Fractal Audio DRIVE models: Pi Fuzz (based on Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi)

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Pi Fuzz (based on Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi)

Fuzz was one of the first “transistorized” guitar effects. Transistors amplify the signal and when they clip, distortion is generated. When the clipping is hard instead of gradual, the distortion is harsh and buzzy, named “fuzz”. The tone of fuzz depends greatly on the type of transistor used: germanium, silicon etc. (available as Clip Types in the Drive block).

If you want to read more about the origin of fuzz and guitar effects in general, I recommend Analog Man’s Guide to Vintage Effects, written by Tom Hughes (For Musicians Only), a joy to read.​

Cliff:
"The Fuzz in the Axe-Fx reacts as though there is a buffer in front of it (because there is). It's a limitation inherent to all modeling products. I modeled it using a nominal source resistance. I forget what I used for the source resistance but it was probably around 100K ohms. To really simulate it you would need a controller to simulate the changing output impedance of the guitar.”​

Electro-Harmonix released the Big Muff Pi in the late 60s / early 70s. Its owner Matthews says that “muff” points to the muffled tone of the pedal, but there are other possible explanations.
It’s unknown why “Pi” was added to the name.

Personal note:
A “Little Big Muff” (single knob, single Tone switch) was my very first pedal in the 80s. I made my first home recordings with it. But no amount of fuzz could hide my lack of talent at song-writing. Stupidly I threw the pedal away when it started falling apart…​

The Big Muff is one of the most famous fuzz boxes, together with the Fuzz Face. Lots of famous players bought one: Carlos Santana, David Gilmour ("Comfortably Numb"), Smashing Pumpkins ("Cherub Rock"), Jack White, Jimi Hendrix, Black Keys etc. No, it wasn’t used on American Woman.

Electro-Harmonix:
“Hendrix and Santana were among the first to get a piece of the Pi, and for over 40 years the Big Muff Pi has been defining the sound of rock guitar. Revered by contemporary guitarists and rock legends for its rich, creamy, violin-like sustain, from Pink Floyd to The White Stripes, everyone still wants a piece of the Pi!”​

Wikipedia:
“The Big Muff Pi (π), often known simply as the Big Muff, is a fuzzbox produced in New York City by the Electro-Harmonix company, along with their Russian sister company Sovtek, primarily for use with the electric guitar. It is used by bassists as well due to the Big Muff's low-end frequency response.”​

A Big Muff is easily recognizable with its long sustained notes and quite dark tone. It sounds smooth and less raspy compared to other fuzzes. It sounds best going into a clean amp.

EHX went out of business in the 80s. Its owner Matthews then launched it again from Russia (“Sovtek”) in the 90s and brought the company back to the USA.

The Big Muff has seen many, many versions, as described here. It has not been disclosed on which exact version Fractal Audio's model is based, except that it isn't the Ram's Head version.

Cliff:
"Our model uses a shelving filter but it's not based on a Ram's Head version.”​

Description of the circuit

The pedal has three controls:
  • Volume: controls the output level (model: Level)
  • Tone: controls the tone (model: Tone)
  • Sustain: sets the amount of fuzz (model: Drive)
Of course the Drive block allows us to adjust far more things. Slew, Mix and other parameters are available. But that's beyond the scope of this thread (see manual and wiki).

Fractal Audio’s model was rematched with the original in firmware Quantum 5 and 6. If you haven’t tried the model for a while, make sure you do, because it sounds so good. Its Clip Type is Silicon.













Link to the list of published threads
 
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In Analog Man's Guide To Vintage Effects, the CEO of EHX admits that even he doesn't know.
 
I've always thought it was meant to mean: Big Muff Pie. For the readers whose native language is not English, the slang might not be understood at first glance.
It's off-color humor. Some would say it's in bad taste. Cover your eyes if you are bashful...
Muff is slang for lots of hair in a certain female area (a play on the word Fuzz, which is hair that is short and soft). And pie is... well, you can figure out the rest, right?
...ever heard the saying "that guitar tone's got some hair on it"? ...means a fuzz sound or distortion.

I was sure that was the joke from the first time I read it. Anyone know otherwise?
 
"Muff', "Big Muff", "Big Muff Pie aka Big Muff Pi".....all meant the same thing my understanding of popular slang

To the same extent, look at the names of many of the Muff clones.... ala the "Large Beaver".. or not to leave out the male anatomy, how about the popular "Swollen Pickle" fuzz ?

Its all sexual euphemisms, done in rather a fan and cheeky manner. Just what you'd expect from a massive sounding guitar distortion pedal, and the target audience they are sold to
 
The Muff Pi (*snorts and giggles*) was always my least favourite muff (*again...snorts and giggles*).

I've always had a hard time getting along with muffs (*eyes start to water*). I think they're very fussy about what you plug into them (*starts banging fist on table*). A big thing with getting a muff to do the right thing (*snorts again*) is the mid control. I've never really experimented with fuzzes in general (eh...) but from what I've heard of them fuzzes and muffs like to be the first thing to see your pickups so this is another pedal that I'd be curious about hearing run into the AFX.

...

But even though I haven't liked Muffs yet, I'm not gay. I'll just keep trying until I find one that I like.
 
Only to remember that the family of historical pedals "BIG MUFF-Vintage", and very wide.
Solo per ricordare che la famiglia di pedali storiche "BIG MUFF", e molto ampia.
Gold vintages like fine wine
Annate d'oro come il buon vino
 
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H13 said:
The Muff Pi (*snorts and giggles*) was always my least favourite muff (*again...snorts and giggles*).

I've always had a hard time getting along with muffs (*eyes start to water*). I think they're very fussy about what you plug into them (*starts banging fist on table*). A big thing with getting a muff to do the right thing (*snorts again*) is the mid control. I've never really experimented with fuzzes in general (eh...) but from what I've heard of them fuzzes and muffs like to be the first thing to see your pickups so this is another pedal that I'd be curious about hearing run into the AFX.

...

But even though I haven't liked Muffs yet, I'm not gay. I'll just keep trying until I find one that I like.
Click to expand...

Muffs usually sound fine wherever you place them in a pedal chain. It's a very forgiving circuit. The Pete Cornish G2 even has two buffers in series in front of it (buffered bypass and input buffer). It's the more primitive 60's fuzzes that are so finicky that they have to be first in he chain. Or worry about having the right biased transistors. You can basically throw everything into a Muff circuit. And they have, that's why there are so many variants.

I love the Muff. I've basically built every version there was based on the Kitrae schematics. But not at first though. The one thing a Muff needs is more mids. It's scooped tone stack has a tendency to make you disappear into a mix if you don't add some mids somewhere in your signal chain. If you have a Muff pedal, especially with those big EHX boxes, the easiest mod to do this with is add a Skreddy style midswitch. Take a DPDT on/off/on switch. Wire one center lug to the collector of the third transistor, the other center lug to lug 3 of the tone pot. solder a 4n7 capacitor to the top two lugs of the switch and a 10n capacitor to the bottom two lugs. What it does it will place an extra capacitor in parallel to the Big Muff tone stack. Center setting of the switch will be stock scooped tone, bottom setting (4n7) flat mids and top (10) boosted mids. Usually the flat setting is enough to suddenly emerge in a bandmix. I've experienced this in rehearsal where I couldn't hear myself, switched from scooped to flat and BAM! There I was.
 
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