July 12, 2008

Electro-Harmonix - Bass Big Muff Pi - Review

Stashed under: Reviews - Fuzz — grygrx @ 5:37 pm

  1. Overview
  2. Initial thoughts
  3. Video Overview
  4. Samples
  5. Picture Gallery
  6. Construction and cosmetic concerns
  7. Conclusion
  8. View All


EHX - Bass Big Muff Front 1

Manufacturer: Electro-Harmonix
Model: Bass Big Muff
MSRP/Paid: ?/$76.50
New/Used/Loan: New
Battery: Yes
Power Supply: 9v boss style
Size: Aprox. 4” wide, 4.5” tall, 2 1/4” deep (jacks/knobs etc included)
Available from:Dealers Everywhere

From the maker:

description:
The Bass Big Muff draws its roots from the legendary Sovtek battle-tank green Big Muff Pi, from the late 90’s as well as from the original Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi from the early 70’s. These Big Muff Pi’s are often employed by bass players to thicken up their sound or to give them over-the-top low end growl. The Bass Big Muff takes the best elements from both of these classics and employs sonic elements that were specifically designed for your bass.

controls:
Sustain Knob: As in the original Big Muff Pi, adjust the amount of sustain and distortion.

Tone Knob: provides a range of sound from high treble to deep bass. The overall tone filter frequencies were chosen to enhance your bass guitar.

Volume Knob: The volume knob sets the output level of the distortion. When the toggle switch is set to DRY, the volume knob has no effect on the output level of your original bass.

Bass Boost/ Norm/ Dry Toggle Switch: This is a 3 position toggle switch that allows you to choose three distinctly different sounds. In Bass Boost mode, the top position, a bass frequency boost is added to the distortion. It is most effective when the Tone knob is set to the upper or treble have of its rotation. In Norm mode, the middle position, you have the pure tone of the classic Big Muff Pi. In Dry mode, the bottom position, the original dry signal from your instrument is mixed with the output of the distortion circuit. The level of Dry signal is constant and will not change as you turn the Volume knob up or down. This allows you to set the level of distortion effect against your dry signal.

10 Comments »

  1. Thanks for the review

    Comment by Maibanez — July 14, 2008 @ 4:56 am

  2. I’m wondering if maybe some of the features you found were missing here might be found in the EHX Bass Blogger?

    I think it would be interesting to hear them in tandem. After seeing this site, I no longer have a problem with having more than one fuzz box!

    Comment by Captain_Arrrg — July 17, 2008 @ 12:09 pm

  3. Yo!
    awsome review man! im am now looking for buying this pedal.
    but as i said in youtube, i dont understand what is the use of the dry output…
    Where should i plug in if my config would be like this:
    Bass > Muff > tech 21 vt bass (ampeg emulation) > power amp
    i mean, wich one of those outputs should i use?

    Swe

    Comment by Nils — July 22, 2008 @ 4:14 pm

  4. The dry output is CLEAN (no fuzz). Only use it if you have a reason to, otherwise pretend it doesn’t exist.

    Comment by grygrx — July 22, 2008 @ 5:52 pm

  5. I was wondering how this pedal would compare to the standard Muff Pi combined with the Knock Out (with the Knock Out used to boost low freq.)

    Comment by Hank — August 29, 2008 @ 12:10 am

  6. I’ve not used the knockout, but it’s it an attack equalizer rather than an eq?

    Either way, not sure it would work… the same way EQ pedals don’t really work in this scenario.

    Muff - > EQ = Muff kills lows, eq tries to boost non-existent lows
    EQ - > Muff = EQ Boosts lows, Muff kills them.

    Comment by grygrx — August 29, 2008 @ 10:12 am

  7. I have had some 2 months and is a great pedal, it not big fuzz or gain as the others but it has a lot of low end (not like the other), it was just what I was looking for …. I read somewhere that the bassist Muse uses two AMP , one clean and one Muffed, you can do the same with this pedal in the dry mode the difference is you can do that with a single AMP … I have mixed with everything I have been crossed on my way in this mode (Delay, BassBalls, octave, overdrive, phaser chorus) and sounds great whit all…
    alone is not worth it
    but whit something else it’s great
    I have all the others muffs it’s not the best but work better whit bass

    Comment by Maibanez — September 25, 2008 @ 1:14 pm

  8. I agree that the Dry setting works really well; one thing I did find (opposite to some comments and the review), is that the volume does seem to effect the prominence of the Muff sound. Unless you are looking for serious gain and buzz-saw break-up, I think this pedal does a great job in Dry mode when you need some clarity or the detail of what you’re playing matters. I’m impressed with this pedal in Normal mode too, btw. Another thing, sustain and break-up are a lot different with almost all fuzz, overdrive, and bass distortion pedals depending on if you’re using a tube amp (or amp with a full tube pre-amp section) vs. a solid state amp. Gain and break-up, etc. (from a pedal) tends to come off “bad” with solid state and dynamic, organic, and “awesome” with tubes. All respect to solid state amp players!

    Comment by mathrockspazz — October 19, 2008 @ 3:05 pm

  9. I was just wondering how this works with active pickups. I have a schecter with emg’s and i was thinking about getting this. If this one doest work to well with active pickups do you have some advice on one that does possibly in the same price range?

    Comment by CJ — November 1, 2008 @ 2:31 pm

  10. I had no problems at all with my active J.

    Comment by grygrx — November 1, 2008 @ 2:36 pm

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