uhhh yeah, another muff a comin' ( video samples please check it out )

[dumbmonkey]

Whoa!!!
I've breadboarded this sucka and I have to say "hello, nurse!!!!".  This thing is seriously filthy and I like that.  I used a .47uf as the input cap and since I ran out of 1n914 diodes, I used 1n4001 as clippers (I might try LED's just because...).  Transistors are 2n5089, but I have some bc109c workalikes that I want to try.  I also want to try sticking in a SWTC in there just to see what the difference is. In any case, this might be the proverbial "cat's ass" for a fuzz for me...  Thank's Joe and Zach for putting this up there!!!

[Ry]

this might be the proverbial "cat's ass" for a fuzz for me...

Can't say I've ever heard that one...I assume that's a good thing, but having been a cat owner for many decades, it doesn't seem pleasant to me. 

If you think this is the "cat's ass" have you tried a skyripper?   

[joegagan]

chris, thanks, glad you built one.

please let us know how the different diodes and trannies sound. also,  i was interested in how the stupidly wunnerful would work in there, i haven't had enough time to experiment, would like to hear your results.

ry, thanks, we go back a ways, huh?

[Ry]

I recently re-built my skyripper on vero to save space and get it into a smaller enclosure.  Man, it's still my main fuzz...all these years later.  I probably need to tune it a little more, it doesn't seem to do the crazy stuff my last build did, but the tone is not lacking anything! 

This new muff design is next on my build list...I can't wait to try it out!

[joegagan]

yes, the 4.5v and 1.0v bias readings at s4 are critical. a bit of a balancing act. i should probably revamp those trimmers and the s4 arrangement for easier biasing.

[foopersuzz]

I saw the video on youtube, and had to stop in here. It sounds seriously amazing. It really does sound like that Muff sound I hear in my head, but get so bored trying to coax out of my standard BM pedals. I'm going to hopefully try and build one pretty soon here.

Joe, were you in standard tuning on the video? Also, it sounds pretty meaty on the video, but how would the bass compare to that of any other BM (EHX or non)?

Thanks!

And first post yay!  

[Caferacernoc]

Interesting that everyone loves this Big Muff varient that omits the standard BMP tonestack and meanwhile on the "other" forum the Cornish "Gilmore" muff has been degooped and sure enough..... No traditional BMP tonestack there either!

[joegagan]

fooper,welcome. standard tuning. small strings.

cafe, interesting, i did not know that. but i believe it.

[Eric H]

on the "other" forum the Cornish "Gilmore" muff has been degooped

Is Gilmore a member now?
Guess I need to go by there once in a while

[dumbmonkey]

Ok; here;s an update for anyone concerned: 
I realized that my 9 volts are both running at about 5 volts, so I'm not truly sure how things will sound until I hit the store.  l tried BC109c workalikes; not so good, 2N5089s are better.  Stuck the SWTC with a 1k resistor and .0022uf cap on there and it will probably help tame some of the high end depending on the amp.  I'm currently trying this out through an older solid state Park practice amp, and I haven't had the chance to check it with my Bedrock or Night Train.  I'm liking 1N4001 as clippers so far, but I tried some 5mm red leds in the second clipping section and really dug the attack...
After building and using a "Swollen Pickle" clone, this thing is a real must have!
Now to start dropping the circuit into Eagle so I can make a layout...

[Zzagar]

Dumbmon,
Thanks for the great feedback and I'm gonna try the leds, also Joe and I are looking at options for high rolloff.

Cafe,
I hadn't heard that, thanks for the info. Kinda crazy but makes sense.

Joe,
I originally doubted how much buzz this thread would create (no pun intended) but after reviewing our vids, Ms. Fuzzy Muff, Cherry Pi, Mega Muff, what ever you want to call it, makes that SS Ampeg scream!!

[foxfire]

i also bread boarded this beast and i also agree that it is wonderfully filthy. i tried 2n2222's, bc107's, bc109's, and 2n5089's. the 2n2222's were the smoothest. the bc107's were pretty filthy. the bc109's were sort of blah when compared to the others. the 2n5089's were a higher gain version of what i was hearing with the bc107's. all the tranny's were selected at random. i like the the whole single knob idea behind this so i'm just gonna slap a cap at the end and let it bleed. i had a lot of fun playing with this today instead of doing my work. it's a great sounding circuit. thanks for sharing it. 

[SeanI]

Anyone gettin some mean oscillation whenever the volume is turned past 12'oclock?  I twisted wires in my build just to clean things up a bit but I made sure not to twist any output wires with input wires.  Any ideas?

Also , I've got a perf layout done but I've spent most of the day on this so I think I'll wait a bit before typing that up.

[John Lyons]

Pics speak volumes. Show us whatcha got and we can help you.

[joegagan]

we had no oscillations, our wires are still spread out the same way shown in the video. we have not gotten back to troubleshooting the second breadboard version. we haven't put one in an enclosure yet.

will be curious to hear your results.

[foxfire]

here is a layout i did, and yes i'm a total sucker for balance/symmetry, http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/foxfire/biggermuff/BIGGERMUFF+LAYOUT.png.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1 i haven't built it yet so if you decide to use it you may want to double check it for yourself. with that said i wouldn't post it if i wasn't pretty dang sure it wasn't good... 

[SeanI]

AWRIGHT

Stopped the oscillation but I changed three things all at once so theres no telling which was the solution.

I changed the my LED resistor from 2k to 1k.  I changed the power input from being plugged directly into the 1spot to being plugged into the 1spot along with all my other pedals.  Finally , right before I tried it out I made an offering of three goats to the fuzz gods then jumped through fire eleven times.  I think it was the goats that did it.

This pedal sounds great but for some reason I feel like mine sounds somewhat different from Joe's.  Mine leans more toward the distortion side with a ton of sustain while I feel like Joes is heavy fuzz.  What I really enjoy about both of them is that they seem to retain the picking attack which adds more clarity to the sound.  

Also, you sure your guitar is in standard tuning?  It sounds downtuned in the video, I think i got contact high from watching it.

EDIT:

Just played it through an amp turned up slightly past bedroom volume levels.  Now the pedal sounds like the one in the video.

[Solidhex]

I don't like the small sweet spot of the stock BM tone control either.
One thing I've been meaning to try is using a 50K pot and 25k fixed resistors at either end.
This way you would cut off the mostly unusable extreme bass and treble settings.
ROG props for that idea.
Either that or put some resistance between the low pass cap and ground making a shelved type
LP filter...and maybe doing something similar on the HP side.

I use a pot for controlling the mids on the BM circuits I've done. It's more useful than adjusting
the typically narrow bass/treble sweet spot.

Seems like the SWTC (stupidly wonderful tone control by mark hammer) would work great in
Joe's circuit here. A 10K pot with a .02ish cap connected to the wiper, signal to hot/3 and output taken off lug 1/cold.
The level remains fairly un affected and you only use a pot and a cap. You can put a resistor in between the
cap and ground to make the filter more of a shelved response.


Another way around that is to just use a smaller value tone control pot. Like 50k or 25k. Squeezes a little more volume out of the circuit too. Apart from that though the Big Muff tone control is a bummer. Really sucks the life out of things. I have an 80's muff with the tone bypass and never used the tone control...

--Brad

[foopersuzz]

AWRIGHT

Stopped the oscillation but I changed three things all at once so theres no telling which was the solution.

I changed the my LED resistor from 2k to 1k.  I changed the power input from being plugged directly into the 1spot to being plugged into the 1spot along with all my other pedals.  Finally , right before I tried it out I made an offering of three goats to the fuzz gods then jumped through fire eleven times.  I think it was the goats that did it.

This pedal sounds great but for some reason I feel like mine sounds somewhat different from Joe's.  Mine leans more toward the distortion side with a ton of sustain while I feel like Joes is heavy fuzz.  What I really enjoy about both of them is that they seem to retain the picking attack which adds more clarity to the sound.  

Also, you sure your guitar is in standard tuning?  It sounds downtuned in the video, I think i got contact high from watching it.

EDIT:

Just played it through an amp turned up slightly past bedroom volume levels.  Now the pedal sounds like the one in the video.

Would you say it has as much bass as a standard BM?

[joegagan]

yes.