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I am posting this for those of us here who are fans of fuzz, Muff, and/or doom metal guitar sounds. I myself love fuzz, but I've always found the new Big Muffs to be a bit weak sounding to say the least. I have grown fond of modifying them back closer to a more 'vintage' Big Muff style sound, while putting my own spin on it. For anyone who has played one and hasn't liked it or was disappointed, there is lots of tweaking power available here as you will see in my clips. Also don't judge the Muff legacy by the new off the shelf Muffs, because like I said they're nothing like the vintage units. Either way, here are some clips which I took after each section of the mod. For now all I have are clips which I took Direct to my DAW, so you are hearing the dry pedal output and not through an amp or mic. I will get amped clips soon, but for now this is all I have. Enjoy.

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All of the modifications are in order and stacked on top of one another, so you are hearing what each change is doing in addition to whatever came before it. This is nearing my vision of the perfect Muff fuzz, but I know more tweaks can and will be made over time. I will post more clips and info when I do.

Keep the fuzz alive :cool:

Comments

Guitarfreak Tue, 03/22/2011 - 17:49

dvdhawk, post: 366969 wrote: Cool!

Have you tried any modifications to the supply voltage? I remember the original Big Muff ∏, sounded wicked just before the 9V battery needed replaced.

Interesting, never tried it. I have a power supply that allows me to lower the voltage so I'll have to try that sometime. Actually now that you mention it, the Bias mod has to do with lowering the voltage bias on the transistor stages. That's sort of the same thing I guess :D

Guitarfreak Fri, 03/25/2011 - 11:15

I am posting this for those of us here who are fans of fuzz, Muff, and/or doom metal guitar sounds. I myself love fuzz, but I've always found the new Big Muffs to be a bit weak sounding to say the least. I have grown fond of modifying them back closer to a more 'vintage' Big Muff style sound, while putting my own spin on it. For anyone who has played one and hasn't liked it or was disappointed, there is lots of tweaking power available here as you will see in my clips. Also don't judge the Muff legacy by the new off the shelf Muffs, because like I said they're nothing like the vintage units. Either way, here are some clips which I took after each section of the mod. For now all I have are clips which I took Direct to my DAW, so you are hearing the dry pedal output and not through an amp or mic. I will get amped clips soon, but for now this is all I have. Enjoy.

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All of the modifications are in order and stacked on top of one another, so you are hearing what each change is doing in addition to whatever came before it. This is nearing my vision of the perfect Muff fuzz, but I know more tweaks can and will be made over time. I will post more clips and info when I do.

Keep the doom alive :rock:

UPDATE: Amped files are in like sin! I included the dry guitar files through the amp at the time of the reamping so you could get a true feel for a. what the guitar sounds like, and b. what the amp sounds like, to better understand the part that the pedal is playing throughout the mod process.

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An afterword. I recorded the riff DI into my DAW and then reamped them through the pedal after each modification straight back into my DAW. All of the settings were with every knob at noon. The sound can get quite bassy at this setting, but that's not all that this pedal does and I have recorded another clip which shows another aspect of its personality. Sounds a bit more like a vintage Muff to me.

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Guitarfreak Tue, 03/29/2011 - 07:56

I guess I should give people an idea of what I'm doing.

Clipping Cap mod - lowered the value of the clipping caps to get a bassier more mid scooped sound.
Emitter mod - part of the Creamy Dreamer mod. I jumpered the emitter resistors on the clipping stages.
Bias mod - Changed the Collector resistors on all four gain stages. More fuzz.
Fuzz/Feedback mod - Part of the Creamy Dreamer mod. Raise the values of the series resistors for more fuzz, less volume and feedback.
Grind mod - Lowered the value of the feedback caps for a more open and amp like feel.
Tone mod - Change Tone stack to that of a Ram's Head. This was one aspect of the Ram's Head version that I really liked.
Coupling cap mod - Coupling caps to 100nF film to tame some boominess and dispose of useless electrolytics.

I'm not disclosing specific values because I want for people to do what I did and discover YOUR individual sound.

The coupling cap mod is a change that has happened since the creation of this thread. That and I tweaked the Bias mod. I have a clip which I made of the new final product. I am very very satisfied with this result.

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Guitarfreak Wed, 03/30/2011 - 07:17

JohnTodd, post: 367528 wrote: Love it, but can you post something with chords in it? I'd like to hear the harmonic interaction between many notes.

Thanks!

Both the Sabbath clip and the last clip I posted had the rhythm guitar parts going through the Muff as well. It's very thick and juicy sounding on rhythms. If you'd like I can solo the rhythm tracks in one of the clips so you can better hear the textures? Or did you have something else in mind?

Guitarfreak Wed, 03/30/2011 - 07:52

JohnTodd, post: 367531 wrote: I misunderstood - I thought more mods had been made for the new clip "Forbidden Light"

Oh, I see what you are saying. Yes, more mods were made, but tweaks mostly. I had a problem with blocking distortion on Q4 either due to the 1uF coupling caps or a leaky electrolytic capacitor, so I had to revert the Q4 collector resistor to stock to clear up the problem. This is what is considered to be the (tweaked Bias mod) as part of the original mods posted. Since then I replaced the stock coupling capacitors which fixed the blocking distortion problem and as a result I reverted the collector resistor of Q4 back to the original "modded" value :D

The final product now is not largely 'different' sounding than the previous one, just a big more refined with a little less 'boom' and a bit more fuzz and volume ;)

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Again, this is my guitar through a Maxon OD808 (Tubescreamer) and then the Muff then into my DI box for recording.
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