Big Muff Pi! - How to make it sound great?

[kyral210]

Q: How to use a Big Muff and make it sound good!

Why: I have been running a thread on getting that Nine Inch Nails sound. Their current (and my favourite) bass player uses pedals such as the Way Huge Swollen Pickle, a Big Muff variant. I own a big muff, but can never get any great tones out of it. Please help.

[JanusZarate]

If you're aiming for the NIN sound, and you're armed only with a Big Muff:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/song...songID=5371222

I was able to get that tone with a Little Big Muff. The tone is brighter than what you'd hear in "The Hand That Feeds", but that's adjustable, of course.

My advice: drive it with your neck pickup. Experiment with attacking different areas of the strings. If you're playing with the Tone knob low to get more bass, try turning it up past 12:00 and compensate for the volume change with the Volume knob.

The NIN bass sound, whether clean or distorted, is founded on a P-bass of some sort. It's trickier to nail with other sorts of pickups, but a neck pickup helps.

And yes, it can sound good for other tones. But if you're not enjoying the results, you need a different fuzz pedal!

[Subculture13]

Nice sound clip Mystic! Sounds pretty good (i.e. close to NIN) for a quick job like that. Could it be that a modified for bass BM Pi is in the cards?

[UnDoNe]

I ordered a Wren and Cuff Pickle Pie last night. I'll do a review when I get it, but reviews so far seem good, and it apparently sounds similar to the Swollen Pickle.

[kyral210]

Thanks for the NIN sound. Actually pretty cool. It would be cool if anyone else out there has any other Big Muff sounds that they use (live/ recording prefered of course). If you do, please add you settings with the post.

[TheMutt]

I've currently got a USA reissue BMP as well as a LBM. The BMP goes through my Barge Concepts custom VFB blender pedal for a little fuzzy flavoring, while the LBM is just in my signal chain after my QTron. My favorite settings are volume to unity, tone between 10:00-2:00, and sustain between 9:00-3:00. What do I use most? volume - unity, tone - 11:00, sustain: 3:00. But my pickups are pretty hot compared to what Fender sticks in their MIM J's, so you might need to play around with the pedal as well your EQ. Hope that helps!

[ph0rk]

I think there is some clean blend on the hand that feeds too - I had good results with of all things a digitech bass driver. using the bridge pickup and rolling off treble on your bass helps too.


Frankly, the sound requires too much cooperation from bandmates to cut through, imho - the song almost needs to be built around it (like THTF).

[Sir Edward V]

I don't like my LBM's sustain turned past 9:00. It overloads it past 9:00 and its not really fuzzy anymore... I call those settings "total obliviation" in my head. Its interesting, but I like a clean smooth fuzz best.

[JanusZarate]

Originally Posted by Sir Edward V

I don't like my LBM's sustain turned past 9:00. It overloads it past 9:00 and its not really fuzzy anymore... I call those settings "total obliviation" in my head. Its interesting, but I like a clean smooth fuzz best.

You've got a pretty hot-output bass, then.

I found that if your tone is below 12:00, it does have a tendency to "overload", which is a cool, but unusual result. If you have a passive bass, it's not usually the case. With active basses, it's frequently the case.

If you want crazier fuzz without that "overload" effect, you have to turn the Tone knob up past 12:00.

I think it's the heavy bass response that causes it to do that, so reducing it via the Tone knob allows for more fuzz. Turning up the Volume knob helps to compensate for the drop in bass.

[Wren and Cuff]

HI Everyone.

I search my company's name "wren and cuff" every once and a while and came upon this board. Very cool! Just wanted to throw in my .02 cents to the discussion.

I'm sure this is old news to some, but most of the time you hear any "pro" band, with a bass player who uses heavy fuzz on a regular basis, they will be running the bass fuzz in parallel with the clean bass signal. This of course requires two rigs which most of us commoners can't afford, or if we can afford it, we can't practically use at our local clubs. this parallel fuzz allows there to be no "hyper compression drop-out" when you stomp your fuzz. you're only adding to the clean signal. Of course this is done on records 99% of the time as well.

The solution? Start with your fuzz ridiculously low at band practice. Even if it sounds like crap. Only judge your tone by how your bass sounds when the band is playing, and above all, make sure there is no drop-out when you hit the pedal, and no big treble loss. People notice treble loss even if they aren't musicians in the audience. Only use as much fuzz as you have to, to get your tone. if you use a compressor pedal, put your fuzz after it in the chain, or turn it off.
Another solution is to send a di to the house at a gig, and put your fuzz only on that, not your amp. Or vice versa. With a good sound guy, your tone can be crushing!

As for big muffs, any big muff's in and out capacitors are more than enough to handle the range of a bass (even 5 string). Some older muffs use a 1uf throughout, most use a .1uf, and the PNP Ram's head even used a 10uf! These are all fine for bass, so there are some cool mods you can do, but any muff is a good place to start to find your fuzz tone.

Now some blatant self promotion: FYI, My Pickle Pie is a swollen pickle clone that I would be surprized if any one could tell from a WHSP in a blind test. It uses a chip with a matched set of trannys embedded inside like the swollen (instead of seperate trannies like a BM) . The tone stack is tweaked similar to vintage muffs, but not the same, and the mid-scoop of most muffs is even more pronounced in my pickle pie (and it's mother).

Anyways, I hope my info helps someone here!

best,

matt

[bass-shy]

Lots of great info! Thanks and welcome to TB.

[UnDoNe]

Ooh I can't wait for my Wren and Cuff now! Cuss the UK postal strikes...even though I am a postman and enjoying a 5 day weekend

[Wren and Cuff]

if you use a compressor pedal, put your fuzz before it in the chain, or turn it off.

oops! I meant:

If you use a compressor pedal, put your fuzz after it in the chain, or turn it off.

thanks!

[pickles]

Blend it with your clean tone and roll off the highs.

[kyral210]

So, I guess this would be a good signal path:

______________-----Muff------________________
Bass---- Splitter Mini Mixer---Pedals
______________---------------________________

With the above setting I suppose I could chose how much muff I mix in with clean tone?

[JanusZarate]

You know, it'd be easier to use a blend loop pedal. Just stick the Muff in its loop and blend to taste!

It's the ultimate solution for "bi-amping" on a budget, for pedals that don't have a Blend knob.

[TheMutt]

Originally Posted by MysticBoo

You know, it'd be easier to use a blend loop pedal. Just stick the Muff in its loop and blend to taste!

It's the ultimate solution for "bi-amping" on a budget, for pedals that don't have a Blend knob.

That's what I do with one of my Muffs.

Also... that's a creepy avatar Boo!

[kyral210]

Cool, I think I will have to get one as so many bands use two amps! On a scarier note, would adding a blend dial (same circuitry as a blend loop) to a big muff itself be a good move?

(very cool and creepy avatar)

[JanusZarate]

Originally Posted by kyral210

Cool, I think I will have to get one as so many bands use two amps! On a scarier note, would adding a blend dial (same circuitry as a blend loop) to a big muff itself be a good move?

I'm assuming you have the bigger one, not the Little Big Muff?

There's a ridiculous amount of space in the current USA and Russian versions. It'd be easy to add a blend circuit of your own.

[JanusZarate]

Originally Posted by TheMutt

Also... that's a creepy avatar Boo!

Someone said my other avatar reminded them of a scary marshmallow. So I decided to seek out the creepiest marshamallow mascot ever designed as a temporary replacement avatar.