big muff tone stack mods

[nag hammadi]

hey guys.  love the big muff, but think the eq sucks.  all of the settings are "ice pick in the ear" like for me.

what is the best defense against this?

tone stack mods for smoother treble and mids anyone?

[cd]

C'mon, you can't be serious.  All the way to the left (max bass) is icepick in the ear?

Download Duncan's Tone Stack Calculator:

http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/

Mess with the part values "virtually" until you get a curve you like, then sub in those part values.

Otherwise if you really want to kill the treble, change the 0.01u cap on the tone control to 0.1u and the 0.0039u cap to 0.039u.

[nag hammadi]

no no, not all the way to the left.  i guess i should say that by the time the icepick is out of my ear, it is too muffled. 

just want a nicer high end, less shrill.

i will peep the duncan tone machine.  thanks!

[Bernardduur]

I always replace the 3.9n cap with a 100n one; HUGE MIDS. Great on guitar nessesary on bass

[Skreddy]

You could put an extra .001uf cap from the tone pot's wiper to ground to tame the treble if it's too harsh at all settings.  Then it'll sound smooth even at full clockwise.

[Yun]

I always replace the 3.9n cap with a 100n one; HUGE MIDS. Great on guitar nessesary on bass

Did you type that correctly eh?  .004uf modded to .1uf ?  Doesn't sound like that would be very good....

I'd change it (for mids) to .02uf at the highest value, but .01uf would sound better....

[Skreddy]

Yeah.  .01 and 33k on one side and 33k and .01 on the other makes a nice flat-mids tone stack.  Won't help at all if the distortion tone is harsh, though; that's why I suggest .001 from wiper to ground on the tone knob to smooth it out (in response to the original question).

Would the Big Muff in question be a USA Reissue by any chance?  Schotkey clipping diodes would be the culprit there.  Replace with 1N914.

[Yun]

OR you can ommit the 470pf caps in the diode clipping circuit.  That allways helped beef things up in the BMP for me....

[Skreddy]

Ouch.  Wouldn't that increase the hiss, noise, and harshness factors?

I guess if you're dealing with smooth-sounding transistors, making them hit harder and still sound smooth would sort of be a function of how the transistors distort, together with the character of the clipping diodes.  Hell; just removing the clipping diodes altogether will give you a loud-as-hell product, but none too pretty IMO.   

[Yun]

the sweet thing tone control might be an improvement as well:

[Yun]

Ouch.  Wouldn't that increase the hiss, noise, and harshness factors?

I guess if you're dealing with smooth-sounding transistors, making them hit harder and still sound smooth would sort of be a function of how the transistors distort, together with the character of the clipping diodes.  Hell; just removing the clipping diodes altogether will give you a loud-as-hell product, but none too pretty IMO.   

Uh, the rest of my post didn't.....well.....post:

Put 3 diodes in series, on each side (1N914) .  THEN remove the 470pf caps . 

In my experience, at least through my rig, removing the 470pf caps AFTER the diode mod thickens things up in a hurry.