Product Description

The NYC original. The distortion countless guitarists and rock legends like Hendrix and Santana have relied on for its rich, creamy, violin-like sustain. A timeless piece, the Big Muff Pi has been defining the sound of rock guitar for over 30 years. From Pink Floyd to The White Stripes, everyone wants a piece of the Pi!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3166 in Musical Instruments
• Brand: Electro-Harmonix
• Model: USA Big Muff PI
• Released on: 2008-06-30
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 5.75" h x 3.75" w x 8.50" l, 2.00 pounds

Features

• USA Big Muff Pi 'made in NYC original'
• Volume Control
• Sustain Control
• Tone Control

Customer Reviews

What it lacks in versatility, it makes up for in quality of tone
If your a tone junkie like myself, this pedal is not very versatile. Nevertheless, it is one of the best at what it does, and what it does is hard to find in another pedal.

What it does: Easy to adjust and blend with any set-up. I agree with other reviewers in that it will give you perfect tone for white stripes, and sustain that is necessary for solos from Gilmour (note that this is only one of many pedals used by gilmour, so this alone will not provide the floyd sound). The tone also matches 60's and 70's hard rock like black sabbath (iron man), some deep purple (smoke on the water), some early rush (working man), and of course the smashing pumpkins sound all the way (this was one of their primary pedals, cherub rock sounds awesome). Adjust the tone on the pedal to find perfect AC/DC. Basically, the tone allows you to adjust the harmonics to include some of the high end notes in chords. Thus it is a great pedal to provide fuzz without losing the higher end notes, so great for chording. The sustain knob in incredible. I will never need any more sustain than this pedal provides as I couldn't imagine writing or playing a solo where a note rings for more than 3 or 4 measures. As always though, good tone is subjective so I would highly recommend playing through one before buying. Finally, from what I understand and hear myself, this pedal has a true bypass...meaning it will not affect the guitar's natural tone when pedal is turned off.

What it does not do: Just about everything else you would want your guitar to do, especially if your a tone junkie. and some people may differ on me with this, but I wouldn't recommend super-heavy metal through this...maybe could handle some on the lighter end of this genre.

PS- I play fender strat, ibanez, and les paul through fender deluxe tube amp.

One trick pony, but its a good trick
I owned this pedal for many years, before finally trading it in on some other equipment. It produces one sound extremely well, but it only does that one thing. The sound it does very well is the late 60's/early 70's fuzz sound: "White Room, Black Curtains"; "Satisfaction"; "Ina Gadda da Vida". Note: this pedal produces very good sustain, but has really bad attack. As such, it will not really do the "Whole Lotta Love" sound. As I said, it does one thing very well, but its range even with classic rock is quite limited. If you plan to cover songs with that classic fuzz sound, this pedal gets you 100% of that sound. If you want to also cover other classic rock, you're gonna need at least one more overdrive/distortion effect.

Quality Control
This is a great pedal! Before the only distortion I had available was through my amp, which had a built in gain modulator, and it was nothing short of a noise maker.

With the Big Muff though, I found that it really picks up the finer intricacies of my playing more than my cheap-o amp ever could. This pedal has a great sound, and is nostalgic of the 1970's, but especially the 1990's.

I'm a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan, and this is more or less THE pedal if you're looking for that sound. For a good example of it's capabilities, listen to a song called "Rocket."

Well, I wasn't sure what to expect when I ordered this, because I'm only just now beginning to get into upping my musical arsenal, but I was really happy when this arrived. It's very hardy and sturdy, and it just sounds great. Great for solos because of it's amazing sustain. At some points it feels like a violin!

Anyway, I'm really happy with this purchase, and it really wasn't that much money. The only thing I would suggest is making sure that you have a well grounded amp. Otherwise there might be a lot of white noise when you aren't playing loudly.