Electro-Harmonix USA Big Muff USA Pi Fuzz FX Pedal

Joe Moon
April 13, 2009

Rating: 10/10

This is the dirtiest creamiest pedal ever! Its a Joy right down to those big old dials that you can tease with your boots on!
Superior build quality, legendary sound a big old fuzzy kick up the arse! For solos instant Clapton Cream magic. This with my Peavey Classic 30 sucked the air out of my friends lungs and at £50 what a steal.
By one and drink deep but fill your lungs first!
Joe

ThomMunster
February 25, 2009

Rating: 10/10

This is the ultimate fuzz pedal.

It\'s that simple.

This pedal gives you every type of fuzz that ou could ever need. From just on the edge funky fuzz or absolutely filthy Jack White fuzz.

If you need a fuzz pedal, buy this.

Michael Hutcheson
May 18, 2008

Rating: 10/10

I was delighted with the product I bought and the performance is top class, the speakers were easy to set up, as long as the user has the required xlr to 1/4" or xlr to xlr cables.

Packaging and delivery were first class too

Highly recommend this purchase to anyone looking to buy good monitor apeakers

Lincoln
May 5, 2008

Rating: 9/10

Using it on bass to get that Ben Folds Five sound - it really does the trick, nice and creamy. My only slight criticism would be that it is slightly muddy on the lower frequency range.

SL
September 12, 2007

Rating: 8/10

I\'m going to let everyone in to a little secret... these pedals sound great used on bass guitars, but this NYC version doesn\'t sound as good as its Russian cousin. So if you\'re a bass player, get the Russian version.

The USA version does sound absolutely fantastic with guitars though. It\'s true what the 6 out of 10 guys says, it just distorts everything. There is no in between with this pedal. Rolling the sustain off helps to tame things a little, but the sound just stays the same throughout.

I will say a little about each of the controls:

Volume

Quite obvious what this control does, but you must make sure you balance it correctly with the volume of your guitar amp. If I\'m going from totally clean to the Muff, I tend to boost the volume of the Muff so it is slightly louder. This means that it is always clear when the Muff kicks in.

Tone

I use this control the most. Mostly I will have it set at around 2 o\'clock, but it totally depends on what kind of sound you are going for. I will roll off the highs if I need extra \'warmth\'. This control is basically an EQ.

Sustain

This is also pretty obvious. If rolled off completely, you get a kind of groggy, weedy sound in comparison to when the control is turned up. You only have to turn it up slightly for the sustain to kick in. That\'s another part of the \"let\'s be sensible\" thing. It\'s just a bit pointless really... yet it is completely necessary for this pedal to be itself. If you have the sustain up high, you\'d better be able to keep a hold on your playing, because if you\'re playing a lead part and you don\'t stop the surrounding strings from ringing you will have zero clarity. All you will get it overwhelming noise!

Now if I was going to ruin this pedal I would first add a gate function. Then I would make it more versatile with its sound.

The only reason I would do that is because I don\'t want to spend more money on different distortion pedals! So I don\'t think the Big Muff can be improved. It is what it is and does what it says on the tin.

If you need its sound it\'s there on your pedal board waiting for you to stomp on it. It delivers exactly the same every time and doesn\'t pretend or attempt to be anything else.

Do not get this pedal if you want: crunchy blues tones or tube type overdrive.

Do get this pedal if you want: completely overdriven, distorted, almost uncontrollable sounds.

We all know Jack White uses this pedal, so there are plenty of examples of it\'s sound on his records.

One of my favourite examples is Breed by Nirvana. I think the pedal is used on the guitar and the bass in that song.

Happy shopping.

Andre Craford
July 11, 2007

Rating: 9/10

You buy a Big Muff for the Big Muff sound, you don't buy for any other reason or you're going to be disappointed.
There is no other pedal (apart from more expensive Big Muff clones) that give you this amount of liquid sustain.
Subtle it is not, but for single note riffs, or chords with huge balls, it ROCKS!
Don't buy this if you want to get every OD sound you require out of it, but do buy it if you want a piece of rock'n'roll history because no guitarist worth his/her salt does NOT have a Big Muff.

Joe Hopper
November 5, 2006

Rating: 6/10

Right, let's be sensible please - this pedal is ridiculous. It distorts everything to the point of complete mushy mayhem, makes every guitar sound exactly the same and on any setting other than the very lowest, makes chords an impracticality. But hang on a minute, let's not be sensible please - that's really not what this sexy big box is all about! It's massive, awkward, brutal and camp as Christmas. Metal players beware: the muff will drain your precious bass end to the point of girly glam. But if retro, trashy, lo-fi or firey farts sound like cliches from your band's bio, check out the Muff. The recent resurgence in Muff love is almost entirely down to Mr Jacky White. Try playing Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground through this thing - you'll be buying tighter trousers within the week.