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BGRA: Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi (Green)
| Manufacturer |
Electro Harmonix |
Model |
Big Muff Pi (Green) |
| Reviewer |
Rob Collins |
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| Experience |
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Item owned |
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| Review Date |
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Price paid |
$60 NZ or $30 US |
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Dimensions | About 2.5 tall, 5.5 long and 5 wide |
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Massive! This is one of the largest box pedals you'll ever encounter. A
bit of an extra lift of the foot is reqired when turning this thing on.
And when you do you'll know it too. Th is model is as far as I can tell, a
second generation Big Muff Pi. It's army tank green and made of seriously
tough and heavy metal. I bought it second hand and it had some nice
'battle damage' which gave it character and meant I will never feel guilty
for scratching it's paint.
Well, if you're looking to create some serious noise then this is the
pedal. Even with a flattish battery inside the poorly designed battery
cavity you're still going to create some racket. It has been known for the
switch on these things to intermittantly fail, but new ones have that
industry standard switch now.
It has the name of the pedal and knob functions screen printed on the top
surface. It has three lovely big plastic knobs, volume, distortion and
tone. Obviously this is fine if you're a guitarist, but if you want bass
heavy grind then you have to turn the tone control right down to the
muffled zone. Either that or you can go the other way for delightful tinny
buzz and accentuated string/finger noise.
Don't get me wrong I'm not slating this gem, but this is not a bass
specific effect. This is just a very bassy distortion pedal for guitar,
which has some applications for bass. If you want a wall of distortion
then get this thing and crank it. But watch out, don't let your guitarist
friends try it out, you'll never see it again.
I don't really think it has a true bypass, but then it is rather old. The
knobs are a little fragile mounted on the steel chassis, but are big
enough for foot operation if you like that. It is sturdy enough and I
don't wouldn't kick my pedals around if I used them all the time.
I don't really use it all that much now. I bought it to fill out the sound
of a rock/blues power trio while still retaining bass grunt and it did the
job fine. It also does Ben Folds Five bass distortion. I've since found
myself playing with a female vocalist and two guitarists, so there's no
need fo it. Now if I want the sound I just overdrive my valve amp, but if
it was a regular requirement then I would use a pedal.
My advice to bass players... don't put a fresh battery in it and you'll
have access to overdriven sounds in the lower reaches of the distortion
pots sweep rahter than full on distortion from 1 - 10. Find the solid,
tight and edgy distorted sound you want then put the muff in your amps
effects loop and crank the bass on your EQ. That way you don't have to
trade off your desired distorted sound for a more bassy yet muffled tone.
Excellent bassy growl!
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| construction |
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| usefulness |
| (60%) |
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| value |
| (70%) |
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| overall |
| (70%) |
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