Electro-Harmonix Bass Big Muff Pi Bass Fuzz Pedal Reviews

As a young bass player in a gigging band I struggled to find a distortion tone in a live setting that gave me a good boost but also didn't sound terrible. Many distortion/drive/fuzz effects, even ones that claim to be tailored for bass, end up sounding washed out and cheesy with no thump or beef. But then I plugged into a Bass Big Muff and everything changed. Tone, character, thump, and (pardon my French) balls for days. With everything at noon you get an incredible sound and you can tune from there. Drive, distortion, fuzz all in one and it still sounds like a bass. What an incredible pedal. Thanks again EHX. (PS I rarely use the bass boost switch live but it can be very effective for reamping in studio if you need to give some girth.)

To be fair an honest to all other fuzz pedals, I haven't tried them all. But…I will tell you this pedal makes my bass sound like a beast! I add some bass octave and phase in some parts for almost a synth sound. Makes my arm hairs stand! Three knobs make for a WIDE variety of sound as well. i highly recommend this pedal.

Great fuzz pedal! Wish I would've bought one of these years ago! Stoney, fuzz-doom for life!

Great pedal. Preforms perfectly.

This pedal was my fist. great way to add a little (or a ton) of fuzz to your overall sound.

Can't say enough good about this pedal. My neighbors on the other hand...

Perfect for those Sabbath covers. I play in a 3 piece grunge band and in some cases it helps quite a bit in a few songs that would otherwise need a rhythm guitar. Definitely recommend.

Using a Schecter Hellraiser C-VI with this pedal on the input into a Randall RG80. Just amazing how great this combo sounds. EH definitely did an awesome job with this design. The toggle switch to go from bass boost to normal to dry is a really great feature. The dry setting really does a nice job mixing the dry and dirty signal to give you a bit more clarity if you want.

This thing is the only pedal on my board. It's just got an absolutely killer tone. If you love overdrive heavy bass players (Lemmy, Gene Simmons, Cliff Burton) this pedal gets you the tone you're looking for.

Adds a great rumble to your playing. Fun for some speed exercises into hard rock and metal. Great for some harsh noise. A must for bass.

Great pedal and great tone.

Nice pedal. Wide range of control over tone.

I bought this pedal because my Dunlop Fuzzface just wasn't giving me the tone I was looking for... But this thing sounds GREAT! Very close to the Sovtek Russian big muff. I can get all the tones I need from this pedal. Great for both guitar and bass!

When I need to add distortion this is the perfect pedal! The knobs all you to control the tone, sustain, and volume giving you complete control. My lead guitarist hates it when I can emulate what he is doing on my Fender Jazz!

Playing new Metal? Or do you want the super-over-driven, tube sound, you hear in the classic live recordings by the old "power trios" (Cream, Mountain, etc.)? Look no further.

Simply an amazing pedal. Diverse and easy to use. Im able to play those filthy, disgusting riffs you would expect out of a fuzz and i can also dial it back to just add some extra oomph to the bass. My fav pedal at the moment.

Gets the grit into the bass just perfectly. The possible variations are terrific! Mind melting madness, so fun for a add player!

I was really surprised with the amount of tones you can pull out of this thing. You can get anything from Anesthesia tones to N.I.B with this pedal. This is absolutely my favorite pedal on my board.

How can you own that sweet bass and rig and not already own this? I like my chain short, but this thing is riding shotgun. Solid, simple and fuzzy. I like mine... With a twist

Great classic distortion pedal and a great value - under $100 new! Great service from Sweetwater as usual!

Really great pedal, does exactly what I expected and more! I was using an older guitar version of the Bg Muff and it just wasn't cutting the mustard. This pedal has far more functionality and sounds awesome! For that Muse sound this is a must!

after having been let down by numerous fuzz pedals (by such big names as foss and midget tech) i gave this a shot. i was blown away upon plugging in and turing on! from slightly dirty to filthy fuzz, this little green monster has you covered! less is more in the knobs department, so it's super easy to dial in your sound. and if you want more testicular fortitude in your lows, switch on the bass boost and go to town! definitely a must have if you're into playing stuff like kyuss or unida.

I use this pedal with a SansAmp Bass Driver DI and get amazing results. I love the many different types of distortion I can generate from the Big Muff. It makes my bass really stand out during solos AND helps me really cut through a mix without killing my deep bass tone. This is my favourite bass distortion pedal to date. It is solid and the control pots are of good quality all roll with a nice smooth, solid feel. I think this pedal is priced very well, also. I have always been impressed with E-H products and this pedal is another example of their quality and great tone!

Simply a great pedal. I always keep the mini switch in dry mode. It's great in low blend and sustain settings, for adding overtones, or just fraying your tone a little. And of course it can completely fuzz out if that's what you want. It reacts beautifully with my all-tube amp, and if i switch to the drive channel on my head, it makes a throaty crunch that tapers off into the finer distortion of the muff. The sustain knob is also pretty foot-friendly for rolling your gain in a solo. I never use the normal or bass boost modes for bass, but I have run a guitar through it in normal mode and it sounded really good for anything that calls for an ultra-distorted tone. I have read comments by guitarist that say the normal mode does not sound exactly like the classic big muff, but I wouldn't know. Very good buy, sturdy build, good tone, and pedals don't get much cheaper than this.

I honestly can't believe how much I enjoy this pedal.
The sound is incredible, and my favorite part is that my bottom end stays, I can make it push really hard and keep my low end? LOVE IT!
I personally like the switch in the dry position, so my regular tone comes through but I get that fuzz layer on top of it too.
I have found that if I fuzz out my tone too hard and I don't have that regular bass tone in there too, I get lost in the guitars and their tones.
But with this pedal sound layered in, it just adds the drive I want without compromising my clarity.
I've tried a couple other bass dist. boxes and they all sounded 'meh, whatever' but the moment I started messing with this one, I knew that was what I wanted. I guess this isn't really letting you know what the tone sounds like, but it's so easy to get what you want with it that you need to get one and find out for yourself.

First thing to note is that I'm running this box through a regular electric guitar rather than a bass, that being said her are my thoughts:
Might just be my weird ears but I will not cease to believe that this muff creates a tighter, more aggressive fuzz than the standard BM Pi. Love the original, but always felt the effect was a bit loose and notes could warble and meld into each other in a way I wasn't so fond of. Not so for this little green beast! Engage the bass boost and it...well...boosts the bass; I find it excellent for nailing those Stoner metal tones or simply creating a more imposing sonic image in general. The dry setting is...neat? I don't know...I appreciate its inclusion and don't doubt I'll find a way to use it eventually but as it stands I find the sound unbalanced and generally unappealing, though I could see a bass player getting much better use of this than I ever could. Overall, I consider this fuzz to be an improvement over what was already one of my favorite effect pedals of all time with an extra dose of versatility added through the added toggle switch. So in conclusion...2/10 still don't sound like David Gilmour. Just kidding...buy it.

Love the tones, it makes my passive Fender come alive!

I use this for my guitar and it sounds great. This has a more fuzzy, warm, low-end sound. Even though the Big Muff Pi USA for guitar is a fuzz pedal, this is a lot more fuzzy. This has less distortion and sustain, though. If you are a guitarist, don't use this as your main distortion. I would highly recommend this.

Im not the best bass player and i dont know everything that i should to make a living in a band. I do know that i was suprised how much you can really do with just one pedal.

As a guitar player, the big muff was the only pedal I used. When I started playing bass, I was looking for a pedal that would add fuzz without taking away from the bottom end. So, naturally I tried the big muff for the bass and that was it. It has a great sound!!!

I saw the price and wanted to try it out so I snagged one and so far I'm pretty happy with it. Very simple tone control (yet pretty darn powerful) allows me to get that tone I'm looking for pretty quickly. My favorite feature so far is the dry switch, for some of our music it is great to have the low end really stand out with just a pinch of muff on the the signal. I have a mesa boogie big block 750 that kicks out some nasty distortion and combining the amps distortion, this pedal and my octave pedal equals hours of fun. Fantastic value, super strong construction and easy tone control (true bypass is great to) makes this a great buy. If your looking for some good old fashion muff or an over the top distortion then look no further.

I've been using this Big Muff now for a few years. It us so much like the 80s fuzz sound that it has become a standard in my pedal rack. Great sound and great built. Highly recommended.