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

Conclusion:

So bass specific fuzzes are starting to go mainstream, and EHX decided it was time to jump on the ride with a new take on a classic fuzz. This pedal sounds like a muff, and if don’t like muff sounds there is nothing extremely new here. They have done a nice job migrating the frequency range down a bit to better accommodate basses and make the tone and sustain knobs much more usable than on the current American Big Muff PI, or the Little Big Muff. The pedal sounds very good, but the question I ask is… does it sound great? No, I don’t think it does. There is definitely a lot this pedal offers, but high order harmonics and sizzling gain that can be had from earlier models and some boutique clones just aren’t there. This makes the pedal a bit more subtle then my personal taste, but I can see where many will find it extremely useful (especially in the ‘Dry’ switch position) because it thickens up the sound very well, adding a sizzling girth without compromising the low end at all.

At this price point, there is nothing that I’ve tried that competes with it and it is a much better choice than many pedals costing twice as much. If you’ve got a LBM or American Big Muff PI and it loses a little too much low end for you, upgrade now… but if you love the harmonics and the wilder feel those pedals have you might think twice before moving over.

As always, if you have any questions, leave a comment or let me know

Note: A rating of 5 = acceptable and should considered a ‘good’ basic score

Sound Category: Clean, Fizzy, Blend, Muffish
Construction: 6
Versatility: 5
Sound: 7
Value: 9
Overall: 7
Adding to the collection:Yes

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

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment