Originally called Precision Fuzz the P2 was introduced around 1988 as an upgrade of the P1. The P2 is first seen in David’s 1989 Momentary Lapse of Reason stage rig after it replaced the #2 ram’s head Big Muff. It was also featured in the 1994 PULSE stage rig labeled Big Muff. Considering the small size of this early version it’s likely that it didn’t feature Cornish’s buffers. Pete Cornish G2

That’s my sound. The Muff is always on,” J says. “All distorted sounds begin with the Muff. That’s what I grew up playing so it’s kind of amazing to have my own signature one.” A super-tweakable Muff-style fuzz with parametric footswitchable mids and three voices: Tight: modern Big Muff sound with tight lows, focused mids and a crisp top end; Vintage: Classy Muff Sound, low- to mid-gain distortion, balanced frequency response; Heavy: full blast Big Muff sound with massive low end and plenty of gain. Dry signal can be reintroduced pre or post gain. For older Russian Big Muffs, use metric sized screws. The original innner enclosure lid scrws for large box Russian Big Muffs were Sovtek1590NS, 1790NS. The outer box screws were Sovtek 1290NS. Both could be found at Small Bear Electronics at the time this article was written.COLORSOUND JUMBO TONEBENDER Modified V3 Big Muff - Around 1976 Sola Sound of London modified their Big Muff clone, the Supa Tonebender, changing some component values, and entirely removing the gain recovery stage. The values in the Jumbo Tonebender were basically from a V3 era Big Muff. The purpose of the last stage in the original design was to recover some of the audio gain lost (approximately 8db) in the tone section, so removing it made for a very weak, low gain Muff. It almost sounds like some of the clean signal is mixed in with the distortion. This made for a muff that was rather lifeless for electric guitar leads and chords, but worked very well for bass guitar. Replicating sounds: Because Ram's Head Big Muff was used by so many iconic artists this reissue will give you the possibility to match their tones. But one of the most striking things about the Ram's Head is how often it seems to borrow the best attributes of each Big Muff version. TRIANGLE BIG MUFF PI - This is one of the common circuit variants, from around 1971, easily identified by the large green capacitors used. It seems to be the fourth circuit variant for the V1. The low pass filter cap at C10 in the input stage was omitted, likely because of a shortage of 500pF caps during that production run. The 10k input resistors at R19 and R12 were reduced to 8.2k, and remained this way on most V1 variants that came later. This boosted the gain into the clipping stages, giving a bit more drive and crunch. Most of the Big Muffs I have seen with this same circuit variant had .1uF caps where my V1 of this variant uses .12uF. The same circuit was also used in the Guild Foxey Lady OEM version. While the Tone Bender and Fuzz Face pedals are often used by players in search of a vintage tone, the Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi has truly found a home on the pedalboards of a younger generation of guitarists and bassists.

RESISTORS - Electro-Harmonix used cheap carbon resistors throughout the 1970's (the fat dark brown cylinders with color bands), gradually switching to carbon composition type (smaller cylinders with fatter ends, and various case colors - tan, light brown, dark brown, red-brown) in the late 1970's and early 1980's. When the Big Muff returned to production in 2000 carbon composition was again used, with occasional use of some modern carbon film or metal film resistors (similar to carbon composition, but case color is usually blue) appearing in later years. What is the difference? Carbon and carbon composition resistor tolerances (electrical variance from part spec to actual measurement) are very high and film resistor tolerances are lower and more consistent from part to part. Some also claim film resistors are lower noise in audio circuits than carbon types. Having owned many Big Muffs with both types, and a few clones of the exact same circuit with all of one type, and all of the other type, I hear absolutely no difference in the level of noise between the two. 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)... V2 RAMS HEAD BIG MUFF PI - Another typical V2 circuit from around 1976, probably the 16th variant. Very similar to the 75#1 schematic above, but this was a PNP version with 2N5087 transistors. Numerous clones were based on this version, including the BYOC Large Beaver. The C1 input cap was almost always sometimes a 10µF polarized electro on this variant. V3 BIG MUFF PI with TONE BYPASS - The very first circuit mod by EHX. A rare variant of the V3 circuit with tone bypass switching (C15, R28, switch) and power filtering (R27, C14), made simultaneously with the V4 and V5 op-amp versions. Many people think the tone bypass was added with the V5 Big Muff, but it actually first appeared in this V3 variant, circa 1979. It was simple switch in between C14 and C3 that completely bypassed the Big Muff tone control, making the tone pot inactive, flattening the EQ, and giving a slight volume boost. This variant used MPSA18 transistors, very rarely used in a BMP. Using a booster while recording is not a good idea because it’s often hard to tame both the increased gain and the noise caused by blending two gain effects. To get that same smooth, compressed Big Muff tone, David would play incredibly loud to get the amp’s tubes really hot. This was something he also would do to smooth out the even harsher fuzz pedals in the early 70s during the recording of Meddle and Dark Side of the Moon. As described above, mic placement and additional compression, limiting and EQ is also crucial to manipulate the tone.V1 Triangle Big Muff - The low pass resistor values started with 27k. 33k was the most used. Other variants used 22k and 39k. David’s first solo album and Final Cut are perhaps the most honest recordings. It sounds like the mics have been placed further away from the speakers allowing a natural ambience for the Hiwatt and Yamaha. This perfect blend of the two adds a warm, liquidy flavour to the Big Muff, rolling off any harsh overtones and bringing out all the subtle nuances in David’s playing. On an Island is recorded in very much the same way although this time, David would use a much simpler setup with just the Big Muff plugged straight into the amp. Modern 2N5133 transistors are not exactly the same as the 1970s production. Some consider them almost too low for a Big Muff, although as stated, some 1970s 2N5133/FS36999 measure very low too. 2N5088 or 2N5089 are close modern production transistor equivalents. 2N5089 have a slightly higher gain than 2N5088. BC549C, BC550, BC239, SE4010, and 2N5210 are some others that also work. V2 "BOX CAP" RAMS HEAD BIG MUFF PI - This is the most common V2 from the 1975-77 period, probably the 15th variant. This "Box Cap" Ram's Head version is easily identified by the large white box caps used. Quanitites made seem to be almost as many as the "White Can" Ram's Head version shown above (74#3). Identical to 76#1 below, but with 33k input resistor and low pass tone resistors at R2 and R8, instead of 39k, and 470pF filter caps instead of 560pF at C10, 11 and 12. The C1 input cap was almost always a 10µF polarized electro. Some production of this version changed between 1µF and 10µF at C2, C6, and C7, and a few used 10µF for all C1, C2, C6, and C7 caps.