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Big Muff
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Big Muff is a famous distortion pedal 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.
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The Big Muff was first introduced in the early 1970s and was used by artists including David Gilmour and Carlos Santana. Contrary to one common belief, the Big Muff was not used extensively by Jimi Hendrix and, in fact, production models were not available until 1971, a year after Hendrix's death in 1970. Big Muff creator Mike Matthews, however, has claimed that Hendrix used a Big Muff prototype in some sessions prior to his death and he was reportedly impressed enough to want to use it on his next album. Hendrix played an integral part in the making of the Big Muff, as Matthews has often stated that Hendrix's guitar sound was the inspiration for the creation of the Big Muff [1].
An earlier EH pedal, the Axis fuzz, was also manufactured by EH for the Guild guitar company as the Foxey Lady and used a similar chassis as the early Big Muffs but had 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 Alternative Rock bands through the 1980s and 1990s, such as the Smashing Pumpkins and Dinosaur Jr. The band Mudhoney loved the pedal so much that they named an EP after it, Superfuzz Bigmuff. Singer-songwriter John Martyn also paid tribute to the pedal by naming a song after it. Jack White of the White Stripes has also made the Big Muff an integral part of his garage rock sound. Chris Ross, the bassist of Wolfmother uses the New York version of the Big Muff and the pedal is a big part of the Stoner Rock sound that is essential to Wolfmother's music. Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth both use the Sovtek version of the Big Muff [2]. The Big Muff remains a favorite among guitarists and bassists for its distinctive sound.
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. There also exists a customed Big Muff pedal, called Mogwai Big Muff. This pedal was designed by EHX for the Scottish band Mogwai, and has a slightly more extreme sound. Electro harmonix produced only one hundred Mogwai Big Muff pedals.
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. For a short time in the mid-70s 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, the RonSound Hairpie (available in 3 versions for 3 different years of Big Muffs) and the Euthymia ICBM Fuzz (op-amp model). 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.