larrikin Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 I'm looking for one, but can't find one anywhere, am i right in saying they are better than the electro harmonix ones??? Also, i understand that they are not 'true bypass' but you can have this changed, what would it do if i had it made into a 'true bypass'? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toasted Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 It's all a question of what your ears like. ElectroHarmonix have made many, many different kinds of Big Muff over the years, and there's currently a moumental amount of companies making good clones. You can read more than you probably want to about the history here: [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Muff"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Muff[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Protium Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 (edited) There are hundreds of mods you can do to change it to how you like it, download the tone stack calculator for a start. You can mod the capacitor values to have the tone section virtually flat, or with extreme scooped mids (the original is a slight mid scoop centred around 1kHz). True bypass does what it says on the tin, when the pedal is off it is off - the signal is routed only through the footswitch. Without true bypass you can get some bleeding of the signal which will affect tone slightly, I wouldn't worry about it unless you're running a chain of about 60 pedals Comparing tone section (centered) of USA and Russian: USA: -5dB@ around 850Hz Sovtek: -7dB@ around 1kHz Might explain why people prefer the more scooped sound of the Russian further into the mids for bass. Edited October 20, 2008 by Protium Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmywinks Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 (edited) I have found that my Russian Big Muff does suck the tone slightly so would appreciate a link to a true bypass mod. Also they can be very noisy when switched on but out of all the distortions i've tried it's the rudest and my personal favourite! I'm sending mine to the shop to be looked at so the noise problem may be a fault with mine Bear in mind you'll have to mod it to accept mains power as they are battery only when new and they eat batteries for fun They are miles better for bass then the USA version, i bought the USA one in error before i got mine and there was no real low end to it. The Russian Muff has loads of bass clout and sounds incredibly rich and thick Edited October 20, 2008 by lemmywinks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderhead Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 (edited) [quote name='lemmywinks' post='310586' date='Oct 20 2008, 04:37 PM']I have found that my Russian Big Muff does suck the tone slightly so would appreciate a link to a true bypass mod. Also they can be very noisy when switched on but out of all the distortions i've tried it's the rudest and my personal favourite! I'm sending mine to the shop to be looked at so the noise problem may be a fault with mine Bear in mind you'll have to mod it to accept mains power as they are battery only when new and they eat batteries for fun They are miles better for bass then the USA version, i bought the USA one in error before i got mine and there was no real low end to it. The Russian Muff has loads of bass clout and sounds incredibly rich and thick[/quote] I had a Russian one once, it's the worst tone-sucking pedal I've ever had - I'm not normally fussed by a little and I'm certainly not a true-bypass snob, but this was so bad it even sounded like crap after a Boss pedal buffer. Added to the fact that it was battery-only, and the pots were horrible quality (scratchy and glitchy), I would have had to do enough work to fix it properly that I really couldn't be bothered... I got rid of it and replaced it with a Frantone The Sweet, which is a Big Muff derivative that sounds like the Big Muff should have all along! Fran who runs the company also worked on the reissue Big Muff for EH apparently, but The Sweet sounds more like a better Russian one to me - much more bass, punch and richness. They do a dedicated Bassweet as well now, which I haven't tried yet - the standard one sounds great anyway. (By the way, the sound clips on Frantone's website are quite poor and don't really do the pedals justice.) Edited October 21, 2008 by Thunderhead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dangerboy Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 I have a black russian muff at the moment. It's got a 3-knob tone stack, which helps a lot in finding good sounds. Also a switch to pull the second set of diodes out, which makes it much more 'boosty' and less 'muffy'. And a feedback switch for crazy drone noises. Oh, and a gate knob. It's a complex beast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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