Big Muff

Sometimes also referred to as the “Big Muff Pi” (π), this is another seminal fuzzbox along with the Tone Bender and Gibson Maestro Fuzz-Tone. Built in 1969 by Electro-Harmonix and its Russian sister company, Sovtek, the Big Muff Pi uses four transistor stages. The first stage is a clean boost that drives the next two clipping stages. The final stage recovers volume loss from the passive tone stack. The “hairy” distortion and low-end grind became the signature sound of many alternative rock bands in the ’90s.