You're going to have you.
From a decades-old sketch by Bob Myers, Electro-Harmonix has brought forward a reimagined fuzz circuit — not as nostalgia, but as genuine invention. The Big Muff Pi 2 with Tone Wicker extends an already unconventional Op-Amp design with high-frequency filters and a tone bypass, offering guitarists a palette unclouded by the long shadow of the original's legacy. It is, in a quiet way, an invitation to sound like yourself.
- A forgotten schematic from Bob Myers' workshop has become one of the more genuinely novel fuzz pedals in years — not a reissue, but a rethinking from the circuit up.
- The Op-Amp design bites harder and sits differently in the midrange than the transistor original, creating real tension for players who expect the Big Muff's familiar violin-like warmth.
- The Tone Wicker adds two layers of high-frequency filtering, letting players sculpt treble response without simply cranking the Tone knob — a subtle but meaningful expansion of control.
- A tone bypass switch strips the signal down to raw, unfiltered fuzz, functioning less like a feature and more like a philosophical reset button mid-performance.
- The soft-touch footswitch's momentary mode lets players dip in and out of fuzz in real time, turning the pedal into something closer to an expressive gesture than a static setting.
- Because this circuit carries no iconic recording history, it lands without expectation — the player's own voice has room to emerge first.
Bob Myers sketched an alternate Big Muff circuit on a loose sheet of paper — Op-Amps instead of transistors, a different clipping arrangement, an extra gain stage. The schematic waited in his workshop until Scott brought it to Electro-Harmonix, and together they turned theory into something you could actually step on. What they built wasn't just a variation. It was sharper, more aggressive, with more presence in the lower midrange — still unmistakably a Big Muff, but with different teeth.
When the Big Muff Pi 2 arrived, it drew real attention. But Electro-Harmonix kept going. The result is the Big Muff Pi 2 with Tone Wicker — the same celebrated circuit pushed further. The controls are familiar: Volume, Tone, Sustain. The tones range from a mean, edgy bite to a full Doom Metal roar. But two additions change the experience meaningfully.
The first is a Tone bypass switch that removes the tone knob from the circuit entirely, sending the signal out unfiltered and full-range — useful both as a raw sonic option and as a reference point when dialing in EQ, the way you might toggle off a filter while editing a photograph.
The second is the Tone Wicker itself: a set of high-frequency filters that introduce two additional levels of high-end response. Most noticeable at lower Tone settings, it lets players bring in treble detail without pushing the Tone knob to its limit — useful for darker pickups, or for carving out space in a dense mix. The effect has a dry, desert-rock quality; if it were a flavor, it would be salted caramel.
A soft-touch footswitch rounds out the design, operating in both latching and momentary modes — the latter letting players engage the fuzz only while pressing down, useful for punctuating phrases or previewing a solo mid-verse.
What the pedal offers beyond its circuitry is freedom from expectation. This design carries no decades of iconic recordings, no famous names attached to its sound. When you step on it, the only voice in your head is your own.
Bob Myers had sketched something on a loose sheet of paper decades ago—an alternate circuit for the Big Muff, that legendary fuzz pedal, reimagined with Op-Amps instead of the transistors that had defined the original design. The schematic sat in his workshop until Scott brought it to Electro-Harmonix, and the two began the work of turning theory into a pedal you could actually step on. When Scott finally built it, something became clear: this wasn't just another variation on a classic. The circuit was genuinely different. It had a different clipping arrangement, an extra gain stage, and a handful of other elements that set it apart from the Op-Amp Big Muff that Michael Abrams had designed back in the late 1970s.
The original Big Muff is famous for its violin-like sustain, that singing quality that made it a favorite for soloists and texture players. But the Myers circuit did something else entirely. It was more aggressive, more biting, more edgy—still unmistakably a Big Muff, but with sharper teeth and noticeably more presence in the lower midrange. When EHX and Scott released the Big Muff Pi 2, it landed with considerable attention. But Electro-Harmonix is not a company that builds something and then moves on. They kept exploring, kept tinkering, and the result is the Big Muff Pi 2 with Tone Wicker, which takes that newly celebrated design and pushes it further.
On the surface, the pedal is familiar: Volume, Tone, and Sustain knobs, the controls you'd expect on any Big Muff. The tones themselves are aggressive and angry and biting, capable of everything from a mean edge on a slightly dirty tone to an absolutely monstrous Doom Metal roar. But this version wanted to offer more. The first addition is a Tone bypass switch that removes the tone knob from the circuit entirely, giving you nothing but unfiltered, uncensored, full-powered fuzz. It's like a blower switch on a guitar—a way to send the signal directly to the output, more immediate and full-range and unrefined. It's also useful for calibrating your ears as you dial in a tone, letting you toggle between EQ'd and non-EQ'd voicings the way you might turn off a filter when editing a photograph.
But the real innovation is the Tone Wicker itself. It's a selection of high-frequency filters acting on the circuit to give you two additional levels of high-end response. When Scott, Danger, and EHX started exploring the increased brightness and clarity of the Op-Amp design, they got inspired to see what else could be pulled from the circuit. The Tone Wicker is especially noticeable at lower Tone settings, where it lets you bring in different flavors of treble without cranking that Tone knob all the way up. It helps you extract more detail from darker-sounding pickups or give more cut to a clean-ish tone that might otherwise disappear in a mix. The results can give you a dry, desert-rock kind of fuzz—if it were a flavor, it would be salted caramel.
The pedal uses a soft-touch footswitch that can operate in both latching and momentary modes. Tap it once for latching mode (one tap on, one tap off), or press and hold to engage the effect only when you're pressing down. This is useful for emphasizing particular phrases, licks, or riffs with an additional burst of fuzz, or for previewing your big fuzzed-out guitar solo moment with a few well-placed phrases between lines during a verse.
There's something liberating about using a fuzz design that hasn't already been hammered into the ground by six decades of music history. There's no subconscious bias here, no expectation. It's a fresh flavor that doesn't carry the weight of all the iconic recordings it's been used on. You're not going to have David Gilmour or Billy Corgan or Robert Fripp or J. Mascis in your head when you step on this one. You're going to have you.
Notable Quotes
The tones are aggressive and angry and biting, capable of everything from a mean edge on a slightly dirty tone to an absolutely monstrous Doom Metal roar.— Electro-Harmonix product description
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
So this is based on a circuit that's been sitting in a notebook for fifty years. Why did it take so long to actually build?
It was just a sketch—a what-if that never got developed. Scott found it, brought it to EHX, and only when he actually built it did they realize how different it was from the Op-Amp versions that came later.
And the Tone Wicker is the new part. What's the actual problem it solves?
The original Big Muff has this smooth, singing quality. But this circuit is already more aggressive. The Tone Wicker lets you shape that aggression without losing detail—you can darken it without it disappearing into mud.
The bypass switch seems almost more radical. You're just removing the tone control entirely?
Exactly. It's like giving you the option to hear the raw fuzz, unfiltered. Some players want that purity. Others use it to compare—to hear what the EQ is actually doing to the sound.
Does it feel like a gimmick, or does it actually change how you'd use the pedal?
It changes how you'd use it. The momentary mode especially—you can add fuzz to just one phrase, one riff. It's not just on or off anymore. It's textural.