Electro-Harmonix Germanium 4 Big Muff Pi Distortion / Overdrive Pedal Reviews

Got one of these used and it is awesome. Also, combines well with the EHX Soul Food (Buffer the bypass).
Add some delay and reverb and you're where you need to be.
Also, if you keep sending me catalogs I'll buy a JHS pedal from ya soon.

Usual outstanding EHX construction - combination of overdrive and distortion along with all the controls really gives you a great variety of sounds, which are real high quality. The volts control in the distortion setting is great. Really cool pedal, and the price, for such sound and quality, is amazing. Would also like to thank Chris Barry at Sweetwater for his great customer service - best I have ever experienced.

Terrible pun, great pedal. The G4 Big Muff has a very unique sound. I'm not a Muff expert; I have the Nano Muff Pi and the G4 and both have different tone. The G4 really gives you a range of sounds, thanks to the volts knob in particular. It's maybe a bit less aggressive but still very fuzzy. I found myself falling into the American Woman riff by accident. Both sides have great tone, and then really work well together to add that next layer. I haven't used it with my band because I need a bit more of a tight metal tone, but I didn't really buy it for that purpose. I may use it to fatten up some overlay tracks on our recording. Really cool pedal and very affordable compared to a lot of other germanium fuzz pedals on the market.

Quite possibly the best overdrive and/or distortion pedal I've ever heard. We tested with a Epiphone Les Paul Special with '59 style pickups that coil split, a 1986 Ibanez Pro Line with a hot bridge humbucker through a 120w Crate 1x12 and a Epiphone Valve Jr with a Celestion Ten 30 and a Princeton preamp circuit.
Both guitars, all the pickup combinations, and both amps sounded incredible when hit with this pedal. We added a Behringer Reverb Machine after the Germanium 4 Big Muff Pi and ran through the effects loop of a L.R. Baggs Venue preamp. This only improved the experience.
We could dial anything from clean boost to full on fuzzed out distortion using either the overdrive side, the distortion side, or both.
Both reviewers agree, quite possibly the best bang for the buck in distortion pedals. Any guitar/ amp combination works well and music style that needs a good boost to an all out distortion party will benefit.
Lastly, the small tube amp is 5w and has a gain circuit. We set gain and volume to about 2 and still had great tone that you could talk over in a 10' x 12' room. Great for practice/ rehearsals.

Nothing like that Germanium sound just what I wanted

This pedal is amazing and with the slightest turn of a knob it changes into another awesome sound. I've had for about a month now and I still haven't explored many of the settings, but I haven't found any bad settings. I play mostly with les paul through fender super champ x2 (with 10" celestion) and i use the overdrive to push my amp hard and then stack distortion side on top to really blow away anything I want. Feels like I got a 3-4 channel amp now.

great smooth sounding overdrive, and being able to lower the volts on the distortion side really brings out the classic big muff sound!

everything i want in a fuzz

electro-harmonix is easily my favorite effects pedal company, my collection is growing fast & this is probably my favorite ehx pedal, the overdrive & the distortion sides on their own are great but when you stack them it's really amazing & when you wanna bring on the fuzz there is a volts knob, so basically it's like having 3 pedals in one but there are so many other different tones you can get out of this pedal it's insane. keep in mind that it will take you a while to find those tones you want because their are so many features on this thing, i really do love experimenting with this one but this pedal kinda evokes it.

i mainly got this pedal because of the volts knob, turn the knob clockwise (off) for distortion & counterclockwise for fuzz & dying battery heaven, this pedal is worth the buying feature alone & this is a great pedal for harsh noise wall.

so the hardrive side is cool, kind of suttle unless you crank it..this allows me to leave it on and use the clean ch. of my amp, the distortion side is very cool, it is very versatile in the range of tones you are able to dial in...

This pedal fit my need very nicely. It can get extremely dirty and create some unique tones that I've not been able to create otherwise. What really makes it stand out are the bias and voltage control. The "dying battery" sound is fantastic and the bias is much more than a tone knob. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is that I don't seem to get the same sustain as on the standard muff pedals. Still, it's what I was looking for!

I've had this for years and am just now writing a review. It's been a mainstay in my chain for a while.

Really cool Big Muff variation. I definitely enjoy using the volts knob on the muff side to get that Modest Mouse "Fly Trapped In a Jar" vibe.

I tend to lean on the overdrive side a LOT more, though, which was a surprise to me. Not a high gain OD by any means, it's more of a colored low gain OD. I tend to just leave it on all the time, as I end up missing it when switched off more often than not.

Just got it on Monday and I LOVE THIS THING!

man, for the $ you cant beat it with a dirty stick...
I use the OD side as a boost, leave it on...
I use the DIST side as my well...distortion...
Love it... for $100 cant beat it!

I REALLY wanted this to be my all in one pedal, but it really isn't. The distortion side of the pedal is great. It is a classic Big Muff and the breakup that comes with the volts knob is really cool. Sustain for days and runs from compressed to wide open, clean to nasty, and tight to sloppy mess. Can't beat this as a distortion pedal.

As for the OD...ehh. It doesn't sound bad, but that is all I can really say about it. It has tons of features and all of the knobs are really musical, but with all of it's versatility I can't get it to scream. It sits on the woolly side and sounds more like the distortions little brother than it's own pedal.

All in all, I'm going to keep it. I'll find a new OD, but these distortions are definitely a welcome addition to my board.