Confused about Little Big Muff...

[momo]

I have been reading the search results for about half hour now, I would like to know the actual state of affairs on it.

I really do not want to stir up some dust that seems to have settled lately....and dont want to restart the conversation on legal matters, I simply want to know if there is a legal layout or schematic that has been modified enough to avoid legal issues.
I have built the Triangle BM and dont like it, just too muddy and noisy. Im looking for a fat sustain sound to get the viloin/cello sound,and the little big muff seems like thats what I need.

Like I said, if im into murky waters legally with this, then ill just buy one.
thanks for the help

[MetalGod]

have you tried modding that triangle-bmp?  from the BMPs I've built, the triangle version sounds the best to me but I also lower the input cap to cut out much of the farty bass end.  it does take away the trademark BMP tone, but that made it a useable effect for me.  try it, might just be what you need.

[scaesic]

what did you lower it to?

wouldnt that just lower the lpf and decrease highs rather than decreasing lows?

[d95err]

I don't know anything particular about the Little Big Muff, but from the description on the EH website, it sounds like it's just the same basic circuit put into a slightly smaller box. They say it's somewhere the Russian and current Big Muff, so most likely it's just a matter of changing a few components.

Checkout the Big Muff project at www.tonepad.com. It contains schematics for three different Big Muff versions. Perhaps one of them has the sound you're looking for. If you socket some of the critical components (coupling caps, feedback resistors, etc) you can tweak it to the sound you want.

[MetalGod]

what did you lower it to?

wouldnt that just lower the lpf and decrease highs rather than decreasing lows?

change the input cap to 0.022uF - that's my all purpose cap size for most distortions for ensuring the bass stays tight. 

lowering the size of the cap will cut the amount of bass entering the circuit - thereby cutting the extreme mushy bass end, not affecting treble at all.  to cut treble at the input you would need to connect a small pF value cap to ground (47pF to 500pF is typical depending on how much treble you want to cut).

[momo]

Well I also found this...I dont have enough experience to "hear" the differences just by looking at these. Ill try your suggested mod.
http://www.pisotones.com/BigMuffPi/psst/BMP_versiones.htm

[blanik]

i have both a genuine Little Big Muff (op-amp) and a Tonepad's Triangle and Russian Muff... the Tonepads sound way better than the EH Little BM, first a lot less noise and second, the setting on the Little are quite limited, you just have a volume and a switch for tone (clear or dark sound) so basically you just have two sounds... you can make the Tonepads Muffs sound exactly like the Little (less the noise) but you have a lot more control over other possible sounds...

my 2 cents....

R.

[Bernardduur]

I have made one a while ago, then removed it from the board due to legal reasons

it is "just" a reissue model (same values) with only three slight differences:
- Transistors are 2N5962
- Third transistor step has a resistor to V+ of 15k
- Last resistor to ground is 2.7k

[analogguru]

Don´t be confused but in early days, there was:

1. a "Little Muff Pi"

and

2. a "Little Big Muff Pi"

The Little Muff Pi was the floor version of the 2 transistor Muff Fuzz, blue printing and on/off switch while the little Big Muf Pi had yellow printing, a tone switch and the circuit was very similar to the 1977 (OP-Amp) Big Muff Pi.

analogguru

[MetalGod]

Well I also found this...I dont have enough experience to "hear" the differences just by looking at these. Ill try your suggested mod.
http://www.pisotones.com/BigMuffPi/psst/BMP_versiones.htm

my own BMP was first changed to the first triangle specs (see schem from the link you posted above) and I liked the tone much more than the modern BMP version.  the triangle version sounds less gainier, these pedals already have a TON of gain though, and more focused imo.

the only thing I can't quite get past is the tonestack, I really dislike that scooped sound it gives.  I've played with this aspect of the BMP and haven't been able to nail it just yet - more work needed.

anyone got a good one-knob 'tone' control that isn't based around the BMP tonestack?

[petemoore]

anyone got a good one-knob 'tone' control that isn't based around the BMP tonestack?
  Rolloff the lows to your liking using the DC Blocking and staging caps, smaller total values? Then put a simple HF cut adjuster [cap/pot to ground] on the signal near output.
  There's so many things to mess with and so many places to mess with them...
  The far left board is often a recommended place to start reducing LF content, the input cap, ...staging caps can also be used to trim bass as it grows farther to the right.
  Yupp..grows..everything about the signal in the BMP gets 'grown' from left to right as it passes through Amp/Voice/clipping stages repeatedly.
  Every non electrolytic capacitor on the board can be looked at as a point for voicing modification, starting and ending with the input cap value is simple, 'sprinkling' chosen cap values for LF rolloff across the board, to 'evenly' trim bass 'bushiness' is more involved...and can be made to produce a sharper rolloff point if you like.
  Then the diodes...clipping thresholds..as related to the gain setting emitter/gnd. resistors. Perhaps use a bit of assymetric clipping element configuration, then if you want more gain, eliminate/reduce some emitter R value, or throw a bypassable gain stage in front of it.
 

[MetalGod]

anyone got a good one-knob 'tone' control that isn't based around the BMP tonestack?
Rolloff the lows to your liking using the DC Blocking and staging caps, smaller total values? Then put a simple HF cut adjuster [cap/pot to ground] on the signal near output.

thanks for that, would you believe that's exactly what I've got now - I liked the sound much more with the BMP tonestack bypassed so I set about trimming the bass end to taste and added a simple 'cut' type control to bleed of the extreme fuzzy top end.

any other ideas? I'd like to find a bass/middle/treble tonestack that sounds good.

[petemoore]

  AMZ labs notebook...