I finally understand all of the Corgan love

Agileguy_101

Master of his Domain
As I get deeper and deeper into the muff (best name for a pedal ever, btdubs) I've found myself listening to artists that utilize the big muff, especially ones that use different versions than what I use. That lead me to The Smashing Pumpkins. I've had Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie for years (dad must have downloaded them a long time ago) but I never listened to them much for whatever reason, which is odd because apart from Nirvana I ****ing love grunge. Anyway, Billy Corgan's tone:



It's a wall of muff. How can you not love it? The more I listen to Siamese Dream, the more I want more variants of the big muff. I know he used a V3 (if I have the versions right) op-amp based muff as opposed to the transistor based BMP's that most of us know and love. And while I'm not in a SP tribute band or an avid chaser of famous guitarist's tone, I want to see if I can get close to this tone. I know he used a JCM-800 with the master full on and the gain practically off. It's different from my rig, but not incredibly so - I run my 68 Bassman loud enough to get the power tubes cooking hot, and I have a JMP toned pedal that I can use to mimic Billy's 800.

Anyway, let's just have one giant big muff/Pumpkins lurve fest up in this *****. Post muffs you have, are looking at acquiring, or just found interesting in passing. Spread some pumpkin-flavored love. It's all good bros

Here's the muff I'm looking at getting next, although I'm going to contact the builder and have him make me one with a mids control, as both of my other muff clones have one and I don't wanna live without it. The tone bypass switch sounds ****ing awesome, almost like two muffs in one, available at the touch of a button.



Here's the two I'm trying to pick between for after the IC muff. Not sure which, although the ARC looks really cool with the switches (you can contact the builder and have him put external switches on it instead of DIPs.





Yes, I love Big Muffs. I plan to acquire a lot. Haters welcome to hate.
 
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Re: I finally understand all of the Corgan love

I used to love his tone but after getting the Wren and Cuff Tall font Russian I find myself using less gain on the muff and more volume from the amp for natural grind and sputter with the muff that's similar to a fuzz face but is more focused and tighter... its great but totally different to Billy's wall of sound muff tone... but back to artists who use muffs check out O'Brother they have a pretty cool sound with the big muffs, same kind Billy used aswell I believe but totally different sound... in fact I will attach a video

 
Re: I finally understand all of the Corgan love

If I can get one, my hard earned is all over this...

 
Re: I finally understand all of the Corgan love

Haha

£240 plus shipping though... that's pretty steep. I totally see where the money goes - the build quality is impeccable and it sounds amazing, I just hoped I'd never be tempted to spend that much on a drive pedal again. Did it once and when I didn't bond with it, I took a huge hit. Ah well, muffs are way better than 98% of distortion pedals anyway :)
 
Re: I finally understand all of the Corgan love

the muff I own is my fav by far, the BLACK ARTS TONEWORKS PHARAOH FUZZ PEDAL:

 
Re: I finally understand all of the Corgan love

the muff I own is my fav by far, the BLACK ARTS TONEWORKS PHARAOH FUZZ PEDAL:


Having owned a pharaoh along with quite a few accurate muff clones, I can say with experience that the Pharaoh isn't very much a muff at all. That's not to say it's a bad pedal - it's pretty damn good - it's just got about as much in common with a real muff as an Ipod has with an Iphone.
 
Re: I finally understand all of the Corgan love

i've tried many many fuzz pedals, and currently own a fulltone ultimate octave, eh big muff, fender blender, dod classic fuzz, msd paranoid fuzz, mjm china fuzz, and my 2 favorites, the stomp under foot violet rams head and pumpkin pi. IMO if you want the siamese dream sound the pumpkin pi is where its at.
 
Re: I finally understand all of the Corgan love

i've tried many many fuzz pedals, and currently own a fulltone ultimate octave, eh big muff, fender blender, dod classic fuzz, msd paranoid fuzz, mjm china fuzz, and my 2 favorites, the stomp under foot violet rams head and pumpkin pi. IMO if you want the siamese dream sound the pumpkin pi is where its at.

That's what I've heard from a few people. However, the Blakemore looks to fit my needs better because of the footswitchable tone bypass. And I can get it straight from PGS.
 
Re: I finally understand all of the Corgan love

I bought Siamese Dream the year it came out, highly influential for me. As the years pass, I'm really liking his tone on the Gish album. No fuzz, instead it's sometimes twangy and quite crunchy with that awesome Marshall roar.
 
Re: I finally understand all of the Corgan love

Its funny you posted that particular song- to this day every time I plug into a fuzz pedal the first thing I play is the Quiet riff.
 
Re: I finally understand all of the Corgan love

I've got a Skreddy Zero (harsher) and Wall of Sound (Smoother) but was looking for a Mayo until they went to the stratosphere in terms of pricing. I also have a long list of Muffs and clones including a Swollen Pickle RI and clone of the original Swollen Pickle. I'll have to list the rest out when I get home.
 
Re: I finally understand all of the Corgan love

My favorite fuzz pedal from my "grunge" days was the boss hyperfuzz, usually had the top boost engaged and a tube screamer right after that, sounded gnarly through my old bassman...
 
Re: I finally understand all of the Corgan love

My favorite fuzz pedal from my "grunge" days was the boss hyperfuzz, usually had the top boost engaged and a tube screamer right after that, sounded gnarly through my old bassman...

You know what? I had one of those pedals come into my possession for a short while and I could get it to sound EXACTLY like Rocket.
 
Re: I finally understand all of the Corgan love

If I can get one, my hard earned is all over this...


Looks like it might be on...
 
Re: I finally understand all of the Corgan love

Didn't Corgan use the Fender Blender Fuzz at one time? I think I think a FB's going to be a summer pedal build for me.
 
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