Big Muff Pi Output volume

[Willthebold]

Just finished my first BMP and was just wondering how loud it's supposed to be.  With the volume maxed and the gain at 0 it's more quiet than the bypassed sound.  Only when the gain is about halfway does it equal the bypassed sound.  Is that about right?  When the gain is cranked it's much louder, but at lower levels there is not as much volume.  Thanks in advance for the input.  

Will

[petemoore]

With the gain up it works like mine.
 IIRC the gain also turns it down near the bottom settings.

[Willthebold]

I didn't know if it was supposed to be that quiet with the gain down, like my ts-808 with the gain down and volume up just barely boosts the signal.  I guess the BMP isn't like that?

Will

[petemoore]

Gain knobs seem to function differently from one build to the next...AFAIK...

[Skreddy]

You mean "Sustain" I assume.  All that control does is turn the ouput of the 1st stage down to almost zero (depending on the value of the resistor to ground at the CCW lug of the Sustain pot).  You should expect very little output at a full CCW Sustain setting.

When building or tweeking a BMP, try to aim for the most pleasing & useable setting at about 12:00 o'clock on all three knobs.  This is generally where you'll use it, but it's nice to have some 'less' and 'more' settings to experiment with.  With the right kind of components, a BMP can actually have awesome tone; they needn't be harsh and ugly sounding (like the modern reissues).