ElectroHarmonix

more complex circuit than the Little
Big Muff, we’d still expect the battery
life to rival the Duracell Bunny.
SOUN D S: After hooking the dirtboxes
up to our Orange stack and engaging
the Little Big Muff, it’s abundantly clear
that fans of subtlety need not apply. If
you’re familiar with the kind of strident
fuzztones that are a huge part of the
sounds of Mudhoney, Jack White and
Billy Corgan, you know what to expect.
When compared to the contemporary
Russian Sovtek and NYC reissue Muffs,
the Little Big Muff is voiced somewhere
between the two, arguably sounding a
little warmer and a touch more retro.
The pedal delivers a huge dose of
creamy sustain and a dense, sizzling
roar that, on its inception way back in
1969, sounded quite unlike any other
dirtbox, and which still maintains an
instantly recognisable aural signature.
As with all Big Muffs, the tone
control’s position is critical as it has
a vast sweep and thus a huge impact
on where the sound sits in the mix,
particularly live. A small adjustment
either way can throw the sound into
relief or suck it all away, so experiment
at stage volume to see where the tone
best sits in terms of its interaction with
your bassist and any other guitarists. As
a starting point, try setting the tone and
sustain controls to around two o’ clock,
add volume to taste, and just try not to
grin from ear to ear when you bang out
a riff on the low E string.
Single-coil pickups appeal to the
trashier side of the Little Big Muff’s
nature, while humbuckers deliver the
cream. Just don’t expect any signifi cant
degree of transparency or the natural
character of your instrument to come
through once the sustain control
advances over halfway.
One of the great things about a Big
Muff is that it usually doesn’t matter
what other gear you have. Unlike a
pedal such as a Tube Screamer that
relies on the right combination of
guitar and amplifi er in order to deliver,
the Little Big Muff does the business
whether you’re playing a £3,000 custom
build or a scrag end of plywood with the
cheapest of pickups.
Moving on to the Metal Muff, it’s
quickly apparent that the sweep on the
equalisation controls is very broad, with
the bass control delivering 14dB of cut
and boost, the mid control 15dB and
the treble control 10dB. With the tone
pots set to zero, there’s no sound at all,
but that certainly changes as you rotate
them clockwise. The distortion level
without the Top Boost engaged varies
from a raunchy retro drive with just
a hint of fuzz around the edges at the
lower reaches of the control’s range to
full-on, searing distortion.
Although there’s tighter bottom-end
control than with a regular Big Muff,
proceedings can still get pretty messy,
and it wouldn’t be the fi rst pedal we’d
turn to for James Hetfi eld-style palm-
muted rhythm playing. The Metal Muff
on full tilt is better suited to J Mascis-
style angular lead playing, stoner rock
riffi ng and creating a formidable wall
of dirt. Extreme EQ settings yield
spitting fuzz and marvellous scratchy
lo-fi delity voices that are perfect for
enlivening a mix or creating dramatic
dynamic changes live. When engaging
the Top Boost, be careful of the amount
of extra bite it can deliver as things can
get pretty searing. Of course, perhaps
that’s exactly what you want…
Verdict
These new Little Big Muffs give fans
of their sound the compact design,
sturdiness and sensible power options
they’ve coveted for years. Quite simply,
if you like fuzzboxes, this is a nigh-on
essential purchase, even if you already
own one of its physically bigger siblings.
The Metal Muff is a somewhat
different proposition that may well
appeal to alt.rock guitarists and
extreme noise terrorists as much as – if
not more than – conventional metallers
of the old school. That said, if you want
to make your solos spit molten attitude
and your riffs throttle the audience,
give the Metal Muff a spin. Just don’t
forget those devil horns.
SUMMER 2006 131
Electro-Harmonix Metal Muff
RATING
ELECTRO-HARMONIX LITTLE BIG MUFF PI & METAL MUFF £52 & £55
EFFECTS CD TRACKS 4 & 5
Behringer VD1 Vintage
Distortion £31
Pro Co Rat 2 £69
Z. Vex Vexter Series Fuzz
Factory £119
Behringer’s cheeky
Big Muff-inspired VD1
has controls for – you
guessed it – level, tone
and sustain, along with
an obscenely cheap
price. The Rat is a
versatile dirtbox that
everyone should own,
and its sonic palette
ranges from gritty drive
to a full-on square
wave fuzz sound all
of its own. Finally,
the Fuzz Factory is a
compendium of killer
fuzztones from which
you can extract such
extremes as woolly
retro warmth and self-
oscillating imminent
amp death
The rivals
E-H LITTLE BIG MUFF TEST RESULTS
Build quality
Features
Sound
Value for money
■ WE LIKED Tex tbook Big Muff sound in
spades; practical upgrades inspire
confi dence; smaller footprint
■ WE DISLIKED The sound won’t appeal
to some players
E-H METAL MUFF TEST RESULTS
Build quality
Features
Sound
Value for money
■ WE LIKED Raunchy overdrive to fully
saturated fi lth; top boost really cuts through
■ WE DISLIKED Arguably not the fi rst
choice for those chugging palm-muted
metal rhythms
Electro-Harmonix Little Big Muff Pi
RATING
GIT279.rev_eh 131GIT279.rev_eh 131 20/6/06 09:46:2120/6/06 09:46:21