Big Muff settings from Gilmour to doom
Start with Volume where switching the pedal on and off makes no change in loudness, Sustain at 6 to 7 and Tone at 5, then move Tone before anything else. For a singing lead, keep Sustain moderate and let an amp on the edge of breakup add the rest. For a Smashing Pumpkins wall of fuzz, turn Sustain up to 8 or more with Tone at 5 to 6. For doom, keep Sustain high and bring Tone down to 3 or 4 for a darker, heavier low end.
The Big Muff has three knobs. Sustain is the gain, Volume is the output, and Tone blends a bass filter with a treble filter so that at noon it scoops the mids hardest, around 1 kHz. That scoop is why a Big Muff sounds enormous on its own and disappears in a band, and it is why the Tone knob matters more than the other two.
What the three knobs do
Sustain sets how hard the signal hits the pedal's clipping stages. Low settings give a looser, less saturated fuzz; high settings clip everything and hold a note long after it would otherwise fade.
Tone is not a treble knob. It mixes two filters, one that passes bass and one that passes treble. Turned down, the bass filter wins and the sound gets dark and thick; turned up, the treble filter wins and it gets bright and thin. At noon the two meet with a gap between them, which leaves a deep scoop around 1 kHz.
Volume is the output level. Find the point where the pedal is as loud as your bypassed guitar and start there: a fuzz set quieter than the clean signal always sounds weaker than it is.
- Volume unity
- Tone 5
- Sustain 6 to 7
Volume at unity, as loud on as off. Move Tone before anything else.
Why a Big Muff disappears in a band
The mid scoop at noon sounds huge alone because the ear hears the exaggerated lows and highs as size. In a band the bass guitar covers the lows and the cymbals cover the highs, so what is left for the guitar is the midrange the pedal has just taken out.
The fixes, in order: move Tone off noon, usually a little clockwise so the guitar keeps its edge; raise the amp's middle control; and on versions that have one, use the switch that takes the tone circuit out of the path. Turning the Volume up on its own makes the guitar louder without making it any clearer.
The David Gilmour lead
On the Comfortably Numb solos, Gilmour played his black 1969 Stratocaster with a DiMarzio FS-1 bridge pickup through an MXR Dyna Comp and a Big Muff, into a 100-watt Hiwatt and a Yamaha rotating speaker. Guitar World's breakdown credits the sustain to a strong signal going in, from the hot pickup and the compressor, and to gain stacked between the fuzz and the amp, each set moderately.
So the starting point is not Sustain at 10. Put a compressor before the fuzz, set Sustain around 6 to 7 with Tone a little under noon, and let the amp supply some drive of its own. Gilmourish, a site that documents his gear, suggests about 7 on Sustain and 3 to 4 on Tone for The Wall era sounds.
The Smashing Pumpkins wall of fuzz
The fuzz on Siamese Dream came from an op-amp Big Muff, a version built on op amps rather than transistors with three gain stages instead of four, which gives a more compressed fuzz. Electro-Harmonix later reissued it. Billy Corgan has shown his original Siamese Dream pedal with its settings still marked and the Sustain turned up, and has said he ran an MXR Distortion+ into it for leads, with an MXR Phase 100 at its slowest speed for the lead sound.
To get near it, set Sustain at 8 to 10, Tone at 5 to 6 and Volume at unity, into a clean or lightly driven amp. Expect one guitar to sound smaller than the album however the knobs are set: the guitars on that record were layered many times, and Corgan has said Soma alone holds up to 40 overdubbed guitar parts.
- Volume unity
- Tone 5 to 6
- Sustain 8 to 10
Into a clean or lightly driven amp.
Nirvana, Jack White and fuzz in a small band
Butch Vig has said a Big Muff was used on Nirvana's Lithium for a darker, thumpier sound. Jack White ran one after his Whammy on Seven Nation Army, where it comes in for the slide solo rather than the famous riff.
In a two- or three-piece band the fuzz has more room, so Tone can sit at or a little below noon for weight. With a bass player, watch the low end: Tone turned down plus the amp's bass turned up is the fastest route to mud.
Doom, stoner and shoegaze starting points
For doom and stoner riffs, set Sustain at 8 to 10, Tone at 3 to 4 and Volume at unity, into a loud, fairly clean amp with its bass no higher than 5, so the low end stays defined at volume.
For shoegaze, keep Sustain high and Tone at 6 or more so the fuzz still cuts through the reverb and delay. Put those after the fuzz in the chain: in front of it, the fuzz clips the repeats into a smear.
- Volume unity
- Tone 3 to 4
- Sustain 8 to 10
Into a loud, fairly clean amp with its bass no higher than 5.
Settings for one song on your amp
These positions are starting points for the pedal. The amp after it decides as much of the sound, so the same Big Muff setting lands differently on a clean Fender, a crunchy Marshall and a modelling combo. When you want one song's whole chain set for the amp you own, Tonelify works out the positions for that rig, fuzz included.
Common questions
What are good Big Muff settings?
Start with Volume at unity, Sustain at 6 to 7 and Tone at 5, then move Tone first. For leads, keep Sustain moderate and let the amp add drive; for a wall of fuzz, turn Sustain up; for doom, turn Tone down to 3 or 4.
Why does my Big Muff disappear in a band mix?
At noon the Tone control scoops the midrange around 1 kHz, the range a guitar needs in a band once the bass and cymbals cover the rest. Move Tone off noon, raise the amp's middle control, or use a tone-bypass switch if your version has one.
What Big Muff did the Smashing Pumpkins use on Siamese Dream?
An op-amp Big Muff, the version built on op amps with three gain stages instead of four, which Electro-Harmonix later reissued. Billy Corgan has shown the original pedal with the Sustain turned up, and ran an MXR Distortion+ into it for leads.
Did David Gilmour use a Big Muff on Comfortably Numb?
Yes. On the solos he played his black Stratocaster through an MXR Dyna Comp and a Big Muff into a Hiwatt and a Yamaha rotating speaker, with delay on the recording. The sustain came from gain shared between the pedal and the amp, not from the fuzz turned all the way up.
Gear in this guide
Songs with this sound
Settings for your own amp
This guide covers what is true of every rig. For a specific song on a specific amp, Tonelify reads the documented chain behind the recording and returns gain, bass, middle, treble and presence values for the controls your amp actually has. Free for 7 days, no charge until the trial ends.
Keep reading
- What order should guitar pedals go in?Tuner, filter, compressor, drive, modulation, delay, reverb. The standard pedal order, why each pedal sits where it does, and when swapping two is correct.
- Tube Screamer settings for boost, blues and metalDrive low and level high to tighten a high-gain amp, drive near noon for blues crunch. Tube Screamer settings for boost, blues, metal and the SRV sound.
- What does scooping the mids mean?Scooping the mids means cutting the midrange and boosting bass and treble. Why it sounds huge alone, disappears in a band, and where it is the right call.