Home › Forums › Help/Technical Questions › New Big Muff Pi = no sound when bypass activated

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • December 2, 2011 at 5:32 pm #82018
    Jeeper1JSC
    Member

    Howdy Folks:

    I purchased a Big Muff Pi about a year ago for a recording project…used it for some tunes and then packed it away. Today on a whim I dug it out to play with it a bit and to my surprise it produces no sound when the bypass is switched. When the pedal is activated, the light comes on and I get sweet creamy toneful fuzz (just like it’s supposed to produce). Step on the button to deactive (and I assume click it into bypass mode) and it kills the signal. I tried putting a fresh (i.e. brand new) battery in it and that didn’t resolve the problem. I did a bunch of google searches on this, but found nothing.

    Any idea what’s going on here?

    Jeff

    December 2, 2011 at 5:35 pm #116440
    The EH Man
    Moderator

    disconnected wire or a bad footswitch.

    December 2, 2011 at 5:40 pm #116442
    Jeeper1JSC
    Member

    Okay…so my follow up question would be how do I proceed to get the pedal fixed? Do I need to send it somewhere? When I replaced the battery I removed the cover to check for an obviously loose wire but everything looked snug and secure.

    Thanks for your prompt response!

    December 4, 2011 at 4:16 am #116452
    scottv
    Member

    Like EH Man has said it could be a disconnected wire or bad switch…

    or it could be a bad solder point to the board/jack/switch, if you gently knock on the pedal while its bypassed you may be able to listen to the signal coming in and out… its not likely a power supply issue (battery power connection) as the pedal wouldn’t be powering up at all or intermittingly. as in your case, you get the distorted signal but not the bypassed.

    It sounds like you don’t have much soldering experience or much knowledge with circuits, so its best you find a service rep in your area or contact EH for repair.

    April 10, 2012 at 7:08 pm #117298
    Jeeper1JSC
    Member

    *UPDATE*

    I had a friend of mine who works on pedals take a look at the offending Big Muff. Turns out the solder joints were the cause. The switch was also super wobbly from the factory. He fixed that and added some padding to make the unit a bit more sturdy.

    Frankly I’m kind of shocked how flimsy these things are after looking inside one. I guess I can’t expect much for $80 these days.

    February 1, 2014 at 6:16 pm #119653
    Siphonophoid
    Member

    I actually just registered here to post this reply. Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I came across this while searching for exactly this problem with my new Bass Big Muff Pi, and figured it might help someone else in the future.

    I too had a brand new unit, and when activated the effect worked fine, but would not pass audio when bypassed.

    I opened up the unit but nothing seemed wrong. The switch was solid, no loose wires and the solder points looked fine (I work on electronics for a living)

    I was about to go return the unit when I was playing around with it and noticed that it would pass signal when I stepped on the footswitch without actually toggling it; ie. I held my foot on the switch just before it “clicks” and I could hear my bass through the chain.

    I suspect that some of these footswitches get “sticky” and the internals don’t spring back and make contact when toggled.
    What I ended up doing was actuating the switch just on/off/on/off a bunch of times, maybe 40 or 50. That seems to have solved the problem – I haven’t since had any issues with having no sound when bypassed. Seems very reliable now, and I am gigging with the unit no problem.

    Just in case anyone else has this issue, try stomping the crap out of the switch and see if that fixes the problem.

    June 5, 2014 at 8:24 am #120021
    muffstomper
    Member

    Thank’s a ton, Siphonophoid!!

    I also just registered here to confirm your solution (and say thanks).

    I had the exact same problem with a brand new Big Muff, which developed this issue during playing, kinda out of nowhere. I followed your advice by engaging/disengaging it repeatedly, and voilá ;) Took ~100x for me, but I’m just so glad it’s working again!

    Also, it’s even more statisfying, when kicking the shit out of something is the solution to fix it :D

    Cheers!

    September 29, 2015 at 2:19 pm #120919
    maxzeroth
    Member

    wow great, I recently had the same problem. I’m gonna try stomping, I hope it works, If not I’m scared of soldering :-S

    October 2, 2015 at 1:44 pm #120921
    maxzeroth
    Member

    It turs out it was the soul food. I cleaned up the switch with isopropilic alcohol and a syringe and for now it’s good. I think you can use some other electronics cleaning products.

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.