NOTE: This website is frequently updated. Last update April 2024
Shown above - The Sovtek "Civil War" Big Muff Pi that David Gilmour used for Pink Floyd's
Division Bell tour in 1994 and for David's Rattle That Lock tour in 2015-2016
THE "PULSE" SOVTEK BIG MUFF - Electro-Harmonix (EHX), the American company that manufactured the original Big Muffs David used in the late 1970s, went out of business in the early 1980s. Prices for old Triangle and Ram's Head models began to skyrocket on the used pedal market. Around 1990 EHX founder Mike Matthews, now in the Russian vaccuum tube and IC chip business, decided to resurrect a few of his old Electro-Harmonix pedals. One of the first reissues brought to market was the Big Muff, under the brand Sovtek. Manufactured in St. Petersburg Russia, these pedals used the original Big Muff circuit design, but the component values chosen gave them a slightly smoother tone and a fatter bottom end than the American originals. These early Sovtek Big Muffs were made in several different color schemes, but one particular version from around 1992 assumed the nickname "Civil War", for its blue and gray colors, reminiscent of the U.S. Civil War uniform colors. This version is numbered as 7A on my Big Muff Page website. Version 7B also used the same circuit as did the first edition of version 7C, which is nicknamed the "tall font" green Russian.You can find out more information about the V7A here. Later versions in the green and black enclosures had a slightly grittier and more grainy tone.
Shown above - Various versions of the Sovtek Big Muff Pi, each with different color schemes, but each used the same circuit. It featured a smoother, bassier tone than its American made predecessors. All were made in St. Petersberg Russia, circa 1992-1994. You can find out more information about them here.
Shown above - Various version of the Sovtek Big Muff Pi, some with different versions of the circuit inside
David Gilmour was gearing up for a new Pink Floyd record and tour in late 1992-93. He needed a Big Muff for the older songs and reportedly he tried out around 10 different models. It is not known if David had a Sovtek Big Muff during the recording of Pink Floyd's Division Bell studio album in 1993, but there were not Big Muffs used on any of the studio tracks. Ultimately David chose the new Sovtek "Civil War" Big Muff for his live rig. It was used heavily on the 1994 tour, primarily for the high gain solos. An enormously popular live album and concert video of the tour was released as Pulse. David's signature distortion tone from this tour, often referred to as the 'Pulse' tone, was very different from his previous Big Muff tones, and much sought after among Gilmour enthusiasts. These Russian-made Sovtek Big Muffs are no longer made. Eve though the originals are poorly made and prone to breaking, they have become rare and expensive collectors items.
There have been many clones of the Sovtek Big Muffs made, some good and some not so good. In 2017 Electro-Harmonix finally decided to make a sonically accurate reissue of this circuit, called the Green Russian Big Muff. A vintage 1990s Russian-made "Tall Font" Sovtek Big Muff was dissected and measured by EHX. This version was housed in a green enclosure, hence the Green Russian nickname. It was also the same circuit used in the gray-boxed "Civil War" version that david used. The circuit replication process involved carefully de soldering and removing the capacitors, resistors, and transistors from the circuit board and measuring the electrical values to make an acurate schematic. The resulting replica sounded nearly identical to my original Sovteks Big Muffs, and I highly recommend it for Gilmour tones. I own many original Sovteks, and I have played many different clones of this circuit. The EHX reissue is among the best, if not the best.
After the success of the Green Russian Big Muff reissue in 2017 Electro Harmonix released a deluxe version in 2018 with many advanced sound shaping controls. It was decided to go with a color scheme that paid tribute to the blue and gray "Civil War" version. It featured the same core circuit and signature sound as the Green Russian, but added a switchable mid range EQ section, the Wicker switch from the Tone Wicker Big Muff, and a blend control. The flexible mid range control makes this version much more flexible to dial in a good Gilmour sound on a wider variety of amplifiers than the standard version.
The EHX Green Russian Big Muff (2017) is a faithful sonic reissue of 1990s Sovtek Civil War/Green Russian Big Muff circuit
The EHX Deluxe Big Muff (2018) featured the same circuit as the Green Russian reissue,
but with more customizable tone controls and switchable mid range EQ section
As with David's previous live setups, his guitar tones were achieved with a mix of different amps and pedals. Based on David's 1994 Division Bell tour signal chain and effect settings, his On an Island tour settings, and listening to the official recordings and bootlegs, he used a Tube Driver to blend with the Big Muff for most of the high gain solos. Whenever David used this Tube Driver + Muff combination, the TD nearly always came first in the signal chain before the muff. The only time it came after the Big Muff (or P-2) was for the Time solo.
Below are Tube Driver + Big Muff sound clips demonstrating the difference between a Tube Driver placed before a Big Muff and Tube Driver after a Big Muff in the signal chain. The TD and Muff settings were identical in each clip. The TD after the muff sounds more overdriven and on the edge of breakup than the one before, but the settings on each pedal can be changed to sound like the opposite.
Tube Driver before Sovtek Big Muff
The purpose of this Big Muff + Tube Driver combo was NOT for a volume boost - it was simply to blend the two pedals into one for a more pleasing and effective Big Muff lead tone. The Tube Driver tames the Big Muff distortion ever so slightly to reduce the buzziness and refine the crunch of the attack, along with a little EQ tone altering. It is a very subtle effect, and the mistake I see most people making is setting the gain of the booster pedal too high and making the Big Muff sound like a noisy, farty, muffled mess. When David did this in 1994, it only affected the tone of his Big Muffs in a minor way.
"David doesn't necessarily use anything exactly as it is, or as you would expect. There are times when he has run a Big Muff into various things such as a Boogie head or a BK Butler Tube Driver..." - Phil Taylor, 2009 Guitar Player
Below are my recommended Sovtek Civil War Big Muff settings when using a Hiwatt DR103/504 or similar amplifier. These also apply to the EHX Green Russian reissue and the EHX Sovtek Delux Big Muff. NOTE - the knob zero points on the original Sovteks varied randomly from knob to knob, and from pedal to pedal, so even though we have photos showing David's exact tick marks, they will be completely different on another Sovtek BMP. That said, I have owned one (out of six) examples of that exact Sovtek model, that DID have matching zero points for all three knobs. Based on David's 1994 and 2015/16 settings on this pedal, his is NOT one of those, so the settings I list are based on what I hear.
Volume: 1:30 / 65% (or adjust to unity in your rig)
Tone: 10:30 / 35% (bass left, treble right)
Sustain: 4:00 / 90% - 100%
Echo delay was from a TC Electronics 2290 delay, a Boss CE-2 chorus in one channel, and occasional use of a Boss CS-2 compressor for added clarity and sustain were also key elements. This setup went into an Alembic F-2B preamp (a Fender Showman/Black Face Twin Reverb preamp circuit). The preamp drove two 1974 Hiwatt DR103 heads (with pre-amp stages bypassed) into a pair of WEM 4x12 speaker cabinets (one loaded with Fane Crescendo speakers, the other with Celestions), and Doppola rotating speaker cabinets. Gilmour used Fender Strats fitted with EMG-SA active pickups, utilizing the unique mid boost from the SPC tone control.
That seems like a complicated rig to create one tone, but the core of that tone was simply the Big Muff combined with the BKB Tube Driver. The rest was just the icing on top. You can hear this "tone from heaven" on the songs Comfortably Numb, Sorrow, One of These Days, On the Turning Away, and other tracks from Pulse. Of course, without David's fingers and signature style, none of that gear would have mattered.
David Gilmour Civil War Big Muff Sound Clips - Here is a selection of various Gilmour solos using either the Civil War Big Muff Pi or Pete Cornish P-2 (a custom Big Muff circuit with a similar sound to the Sovtek), from the Pulse CD and various 1994 bootlegs of the Division Bell tour. Clips in this order: Hey You, Sorrow, Time, Money, Comfortably Numb first solo, One of These Days, On the Turning Away, Comfortably Numb second solo, Sorrow outro solo.
David Gilmour Sovtek Big Muff Pi Solo Selections
Shown above - Photos of Pink Floyd's massive Division Bell stage from the 1994 tour, featured on the Pulse CD and DVD. This was the final Pink Floyd tour.
Shown above - David Gilmour's giant Division Bell effects rig. Customized by Pete Cornish, this complex effects rig was required to produce the wide variety of tones from the large catalogue of Pink Floyd songs played on the '94 tour. The Pete Cornish Precision Fuzz (a P-2, minus the buffers) also appeared on this board (top right), and was used as an alternate for the Big Muff usually for the Time solo
Cornish P-2 settings
Volume: 1:00 / 60%
Tone: 10:30 / 35% (bass left, treble right)
Sustain: 12:00 / 50%
Shown above - David brought the Civil War Big Muff out again for the South American and North American legs of his Rattle That Lock tour in 2015 and 2016
THE SOVTEK BIG MUFF RETURNS IN 2015 - For the second leg of David Gilmour's Rattle That Lock tour in December 2015 he added the Sovtek Civil war Big Muff to his pedal board, which also included his old touring ouring Ram's Head Big Muff. It can be seen in photos and videos from his 2015 South American and 2015 North American tour dates.
ISLAND OF BIG MUFFS - In 2006 David recorded and toured for his third solo album, On and Island. David had a new pedal board made by Pete Cornish which included the Cornish P-1 and G-2 custom Big Muff circuits, which I have written about HERE. When asked about the P-1 in the OAI board, Pete Cornish said David wanted the earlier sound which he had in his 1980s pedalboards, so he dug out the old schematic and made the earlier version, which was his 1982 version of the pedal currently known as the P-2, following several tonal/gain changes over the succeeding years.
Shown Above - David Gilmour's MK2 custom all-tube, buffered pedal board made by Pete Cornish, from David's 2006 tour. Pete's P-1 and G-2 circuits were built in
The distortion/fuzz solos for the tour were played using the P-1, G-2, and BK Butler Tube Drivers (one set for light drive, and one for overdrive). It is likely David used his Tube Driver #1 with a light drive settings in combination with the P-1 or G-2 to smooth out the distortion and color the treble and bass. Although it is widely believed that he used the G-2 heavily on this tour, I think most of the high gain solos were actually played using his Tube Driver #2, set for heavy distortion. Based on the tick marks on the pedal board, here are the P-1 and P-2 settings:
Cornish P-1 settings
Volume: 10:30 / 35%
Tone: 1:00 / 60% (bass left, treble right)
Sustain: 1:00 / 60%
Cornish G-2 settings
Volume: 1:30 / 65%
Tone: 10:00 / 30% (bass left, treble right)
Sustain: 5:00 / 100%
Tick marks also indicate these alternate G-2 settings were used, which create a light overdrive tone.
Volume: 1:30 / 65%
Tone: 5:00 / 100% (full treble)
Sustain: 8:00 / 10%
THE GILMOUR BIG MUFF SOUND - If David's original Big Muff was "preferred for most things" as Phil Taylor stated, one would assume this is the Big Muff heard on all of the most famous Pink Floyd studio recordings, such as Dogs, Hey You, Mother, Sorrow, and Comfortably Numb. That is one legendary Big Muff! Was there something extra special about this particular Muff that made it sound so incredible on those records? Probably not, although I do not doubt that it had one of the better sounding circuits, just as I do not doubt David had a group of great sounding Fuzz Face pedals prior to this period. The man obviously has a very good ear, and a great backline tech (Phil Taylor) to locate the best equipment for him.
Gilmour gear fanatics and tone chasers (like me!) have always wondered what David's Big Muff actually sound like without all the other gear - just the Big Muff into an amp. Due the the variety of effects and amps blended with them, that is very difficult to determine. We are lucky enough to have the exact Pete Cornish custom Big Muff pedals available to us, but having a superb vintage Electro-Harmonix Big Muff that has that Animals, The Wall, or Delicate Sound of Thunder tone, or the Sovtek Big Muff tone heard on Pulse, is another story. Fortunately, we do have a few examples of David's raw Big Muff tones for reference. For his 2015/2016 Rattle That Lock tour he used both his original touring Ram's Head Big Muff and his Sovtek Big Muff from the Pulse tour. The MR10 Loop System seen in his rig revealed exactly which effects he was using for each song. No heavy chorus or blending with Boogie amps or Tube Drivers this time. For several songs, it was just the raw Big Muff straight into David's amps, with only some mild EQ and delay added. Here are sound clips taken from the crew's inner ear monitor mix (low frequencies seem to have been dialed down) from The Forum, California in 2016, and a live broadcast of the Wroclaw, Poland concert in 2016.
Sovtek "Civil War" Big Muff - In Any Tongue solo. Live broadcast 2016
Sovtek "Civil War" Big Muff - In Any Tongue solo. Inner ear monitor mix 2016
Sovtek "Civil War" Big Muff - Sorrow solo. Live broadcast 2016
Sovtek "Civil War" Big Muff - Sorrow solo. Inner ear monitor mix 2016
Sovtek "Civil War" Big Muff - Money solo. Live broadcast 2016
Sovtek "Civil War" Big Muff - Time solo. Live broadcast 2016
EXH "Ram's Head" Big Muff - Sorrow intro. Live broadcast 2016
EHX "Ram's Head" Big Muff - Sorrow outro. Inner ear monitor mix 2016
EXH "Ram's Head" Big Muff - Comfortably Numb solos. Live broadcast 2016
EHX "Ram's Head" Big Muff - Comfortably Numb solos. Inner ear monitor mix 2016
We also have several good audience recordings of those same 2015/2016 concerts to use for reference of the raw Big Muff tones. As with most audience recordings, the sound varies greaty due the different mics used, venue sound, and position of the recorder in the particular venue.
EHX "Ram's Head" Big Muff - In Any Tongue solo. Brighton 2015
EHX "Ram's Head" Big Muff - In Any Tongue solo. Oberhausen 2015
EHX "Ram's Head" Big Muff - Money solo. Oberhausen 2015
EHX "Ram's Head" Big Muff - Comfortably Numb solo. RAH Sept 30th, 2016
Those sound like a typical early 1970 Big Muff and a typical 1990s Sovtek Big Muff to my ears. I think what made these Big Muffs sound so unique in the studio and 1980s-1990s live concerts (other than the guy playing the guitar!) was that you were not simply hearing the Big Muff through an amplifier. David often played through a combination of several amps, one of which was often a rotating speaker cabinet. David also liked to blend his distortions with overdrives. He was likely using the Colorsound Power Boost in conjunction with the Big Muff in the early period, notably heard on the Animals/In the Flesh tour bootlegs, and possibly a few tracks on David's first solo album. He also blended the Big Muff with various Mesa/Boogie amps set as an overdrive, and B.K. Butler Tube Drivers.
There are times when he has run a Big Muff into various things such as a Boogie head or a BK Butler Tube Driver, or added a graphic equalizer, etc. That’s the thing with David. He’ll have a certain sound in his head, and he’ll tweak his gear to find it. He just has this ability, and he always knows. — Phil Taylor, January 2009 Guitar Player
There were also times when David used an Electric Mistress or chorus effects to color his Big Muff tones. This blend of amps and pedals gave David some very unique, but very hard to replicate tones. Most of that tone comes from the way he plays, not the gear, but the Big Muff is very responsive to the subtlelties of good playing and good control of harmonic tones. David is the master in that area. Like the best illusions performed by the master magicians, we will probably never know exactly how David achieved many of those Big Muff tones, but they continue to be a source of enjoyment for those of us who like to puzzle them out, or use them as a starting point in creating our own tones.
Thanks to Pete Cornish, Bjorn Riis, John Roscoe, Rafal Zychal, and Mike, for your vast knowledge of David Gilmour's gear, addional info, and pix. For more information about David Gilmour's Cornish pedal boards and other gear, please visit the excellent Tone from Heaven and Gilmourish.Com websites. For some great Gilmour gear discussions, please vist the Gilmour Gear Forum.
DAVID'S BIG MUFF SETTINGS - These are what the settings would be on a modern Big Muff, Cornish pedal, or or similar clone. These are based on David's actual tic marks, and in some cases just the knob indicator marks. This accounts for the various pot orientations (zero points) and wiring (treble left or treble right) of the original pedals. The muff was almost always blended with one of the many overdrives in David's rig, so I have indicated those as well - Colorsound Power Boost, TC Electronics Booster + Line Driver & Distortion, Mesa/Boogie, or BKB Butler Tube Driver.
1977
Ram's Head Big Muff - there are no photos, this is just based on my experiments with the P-1 and similar Ram's Head BMPs, combined with the Colorsound Power Boost
Volume: 10:30 / 35%
Tone: 3:00 / 80% (treble left, bass right)
Sustain: 4:00 / 90%
Type of Overdrive Blended with Muff: Colorsound Power Boost. There is some evidence of this in recordings of live concerts, but it is not confirmed.
1981
Built in Ram's Head Big Muff - Large Wall Board - no tick marks, so these may not be accurate
Volume: 9:30 / 25%
Tone: 12:00 / 50%
Sustain: 4:00 / 90%
Type of Overdrive Blended with Muff: Possibly the Colorsound Power Boost or Mesa Boogie Mark I, but there is no confirmed evidence of either.
Built in Ram's Head Big Muff - Small Wall Board used for In the Flesh? through The Trial - based on tic marks and knob indicator marks
Volume: 10:30 / 35%
Tone: 1:30 / 65%. (treble left, bass right)
Sustain: 1:00 / 60%
Type of Overdrive Blended with Muff: There was no overdrive in this board.
1987
#1 Ram's Head Big Muff settings - based on tic marks
Volume: 10:30 / 35%
Tone: 1:00 / 60% (treble left, bass right)
Sustain: 10:30 / 35%
Type of Overdrive Blended with Muff: Mesa/Boogie/Mark II or Mark III rhythm channel (after muff), and possibly the TC Electronics BLD (before muff)
1989
Cornish P-2 settings - based on knob indicator marks in Pete Cornish shop photos
Volume: 1:00 / 60%
Tone: 10:00 / 30% (bass left, treble right)
Sustain: 5:00 / 100%
Type of Overdrive Blended with Muff: Mesa/Boogie Mark III rhythm channel, or Mesa/Boogie mark II rhythm channel (after muff), and possibly the TC Electronics BLD (before muff)
1990
Cornish P-2 settings - based on knob indicator marks in Pete Cornish shop photos
Volume: 1:00 / 60%
Tone: 10:00 / 30% (bass left, treble right)
Sustain: 5:00 / 100%
Type of Overdrive Blended with Muff: Mesa/Boogie Studio Preamp (after muff). Confirmed by signal chains shown on the effect router.
1994
Cornish P-2 settings - based on knob indicator marks
Volume: 1:00 / 60%
Tone: 10:30 / 35% (bass left, treble right)
Sustain: 12:00 / 50%
Sovtek Civil War Big Muff ***
Volume: 1:30 / 65%
Tone: 10:30 / 35% (bass left, treble right)
Sustain: 4:00 / 90%
*** the knob zero points on these Sovteks varied randomly from knob to knob, and from unit to unit, so even though we have photos showing David's exact tick marks, they can be completely different on another Sovtek BMP. That said, I have owned one (out of six) examples of that exact Sovtek model, that DID have matching zero points for all three knobs. Based on David's 1994 and 2015/16 settings, his is NOT one of those, so the settings I list are based on what I hear.
Type of Overdrive Blended with Muff: 1980s B.K. Butler/Chandler Tube Driver placed (before muff in most songs, but placed after in one song). Confirmed by signal chains shown on the effect router.
2005
Cornish G-2 settings - Use on Money and Comfortably Numb confirmed by Pete Cornish. Based on tic marks and knob indicator marks from the 2006 tour
Volume: 1:30 / 65%
Tone: 10:00 / 30% (bass left, treble right)
Sustain: 5:00 / 100%
2006
Cornish P-1 settings - based on tic marks and knob indicator marks, but Phil Taylor has stated this pedal was rarely used. David used a Tube Driver for most of the high gain solos
Volume: 10:30 / 35%
Tone: 10:00 / 30% (bass left, treble right)
Sustain: 1:00 / 60%
Cornish G-2 settings - based on tic marks and knob indicator marks, but there is no evidence this pedal was ever used
Volume: 1:30 / 65%
Tone: 10:00 / 30% (bass left, treble right)
Sustain: 5:00 / 100%
Tick marks also indicate these alternate G-2 settings were used, which create a light overdrive tone.
Volume: 1:30 / 65%
Tone: 5:00 / 100% (full treble right)
Sustain: 8:00 / 10%
Type of Overdrive Blended with Muff: 2005 B.K. Butler 911 Tube Driver placed after Muff in signal chain. Confirmed by Pete Cornish and Phil Taylor
2015 / 2016
DG Original Ram's Head Big Muff - based on tic marks on pedal
Volume: 9:30 / 25%
Tone: 1:00 / 60% (treble left, bass right)
Sustain: 1:30 / 65%
Type of Overdrive Blended with Muff: David's MR10 Loop System signal chains reveal he did not blend with an overdrive for this tour.
Sovtek Civil War Big Muff ***
Volume: 1:30 / 55%
Tone: 12:30 / 65% (bass left, treble right)
Sustain: 7:00 / 100%
*** the knob zero points on these Sovteks varied randomly from knob to knob, and from unit to unit, so even though we have photos showing David's exact tick marks, they will be completely different on another Sovtek BMP. The settings I list are based on what I hear and the tone pot change from his 1994 settings on the same Big Muff.
Type of Overdrive Blended with Muff: David's MR10 Loop System signal chains reveal he did not blend with an overdrive for this tour.
Thanks to - Mike/Analogman, for relaying his conversation with Phil Taylor in 2006. Pete Cornish, for answering my many annoying questions! Bjørn Riis, for additional info and our many emails on this subject. Phil Taylor, for intruducing David to the Big Muff, eventually resulting in Comfortably Numb, which sparked my love of Pink Floyd, my addiction to everything Big Muff, without which the Big Muff Page and this website would never exist.
CONTINUE - RETURN TO THE HISTORY OF THE BIG MUFF PART 1 (Vintage USA)
HISTORY OF THE BIG MUFF PART 2 (Russian)
HISTORY OF THE BIG MUFF PART 3 (modern USA)
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