Big Muff on offer should I or shouldnt I?

[tonyclaret]

Hi, I have been offered the Ehx Big muff as part of a trade. Are these any cop? I have a Vt bass and can get some pretty Overdriven/distorted tones going on. Would the muff enhance my set up?

Cheers

[1976fenderhead]

Which Big Muff?

[mike257]

There's a bass-specific model, Bass Big Muff which should give you some nice thick tones, although many people have used the ordinary Big Muff with varying degrees of success. The loss of low end with the non-bass model can be a problem depending on the rest of your setup. Might be worth a punt if the rest of the trade suits you, and you could always dispose of it in the classifieds or on ebay/Gumtree if you don't get on with it - there's always demand for them as they are a popular one with guitarists too.

[tonyclaret]

[quote name='mike257' timestamp='1331551661' post='1574484']
There's a bass-specific model, Bass Big Muff which should give you some nice thick tones, although many people have used the ordinary Big Muff with varying degrees of success. The loss of low end with the non-bass model can be a problem depending on the rest of your setup. Might be worth a punt if the rest of the trade suits you, and you could always dispose of it in the classifieds or on ebay/Gumtree if you don't get on with it - there's always demand for them as they are a popular one with guitarists too.
[/quote]

Sorry guys its the bass one. Was thinking that, if I like I keep, if not just move on.

[Nibody]

[quote name='mike257' timestamp='1331551661' post='1574484']
There's a bass-specific model, Bass Big Muff which should give you some nice thick tones, although many people have used the ordinary Big Muff with varying degrees of success. The loss of low end with the non-bass model can be a problem depending on the rest of your setup. Might be worth a punt if the rest of the trade suits you, and you could always dispose of it in the classifieds or on ebay/Gumtree if you don't get on with it - there's always demand for them as they are a popular one with guitarists too.
[/quote]

I have the non bass big muff - find it a bit "harsh"

[Sibob]

From what I understand with the bass big muff, there are issues with the blend & volume controls being out of sync? something like that. Difficult to balance your bass sound without getting a volume boost, easily modded thought it seems.
I had a standard silver Muff that sounded fine on bass, although that was with all the tone rolled off, so more bass retention, wind it up and you lose bottom end.
My CoPilot FX Orbit w/blend has replaced it.

Si

[TG Flatline]

[quote name='Sibob' timestamp='1331567889' post='1574953']
From what I understand with the bass big muff, there are issues with the blend & volume controls being out of sync? something like that. Difficult to balance your bass sound without getting a volume boost, easily modded thought it seems.
I had a standard silver Muff that sounded fine on bass, although that was with all the tone rolled off, so more bass retention, wind it up and you lose bottom end.
My CoPilot FX Orbit w/blend has replaced it.

Si
[/quote]

The Bass Big Muff in Dry Mode simply adds distorted sound to your clean sound with no control of the volume of the dry, so you almost always get a volume boost. Clean blend on any distortion for bass is for winners. If you'd be leaving the BBM on all the time it would be fine, but if you want to be able to switch between clean and dirty you need to be able to do the mod or accept the volume jump. When I had mine I had to have less dirt than I would have liked because of the volume jump when I went from clean to dirty. I found the other two modes weren't really as usable in a band mix.

As has been mentioned above though, they are always selling so you could grab it to see if you like the big muff sound, plus the big muff sound with a clean blend (can sound massive) so you can see if you want to go down the line of a unit with more control later. My Big Muff is home-built and has adjustable clean/dirty blend and it's just plain mega. Take back the authority in your rehearsal room!

[cheddatom]

I use my BBM on dry mode and I don't get the volume jump others talk about, but i do have the volume set quite low..?

[dannybuoy]

Yeah, the volume boost is unavoidable - on dry mode, if you have the volume all the way down, you just get a clean sound at normal volume. Any increase on the volume knob from there adds fuzz volume on top.

I use my BBM on dry mode with the volume around 2 o'clock to get the wet/dry ratio to my liking, then turn down the master volume control I added with a simple mod: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/112212-bass-big-muff-volume-and-feedback-mods/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/112212-bass-big-muff-volume-and-feedback-mods/[/url]

Definitely get it if you've never played one before, they are inexpensive and easy to sell if you decide to move it on!

[alex_koss]

I have a love-hate relationship with big muffs on bass. I love the muff flavour of fuzz, the big thick full saturation BUT most of them (save for the Russian version) compress the pick attack too much, especially on the lowest of low notes.

So you'd think the BBM's clean blend would be a good idea...but you can't adjust the ratio of bass to clean and to my ears there's way too much clean so the clean ends up taking centre-stage with the fuzz sitting in the background...not great. It's a shame. I actually preferred it in the "normal" mode.