I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

[Inkstained]

Ordered an EHX Little Big Muff Pi and got it yesterday.

Not for me.

Plugged it in inline with the sound chain like this: Strat > Crybaby Classic > Muff > Princeton Recording Amp. Stomped on the Muff.

It was like someone poured liquid excrement all over my tone, and then squeezed that between two bricks of excrement before throwing it all into an excrement pit.

I don't see how guitarists get a good sound with this thing. I fiddled with the settings, put the muff before the wah, used it with a battery and with the One-Stop, changed amp settings, upgraded the battery. Nothing worked. The pedal was noisy from the get-go (even before engaging it), killed my bass and shrunk my sound. Nothing like a Fuzz Face. No dynamics. Just excrement.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, because the Muff has been around for 40 years. Some of my favorite players - Gilmour in particular - have used one on some of my favorite songs.

I'm sending this back. Maybe I'll try a Way Huge Swollen Pickle, but I'm just thinking the Muff sound isn't for me.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

It has to work with the right speakers and amp and all that!
Pedals are not just plug and play.
And the SWP is even more a drag to get a sound out of!

 

[Inkstained]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

I agree with all of that.

But a good pedal shouldn't require wholesale reworking of your set up.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

Nothing is better than the amp and speaker you use

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

Got a Class5 too right??
How is it on that one??

 

[Inkstained]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

Didn't try it on the Class 5. It's already re-packaged and ready to be returned.

Seriously, I usually give gear time to grow on me, but that would be useless in this case.

 

[lNllClK]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

It was like someone poured liquid excrement all over my tone, and then squeezed that between two bricks of excrement before throwing it all into an excrement pit.

I heard if you use vintage excrement batteries it can really add to the dynamics. It has to be vintage excrement batteries, not that new fangled excrement that they sell nowadays. :bigok:

 

[Psykel]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

I've heard some bad stuff about the Little Big Muff too, that it comes nowhere near the regular Muff.. I got a standard EHX Big Muff Pi and it sounds as awesome through my little Vox VT15 as through the Mesa Boogie and Marshall stacks I've played through in gigs.
If you don't mind your pedals being the size of small bath tubs, try a real Big Muff.

 

[King IzzO)))]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

I thought it was exactly the same components and circuit in a small housing, maybe I'm wrong.

If you can't get down with a big muff you should have known better than to buy it in the first place.

That's kinda like me buying a strat and then complaining because it's a strat. I hate strats.

 

[Inkstained]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

I thought it was exactly the same components and circuit in a small housing, maybe I'm wrong.

If you can't get down with a big muff you should have known better than to buy it in the first place.

That's kinda like me buying a strat and then complaining because it's a strat. I hate strats.

That's a real gem of wisdom there. You're a charter member of Mensa, aren't you?

You've never returned a piece of gear? Never sold something you decided wasn't for you?

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

That's a real gem of wisdom there. You're a charter member of Mensa, aren't you?

You've never returned a piece of gear? Never sold something you decided wasn't for you?

:laugh2: I found this funny but Izzo has a point. A big muff is a big muff. The little big muff has very few differences when compared to a regular NYC one.

 

[Inkstained]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

:laugh2: I found this funny but Izzo has a point. A big muff is a big muff. The little big muff has very few differences when compared to a regular NYC one.

Fair enough. But I see differences between muffs lovingly dissected all the time on the web. The pedal has its own web site temple. (http://www.kitrae.net/music/music_big_muff.html). Seems people think there are wide differences.

It was $70, free shipping and a liberal return policy. I lost an hour of time trying it out. That's it.

And I see people moving gear on this site all the time which they feel they can do without. Not unusual. They typically don't get "told you so's" about how they shouldn't have bought something in the first place.

 

[King IzzO)))]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

A muff more or less sounds like a muff. You've either got a rig and/or settings that don't get along with pedals and/or low end very well, or it's just not for you. You probably should have known better if it's the latter. You're right by the way, we've all done it, I'm just busting your balls a little.

Muff smells on the other hand...

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

i reckon muffs need amps with big headroom and big speakers to do what they do best. I reckon you'd think about the muff differently if you tried it with a big twin or something.

On the "lacking dynamics" thing, i definitely know where you are coming from when comparing it to a fuzz face. You might find tho if you can do an exchange that the tone wicker muff gives you more dynamics and response than the little big muff tho because you can switch all the filtering out of the system.

Having said that, and being a big fan of princetons (i use one too), i just dont think small amps and muffs go together. Ive not tried the recording amp version, but im wondering if the overdrive/compression circuitry is not getting along with the muff also?

 

[Inkstained]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

Having said that, and being a big fan of princetons (i use one too), i just dont think small amps and muffs go together. Ive not tried the recording amp version, but im wondering if the overdrive/compression circuitry is not getting along with the muff also?

Hear ya loud and clear. God knows, if or when I can afford a '59 Bassman Ltd or a Super Reverb RI, I will revist the muff and just be in Heaven generally.

The Princeton Recording amp is a funny bird, which is why it never took off. I never use the attenuator, but when you turn it all the way up, that blackface 3-D stank comes through.

There were two deal-breakers for most people who know Princetons:
1 No tremolo
2 And a funky-looking front panel with the overdrive and compression controls. Didn't look like your daddy's princeton.

But I thought it was an inspired idea anchored to a key moment in Fender history.

 

[everdrone]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

I think the others have hit it on the head

for OP I wonder if you ever got along with other fuzzes? fuzz pedals seem to be more finnicky than other pedals, and if you are not used to em they are gonna do that! especially they do not sound good with certain amps, like pairing up a 5150 with a 70s fuzz is not gonna get any type of special tone. I see you realize the power of fuzz in the context of a mix with great paired amps! Hendrix and QOTSA and sabbath...

but fuzz pedals really change the tone of the guitar amp drastically for attack and sustain and everything and outside the context of a mix sound way diff than an OD or distortion pedal.

 

[Inkstained]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

or OP I wonder if you ever got along with other fuzzes? fuzz pedals seem to be more finnicky than other pedals,

MXR Classic 108 fuzz, basically an Si fuzz face reissue in a pedalboard friendly housing. We get along real well. Probably my best guitar-related purchase of the past three years or so.

High gain and distortion have never scared me off. I just want it to be musical.

No harm, no foul. We're not meant to bond with every tool out there, even the classic ones.

 

[everdrone]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

right on man, cool

 

[misterwhizzy]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

I'm inclined to agree with you on the Muff, dude. It just wasn't my thing. I'm not going to say it was a bad pedal. I just realized that I'm not into that type of tone. I still have yet to play a Fuzz Face, but I just don't see the need. I'd rather get a tight type of punchy distortion than a thick, wooly distortion. At some point maybe, but not now.

That being said, I felt like the Big Muff Pi with Tone Wicker was a great pedal that was a tool I just wasn't going to use. I respect guys that can weld, but I'm not one of them.

 

[Lazarus1140]

Re: I guess the slice of pi isn't for me

For what it's worth, I use a Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh Fuzz and it sounds huge, and I prefer using it on the Germanium setting and into an OD. Otherwise it just doesn't cut like I need it to.