Big Muff Pi
Episode Transcript
Many people have a band that they got into “before everyone else” did. But does it count if you first heard about them on MTV? Does being on a national, even international, platform like MTV disqualify them from being undiscovered? Probably. But in this case it was the so-called alternative rock show 120 Minutes, which was on relatively late at night in the 90s, so besides me, not that many people were watching. But those that were watching in the spring of 1991, like me, saw a really trippy video by a band called The Smashing Pumpkins.
That video was for a song called “Siva” from their first full-length album Gish. It was a gritty, noisy-in-a-good-way, and in my opinion, underappreciated record. Besides the “psychedelic bordering on creepy” imagery in the video, what really grabbed my attention was the distortion-heavy twin guitar attack. It checked a lot of boxes for me: the riffs and solos were interesting, there were dynamic shifts from loud to quiet and back again, and the distortion itself had a really great fuzz sound.
Fast forward to the summer of 1993, right after I had graduated from high school. The Pumpkins had moved on to a major label and put out their second album, a virtually flawless one called Siamese Dream. There was more polish to this album. The grit of Gish was left behind. Siamese Dream exploded. Everyone knew The Smashing Pumpkins then. Now everyone heard what I heard, that killer twin guitar attack, but still with that great fuzz distortion. That fuzz was courtesy of an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi effect pedal.
My name is Wright Seneres and this is Effect Pedal. This is a podcast and art project dedicated to guitar effect pedals. In the universe, there are countless numbers of these pedals, creating an infinite number of sounds, and opening up worlds of possibilities for guitar players.
In the early days of rock and roll, using cheap or damaged amplifiers and speakers with the volume cranked up created this noisy, distorted sound, with the peaks and valleys of the signal waves getting clipped off. Link Wray is famous for punching holes in his amplifier speakers with a pencil to get that sound. With an effect pedal, we can achieve that sound with electronics, and without resorting to damaged equipment. With a Big Muff, you can get that fuzz distortion sound without damaging your equipment.
The Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi guitar pedal that I own is from around 2008, known as the Re-Issue New York City version even though it’s not actually a reissued product. And not to be confused with actual reissues from 2019, the Op-Amp Reissue or the Nano Big Muff Pi. The Big Muff dates back to the late 60’s, when legend says Jimi Hendrix bought one of the first ones at the famous Manny’s Music Store in New York City. It was in the arsenals of a lot of your favorite guitarists from the 70’s and mine, like David Gilmour from Pink Floyd, Carlos Santana, and Ace Frehley from KISS. John Lennon too. And more than just the Smashing Pumpkins in the 90s and beyond, like Dinosaur Jr., the Black Keys, and the White Stripes. But my favorite Big Muff story is that Tony Peluso, the lead guitarist in the Carpenters, used a Big Muff for the absolutely fuzzed-out solos in “Goodbye to Love”. When you absolutely, positively need to fuzz out, don’t take it from me, take it from the Carpenters and use a Big Muff.
During the Smashing Pumpkins’ early days, the band’s two guitarists Billy Corgan and James Iha shared one Big Muff pedal. They’d switch between them who would use it night to night, from gig to gig. The formula for their sound then was relatively simple: guitar, Marshall amp, and heavy reliance on that Big Muff.
By the time I bought my own Big Muff, the pedal had gone through a few aesthetic and component changes, but the basic concept of it is the same: one knob for volume, one knob for tone, and one knob for sustain. The Big Muff’s sustain feature is what sets it apart from other fuzz and distortion boxes. The sustain of the pedal allows you to draw out the fuzz sound smoothly, while still retaining the edgy distortion. It’s a successful and effect-ive partnership.
I lent my Big Muff to my good friend Travis for a few years, and he sent it back to me recently when I started this project. It’s like we were Corgan and Iha, sharing one Big Muff. Most importantly, we were bandmates in The Meritocracy. I played guitar (well, obviously) and he played bass. I even used that Big Muff when we recorded our studio EP Lessons Learned in 2010. You can hear it in action on our songs “Chasing Cars” and “Lucky Day”, the latter of which I now use as the theme song to this podcast. The day that Travis, our dear, late friend and drummer Tony and I spent in the studio recording the EP is one of my favoritest days ever. It was the first and only time we as a band had actually recorded anything of note in a nice studio.
We didn’t make it onto MTV, not even on a late night alternative rock show that a few people watched, but playing in that band was one of the most fun things I’ve ever had the privilege to do. And that’s all that really matters.
For a t-shirt or an art print featuring the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi pedal, visit EffectPedalProject.com. For more about distortion, you can check out the premiere episode of this podcast, where I talk about the Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal. Want to hear more songs that have a Big Muff pedal in them? Check out the Spotify playlist, which you can get by searching for “effect pedal big muff” on Spotify, or in the show notes for this episode, or at the Big Muff episode page at the Effect Pedal website.
Effect Pedal is a MeteorWright production, hosted and produced by me, Wright Seneres. If you like what you heard here, subscribe to the podcast and consider getting the Effect Pedal email newsletter in your inbox. The newsletter has extra fun content for this episode, including links, videos, and other cool stuff related to Big Muff pedals curated by me. For even more fun content, Effect Pedal is on social media too at @EffectPedal. You can find links to all of that at EffectPedalProject.com. Theme music is “Lucky Day” by the Meritocracy. Special thanks to Alice Seneres, Travis Doyle and Tony Whalen.
Thank you for listening to Effect Pedal. What’s your effect?
Programming note: This podcast is now a Carpenters stan podcast. Next episode we’ll discuss their cover of “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft”: is it the best cover of all time or is it the greatest cover of all time?
Gear used in this episode
Fender Stratocaster (2009, made in Mexico), Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi (2008), into Marshall MG15 amplifier (2004).
