Big Muffs and Clones

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Dudeman7

New member
The Big Muff Pi has been one of the largest rabbit holes I have encountered in my pedal buying history. There are so many versions, even within the Electro-Harmonix brand that it is hard to even know where to begin.

I have pared my collection of them down to 10 or so but I am always interested in the clones whenever I come across one.

So, are you using a Big Muff? If so, which one and why did you choose it over the others?
 
Dudeman7 said:
The Big Muff Pi has been one of the largest rabbit holes I have encountered in my pedal buying history. There are so many versions, even within the Electro-Harmonix brand that it is hard to even know where to begin.

I have pared my collection of them down to 10 or so but I am always interested in the clones whenever I come across one.

So, are you using a Big Muff? If so, which one and why did you choose it over the others?
Click to expand...

So out of all of them, which one do you like? What makes that one better?
 
Mincer said:
So out of all of them, which one do you like? What makes that one better?
Click to expand...

Well, it changes from time to time, depending on my mood.

Right now, I have a modified BYOC Triangle Large Beaver on my electric board, a modified BYOC Ram's Head and a Wren and Cuff Custom Shop Box of War on my bass board and a stock BYOC Ram's Head on my small guitar board.

Other favorites are the Black Arts Toneworks LSTR, Stomp Under Foot Amherst (which is a 1:1 circuit traced clone of J Mascis' favorite Ram's Head) and the Vick Audio Violet Ram's Head. I also have a Chicago Stompworks Angry Green Bear which is a terrific clone of the Tall Font Green Russian Big Muff.
 
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After trying a few I got a JHS Muffuletta to get a better understanding of the different versions.

I landed on liking the Triangle version best. I currently use the Ehx Triangle reissue the most. I also really like the EQD Hoof for a different flavor given its a hybrid.

I usually use them in solos for long, sustaining notes. A bit too much for chords for me.
 
Dudeman7 said:
Well, it change from time to time, depending on my mood.

Right now, I have a modified BYOC Triangle Large Beaver on my electric board, a modified BYOC Ram's Head and a Wren and Cuff Custom Shop Box of War on my bass board and a stock BYOC Ram's Head on my small guitar board.

Other favorites are the Black Arts Toneworks LSTR, Stomp Under Foot Amherst (which is a 1:1 circuit traced clone of J Mascis' favorite Ram's Head) and the Vick Audio Violet Ram's Head. I also have a Chicago Stompworks Angry Green Bear which is a terrific clone of the Tall Font Green Russian Big Muff.
Click to expand...

Those are all great choices. I would go with maybe different flavors of those brands but it's really a personal preference thing.
 
Blille said:
Those are all great choices. I would go with maybe different flavors of those brands but it's really a personal preference thing.
Click to expand...

My favorites tend to be Triangle or Ram's Head versions. The ones that have some degree of control over the midrange work better for me since the typical mid scoop common with Big Muffs makes them disappear in the mix.

The BYOC versions all have the ability to remove the tone stack completely and that is a super cool feature too.
 
I've built a few BYOC pedals, but never a fuzz. I was thinking of the Triangle one. Is that a fairly easy build?
 
Mincer said:
I've built a few BYOC pedals, but never a fuzz. I was thinking of the Triangle one. Is that a fairly easy build?
Click to expand...

The build itself was pretty easy but troubleshooting why they didn't work properly was a hassle. Turned out to be bad transistors. One was bad in one kit and the other had two bad transistors. They use NOS parts and they are suspect, IME.

I took the opportunity to experiment with different transistors as replacements and swapped out a few caps and resistors for different values too. What I ended up with are the two best sounding Big Muffs in my collection.

I would definitely recommend the Large Beaver kit but if you don't want the hassle of questionable transistors, the Ram's Head might be the way to go. The Triangle and the RH are really quite similar.
 
I'm not really much of a fuzz or muff guy, but the Op-Muff is fun to play sometimes, and it takes a front-end goose very nicely, or even active pickups.
 
Dudeman7 said:
My favorites tend to be Triangle or Ram's Head versions. The ones that have some degree of control over the midrange work better for me since the typical mid scoop common with Big Muffs makes them disappear in the mix.
Click to expand...
Exactly. I used to play a NYC one for quite some time and I had to run a tubescreamer into it to make it work in the mix.
 
Dudeman7 said:
The build itself was pretty easy but troubleshooting why they didn't work properly was a hassle. Turned out to be bad transistors. One was bad in one kit and the other had two bad transistors. They use NOS parts and they are suspect, IME.

I took the opportunity to experiment with different transistors as replacements and swapped out a few caps and resistors for different values too. What I ended up with are the two best sounding Big Muffs in my collection.

I would definitely recommend the Large Beaver kit but if you don't want the hassle of questionable transistors, the Ram's Head might be the way to go. The Triangle and the RH are really quite similar.
Click to expand...

Yeah sometimes when something like that is wrong, it takes forever to track down. Certainly not the 'fun' part of building a kit.
 
NegativeEase said:
Yeah, it's super versatile, it can be OD, Distortion, Fuzz and combine dying 9 Volt tones too.
Click to expand...

I have a little big muff, and it’s arguably the most interesting pedal on my board because it’s so easily influenced by whatever you throw at it. Even if you do “wrong” things like putting a compressor or distortion after it, it just reacts quite dramatically.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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