Big Muff
The Big Muff is a Fuzzbox produced in New York City by the Electro-Harmonix company, along with their Russian sister company Sovtek, primarily for use with the electric guitar. It is used by bassists as well due to the Big Muff's low end frequency response.
History
The Big Muff was first introduced in the early 1970s and was used by artists including David Gilmour and Carlos Santana. David Gilmour famously used the Big Muff on the Pink Floyd albums Animals and The Wall and most recently on 2006 David Gilmour On An Island tour. Contrary to one common belief[citation needed], the Big Muff was not used extensively by Jimi Hendrix and, in fact, production models were not available until 1971, a year after Hendrix's death in 1970. Big Muff creator Mike Matthews, however, has claimed that Hendrix used a Big Muff prototype in some sessions prior to his death and he was reportedly impressed enough to want to use it on his next album. Hendrix played an integral part in the making of the Big Muff, as Matthews has often stated that Hendrix's guitar sound was the inspiration for the creation of the Big Muff [1].
An earlier EH pedal, the Axis fuzz, was also manufactured by EH for the Guild guitar company as the Foxey Lady and used a similar chassis as the early Big Muffs but had a simpler two-transistor circuit. With the introduction of the Big Muff the Axis was discontinued and the Foxey Lady pedal became a rebranded Big Muff. It was available at least until the mid '70s.
The Big Muff Pi was the first overwhelming success for Electro-Harmonix's line of pedals. Due to its reliability, its inexpensive price and its distinctive sound, the Big Muff sold consistently through the 1970s and was found in innumerable guitarists' pedal collections. Even after the Electro-Harmonix company was forced out of business in 1982, the pedal remained in such demand that clones of the Big Muff were made by both competing corporations and independent pedal builders, and demand for "vintage Big Muffs" rose. Unsurprisingly, when Matthews restarted Electro-Harmonix in the 1990s, the Big Muff was one of the first pedals he reintroduced to the market.
The "sustained grind" of the Big Muff was later used in the sound of many Alternative rock bands through the 1980s and 1990s, such as the Smashing Pumpkins and Dinosaur Jr. The band Mudhoney loved the pedal so much that they named an EP after it, Superfuzz Bigmuff. Singer-songwriter John Martyn also paid tribute to the pedal by naming a song after it. Robert Sledge, Bassist of the since disbanded group Ben Folds Five, used the pedal during recorded and live performances. Jack White of the White Stripes has also made the Big Muff an integral part of his garage rock sound. Chris Ross, the bassist of Wolfmother uses the New York version of the Big Muff. The pedal has also been used in stoner rock. Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth both use the Sovtek version of the Big Muff [2]. The Big Muff remains a favorite among guitarists and bassists for its distinctive sound.
Aside from the Big Muff, Electro-Harmonix have made what could possibly be called "derivatives"and "new iterations" of the Big Muff, such as the Metal Muff, which has a 3-band EQ and is a distortion; the Little Big Muff, a smaller variation of the current NYC model, the Deluxe Big Muff, the 77/78 op amp Big Muff, designed by Howard Davis, which uses IC's to create the Fuzz whereas all others, except the Deluxe Big Muff, use transistors.. There also exists a customized limited edition Big Muff, called the Mogwai Big Muff. This pedal was designed by EHX for the Scottish band Mogwai, and has a slightly more extreme sound. Electro Harmonix produced only one hundred Mogwai Big Muff pedals.
Two pedals which are often mistaken for Big Muff variations are the Double Muff, where two Muff Fuzz (the predecessor of the Big Muff) circuits are placed into one housing and can be cascaded, and the English Muff'n, a tube based distortion/pre-amp pedal, which is aimed at getting a Marshall type sound.
Technology of the Big Muff
Most versions of the Big Muff use four transistor stages. Two of these act as input and output buffers, and two generate the distortion effect. For a short time in the late-70s the Big Muff used op amps, which at the time were not as highly regarded as the discrete transistor versions. However, the op-amp (or IC) Big Muffs have lately seen a revival among collectors and players alike. The IC Big Muff has a slight variation in sound to the transistor version, it is not as scooped and seems to cut through more in a band situation which is desirable among some.
Electro-Harmonix also released a large-box version of the Big Muff known as the Deluxe Big Muff Pi. This version included an onboard compressor in addition to the standard Big Muff features. It was available in 2 versions: one with a BLEND switch and another with a SERIES/PARALLEL switch.
Many current guitar effect manufacturers produce clones of historical versions of the Big Muff Pi, ranging from a less expensive Behringer VD-1 to higher-end products offered by Skreddy, RonSound, Euthymia, Blackout Effectorsand others.
Electro-Harmonix themselves have joined the fray with a reissue version of their original Big Muff Pi as well as a smaller "Little Big Muff Pi" that incorporates true bypass switching, surface-mount components, and a smaller enclosure. SMD, or surface mount components, don't change the sound from the regular "TH", or Through Hole components versions, they simply offer the benefit of being able to fit the same circuit in a smaller enclosure.
Variants
Currently the Big Muff Pi is offered in five versions: the US-made Big Muff Pi, which can be identified by its silvery metal casing; the US-made Bass Big Muff Pi Distortion/Sustainer; the less expensive Sovtek Big Muff Pi, made in Russia; the Little Big Muff Pi which is a variation of the NYC Big Muff, and the latest incarnation, the Big Muff Pi with Tone Wicker which is a standard NYC Big Muff Pi with tone switching abilities.
The company also offers the Double Muff, which, contrary to popular belief[citation needed], is not two separate Big Muff circuits. Instead, it is two separate Muff Fuzz circuits, one of the company's early distortion effects which is actually an overdrive not a fuzz. Electro-Harmonix also offers a "Metal Muff," which adds a 3-band active EQ to a high gain distortion circuit in order to modify the mid-range tone for a tone closer to that of many heavy metal guitarists, as well as a treble booster to provide more gain, the Metal Muff has nothing in common with the Big Muff Pi as the latter is a Fuzz, the former a Distortion. There's also the Graphic Fuzz, a multiple-effect unit containing a light Fuzz (which is more of an Overdrive than a Fuzz), Graphic EQ, and envelop filter, and English Muff'n, a tube-based muff derivative with 3-band EQ.