Electro Harmonix Ram's Head Big Muff Pi Distortion Fuzz Sustainer Pedal

Product Information

The Big Muff was designed by Mike Matthews and Electro Harmonix in the late 60s. It was a unique take on the still new fuzz circuit and during a time when guitarists had only a few pedals to choose from.

Note that I have not shown the switching for the volume pedal feature of this circuit, primarily because I thought it was a stupid and clumsily executed idea. The low level signal does not get loud enough to even meet an average unity level of most other pedals from the time, nor is the switching setup practical. It would have better to simply wire in a standard 100k volume pot like a typical BMP. VERSION 2 "RAMS HEAD" BIG MUFF PI - Approximately 20 circuit variants exist, each made in extended manufacturing runs.On clean channel they all sound very similar. Op amp has its own character which is super cool and I already miss it (both on dirt and clean channel)...

I think the majority of the tone signature is really determined by the key cap and resistor values, NOT by the transitor type. To a lesser extent, the diode types can also make a difference in the tone because they affect the frequncies clipped in the clipping stages. Poor quality transistors can also affect how noisy the pedal will be. The most coveted of all the Muffs, the early 70s Ram’s Head was used by David Gilmour for his epic, singing lead tone. The Ram’s head is articulate and very loud, with a bit of vintage “spittiness.” Another highly versatile od/distortion/fuzz, the Shigeharu is capable of everything from punchy overdrive to full on IC Muff destruction. Holding down the momentary Havoc foot switch engages a spitty upper octave for maximum chaos. Note that the original Silicon diodes are marked SYL GY920, but the actual diode types used are unknown. 1N914 (shown on the schematic) and 1N4148 are some modern equivalents that work, but they may not be identical to the original diodes. The differences are minor, but diode types do affect the sound frequencies that are clipped. To the extent the Ram's head does lower-gain distortion tones, it excels. Placing the Ram's Head's gain control at noon yields some of the smoothest high/mid-gain fuzz you'll hear from the Muff family. (I often use such settings to tame the high-mid spikes that can plague Big Muff/Marshall combinations, and, in this context, this Ram's Head shines.)

The Big Muff was designed by Electro Harmonix founder Mike Matthews in the late 60s. The first years of production saw the pedal in various shapes and forms, both under the Electro Harmonix banner and other brands as well. VERSION 1 "TRIANGLE" BIG MUFF PI - Approximately 18 circuit variants exist, each made in extended manufacturing runs. Russian Big Muffs - The high pass resistor value was almost always 22k high pass resistors, creating heavy but smooth bass with the mids scoop frequency boosted a bit. That is just for the specific compnents types used in that specific circuit from that year, not necessarily typical of other compoenent types. How much of that variance was there from the start, happened in the first few years of burn in, or happened in 40 years since is anyone's guess.