Four generations of Big Muffs (clockwise from top left): Little Big Muff Nano, Reissue Russian Big Muff Pi, Original Russian 'Tank Metal' Big Muff Pi, Original Little Big Muff Pi

Amongst guitarists and pedal fanatics the world over, there simply isn’t a more famous fuzz box than the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff. Introduced in the early 1970s, for several generations now these pedals have produced lush, booming, ever-sustaining guitar tone for everyone from David Gilmour to Santana, to the Smashing Pumpkins (who singly coined the undisputed sound of the Big Muff in the 90s), legendary grunge pioneers Mudhoney (who even named an album, Superfuzz Bigmuff, after it), Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, the list goes on. Bass players have also taken to the pedal’s grinding low end in droves – the late Cliff Burton of Metallica most notably, but also Chris Wolstenholme of Muse, whose Russian version is a renown part of his signature sound. Even more notorious are the early Russian models (see the big green box in the bottom right of the photo), which were rumoured to have casings moulded from recycled Russian tank metal.

Few pedals have evolved so much over such a long period of time, but the EHX Big Muff continues to be much loved and heralded by musicians everywhere.

Could this be the greatest (and ugliest) delay pedal ever?

I have to be honest. I’m not a delay guy. Guitarists can use them all over the place, but it’s a rare occassion when one will work so perfectly with a bass. Until earlier this afternoon, this (quite possibly the ugliest pedal ever created) wasn’t gonna come close to featuring on this blog. However, half-way through recording a slap part in Battle Circus’ Much Like Mescaline, producer Dave Holmes suggested we get a delay pedal in there. And not just any delay – one that can do pitch shifting, a metric shitload of delay types, BPM-matching, and every analog/digital recreation under the sun.

No doubt there are dozens of sites all over the web that can heap highly-technical praise upon this device (and if you’re looking for a reason to buy one, that’s probably where you should go next). All I can say is with my limited experience, this is one of those magic every-trick-in-one-box units. To get the same effect as the one I used today, I’d need a Boss OC-3 octaver through a Boss DD-3 delay, with a MIDI clock sync, and a sonic maximiser wacked on the end. Not to mention a dozen patch cables, and as many 9 volt batteries. Or you could just plug in one of these.

The Time Bender in action

The lightbulb moments in ones lifetime are pretty easy to pick out, and for bass players, the first time you try a SansAmp Bass Driver DI is one of these, it will be forever seared into your memory. Whether you’re playing through a 20 watt practice amp or a monstrous 8×10 valve-driven rig, this incredible feat of tone engineering transforms sludgey, woolly tone into a tight, precise, punchy and marvellously versatile sonic palette. It boasts a fully mic’d valve bass amp in a box, and is the Ginsu knife of stomp boxes – kick this thing in, crank the drive, and hear a serated shear of buzz-saw tone cut through your mix. Wind the blend, bass and treble knobs up and behold the tightest slap tone you could want.

Like all grand love affairs though, the feeling is sure to wane eventually. You can rely on this pedal way too much, and the temptation is always there to let it commandeer (providing you play a half-decent one) your amp’s distinctive tone entirely, replacing it with the token characteristics of this box. After going through a SansAmp BDDI, a SansAmp RBI rack unit and a SansAmp Programmable DI, I’ve eventually gone back to the trusty BDDI in the loop of a Boss LS-2, blending it with the natural tone of my signal.

One thing’s for sure, I can’t recommend this thing enough following a chain of distortion pedals. Take a Big Muff and whack one of these after it, and discover an incredibly tight ball of tone you’d expect to follow a rack of elite compressors and EQs. That’s your second lightbulb moment right there.

Let’s face it. There are boutique pedal makers the world over. And just cause it’s a hand-painted, custom-designed pedal doesn’t instantly mean it should be worth $400. But more often than not, if it bears the Z-Vex name, chances are it should be. These pedals simply sound one-of-a-kind. Most famous for their Fuzz Factory (think every guitar line Matt Bellamy has ever played), Z-Vex’s Woolly Mammoth is the only pedal in their collecton declared as a bass effect. While it doesn’t quite have the sonic breadth of a Big Muff, the Woolly Mammoth has a fat bottom end (which most bass distortions lose when they’re engaged), and a fantastic buzz-saw growl in the upper-frequencies. It’s perfect for cutting through a mix.

Although this pedal lacks both a power jack (apparently the current draw is so low you could leave it on for months and it won’t sound any different) and a power-on LED (according to Z-Vex, “you’ll know when it’s on!”), Z-Vex eventually came around and built both into the re-release, and I’d recommend grabbing one of those over the original. You’ll thank yourself for it when playing live.

Also the ‘Pinch’ knob adds a very cool low-fi gate effect which will gradually crumble your signal like a valve radio slowly fritzing out. Our friends Decortica used this to great effect on the last track of their album. Antoinette (their bass player) made me a pile of home-baked pies and cookies for the favour, and I’d just like to announce that similar arrangements are welcome for any of these pedals. But that better be a damn good pie.

Here’s another from the relatively slim assortment of NZ-made pedals. It’s still a bit of a mystery as to who actually mades this elusive analog phaser (a short-lived company called Holden seems to be the general consensus.. maybe someone can help me out here?), but is it the first thing I ever searched for (and found! and bought!) on TradeMe, and from which I developed a pretty serious pedal-buying addiction from ever since.

Throw it in the insert chain on a Fender Rhodes and it’s simply incredible. Sonicly, it’s pretty dirty, but if you ask me the hiss and grit just adds to the character. If you want clean, dry and clinical, go download a software plugin. With no jack for a power adapter and two internal 9V clips, this puppy sucks the juice, but makes every second it’s plugged in worth it.

Originally produced with a striking metallic-gold paint, the schmuch I bought this off had gone over the whole thing with dull red model airplane hobby paint. Dumbass. Unless you’re prepared to buff, scour or file a pedal down to its original metal casing (not always recommended, although I once saw a DOD FX-25 Envelope Filter that looked amazing completely sanded down), don’t go whacking on your own coat on paint. Unless you’re one of the guys that hand-paints the Z-Vex products, you will wind up with a lame looking pedal.

And with that, a perfect segue into the Z-Vex Woolley Mammoth…

Time for a slice of Kiwiana now. It might be all buzzy bees and fush ‘n chups to everyone else, but for fx pedal junkies, it’s all about Crowther Audio’s Hot Cake and Prunes & Custard pedals. It’s not easy to describe exactly what this thing sounds like, but ‘Harmonic Generator-Intermodular’ seems to sum it up nicely. The Datsuns liked that phrase so much they wrote it into the lyrics of a song. I prefer to keep this guy tucked away until the last second before the climax of a song, and unleash the flurry of harmonic overtones it can produce across a pretty impressive dynamic range.

Tags: crowther audio, pedal, prunes and custard

Speaking of squelchy funk, if you’re looking for the quintessential 70s space-funk bass tone, the EH Q-Tron is probably (besides the Mu-Tron III if you can still find one these days) the best in the business. The sheer tweakability of this pedal makes it incredibly vertsatile, and the Q-Tron+ has the added bonus of an internal effects loop, which lets you plug other pedals in between its filter stages. Stick a fuzz pedal in there to create your own Frankenstein funk sound.

Quite possibly the best and most renown synth bass pedal around, the Deep Impact instantly turns a bass guitar into an explosion of realistic synthesizer sounds. From buzzsaw leads, funk squelches, deep sub-bass booms, and wall-of-sound pads, this does ‘em all. I scored this one from a guitarist who had bought it having no idea what it was, couldn’t figure it out and sold it for a little over a hundred bucks. Rare as hens teeth, these days they fetch upward of US$800 on eBay.

We’re big on technology in this band.

Amps, synths, keyboards, samplers, computers, blenders, toasted sandwich makers, and most importantly, effects pedals. We’re big on pedals, and Dave Holmes, our producer, is a man who’s renowned for his formidable collection of pedals. We get on well.

So as we’re in the house, surrounded by dozens of pedals for the next few weeks, I thought it might be fun to show off some of the particularly special pedals that are being used on this album each day.

First up, the legendary Akai ‘Deep Impact’…