Home Forums Help/Technical Questions My USA Big Muff may have a problem…

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  • #77745
    Costch
    Participant

    I have a recent (2008, revision C) Big Muff. I think it may have a problem though, because I need to turn it up to about 3 o’clock on the volume just to match the bypass volume. Any setting bellow that, and it’s too quiet. Is this normal?

    #93343

    Thats how mine is. =/

    #93345
    BlueSteel
    Participant

    I don’t know whats wrong with it, but mine doesn’t do that.

    #93360
    Dr. Matt
    Moderator

    I have a similar thing, although i don’t know when my muff was made, as it may have been in the shop for a very long time, but i did get it last year.

    On some higher output guitars such as my fender Cyclone, i get a volume drop even with maximum volume on the pedal, but there are a number of reasons:

    On its own, it’s fine. I gigged with it the other week into my rocktronic “tweed” amp (just the pedal alone, short set), and everyone said “your fuzz sounded awesome but it was way louder than your clean sound”. I was expecting a drop in perceived volume. I think it may be something to do with buffered bypass pedals, as fuzz boxes can lose signal from having buffers which change the impedance placed before them in the signal chain. are you using any other pedals?

    Another question i think i need to ask is what amp are you using? Even with buffered pedals in the chain, i have to lower the volume on the pedal to match the bypassed signal when i use the fender champ, but with my Laney VC30 it’s a different story… So i think the sound cuts through better with american voiced amplifiers.

    #93361
    electro-melx
    Moderator

    it’s probably due to lack of headroom in the amp, I used to run my big muff’s volume on nearly full when I was practicing with a band with a 30w valve amp…….with my hybrid 120w half stack, unity is around 10 or 11 o’clock, it’s probably that old problem of the pedal overdriving the preamp. Either that or it’s just a case of too many TB pedals with long cables and a weak signal going to the amp. I doubt there’s anything wrong with the pedal.

    #93375
    Costch
    Participant
    Quote:
    are you using any other pedals?

    Another question i think i need to ask is what amp are you using? Even with buffered pedals in the chain, i have to lower the volume on the pedal to match the bypassed signal when i use the fender champ, but with my Laney VC30 it’s a different story… So i think the sound cuts through better with american voiced amplifiers.

    My chain looks like this:

    SG > Wah > Big Muff > Small Clone > Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

    #93376
    cabomano
    Participant
    Quote:
    My chain looks like this:

    SG > Wah > Big Muff > Small Clone > Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

    I too have a Hot Rod Deluxe. Have you tried playing at different volume levels on the amp? I find that with most pedals, unity gain will vary on the dial depending on the volume of the amp… Is that normal, BTW?

    #93382
    Ned Flanders
    Moderator

    Most big muffs match unity late in the pot rotation so its fine.

    #93383
    electro-melx
    Moderator
    Quote:
    Quote:
    My chain looks like this:

    SG > Wah > Big Muff > Small Clone > Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

    I too have a Hot Rod Deluxe. Have you tried playing at different volume levels on the amp? I find that with most pedals, unity gain will vary on the dial depending on the volume of the amp… Is that normal, BTW?

    yes totally normal, a pedal won’t make an amp louder than it is…..as you turn the amp up you start running out of headroom, thus the amount of volume boost you get from a pedal will decrease until the point where it just overdrives the preamp into distortion and will give no volume increase at all.

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