Everman Custom Audio Effects Big Muff True Bypass Mod

This is another review of J. Everman?s True Bypass mod for the Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi. I also got his ?New 6 Pack Mod?, which reconfigures the tone stack of the pedal. The controls are stock except for the added 6 Pack Mod control near the 9V A/C-D/C Power Jack, which is very simple to operate. My Big Muff is the older 70?s opamp based unit, as opposed to the transistor based model, which made it a little more difficult for him to do the 6 Pack Mod on. So make sure you give him a heads up about what you have or a picture of the guts of your unit before sending it off to Texas.

I just got my pedal back from him like last week so I've only run the pedal between a Strat and an older Top Hat Emplexador. The thing isn't really noisy, except for the original scratchiness of the stock BMP controls, which isn?t that much anyway. And switching the 6 Pack capacitor selector isn?t audible at all.

The immediate thing I noticed after plugging it in was that single and double note bends break through the fuzz better than before and are more pronounced. Add to that the sustain of the big muff and it?s a very sweet combination. I haven?t tried it with a clean amp yet, but I suspect it will sound even better without the extra grit of the Emplexador. And Fuzzy power chords are great too with this unit of course.

I think since mine is opamp based there isn?t a drastic difference when switching the 6-tone knob. Instead there were more subtle changes, which I think is still cool. The Big Muff sounds good and now it has a little more flavors of tone to work with.

Again I haven't tried it with any other pedals yet, but it was quiet when I switched it on and off. So I'm thinking there's no tone suckage going on, which a definite must have for the EH pedals.

As far as reliability goes, the casing of the Big Muff is pretty flimsy. So I wouldn?t thrash on it too hard for a long time for fear of smashing all of J. Everman?s careful work. You can look on his website in the Pedal Modifications section to see what he does. His work is very neat and he even tie wraps your loose wires. I?ll have to see as time goes on to be sure of his work, but I?m thinking I won?t have any problems.

Now I think this is the section you have to consider most before even thinking about sending your pedal off to a stranger. How is this stranger going treat me? Are they going to appreciate my business even if I'm not a platinum record selling mega rock star?

I have to say that this guy really knows how to treat his customers. He included me every step of the way and even asked for my approval before changing things. I asked questions and got response emails within hours. He even offered to repair a busted Mu-Tron phaser I told him about for a fraction of what it cost to do this mod.

I play for my church and for personal enjoyment. I think I got a very good upgrade for my money. If it were lost or stolen I would probably just buy the new Big Muff and send that to him too. Overall, I had a very good experience and I would do business with him again.

This is a review of Justin Everman's true bypass mod to my 70's model Big Muff Pi. The pedal is easy to use stock with it's volume, tone, and sustain controls and still works just the same.

My Big Muff is an original and not a reissue. The tone was already great with much more complexity and low end response than the reissues. Because of this, I opted to not have Justin Everman touch the tone circuit and just had him replace the input and output jacks and power adapter jack with new high quality ones. The stompswitch has also been replaced and it is now true bypass. It sounds the same as it did before the mod (which is good!) however, now when the pedal is off, it doesn't muddy up my tone. I do notice a slightly audible click when engaging or disengaging this pedal. I'm not sure if this is the result of the true bypass mod but it really isn't an issue with me. The only time I use the Muff is when the band is really rocking and I need to kick it up a notch to take people's heads off. And again, it is a very quite click.

Justin's work is top notch. He even put a new 9V battery connector which is braided and tied down. As far as the Big Muff itself, this thing is pushing 30 years and it still is rocking. I would gig without a backup just because I'm using this with 2 other overdrive pedals.

The customer support section of this review is the real reason I wanted to give my praises. Justin Everman responded to every email I sent him within a couple of hours. Even one email that I sent at 11:30 at night. He kept such great communication throughout the process. His turn around time modding the pedal and shipping back couldn't have been quicker. Justin Everman is a pro.

Justin does great work, however, the prices seems a bit high compared to Robert Keeley's prices. Even still, I would purchase other mods or pedals from Justin just because I know I would get nothing less than top quality.