Electro-Harmonix Germanium 4 Big Muff Pi - In Depth demo

[somethingswrong721]

I just bought this pedal. Best £72.04 I have ever spent.

[ges335ch]

is it an analog pedal?

[OldPeoria]

he said wiener and muff. ha.

[GoHabs13]

hehe weiner....

[folkfiddleplayer]

What a great review. Really very informative. My thanks to you!

[kisay69]

hey, is this pedal good for playing heaavy metal or hard rock?

[userboy6]

$100 bucks at MF, sounds like a winner, thanks Dave!

[TheAcousticFrenzy]

hey mann great video, loved the sound of this pedal and literally just bought one, but could you tell me if it comes with a power supply, if not then could you tell me where to get one cos im not sure if this would run off normal 9v DC? thanks again mate! :)

[DAVEWEINER]

@TheAcousticFrenzy - I'm not sure, check your local retailer.

[ZubZoy]

Thank you for such a wonderful review!

[ZubZoy]

Thank you for such a wonderful review!

[slashnpraise]

hey dave, i just got this pedal the other day. your video is what helped me decide to get it. it's true what you said about the knobs being "musical" they are VERY sensitive, just like the knobs on my jekyll and hyde. thank you for this outstading 12min video. it's great to be able to hear all the settings of a pedal that i can't try out before i buy. see, this pedal isn't avialible at any of the stores out here. so my qeustion is dave what OD/Dist pedals do you personally like to use?

[DAVEWEINER]

@slashnpraise - My pleasure man.  My go-to OD pedals (i don't use distortion pedals) are the Keeley TS-808 and/or the Maxon VOP-9.

[strabbs1]

@DAVEWEINER sorry dave, slightly unrelated to this pedal, but your obviously a guy in the know, can you recommedn and pedals, electro harmonix or otherwise that can help me achieve a nice clean jazz tone? i realise thats an open ended question but if you can help in any way id aprreciate itm the guys in the local store are getting sick off me trying stuff out and leaving without a purchase lol

[whaaaaateverful]

Fair enough. There's always the fact that it's shitty youtube audio as well. For the record, I'm happy using my boss OS-2 for overdrive. I love being able to dial in a little distortion with the slight twist of a knob. Sounds good to me. I also have a regular Big Muff Pi, which as everyone says, is awesome at doing 1 or 2 things and nothing else.

[minedarea]

@whaaaaateverful There's loads of digital clipping on this demo, the pedal sounds fantastic in real life, though.

[whaaaaateverful]

@minedarea Ha! you're right. clipping everywhere. Glad it sounds good.

[whaaaaateverful]

I really want to like this. But to my ears the overdrive isn't as good as a digitech cm-2 or even a bad monkey....

[ArkeeTKM]

@whaaaaateverful its not that sort of overdrive i guess, i have this and a tubescreamer and use them for different stuff, its more vintage and less smooth so i can see why youd say that. i use the OD side for vintage stuff and the tubscreamer for more modern sounds:P

[rhoads2176]

hey dave i got this pedal just about a week ago and i am very pleased with its superior versatility and its sound in combination with my MI Audio Crunch Box.. However... Can you help me out I have been getting serious hiss from this pedal and I was wondering if you have that as well when settings are nearly cranked??? If you don't maybe mine is defected or something but i was planning on buying a compressor and now im looking at a noise gate because this hiss... thanks man ROCK AND ROLL

[DAVEWEINER]

@rhoads2176 - when you crank anything with gain, you're going to get hiss.

[rhoads2176]

@DAVEWEINER thanks dave, yea i figured it was all ok i just didn't hear the hiss in ur video im guessing u have a gate possibly?

[DAVEWEINER]

@rhoads2176 - no gate, just not using much gain on the amp. Gain stacking is what will create a lot of hiss.

[Sebast911]

@rhoads2176 hey i have an question... can you get the classis big muff usa sound with this pedal??? plase answer

[rhoads2176]

@Sebast911 of course you can only this pedal is instead based off the big muff pi more so than the standard big muff.. either way i say get it i have been able to get nearly every tone out there with this pedal .. in combination with my MI Audio Crunch Box and Xotic EP Booster the overdrive and distortion side both give both pedals unique tones that i've been lookin for.

[bidaobidao]

it sounds good, it's a pity that it is ugly as hell

[Pelleman666]

@bidaobidao what? it's awesome-looking!?:O

[theotherwtemeat]

just got it, its a great pedal but a lot louder then this makes it sound.

[ninjaassassin27]

i have a vox tonelab le, it's the shit.

[buckethead777]

@xGrinder07x I used to have a Big Muff ages ago and loved it. I dunno if it's youtube's compression that makes this pedal sound bad to me. I guess with a little reverb and a touch of delay, it would sing.

[deathrib]

Nice that someone is once again experimenting with Ge trannies, and EH makes some great stuff. This pedal seems to me to be a slightly over-glorified fuzz, and if I'm going to covet any fuzz pedal, I'd love to have a Baldwin-Burns Buzzaround. Seems you can get a lot of the same sounds as this pedal.

[rexasul]

Dave Weiner's Big Muff?

[veers0r]

That sound makes me fear for my tweeters...

[DAVEWEINER]

@buckethead777 - there are very few amps that can achieve this sound.

[matabaldia]

@DAVEWEINER Sorry, but I agree, its not about how many amps can do that kind of sound, its about that kind of sound, its like a cheap pedal, sounds like shit.

[spivaman]

much respect to you dave ... but I couldnt help laughing my ass off that Dave Weiner was going to demo the Big Muff Pi ... once you get past my immaturity, awesome demo, haha

[Savatage420]

wow dave is amazing... i could listen to him just messing around like this allday

[Savatage420]

wow dave is amazing... i could listen to him just messing around like this allday

[senorchristoph]

@SchelluS You're not alone my friend, Muffs and fuzzes really don't do much for me, they sound like the speaker just crapped out on your amp. Other than that Dave sounds great!

[SchelluS]

@senorchristoph yeah, totally (about daves playing and fuzz). i acatually have a fuzz, its the axis fuzz, i bought it because i didnt know how a fuzz sounded back there ^^. anyway, its nice to hear that people share the same opinions as me. =].

[NordicSynth]

... Not my thing, Dave. I'm betting that you can find something useful to sit in a mix, but only Gilmour was able to make the Big Muff into something truly musical. Strangely though, he used germanium in his old Fuzz Faces, but I think his Muffs were silicon by the mid 70s. Oh well, that is a debate for the tone "cork" sniffers to sort out.

[U2006gmx]

Usually Smooooooooth playin :D so funny

thanks for a solid review hopefully there are more to come ;)

[ibanezman007]

Does anyone else notice the EH logo next to the LEDs?

[thejohnofsteel]

2:53 was a ROTW. I use that lick a lot

[rockdfunk]

@thejohnofsteel which one was that? there are so many!

[HippiesPwn]

@thejohnofsteel ? 2:53 is him hitting open strings and talking

[thejohnofsteel]

@HippiesPwn not really

[andy92811]

This thing has been demo'ed so many times.

[loboDX182]

lol "big muff"

[futuretroriginal]

great review, bad clipping. cool pedal.

[TheSAJ11]

The jemini does not even come close to this pedal , not to mention you can't combine both channels on the Jemini which is stupid as far as i am concerned . anytime you have a pedal with 2 channels for any kind of effect that you can't combine is really useless .

[young0wylde0child]

@TheSAJ11 its useless to combine the 2 anyway..... the jemini is meant for 2 specific things. the left chanel is essentially a boost and the right is a distortion. if your were to combine the 2 it wouldnt sound good and you would lose all of your tone. its not just the jemini, any pedal thats like that would sound like ass . its almost in a sense like putting a delay and a reverb direct into your amp and not through the effects loop. think before u speak btw this pedal sounds like ass

[young0wylde0child]

@TheSAJ11 also the jemini far exceeds this pedal in all ways. the quality of the effects and the versatility of it shits on this hunk of junk. im normally an open minded person but i can tell you this pedal that is being tested is utter trash and sounds like trash. i hate to burst your bubble but satch and vai have the best tone in the world for a reason and co-design the most elite pedals for a reason

[rexasul]

@young0wylde0child Scott Henderson has the best tone ever. It's in the fingers.

[young0wylde0child]

@rexasul i agree with you there he has one of the best tones out there, and yes your right it is mostly in the fingers but i mean if you put scot henderson through a cheap 20$ raven amp with some lame ass effects processor/pedal its going to sound like shit no matter the player. the objective of my arguement was defending the jemini's tone quality

[TheSAJ11]

@young0wylde0child Hey man you are it , you know it all , now go play with your jemini pedals meanwhile i will play with my Pete cornish pedals .

[CyValkarion]

@young0wylde0child Michael Lee Firkins and Jason Becker have the best tone ever IMO. But I still love this pedal because when you run this thing through an AC15C1 or an AC30, DAMN! It's got that awesome , crunchy OD sound reminiscent of early Deep Purple. The price is right, too. I don't know about anyone else, but I love this pedal. The Volt control is also my favourite thing on there. EHX should really consider putting those on all their Big Muffs. lol

[seite13]

It sounds horrible.

This is expensive crap.

[Pmichteinz]

What were you using to record this? it sounds like a little bit of clipping might have been happening... not sure though

[greatsouthernpansy]

Love that broken speaker sound. I think it's just the kind of effect I need to do some low tuning rambling ;)

[col33145]

Awesome pedal nice demo Dave thanks Xd ;-))

[ManosRK]

That thing is TOTALLY awesome! (as all EHX stuff) the ultimate gift!! i wish i had the money :(

[ForbiddenHaze]

You almost sound like Sir Pete Townshend when playing on that pedal, at some parts.

Did electro-harmonix get the idea from Steve Vai's "Gemini" pedal?

[roryrockssocks]

@ForbiddenHaze

The Jemini is just two distortion pedals (which are exactly the same I believe) in one pedal, this is an overdrive and a distortion in one pedal, a bit different!

[EchelonIV]

@roryrockssocks sorta like jekyll & hyde? sounds a little bit more sophisticated tho. no wonder. EH kicks ass!

[Pmichteinz]

@roryrockssocks The jemini as, vai explains it, is basically his favorite Overdrive and Distortion combined. Basically the Ibanez tubescreamer on one side and a distortion on the other. But it is technically a overdrive on one side. Very distorted though.

[young0wylde0child]

@roryrockssocks the jemini is labeled as to distortions but if yout toy with it youl find the differences. watch steves demo video for it or go try one yourself if you mess around with the left and right side youl see there 2 completely different sounds(left being more of a boost overdrive done whereas the right is more like vais old Boss Ds1)

[roryrockssocks]

@young0wylde0child

I've never actually tried the Jemini, so unfortunately I've only gone from what I've heard others say. I knew it was to replace his TS9/DS1 combo, but I didn' tknow any specifics, guess I was wrong!

[withoutajem]

@roryrockssocks Jemini is great left side has a very smooth, natural distortion and the right side is great for lead shred and metal

[freesalute]

love the overdrive, not so sure about the distortion though

[MarreFrusciante]

Great vid. Love this pedal, this beast for christmas would be nice..

Nicely done Dave!