[MUSIC PLAYING]
Is the EHX Bass Big Muff
the best bass distortion
pedal on the market?
In this video, I'm going
to run through three
things you need to know about
this pedal before you buy one.
How's it going, guys?
Hugh Richardson from
OnlineBassGuitar.com here.
On my channel I run through
gear reviews, I do bass lessons,
and a load of other things I've
learned from my 10-plus years
as a professional bass player.
So if this is your first time
here, if you're new to me,
I'd love to have
you as a subscriber.
And in this video,
I'm going to help
you decide if the
Electro-Harmonix Bass Big
Muff is the best bass
distortion pedal you can buy.
And if you watch to
the end of this video,
I've got an actual
product demo of me
using this which you can
hear, so you can really
hear how it sounds in
context when you're
playing through some music.
The first thing you need
to know about this pedal,
which I think is really
great, is the price.
So at the moment on Amazon,
this goes for $89 US
which, when you look at a lot
of the other leading pedals,
so things like the MXR
Distortion, I think, is $139,
the Aftershock is $149.
This is much cheaper.
And as I show you now, for that,
you get a huge range of sounds
to play with, all through a
relatively simple interface
on the front.
So let's run through
these settings, then.
You can see here, at the moment
I've got the pedal turned off.
So we've got true bypass here,
and that's the first big plus.
But [PLAYS NOTE]
as I play a note--
turn this on-- you can hear the
sound that it's taking here.
And if I turn the
volume dial up,
you can hear what that's doing.
So the volume, fairly
self-explanatory,
just turns the
effect up or down.
Next to it we've
got the tone, which
is going to affect the kind
of brightness, if you like,
of the distortion.
So if I turn this
all the way off,
you can see here, [PLAYS NOTE]
that sounds quite sort of dull.
But as I turn this
up, it becomes
more sort of crisp and toppy.
[STRUMS BASS] And
its got a bit more
of a sort of a high
end buzz to it.
Then next to it, if I dial
this back a little bit,
we got the sustain.
So as I turn this down, we
lose the distorted effect.
And as I turn it
up, this affects
the presence of the distortion.
So these two dials alone give
us a massive spectrum of sound
to play with.
If I want something that is
super heavy, really distorted,
I can turn these quite far up.
[PLAYS NOTE] And I
get a really sort
of huge, crunchy,
powerful distortion sound.
So this is great for
really big, heavy riffs.
[BASS RIFF]
Really similar to the sound
that Chris Wolstenholme--
I think that's how
you pronounce it--
from Muse used on Hysteria.
But if you want to dial
these back a little bit,
you can actually get a much
more subtle kind of distortion
out of this, which
you could almost
describe as a just slightly
overdriven crunchy sound.
So I've got these
two sustain and tone
turned quite a long way
back to the left now.
[PLAYS NOTE] And you can hear,
there's a bit of distortion
there, but it's not really
completely destroying
the sound.
So if you want something that's
just a little bit distressed,
a little bit gainy and edgy--
[BASS RIFF]
You've got that in your
locker and, of course,
everything in between as well.
Now at any point, if you want
to check out further tech specs
or customer reviews
of this, I've
left an Amazon link in the
description of this video.
So you can head down
there, click that,
check out what other customers
who have bought this think.
But I'm going to move onto the
second important thing you need
to know about this pedal,
which is it doesn't completely
destroy your bass signal.
A huge problem with bass
distortions for ages
is that, as soon as you
turn the distortion on,
you actually lose a lot
of the low end, which,
of course, for bass
players is a huge problem.
So Electro-Harmonix has done
a great job, first of all,
of actually keeping this
distorted and bass-y.
But if you want to manipulate
your low end a little bit more,
you can use this switch
in the middle here.
So this gives you
some great options.
You've got three settings.
You got norm, which is in
the middle, bass boost, which
is at the top, and then dry,
which is down at the bottom.
The norm setting in the
middle will give you just
the distortion that's coming
from the pedal, so completely
as is.
[PLAYS NOTE]
The bass boost setting is
pretty self-explanatory.
It's just going to
add some low end.
[PLAYS NOTE] So you can hear
there, that's on bass boost.
You've got a bit more low end.
If I set it back to
normal, [PLAYS NOTE]
it's a bit thinner, doesn't
quite have the weight.
Bass boost again.
[PLAYS NOTE]
So I've used this
quite a lot of time
on gigs, certainly
on recordings.
I've been using this in the
studio for the last eight, nine
or ten days.
Often found that I
didn't quite have
the presence or the
low end I wanted,
so I just slipped
the bass boost on,
and everything worked out great.
But one potential problem you
get from doing that is you
actually lose the
sound of your bass.
So if you really like
the tone of your bass,
you can look at using this
third setting, which is dry.
What this does is
it actually blends
in a bit of the actual
sound of your own bass.
So you're going to get a better
tone coming from the bass,
a bit of the actual clean sound,
blended in with the distortion.
So it's what you could
think about almost
as being as a signal blend, so
a blend of the distorted signal
and of your own bass.
For me, this is my favorite
setting [PLAYS NOTE]
because I think this is just
much fatter, much rounder.
It's got much more presence.
You don't lose the
distortion but you also
don't lose the bass.
So, [BASS RIFF]
So you can really
play with this and get
a massive range of sound.
If you just want a
little bit of crunch,
a little bit of overdrive, or
a completely distorted-to-hell
kind of tone, they're
all there, all
in this very, very small box.
And you've actually got a
couple more options for tone
along the side.
So you got an effect out and
you've also got a dry out.
So last week, when
I was recording
with this in the studio, I
sent a dry out and an effect
out to the engineer so they
can play with both signals
and really balance
them as they wanted.
Or, of course, you
could send both out
to the sound
engineer on your gig.
Incredibly diverse
pedal for $89.
The third thing I need to
tell you about this pedal
has some good and some bad, so
this is a bit of a mixed point.
You can see at the
moment, I'm running
this just off a battery
that's inside, so it can
power completely off a battery.
Or if you don't want
to use battery power,
there's a socket on the back
for a 9-volt power supply.
So that's the good side of this.
But if you are looking
to use a battery,
actually getting the back casing
off to get a battery inside
is a bit of a faff.
It's a bit of a hassle.
You've got four
screws that you've
got to undo, take the thing
off, replace the battery,
put it in, screw
them all back on.
So it's not as accessible
as the back of something
like a TC Electronic
PolyTune pedal.
But in a weird way, I also
see this lack of convenience
as a bit of a plus.
First of all, it means that
the back is nice and sturdy.
It's metal.
It's not some cheap plastic, so
it's not going to fall apart.
I mean, you can see this is
metal all the way around.
It's incredibly durable, and
it's very well protected.
So this isn't the
kind of pedal that's
just going to fall apart
after three or four gigs.
And if you think
about it, you're
probably not going to leave
this on for absolutely
every single song of the gig
and drain one battery per gig
or anything like that.
A battery is going to last
you quite a long time.
You probably won't even have
to change it that often.
But if you are worried about
spending loads of money
on batteries, I would
just get a power supplier.
They're pretty cheap.
I've left a link to
one in the description,
so you can get a
good one down there.
So when you look at the
price, the amount of sounds
you can get from this pedal,
its durability, the fact
that it's pretty small
and quite portable,
I think this is the best bass
distortion pedal you can buy.
So do you agree or do you
think I've got it wrong?
Leave me a comment
and let me know.
But the very last thing you
need to hear from this pedal
is actually hear this
in a band setting.
So check out my
product demo of this
up here, so you can actually
hear how this sounds
in a band setting
because that's where
you're going to be using this.
Thanks for checking
out this video.
If you found it useful,
make sure to like, comment,
and subscribe.
Of course, if you
want to check out
further customer
reviews of this,
check out the links
in the description.
And I will see you over in the
product demo video of this.
Thank care, guys.
