Home › Forums › Help/Technical Questions › Help getting high solo tones with Big Muff

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  • January 20, 2010 at 10:44 pm #79729
    sl21
    Member

    I purchased a Big Muff USA (w/o tone wicker) a few weeks ago. I have an American Strat HSS and a Marshall tube combo. With the Big Muff, I love the low end fuzz I get for power chords, drop d, Smashing Pumpkiny sounds, and laying down massive riffs, etc. However, I can’t seem to even get close to a crisp sustain on the high strings or for solos. I was under the impression the Big Muff would be able to produce some nice Gilmour type sustain in the solos, but all I seem to be able to get is a very muddy blah sound. There is also to a lesser extent an issue with the middle strings kind of running together, or not being defined when played together. I have been really trying to hit all the different setting combinations on my axe, amp, and the pedal, and I have been adjusting the height of the pickups as well. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

    January 21, 2010 at 2:13 am #106658
    Ned Flanders
    Moderator

    Play it at live volumes and its a whole other story man!

    Anyways, if you swap the 3x 470pF caps for 100pF caps it will increase highs and note definition while maintaining all the low end.

    January 22, 2010 at 8:50 pm #106729
    sl21
    Member

    Gotcha- haven’t had a chance to really crank due to apartment living. I’ll see what happens when I get a chance to let it off the leash so to speak. Thanks!

    January 25, 2010 at 4:41 pm #106794
    Kitrae
    Member

    Volume helps a lot, but you need a really clean tube amp for Gilmour tones – as in one with lots of head room and no breakup. Vintage style single coil pups sound better for this than humbuckers too. The Seymour Duncan SSL-5 or Dimarzio FS-1 are two really good, hot sounding pickups. I find a good compressor before the Muff really cleans up the mud too. Gives the USA Muff more clarity. A Dynacomp or old Boss CS-2.

    The magic tone spot for Gilmour on a USA Muff is around 10:30, with sustain around 75%. The USA Muff is not the best for Gilmour though. The LBM gets closer, but a vintage V2 Ram’s Head, V3 or a V7 “Civil War” or green Sovtek sounds better IMO.

    Here is some info about getting Gilmour tones.
    http://www.kitrae.net/music/David_Gilmour_Tone_Building.html

    February 1, 2010 at 6:23 pm #107026
    sl21
    Member

    Thanks for the replies- I seem to have found a pretty good combo of settings with the pedal and my rig to get both more clarity on the highs- I think the suggestion of a compressor would really help define the pedal a little more as well and get me close to where I was aiming for tone wise…

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