EHX Big Muff problem

Whoa, wait - Tone at 5 o'clock and Sustain at 11 o'clock?

That sounds like it'd be nothing but high-end buzz!

Big Muff pedals naturally get less stable as you turn up the Sustain. It's the nature of the Muff sound on bass.

I don't understand why you're using it with the tone set so high. With the Sustain up, it takes good technique to keep notes defined on that pedal, but why would you crank up the Tone THAT much???

On my Little Big Muff, turning it up past 1 o'clock doesn't do any favors for the bottom end. I usually keep it at 11 o'clock, and it works great in drop-D.

And why a Dunlop guitar wah? The one you've got does NOT work well on bass - it kills a lot of low end, in my experience. Some guitar wahs can, but that's not one of them.

As for the squeal... I'm not sure what might be happening. But I'm tempted to cite your Behringer gear as the culprit

 

I have mine with the sustain and tone knobs full up, but then I have very little treble in my clean tone.

 

Whoa, wait...

Mine does. Granted I modded the circuit very heavily, but it's still a Dunlop GCB-95 housing

 

This is one of the big reasons why I've got a Mammoth on its way to me. If that doesn't work, then I'll spring for a Bluebeard.

 

I have everything on my big muff set FULLY CRANKED!!!! Well thats when i use it and my guitarist gives it back!

 

Hm, maybe that's what he means with "terrible low end". The tone knob works on both sides of the sound, minimal is full bass, no treble, max is full treble, no bass. I use mine in the mid-zone, mostly at 11 o'clock or something.

As for the sustain, it's also most of the time around 11, I roll down my bass' volume to vary it.

That squeal... That's the superb wah-after-muff fat-analog-synthesizer-sound in your rig you've discovered!! I play with that lots of times, ideal for stealing the show! Indeed, it's rather demanding on your amp though.
But if you really can't control it, there probably is something wrong with your gear...

By the way, what I'd find rather useful is a volume PEDAL on the muff. Might try that sometime...

 

Im with Boo on this one... Subtle adjustments to the muff are the go, or like you say, your bottom end just turns to fuzz...

 

Does anyone know what mod dirk lance from incubus had on his big muff PI in the song Calgone on the album S.C.I.E.N.C.E.? Im sure its a big muff PI nd really would love to know once and for all how it was modded lol, cheers!

 

He had the clean blended in, quite heavily from the sounds of things. Thats the sound of Warwick clean tone with a fair bit of fuzz added on another channel.

 

I think Spanky just had a heart attack!

 

Spanky wasn't the only one, that's for sure...

Anyhow...

Roll back the Sustain. As I mentioned before, the nature of a Big Muff pedal in general is to get crazier with more Sustain. It'll get muddier as you turn it up, especially on lower notes.

That's probably the only significant drawback of the Big Muff. As for the low end... which Big Muff do you have?

 

Call the surgeon!

 

No worries. Plenty of hot nurses to keep me busy.

But if it works for ya, then go ahead. I've just been burned too many times. Behringer is not for me.

I'm the kind of guy that always loses when he takes a risk. Many people (not on TB) think I'm over-the-top with the type of gear that I buy, but I've always gotten what I paid for. If it's too good to be true, then I get screwed. So I just save my pennies from now on and buy gear with an extra picky flare!

 

You might want to look for pedals with glow-in-the-dark print instead, since the audience may not appreciate the use of painfully bright emergency signals onstage.

I think you meant "flair"

 

No. I actually set gear on fire and use whichever works in the end.


Duuuh.