Electro-Harmonix

The Famous Green Russian This pedal has been one of the most talked about fuzzes of recent years due to its unique aggressive tones.The back story to the pedal is very much the Phoenix from the flames proverb, EHX had gone, the soviet union too had gone but people needed to carry on. Mike Mathews saw renewed love for his original big muffs and saw that Russian manufacturing was cheap and born from this was the Russian Big Muff. So rare and so popular now, they have become the new pedal which every company creates their own version of. Compare it with the many other Big Muffs and variants of to see if you think it deserve the hype!? 

The Smashing Pumpkins fuzz. The Electro-Harmonix Big Muff has had many versions during its lifetime. The unit we have here is the V4 one which is associated with Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins. The unit uses the EH-1322 board and is all stock. As to sound, try it out for yourself using the TonePedia player, compare it to other models too. The EHX Big Muff Pi V4 was in production for approx two years, so it is relatively hard to find.

Stone The Crows V.1Phaser is to the 70's what Chorus is to the 80's, such a great movement within your tone with the additional benefit of adding groove to the overall song. Back in the 70's the phaser to rule them all was the MXR Phase 90 due to use by EVH, however the popularity of that pedal encouraged companies such as BOSS & Electro-Harmonix to create their own versions. Using the single knob model the Phase 90 & 45 laid the ground for, EHX added an interesting "color" switch allowing players to switch between a much more subtle and a more obvious tonal change effectively giving the equivalent of two pedals in one.This is the V1 model, it encroaches more upon the clean tone than later models but has a more usable "color" mode. The speed controls spread ramps up somewhat slower giving greater control over lower speeds which is arguably where Phaser tones sound best. 

Not a toy! The Memory Toy presents a pure analog delay for musicians who covet thick sound from a thin wallet. EH melds heritage with select components to present the musician with up to 550ms of delay. Not a toy but a professional tool that bathes your axe with organic depth and dimension. The selectable chorus is a lush bonus. No one does analog like Electro-Harmonix!

Big Muff Pi, a tick smaller. If you like the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi but prefer a little bit smaller enclosure, then the Little Big Muff Pi is what you need. Electro-Harmonix promises that the Little Big Muff Pi sounds exactly like the original Big Muff Pi so there are no down sides to this down-sizing. Load both to the TonePedia player and see how similar they are. Sound wise what is there to say?! The Big Muff is a rich fuzz / distortion pedal that delivers violin-like sustain. It is one of those pedals that shaped the face of Rock and Roll. If you need a much smaller version of the Big Muff Pi, check the Nano Big Muff Pi which can also be found on TonePedia.

Big Muff With Butterfly Wings In the 70's the standard big muff circuit underwent various changes and towards the end of the decade the Big Muff V4 was born. These hold a special place in the heart of many, partially due to the raw saw tooth like clipping which somehow manages to keep clarity. For many this pedal was more like an overdrive/distortion and people began using it to emulate bands like the mighty Black Sabbath. Exactly that path took a young band in the 90's down the same road. The Smashing Pumpkins wanted the Tony Iommi tone and after hearing big muffs in use the knew this was how to do it. From there they went on to record one of the greatest albums of the 90's Siamese Dream and as a result the Op Amp Big Muff became "that sound" Tell us, do you think its the best of the muffs?

An Ancient Pyramid Of POWER For many people EHX got it right first time with the triangle muff, it just sounds so aggressive, so focused, so ... un fuzz like. Indeed the triangle muff is more akin to a modern distortion pedal than the iterations of muff which proceeded it. Compare it along side our other classic big muffs and fuzzes from throughout history to discover your tone!

An ultra great delay pedal for the ones who like to keep it simple. Electro-Harmonix has a reputation for quality delays and the #1 Echo is a prime example. The tone is ultra high quality up to two seconds of maximum warm analog-sounding delay. The feedback control sets number of repeats and how fast they fade. The blend control lets you adjust the balance of echo volume with straight through signal, putting your sound exactly in the pocket you want.

Is There A Doctor On The Board?Envelope filters have never been as popular as wah pedals despite sharing a lot in common.The beauty of an auto wah type setting is the genres it's spawned over the years around it, can you imagine funk and huge artists we know and love without Envelope filters, follows and auto wahs. The Doctor Q is a smooth envelope filter with the famous funky wah tone.When set right its possible to get different effects depending on whether you play loud or soft.The bass switch lets low frequencies through which is useful when playing bass and the lower guitar strings.

Is this the most iconic Muff of them all? The Version 3 Big muffs (1976-79) were the first muffs to have an AC power in and some featured a tone bypass switch. Looks wise the now familiar red and black paint job featuring the Pi symbol was used. The very first V3's however had none of this, no Ac Jack, no tone bypass and in fact the circuit was exactly the same as the V2 Big Muff ... And THAT is what you're experiencing with this pedal.  Featuring the BC-239 transistors and the exact circuit in a V2 Ram's head edition this rare muff certainly is a nice piece of Pi.

A huge tone in a mini pedal! The Electro-Harmonix Russian Big Muff from the '90s became a hit shortly after being released. the growling low ends, full on fuzz it delivers has such a distinct character that after all these years, it is still sought after. The Mini version of the green Russian Big Muff is based on the Tall Font Sovtek version from the mid '90s. This pedal roars all the way! Do not expect germanium-like cleanliness from it, it is a beast. We find the Electro-Harmonix Green Russian Big Muff musical. The switch from the slicing fuzz to a smooth distortion is smooth, and the tone control really comes handy. Load it and some other Big Muff versions onto the player to find the right one for you.

It's a shrunken Big Muff. EHX took their famous Big Muff Pi and shrunk it to a pedal board friendly size. Electro-Harmonix promises that the Nano Big Muff Pi sounds exactly like the original Big Muff Pi so there are no down sides to this down-sizing. Load both to the TonePedia player and see how similar they are. Sound wise what is there to say?! The Big Muff is a rich fuzz / distortion pedal that delivers violin-like sustain. It is one of those pedals that shaped the face of Rock and Roll. Glad to see it evolves.

The legendary Big Muff. The Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi is with no doubt one of the most iconic guitar pedals on the planet. You probably hear it on records all the time without even knowing it. There are a lot of different Big Muff versions which went in and out of production along the years and this Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi is the current standard, has been for a long long time now. The Big Muff is famous for it's violin-like sustain, creamy tone and simplicity vs versatility great ratio. It is also priced well, so no need to save up for months until you get yours. Size wise, it is big! If you lack space on your board check out the Nano and Little Big Muff Pi versions. They sound similar to the Big Muff Pi and come in smaller housings.

The Muff with Many Faces We assume that by reading this you know that an EHX Big Muff is the best selling Fuzz pedal of all time and that many different variations exist. We'd also assume that most people reading this aren't exactly clear on what those differences are and are looking for a little further clarity. Based on that, you've come to the right place ... kinda!? The reason for the hesitation is this, there are many versions of the Big Muff, (V1,2,3,4,5,6 and so on) within those we have other lines such as "The little Big Muff" etc. And if it were that clear then life would be easy however within variations such as the Version 6 Big Muff components changed on a whim, as did the designs. Most V5 and V6 Muffs used the large black "Hockey Puck" style knobs where as a few used the Daka Ware pointer knobs as seen on the much earlier Muff Versions. Most strikingly the often named "Reverse Logo" Muff was black with a white logo and Pi sign featuring a large red area by the foot switch, however many were in the standard famous unpainted enclosures featuring the normal red logo and Pi sign with a black area by the foot switch. The V6 saw a mainstream return to the transistor based circuit and sounded much closer to the version 3 Muff. Despite the appearance variations the V6 was the first Muff to see all versions using the same schematic. This led to most V6 Muffs sounding constantly the same, that tone being like the V3's but with more gain/sustain on tap and more grit in the break up. The tone bypass switching borrowed from previous versions took the tone out of the circuit giving more clarity and a boost in volume and midrange however it does sound much less "muffy" in this mode. A superb Op-Amp tone bypass version. Compare it to the V4 and others on TonePedia.

Fits Like A Glove On An OCD Shaped HandIts commonly known that most overdrives and fuzzes are copies of just a select few circuits such as the Tubescreamer for example. This is what the original Fulltone OCD was based upon however instead of using the traditional clipping diodes found in the TS-9 and 808 they used Mosfet's which have a much more "tube-like" reaction to dynamics and clipping. The OD Glove for EHX is their take on this circuit and like many others, they have done a great job, compare for example the Joyo Ultimate Drive Also found on TonePedia.This circuit is very well-loved and does a great job of re-producing darker Marshall tones, if you're looking for a great pedal to use at home on your own then look no further as it'll take you all the way from overdrive into fuzz and distortion territory. However, beware of using these in a live environment as due to the darker low mid focus you can struggle to stand out in the mix without pushing the volume very high.

A reissue of the one that started it all. The Electro-Harmonix V1 "Triangle Big Muff" (called after the layout of its knobs) was originally released to the market somewhere towards the end of the '60s. It made waves! This pedal was used on countless of records, you can here it played by Santana, David Gilmour, Steve Howe and more great guitar players. In 2018 EHX reissued this V1 Big Muff and named it the Triangle Big Muff, they claim it is a faithful reproduction of the V1. While we cannot compare it to the original, we can definitely say that the Electro-Harmonix Triangle Big Muff is a magnificent distortion which delivers heaps of sustain and tone. It is one of these pedals where you really should read about less and play with more so add it to the TonePedia player and find out what it is all about.

EHX's take on the RAT One of the most iconic distortion pedals out there is the ProCo RAT, it shaped music as we know it and as such, many pedal builders out there came out with their clone or version of a RAT based pedal. The op-amp powered Flatiron by Electro-Harmonix is exactly that. EHX took the time to research and build their version of the RAT 2 and if you ask them, they are confident that their Flatiron surpasses the original. This symmetrical fuzz/distortion features a simple, three control layout. While Volume and Drive are self explanatory, the Filter knob is somewhat unique to the circuit and acts as a low pass filter. How does it compare to the classic RAT you ask? load both to the player and hear for yourself.

Version 7, Edition 2 sub thread etc, etc ...  Gah Just Play The Dam Thing Russian Muffs have been one of the most talked about fuzzes of recent years due to its unique aggressive tones.The back story to the pedal is very much the Phoenix from the flames proverb, EHX had gone, the soviet union too had gone but people needed to carry on. Mike Mathews saw renewed love for his original big muffs and saw that Russian manufacturing was cheap and born from this was the Russian Big Muff. This is the second edition from around 19954/5, nicknamed the Bubble Font Green Russian as it has rounded Big Muff letters.First and second editions had the same circuit as the first edition Red Army Overdrive, V7 Civil War and transition Green Civil War Big Muffs. Some first edition Tall Fonts had the exact same pcb, parts, and clear/gray plastic jacks as the V7B green Civil War. Later first editions and the second editions used a new pcb trace and new style jacks with black rings. (info courtesy of The Big Page website) So rare and so popular now, they have become the new pedal which every company creates their own version of. Compare it with the many other Big Muffs and variants of to see if you think it deserve the hype!? 

Stone The Crows V.2Phaser is to the 70's what Chorus is to the 80's, such a great movement within your tone with the additional benefit of adding groove to the overall song. Back in the 70's the phaser to rule them all was the MXR Phase 90 due to use by EVH, however the popularity of that pedal encouraged companies such as BOSS & Electro-Harmonix to create their own versions. Using the single knob model the Phase 90 & 45 laid the ground for, EHX added an interesting "color" switch allowing players to switch between a much more subtle and a more obvious tonal change effectively giving the equivalent of two pedals in one.This is the V2 model, you'll likely notice how the speed ramps up much faster than on the V1 version we have on TonePedia. The V2 is also overall a little more transparent which lets through more of the dry tone.

Not So Micro, Micro Pedal Envelope filters have never been as popular as wah pedals despite sharing a lot in common.The beauty of an auto wah type setting is the genres it's spawned over the years around it, can you imagine funk and huge artists we know and love without Envelope filters, follows and auto wahs. The Micro Q-Tron is a smooth envelope filter with the famous funky wah tone.The filter is controlled by its internal envelope follower which analyses the attack of your notes to directly sweep the filter's centre or cut-off frequency, stronger attacks produces a wider frequency sweep while softer playing produces more subtle effects. Use the Q control to make the effect more dramatic.

Hot Stuff The original Hot Tubes from the late-1970's gained cult status due to use by Sonic Youth among others. The pedal emulates Valves/Tubes pushed to break up and far beyond therefore anything after 12 O'clock on the Drive & Gain knobs sends the pedal into fuzz territory. Single Coils manage to maintain a level of overdrive longer than a humbucker equipped guitar, likewise the choice of amp makes a huge difference.EHX say "The Hot Tubes' unique paracyclic filter makes it a most versatile distortion device. From warm overdrive to vacuum tube Big Muff sustain to the heaviest metal tube driven screams, you won't find a creamier distortion than the Hot Tubes. Powered by AC adapter and toroidal transformer that drives two Electro-Harmonix tubes to maximum voltage!"