Moding a Little Big Muff

[Jazz Rock]

I have been playing with Pierre's muff :nana: for a few days now. I managed to get some good sound out of it but I am not really keen on the sustain knob effect, which is compressing the sound more than it is adding gain... which I guess was the point but that's not something I am looking for.

Yet, as the Little Big Muff is virtually the only fuzz pedal below £50 (most others being above £100), I might still consider getting one.

What would help me make my mind was if the sustain knob of the Muff could be easily moded into a gain knob. Please don't bash me, electric circuitry is still a big mystery to me (feels more like magic than science) and I have no idea what is involved in both type of circuit.

So... doable or not?

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Moding a Little Big Muff

There is a low gain mod for the Muff where you bypass one or two stages of gain with a switch. But, the design of the pedal is 4 cascaded gain stages. It's not supposed to sound like an amp where you can turn down the gain. THe Big Muff sound is the Big Muff sound. I think if you do the "low gain" mod the circuit slightly resembles either a Tonebender or Fuzz Face, I forgot which.

You can also replace the transistors with BC141's which are a lower gain transistor. I don't know the topology of the litle big muff though, can you post a gut shot of it?

http://www.student.ru.nl/r.kerkhof/Taas/Mods/Big Muff.htm

 

[Jazz Rock]

Re: Moding a Little Big Muff

Thanks for the link... Seems like replacing the stock diodes with some germanium could be a start... then some tweaking in the tone section could pull some tricks I guess.

About the low gain mod. I am not searching for less gain, but less compression. Am I wrong in thinking you can have more gain without getting more compression? Or emphasizing on the gain without adding too much compression?

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Moding a Little Big Muff

The nature of the Big Muff gives you a lot of compression, 4 gain stages! I can't find the link to the "low gain" mod, but you basically move the overall output jack to the output of the second transistor. A combination of diodes, transistors and maybe that mod should get you where you are going. (Uses switches for the diodes for sure, then you get both options, you should be able to use switches for each transistor to have a choice too.)

 

[Jazz Rock]

Re: Moding a Little Big Muff

I hear you now. Could be interesting then. Couldn't find anything on this mod though (apart from a guy saying on another forum he did to his Big Muff).

Although, I heard the Russian Muff (like the one I am testing) sounds thinner than the American one. If this is true I could be even more interested.

Anyone has moded his Big Muff around here?

 

[Pierre]

Re: Moding a Little Big Muff

You want less compression, use less gain. That's the only way. Even amps compress when their pre/power amps get distorted. It's juist how things are unfortunately. As for me I like this compression. The muff is MEANT to be ballsy and really unsubtle. So I use it as such, which weirdly enough corresponds well to my style