Electro Harmonix Bass Big Muff Pi

This little unit has been truly tried and tested. A child of the original Big Muff Pi, there really isn't any remote competition for bass fuzz effects when it comes to the Electro Harmonix Bass Big Muff Pi.

Electro Harmonix are one of the best in the business when it comes to effect pedals, and really put in the effort to ensure quality in all their pedals.

Firstly the sound. This thing can range from a light touch of high end fuzz to just slightly color your bass sound, to a crunching low or mid range Rumble distortion that will have you tearing through riffs. The addition of a three position flip switch allows the user to change the mode of effect they desire. The three modes are bass boost, dry and wet.

The build quality is fantastic on all EH products. No plastic here, the pedal body is made completely from die cast metal and so it can take quite a beating. The rotary knobs for the controls are premium plastic and give a good resistance when turned. To end, I just love the graphics EH use on their pedals. They are funky and fresh and really make the pedal stand out among the rest.

The only criticisms I would have is that it can take a bit of tinkering to find your desired sound even with just 3 variables on the device, but this has to be expected and oa not entirely a bad thing. As I have said the range of sounds this little unit can produce is vast, and that's a big achievement coming from just a small pedal. I would have like however some presets on the pedal just so I could quickly change to a new sound if I were playing live, but this is just a personal note.

I would highly recommend this pedal to live and studio players alike, as there is really no alternative. And at that price? You would be mad to pass it up.

I've been using a Boss Bass OD for YEARS. I also gave the GT6B a go, for a long time, but I couldn't get a consistent sound I liked out of either!

On recommendation from a friend, I ordered the e big muff on a whim. I was not disappointed. Going from the GT6B to this was a real pleasure. Bare minimum of controls, which is underwhelming, yet there is more than enough room to play around and find exactly what you're looking for.

I gigged it for the first time last week. I play in a blues rock cover outfit with just one guitarist, so the big muff does a great job in filling out the sound while himself is having an old solo or two. The optional boost also allows for an extra kick in the sound too. Amazing value.

The only thing I didn't like about it was the feel of the metal - nails on chalkboard kind of effect. But, that's just me. Also, there is no way to easily change the battery quickly, four screws need to be undone. I find this mildly inconvenient.

I've had this pedal for 5 years now and it is still kicking ass. It's light but very well put together, very strong and has taken a few knocks but keeps on going. It is battery and mains operable which is great.

The lever between dry and bass boost looks and feels delicate but as I said, after 5 years, countless gigs and plenty of bumps and bruises it's still completely intact which I never would have guessed when I first opened the box.

The tonal range of the sustain and tone knobs sounds incredible, the fuzz makes EVERYTHING sound great. Combined with my Dunlop Crybaby this pedal makes a seriously nasty, evil, gut-wrenching but also psychedelic, fuzzy sound that's great for solos or whatever you want really.

The only drawback I can see/hear is that at low levels of sustain/tone I find the pedal sounds quite awful and generally I only turn it on for when I want to drown in that BIG muff sound.

However, with that said, I could not recommend this pedal highly enough and would also recommend the Dunlop Crybaby as well as they both go together so well.

I bought the Bass Big Muff because i needed an drive pedal that allows me that produces an heavily distorted sound that doesn't steals my low-end. It does the opposite at that, when you make the right use of the bass boost/normal/dry toogle switch in the middle. I mostly use the dry setting wich causes a sound that doesn't get lost in the sound of my band. Another thing i do wth this is playing the guitar, which sounds good, i can't compare to the normal muffs but i also can't complain.

The last thing i want to note here is that this pedal doesn't seem to produce any hum even with high sustain settings, and that is is build like a tank.

I subtracted one star in the features rating because mixing the processed signal to the dry signal also makes it louder, other manufacturers found a better way to deal with this issue.