misterwhizzy
Well-known member
That's Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi with Tone Wicker. I realize this was a bit long-winded, but you can always just stop reading when you get bored.
So I came home from work on Friday knowing that my wife would be out of the house helping out her Mom and Dad for the night because he had surgery the day before. I also had a bead on the UPS tracking, so I knew that the pedal should be there by the time I got home. After all, it said it was out for delivery at 7:12 in the morning. All right... The perfect recipe for tonal experimentation at high volume.
I unboxed the pedal, and it appears to be very well constructed. The dials turn smoothly, and the switches are also sturdy. It's just like a big-box Big Muff. Volume, tone, and sustain knobs. In addition, there are two switches, one for whether or not the tone control is active, and one to enable the tone wicker. I think there could be an argument made for moving the wicker switch to being footswitchable, but it's a weak argument. In case you're not familiar with that switch, it really opens up the top end of the effect and lets a lot more highs come through.
The board at this point looked like this: Hendrix Crybaby -> Boss TU-2 -> Boss SD-1 -> Marshall Jackhammer -> Big Muff -> Amp. So I turn it on, dials all at noon, except for volume, just because I didn't know what to expect, having never owned a fuzz pedal before. I set it up as directed for an original Big Muff tone, tone switch on, and wicker off.
So I turn it on into the clean amp, and my initial reaction was, "Holy Lowend, Batman." It felt like the air pressure in the room came up incredibly. It was like the feeling you get when you take off in an airplane. It was very thick, fuzzy, chewy distortion instantly. The pick attack is still there, but it instantly fades away into a fuzzy blanket of fuzz. I've heard fuzz described as smooth with endless sustain, but I hear more of a graininess. The endless sustain is absolutely true, regardless of where the sustain knob is set.
At this point, I decided to play around with the tone switch. Take out the tone, and instant big volume boost. This is why the tone switch should not be footswitchable. It definitely opens the thing up, but not nearly like the wicker does. The wicker allows a much broader frequency range, and I can see uses for both settings.
The pedal also seems to be very tweakable. Boost it with the SD-1, and it's crunchier, and the lowend is tamed quite a bit. Go from crystal clean to smooth overdrive to huge heavy crunch to fuzzed out fuzzy fuzz with a couple of stomps. It was very, very interactive.
I played around a bit on both pickups, and found a better lead tone than rhythm, for sure, especially on the neck pickup. It was through an LP with Custom 8 bridge and DD5 neck. And now I have to say it. I don't think fuzz is for me, especially with this setup. I've tried to be unbiased so far, but I think this pedal is built for single coils. There was a big difference when playing with the volume control, but not like the dynamics you hear from famous fuzz players, e.g. Stevie Ray Vaughan and David Gilmour.
The other problem that I could not overcome or explain was the fact that the pedal set up the way it was is a tone sucker. I don't understand this at all. It's supposed to be a true bypass pedal, but there was a noticeable loss of high end when it was plugged into the chain. I suppose it's possible the effects cable is bad, but I've used it with other pedals and never noticed a problem. Plus, it's only three inches, so I would imagine it would be an all or nothing type of thing. There's just not enough lead to lose a whole lot of signal.
I had very high expectations for this pedal, because one of the best tones I've ever heard was a friend's LP into a Big Muff into a JCM800. It was killer, killer tone, and I don't remember hearing anything better. I've also heard great fuzz recordings, and some of the greats have had fantastic success with them. In my setup, it just wasn't my cup of tea. All in all, I think I'll fill my Tele needs before any fuzz needs resurface.
Thanks for your attention.
So I came home from work on Friday knowing that my wife would be out of the house helping out her Mom and Dad for the night because he had surgery the day before. I also had a bead on the UPS tracking, so I knew that the pedal should be there by the time I got home. After all, it said it was out for delivery at 7:12 in the morning. All right... The perfect recipe for tonal experimentation at high volume.
I unboxed the pedal, and it appears to be very well constructed. The dials turn smoothly, and the switches are also sturdy. It's just like a big-box Big Muff. Volume, tone, and sustain knobs. In addition, there are two switches, one for whether or not the tone control is active, and one to enable the tone wicker. I think there could be an argument made for moving the wicker switch to being footswitchable, but it's a weak argument. In case you're not familiar with that switch, it really opens up the top end of the effect and lets a lot more highs come through.
The board at this point looked like this: Hendrix Crybaby -> Boss TU-2 -> Boss SD-1 -> Marshall Jackhammer -> Big Muff -> Amp. So I turn it on, dials all at noon, except for volume, just because I didn't know what to expect, having never owned a fuzz pedal before. I set it up as directed for an original Big Muff tone, tone switch on, and wicker off.
So I turn it on into the clean amp, and my initial reaction was, "Holy Lowend, Batman." It felt like the air pressure in the room came up incredibly. It was like the feeling you get when you take off in an airplane. It was very thick, fuzzy, chewy distortion instantly. The pick attack is still there, but it instantly fades away into a fuzzy blanket of fuzz. I've heard fuzz described as smooth with endless sustain, but I hear more of a graininess. The endless sustain is absolutely true, regardless of where the sustain knob is set.
At this point, I decided to play around with the tone switch. Take out the tone, and instant big volume boost. This is why the tone switch should not be footswitchable. It definitely opens the thing up, but not nearly like the wicker does. The wicker allows a much broader frequency range, and I can see uses for both settings.
The pedal also seems to be very tweakable. Boost it with the SD-1, and it's crunchier, and the lowend is tamed quite a bit. Go from crystal clean to smooth overdrive to huge heavy crunch to fuzzed out fuzzy fuzz with a couple of stomps. It was very, very interactive.
I played around a bit on both pickups, and found a better lead tone than rhythm, for sure, especially on the neck pickup. It was through an LP with Custom 8 bridge and DD5 neck. And now I have to say it. I don't think fuzz is for me, especially with this setup. I've tried to be unbiased so far, but I think this pedal is built for single coils. There was a big difference when playing with the volume control, but not like the dynamics you hear from famous fuzz players, e.g. Stevie Ray Vaughan and David Gilmour.
The other problem that I could not overcome or explain was the fact that the pedal set up the way it was is a tone sucker. I don't understand this at all. It's supposed to be a true bypass pedal, but there was a noticeable loss of high end when it was plugged into the chain. I suppose it's possible the effects cable is bad, but I've used it with other pedals and never noticed a problem. Plus, it's only three inches, so I would imagine it would be an all or nothing type of thing. There's just not enough lead to lose a whole lot of signal.
I had very high expectations for this pedal, because one of the best tones I've ever heard was a friend's LP into a Big Muff into a JCM800. It was killer, killer tone, and I don't remember hearing anything better. I've also heard great fuzz recordings, and some of the greats have had fantastic success with them. In my setup, it just wasn't my cup of tea. All in all, I think I'll fill my Tele needs before any fuzz needs resurface.
Thanks for your attention.
