anyone else hate the bass bigmuff

[Frank Blank]

When you’re tired of big muff you are tired of life.

Oliver Reed on the set of The Pirates of Blood River (1962)

[Paul Anthony]

On 19/10/2021 at 12:23, leojb23 said:

of all the 3 pedals ive ever owned, the one i hated most was the ehx bass big muff it was just such a horrible raspy fuzz, personally i prefer the effect i get from a boss ds1 which is nowhere near as popular as the big muff for bass, just wondering if anyone else shares my thoughts because it seems that pedal is very popular. maybe i just dont like fuzz i guess?

I  am with you here. I have tried a couple of big muffs and YUCK!     I cant get it to sound good at all on any bass with any setting - people do like them and ive heard some people on you tube mix it in with other effects and it sounds decent - but I cant get nuffin decent out of it -- I think a lot of people like sans amp for their dirt on bass - but ... I prefer cleaner tones on bass anyway - - so right there that sorta makes me biased BUT I like other dirt on basses that I hear from others I just havnt been able to create my own personal dirt tone -- especially on a big muff -- which my wife makes a face and a  joke and winces at the name on the box   about every time she walks pass the box it came in 

[fretmeister]

The only Muff type I've ever really liked on bass was the ThorpyFX Fallout Cloud (Used to be called the Muffroom Cloud until EHX got all lawyery)

 

It has an active 2 band EQ and it makes such a difference. Ideally it would be a 3 band, but a good mid hump can be set by reducing the Treble and Bass leaving the middle where it is and then upping the output to compensate.

 

It's a great pedal. I'd probably go as far as saying, if it was 3 band and had a clean blend it might be a contender for the best muff type ever built.

[Baloney Balderdash]

I don't like Muff type fuzzes in general for bass.

 

They sound great for guitar, but for bass in my opinion they always end up sounding like a muddy unarticulated and undefined mess for bass, ragardless of what variation we are talking about, though some are worse than others.

 

The Orange Fur Coat or Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz/Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz is where it is at as far as goes bass fuzz, as far as I am concerned.

 

 

Edited January 1, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[sky]

On 01/01/2022 at 17:00, Baloney Balderdash said:

I don't like Muff type fuzzes in general for bass.

 

They sound great for guitar, but for bass in my opinion they always end up sounding like a muddy unarticulated and undefined mess for bass, ragardless of what variation we are talking about, though some are worse than others.

 

The Orange Fur Coat or Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz/Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz is where it is at as far as goes bass fuzz, as far as I am concerned.

 

 

ah the fz2, provider of the electric wizard sound

[StickyDBRmf]

Put a standard Big Muff in front of a Morley Wah and you WILL cut thru anything.

AND...I have a Line6 PODX3 Live (really old tech, barely hanging on) and "blend" Tone 1 & Tone 2 one clean one "Muffed" and get a wonderful sound.

I like clean bass, I like saturated bass, I like fuzz bass. Bassbassbass. Grrrrrrrr.

Of course these days it's a Chapman Stick 12 string Dual Bass Reciprocal and it's the most full-range (and difficult) bass ever conceived (my opinion).

[stewblack]

Hate is far too strong a word for me to use in relation to an inanimate object.

However the muff is not anything I ever want to do to my sound. Bought it tried it sold it.

[JapanAxe]

I bought a Bass Big Muff Pi pretty cheaply and have yet to play a gig where I would need it. My son tried it and it was immediately obvious that it was inspiring him and making him want to play. It’s going home with him - that’s a win for me as it’s making someone happy.

[Jaybeevee]

I love my muff.. (said the actress to the bishop)..

Plug n play for me.. Dry switch plenty of sustain and tone.. I get a fat finger style rock tone in the mix.. it thickens things up, meat and potatoes.

I also use an amptweaker Bass tight Fuzz which I am constantly fiddling with

[NicoMcJ]

On 20/10/2021 at 12:44, NewUser said:

Can we just all set our differences aside and come together and agree that the deluxe big muff is the greatest pedal ever made?

God no.  I hated it. Replaced it with a Way Huge Pork and Pickle and my life is much better.

 

Its a Green Russian with a wonderfully flexible clean blend. And it’s tiny.

Edited April 19, 2022 by NicoMcJ

[Vin Venal]

I love the sound of a big muff, but I'm into mids at the moment, and the big muff is too scooped to make it onto my board.

 

Using an EBS black haze now, which is a fuzzy distortion pedal - kind of sounds like a rat without the low end loss.

Edited April 26, 2022 by Vin Venal

[Baloney Balderdash]

Hate is a strong word, but yes, I really don't like it and don't think it is a great bass pedal.

 

There are even some of EHX's own Big Muff variants that ironically, at least as  far as I am concerned, sound better on bass.

 

The clean blend switch on the Bass Big Muff also seems completely useless to me, like, in my opinion at least, they got the balance all wrong, as the clean signal is way to loud, which makes it sound like a dominating clean signal layer sort of laying on top of a background distorted signal, almost sounding like background noise from a faulty circuit, instead of the fuzz and clean signal actually blending together as one single signal, in my opinion they should just have added a regular clean blend knob that let you blend in as much or little clean signal as you liked.

 

I might not be the best person to ask this question though as I generally don't really like Big Muffs, regardless of variant (though some do work slightly better for bass than others, as said the Bass Big Muff ironically not being one of those), for bass at all, they lack definition and kills all articulation, partially because of their baked in more or less scooped tone, depending on specific variant, but even if you do boost the mids that will only improve definition and articulation a slight bit, which will still be far too little, as far as I am concerned Big Muff type fuzz just inherently makes your bass sound like a muddy dull inarticulate definitionless mess.

 

And it's not even because I dislike fuzz and high gain distortion applied to bass, I generally very much like it, I just don't like how Big Muff based fuzzes makes a bass sound.

 

In my opinion this is how fuzz bass is supposed to sound:

 

Indefinitely greater sounding than any Big Muff variant will ever be.

 

When that is said I do actually in general really like how most Big Muff variants sound used with guitar.

 

A guitar run through an OP Amp Muff is beautifully gnarly, through a Triangle Muff lovely gritty, and through a Ram's Head deliciously creamy and gloriously huge.    

 

On bass though, no matter the variant, a muddy dull inarticulate definitionless mess.

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[NicoMcJ]

12 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Hate is a strong word, but yes, I really don't like it and don't think it is a great bass pedal.

 

There are even some of EHX's own Big Muff variants that ironically, at least as  far as I am concerned, sound better on bass.

 

The clean blend switch on the Bass Big Muff also seems completely useless to me, like, in my opinion at least, they got the balance all wrong, as the clean signal is way to loud, which makes it sound like a dominating clean signal layer sort of laying on top of a background distorted signal, almost sounding like background noise from a faulty circuit, instead of the fuzz and clean signal actually blending together as one single signal, in my opinion they should just have added a regular clean blend knob that let you blend in as much or little clean signal as you liked.

 

I might not be the best person to ask this question though as I generally don't really like Big Muffs, regardless of variant (though some do work slightly better for bass than others, as said the Bass Big Muff ironically not being one of those), for bass at all, they lack definition and kills all articulation, partially because of their baked in more or less scooped tone, depending on specific variant, but even if you do boost the mids that will only improve definition and articulation a slight bit, which will still be far too little, as far as I am concerned Big Muff type fuzz just inherently makes your bass sound like a muddy dull inarticulate definitionless mess.

 

And it's not even because I dislike fuzz and high gain distortion applied to bass, I generally very much like it, I just don't like how Big Muff based fuzzes makes a bass sound.

 

In my opinion this is how fuzz bass is supposed to sound:

 

Indefinitely greater sounding than any Big Muff variant will ever be.

 

When that is said I do actually in general really like how most Big Muff variants sound used with guitar.

 

A guitar run through an OP Amp Muff is beautifully gnarly, through a Triangle Muff lovely gritty, and through a Ram's Head deliciously creamy and gloriously huge.    

 

On bass though, no matter the variant, a muddy dull inarticulate definitionless mess.

 

If the Orange had a clean blend knob it would be a no-brainer. It’s the only thing that’s prevented me from snapping one up.

[Cat Burrito]

Just seen this thread. I never used effects before but over lockdown I got into an 80a alternative duo and have been using the EHX pedals with that. I quite like the Big Muff but I use it sparingly and in combination with other effects. Reading this makes me wonder if I should have tried other brands but as I liked the EHX stuff I just stayed with the brand and the sound is great, for my needs. We have jangly 12 string guitar and drum machine / programmed keys so perhaps it would be a little more lost in a regular band set up. 

[Baloney Balderdash]

24 minutes ago, NicoMcJ said:

If the Orange had a clean blend knob it would be a no-brainer. It’s the only thing that’s prevented me from snapping one up.

Get a Boss LS-2 then.

 

Of course that will take up extra space (if money is no issue One Control makes a clean blend effect looper in mini pedal format, and actually it's only a bit more expensive than the LS-2), but it'll get you a clean blend for the Orange Fur Coat, and as a bonus you can use it for other pedals too, or other stuff.

 

Though personally I wouldn't miss a clean blend for that pedal.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[sky]

i was coming at it from a metal players perspective more the slow low kind of metal. for me i found the big muff harsh and skizzy. personally the proco rat is the distortion for me or just go clean

25 minutes ago, Cat Burrito said:

Just seen this thread. I never used effects before but over lockdown I got into an 80a alternative duo and have been using the EHX pedals with that. I quite like the Big Muff but I use it sparingly and in combination with other effects. Reading this makes me wonder if I should have tried other brands but as I liked the EHX stuff I just stayed with the brand and the sound is great, for my needs. We have jangly 12 string guitar and drum machine / programmed keys so perhaps it would be a little more lost in a regular band set up. 

 

[Cat Burrito]

1 minute ago, leojb23 said:

i was coming at it from a metal players perspective more the slow low kind of metal. for me i found the big muff harsh and skizzy. personally the proco rat is the distortion for me or just go clean

 

Quite literally a case of "No good for metal" then 😸

[sky]

1 minute ago, Cat Burrito said:

Quite literally a case of "No good for metal" then 😸

lol its weird though becuase the big muff is generally a pretty popular pedal for the genre, thinking of that tim bagshaw come my fanatics / dopethrone era of electric wizard kinda sound. i think i get more low end with a rat. either way to my ear and for my style the big muff didnt suit me. it might work for others in a different genre

[sky]

i could see it being decent for that synthy compressed more precise kinda thing

[alexa3020]

The lack of blend knob really is a limitation on big muff pi. And you often are too loud if using the dry mode and switching on /off in the same song.

You’ve got to keep that low end in the signal or you just get lost in the mix which means the other 2 modes (normal & bass boost) are pretty much redundant for live performance unless you have a line selector.

 

 

[NicoMcJ]

34 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Get a Boss LS-2 then.

 

Of course that will take up extra space (if money is no issue One Control makes a clean blend effect looper in mini pedal format, and actually it's only a bit more expensive than the LS-2), but it'll get you a clean blend for the Orange Fur Coat, and as a bonus you can use it for other pedals too, or other stuff.

 

Though personally I wouldn't miss a clean blend for that pedal.

I ended up going with a Pork & Pickle.  More than I wanted to spend on a fuzz but it does everything I need and pops from a mix more than a traditional Muff style.