Oh that sounds interesting, wonder how it translate to a cheap transistor amp that I use, I'm thinking about going for a clone of an OCD to pair with my tone wicker big Muff, currently I get more mids from a Tube screamer ts9
I've found that running a ds-1 on the lowest gain in front of a big muff adds the perfect amount of bite that I'm looking for from it. Sounds amazing on my strat.
Walrus Audio Eons is my favorite muff. It's based on the ram's head. It has five different clipping options, a 2 band eq, and a voltage/bias knob. You can get a lot of great sounds out of it.
Dude, this one is definitely on my radar and would be my first dip into the world of Walrus. The amount of tones it covers sounds insane! And shows just how flexible that old Muff circuit can be. Those clipping options alone make it a dirt chameleon!
My first two pedals were a TS9DX and that same Muff. I ran the screamer into the muff for years. Gave me the sound I was looking for. I still keep them on a mini board seperate from my main board. They just sound so good together.
I've never got on with fuzz pedals (I know...a poor workman always blames his tools), but some of my all time favourite guitar tones are from guitarists using fuzz, so I'm always interested to see how I could incorporate them into my sound.
All you need is fuzz! Thing is, a lot of the most popular ones have such a particular sound that they can alienate people. But they don't have to be super scooped, saturated or buzzy. If you check out something like a good Fuzz Face and treat it like a distorted amp, you'll find they're amongst the most flexible and toneful drive tones out there!
I remember having get used to the feel as well when I was first using fuzz pedals. They are usually pretty responsive to the knobs on the guitar, use them.
Absolutely! The Rat can get very Muff like at its upper end of gain and that's when people describe it as "fuzzy" - but it ain't no Harmonic Perculator, it's definitely more of a muff with mids and cut bass. I think fuzztortion describes them perfectly.
2:36 woah shots fired lol I love JHS, Josh always suggest you just try things out everyone is searching for a different tone. But i like the friendly jab. And I like this channel!
I have too, and I love it! Just a question guys.. I use at the first place of the chain a compressor pedal always on for both clean and distortion sound.. I'm doing right? Or I should take it off when I use the muff?? Anyway I love compression on lead sound, it gives me more power and sustain..
@@MrAlexGalante You can use them either way, but will get different results, and really there are very few cases where you always use a specific pedal in a specific place. You can put a flanger before the fuzz and fuzz out the flanging, but with the fuzz first, you flange the fuzing!🤪 Try it and see, but you will have to play with the controls to get a good picture of what sounds good for each. 🧐 I always try new pedals in different places, and have discovered many great sounds worth using. Many modern pedal boards have order switching so you can do it live and on the fly.😲
My green tank of an early 90's Sovtek bubble font Big Muff Pi is still my favorite. I also have the NYC, the Deluxe and Triangle but the Russian one that came in a little wood crate with the sliding top lid is the cat's meow.
Already here, dude! But it's tucked away in the Big Muff Deep Dive pt.2. Check it out: ua-cam.com/video/KM1qNo_YV5k/v-deo.htmlsi=CBAeeDMChkK3KpJx&t=115
I have a deluxe big muff pi, and the pamphlet inside says that if the tone pots do not fit your tastes you can unscrew the back plate snd use a 2mm wide flat head screwdriver and adjust the tone pots away from factory settings. Apparently there are 3 pots for the mid bypass section.
I agree! If you put an overdrive after the big muff you kill your sound. As you say, the overdrive should be placed before the big muff, even better if you use a full range overdrive, more or less "transparent" like boss bd-2. Greetings!
@@silviolutti1522 yeah david gilmour placed the powerbooster after fuzz, the guy in the video here just has no idea how to set it up, he has the gain on the tube screamer at 1:00, which is obviously gonna sound like shit, the gain should be as low as possible
I just picked up a Deluxe Big Muff last week and I fully agree about how great it is. You can pretty much obtain any muff sound you want with it, and you have the option of using the mid switch as a solo boost or as a better way to hone in on that tone you're looking for. I can't believe no one talks about it and it's only about $30 USD more than the Ram's Head reissue.
A muff CANT go into a TS, it sounds so bad really, the only scenario I can see working is if it’s a TS inspires pedal that has no clipping option(like EQD plumes) but even then it’s still way better before the muff
The one instance that I find works well with muff into overdrive, is I run my green russian big muff into a Blackarts Toneworks Black Forest, but I'm using that overdrive as a preamp into the effects return, or even ampless into a cab ir box. Sounds mean as hell
You always hear the "don't put buffered pedals infront of your fuzz" mantra but it doesn't apply to the big muff, I like my Marshall Guv'nor 2 going into it, it's been modded to sound more like a Guv'nor 1 and the specific type of midrange that pedal has sounds great into the rams head setting of my JHS Muffuletta.
Jesus man! Funny, informative and helpful. I gave up on this rabbit hole years ago because I couldn’t get the right sound, but I’m definitely going to revisit this.
A Muff is/isn't a Fuzz in the same way that a Tomato isn't/is a Fruit To an Engineer/Botanist, it's an Overdrive/Fruit To a Guitarist/Chef, it's a Fuzz/Vegetable FWIW, I really like running my Blues Driver clone into my Muff - the BD is my preferred OD to push my amp and it does magic things with the BMP too.
awesome video. opened my eyes, and maybe ill take the big muff off the shelf now. What about the one with the Wicker switch tone wicker? should I have the wicker engaged or no?
Thanks! I'd say yes, generally. It'll help lift it out of a mix, anyway. Pair that with turning the tone off and you have a completely new beast that'll stand in a mix as good as any distortion.
I like the pig snort sound I get from the BIG MUFF PI on my round wound bass for harder metal and non-metal songs alike. It adds that different dimension to the overdrive of my amp through the loop, which is superbly golden and clean. I still get the floor of the bass, but the snarl of the guitar section of the songs, at the same time. Of course I like it on many guitar parts for that standout feeling of arpeggios and some leads. I am using the original Big Muff Pi from back in the days of the LPB-1 and LPB-2, with a small phazer at the end of chain to get a good pig snort out of it.
I just got my first Muff, it is a Deluxe Big Muff. It has made my life so much better. Now I am here watching videos about Muffs, this is how it starts. Weeks from now I will have remortgaged my home in search of the best and biggest Muff.
TRUE OMG I can't BELIEVE how many times I've seen ppl telling ppl to put the TS after and I'm like "Dawg, ahev you tried this yourself? If so? Are you ears healthy?" because it makes ZERO sense
Love your attitude of simply stating that a particular configuration sounds shit! I applaud that. Guitarists have become so un-creative, just copying/repeating what others say.
Thanks, man! I'm often disappointed when people conclude "it's whichever best suits your needs and budget" or something like that. I mean, reading manufacturer stuff and bringing me to that conclusion. I want to know an actual hard-line opinion!
Deluxe is the way. I'd moved away from Muffs for a while; but when I saw the Sovtek Deluxe, I realized instantly the potential of it, and it hasn't disappointed me ever since. Clean blend is a great feature for not only bass, but also adding note definition for guitar chords and arpeggios.
This is an eye opener for me. I kicked the big muff off my board because I couldn’t cut the mud and make it cut through with my band, so I settled with what I could get out of my rat pedal. I do have a Boss SD1 though, which is similar to a tube screamer…could that work to boost the mids on the muff??
I loathe Tube Screamers, and-on top of that-I have no more room on my board for one. What if I were to stick a Bluesbreaker clone before it? So the signal chain will go Compressor>B.B. clone>Muff>rest of mi pedal board.
I think Muff into an overdrive started off with David Gilmour using a Muff into a Tube Driver. What people are missing is the Tube Driver has a fuck ton of headroom compared to the ordinary overdrive so boosting it with a Muff doesnt make it sound like flubby ass.
I have a Blackheart BH100H. It’s a monster of an amp but I’m frustrated because my only pedal that’s turned to crap is my Pumpkin Pi Big Muff. No matter what I do, it sounds like it’s under water. I’m thinking about selling the amp because the Muff sounded alive on Fender’s, Vox’s, Marshall’s…
How are you setting the amp up gain wise? Are you using anything with a buffer before the muff? Chances are the Blackheart is based on something very similar to the classic brands, so I'd find out what, before you make a switch, and be sure you make a good one!
I don't think so, no. It can be a different, cool sound, but not always something to help with high end. It's an odd one. What are the tones on the other 2 set like?
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox BD-2: level 12:00, tone 12:00, gain 11:00. Pumpkin Pi: volume 12:00, tone 12:00, sustain 9:00. I don’t use the the fuzz with my metal x zone.
Really appreciate this video, I've been trying to troubleshoot my tone with a wicker muff and have been hitting the wall. Looking forward to doing some rearranging!
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox I want to resequence my boost and an equalizer in front of the muff. They currently are behind it, and your video perfectly reflected the problem I'm having with that.
It's funny because, for about 2-3 months now I'm running a DBA Fuzz War into a Boss SD-1, and it's sounds almost like Colour Haze. I'm actually happy with the resoults, it pulled me out of my comfort zone and gave me a different perspective on dirt pedals. An important note is that I only use the neck pickup, and the gain settings on the amp is very low, so as on the pedals. So I admit that a full on blast from the fuzz and the overdrive would sound like crap.
Distortion is a bit heavier than overdrive And it's like a ramping up process from weakest effect to strongest. OD is just a little color on the line, fuzz shapes the line, then distortion... Distorts. Color>shape>texture.
I make a muff based circuit that has a mids knob with a preboost circuit (ie a buffer) in front of it. It has a second stomp to switch on or off the buffer/boost.
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox it is... I do pedals as a side thing- I'm an engineer by profession, and for the last year or so I've been working on a massive project and its left me with little free time. I'm not taking orders at the moment, but I do have one of them built already if you're interested.
I stumbled upon a EH Double Muff pedal. Had never seen one before and it is a beautiful distortion that really responds well to the dynamics of your picking/playing. AND you get the switch that changes it to a heavier distortion. Love it and was happy to pay $180 at my local guitar store. Trying to find the 'right' placement for it on my board.
Awesome! Though we should note, the "Muff" circuit in the Muff overdrive and Double Muff aren't actually "Big" Muff circuits at all! Not sure why they stuck with that name for a pedal that as different but they've also done it with the Big Muff Germanium so I think they just like to use it on their dirt pedals.
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox There used to be an EH Muff Fuzz pedal and the double Muff is (I think) the choice of 1 or 2 germanium diods, thus the switch and is a Fuzz unlike the Big Muff. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Always trying to learn about anything that relates to guitars....Strats in particular and Pedals. Total lifelong obsession!!!
Great video ! Any plans on doing any bass content for a peasant bass player like myself ? Super curious on tips and tricks with muffs coming at a bass playing perspective
Thanks! I absolutely will! I've got a little bit of bass stuff in my Carcosa video and I'll also be including it in an upcoming Muff video that compares all sorts of Muff flavours
Picked up my first Big Muff (Tone Wicker) last summer. Already got a tube screamer (who doesn't). Any other suggestions specific to the Wicker version?
The Wicker can sound great on its own so you might not even need that tube Screamer! otherwise, it's a modern NYC Muff circuit so most of the normal stuff applies with the added flexibility of the tone bypass and wicker toggles. Have fun!
I noticed that a Muff works so well with a TS9. On my Peavey, there’s a Muff effect so I paired that with my actual TS9 and holy hell! What a revelation! It sounded great and despite how chunky it was, it actually turned out to be a pretty damn good tone for King Diamond and Mercyful Fate! I had the tone higher on both (~60-65%) with decreased muff volume and 70% Sustain. It sounded great. Next pedal I’m getting is a muff. The MXR Distortion+ and TS9 already make up a larger part of my tone. Keep the D+ in line for Iron Maiden stuff and put the muff on for Mercyful Fate! (Btw, an EQ pedal goes a long way people!)
Melvins part sounds sick. Flashing me back to Fantomas… which was muddy AF but they were competing with Mike Patton’s shrieks and all sorts of insane Slayer cymbals and it just worked.
Yeah, I always used a NUX Tube Screamer going into a Russian Muff, always on, all the time. It just cuts into the band mix, specially live. The full on FAT Muff sound is wonderful alone in your room, but when you put actual drums and a bass into the mix they disappear. I never really understood people that say to put the overdrive after the Muff. I imagine they just don't know that Muff doesn't work like other Fuzzes and they really don't need to go first in your line.
With Fuzz it's to emulate a over driven tube amp .With Muffs it's because of the mid scoop . I love Muffs latter in the line ,but this is why I have a E.Q. at the end.
Great advice except 2:15. As you said, everything is subjective. Music is an art. There’s no “wrong” and there’s no “bad.” It’s all about the application and the mood you’re going for. The muffled bass heavy sound of Muff into TS can work for stoner for example. Some of the best music came by accident: people not knowing or intentionally not doing things as they should. Be crazy, be creative.
I’ve always constructed my signal chain so that as the signal moves into the gain section, I move from boosts/ overdrives into distortions and then into fuzzes since they’re the most extreme type of gain I run, my logic has always been that I want to drive the fuzz, not fuzz up the overdrive and kill it’s character… it’s always worked out for me fantastically. Currently I’m running: LPB-1 > Boss 59 Bassman >Fulltone OCD > Boss DF-2 > Ram’s Head Big Muff > Op Amp Big Muff And then after those I use the JHS haunting mids to boost the EQ and let the Big Muff’s be usable in a live band application.
I've always done the same. I've never understood why so many people think of going low gain to high gain. It's always made more sense to put the hotter signal into the hotter pedal that's got the room to handle extra drive rather than squashing it into something that caps out at crunch.
Your right about The big muff pi deluxe, it's a monster of a pedal I basically got it because it was the best I could get for the price range I'm currently stuck in that has a noise gate built in. It's worth EVERY penny... Do they still make those ? Lol.
I own a russian pi, and always ran it at the front of the chain to preserve its huge low-end. None of my other pedals, later Muffs included, matched it in that regard. I came to not rely on it for saturation-- as far as the actual fuzz tone there's better options for that. I get my good results putting bright overdrives/clean boosts behind deep fuzzess, but it depends on the pedals and also the particular sound you are trying to achieve. But Buffers, yes; clean overdrive in front, yes; turn everything down to use it all together... One thing tho', to my ears big muffs with tube screamers sound terrible. So many better options. I just "retired" the Muff a couple months ago, but it was on my board for thirty straight years otherwise.
I’ve always said, “If you need to run a fuzz into an overdrive to enjoy it, you don’t like fuzz.” So please…leave some of those NOS transistors for those of us who do!
Place a boss eq pedal after the Big Muff, leave everything flat except the highest frequency. turn that slider up halfway. It should make every muff sound better and have no idea why that is.
I have the NYC EHX Big Muff, the BAT Crown of Horns (I like it's tone much better than The Pharoah), and Hizumitas. I like all 3, but like the tone I get with the Hizumitas and Crown of Horns more, plus with the CoH, I get that volume boost but lose the tone stack. The Hizumitas can get much louder and more dirtier than the other 2 that I have. I liked your video, it gave me some ideas, thanks.
If you run a big muff into a tube screamer, dial the drive almost all the way back. The purpose of the TS then becomes focusing the Mids of the big muff
@daddurs2206 Closer to the amp. I've got a Wren & Cuff Caprid and it's the last gain pedal before modulation, delay/reverb etc. It sounds great getting slammed with a Rat or DOD 250! One of the things I love about the Muff is there's not a huge volume boost when you hit it with other pedals, it just affects the tone and texture.
Started my Big Muff quest with a Catalinbread Manx Loaghtan and an EQD Hoof. Did not really care how accurate they were to any EHX iteration, just wanted to explore. Years later, the Hoof is still on my board. It straddles the line between 2-3 transistor fuzz styles (the Muff is technically a 4 transistor fuzz, iirc) and distortion; kind of a nice middle ground. The 'boutique' move to add mids and/or EQ flexibility to the basic Muff circuits are very useful, but on the other hand I'm not interested in and Muff arms races, in the latest and greatest Muff variant, either from EHX or smaller companies (although it's nice EHX has made affordable reissues of various kinds.) Never liked running anything into a TS, only liked it as a pre-boost. The last gain pedal in the chain has an outsized effect on the tone shaping, and the TS IMO is just so focused that it does no favors to the characteristics of the breakup circuit that comes before it. More 'full range' overdrives seem to work better for that. Subdecay Super Nova Drive did this well; something of a sleeper that one.
Your channel is exactly what I was looking for. I bought a Big Muff a couple of weeks ago, and I was looking to pair it with a distortion pedal. Any recomendations on distortion pedals? I was thinking Boss SD-1
In my experience, the only overdrive that work after the big muff is a klon with the gain set low. Because it blends the clean signal with overdrive it is far less muddy than run a big muff into a tubescreamer.
I’m still using the Black Arts Pharaoh, after almost ten years. I used to use a random Boss pedal, at the front, to help with the wah problem with a Fuzz Face, snd it really made the Pharaoh kick. The Pharaoh has the rare ability to cleanup with volume roll off, in the Silicon mode. I did turn an OD after it, but one must remember to turn the gain down, and it works like a boost, and it can tighten it up, but not a TS. I also have a Boost pedal, that has a Mid Boost, with a knob for where in the signal one wants to boost, then an overall volume boost knob. The Midphoria V1, from Magnetic Effects. It also will work like the Tubescreamer does in your video, put before the Miff pedal, or any pedal, and it gets pretty hairy on it’s own, with the Mid boost up high. Great for solos, or insane rhythms that cut through any mix.
I used a 70:s Big Muff w tone bypass switch for years, now using a Metal Muff : more gain + Bass Mid & Treble controls. Running it into a Blackstar set for crunch w MMuff sustain from 0-2 gets a total sustained sound right into the harmonic octave. I'm in Heaven man!
There’s minimal difference running a buffer right in front of a big muffler with a short patch cable because the big muffler already has an input buffer at the beginning of the circuit when the effect is engaged. When in bypass it’s true bypass so having an always on buffer somewhere in the chain is good for long pedal runs.
The difference is very noticeable to me. Much brighter. having an input buffer on the active pedal doesn't mean a pre-buffer will have minimal effect. All pedals have input buffers.
The trick to run a tube screamer or mid-bump EQ'd overdrive after a Muff is that it's the last in a 3- pedal stack. You run something with either a flat or slightly scooped EQ into the front of the fuzz: a Timmy; Blues driver, etc. You set the gain low, and the volume at or around unity (slightly higher if anything). You set the Muff with the gain low and the output for unity or a slight boost, then the Tube Screamer with a volume boost and the gain for taste. *Edit:The different levels is about the amount of compression that you end up with, since stacking pedals tends to increase it. That's how you get the "Comfortably Numb," tone. I've been a luthier for twenty years and an amp builder and tech for 15. It ALL started because I wanted that tone but didn't know to do it at first, then found out but couldn't afford the vintage muff, the reissue didn't work well and there were no real affordable clones at the time, so I built one. Gilmore did it with a Color Sound boost into the front. Those had a flat/slightly scooped midrange. It opens the Muff up, then the TS gives you the midrange. If I'm not specifically going for that sound however, I just run the mid-eq into the Muff. It sounds like a dimed British stack and makes even the most icepick-like bridge pickup on a Strat sound HUGE.
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox it'll work. 👍 You might have to fiddle with the output volumes, but that's a 15-second undertaking. Edit: I just read it again, I had meant you set the Muff with the gain low and the volume at unity or a little below. Setting the individual output and gain is more about dialing in the amount of compression you're getting from running all of them into each other. *And you're 100% on point about using a buffered pedal before a Muff, it allows you to do a slight cleanup that you can't really do just plugging the guitar in, the pickups impedance is just too high. Some two transistor Fuzz will do the same. I built a 3 transistor fuzz clone of…something I don't remember. The circuit was essentially a Fuzz Face with an extra gain stage that acts as an input boost. It takes the guitar signal and slams it into the Fuzz circuit, it's akin to running a boost into it, but in the same circuit. Later I installed a switch to turn off the boost. If I ran my guitar into it, it would cleanup like a fuzz face: wooly fuzz, then clean and glassy with no in-between. One day I stuck an MXR micro-amp first to level out the pickup output of two different guitars. When I set the Micro at unity and rolled the guitar volume down it cleaned up like an amp or overdrive. The Muff is a four-transistor, basically two fuzz faces cascading into each other. It can handle various signal strength and impedance levels without trouble.
@timwhite5562, exact same reasons for the same "carrear",. I recomend FETs for the buffers, they come a lot closer to tubes. Try out a bootstrapping circuit as input buffer. That really hangs onto the knobs/pickups, with an input impedanz of 150 megaohms! Oh, and please excuse my misspellings, been stuck on another continent for over 50 years and www is only a recent addition to life, it wont repair much anymore. 🤘 📼 🎸🎛️..🔈🎵🎶
I put a cry-baby in front of a vintage big muff. I pretty much kept the cry-baby on all the time (fix position like Trower). It served as my tone control. Both pedals were battery operated only versions. I'm having trouble with my new muff driving a solid state 2-ch Marshal. It sounds flat and does not have the crunch the old one had. Splitting the sound with a TC Nova delay into a different amp (Roland Cube) helps my wall of sound. My pickups have always been DiMarzio DP101.
I’ve never understood why everyone says to run fuzz into a tube screamer, it always sounds terrible. I’ve always put a screamer before fuzz even before I found out everyone else does the opposite and when I tried it it sounded so much worse than the screamer into muff.
What Fuzz are you using ? The classic pair is to emulate a over driven tube amp after a Fuzz Face circuit . With Muffs you need something to push the mids back in for a band mix .A E.Q. works great . Another thing to consider is pickups .I assure you my single coils sound killer with Tube Screamers .
@@STRATMAN1969 I’m not trying to emulate a fuzz face into a cranked amp, I’m trying to get a good fuzz tone which is screamer into muff or tonebender. I always use a tele for this sometimes my sg with p90s
@@theccarbiter Yep my main Strat has 3 P-90s ,but man I built this Frankenstrat years ago string thru body ,and Tele neck ,and pickups .I've been playing that so much lately .One of my boards has a Treble Booster into a tone bender ,into a Muff with a compressor ,Tree of life , Tube Screamer ,and E.Q. after . My switcher board I just built signal chain is Hudson Broadcast ,big box NYC Muff ,comp-EQ-boost ,JB-2 At least you're aware that the Muff scoops the mids .I always put my Screamer after a Klon too.
You might be right. It could relate to my first tip that Muffs don't act like normal Fuzzes with a buffer and given the TS9 has one, people assume to put it after
Yep! To be precise, it's a 2002 NYC reissue. Now known as the "Frantone" model. This one is "Revision A" which means it's true bypass, unlike the very first ones from 2000. But honestly, with the pickups, amp, speaker and mic all contributing to the exact sound, you probably wouldn't go wrong with the current NYC big box you can get from anywhere new!
An SD-1 into an NYC and the mids turned up on your amp will mid push and fuzz it harder than any boutique fuzz pedal on any twisty moustache ethically sourced coffee interlude UA-cam account ever.
I’ve been tone searching non stop with my rams head and I’m looking for the sound you have at the end but CANNOT get it haha mine just sounds like a distortion and not a fuzz. What on earth am I doing wrong besides being new to guitar lol
The very last thing? So the "Black plate" amp setting? It should be achievable whatever you have but best done with a mids control that you can turn down quite a bit, a good bit of treble and ideally and 12" speaker, too - but it's all achievable with a decent EQ, whether that's already on the amp, baked into the speaker's character or something you need to add
I used to use my boss DS-1 with tone cranked and dist basically all the way down as my clean tone and my muff clone would have way more transients and mids
I LOVE my Pharoah. Good call. The Buffalo FX Ram's Head with a mid control is also really sweet, but I'd be just as happy with my Deluxe Big Muff Pi reissue. It does everything.
If you think I demoed the Muff>TS wrong, check this out: ua-cam.com/users/shorts_XVijxjgceU?si=cFgvr_KuzLlBEboJ
“A tube can go into a muff, and really scream but a muff can’t go into a tube!” 😂 Definitely the funniest part of the whole video!
Your amp is a tube, and therefore your muff always goes into a tube.
Such a pickle lol
I gave it a go and it improved 300% my tone.
I love running an SD-1 into a big muff. SD-1 has more aggressive mids than a tubescreamer
Oh that sounds interesting, wonder how it translate to a cheap transistor amp that I use, I'm thinking about going for a clone of an OCD to pair with my tone wicker big Muff, currently I get more mids from a Tube screamer ts9
it has been my set up for years, SD-1 into Black Russian Muff even tho lately I switched their places and I keep the SD-1 last in the chain
SD-1 or BD-2 (depending on how tight I want it) is my main Muff sound. Huge fan of the SD-1. Its also cheap and readily available.
@@swissarmyknight4306How tight is your muff exactly? 😅
Tube Screamer + Muff=Gilmour @ 1989
Boss SD-1+Muff= Gilmour @ '84
I’ve yet to see a muff connoisseur who doesn’t wear a wedding ring. Subbed, good sir. Very much subbed.
Haha! Thank you, my friend. This must be the secret ingredient to true Muff satisfaction! More content coming soon!
I’m a muff aficionado, you can tell by my browser history 😂
Heh heh, porn reference. 🙄
No muff too tuff!! 😉
Afuzzianado extraordinaire especialist
ahh,yes..good ol muff in the buff.
we're all muff rubbers here.
I died of laughter of him saying "don't just sit there and buff your Muff" 😂😂💀💀
I've found that running a ds-1 on the lowest gain in front of a big muff adds the perfect amount of bite that I'm looking for from it. Sounds amazing on my strat.
I totally agree! A little bit of overdrive/distortion after a big muff can sound really good! But just a little little bit 😁
Walrus Audio Eons is my favorite muff. It's based on the ram's head. It has five different clipping options, a 2 band eq, and a voltage/bias knob. You can get a lot of great sounds out of it.
Dude, this one is definitely on my radar and would be my first dip into the world of Walrus. The amount of tones it covers sounds insane! And shows just how flexible that old Muff circuit can be. Those clipping options alone make it a dirt chameleon!
Think it'd sound good on bass, too?
Yup, that one is on my list. I just wish it had favourites since it has so many sounds!
My first two pedals were a TS9DX and that same Muff. I ran the screamer into the muff for years. Gave me the sound I was looking for. I still keep them on a mini board seperate from my main board. They just sound so good together.
Same here. Very Bogner-esque. Been doing it for almost 20 years.
I do the same, cheers, they are the only drive pedals I have.
I've never got on with fuzz pedals (I know...a poor workman always blames his tools), but some of my all time favourite guitar tones are from guitarists using fuzz, so I'm always interested to see how I could incorporate them into my sound.
All you need is fuzz! Thing is, a lot of the most popular ones have such a particular sound that they can alienate people. But they don't have to be super scooped, saturated or buzzy. If you check out something like a good Fuzz Face and treat it like a distorted amp, you'll find they're amongst the most flexible and toneful drive tones out there!
I remember having get used to the feel as well when I was first using fuzz pedals. They are usually pretty responsive to the knobs on the guitar, use them.
Definitely recommend a fuzz face. Use your volume knob and go down to 8 or 9 and you have overdrive. So, many good tones from it.
It took far too long for me to starting dropping my guitar volume and like 2-3 with fuzzes to get a whole other kind of sound from them that I love.
Would it “accurate” to say Muffs and Rats are in a weird but cool hybrid grey area considered ‘Fuzztortion’?
Absolutely! The Rat can get very Muff like at its upper end of gain and that's when people describe it as "fuzzy" - but it ain't no Harmonic Perculator, it's definitely more of a muff with mids and cut bass. I think fuzztortion describes them perfectly.
I’ll never understand people putting a tube screamer at the end of any time stack.
Pleaaase, talk about the Big Muff Germanium 4!
Hmmmm. From what I read and hear, the G4 is only a Big Muff in name, not in sound!
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox kinda it is. I have one, and would love to see your input on it.
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox maybe some tricks on how you eould use it, and even how it goes with other pedals. It has some controls that are very crazy
2:36 woah shots fired lol I love JHS, Josh always suggest you just try things out everyone is searching for a different tone. But i like the friendly jab. And I like this channel!
I have a big muff deluxe, and I love it! It covers all of the old variations of muffs, and then some!
I have too, and I love it! Just a question guys.. I use at the first place of the chain a compressor pedal always on for both clean and distortion sound.. I'm doing right? Or I should take it off when I use the muff?? Anyway I love compression on lead sound, it gives me more power and sustain..
@@MrAlexGalante You can use them either way, but will get different results, and really there are very few cases where you always use a specific pedal in a specific place. You can put a flanger before the fuzz and fuzz out the flanging, but with the fuzz first, you flange the fuzing!🤪
Try it and see, but you will have to play with the controls to get a good picture of what sounds good for each. 🧐 I always try new pedals in different places, and have discovered many great sounds worth using.
Many modern pedal boards have order switching so you can do it live and on the fly.😲
My green tank of an early 90's Sovtek bubble font Big Muff Pi is still my favorite. I also have the NYC, the Deluxe and Triangle but the Russian one that came in a little wood crate with the sliding top lid is the cat's meow.
same here
Video on The big muff Deluxe coming soon?
Already here, dude! But it's tucked away in the Big Muff Deep Dive pt.2. Check it out: ua-cam.com/video/KM1qNo_YV5k/v-deo.htmlsi=CBAeeDMChkK3KpJx&t=115
thank you, i hated using muff and drive now i use drive and muff, can't believe i never tried it
I totally agree about tube screamer before big muff. I have never understood why people run a screamer after a muff.
I have a deluxe big muff pi, and the pamphlet inside says that if the tone pots do not fit your tastes you can unscrew the back plate snd use a 2mm wide flat head screwdriver and adjust the tone pots away from factory settings. Apparently there are 3 pots for the mid bypass section.
Wow! Deluxe wins again!
I agree! If you put an overdrive after the big muff you kill your sound. As you say, the overdrive should be placed before the big muff, even better if you use a full range overdrive, more or less "transparent" like boss bd-2. Greetings!
Thanks for tip, I shall try Boss BD 2 before my Black Russian Muff 👍
David Gilmour disagrees with your statement
I do not think so! You should read more about how David Gilmour uses big muff/overdrive.
@@silviolutti1522 yeah david gilmour placed the powerbooster after fuzz, the guy in the video here just has no idea how to set it up, he has the gain on the tube screamer at 1:00, which is obviously gonna sound like shit, the gain should be as low as possible
So what you're saying is that Electro-Harmonix smashes all the muff? Right on.
All hail the Pharaoh! Also the best damn stackable muff I've encountered. Takes whatever you throw at it.
I just picked up a Deluxe Big Muff last week and I fully agree about how great it is. You can pretty much obtain any muff sound you want with it, and you have the option of using the mid switch as a solo boost or as a better way to hone in on that tone you're looking for. I can't believe no one talks about it and it's only about $30 USD more than the Ram's Head reissue.
Have you tried it with an expression pedal yet? If not, DO IT NOW!!! Happy freaking muffing!
@@Bob-of-Zoid Actually, I have not! Gonna try that out today
@@dtb2229 You just may be in for a great time! May take some getting used to though.
Tube screamer before muff, blues driver after… that’s my drive section and I will never change it, it’s perfect
Treble booster into a muff works too! I added a flat mid switch mod as well. Great stuff.
Whoa! I learned so much from this! Thank you!!!
A muff CANT go into a TS, it sounds so bad really, the only scenario I can see working is if it’s a TS inspires pedal that has no clipping option(like EQD plumes) but even then it’s still way better before the muff
The one instance that I find works well with muff into overdrive, is I run my green russian big muff into a Blackarts Toneworks Black Forest, but I'm using that overdrive as a preamp into the effects return, or even ampless into a cab ir box. Sounds mean as hell
I would never deny a Black Arts Toneworks pedal working great for anything!
You always hear the "don't put buffered pedals infront of your fuzz" mantra but it doesn't apply to the big muff, I like my Marshall Guv'nor 2 going into it, it's been modded to sound more like a Guv'nor 1 and the specific type of midrange that pedal has sounds great into the rams head setting of my JHS Muffuletta.
Jesus man! Funny, informative and helpful. I gave up on this rabbit hole years ago because I couldn’t get the right sound, but I’m definitely going to revisit this.
Thanks man! 🤘
A Muff is/isn't a Fuzz in the same way that a Tomato isn't/is a Fruit
To an Engineer/Botanist, it's an Overdrive/Fruit
To a Guitarist/Chef, it's a Fuzz/Vegetable
FWIW, I really like running my Blues Driver clone into my Muff - the BD is my preferred OD to push my amp and it does magic things with the BMP too.
That's actually a perfect analogy!
awesome video. opened my eyes, and maybe ill take the big muff off the shelf now. What about the one with the Wicker switch tone wicker? should I have the wicker engaged or no?
Thanks! I'd say yes, generally. It'll help lift it out of a mix, anyway. Pair that with turning the tone off and you have a completely new beast that'll stand in a mix as good as any distortion.
I like the pig snort sound I get from the BIG MUFF PI on my round wound bass for harder metal and non-metal songs alike. It adds that different dimension to the overdrive of my amp through the loop, which is superbly golden and clean. I still get the floor of the bass, but the snarl of the guitar section of the songs, at the same time. Of course I like it on many guitar parts for that standout feeling of arpeggios and some leads. I am using the original Big Muff Pi from back in the days of the LPB-1 and LPB-2, with a small phazer at the end of chain to get a good pig snort out of it.
I just got my first Muff, it is a Deluxe Big Muff. It has made my life so much better. Now I am here watching videos about Muffs, this is how it starts. Weeks from now I will have remortgaged my home in search of the best and biggest Muff.
Join the club, mate! 😅
Thanks. The tube screamer tweaking helps to dial in some different lead tones
TRUE OMG I can't BELIEVE how many times I've seen ppl telling ppl to put the TS after and I'm like "Dawg, ahev you tried this yourself? If so? Are you ears healthy?" because it makes ZERO sense
Love your attitude of simply stating that a particular configuration sounds shit! I applaud that. Guitarists have become so un-creative, just copying/repeating what others say.
Thanks, man! I'm often disappointed when people conclude "it's whichever best suits your needs and budget" or something like that. I mean, reading manufacturer stuff and bringing me to that conclusion. I want to know an actual hard-line opinion!
Just ran a TS7 after a triangle muff and it sounded like a robot with diarrhea
Deluxe is the way. I'd moved away from Muffs for a while; but when I saw the Sovtek Deluxe, I realized instantly the potential of it, and it hasn't disappointed me ever since. Clean blend is a great feature for not only bass, but also adding note definition for guitar chords and arpeggios.
Joff from wolf alice used to run a tube screamer into his muff for the first album sorta like Billy Corgan
This is an eye opener for me. I kicked the big muff off my board because I couldn’t cut the mud and make it cut through with my band, so I settled with what I could get out of my rat pedal. I do have a Boss SD1 though, which is similar to a tube screamer…could that work to boost the mids on the muff??
Absolutely. Maybe even better than a standard TS. It's buffered in bypass, too, which the Muff will love.
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox Great, can’t wait to try it out soon. Thanks!
Amazing playing, had no idea you did drums and vocals. Always the best chief!
Thanks again, dude!
I loathe Tube Screamers, and-on top of that-I have no more room on my board for one. What if I were to stick a Bluesbreaker clone before it? So the signal chain will go Compressor>B.B. clone>Muff>rest of mi pedal board.
A lot of OD also work in front. A Blues Breaker will do great!
I think Muff into an overdrive started off with David Gilmour using a Muff into a Tube Driver.
What people are missing is the Tube Driver has a fuck ton of headroom compared to the ordinary overdrive so boosting it with a Muff doesnt make it sound like flubby ass.
Damn, man, that's interesting! It might well be that through Chinese whispers, Tube Driver became Tube Screamer! Thanks for that.
yeah and tne guy in the video has the gain on the tube screamer at 1:00, no shit that's gonna sound like shit, the gain should be as low as possible
That's a great video. Keep on! Make more!
Thanks, dude! They're on my to do list, haha.
Nice! My band uses the Hizumitas on bass and the Deluxe muff for guitar! Great bonecrushing tones!
Heavy! I often think that's where the Hizumitas belongs as it's got low end like the Russian.
Yes! I always run an overdrive INTO the muff! Never got a sound I liked the other way round!
1:33: What a difference!!! 😮
I have a Blackheart BH100H. It’s a monster of an amp but I’m frustrated because my only pedal that’s turned to crap is my Pumpkin Pi Big Muff. No matter what I do, it sounds like it’s under water. I’m thinking about selling the amp because the Muff sounded alive on Fender’s, Vox’s, Marshall’s…
How are you setting the amp up gain wise? Are you using anything with a buffer before the muff? Chances are the Blackheart is based on something very similar to the classic brands, so I'd find out what, before you make a switch, and be sure you make a good one!
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox I have the amp pretty clean. I have a BD-2 before it and a Waza Metal-Zone after it. Should I push the amp’s gain more?
I don't think so, no. It can be a different, cool sound, but not always something to help with high end. It's an odd one. What are the tones on the other 2 set like?
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox BD-2: level 12:00, tone 12:00, gain 11:00. Pumpkin Pi: volume 12:00, tone 12:00, sustain 9:00.
I don’t use the the fuzz with my metal x
zone.
@fkcamry88 So you're not getting much more clarity from pushing the tone past 12 on the Pi?
Really appreciate this video, I've been trying to troubleshoot my tone with a wicker muff and have been hitting the wall. Looking forward to doing some rearranging!
Awesome! Glad it helped. What is it you're gunna try?
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox I want to resequence my boost and an equalizer in front of the muff. They currently are behind it, and your video perfectly reflected the problem I'm having with that.
@@ByroniusHuge Sounds good man. Well. I hope it sounds great! 😁
It's funny because, for about 2-3 months now I'm running a DBA Fuzz War into a Boss SD-1, and it's sounds almost like Colour Haze. I'm actually happy with the resoults, it pulled me out of my comfort zone and gave me a different perspective on dirt pedals. An important note is that I only use the neck pickup, and the gain settings on the amp is very low, so as on the pedals. So I admit that a full on blast from the fuzz and the overdrive would sound like crap.
Distortion is a bit heavier than overdrive And it's like a ramping up process from weakest effect to strongest. OD is just a little color on the line, fuzz shapes the line, then distortion... Distorts. Color>shape>texture.
I make a muff based circuit that has a mids knob with a preboost circuit (ie a buffer) in front of it. It has a second stomp to switch on or off the buffer/boost.
Nice! Is that your own design?
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox it is... I do pedals as a side thing- I'm an engineer by profession, and for the last year or so I've been working on a massive project and its left me with little free time. I'm not taking orders at the moment, but I do have one of them built already if you're interested.
lost a chance to name the video
"buff your muff"
I stumbled upon a EH Double Muff pedal. Had never seen one before and it is a beautiful distortion that really responds well to the dynamics of your picking/playing. AND you get the switch that changes it to a heavier distortion. Love it and was happy to pay $180 at my local guitar store. Trying to find the 'right' placement for it on my board.
Awesome! Though we should note, the "Muff" circuit in the Muff overdrive and Double Muff aren't actually "Big" Muff circuits at all! Not sure why they stuck with that name for a pedal that as different but they've also done it with the Big Muff Germanium so I think they just like to use it on their dirt pedals.
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox There used to be an EH Muff Fuzz pedal and the double Muff is (I think) the choice of 1 or 2 germanium diods, thus the switch and is a Fuzz unlike the Big Muff. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Always trying to learn about anything that relates to guitars....Strats in particular and Pedals. Total lifelong obsession!!!
@marcusbrebner811 That sounds about right to me!
Great video ! Any plans on doing any bass content for a peasant bass player like myself ? Super curious on tips and tricks with muffs coming at a bass playing perspective
Thanks! I absolutely will! I've got a little bit of bass stuff in my Carcosa video and I'll also be including it in an upcoming Muff video that compares all sorts of Muff flavours
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox sounds extremely enticing. Im excited man. Keep it going !
Tube Driver into Civil War Big Muff.
Picked up my first Big Muff (Tone Wicker) last summer. Already got a tube screamer (who doesn't). Any other suggestions specific to the Wicker version?
The Wicker can sound great on its own so you might not even need that tube Screamer! otherwise, it's a modern NYC Muff circuit so most of the normal stuff applies with the added flexibility of the tone bypass and wicker toggles. Have fun!
I noticed that a Muff works so well with a TS9. On my Peavey, there’s a Muff effect so I paired that with my actual TS9 and holy hell! What a revelation! It sounded great and despite how chunky it was, it actually turned out to be a pretty damn good tone for King Diamond and Mercyful Fate! I had the tone higher on both (~60-65%) with decreased muff volume and 70% Sustain. It sounded great.
Next pedal I’m getting is a muff. The MXR Distortion+ and TS9 already make up a larger part of my tone. Keep the D+ in line for Iron Maiden stuff and put the muff on for Mercyful Fate! (Btw, an EQ pedal goes a long way people!)
You really know your stuff. Great sense of humour. Brilliant! All the best from 🇨🇦
Thanks dude! I bloody love your country. Can't wait to visit again 🤘
I cant decide between the deluxe soviet and the deluxe bass for both bass and 7 strings, I want to play stoner and some metallica
Hmmmm, that's a tough one but I'm leaning towards the Soviet for the Wicker switch
Melvins part sounds sick. Flashing me back to Fantomas… which was muddy AF but they were competing with Mike Patton’s shrieks and all sorts of insane Slayer cymbals and it just worked.
Yeah, I always used a NUX Tube Screamer going into a Russian Muff, always on, all the time. It just cuts into the band mix, specially live. The full on FAT Muff sound is wonderful alone in your room, but when you put actual drums and a bass into the mix they disappear.
I never really understood people that say to put the overdrive after the Muff. I imagine they just don't know that Muff doesn't work like other Fuzzes and they really don't need to go first in your line.
With Fuzz it's to emulate a over driven tube amp .With Muffs it's because of the mid scoop .
I love Muffs latter in the line ,but this is why I have a E.Q. at the end.
Great advice except 2:15. As you said, everything is subjective. Music is an art. There’s no “wrong” and there’s no “bad.” It’s all about the application and the mood you’re going for. The muffled bass heavy sound of Muff into TS can work for stoner for example. Some of the best music came by accident: people not knowing or intentionally not doing things as they should. Be crazy, be creative.
Yeah, but, Muff into TS is wrong.
Muff into TS sounds like fart
I’ve always constructed my signal chain so that as the signal moves into the gain section, I move from boosts/ overdrives into distortions and then into fuzzes since they’re the most extreme type of gain I run, my logic has always been that I want to drive the fuzz, not fuzz up the overdrive and kill it’s character… it’s always worked out for me fantastically. Currently I’m running:
LPB-1 > Boss 59 Bassman >Fulltone OCD > Boss DF-2 > Ram’s Head Big Muff > Op Amp Big Muff
And then after those I use the JHS haunting mids to boost the EQ and let the Big Muff’s be usable in a live band application.
I've always done the same. I've never understood why so many people think of going low gain to high gain. It's always made more sense to put the hotter signal into the hotter pedal that's got the room to handle extra drive rather than squashing it into something that caps out at crunch.
Your right about The big muff pi deluxe, it's a monster of a pedal I basically got it because it was the best I could get for the price range I'm currently stuck in that has a noise gate built in. It's worth EVERY penny... Do they still make those ? Lol.
Yeah, they do! And a Sovtek (Green Russian) Deluxe, with a clean blend instead of the Attack control.
I own a russian pi, and always ran it at the front of the chain to preserve its huge low-end. None of my other pedals, later Muffs included, matched it in that regard. I came to not rely on it for saturation-- as far as the actual fuzz tone there's better options for that. I get my good results putting bright overdrives/clean boosts behind deep fuzzess, but it depends on the pedals and also the particular sound you are trying to achieve. But Buffers, yes; clean overdrive in front, yes; turn everything down to use it all together... One thing tho', to my ears big muffs with tube screamers sound terrible. So many better options. I just "retired" the Muff a couple months ago, but it was on my board for thirty straight years otherwise.
Expected a bunch of nonsense like with so many of the "you're doing it wrong" videos, but that was absolutely great advice!
Haha! So glad to not be click-bait 😅 Thanks!
I’ve always said, “If you need to run a fuzz into an overdrive to enjoy it, you don’t like fuzz.” So please…leave some of those NOS transistors for those of us who do!
Place a boss eq pedal after the Big Muff, leave everything flat except the highest frequency. turn that slider up halfway. It should make every muff sound better and have no idea why that is.
I have the NYC EHX Big Muff, the BAT Crown of Horns (I like it's tone much better than The Pharoah), and Hizumitas. I like all 3, but like the tone I get with the Hizumitas and Crown of Horns more, plus with the CoH, I get that volume boost but lose the tone stack. The Hizumitas can get much louder and more dirtier than the other 2 that I have. I liked your video, it gave me some ideas, thanks.
If you run a big muff into a tube screamer, dial the drive almost all the way back. The purpose of the TS then becomes focusing the Mids of the big muff
I tried this and many more knob settings. Check out my follow up Short. Can't say I liked any of the combinations!
Thank you. I always run a ts into a muff and have always been told to do the reverse. Have a nano NYC and a black Russian. Always have one on my board
I feel like the tube screamer after the big muff makes the tone sound like a fart pedal
Yeah, only worse!
Yup! Call it the fart tone model.
Muff after everything, always! I run various overdrives, distortions and fuzzes on my board and the Muff is after all of them.
As in closer to the amp or closer to the guitar input?
@daddurs2206 Closer to the amp. I've got a Wren & Cuff Caprid and it's the last gain pedal before modulation, delay/reverb etc. It sounds great getting slammed with a Rat or DOD 250! One of the things I love about the Muff is there's not a huge volume boost when you hit it with other pedals, it just affects the tone and texture.
@@Tanzi24 thanks man, I’ll do some rearranging and check it out 👍🏻
Started my Big Muff quest with a Catalinbread Manx Loaghtan and an EQD Hoof. Did not really care how accurate they were to any EHX iteration, just wanted to explore. Years later, the Hoof is still on my board. It straddles the line between 2-3 transistor fuzz styles (the Muff is technically a 4 transistor fuzz, iirc) and distortion; kind of a nice middle ground. The 'boutique' move to add mids and/or EQ flexibility to the basic Muff circuits are very useful, but on the other hand I'm not interested in and Muff arms races, in the latest and greatest Muff variant, either from EHX or smaller companies (although it's nice EHX has made affordable reissues of various kinds.)
Never liked running anything into a TS, only liked it as a pre-boost. The last gain pedal in the chain has an outsized effect on the tone shaping, and the TS IMO is just so focused that it does no favors to the characteristics of the breakup circuit that comes before it. More 'full range' overdrives seem to work better for that. Subdecay Super Nova Drive did this well; something of a sleeper that one.
Your channel is exactly what I was looking for. I bought a Big Muff a couple of weeks ago, and I was looking to pair it with a distortion pedal. Any recomendations on distortion pedals? I was thinking Boss SD-1
In my experience, the only overdrive that work after the big muff is a klon with the gain set low. Because it blends the clean signal with overdrive it is far less muddy than run a big muff into a tubescreamer.
I agree I particularly like a Klon after harsher distortions like a HM-2 or DS-1. It rounds off the shrill top end and fattens then up.
I’m still using the Black Arts Pharaoh, after almost ten years.
I used to use a random Boss pedal, at the front, to help with the wah problem with a Fuzz Face, snd it really made the Pharaoh kick.
The Pharaoh has the rare ability to cleanup with volume roll off, in the Silicon mode.
I did turn an OD after it, but one must remember to turn the gain down, and it works like a boost, and it can tighten it up, but not a TS. I also have a Boost pedal, that has a Mid Boost, with a knob for where in the signal one wants to boost, then an overall volume boost knob. The Midphoria V1, from Magnetic Effects.
It also will work like the Tubescreamer does in your video, put before the Miff pedal, or any pedal, and it gets pretty hairy on it’s own, with the Mid boost up high. Great for solos, or insane rhythms that cut through any mix.
Hail the PHARAOH!!!
A booster pedal can work as a buffer?
Any pedal can be a buffer if it needs power when bypassed. Also, any pedal that's on is always buffering. So yeah!
I have 3 different drive pedals to push into the muff for different tones
There's never enough DIRT! 😁
I used a 70:s Big Muff w tone bypass switch for years, now using a Metal Muff : more gain + Bass Mid & Treble controls. Running it into a Blackstar set for crunch w MMuff sustain from 0-2 gets a total sustained sound right into the harmonic octave. I'm in Heaven man!
Doctor Fuzz is back, good to see! (Wiseacre guys 😉)
Ah! My dudes!! Great to hear from you and thanks for watching! 🤘
There’s minimal difference running a buffer right in front of a big muffler with a short patch cable because the big muffler already has an input buffer at the beginning of the circuit when the effect is engaged. When in bypass it’s true bypass so having an always on buffer somewhere in the chain is good for long pedal runs.
The difference is very noticeable to me. Much brighter. having an input buffer on the active pedal doesn't mean a pre-buffer will have minimal effect. All pedals have input buffers.
I love My Ibanez 850 overdrive. Probably the best "Muff" style pedals I've ever used. Loads of gain and the tone control is actually very useful.
Ah, one of the "secret" Muffs! Nice!
I just ordered one, thanks for sharing your experience. I will come back and share my impressions.
Mine sounded more like a distortion than a fuzz.
Could be due to the DiMarzio X2N Power-Plus pickup I had installed on my guitar.
A buffer? I guess some problems are easily avoided by not being too fancy to have the old boss tuner in front of everything.
YES! Exactly all a buffer needs to be.
The trick to run a tube screamer or mid-bump EQ'd overdrive after a Muff is that it's the last in a 3- pedal stack. You run something with either a flat or slightly scooped EQ into the front of the fuzz: a Timmy; Blues driver, etc. You set the gain low, and the volume at or around unity (slightly higher if anything). You set the Muff with the gain low and the output for unity or a slight boost, then the Tube Screamer with a volume boost and the gain for taste. *Edit:The different levels is about the amount of compression that you end up with, since stacking pedals tends to increase it.
That's how you get the "Comfortably Numb," tone. I've been a luthier for twenty years and an amp builder and tech for 15. It ALL started because I wanted that tone but didn't know to do it at first, then found out but couldn't afford the vintage muff, the reissue didn't work well and there were no real affordable clones at the time, so I built one. Gilmore did it with a Color Sound boost into the front. Those had a flat/slightly scooped midrange. It opens the Muff up, then the TS gives you the midrange. If I'm not specifically going for that sound however, I just run the mid-eq into the Muff. It sounds like a dimed British stack and makes even the most icepick-like bridge pickup on a Strat sound HUGE.
I'm gunna do a short of this exact tip. It sounds insane enough to work!
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox it'll work. 👍 You might have to fiddle with the output volumes, but that's a 15-second undertaking.
Edit: I just read it again, I had meant you set the Muff with the gain low and the volume at unity or a little below. Setting the individual output and gain is more about dialing in the amount of compression you're getting from running all of them into each other.
*And you're 100% on point about using a buffered pedal before a Muff, it allows you to do a slight cleanup that you can't really do just plugging the guitar in, the pickups impedance is just too high. Some two transistor Fuzz will do the same. I built a 3 transistor fuzz clone of…something I don't remember. The circuit was essentially a Fuzz Face with an extra gain stage that acts as an input boost. It takes the guitar signal and slams it into the Fuzz circuit, it's akin to running a boost into it, but in the same circuit. Later I installed a switch to turn off the boost. If I ran my guitar into it, it would cleanup like a fuzz face: wooly fuzz, then clean and glassy with no in-between. One day I stuck an MXR micro-amp first to level out the pickup output of two different guitars. When I set the Micro at unity and rolled the guitar volume down it cleaned up like an amp or overdrive. The Muff is a four-transistor, basically two fuzz faces cascading into each other. It can handle various signal strength and impedance levels without trouble.
I don't pay any attention to fans who don't spell 'Gilmour' correctly.
@timwhite5562, exact same reasons for the same "carrear",. I recomend FETs for the buffers, they come a lot closer to tubes. Try out a bootstrapping circuit as input buffer. That really hangs onto the knobs/pickups, with an input impedanz of 150 megaohms! Oh, and please excuse my misspellings, been stuck on another continent for over 50 years and www is only a recent addition to life, it wont repair much anymore. 🤘
📼
🎸🎛️..🔈🎵🎶
I put a cry-baby in front of a vintage big muff. I pretty much kept the cry-baby on all the time (fix position like Trower). It served as my tone control. Both pedals were battery operated only versions. I'm having trouble with my new muff driving a solid state 2-ch Marshal. It sounds flat and does not have the crunch the old one had. Splitting the sound with a TC Nova delay into a different amp (Roland Cube) helps my wall of sound. My pickups have always been DiMarzio DP101.
I’ve never understood why everyone says to run fuzz into a tube screamer, it always sounds terrible. I’ve always put a screamer before fuzz even before I found out everyone else does the opposite and when I tried it it sounded so much worse than the screamer into muff.
What Fuzz are you using ? The classic pair is to emulate a over driven tube amp after a Fuzz Face circuit .
With Muffs you need something to push the mids back in for a band mix .A E.Q. works great .
Another thing to consider is pickups .I assure you my single coils sound killer with Tube Screamers .
@@STRATMAN1969 I’m not trying to emulate a fuzz face into a cranked amp, I’m trying to get a good fuzz tone which is screamer into muff or tonebender. I always use a tele for this sometimes my sg with p90s
@@theccarbiter Yep my main Strat has 3 P-90s ,but man I built this Frankenstrat years ago string thru body ,and Tele neck ,and pickups .I've been playing that so much lately .One of my boards has a Treble Booster into a tone bender ,into a Muff with a compressor ,Tree of life , Tube Screamer ,and E.Q. after .
My switcher board I just built signal chain is Hudson Broadcast ,big box NYC Muff ,comp-EQ-boost ,JB-2
At least you're aware that the Muff scoops the mids .I always put my Screamer after a Klon too.
@@STRATMAN1969 yeah the treble boost into a bender really does sound so good for high gain
maybe the confusion about muff before or after the tube is more about muff vs fuzz fs rat
You might be right. It could relate to my first tip that Muffs don't act like normal Fuzzes with a buffer and given the TS9 has one, people assume to put it after
Hey can anyone tell me the exact muff model in the intro demo? Sounds insane and the exact tone I'm after lmao
Yep! To be precise, it's a 2002 NYC reissue. Now known as the "Frantone" model. This one is "Revision A" which means it's true bypass, unlike the very first ones from 2000.
But honestly, with the pickups, amp, speaker and mic all contributing to the exact sound, you probably wouldn't go wrong with the current NYC big box you can get from anywhere new!
@@doctorfuzzzdirtbox Sweet, thanks man!!!!
An SD-1 into an NYC and the mids turned up on your amp will mid push and fuzz it harder than any boutique fuzz pedal on any twisty moustache ethically sourced coffee interlude UA-cam account ever.
I’ve been tone searching non stop with my rams head and I’m looking for the sound you have at the end but CANNOT get it haha mine just sounds like a distortion and not a fuzz. What on earth am I doing wrong besides being new to guitar lol
The very last thing? So the "Black plate" amp setting? It should be achievable whatever you have but best done with a mids control that you can turn down quite a bit, a good bit of treble and ideally and 12" speaker, too - but it's all achievable with a decent EQ, whether that's already on the amp, baked into the speaker's character or something you need to add
Remember. There's no wrong way to make your sound.
Yes... Except putting a Tube Screamer after a Big Muff.
Really appreciate this knowledge man 🎉
I used to use my boss DS-1 with tone cranked and dist basically all the way down as my clean tone and my muff clone would have way more transients and mids
MI Audio Boost n Buff on either side of the Muff sounds fantastic.
I LOVE my Pharoah. Good call.
The Buffalo FX Ram's Head with a mid control is also really sweet, but I'd be just as happy with my Deluxe Big Muff Pi reissue. It does everything.
Try running a mudkiller pedal before a big muff. It does wonders.
Great video and love your humour 😂