Bass big muff Hiss

paulaviation · #1 08-01-2011, 02:16 PM

Right so my Bass Big Muff is starting to act up.. It's about 6 months old. I was playing away as normal today, running my usual effects chain.

Bass - TU3 - BBM - Enigma - Amp

Out of nowhere I started getting a huge hissing noise, not the feedback sound, literally a hiss. I thought it was caused by my enigma settings since everything was fine until I changed the settings a bit. But I isolated the problem to the BBM, because it's there even without the enigma and even when the TU-3 is engaged, so the BBM is creating it's own signal in a way. It's not a cable issue.

Any ideas what the issue could be?

Hutzbordello · #2 08-01-2011, 02:27 PM

have you been running it really hot? i mean idk, but my Fuzz Factory did this and I just havent put the Fuzz knob past 3 since and its been fine.

rratajski · #3 08-01-2011, 02:31 PM

Yeah, muffs tend to hiss with the sustain up.

paulaviation · #4 08-01-2011, 02:33 PM

The hiss gets louder with the increase of the volume and sustain knobs. With sustain in the 12 o clock position the fuzz is pretty much inaudible.
Also, when I turn the tone knob it makes a noise kinda like if you put your hand on a pillow and move it back and forth.

paulaviation · #5 08-01-2011, 02:34 PM

By the way, my usual muff settings are volume 9 oclock, tone 3 oclock, sustain full and it's only started happening today.

rratajski · #6 08-01-2011, 03:15 PM

You've got issues. Is it new? Old? Version?

paulaviation · #7 08-01-2011, 04:18 PM

It's just the standard EHX Bass Big Muff Pi. I bought it new about 5 or 6 months ago.

paulaviation · #8 08-02-2011, 03:46 AM

BruceBass3901 · #9 08-02-2011, 04:07 AM

I run pretty similiar settings (slightly higher volume) and mine seems fine. Admitedly, there is a slight hiss but that is just to do with the high gain. Do you have anyway of recording the sound? It might just be the high gain hiss that I get, or it might be a knackered unit. Hearing it would help us diagnose the problem

paulaviation · #10 08-02-2011, 07:00 AM

Yeah I'll record the sound later and upload

rratajski · #11 08-02-2011, 07:05 AM

You're talking about scatching on the tone knob...
If this is a "new" muff, you have a dud. If it's old, you might want to get some pot cleaner.

paulaviation · #12 08-02-2011, 07:10 AM

I think that noise from the tone knob was caused by it actually changing the tone of the hiss, so I think all is good there. Also, the hiss gets slightly less when i'm actually playing.

Fendr1320 · #13 08-02-2011, 07:16 AM

Not sure if this helps, but I added a couple pedals to my board a while back and only had a couple of cheap 6" cables (like the kind that comes shipped in guitar boxes from factories) lying around to connect, and everything was remarkably noisier when my Muff is engaged. I'm not a believer in Monster cables, but if you have at least one bad link in there, the whole thing gets nasty with a fuzz box on.

paulaviation · #14 08-02-2011, 08:16 AM

I don't think it's cables. All my cables are Planet Waves and are relatively new. About a month old.

paulaviation · #15 08-02-2011, 12:12 PM

Right I can't post a sound sample because the hiss isn't strong enough for the mic to pick up... also, interestingly, the hiss is a lot less today that it was yesterday. Maybe I'll just play with the sustain down a fair bit for a while and see how it goes.

rcubed · #16 08-02-2011, 01:51 PM

Are you running it on a battery? If so, time for a new one.

paulaviation · #17 08-02-2011, 02:04 PM

Nope, daisy chain. But using an individual power supply doesn't help.

EricssonB · #18 08-02-2011, 02:11 PM

I'm following this because I've got EHX Muff stuff (Germanium, the one for guitar, actually -- sounds good for bass, too) and want to be prepared for anything. =D

It's fairly new, do you still have it under warranty? Either way I'd concurrently get a hold of EHX to see what they have to say.

paulaviation · #19 08-02-2011, 02:39 PM

I've tried to but I can't find a contact email for EHX, at least not a customer support one.