Home Forums Help/Technical Questions My weird mod for Big Muff Pi (NYC & Russian)

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    scottv
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    I discovered this a few years back by just poking around the circuit board on a black russian big muff and i’m not entirely sure if its unique as i have not seen mentioned anywhere else about the numerous mods that can be done on this pedal. I basically took a wire across both leads of C10 (As i understand it, this is the capacitor in the tonestack that controls the bass frequencies) and found that it increases the bass frequencies and increases the volume. I made it switchable using a spdt switch, so when off the cap is in place (stock setting) and then when switched on, the circuit is connected w/o this cap. i primarily like this mod for the increase in volume, i compromised the increase in bass by turning up the tone pot, and with this mod engaged i noticed that the perceived range of the tone pot is less than stock. this modded pedal was my primary fuzz distortion pedal in my last band (ran it thru an early 70’s silverface fender twin) and never had any issues with it not being heard in a full band setting or in a mix something that can be quite common with the big muff pedal due to its scooped mids.

    i’ve never tried the big muff tonewicker version pedal, but my guess is that my mod is some sort of compromised version of altering or bypassing the tonestack. I have had a little big muff (new version w/ the SMD board) for some time it didn’t get much use because i have always preferred the Sovtek versions, but recently took a good look at the circuit. It is the same basic circuit as a NYC version big muff but with those tiny surface mount components it prevented me from trying any sort of mods with it until now. taking a good look at the schematic i found that in this circuit C9 is the cap that controls the bass (where as C10 is the cap for the russian versions and also the old ramshead/triangle???) so i did the same mod, wiring a spdt switch so that i can bypass the cap. I have noticed this same mod for this version of the pedal does the same as the sovtek, it increases the bass frequencies and increases the volume (though it sounds to be quite abit bigger jump in volume vs. the russian pedal) another thing i noticed about this mod vs. doing the same thing on the black russian is that the tone pot does very little, making me speculate that this is pretty close to a tone bypass/wicker sort of mod.

    Wondering if anyone who has experience with this circuit can explain to me more on specifically what i have been doing with this circuit (i’m just an “intermediate” modder at best and a beginner at pedal builds) i only have a real general understanding of the circuit and components.

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