I've seen several advertisements (and in the Musician's Friend description) for the Big Muff that say something like "used by Korn, Chemical Brothers, and Jimi Hendrix." Does anyone know of an instance (studio or live) where Jimi used the Big Muff? He is definitely known for the Roger Mayer and Tychobrahe fuzz sounds, and other than these ads, I've never heard anyone associate him with the Big Muff. Just wondering.
Alex
HI,
nope!
some Time ago i read some articles from an Interview with the people
around Hendrix and his Equipment.
The BigMuff-lie is only used for advertise from EH.
Thats, what they wrote about the interview with Roger.
And i belive the facts from Roger, because that creamy Pi Sound is only
on Jimi's early recordings, when the BigMuff was not born yet, isnt it?
bye Oliver (maybe someone knows better)
I have read many times that Hendrix used a Big Muff, but then again, i also read that he started using one around 1971/1972, but that would have been tricky, considering he died on 18th september 1970...Its the hole "Oi Pa, I saw elvis presley in da supermarket today!" thing all over again...
It wouldn't be the first time they've lied about endorsees. (Stop me if you've heard this one:) When their 16 second whatchamacallit doohicky came out, they advertised it as "Fripp in a box". Well, Fripp called them up asking for one and he was denied. I doubt he used one after that, if he ever did to begin with.
I never went much past the observation level on this one.
When Dude said: "I saw the MXR so n so box, in such n such a time"...I believed just that...that he did in fact SEE and MXR so 'n so box...no telling exactly what that could mean ckt wise...or even think that would be a clue you could trust in guessing what ckt was used on such 'n such date by so 'n so performer...within size limits...and guessing there are no more pots than one sees...ANY ckt could be in ANY box at ANY time...
Well maybe I'm going a little too far with this one so...for my interests Any ckt could be in just about any box at any time.
Hi
I thought you all may enjoy this article- I hope so, because it took me 2 hours to type it out from a magazine! :D
Its definately some food for thought.
Enjoy-Luke
" I met Hendrix in the 60s when he was Jimmy James" relates Electro Harmonix founder Mike Matherws. "I was a really good keyboard player then, and Jimi wanted to form a group with me- which didnt happen- but we became close friends and we hung out a lot. Later, when he made it big as jimi Hendrix, he would call me whenever he came to New York and invite me to his ercording sessions. I liked the way Jimi would record. Most bands would come into a studio all rehearesed, and then keep cutting the same thing over and over until they thought they did it the best they could. But Jimi would go in with Mitch Miktchell and Noel Redding and just start to jam. When they were warmed up a bit, they'd have the engineer start rolling the tape, and when they got hot, that performance would be the basic track. Then they would overdub a little bit and that was it- a hot, raw, and soulful track.
"Around 1967, fuzz tones were real hot- andoas I was an engineer- I figured I would make some fuzz tones, sell a bunch of them, and have enough dough to be free to try and make it big as a musician. As I got more involved in this, everyone wanted to sound like Jimi Hendrix. Well, I hooked up with Bob Myer- Bell Laboratories leading inventor- and he went about designing this 'distortion free' sustainer that would emulate Jimi's singing sustain. One of the nights I went out to try the unit, I noticed he had a little box plugged in front of the prototype. I asked "Why do you need this extra box?' He answered that he needed to drive the unit with a little more gain, so he put a one transistor preamp box in front of it.
"Well, when I tried this little box, I found it made an amazing difference to the sound all by itself. You see, in those days, there was no such thing as overdrive in an amp. You could turn every amp up to 10, and it would still be clean. But with this little box, it would be like being able to turn the amp up to 100- and, wow! THis became the very first overdrive in the world, and I called it the LPB-1 -short for 'Linear Power Booster Model 1'- and came up with the company named Electro Harmonix in 1968.
"About a year later, I asked Bob to make me a unique didtortion box, and he delivered what became the Big MUff. I spent weeks tweaking the unit, changing the value of a capacitor here, a resister there until I got down to the smooth-sounding, sweet-sustaing Big Muff tone. And this was really the pedal that let guitarists sound like Jimi Hendrix.
"Now I know that Jimi statrted out using the Fuzz Face, but one day Manny's Music in New York City told me they sold one of my Big Muffs to him. Well, Jimi invited me to one of his recording sessions, and I was real proud, because on the floor plugged into his ax was the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff. Jimi rocked on that session"
Hi,although i am having very serious doubts about JH using a Big Muff i don`t think it matters too much.
I knew Mike Mathews as a very friendly and open guy and what the heck:the Big Muff made me think i sounded like Hendrix back in `78 with my Maya Les Paul and an unknown amp.
I guess it probably is much the same story as Seymour Duncan and his statements about Robbie Robbertson.
EH needed some catchy phrases to sell their equipment and without those phrases ,which were maybe half truths, many of us would probably never have tried them out.
As i said i knew Mr.Mathews as a very friendly and kind person;way back when i was way more ignorant i used to write letters to EH about stuff i had thought up and whith,i thought,would revolutionize the music industry and i always got a personal letter back with his thoughts about it.
Mind you,i was 17 then:)
Anyway advertisements are mostly half true e.g. Slightly damaged,slightly used.In mint condition.You will be a happy driver if you drive this brand,a tough guy when you smoke these cigarettes etc.etc.
So why bother :D
Greetings,Ed
Hi
Big-Muff is a fuzz,only a fuzz like did exist many fuzz based on the near same schematic at this time ,maybe JH played with a proto,why not?
Bruno
Quote from: RoryIt wouldn't be the first time they've lied about endorsees. (Stop me if you've heard this one:) When their 16 second whatchamacallit doohicky came out, they advertised it as "Fripp in a box". Well, Fripp called them up asking for one and he was denied. I doubt he used one after that, if he ever did to begin with.
Actually, I was around and reading music magazines back in the days when that box first came out. The "Fripp-in-a-box" phrase came from one of the people who reviewed it. I don't remember which magazine; it might have been
Guitar Player, but I remember reading the review and lusting after one so much.
Later, of COURSE Mike used that quote in advertising (and I remember seeing the little black and white E-H ads in GP, too). I also remember reading an interview with Fripp that said he had replaced his tape loop device with an Electro-Harmonix 16 Second Digital Delay. And he laughingly referred to the "Fripp-in-a-box" expression.
I have good reason to believe Mike when he says he saw Jimi using a Big Muff on a recording session. From what I've read, Jimi Hendrix was a gear nut and used anything and everything that he thought sounded good.
I was just down in my basement digging through old boxes of stuff and I think I might even HAVE one or both of those magazines. What a packrat!