Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

SongsForTheDeaf said:
Ok I shall try the TFR alone into my amp and first in chain aswell and see how it goes... I have been curious about Tonebenders Erksin but every demo I hear of them sounds so...thin or brittle but I have no researched it extensively so that's worth a look aswell.

So a buffer before the TFR would change its characteristics Agileguy ? I only put the visual sound first because it actually has the VS pure tone buffer in it
Click to expand...

You have several buffers on your board - the Whammy, the Bad Monkey, Boss, etc.

IMO you have a lot of dirt for somebody who gigs - are you forced to run the amp completely clean or something?
 
Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

good point, I will look into it... I have never even tried a tone bender but know a local musician who uses the big box soulbender and it sounds amazing live
 
Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

erksin said:
You have several buffers on your board - the Whammy, the Bad Monkey, Boss, etc.

IMO you have a lot of dirt for somebody who gigs - are you forced to run the amp completely clean or something?
Click to expand...

No I prefer to run clean combos or on the verge of breakup and use pedals for everything... I have never found an amp that I truly like the distortion on, I prefer natural breakup and amp on the verge of exploding but I don't really get to crank my amps to that point too often so I use the bad monkey for that and the fuzzes for their own effect.

I would like to add that I feel bad always coming on here with my problems but where else do I get great advice!
 
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Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

SongsForTheDeaf said:
So a buffer before the TFR would change its characteristics Agileguy ? I only put the visual sound first because it actually has the VS pure tone buffer in it
Click to expand...
It definitely changes the tone. When I was looking for a wah pedal, I went to guitar center with my pedalboard and tried a few wahs. The first one I tried was the Fulltone Clyde Deluxe with the new switchable fuzz buffer (basically an output buffer that's active only when the wah is on to make it compatible with fuzzes that don't normally like being placed after wahs in the chain). I used the wah with my Tri/Ram muff and it sounded terrible. The sweep was extremely limited and the tone was just meh. I turned on the buffer and BLAMO! Instant toan.

I might be wrong about what I'm about to say, so if I am, anyone may feel free to correct me.

Some vintage style fuzzes (usually limited to fuzz face circuits, but I've found it happens with clones of other old fuzzes too) like to see the guitar signal unadulterated. What the buffer you're using is doing is converting your signal to a low impedance. If your fuzz is like mine, it wants to see a high impedance input. The buffers in certain wahs like the newer fulltones and any RMC wah keep your guitar signal fuzz-friendly, which is the opposite of how most wahs work. So the first thing I recommend you do (it also happens to be the easiest) is to just take the Angry Fuzz out of the chain and see how that changes things.
 
Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

Ok I rearranged my board but I was curious do you think the whammy 5 which is true bypass could go before the TFR without any bad affect on its tone? or should I just put it before the whammy ?
 
Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

SongsForTheDeaf said:
Ok I rearranged my board but I was curious do you think the whammy 5 which is true bypass could go before the TFR without any bad affect on its tone? or should I just put it before the whammy ?
Click to expand...

Give it a try :)
 
Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

Ok I put the whammy 5 first then the TFR and so on... I won't try it now as there is company over but I will try it tomorrow... Heres hoping it cuts through better.

I also considered some of your advice about stacking turning the sound into muddy mush so Instead of keeping the SFT on all the time I'm goanna crank the gain on it and just use the sft on its on when its needed. No more stacking for this guy besides the EQ at the end to boost for solos and leads
 
Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

have you just tried the TFR on it own yet? No buffers, no other pedals, no nothing? Its the best place to start for any pedal.
 
Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

My experience with Big Muff's and variants hasn't been the best. I like them in theory but like you when I'd kick it in I would also get lost in the mix.

I had one of the large green Russian Big Muffs and it was a box of mush. Sounded good at home but with the band it was bye bye me. The best Muff type pedal I've used is the Swollen Pickle. It cut through much better.

Like others have recommended, next time you rehearse with your band try it without anything else and then start adding pedals back.

Could you tell me what all those pedals are and are they in the order I'm thinking (right first, left last)? Mostly curious. I recognize the WH5, Bad Monkey, Behringer EQ & the one looks like a TC Electronics tuner. Regardless, I'd go tuner-WH4-Muff then play with the rest. Just me but I always keep the tuner dead first. I also put the EQ in the fx loop if the amp has one.
 
Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

jpistolas said:
My experience with Big Muff's and variants hasn't been the best. I like them in theory but like you when I'd kick it in I would also get lost in the mix.

I had one of the large green Russian Big Muffs and it was a box of mush. Sounded good at home but with the band it was bye bye me. The best Muff type pedal I've used is the Swollen Pickle. It cut through much better.

Like others have recommended, next time you rehearse with your band try it without anything else and then start adding pedals back.

Could you tell me what all those pedals are and are they in the order I'm thinking (right first, left last)? Mostly curious. I recognize the WH5, Bad Monkey, Behringer EQ & the one looks like a TC Electronics tuner. Regardless, I'd go tuner-WH4-Muff then play with the rest. Just me but I always keep the tuner dead first. I also put the EQ in the fx loop if the amp has one.
Click to expand...

I'll try just the muff alone next rehearsal and see how it goes. I put the tuner later in chain so I can downtune to C standard with the whammy 5 and use the tuner after to accurately tune to to it
 
Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

Now that's slick! Never had a whammy so I was still in the thinking of "Never put anything in front of the tuner as other pedals could alter the signal and put the tuning off." type of thought. I'm painfully OCD about pedal placement. Tuner-wah-dirt-amp. Time stuff: chorus-flange-tremolo-delay-volume pedal-any noise suppression-fx loop.

Worth mentioning; The BMP tone circuit has LOTS of info online. You can tweak it pretty easily to boost whatever frequency you're wanting. It's like the Colt revolver of tone circuits. What most single tone circuits are based on. If you really want to experiment there's articles on adding a bass & treble (maybe mid, can't remember) to the BMP tone circuit. Don't know if you're into pedal modding but I thought it was worth mentioning. I wanted to add a bass & treble to my green Russian BMP but drilling it would have killed it's value which was getting down right stupid then. Sold it for a tripe profit. :biglaugh:
 
Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

thanks jpistolas ! I will look into It, I don't mod pedals but have a friend who does so its worth looking into. I might have to look for a big muff type pedal with the mid knob like the Hoof fuzz and Mojo Hand Iron Bell
 
Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

Ok so I tried just the TFR just on it's own and it had more OOMPH and definition then when stacking it with the SFT so I'm goanna use it tonight in Rehearsal like that and see if it cuts through more
 
Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

yeah it still did not cut through great last night without the EQ on... thinking about trading it for a fuzz factory
 
Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

What is your other guitarist playing through? You guys could be bumping heads frequency wise. IMO BMP & variants are a bit mid scooped like setting an eq in a "smile" or even "V" shape. If he's eq-ing in a similar manner you both could be a little too scooped to stand apart much.

The Fuzz Factory is a big nasty sputtering monster! You'll most likely love it. Never played one in a band situation but I've demo'd one at a store and it was mean. Still, don't give up on the TFR too quickly.

Some mentioned volume. Have you simply tried turning up? My experience with fuzz/od/dist has been I've had to turn the amp up some. Dirt pedals seem make for a smaller sound. Not sure if I'm explaining myself correctly. Is your other guitarist using a pedal for dirty sounds or just the amp?

You could also change to a 1 guitarist band. No mixing problems then. LMAO! :naughty:
 
Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

jpistolas said:
What is your other guitarist playing through? You guys could be bumping heads frequency wise. IMO BMP & variants are a bit mid scooped like setting an eq in a "smile" or even "V" shape. If he's eq-ing in a similar manner you both could be a little too scooped to stand apart much.

The Fuzz Factory is a big nasty sputtering monster! You'll most likely love it. Never played one in a band situation but I've demo'd one at a store and it was mean. Still, don't give up on the TFR too quickly.

Some mentioned volume. Have you simply tried turning up? My experience with fuzz/od/dist has been I've had to turn the amp up some. Dirt pedals seem make for a smaller sound. Not sure if I'm explaining myself correctly. Is your other guitarist using a pedal for dirty sounds or just the amp?

You could also change to a 1 guitarist band. No mixing problems then. LMAO! :naughty:
Click to expand...

Haha well I play pretty loud, enough that today my ears are still ringing( I should wear earplugs I know) but it still clashes with my other guitarists sound to the point where my sound just sounds like mush but on its own it sounds glorious (maybe I should be in my own 1 guitarist band ;) )

I will play around with the EQ and TFR some more and not give up on it but will keep scanning craigslist for used fuzz factorys. Its obviously a mid scoop thing because when I use my bad monkey I cut through the most and my brother probably can't hear himself but when I switch to fuzz its like I just get lost, I even tried lowering the gain to just over half.

Oh the troubles of being a guitarist ;)
 
Re: Tricks to get Russian Big Muff to cut through

Since your other guitarist is your brother ignore my last comment. That could make for some difficult family gatherings. :sword:

Good luck on your fuzz quest. They can be picky little boxes so finding the right one well could end up the holy grail route. Especially in a multi guitar situation.

Just another thought but have you tried a more midrangy sounding guitar? A good friend has a Dean Evo like mine except his has P-90's (and he refuses to sell it to me!! :angryfire ) but it's more bass & treble sounding than mine but mine cuts through a bit more. He played bass in a band with me and I used to play his Dean just 'cuz I really dug it. Not as big a difference since I was the only guitar player but I could tell there was a bit less midrange.
 
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