THE BIG MUFF π - A HISTORY OF ALL VERSIONS - Part 1
Click on any Big Muff in the image below to go directly to that section
NOTE: This website is constantly updated as new information becomes available. Version, Edition, and Revision numbers listed here are not actual Electro-Harmonix identifiers. They are my categorizations, for identification purposes only. Last update December 2011.
THE BIG MUFF STORY BEGINS - MIKE MATTHEWS and JIMI HENDRIX
The Big Muff tale starts in the early 1960s with Mike Matthews, a college student studying electrical engineering at Cornell University in New York. Matthews was also a keyboardist playing in a rock band at the time, and for side work he was a part time band promoter. He worked with acts that frequented the New York City area, such as the Byrds, the Isley Brothers, Lovin' Spoonful, The Mamas and the Papas, the Rascals, and Chuck Berry. Matthews was considered a good keyboard player and he has claimed the Isley Brothers actually asked him to quit school and join them, but Mike chose to stay in school. One artist Matthews promoted at the time was Jimmy James, a budding guitarist with the Curtis Knight and the Squires band. He became friends with Jimmy, who would later change his name to Jimi Hendrix. Matthews has claimed that Jimi wanted to form a band with him at the time. Some sources have said that Matthews himself was influential in Hendrix's decision to leave the Squires and start singing, and Matthews own words indicate this, but it may also be fair to say that Matthews was infuenced in the business direction he would take by Hendrix's guitar sound, and the other fuzz tone guitar sounds that were becoming more and more popular in Rock and Roll at the time. Matthews graduated from Cornell with a five year degree in 1965, the year Keith Richards plugged his guitar into a Gibson Maestro Fuzz-Tone pedal and recorded the Rolling Stones #1 hit (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. Matthews got a job working for IBM in sales. His preference was to play keyboards in a band full time since rock and roll was his love, but he was married to a wife who felt the financial security of a steady job was more important. Matthews began thinking of other ways he could make money on the side to allow him to pursue his passion.
Shown above - Mike Matthews and Jimmy James, who would later be known as Jimi Hendrix
RE-BRANDING FUZZRITES, the GUILD FOXEY LADY and the ELECTRO-HARMONIX AXIS
Circa 1967
Fuzz tone guitar was hot at this time, and the market for fuzz pedals was growing rapidly! The first Rock and Roll fuzz tones came in 1962 from the Ventures in America on the song 2000 Pound Bee, using a hand made fuzz pedal, and Gibson was the first to the market with a production fuzz pedal shortly after that in 1962, the Maestro Fuzz-Tone (FZ-1). It wasn't until the 1964 that Dave Davies of the Kinks popularized fuzz tone in the U.K. with You Really Got Me. In the U.K. Gary Hurst had designed the Tone Bender fuzz pedal (Mark I) in 1965 to compete with the Gibson Maestro, and it was featured on the Beatles' Rubber Soul album the same year. The Tone Bender was based on the Maestro circuit, and was being produced by Sola Sound in London. Sola later made a Mark II version for Vox, and yet another version for Marshall called the Supa Fuzz. Vox also had another version of the Tone Bender made in Italy at this time. In the US Mosrite, a guitar company, had the FUZZ-rite pedal on the market in 1966. Mosrite also made another version for Guild around 1967, called the Foxey Lady fuzz. Also in 1966, Arbiter Electronics Ltd. had the Fuzz Face pedal on the market in the U.K. Jimi Hendrix was the poster boy for this pedal, making it hugely popular. Other popular fuzz users were Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, and Jimmy Page (See the fuzz pedal timeline here for a detailed list of all the fuzz pedals on the market at this time).
Utilizing his electrical engineering skills, Mike Matthews worked on several unique but unsuccessful inventions on the side during this time at IBM. His big break came when he was given a contract to make a new version of the Guild two-transistor fuzz pedal called the Foxey Lady. Guild, based in Rhode Island at the time, was primarily a large guitar maker but they also had other related products made under their brand name. It was Guild founder Al Drunge's idea to name the pedal the Foxey Lady, capitalizing on the popularity of Jimi Hendrix's fuzz tone, which had become hugely popular since the release of Are You Experienced in 1967. Mosrite, another guitar company, had already been making the Foxey Lady pedals for Guild. That version of the Foxey Lady was actually the same fuzz pedal as Mosrite's own FUZZrite pedal, designed by Ed Sanner. It was simply re-branded and re-boxed for Guild. Mosrite made a small quantity of these until they went bankrupt, then at a NAMM show around 1967 Guild contracted Mike Matthews to take over production and produce a new version.
Matthew's version of the Foxey Lady was designed by a New York audio and amp repairman William (Bill) Berko in his shop, ABCO Sound, on 48th Street. Bill designed the new fuzz circuit and partnered with Matthews to get it made, then left unexpectedly. Matthews continued solo, with $1000 of his own money, and had the pedal manufactured for him by Aul Instruments. This extremely rare version of the Foxey Lady was housed in a simple, folded sheet metal box, with two control knobs. Everyone was still trying to capitalize on the fuzz tone craze at this time, and Guild had good success distributing the pedal. In October 1968, Matthews founded his own New York company, Electro-Harmonix (E-H), and began making Foxey Lady pedals himself. This third version of the two-knob Foxey Lady was housed in a thinner box with more a more stylish Foxey Lady font. E-H also marketed this exact same Bill Berko designed pedal under the name Axis Fuzztone. It was the same pedal, just different graphics and knobs. The enclosure box was the same size as the one that would later become the first Big Muff. The Axis name was inspired by Jimi Hendrix, taken from his 1967 Axis:Bold As Love album title. Hendrix actually used a pedal at the time that would later be called the Axis, but that was a custom pedal designed and made by his guitar tech, Roger Mayer, not the E-H pedal. The E-H made Axis/Foxey Lady pedals are very rare as I have been told under 3000 of both versions were made, with the Axis being the rarer of the two. They shipped in a white corrugated cardboard box.
Shown above - The Electro-Harmonix made version of the Foxey Lady from 1968, and the Electro-Harmonix made Axis fuzz pedal, a rebranding of the Foxey Lady. The circuit was designed by New York audio repairman Bill Berko (19??-2010)
THE “TRIANGLE” BIG MUFF π - VERSION 1
1969-1973 (Pots date as early as 1966 and typically as late as 1972, though some have been seen dated 1973)
Circuit Designer: Bob Myer with Mike Matthews
Edition Versions: 2 - First edition manufactured circa late 1969, second edition with separate on/off switch in early 1970
True Bypass: No
Power: Current draw approximately 3 mA. 9V battery only
Enclosure Size: 6" x 4 1/2" x 1 3/8"(short end) x 2"(long end) / 151mm x 113mm x 35mm(short end) x 50mm(long end)
Packaging: White corrugated cardboard box with blue printing
Place of Manufacture: The first address was 1204 Broadway, New York, NY, 10001. They later moved to 15 West 26th Street sometime before 1971 or 1972
Replacement Parts
In 1968 Mike Matthew's was introduced by his colleages at IBM to Bell Labs inventor Robert (Bob) Myer (incorrectly spelled Meyer or Mayer in some other sources - not to be confused with Roger Mayer, another effects pedal designer at the time). Myer had been at Bell labs for 12 years, mostly working on transistor circuits for military applications. He did consulting and design work on the side and created circuits for several other companies before meeting Matthews. The two began work on a new stomp box circuit that would compete with the popular fuzz guitar tones of the mid to late sixties. The pedal, which was originally supposed to be a “distortion free sustainer”, was to be released under the E-H label.
Myer designed and made a prototype pedal but had to add another pre-amp booster stage before the pedal because he over-estimated the output voltage of the guitar. Myer was not a musician. Matthews was, but his instrument was the keyboard. To test the pedal, Matthews would plug a guitar and amplifier up and simply pluck the guitar strings. The sustainer, which would eventually become the E-H Black Finger compressor, was built to Bell labs standards and was very complicated and expensive. It still needed work, but Mike did like the small volume boosting pre-amp Myer had built and the overdriven signal it sent to the amp. He wanted to make a product out of it, and paid Myer $500 cash for the design. Myer has said he simply "slapped together" the booster, but what he had created was the simple, single transistor, LPB-1 (Linear Power Booster), which by all accounts was the industry's first guitar-amp overdrive pedal. Matthews sold this first E-H branded product by mail order in 1968 and quit IBM to focus exclusively on his own company. Bob Myer's design ushered in the age of pre-amp overdive distortion, giving makers the idea to add multiple gain stage pre-amps inside their amplifiers. Hartley Peavey, owner of Peavey Electonics Corp., was one of the first makers to incorporate this into one of his amplifiers. Matthews took the profits from the LPB-1 and reinvested them back into the company by paying Mayer for more design work. Myer understood now that Matthew's needed simple circuits that could be made inexpensively, rather than the complex circuits he had been used to building under Bell Labs standards.
Shown above - The first Electro-Harmonix pedal from 1968, the LPB1 Linear Power Booster, which was originally a pre-amp boost for the E-H Black Finger compressor prototype designed by Bob Myer
The mail order selling of the LPB-1 at full list price ($14.95) by E-H did not make much money, but it helped pay for the advertising costs which spread the E-H name around and created a demand for the product. E-H sold to the retail stores/dealers at a discounted price, so they could still make their margin, and that's where the bulk of the pedals were sold. A host of other Myer designed E-H products followed in mid 1969, each fitting into the same LPB-1 box. One of these was the Muff Fuzz, an analog two transistor fuzz pedal. Matthews named it a “muff” because in his words it had a “funky, soft, muffled sound”. To follow the LPB-1 Matthhews wanted to make a three knob distortion unit in a bigger enclosure, one that would have a lot of sustain. Bob Myer was again asked to work on this new design. He created a four stage, silicon transistor circuit, much different than the Muff Fuzz, or any other fuzz circuit around at the time, and with a much bigger sound. Two transistors took the role of input and output buffers and two handled the distortion stages. This circuit, based on a common multi stage amplifier design, rolled off the high harmonics and harshness of the distortion and created a very smooth sound via soft-clipping diodes. It had a unique distorted fuzz tone with a hint of an octave buzzing just under the surface. Matthews spent some time refining the electronics by trying different resistors and capacitor values to get the perfect sound for this unit. And perfection is what he got. This was the first Big Muff Pi. When compared with all of the versions that would follow, many consider this the best sounding Big Muff ever made. That claim is a bit misleading however, as the chosen component values for the circuit would constantly change over and over through the years, making not just one Big Muff Pi tone, but dozens of different ones.
"The Big Muff was designed after analyzing the distortion units in use at that time. It is one way of getting sustain with acceptable distortion using diodes as soft limiters. I never thought at the time it would become so popular. It was not designed to Bell Labs standards, but I knew then what Mike wanted. Low cost and easy to build. At that time the Fairchild company had line of inexpensive plastic transistors that I was using at the (Bell) labs. I believe those are what I used in the first design (Ed - those were in fact Fairchild 2n5133 transistors). However
I think the other component values had a much larger effect on the sound. The Big Muff generates harmonics of the input signal which are filtered by the circuit design and produce the differences in the sound."
-Bob Myer in 2010
"When I got the prototype from Bob, I loved the long sustain. This was done by cascading the circuit into additional sections, each one clipped by twin diodes. However, when you clip, the tone can be a bit raspy...so I spent a couple of days changing capacitors to roll off distortion in the highs, and eventually found that the best long sustaining tone that was a "sweet violin like sound" was done by having three capacitors in different parts of the circuit rolling off the rasp. We plunged into production (in 1969) and I brought the very first units up to Henry, the boss at Manny’s Music Store on 48th Street, NYC. About a week later, I stopped by at Manny’s to buy some cables, and Henry yelled out to me 'Hey Mike. I sold one of those new Big Muffs to Jimi Hendrix'."
-Mike Matthews in 2007
Since this was in a larger enclosure, and was a bigger sounding pedal than the Muff Fuzz, Matthews simply added the word 'Big' to the name. It was model number EH-3003, a circuit designation that would last through many versions. This Version 1 Big Muff was released around late 1969 and is now well known as the "Triangle" Big Muff, so nicknamed for its triangular knob layout. E-H was selling around 3000 units a month. The list price was $39.95, but it could found for $25-35 retail. The Big Muff was also sold in a less expensive kit version that you could assemble yourself for about half the cost.
1971- THE FIRST PRODUCTION YEAR? - Most sources say the Triangle Big Muff went into production in 1971. Mike Matthews has stated that he personally hand wired a few thousand of the very first production Big Muffs and that he still has a copy of an order for a Triangle Big Muff he sold to Carlos Santana in 1971 (see below). E-H began advertising the Big Muff in 1970 or '71, selling them by mail order from ads, and through dealers. Many V1 owners and sellers (a big thanks to all of you!) have contacted me over the years contradicting the 1971 date, indicating they bought their V1 Muffs in 1970, not '71. A Big Muff owner in Argentina, Carlos Lenoir, verified they were sold as early as 1970 with a reciept for a Triangle Big Muff he bought in the famous Manny's Music of New York, dated 9/25/1970. Many more V1 owners have contacted me since posting that infomation to also confirm they had made their V1 purchases, both V1 Big Muffs and the Foxey Lady three-knob version of the V1, in late 1969 and 1970. The date is by no means a huge issue, but does help to to verify another mystery, the Jimi Hendrix Big Muff legend. Mike Matthews has claimed to have seen Jimi using the Big Muff in the studio, a claim many of the the "1971" daters have argued to be false since Jimi died in 1970. Mike Matthews has admitted that he was the culprit in the 1971 date. Some time in the late 1970s, a guitar magazine writer interviewed Mike and asked him when Electro-Harmonix came out with the Big Muff. Not thinking too much about it at the time Mike blurted out "around 1971", and that date stuck with writers from that day on. Mike has since traced the events at the time to determine the exact year and verified it as 1969, and this corresponds to circuit designer Bob Myer's memories, as well as several original owners memories of the purchase date. The pot codes stamped on the back of the potentiometers are also frequently used to determine the date of manufacture, though this can be very innaccurate since Electro-Harmonix was said to have purchased pots and other components in bulk, which were sometimes not used up in manufacture until years later. Some Triangle Muff pot codes are dated 1966, two years earlier than the founding of Electro-Harmonix! Read more about pot date codes here.
GRAPHICS - Screen printed below the BIG MUFF name on the top of the box was the mathematical symbol for pi, which has remained on every Big Muff since. The first edition models produced in 1969 had a VOLUME knob, a SUSTAIN knob, and a FUZZ knob. The word OFF was just to the left of the volume pot. Some time in 1970 the word FUZZ was changed to TONE for the second edition. All first edition V1's are marked FUZZ. All second editions are marked TONE.
CONTROLS / KNOBS - The first edition models, likely produced in late 1969 had a VOLUME knob with the on/off switch built into the potentiometer (pot), a SUSTAIN knob, and a FUZZ knob. The volume pot switch was then changed some time in 1970 to a separate surface mounted on/off switch for the second edition. Pots typically had plastic D shafts, but some can be found with brass or steel shafts. E-H purchased over 150,000 surplus parts when they first started making pedals. The pots were all dated 1966, which is why you see '66 pots in Big Muffs made as late as 1971. An interesting detail about the pots is that none of them start at zero in the same place. This is due to the pots being mounted to the circuit board with the leads wrapping over the edges of the board - one over the left side, one over the top, and one over the right side. This made remembering your settings a bit of a headache. The foot switch was a standard Carling SPDT.
Several knob types were used during the production. The most common was a black Bakelite rectangular topped, d-shaft knob, identical to the E-H Axis Fuzztone and Foxey Lady knobs used previously. E-H purchased over 100, 000 of these surplus knobs when they first started making pedals, and they were used on all other E-H products at the time. There were two versions of the black knobs, each with a different shaped post hole. One had a set screw in the side and one was a press on type. As these knobs ran out there were a variety of other silver and silver and black plastic knobs used from other makers, including some made by Davies Molding. These knob types may have swapped back and forth at different times during production. I have counted ten different knob types that I have seen repeatedly, though there may be many more that were used in production. According to Mike Matthews, they kept changing knobs after the original knobs ran out until they found one they could stick with. Many V1 Muffs are also seen with wide variety of replacement knobs. The original factory knobs are prone to breaking when "foot dialing" or if stomped on, which can happen easily when gigging. Over time the plastics also age and become brittle. Once the knobs crack off the posts, people used whatever d-shaft knobs they could get that fit. In the 1970s and 1980s these were usually home amplifier type knobs. Some of the d-shaft pot posts are much longer than others, which is why you will occasionally see V1 Muffs with the knobs raised ridiculously high over the pedal, though this made foot dialing easy.
CIRCUIT BOARDS, COMPONENTS and FICTIONAL VERSIONS and EDITIONS - The first and second editions I refer to here are characterized by the location of the power switch and the use of the words FUZZ and TONE in the graphics. First edition V1 Big Muffs with the on/off switched pot, and some second editions with the on/off switch, were made with a perforated circuit board, or "perf" board. There was no printed circuit board yet made for this early prodcution, and the perf board circuit was also sold as a do-it-yourself kit. Sometime in early 1970 E-H started using a printed and etched circuit board for all second edition V1s. I have also seen one example of a V1 second edition etched pcb (pictured below) with a slightly different trace than the common pcb, though the circuit path appears to be identical. The same alternate pcb was used on some Foxey Lady versions of the V1.
There is no such thing as a "version 1" or "version 2" circuit for the Triangle Big Muff, despite what you may hear or read on the web. There was a factory V1 schematic, but it was very loosely followed and revised repeatedly. There was very little consistency in component values from one V1 circuit to another. You will also be hard pressed today to find one circuit with identical component values of another, though there were several unique sets of component values that were repeated in production. I have counted at least 33 different circuit variants among the examples I have seen, some with minor changes from others, some with over 50% of the component values that differ. The schematics for "first" and "second" editions, or "version 1" and "version 2" V1 Big Muffs prevalent on the web are simply tracings of two specific V1 Big Muffs, but the fact is, there was not really a common stock V1 circuit. One of the more common component value sets that were repeated is shown here in the circuit photos below. It does not follow either of the common schematics found on the web, but was in fact one of the more common variants, easily identified by the large green film caps and missing low pass filter cap. These V1 circuits not only have identical component values, but identical component types. However, E-H was known to change component types frequently, using whatever was on hand and available on a particular production day or week. This has led to some contention among Big Muff enthusiasts about what a V1 is supposed to sound like, so hopefully this website will settle that issue. The wide component value range means you can find V1 Big Muffs that cover just about the entire spectrum of possible Big Muff tones, so to make it clear, there was no single V1 tone. You can read more details about the workings of the circuit here.
Circuit board colors were typically dark brown on the trace side and dark brown on the populated side, though later pcbs were blue-green color. V1 circuits are seen with mostly ceramic type capacitors, but occasionally you will see early V1 Big Muffs with polymer caps, electrolytic caps, or box type film caps. The very first V1's made on perf board had electrolytic, ceramic, and film caps. Sometimes you will see caps that appear more modern in these old circuits, an indication they may be after market replacements for the original caps, though not always. Resistors were always carbon composition, and the painted codes were not necessarily reliable indicators of the actual value. Diodes were silicon type. Some electronics manufacturers from that time made certain components, such as capacitors, in large runs. They would then switch to a large run of a different component or value. If one component supplier was out of a certain cap at the time you needed to make a component order, you had to buy a similar part to what you needed, or source a similar component from another supplier to keep your production steady. This may be the reason why you see many different resistor and cap types of varying values on these Big Muffs. If stock was not available for the exact component type and value needed, the closest component available was used.
TRANSISTORS - Transistors were always silicon, in the black button-top shaped TO106 package, and never the half cylinder shaped TO92 packages found on later Big Muffs. These were typically NPN (negative-positive-negative) Fairchild Semiconductor 2N5133 transistors, or FS36999 transistors. Sometimes they used four of the same type, sometimes two of each type, and sometimes they included one odd transistor amongst the four, or one or two unmarked transistors. It seems E-H used whatever was on hand at the time. The FS36999 was not a common transistor number and these are rumored to be 2N5088 custom order button-top transistors that another company had Fairchild mark with 36999. E-H founder Mike Matthews has said he thinks this is correct. However, these are more likely NPN 2N5133 transistors with a special mark, as those were the first ones used in almost all the perf board first editions and early second editions. E-H reportedly bought a large quantity of these FS36999 tranys to counfound counterfeiters. The FS36999 has become legendary in Big Muff lore as the most desirable of all silicon transistors, though in reality it is the value of the other components that has a greater affect on the sound. There appears to have been several runs with these special marks, with the early version being identifired by a large letter F. A transistor marked FS3700 followed, which alsoappears to be a special mark.
Some early Triangles were made with mixed transistors marked 2N5133 and FS36999 in the same unit. The transistor combos varied constantly, including four FS36999 transistors, four 2N5133 transistors, four SPT87103 transistors, four FS3700 transistors, four SPT3607 transistors. Combos of two FS36999 and two 2N5133 transistors (likely the same transistor), combos of two SPT3607 and two SPT87103, and combos of two 2N5133 and two SPT87103 have all been seen in V1 Big Muffs.
ENCLOSURE - The enclosure was a simple folded sheet metal, two piece box. Covering the bottom was a black rubber skid pad. It is rare to find a Triangle today with this intact. Usually it is missing or there is residue from the glue that held it in place still visible. There was no LED light and no DC current connector at this time. It ran off an internal 9V battery only, and you had to remove four screws to remove the top panel and change the battery.
CLONES OR SIMILAR PEDALS - Note that since there were numerous versions of the real Big Muff V1 and V2 circuits there is no one version to clone, and some clones have modifications to the Muff circuit design. For those reasons most of these clones sound different from each other. Jordan Creator made by Jordan circa 1971, Mirano EF-1 Exiting Fuzz (Japan) circa 1971, Sekova Big Muff (Japan), Maccanbell Big Muff Sustainar (Japan), The Supa Tonebender made by Sola Sound of Britian circa 1973, Elk Super Fuzz Sustainer (Japan), Elk Big Muff Sustainer (Japan), Electro Sound Big Muff Sustainer (Japan), Big Mag Sustainer (Japan), Hohner MF-50 Tri-Dirty Booster from around 1976 (USA). Ibanez OD-850 Overdrive/Maxon OD-801(third version, Japan) circa 1979, Ibanez 60s Fuzz - SF-5 metal case/FZ-5 plastic case (Japan) circa 1990. Some modern boutique clones are the BYOC Large Beaver (USA), Stomp Under Foot Tri Fuzz (USA), Dice Works Muff Diver (USA), Barber Trifecta (USA), MJM Foxey Fuzz, Ronsound Hairpie Classic (USA), and Wren and Cuff Tri Pi 70. The Skreddy Pedals (USA) Mayonniase was an exact clone of a specific V1, and the Mayo was a modded version of it. Skreddy's Pink Flesh and and Pig Mine are based around similar V1 component values, but mooded for boosted mids. See DiscoFreq's Effects Database for a thorough listing of all the Big Muff clones and variants throughout the years.
THE V1 SOUND - The tone of the V1 Triangle has been described as the best sounding of all the Big Muffs. It has also been described as one of the most articulate Muffs, with a clarity that many of the later Muffs seemed to lack. However, it should be clearly stated that there is no 'one' Triangle Big Muff tone. There is more variance in these than any other version due to the wide variety of component value sets used in the circuit, changing from day to day, or week to week. It is very rare to find two Triangles with exactly the same values. The reason many people say the Triangle is the best is probably due to a few early circuit traces that circulated for several years, which most clones were based on. Those few circuit traces were just a couple out of dozens of traces that could be made of V1 Big Muffs randomly pulled off the production line on any given day. It should be noted that the only real difference between the V1 and V2 Big Muff was the enclosure. They both spanned the same wide range of possible sounds.
That said, there are some attributes that define a "typical" V1, and I use that term loosely. These descriptions fit the Triangles I am familiar with, about 12 examples from around 1970-1973 at the time this was written, plus the dozens of circuit photos I have examined. The mids were very scooped, as in flat or removed. Sustain varied from unit to unit, but most were high gain and clear. Many V1 Big Muffs do cut through a band mix very well and are very articulate for leads, and have a nice crunch for power chords and palm muting, whereas many later versions were muddier and bassier. Most V1s have slightly more bottom end than typical V2s based on examples I have played, giving them a monstrous sound when playing power chords. It is probably the riskiest version to spend money on hoping you will get one that has "that" glorius Triangle tone. My first Triangle was a trebly and dry tone turd, but my second one was phenomenal and one of the best Big Muffs I have ever played. Most of the others I have played or traded for were very good as well. The bass and treble of the tone varies quite a bit from one Triangle to another, as does the gain, fuzziness, and clarity on notes. In the extreme ranges you may find some are very dry and fuzzy sounding, some gritty and fat, some thin and gainy, some thick but smooth, et cetera. The wide variety in sounds is one reason V1 Big Muffs are so collectible.
THE LEGENDARY SANTANA BIG MUFF - Though often associated with the Big Muff in Electro-Harmonix advertising, it is unknown if guitarist Carlos Santana ever recorded with one. Santana's well known, super-sustained and smooth distortion tone on his early records primarily came from an early P-90 or humbucker equipped Les Paul played into Fender Twin Reverbs and a Randall Smith modded tweed Fender Bassman amp inside a Fender Princeton cab with a 12" speaker, nicknamed the "Princeton Boogie". Smith made around 100 of these modded Fenders, and eventually developed this mod into the Mesa Boogie Mark I amps Santana later became associated with. Santana also used other amps in the late 60's and early 70's, even solid state amps. His tone came from these clean amps, high volume, and natural speaker compression.
It is documented that Santana purchased a V1 Triangle Big Muff in February 1971. It was possibly used on the Santana (aka Santana III) album released later in 1971. Santana may have also used a Big Muff on some tracks from Abraxas, his previous album, recorded in 1970. Several of those solos sound very much like a Big Muff through a Fender amp, but those tones also sound very much like the amp tones created by loud, clean Fender amps. Until Santana ever speaks of or documents using a Big Muff, we will never know, but what is known as the Santana signature tone from throughout his career is certainly not a Big Muff. The only pedal Santana has consistantly used is a wah pedal.
Shown below is a reciept and check from Carlos Santana for the V1 Big Muff he purchased in '71 (thanks to Mike Matthews for the scan), and the Santana III album cover art
PINK FLOYD / DAVID GILMOUR BIG MUFFS - Though it is unknown if guitarist David Gilmour ever used a Triangle Big Muff for any Pink Floyd recordings, a Triangle BMP was seen on top of his Pete Cornish all-tube board in a 2006 On and Island rehearsal and on later dates of the tour. Gilmour's primary Big Muff was the V2 Ram's Head version.
CLICK A PHOTO TO ENLARGE
Shown above - Rare first edition 1969/1970 V1 Big Muffs with on/off switch built into the volume pot, the word OFF to left of the VOLUME knob, and the word FUZZ below the right knob, which later changed to TONE. Note the triangular knob layout, which gave this version the nickname "Triangle" Big Muff. Very early V1 circuits were built on perf board with 2N5133 transistors (Thanks to Jay M for the pix). Pots dated 1966. Bakelite knobs were identical to the Axis Fuzztone knobs used in 1968. Shown on the right is a typical circuit schematic.
Shown above - Vintage E-H ad featuring the V1 Big Muff from around 1971/72, listing the second address for E-H. Note the V1 pictured is the first edition, but at the time E-H was actually selling the second edition with the on/off switch on top. Also note E-H was using the same Bakelite knobs for all pedals at this time, including the Pulse Modulator pictured above.
Shown above - Another first edition 1969/1970 V1 Triangle Big Muff with on/off pot and perf board circuit, again with 2n5133 transistors. Pots dated 1966 (Thanks to Richard for the pix)
Shown above - Another first edition 1969/1970 V1 Triangle Big Muff. Includes the on/off pot and perf board circuit, again with with 2n5133 transistors. Pots dated 1966. This one has been modded with an added toggle switch. Note that none of the three perf board circuits shown above have identical components or values.
Shown above - Another first edition 1969/1970 V1 Triangle Big Muff. Includes the on/off pot and perf board circuit, again with with 2n5133 transistors. Pots dated 1966. (thanks to Ultraboreal for the pix)
Shown above - A few odd V1 Big Muffs. (left) First edition 1970 V1 Triangle Big Muff with on/off pot and a very early printed circuit board. Note that many of the resistor values are different than the perf board examples shown above. 2n5133 transistors seem to be consistent on all first edition V1 Muffs. Pots dated 1966. (right) Another V1 with a perf board, but this time with the on/off switch.
Shown above - Second edition V1 Triangle Big Muff and receipt from Manny's Music dated 9/25/1970. Muff pots dated 1966, though this second edition V1 Muff was actually built in 1970. Note the on/off switch added above the volume pot and the word TONE which replaced FUZZ on the V1 first edition (thanks to Carlos Lenoir of Argentina for the pix on left and receipt)
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Shown above - Three of the common pot types and Codes found on V1 Big Muffs. Left to right pot dates are - 1966, 1966, 1971, 1972. Over 150,000 1966 dated surplus pots were purchased when E-H first started making pedals
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Shown above - Several of the factory knob types used on V1 Triangle Big Muffs. The common one on the top left is a Bakelite press on knob, bought by E-H in a surplus lot of over 100,000 knobs. It was used on all first edition and early second edition V1 Big Muffs. The version shown in the middle has a set screw in the side and a brass sleeve. These knobs were also used on the Electro-Harmonix Axis pedal, the two-knob Foxey Lady (a rebranded E-H AXIS pedal) and three knob Foxey Lady (a rebranded V1 Triangle Big Muff), and many other E-H products. The knobs to the right and bottom are alternate knob types, just a few of many different styles used by E-H after the original Bakelite knobs were used up.
Shown above - Second edtion V1 Triangle Big Muffs with various alternate knob types. Since most of these knobs have been seen repeatedly on numerous examples of both V1 Big Muffs and the OEM version made for Guild, the Foxey Lady, they are likely all actual production knobs. There were at least twelve different factory knob types used, some purchased from Harry Davies of Davies Molding in Chicago.
Shown above (left to right) - Second edtion V1 Triangle Big Muffs with various alternate knob types. The "reactor tower" shaped knobs on the left were also used on the early V2 Big Muffs in 1973, indicating these V1s were some of the last production Big Muffs made before they moved into the larger V2 box. The knobs on the two middle examples are likely after market replacements. The knobs on the right example are actually modern Davies Molding replacement knobs. The same knobs were used on early V9 Big Muffs in 2000, but never used on production V1 Big Muffs.
Shown above - The V1 Triangle Big Muff footswitch used on all Version 1 Big Muffs. This is a 3 pole Carling SPDT
Shown above - The enclosure bottom was covered with a rubber skid pad. This pad is missing on most Triangles, and often times there is noticable glue residue remaining like the example on the left. Example on right is an odd split pad version that may have been done as an after market modification
A tracing of the V1 Triangle second edition circuit board and photos of the circuit trace side and populated side. The pcb trace on the far right is an odd one, with a slightly different trace pattern (pots dated 1966) to the typical V1. Both have FS36999 button top transistors, carbon composition resistors, Silicon diodes, and all ceramic capacitors
Shown above - A circa 1971 second edition V1 Big Muff with 1966 brass shaft pots, original bakelite knobs, and 2N5133 transistors. This is one of the best sounding V1 Big Muffs I have heard. The pots with brass shafts, unmarked green capacitors, odd black box tone cap, and gray electrolytic caps were originally thought to be after market replacement or repair parts, but I now know these are all original components. I have come across multiple examples from different owners with exactly these same component types and values, so this version seems to have been rather common. Note the missing 500pF capacitor at C10. All examples I have seen, including the two identical examples shown below are also missing this cap, indicating it was an intentionally omitted from the factory. Schematic shown above.
Shown above - Another identical second edition V1 Big Muff with 1966 brass pots, circa 1971. Note that the component types and values are the same as the example shown above, including the missing 500pF capacitor at C10, indicating that this V1 is actual production, not after market replacements or repairs. The green caps are marked .12uF on this example.
Shown above - Yet another identical second edition V1 Big Muff circuit with 1966 brass pots, circa 1971. Circuit components and values match the two examples shown above. I have seen five examples of this identical V1 circuit. The knobs used on this example are one of the many alternate knobs E-H used for the V1. These knobs replaced the common black bakelite knobs from early V1s, indicating this repeated circuit was made for an extended period.
Shown above - A V1 Big Muff made circa 1971 with a different style pot with plastic shafts, dated 1967 (pots shown with metal shafts are modern replacements). These appear to be the next pots purchased after the large batch of 1966 pots were used up. Knobs shown are actual factory knobs, one of the many alternate styles used. Note that the transistors are marked FS36999, with a long F. These were made by Fairchild Semiconductor, but this number is not a standard identifier. It was special mark made just for this transistor run, but the transistor itself is likely the same FS2n5133 used on the previous production. It was most likely purchased to confuse counterfeiters. The circuit features all .1µF ceramic capacitors, 470k feedback resistors, 500pF feedback caps, and 8.2k input resistors. These same values were also common to many of the later V2 "Ram's Head" Big Muffs.
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Shown above - A second edition Triangle V1 Big Muff with pots dated 1972, and the mysterious FS36999 transistors. This version of the transistor did not have the long "F" mark, indicating it was from a later batch with this special number mark. Carbon composition resistors, Silicon diodes, and all ceramic capacitors. Knobs are actual production stock.
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Shown above - A second edition Triangle V1 Big Muff with pots dated 1972 and FS3700 button top transistors. Carbon composition resistors, Silicon diodes, ceramic capacitors, and a few film caps. Knobs are after market replacements, though the original knobs were very similar. The enclosure bottom is missing the rubber skid pad. This is a rather bland sounding example.
Shown above (left to right) - A second edition Triangle V1 purchased in 1970, trace and populated side of a 1971 second edition V1 Muff with FS 36999 transistors, and trace and populated side of a second edition V1 Muff with caps replaced and a true bypass installed by Marc Ahlfs of Skreddy Pedals, who has also made his own very popular versions of the Big Muff circuit. Note the positioning of the potentiometers which caused the three knobs to each start with zero in a different position, common to all V1 Big Muffs
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Shown above - Four second edition Triangle V1 Big Muff circuits with pots dated 1972. Note the component values are different from one Muff to another, giving each a slightly different sound. Almost all capacitors (round disks) are ceramic, and all resistors (with colored bands) are carbon composition
Shown above - Various second edition Triangle V1 Big Muff circuit boards showing the variety of capacitor and resistor values used. Despite schematics you may find on the web, there was no "first" or "second" edition schematic. Those are simply tracings of two different V1s, but in fact there were numersous V1 Big Muffs curcuit variations, making a wide variety of tones. Some of the odd pot types shown above are replacements
THE JORDAN CREATOR AND SUPA TONEBENDER BIG MUFF CLONES
THE HOHNER TRI DIRTY BOOSTER BIG MUFF CLONE
View the page about the USA made Hohner clone of the Big Muff circuit, the Tri Dirty Booster, circa 1975.
CONTINUE - MORE OF 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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