Big Muff Bass PI not cutting through.. Need new ideas

[Nolan Farr]

Hello, I am currently in the predicament over which bass pedal I should choose or any recommendations for me. Right now I own the Big Muff PI pedal for bass, the problem is, is that the pedal has a hard time cutting through the rest of the band. I play in a sludge and noise band, (Melvins inspired would be the easiest way to describe it).

Our guitar player plays with layers of fuzz on his guitar and when I come in with the Big Muff on the bass it all of a sudden just gets lost in his guitar's fuzz and becomes inaudible over that and the drums. My drummer complains when I try to use it and says he cant even hear the thing even when I turn it up louder.

I believe I need to get more mids in with it, and what I've heard is that the big muff PI sort of lacks with the mids and isn't really able to deliver a punchy and honky sound while still retaining some grit from the fuzz.

Im pretty determined to find an effects pedal and even though it sounds fine with the band when I play without pedals I want to find something I can change up my sounds with. Some pedals I've looked at are the fuzzrocious grey stache and am wondering if that sounds like what Im looking for, or if not any recommendations would seriously be appreciated.

 

[rratajski]

Big Muffs cut mids at all settings. There are many companies who make muff-inspired fuzzes with mids control and companies who mod existing Big Muffs to add this back in.
Since you mentioned our Grey Stache, please email [email protected] with any questions that you have. We have lots of video demos linked on our site to browse through, too.
A vintage ProCo RAT or a RAT-inspired improvement are also great choices for mids-focused distortion/fuzz/dirt pedals.
A Malekko B:Assmaster or Diabolik are great choices too.

 

[Snaxster]

Hello, I am currently in the predicament over which bass pedal I should choose or any recommendations for me. Right now I own the Big Muff PI pedal for bass, the problem is, is that the pedal has a hard time cutting through the rest of the band. I play in a sludge and noise band, (Melvins inspired would be the easiest way to describe it).

Our guitar player plays with layers of fuzz on his guitar and when I come in with the Big Muff on the bass it all of a sudden just gets lost in his guitar's fuzz and becomes inaudible over that and the drums. My drummer complains when I try to use it and says he cant even hear the thing even when I turn it up louder.

I believe I need to get more mids in with it, and what I've heard is that the big muff PI sort of lacks with the mids and isn't really able to deliver a punchy and honky sound while still retaining some grit from the fuzz.

Im pretty determined to find an effects pedal and even though it sounds fine with the band when I play without pedals I want to find something I can change up my sounds with. Some pedals I've looked at are the fuzzrocious grey stache and am wondering if that sounds like what Im looking for, or if not any recommendations would seriously be appreciated.

Hello. Pending the many suggestions you likely will get here that will be more focused for your musical genre, I will suggest an approach:

Try a pedal that lets you design sounds within a broad range of timbres and of types of fuzz and/or saturation.

For example, the Fuzzrocious Rat/Cat King or the Dwarfcraft Silver Rose.

The more tools you have for finely tailoring your fuzz or overdrive sound to your band's sound, the better your chances of finding a sound that works well.

 

[Jakeman]

Which Big Muff are you using exactly? Sounds like the “Bass Big Muff Pi”, but I’m not clear on that. All Muffs are not created equal...

 

[gregmon79]

Get one with a mid control. That’ll do er. Without it, most can def FILL a mix or bring massive low, but not many, without a mid control or boost, will cut.

 

[Nolan Farr]

Its a throw up between the Malekko B:assmaster and the Grey Stache hard choice...

 

[gregmon79]

Its a throw up between the Malekko B:assmaster and the Grey Stache hard choice...

That's def a really tough choice. What type of sound are you after? The B:ASS to me is more industrial. Sharp. The Stache is more traditional yet can be very aggressive. I think the Stache would be able to be used in more band settings than the B:ASS myself. You can dial it back more or rip faces off. IME the B:ASS only kinda rips faces to completely tears faces off. Which is a great thing! It just depends on what sound you're after.

 

[dannybuoy]

Put it in dry mode and feed a mid heavy overdrive into it. I stacked an Xotic BB or Catalinbread SFT into mine.

 

[AaronVonRock]

Vick Audio make a Black Russian fuzz that has a toggle switch for a mids boost. Better than any fuzz EHX makes, in my opinion.

Cloven Hoof by Earthquaker Devices is another great fuzz with lots of mids. It really cuts through the mix and sounds great in a live band setting.

 

[jw23mind]

Driving a muff with a mid and treble-heavy OD like the Rusty Box can achieve cut and texture unavailable via the muff's eq alone. I actually run my Rusty into a homebrew muff-style circuit, actually the first two stages of a muff (no 2nd stage clipping or eq/mid-cut section) and it muff-ifies the Rusty nicely, bringout out some fat compressed bass while retaining the cut of the Rusty.

 

[JustSomeDude]

I am actually selling an MXR Blowtorch cheap that would do the job nicely. It has a very extreme Mid control as well as Bass and Treble. Runs on 18v. It's on eBay under Johnmarkpainter
I just get bored and replace things every few years. It's a great pedal and works particularly well blended into the dry signal.

I am currently using a Bass Muff Nano but into a second amp and I don't need to cut through sludge so it works great for me.

 

[PunkRocker33133]

The trick with muffs is just to embrace the scoop. Hit it with a mid focused overdrive and use it for the slow parts. I can get a pretty solid Melvin’s tone out of just my GK 800RB. I hit it with a Muff or an HM-2 clone if I need more dirt.

 

[JustSomeDude]

The mid OD is a good plan. I run a Joyo UD before my Muff. If you need an extreme mid bump, a parked Wah is pretty great. But that needs it’s own amp

 

[Usidore T Blue]

EQ pedal would also fix this, right? Then you are not trying to balance it out with an OD?
Also, how about a really nasty fuzz, like a Cloven Hoof? Choad Blaster?

Edit: AaronVonRock already suggested the Cloven Hoof.

 

[rratajski]

The trick with muffs is just to embrace the scoop. Hit it with a mid focused overdrive and use it for the slow parts. I can get a pretty solid Melvin’s tone out of just my GK 800RB. I hit it with a Muff or an HM-2 clone if I need more dirt.

That and having guitarists who are willing to work with EQ/EQ changes as a band.

 

[bassbrad]

Finding a drive that has a mid control will help you dial in what you need to push through. I might offer a couple of outside choices to further your search. The EHX Graphic Fuzz is a unique pedal that allos the shaping of the envelope and also the shape of the fuzz to cut through, a very different choicer that I might use more if it was not so durn big.
Electro-Harmonix
This is a handy and very agressive sounding drive that offers a very flexible semi parametric 3 band EQ great for shaping exagerated tones.
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[JonnyAngle]

Get the grey stache. It will give you the same sounds you like for home. Crank the mids for practice/ gigs

 

[PunkRocker33133]

That and having guitarists who are willing to work with EQ/EQ changes as a band.

Yeah that’s absolutely crucial. Most of them are pretty bad about that though.