Home › Forums › Help/Technical Questions › Modding my Russian Big Muff Pi

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  • March 14, 2009 at 4:55 pm #77895
    nightraven
    Member

    hi,

    i’ve got one of the newer true bypass russian big muffs and i have some plans that i’m eager to try out

    1) tone bypass – i’m going to be using the diagram on this website: http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o127/truthandshame/Big Muff/SOVTEKBIGMUFFTONEBYPASS.jpg – looks straightforward enough

    2) putting a feedback loop inside (for my noise playing) – http://www.student.ru.nl/r.kerkhof/Taas/Mods/Big Muff.htm – also looks quite simple. however i want to be able to switch the feedback loop on and off with a SPDT switch. i have some suspicions as to how to wire it but if someone could give me a little helping hand with that i’d be super happy. (for the reference i will be doing ‘feedback mod 2’, which can be seen on this pic http://www.student.ru.nl/r.kerkhof/Taas/Pics/39.jpg)

    3) controlling the voltage going through the pedal – i want to add a bias pot… somehow… i can’t find any info on how to do that anywhere on the internet so hopefully some of you smarter people can help out :)

    4) if possible.. a blend pot? think it’s a good idea?! that way i could mix in some of the overdrive coming from my tube driver together with the crackle of the big muff! i dunno…

    5) … maybe… also from the big website – http://www.student.ru.nl/r.kerkhof/Taas/Mods/Big Muff.htm – the mids control.

    Quote:
    Mid control mod: This mod is beloved by both guitar players as by bassplayers to regain the mids in the sound, mids that are so needed to be heard in the mix. With the next control you can dial in anything from a (huge) mid cut to a mid boost. Note that by boosting the mids you’ll lose the Muff’s character; still, it is a very nice addition!

    *
    Replace C1 with a 22n cap
    *
    Replace R2 with a 22k to 25k potmeter (wired as a variable resistor) with a 1k resistor wired in series.

    although this looks and sounds pretty difficult, especially since i want to be able to bypass the pot as well so chances are, i’m not going to do this one, but maybe i can be convinced otherwise…

    so – help me please! :p

    thanks
    -nick

    p.s. some of those links you will have to copy paste into the browser since it cuts them in half for some reason..

    March 14, 2009 at 5:04 pm #94488
    julian
    Moderator

    everything you want to do is possible
    wait for Ned to see this, he knows the BM circuit really well and should be able to tell you the best way to do blend and bias mods.

    March 14, 2009 at 10:23 pm #94506
    Ned Flanders
    Moderator

    You cant do a blend unless you build a buffer to use with it otherwise all your doing is making a feedback loop that wont sound good at all. Bias pots on Big Muffs are useless unlike a fuzzface type fuzz whereas they are extremely useful. You can add a sag pot easily enough, just wire a 25kB pot in series with the battery, between the battery and the PCB.

    If you want the feedback loops you linked switchable just use a SPST or SPDT switch wired between the two points on the PCB, solder the wires that connect to the switch to the back of the PCB.

    Adding the mids control is pointless IMO if you are doing the tone bypass mod because that recovers all the mids. I would do one or the other, not both.

    TBH, the big muff is not a good pedal for crazy sounding mods and fuzz faces are much more moddable IMO.

    March 14, 2009 at 11:17 pm #94508
    nightraven
    Member

    so i opened the muff

    and just my luck

    for some reason now it’s not working

    i mean… all i did was take out four screws and two washers. i didn’t think the russian muffs were this delicate :O

    everything looks pristine inside

    any ideas whatsoever? this is such a pain since i need a muff for my exam that’s in a week and a bit

    thanks a lot for the advice, Ned, i now know exactly what i wanna do with it! when the time is near…

    March 14, 2009 at 11:22 pm #94515
    Ned Flanders
    Moderator

    Check you didnt break loose any wires.

    March 14, 2009 at 11:39 pm #94518
    nightraven
    Member

    nope, i haven’t broken any, everything seems perfectly intact…

    i tried powering it with both a battery and with the battery clip converter/9v adaptor combo and neither work

    out of all the problems i’d anticipated – this was far down the list

    March 14, 2009 at 11:48 pm #94519
    nightraven
    Member

    ohhhh fgsfds

    i’m such a moron

    evidently the thing needs to be plugged into the signal chain for it to turn on

    works fine

    false alarm

    >.

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