Big Muff
The Big Muff is a famous distortion box produced in New York City by the Electro-Harmonix company, along with their Russian sister company Sovtek, primarily for use with the electric guitar. It has also found a welcome home at the feet of bassists as well (the Russian model especially) due to the Big Muff's boomy low end. For example, former Metallica bassist Cliff Burton was known for playing bass solos and riffs through the Big Muff and a Morley Power Wah pedal.
History
The Big Muff was first introduced in the early 1970s and was used by artists like David Gilmour and Carlos Santana. To dispel a common misconception, Jimi Hendrix never recorded using the Big Muff. It was invented in 1971, a year after Hendrix's untimely death in 1970. The creator of the Big Muff (Mike Matthews) did however let Jimi try out a prototype of the pedal, and Jimi was reportedly impressed enough to want to use it on his next album. Unfortunately Jimi died before he could record with it. Jimi is, however, integral in the making of the Big Muff, as Matthews has often stated that he had been inspired by Hendrix's guitar sound to create the Big Muff in the first place.
An earlier EH pedal, the Axis fuzz, was also manufactured by EH for the Guild guitar company as the Foxey Lady and used a chassis similar to the early Big Muffs but with a simpler two-transistor circuit. With the introduction of the Big Muff the Axis was discontinued and the Foxey Lady pedal became a rebranded Big Muff. It was available at least until the mid '70s.
The Big Muff Pi was the first overwhelming success for Electro-Harmonix's line of pedals. Due to its reliability, its inexpensive price and its distinctive sound, the Big Muff sold consistently through the 1970s and was found in innumerable guitarists' pedal collections. Even after the Electro-Harmonix company was forced out of business in 1982, the pedal remained in such demand that clones of the Big Muff were made by both competing corporations and independent pedal builders, and demand for "vintage Big Muffs" rose. Unsurprisingly, when Matthews restarted Electro-Harmonix in the 1990s, the Big Muff was one of the first pedals he reintroduced to the market.
The sustained grind of the Big Muff later came to define the sound of many bands through the 1980s and 1990s, such as the Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur Jr and Mudhoney (who loved the pedal so much that they named an EP after it, Superfuzz Bigmuff). Jack White of the White Stripes has also made the Big Muff an integral part of his garage rock sound. Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth both use the Sovtek version of the Big Muff [1]. The Big Muff remains a favorite among guitarists and bassists for its distinctive sound. ("Big Muff" is also the name of a song by John Martyn.)
Two recent additions to the Big Muff family are the Metal Muff, designed for more modern distortion tones, and the Little Big Muff, a smaller version of the current NYC model.
Technology of the Big Muff
Most versions of the Big Muff use four transistor stages. Two of these act as input and output buffers, and two generate the distortion effect. Some late-70s/early-80s versions of the Big Muff used op amps, which at the time were not as highly regarded as the discrete transistor versions. However, the op-amp (or IC) Big Muffs have lately seen a revival among collectors and players alike.
Electro-Harmonix also released a large-box version of the Big Muff known as the Deluxe Big Muff Pi. This version included an onboard compressor in addition to the standard Big Muff features. It was available in 2 versions: one with a Blend switch and another with a SERIES\PARALLEL switch.
Many manufacturers produce clones of the original pedal, ranging from the highly-affordable Behringer VD-1 to higher-end products such as the Skreddy Mayo and the Euthymia ICBM Fuzz. One of the most highly-regarded Big Muff clones of all time is the Way Huge Swollen Pickle Jumbo Fuzz, which used a transistor array integrated circuit and a scooped tone stack to achieve a sound few have been able to replicate. Electro-Harmonix themselves have joined the fray with a reissue version of their original Big Muff Pi as well as a smaller "Little Big Muff Pi" that incorporates true bypass switching and a smaller enclosure.
Currently the Big Muff Pi is offered in three versions: the US-made Big Muff Pi, which can be identified by its silvery metal casing; the less expensive Sovtek Big Muff Pi, made in Russia and distinguished by its dark green or black casing and less ornate graphics; and the Little Big Muff Pi, a US-made version which contains the same circuit as the US Big Muff Pi, but is housed in a smaller, brushed aluminum case. The company also offers the Double Muff, which consists of two separate Muff Fuzz circuits in one pedal, designed to be run either singly or in series to produce a more intense, "over the top" distortion, and the Metal Muff, which adds EQ controls to the basic Muff circuit in order to modify the mids for a tone closer to that of many heavy metal guitarists.
Songs in which the Big Muff is used
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- Ben Folds Five - Bassist Robert Sledge uses the Big Muff in nearly every song.
- Chiasm - Uses the Big Muff in some songs
- The Cows - "Two Little Pigs" (used on a bass guitar)
- Depeche Mode - "Big Muff" (instrumental named after the device)
- Dinosaur Jr - "Mountain Man"
- Flipper - "Sacrifice" ("Sex Bomb Baby" version). The pedal is used on a bass guitar and routed through the auxiliary input instead of the regular input. This method will create a much rawer tone.
- KoRn "Blind" - Guitarist Head used the Big Muff to get the grinding tone. He may have used it on other songs such as "Need To".
- Metallica - "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," and "Orion" all feature a bass run through a Big Muff pedal.
- Mudhoney - "Touch Me I'm Sick", "Who You Drivin' Now", "Fuzzgun '91", "Check Out Time", "A Thousand Forms of Mind", "This Gift", "Here Comes Sickness", "Suck You Dry", "Beneath the Valley of The Underdog", as well as many other Mudhoney songs. It is often used by guitarist Steve Turner.
- Muse - Bassist Chris Wolstenholme uses a Russian Big Muff Pi in most songs often in conjunction with an Akai Deep Impact SB1 pedal.
- Nirvana - "Lithium" (difficult to hear, but was used according to Butch Vig who produced the album), "Breed" (very easy to hear, right when the guitar starts) and "Stay Away" (heard during the last 15 seconds of the song)
- Pink Floyd - Guitar solo on "Comfortably Numb" and riff to "In The Flesh". (Whether it was really used on these songs is not known for sure, information comes from this website. If it really was used, the sustain dial was turned down.) David Gilmour uses a Sovtek Big Muff live and as part of his signature tone. David Gilmour also uses it in the rich and powerful intro to the song "Sorrow" on the Momentary Lapse of Reason album.
- Red Hot Chili Peppers - Used on several songs from Stadium Arcadium for the guitar solos, notably "Strip My Mind" and "Wet Sand" by guitarist John Frusciante, also used on several other albums such as Californication and most of his guitar solos on live recordings.
- Sonic Youth - "Mieux: De Corrosion" (Russian Sovtek version, kicks in halfway through the song).
- The Smashing Pumpkins - "Cherub Rock", "Hummer", "Quiet" and other songs on the albums Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
- U2 - "Bullet the Blue Sky"
- Whirlwind Heat - Bassist Steve Damstra uses the Little Big Muff in nearly every song.
- The White Stripes - "Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground", "Aluminum", "Black Math", "Ball and Biscuit", "Little Acorns", "Hypnotize", "Red Rain", and countless others. Guitarist Jack White uses the Big Muff as part of his signature distorted sound.
- Young & Restless - Young and Restless use an Electro Harmonix Double Muff on the songs "Satan", "Police! Police!" and "Black"
- Wolfmother- Dimension (used during post-chorus)
Audio
References
- Electro-Harmonix company website
- Ron Neely II repairs Electro-Harmonix pedals and is a collector and historian of E/H gear. His articles, "Bye Bye Miss Big Muff Pi," parts one and two contain much useful historic information on the Big Muff Pi and its variants.
- Howard Davis, former chief design engineer for Electro-Harmonix, Davis is now independent; an informative interview can be found on his site
- Big Muff and Effects Museum, an online museum with many photos of different Big Muff Pi fuzzes throughout the different eras
External links
