Home › Forums › Help/Technical Questions › Big Muff Pi with Tone Wicker buzzing

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  • January 26, 2011 at 2:35 am #81290
    blam
    Participant

    hey all.

    I recently acquired a BMPwTW and its great, cept for the fact that it has a lud buzzing.

    I am new to fuzz pedals so I do not know if this is normal.

    when on bypass, it completely silent.

    once i turn it on, I get a buzz/hum at idle and it is rather loud. the higher the sustain on the BMP the louder the buzz.

    my normal settings are: vol: 12:00 tone: 2:00 sustain: 10-2;00

    gear I’ve tried this pedal on:
    egnater tweaker on clean channel (min. gain)
    epi les paul
    epi dot
    planet waves cable, monoprice shielded cable, yorkville shielded cable, all in different combinations.
    battery & power adapter was tried.
    in a chain with my OCD v4. (no difference in a chain or separate)

    after much googling, I tried replacing the plastic washer on the input/output with metal ones, and this did not help either

    any insight would be much appreciated.

    January 26, 2011 at 11:08 am #114011
    KartoonHead
    Member

    Yea, muffs buzz. They’ve got like 4 gain stages, 2 symetrical diode clipping stages (is that right? EHX boffins, please correct me if I’m wrong!) and turning up the sustain knob is the same as raising the gain, which of course raises the noise floor.

    Muffs have always buzzed and muffs always will buzz, it’s part of the charm :)

    January 26, 2011 at 2:48 pm #114013
    blam
    Participant

    thanks for the info!

    February 5, 2011 at 12:48 pm #114146
    srvdmc2163
    Member
    Quote:
    Yea, muffs buzz. They’ve got like 4 gain stages, 2 symetrical diode clipping stages (is that right? EHX boffins, please correct me if I’m wrong!) and turning up the sustain knob is the same as raising the gain, which of course raises the noise floor.

    Muffs have always buzzed and muffs always will buzz, it’s part of the charm :)

    my germanium 4 hisses only on the OD side and not the Distortion side. It is exacerbated by playing individual notes and open strings or hanging on chords. i have tried everything from taking pedal out of pedal chain, using it with a rocktron gate/hush both with the pedal alone, after it in my chain and putting the Rocktron in the effects loop of my amp, i have change power supply, changed amps, changed guitars, guitar cables and patch cables. i cannot use the pedal b/c of the hiss. is this to be expected with all muff pedals? i have returned the pedal. i love the sound of the muff pedals but won’t buy another if they all hiss. your thoughts?

    February 5, 2011 at 1:42 pm #114147
    KartoonHead
    Member

    I’ve heard a lot of these reports that the OD side of the G4BMP hisses badly, and I think it’s another case of a defective batch of pedals. I think I’d have to play around with the thing myself to let you know if it’s normal or not. Maybe make a recording of it?

    February 5, 2011 at 3:14 pm #114091
    srvdmc2163
    Member
    Quote:
    I’ve heard a lot of these reports that the OD side of the G4BMP hisses badly, and I think it’s another case of a defective batch of pedals. I think I’d have to play around with the thing myself to let you know if it’s normal or not. Maybe make a recording of it?

    thank you for the response. i have been online for the last 2 days trying everything to eliminate the hiss. this appears to be a very common problem with the muff line of pedals. i read a suggestion to reduce the gain. i realized i am running some gain (but not a lot) through both my amp (on clean channel)and the pedal. will give this a shot today. if no success, will return the pedal. in your experience, have you seen or heard of this being common and considered normal with muff pedals?

    February 5, 2011 at 3:28 pm #114148
    srvdmc2163
    Member
    Quote:
    Yea, muffs buzz. They’ve got like 4 gain stages, 2 symetrical diode clipping stages (is that right? EHX boffins, please correct me if I’m wrong!) and turning up the sustain knob is the same as raising the gain, which of course raises the noise floor.

    Muffs have always buzzed and muffs always will buzz, it’s part of the charm :)

    it is only the OD side of my Germanium 4 that hisses. is it typical for only the OD side to hiss? thanks. do you think this more likely represents a defective pedal? as i just got the pedal yesterday, i don’t recall the exact settings for the gain on each side. it is possible i may have set the gain higher on the OD side. I do use a modest amount of gain with my amp as well. any recommendations appreciated.

    February 5, 2011 at 3:34 pm #114149
    srvdmc2163
    Member
    Quote:
    Quote:
    Yea, muffs buzz. They’ve got like 4 gain stages, 2 symetrical diode clipping stages (is that right? EHX boffins, please correct me if I’m wrong!) and turning up the sustain knob is the same as raising the gain, which of course raises the noise floor.

    Muffs have always buzzed and muffs always will buzz, it’s part of the charm :)

    it is only the OD side of my Germanium 4 that hisses. is it typical for only the OD side to hiss? thanks. do you think this more likely represents a defective pedal? as i just got the pedal yesterday, i don’t recall the exact settings for the gain on each side. it is possible i may have set the gain higher on the OD side. I do use a modest amount of gain with my amp as well. any recommendations appreciated.

    would it be unusual for the hiss to be predominantly following picking strings and holding chords with tapering off to almost nothing. i can almost eliminate the hiss (‘idling’/when i am not playing) by adjusting my rocktron gate/hush pedal but this does nothing to the hiss following picking strings/hitting chords.

    February 5, 2011 at 3:40 pm #114150
    srvdmc2163
    Member
    Quote:
    Quote:
    Yea, muffs buzz. They’ve got like 4 gain stages, 2 symetrical diode clipping stages (is that right? EHX boffins, please correct me if I’m wrong!) and turning up the sustain knob is the same as raising the gain, which of course raises the noise floor.

    Muffs have always buzzed and muffs always will buzz, it’s part of the charm :)

    my germanium 4 hisses only on the OD side and not the Distortion side. It is exacerbated by playing individual notes and open strings or hanging on chords. i have tried everything from taking pedal out of pedal chain, using it with a rocktron gate/hush both with the pedal alone, after it in my chain and putting the Rocktron in the effects loop of my amp, i have change power supply, changed amps, changed guitars, guitar cables and patch cables. i cannot use the pedal b/c of the hiss. is this to be expected with all muff pedals? i have returned the pedal. i love the sound of the muff pedals but won’t buy another if they all hiss. your thoughts?

    it just ‘dawned on me’ that my clean channel on my amp doesn’t have gain.

    February 5, 2011 at 3:42 pm #114151
    srvdmc2163
    Member
    Quote:
    I’ve heard a lot of these reports that the OD side of the G4BMP hisses badly, and I think it’s another case of a defective batch of pedals. I think I’d have to play around with the thing myself to let you know if it’s normal or not. Maybe make a recording of it?

    ‘light bulb just turned on’!! i don’t have gain on my clean channel of my amp. i will try less gain on the pedal and hopefully this will work.

    February 5, 2011 at 4:09 pm #114152
    melx
    Member
    Quote:
    would it be unusual for the hiss to be predominantly following picking strings and holding chords with tapering off to almost nothing. i can almost eliminate the hiss (‘idling’/when i am not playing) by adjusting my rocktron gate/hush pedal but this does nothing to the hiss following picking strings/hitting chords.

    well when you hit a chord the gate opens so it’s not going to do anything then… noise gates shut the signal off when there is no input, but as soon as you start playing the gate has to open to allow your guitar signal though (and any other noise)

    I can’t comment on the Germ4 because I’ve never played one but none of my regular muff’s are that noisy…. but what a muff is good at doing is amplifying any noise in front of it…so if your guitar is ‘a bit buzzy’ running it though a big muff or any other ‘gain device’ will turn a ‘bit buzzy’ into ‘very buzzy’ …. take the input out crank the pedal up and see how much noise it’s actually making.

    February 5, 2011 at 4:51 pm #114156
    srvdmc2163
    Member

    thank you very much. this stuff is all new to me so some education is much appreciated. will give your recommendation a try.

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