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I have a Big Muff w/ tone wicker and was wondering if anyone has experience with the Algal Bloom and Arc Flash. Are these the same has the BMPWT? Which one has more control or versatile. Worth the upgrade?

I have a big muff with Tone wicker and an Arc Flash (Bacon!!)

The arc flash is a much more versitile pedal: The mode switch allows it to go from an almost clean to a raunchy drive to splatter fuzz,

The tone wicker is OK, but basically has one sound, bypassing the tone bumps the volume but it is still the same sound, and the wicker adds a little rasp but mostly adds noise when muted.

Arc flash is dead quiet when you mute your strings, smaller, and you can get a crazy amount of tones for only 3 controls.
It also plays well with other pedals!

Arc flash is on my board permanently, tone wicker just hangs out on my backup board.

Haven't played the arc flash (wtf, I know) but the algal bloom is really a different to my ears from the muff.

The AB can be thick and heavy kinda like a muff but has an amazing clarity that works well with my baritone and weird/odd shapes and lines that would just sound like a muddled mess on a muff (or most other dirt pedals).

It's also capable of some more less-gainy tones (where the muff is just more, more, and more gain), that low gain fuzz sweetspot that borders on overdrive without choking/fizzling out too quickly (unless you go for the germ choke toggle, where that is sorta the point).

I wouldn't so much think of it as an upgrade, but an addition to the arsenal.
As mentioned before they're pretty different.

Awesome! Appreciate everyone’s feedback. Please keep them coming!

bloom is waaaay more versatile

The ABloom and AFlash seem more versatile to me. I have no first hand with the AFlash, but the Bloom definitely.

I don't think either of them could be fairly compared to a Big Muff as far as being in the same category of fuzz. I've played both (I own two Algal Blooms, and have "sampled" the Arc Flash), and they're pretty different from the Big Muff... probably mostly because of the Muff's tone control. The Big Muff has more cream to it than the AB or AF, but can't do more than like 3 notes at a time and sound good. But that's not really the point of the Muff. The AB and AF can both be super fuzzy, or super focused, and then you can play full chords on them as well. The AB can get as thick as the Big Muff, but the Big Muff has more sustain to it, depending on your volume. My favourite thing about the AB is that it has a very thick, deep growl to it when you play some power chords, and then, without changing A THING, you can play open chords as well. It's just that good at adapting to what you're doing. The Muff is cool, but it can't do that.

That being said, I just ordered a Large Beaver Triangle Big Muff... because I want a Muff. The Algal Bloom and Arc Flash do their own thing.

THAT being said, you CANNOT go wrong with an Algal Bloom, and if the AB didn't exist, I'd be using an Arc Flash.

C

Fuzzy Picklez wrote:I wouldn't so much think of it as an upgrade, but an addition to the arsenal.
As mentioned before they're pretty different.

This. The big Muff works well with the Algal Bloom.