a very gainy drive and also a simple classic rock sound with the Tube works. In case of stolen: If anybody dares to get near my big muff, I kick his ass.

Ease of use? Its a piece of cake. Volume, Tone, Sustain.

Actually i don't know why i ever bought this pedal. I have no idea what my ideals have been, since i bought it. But anyways: Almost every amp, and guitar i tried this with it had the same sound. And thats both good and bad. Good because the sound, when i tweaked it, was evil, heavy, doom-like fuzz, with lots of sustain and incredible amounts of depth. Bad, because this was basicly what it could do.
You could always turn the "Tone"-knob a bit, but either there would be too much treble or too much bass.

The reliability of this pedal is outstanding. Built like a tank!

3 knobs....if you can't figure out what to do with these, then you're an idiot.

I'm writing this review due to what I've read in here so far. First of all, to the people who are giving this pedal bad reviews....KNOW WHAT YOU'RE BUYING!!!! Holy crap, this thing is a vintage fuzz box for Pumpkins/Floyd/Santana/etc tones, not some kind of all purpose distortion or overdrive. This pedal is supposed to do a few things and that's all. It gives you a very smooth violin-like sound for leads, gives you a huge booming FUZZY NOT DISTORTED wall of sound for riffs and rhythm playing, and finally it gives you a very nice bluesy type of lower gain lead sound. Seriously, if you bought this thing because you wanted a versatile DISTORTION or OVERDRIVE for intricate chording and clarity, then you obviously didn't do your research. The muff was designed for one sound....and if you like that one sound, the muff is the only pedal that can produce that thick and crazy madness. Seriously, buy this for alternative riffing or general lead work. Don't give this thing a bad review because you don't like the Big Muff sound in general and didn't know what you were getting into. As far as muffs go, the USA reissue is pretty solid. There's better out there for more cash, but you can't go wrong with this in terms of acquiring a legit muff.

Tb'd, but the enclosure is way too big and the whole thing could be redesigned to be much more practical....in fact EHX did just that, see the new Little Big Muff.

Never dealt with them.

......It's a fuzz, not a distortion or overdrive. If you want a very saturated and thick FUZZ, then this is the place to look. EHX has done a nice job of creating a decent modern take on the old muffs, you can't beat it for the price.

took it out of the box and plugged it in...tone was fucking awesome outta the box so never tweaked it

i play through a sunn model t, 69hiwatt cab and a guild s100, this thing is awesome... noisy when volume is dialed high, but i reduce that with a boss noise suppressor, which also cures some of the palm muting problems mentioned earlier. i pretty much set my preamp so it is on the verge of breaking up so when i stomp on the big muff it sends the amp into a sorta overdrive...cool effect

built like a tank, the russian ones were actually made from tank parts i think

n/a

play post hardcore to droney progressive style shit, this thing works for the heavy parts, plus the clean of the sunn is unbeatable....its not a fancy setup, but its easy and it sounds great, warmth throughout the tone, and i get compliments after we play gigs all the time, wouldnt sell it, would like to coompare it to other models, and am currently searching ebay for a vintage lil' big muff fuzzbox... also, for this setup i have payed less than 1500.00 US, including guitar...

it is very easy to use as it has 3 knobs to tweak your sound.
but very hard to find more than one useable sound out of it!

bypass is ok, not much noise

if you want a santana type sound its also alright but for anything else In my opinion it is useless.
When used for a rhythm fuzz sound it is much too fuzzy and over the top no matter how you tweak it and the chord doesnt really come through the fuzz. (yes i do know what a fuzz box is meant to sound like but this one is horrible)

with the tone control all the way up it sounds truly awful much to trebly and scratchy.
sounds awful before most solid state amps and slightly better through a tube amp.

the battery lasts quite long and never had any major trouble with it.
However it is too big and could be smaller and the sides made out of metal like the top.

a few months back it was playing up a bit, not switcihng on etc but it sorted itself out after a while

i would not use it at a gig without a backup. well actually i wouldnt use this pedal at a gig if i could help it

DO NOT BUY THIS PEDAL

when i first got it, it was my first pedal ((about 5 years ago) and i had no idea what a good sound was then. Now i can see what a mistake and waste of money this pedal was. I have used it at least 20 odd times at gigs and pubs etc but soon stopped using it. At loud volumes i couldnt be heard as it sounded like a carpet had been put over the amp.(and this is with the sustain turned quite low).

i now use either a nobels od 1 or my guitar teachers tubescreamer (original 70s) at the pub and am hoping to get a monte allums Blues driver mod soon, please dont buy this pedal. save your money do not buy this pedal.

Easy to use...There is only one sound

This pedal is not that great...I recommend trying one before you purchase...There is only one sound...You cannot control the distortion level...And it is extremely noisy....I play through a mxr dynacomp which is a little noisy but the sound that it produces is worth the noise...However, the big muff just isn't worth it...I play a variety of musical genres..Therefore, I prefer a distortion pedal with various capabilities...

I bought it..Tried it one day and sold it....So I don't know much about reliability

NA

2

quiet simple actually,
if you scroll up to some one elses, they are writing what im thinkin, so do that, so i dont need to type a lot,.
its very simple

BOy oh BOY do i love this pedal. my goal one christmas was to get a band going playing all nirvana songs, i needed a pedal like curt cobains sound. so i told my parents that i wanted a big muff and a tube screamer and a boss ds 1 distortion. i never heard any of these, but i found out when i got them that the big muff makes me feel like i cobain. man its great, just screw around with it and youll find what your probably not looking for to day, but its there, and you are in it adventually, muffed. thats the position it puts you in.

i use this pedal wiht a fender jagmaster and a crate amp.
its not that noisy unless you really want it to be. its very smooth.
this petal kicks george bushes ass and muffs it into hell!

I depend on this pedal greatly. has it dissapointed me? No. i jammed at my friends gig at his house wiht it with some friends, and i didnt feel the need for a back up.
it would probably be a good idea for a back up jsut because electro harmonix tend to break.
but theri pedals are amazing dont get me wrong.

no need yet

when i play the big muff, i truly feel muffed. it muffs me into music itself. i just wanna play it always. for those of you who say its big which you dotn like.UMMMM no shi*, thats why its called the big muff, if they were talking about the muff sound theyd call it the insane muff. but i love this pedal, and my band found that sound that cobain hides inside his heart.

i dont hate anything about this pedal, my brother is in karate, and when i first got the pedal i wanted to test out the strength, so i told him to do a front flip onto it. it was crazy it didnt even break, thats probably because i couldnt talk him into actually doing it, but im sure if he did, it wouldnt break. hes a green belt, so yes he can do flips. my favorite feature on the big muff is the muff. its so generic, so independent, so verstile, so amazing that i just know that the muff is the favorite feature of the big muff of mine.
i write muffy sounding songs wiht it and i havent written a bad song yet.

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.

Plugged it in,sounded great, nothing more to say.

I have a 1979 fender strat(hardtail), Trace elliot-super tramp. The sound quality is excellent no matter what i do to it.

Couldn't say only just got it

As above

i play smashing pumpkins, at the drive in anything like that. I also own a boss super overdrive, the guy in the shop told me it was the best, he lied to me,thats now in the bin. best 50 quid you can spend fot your guitar.

Three knobs... Volume, Tone and Sustain. And a switch. :D

It's analogue, so there's quite a bit of background noise, but I'm using a noise gate to eliminate any unwanted hiss completely. The range of sounds you can get out of this thing is impressive, as is the depth and clarity of tones. Some people will tell you this thing is only a fuzz but I use it as my main distortion with the tone around 3 o clock and the sustain on max.

It' EHX, so it's not as solid as, say, a Rat, but it certainly isn't flimsy. Good, solid knobs and a clunky switch. I'd gig without a back up.

I've heard good things, but I've never dealt with them myself.

I'd recommend this for someone who's exploring the sonic palette of distortion. You can all kinds of sounds out of it from nasty, fizzy metal sounds to thick, warm 70's era distortion.

Very easy to use, the three controls do exactly what they should!! My preferres setting is volume full, tone 9 o'clock, sustain 3 o'clock. This setting gets a very fat sound. No manual needed!

I play an old Ibanez flying V through the Big Muff, a Small Stone and a Boss Delay, and my amp is a Sovtek mig-50. I use an old Ampeg bass 4 by 12 cabinet. This pedal is quite noisy, but that's not noticeable at volume. It always sounds great - the fattest, heaviest sounding fuzz/ distortion I have used. Absolutely perfect for heavy rock like Kyuss or Fu Manchu. Solos sound incredible! combined with the Small Stone and delay, this can sound out of this world (or maybe from another altogether!!!)

Very reliable. The Big Muff doesnt eat batteries, and can take the rigours of the road no problem!

Never dealt with them.

I play heavy stoner rock, and it doesn't surprise me that so many of my favourite artists use this pedal. It has a very distinct sound, and compliments my other gear perfectly. Everything sounds great with it - heavy chugging riffs, solos - evrything!!!! I couldn't live without it.

3 knobs, all useful. Easy to find the tone I was looking for, was a little disappointed that you can only have some fuzz, more fuzz or shedloads of fuzz but what the heck.

Using this with a '01 Gibson SG Standard all stock hardware recently serviced connected to the Big Muff then to a Boss GT-3 then to the Effects Return on a Marshall VS8200 head into a 1960a cab. It's not very versatile but it gives good boost for solos and a good huge fuzz sound with a gritty edge.

Quite solid but the metal chassis is a bit thin.

Well I play any kind of rock. This is only suitable for the heavier kinds, but I can see why so many people swear by it.

Easy as they come. Three nobs. Pretty easy to get the sound you are looking for

Im using the big muff with Proel wah-wah, Danelectro Daddy-O and a zoom 505(ya its junk) through a Peavey Duece amp on a Fender Strat. Sounds killer. As the other reviews said, it has early Sabbath all over it.

Seems tough as nails to me. Id gig without no problem

Never had to deal with them

I play everything from Blues to Nirvana style to Sabbath sound. This pedal is killer for the heavy songs a la sabbath but doesnt sound too hot for dirty sounds like Nirvana. Hence the reason i still have the Daddy-O in my line up. But i knew what i was buying this pedal for and it wasnt to mimic Nirvana. Overall this pedal rocks especially for the price i paid

easy to use with 3 straightforward controls. sounds best (as do most pedals) with a tube amp. takes a bit of fiddling as the range of sounds is quite wide, but not difficult to use.

im playing an SG thru a crybaby, bigmuff, ross phaserinto carlsbro 50 watt tube head and 2 2x12s. this blows the sovtek version away. super fat fuzz/distortion, and it really sings. the distortion is very focussed and clarity is not a problem. nails the early sabbath sound perfectly. great for stoner rock/old school zep/purple etc.

hve done and no worries.

an excellent pedal for a fat fuzzy heavy rock sound. cant imagine its much cop for new metal but for old heavy rock its the business! far better than the russian reissue, i'd recommend it!!

It does what I tell it to do

Guitars: Gibson Firebird 5, Gibson Custom Shop Flying V, Ibanez Destroyer Amp: Peavey VTM60 with Orange 4X12 B cabinet
Sounds like God.

Have only had it about a week

I play prog, psychedelia, jazz. My full time gig right now is playing blues and the only effect I use in that situation is a Peavey Valverb. Though I record with the Big Muff Pi.
If stolen I would get another one.

If you can read, then you can get around to using this piece. Its as simple as that. I wish they did allow you to control the control more easily... Something i'll get into more indepth later.

I am very impressed with the sound I get out of this unit. I've tried other 'vintage' Muff pieces, really don't hear a clear difference. A problem I have is that it sounds weakat times. I am using a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, so I know I'm driving enough power through all my units. No, a problem with controlling the sound... I find that by fiddleing around with all the Volume/Tone/Distortion settings found on the unit, you get two extremes, nothing in between. As Far as tone is concerned, you can turn it all the way down and get a really bassy/really low-volumed distorted effect, or turn it all the way up and you get an incredibly twangy distorted effect. There is no Happy medium. You have to fiddle around a little bit with your guitar and Amp settings to make thing acceptable. A big reason why I got this pedal is because a few of my favorite artists have used this ranging from Hendrix/Metallica/Mudhoney/Nirvana/Korn. I have yet to truely match their sound, although i have got some interesting sustain/distortion sounds to coume out of it.

I've had it for a little under a year, no problems at all with the exception of the battery dying on my after 3 days, and then having to spend twenty dollars for an adaptor. I have used it several times during gigs without any indications of a problem.

I've never dealt w/ Customer Support, and thus have no opinion.

I play alot of rock/metal/punk. Sometimes blues and jazz, but not always w/ this pedal. I was looking for a really sludgy and mrky distortion effect, and am quite happy with what the Big Muff delivers. I have yet to play a Superfuzz though...which i heard is slightly better and a more clearer and distinct sound.
Do yourself a favor and shop around, look at a Supperfuzz, a Boss Fuzz pedal, or some other fuzz pedal. Make sure it delivers the exact sound your looking for before shelliong out any money.
If you were to ask me for an opinion, I'd honesly answer that I am happy with the Muff.

Easy to use. Great to have. So much sound of one unit.

I use it on bass. It's was what cliff burton used form metallica. Greta heavy sound. Don't use it on light amps. 30 watts and it feels like it will explode. If you play fast it starts to just static. ON good amps like stacker no prom

Very dependable. Thses things are made in New yourk city for over 40 years. If you break them you should learn how to use your equipment. THey are very easy to fix if you do break. My mom worked for eletron harmonix. She fixed the big muffs for bout 10 years. She said the only prom are when part burn out. The big muff is so expanded you can easily see what part you need.

I tried to call ther place in new york. THey don't get up early.

Metal. Greta old metallica Sound. Great for bass soloing or leads. I had it for bout 2 weeks now. NO promblems. 7 months on bass and I can almost spider walk. Haven't heard of the spider walk till this week. I've been using the walk. Check out cliffs artical bass players

volume, tone, sustain. very easy to use. good sound every time i used it. no manual

extremely thick and creamy! turned the sustain to 4, volume 8 and tone to 3 and got a nice sabbath type sound. i love this pedal!not noisy.

nice steel enclosure, but havent had it for ayear and the sustain knob broke,making the pot able to turn all the way around! battery powered and eats batteries quick. good enough for a gig. another quick note: the input and output are on the wrong sides (ie you plug into the side where youd normally run to your amp and vice versa), i always forget and plug it in the wrong side then think somethings wrong with it!

i play metal/ punk/ classic rock. works really good, except it isnt that good for heavy metal. id definately get another if i lost it. I love the thick creamy/bassy sound i can get with it, makes me feel like im jimi hendrix, it puts me in another world!

It's only got 3 knobs and one of them is Volume, how tough can it be?
I plugged my guitar in and had a great tone less than a minute later. If you need a manual for it, maybe you should give up playing guitar... :)

Excellent tone. I've read some reviews of the old Big Muff's and it said that the USA reissues were thin and crappy sounding. Maybe I got lucky, but I have to say that my pedal I just got is almost TOO thick sounding. I mean, I love big, fat, thick, almost muddy guitars and this thing was almost too much when adjusted to certain settings. Works for me.

I don't know yet if I can comment on the reliability, I've only had it about 2 weeks. To be honest it feels kind of junky. The knobs move nice and smooth and the face is all metal, but it feels a little sketchy. When I plug in my guitar cable it almost feels like I'm bending the metal. Haven't really had it long enough to comment on the reliability.

Can't comment on this either, never called them.

Very easy, three knobs, Amp Volume, Tone, and sustain. The manual has no usefull info at all. That said, you dont really need a manual.

I use an EMG loaded Ibanez RG-470 into the Muff then into my Marshall VS 100. The pedal is very noisy, but I love the feedback I can get. Its awesome. I dont try to get the sound of other artists, Im looking for my own and I think I have found it.

Well thats the downfall, this thing is not very strong, but I dont abuse my stuff so it should last a while.

I play everything, cept bumpkin music(Country, Bluegrass, Folk), I love this pedal. While I certainly wouldnt use this for everything, it will be my main Heavy distortion. I would definitley replace this thing if it was stolen.

3 knobs, not too hard. A bit cryptic, the idea that sustain controls the amount of distortion is kinda odd. Sucks batteries dry so get an adapter.

My setup goes Custom Strat -> Infinitphase -> Ibanez Flanger -> Big Muff -> Fuzz Factory -> Machine -> Fender Hotrodd Deville 2x12
This is the big muff sound. I tried an original and they were practicaly the same sound, the original was a little noisier and had a bit less high end. Yeah its a bit noisy but nothing I can't handle. I didn't buy this for any specific artists sound, but I had a friend try it out and he played Cherub Rock byt the Pumpkins, and it sounded perfect. Also this thing sounds like shit through a solid state 1/#"SC I tried it out on my little fender frontman and it tore that thing to pieces. But on my Deville 2x12 this thing sounds great. I just wish I could get a nice mellow sound with this thing, but its really not built for that so I won't complain too much.

When I bout this I took a Russian and the USA one and put them through the ringer, not only did the USA sound better, but the construction was better in all aspects, the knobs were better tapered the jacks were more solid, the switch had a much better feel to it, everything tended to run smoother on the USA. That isn't to say it is without its problems. I mean its a huge aluminum box with a single circut board floating around inside, I'm sure with heavy use this thing will eventually show problems. So take good care of it and it should last for a while

never dealt with them

I play a lot of styles, and while this sin't going to help me get my perfect blues tone it is exactaly what I need when I'm looking for a heavy sound. I have been playing for about 6 years and have developed a nasty pickiness about my tone, and this is one of the only pedals I now have that's not a boutique or a custom made true bypass $400 pedal. And I think that says a lot about the quality of this effect.