Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

[AustinS]

Hey guys,

I picked up a EHX Big Muff a while ago (the one with the tone and wicker switch) and I'm in love with the tone I get from it, but palm muting with this thing really doesn't sound too great, it's more of a "glug glug glug" instead of "chug chug chug", it just sounds really farty and bad. Is there another similar fuzz pedal that can pull off palm muting better than this one can or is it just " its the nature of the beast" kind of a thing? I tried the Rat distortion pedal because it sounds fuzzy for a distortion and it can palm mute a lot better but it definitely has a different sound and between the pedals i definitely prefer the big muff.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Blille]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

What amp do you have? That happens with the tone knob up and the bridge humbucker? I get a pretty chug-ey palm mute.


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[AustinS]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

Sorry, I should've included my gear in my first post but it slipped my mind lol. I play a Fender Stratocaster with a full-sized JB in the bridge and I'm playing it though a Bugera V22 Infinium. If I turn the tone knob almost all the way up it definitely gets a lot more usable but it's a little too "swarm of angry bees" sounding for my tastes. Generally I turn the tone switch off anyways and just use my Biyang EQ pedal to shape it's tone with more control and I think overall it sounds fuller and more vibrant this way.

 

[AustinS]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

I wouldn't look to any fuzz for a chugging.

Yeah I was thinking it fuzz and chugging might just not work together lol. I like that sound like when a BOSS DS-1 is cranked and it borderlines fuzz tones but the pedal is a little tinny for me, is there maybe another distortion pedal that can achieve that sound? I thought something like that might be able to pull of chugging a little better.

 

[El Dunco]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

The Companion Fuzz has some crazy sounding palm mutes and the Super Fuzz (I'll enquire about which super fuzz exactly and get back to you) has a bit more in common with a heavy distortion than a muff type fuzz which lends to better palm mutes.

 

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

I wouldn't look to any fuzz for a chugging.

Sell the Big Muff, get a Swollen Pickle. That thing is so versatile and you can get great "chug chug chug" sounds than with the Big Muff. The Big Muff is great for bass and looser feeling rock music. For tighter playing, but keeping the fuzz, I cannot recommend the SP.

 

[VinceT]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

Yeah, I wouldn't ever really look to fuzz for tight rhythm. Of all the dirt pedals I've tried, I just keep coming back to the Fulltone OCD. Set right for the amp, it'll chug with the best of them.


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[VinceT]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

That said, if you do stay with fuzz - I use the Earthquaker Tone Reaper and it's great - a very usable EQ control.


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[Boppy]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

Yeah, Muff doesn't chug too well in general, but run a Tube Screamer set for boost into it and see what happens...

 

[baritone]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

The RAT sounds close enough to fuzz, & it sounds good w/palm muting. The one I had was Keeley-modified to get rid of the floppy bass (similar to the floppy bass of a Muff).

 

[NoOnesFang13]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

I use a tube screamer clone as a clean boost before my BBE Free Fuzz and it keeps the fuzziness but tightens up the low end

 

[MkIII Renegade]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

The classic Big Muff definitely has a limited number of tricks. I bought mine just for times when I wanted to explore old school and it also does a dead-on impersonation of the Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream super-saturated sound with the right tweaks. Definitely wouldn't use it for chugging. I do that straight through the amp or with a MXR 10-band EQ.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

Yeah, Muff doesn't chug too well in general, but run a Tube Screamer set for boost into it and see what happens...

When I do that, it basically just sounds the same; the Muff just compresses any signal from the TS, so it's just an off switch with the volume at zero, or full fuzz tone with TS volume at anything above 1 .

Much better results running the Tube Screamer after the Muff... But not necessarily for 'chugging.' As for Smashing Pumpkins... Yeah, I have no issue getting the tone with a Muff for the most part (even after having bought "purpose-built" Pumpkin pedals and reading about various mods, I still think most Muffs do it better.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

you need a metal muff

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

Fuzz pedals all to varying degrees all compress dynamics. If you can run an all tube full stack with massive 100 watt amps cranked up to ungodly decibels through a 4x12 or 2x 4x12's, you regain some of those lost dynamics. In general, no fuzz pedal is going to give you the 'chugga chugga' of a straight signal into,like, a Recto ( gut punch to the nads)or 6505 ( gut punch to the chest).

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

Is your gut closer to your nads, or your chest?

Recto ( gut punch to the nads)or 6505 ( gut punch to the chest

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

I don't mean to be a grammar nazi, but a gut punch by definition is a punch to the gut.

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

Yeah, as everyone is saying the modern big muff is not a real chugging maching. Some people run boosts or overdrives to tighten up the tone and help the mids cut through a bit, but unless you have a fuzz pedal specifically designed to shape how the pedal handles your guitar's attack. (See swollen pickle and blackout musket) it's gonna require some tricks and outside help to pull off.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Palm Mute With Fuzz Pedal?

I don't mean to be a grammar nazi, but a gut punch by definition is a punch to the gut.

Better than a nut punch to the throat, either way lol


While my BigMuff experience is limited to the model found in the Line6 M13, I was able to get the rhythm tones from Ride the Lightning with it, though I was using a JCM800 head through a pair of Carvin British12s (their Celestion copies) and a 2x12 cabinet. If you're getting flubby palm mutes, it could be the voicing of the amp and/or speakers/cabinet.

Then again, turning the Tone knob "Up" (clockwise) should not be increasing the buzz, but should actually be making it darker. Backing off (counter-clockwise) should be making it brighter. Apparently this is how the vintage BigMuff worked, which is what Line6 modeled.
This, I've found, is where the whole "scooping the mids to get that early Metallica/Anthrax thrash tone" started, and why a generation of players have been getting a "bee in a bottle" tone when they turn their Mids off on their amps.

Additionally, if you watch any backstage unprocessed footage of Metallica where James is playing solo, his tone is incredibly farty (the clip where they were waiting for Lemmy to arrive and James was trying to sing into Lemmy's mic).