ilovefuzz.com

i used to run an ocd before my civil war muff and it fucking slayed. try that. to me it sounded better before than after. really helped the muff cut through the mix and it was just vicious. ocd low on gain blasting on volume, switch set to high and eq to taste. run into the muff and you'll be pleased.

OCD is like the best stacking circuit ever, by the way.

onyxrhino wrote:

sonidero wrote:I've never heard anyone say Mascis gets lost in the mix...

Yeah, have you been to those shows? I've learned to bring extra earplugs. People are usually quite grateful. I don't think it's a case of tweaking the frequencies with Mascis, I think he's got so much volume, it doesn't matter.

I was a little sad at how quiet Dino J was when I saw them.

I whole heartedly agree that the OCD is the perfect pedal for stacking. I have it first in my chain and I run it into the algal and muff for a type of boost. it just sucks that I have to tapdance around my board if i wanna get specific with different combinations, I just wish the BigMuff was more audible on its own.
I actually tweaked the EQ on my Algal Bloom and turned it more into an OD rather than a fuzz and I got it to sound nicely... but that big muff, man, its truly a shame that I have to sacrifice the tone I want from it just to get it to cut through :[ may consider taking it off my board since it's size is also another issue haha. oh well.... I love the muff but sadly I might have to switch it out

Big Muffs are only good for intros and shit where everything else isn't happening. Stacked ODs are better for intelligible riffs in a thick mix.

There are several possible answers to this.

A: What kind of muff do you have? Some kinds of Big Muffs will cut through better than others. Some even have the option to boost the mids. I really like to tone shaping options on the BYOC and the Earthquaker Hoof can do this as well. Civil War clones have more mids and stack exceptionally well, so they might also be worth a consideration.

B: A lot of people combine their Big Muff with some sort of booster for leads. That Gilmour lead tone that people won't stop talking about is a booster (iirc a Dallas Rangemaster) before the muff to help it cut. I also remember J Mascis saying that the leads live are usually a BM combined with another kind of fuzz.

C:Personally I mainly use muffs for rythm sounds and something like a Tonebender, Fuzz Face, RAT or FY-2 for leads.

You could also mod your BM with a tone bypass switch.
While your in there you could also put a diode on a switch to take it out.
I'm not a fan of muffs but I do think that these two mods help.

When I saw Mascis he was using a twin reverb right next to his face as a monitor . Guy must be fucking deaf.

friendship wrote:Work your EQ structure around the other instruments in the band. Get rid of some low end or try to tame some of the ultra-treble frequenices if you can. Identify where the midrange gap is in the band mix when you're not playing and tailor your sound to fit in that hole. Generally when a guitar isn't standing out in the mix, it's because its energy is located in frequencies already being dominated by something else, for instance a big muff has a lot of bass and gets overwhelmed by your bassist. Look at the upper midrange from 1kHz-4kHz, a lot of guitar articulation comes from there (but of course you have to carve even this around your singer's range, if you have one)

just some general tips to get your started

this is really what you need to do if you wanna fix the problem for good.
the thing to remember is just because something sounds nice when you test it on it's own doesn't mean it will work in your band mix, and just because something doesn't sound right on its own, doesn't mean you shouldn't try it in a band mix because you might be pleasantly surprised.
i don't really like muffs but i haven't tried enough of them to say you should switch to another circuit. personally i find OD pedals are the best for staying audible in a mix when engaged, and prefer the results when fuzzes are always running into it, otherwise the tonal character is altered too much and the instrument shifts to a place in the mix you don't want it to be. i love fuzz but honestly i've always been annoyed at how they sound in a band mix with others when it's a sound you use more sparingly to provide contrast. if it's an almost always-on kinda thing then some kind of EQ should be able to fix it really.

whats the lineup?
the most important thing first is to arrange the different instruments parts with space, leaving room for everyone to breathe.
if everyone is playing simultaneously, the same notes, same rhythms, then you are all having to fight over slices of the frequency spectrum.

misterstomach wrote:i used to run an ocd before my civil war muff and it fucking slayed. try that. to me it sounded better before than after. really helped the muff cut through the mix and it was just vicious. ocd low on gain blasting on volume, switch set to high and eq to taste. run into the muff and you'll be pleased.

Tubescreamer into Muff is ubiquitous at this point in time.
FWIW, it is one of the TS circuit's best uses: tightens up the bottom end in Muffs and gooses the midrange which comes alive, cutting through the mix.
Rolls off the lows (under 100hz iirc) mid hump around 800hz, roll off the highs (over 8k iirc).

what's the amp? an amp with less-than-adequate headroom will mush out when it hit with a big fat fuzzy signal at high volume.

oh man, so many things to answer..... to start off, Im playing a jazzmaster classic player into a Fender hotrod deville with 4 10s. the big muff I use is just a standard EHX version, no fancy settings other than the standard 3 knobs. right now my friend and I are just doing a drum and guitar thing with a bass guitar looped into an orange tiny terror/mesa boogie 8x10 cab

i'll play either super riffy stuff or just fat leads with the muff, and neither of them ever seem to cut through (but it sounds great when I play alone in my room :/ ). I like to have a low sustain and a higher than usual tone setting to get a very textural fuzz, but it just isnt very audible. I did try stacking the OCD before it, but it ultimately altered the specific tone I was looking for and just didnt cut it for me..

im working on a solution though, that is mainly just getting rid of it once and for all haha. although I do like the idea of modding it as some of the pervious users stated, but I dont have the skill for diy yet! I will have to consider using it as an intro-only pedal, but I think I would rather trade that feature for more real estate on my pedal board haha, a big muff's presence is rather noticeable on a pedalboard...
but at any rate, thanks for the help dudes you guys really came through

The only Big Muff that's worked on tight riffs for me was the PI.

Think a lot of the problem may also be the amp.

I love the HRx amps - EXCEPT THE 4x10.

It's beamy, boomy in the wrong ways, and just doesn't work in a lot of contexts.

You've got headroom to kill in the thing, but the speaker combo is the weak link IMO.

Seems like most of the dudes who come here and complain about mix, cutting etc are using one of the 4x10 versions of that amp for some reason, I don't know why.

My HRD (1x12) absolutely blew the 4x10 version I demo'd out of the water in terms of presence and non-beaminess and the 2x12 version was better still if I wanted to slay at stupid volumes (or I'd probably have just used an extension cab if I wanted more of that amp - I used a Jazz Chorus with it in stereo for ages before getting sick and being the king of apartment ampage, where I added a halfstack too).

Other advice will help, but that speaker combo with fuzz is not going to fly real well IMO. All fart that gets lost in the band.

rfurtkamp wrote:All fart that gets lost in the band.

I read this as "all farts get lost in the wind"... it's kind of beautiful...