Combining Pedals + A Few Mods: Big Muff Pi and Double Muff

A forum devoted to mod, tips and suggestions for upgrading and rehousing your VERY CHEAP commercial stompbox to near boutique excellence.
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noisepunk
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Post by noisepunk »

Hey, first post (I think), hopefully this is the correct section.

Anyways, I've finally settled on a base distortion sound I'm happy with in a used Double Muff I recently purchased, and now I'd like to stick it into the same box as my favorite fuzz, one of two big muff pi's (I have a NYC and Russian reissue that I both love, so it's just a matter of deciding which one I love more, and if the added steps of making the russian wall powered are possible or worth it).

I've settled on a hammond sloped steel enclosure, similar to those used for the harmonic percolator, but wider- it's a little pricey, but the right size, and it keeps the look for the most part.

I'm wanting to keep the basic controls of each effect, with a few exceptions, those being: switching out the two way (single/double) switch on the double muff with a depression switch, making it's bypass switch a bypass for the entire pedal (both double muff and pi) whereas the PIs switch will still only bypass it, and lastly adding a on/off bypass switch for the double muff for the chance scenario in which I'd like to use the big muff alone, and an on off power switch for the entire pedal for when using battery power. I would also love to add a volume control for the double muff, but that's not 100% necessary.

So that's my plan. I know how to solder, I've done wiring jobs on countless guitars, and I've done a little bit of pedal work using photographs/drawings for reference, but that's where my experience with this ends- beyond replacing the on/off switch on the double muff with a depression switch, and vis-versa for it's bypass switch, I have very little idea how to carry out any of my other ideas.

Any help will be appreciated. It's also a little early in the project considering I don't even have the enclosure yet, but I'd also love suggestions for doing the artwork- I know most of the methods people use, I'm just not sure which will be best for this particular project- the graphics will be similar to those on each original pedal.

Thanks!

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Nocentelli
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Post by Nocentelli »

You might find that four footswitches will take up a lot of space on a pedal and will require a very large enclosure if they're going to be spaced far enough apart to use individually. I'd suggest three: Big Muff bypass, Double Muff bypass, and Double Muff/Single Muff switch - A master bypass seems like overkill.

First decide what order you want the circuits (you can add an order switch or "juggler" with a 4PDT toggle switch, but that's going to seriously complicate the wiring and may not b e worth the effort), then sketch out a rough wiring diagram. E.g. Let's imagine you want the Pi first, your sketch would go: Input jack -> BMP bypass (standard 3PDT bypass footswitch wiring) -> Double muff bypass (again a 3PDT bypass FS) -> Double/single Muff (3PDT FS, but with a different wiring scheme).

If you've got a Double Muff, please take some decent close-up pictures of the internals (no bother if you're rehousing it anyway) and add them to the thread here:

https://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3066
modman wrote: Let's hope it's not a hit, because soldering up the same pedal everyday, is a sad life. It's that same ole devilish double bind again...

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Post by Nocentelli »

OK, a couple more things: Adding wallwart power to the Russian big muff is not a major problem, if you're rehousing in a screwed enclsoure, you're probably better off relying on DC adaptor power anyway. Both circuits will run off the same DC input jack, just hook two red wires from the DC input jack and run one to the double muff, and one to the red power wire that was formerly the red battery wire to the Russian Big Muff board.

And having looked at the Double Muff schem, I'm not sure there is any benefit in adding a volume control to the double muff: The double muff is two Muff Fuzzes in series - the first muff circuit output goes to the slider switch, then either a) direct to a volume control, or b) through another volume pot (which controls the output of the first muff, and acts like a gain control in this switch position) then through the second muff fuzz circuit and on to that first volume which now acts as a master volume. So you've already got a master volume control in either single or double muff mode

I'd suggest reading up thoroughly on footswitch wiring, the Double Muff circuit (particularly how that slider switch is wired), DC input jack wiring, and general stompbox wiring diagrams. You'd be well advised to measure the dimensions of both boards, get the dimensions of the new box you plan to buy, and maybe make a cardboard mock enclosure so you can play about with how you're going to fit the boards, pots, jacks and footswitches into the enclosure.

One last thing, if the double muff has board-mounted in/out jacks, that's going to add another layer of fun to this enterprise since you'll have to de-solder then re-wire these connections. EHX boards are renowned for the traces lifting off with the slightest amount of heat, so go easy.

With careful planning and lots of reading, this could be a great starter project. Good luck.
modman wrote: Let's hope it's not a hit, because soldering up the same pedal everyday, is a sad life. It's that same ole devilish double bind again...

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noisepunk
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Post by noisepunk »

Thank you both for the input, I appreciate it- the cardboard box idea seems like a no brainer, and I would've never thought of it on my own.
Nocentelli wrote:You might find that four footswitches will take up a lot of space on a pedal and will require a very large enclosure if they're going to be spaced far enough apart to use individually. I'd suggest three: Big Muff bypass, Double Muff bypass, and Double Muff/Single Muff switch - A master bypass seems like overkill.
Three is what I'm planning on using, one that turns engages the entire pedal, one that engages or disengages the big muff, and one that switches between double or single mode on the double muff- there will be an on/off switch for just the double muff as well, but since I don't see myself using the big muff alone live a whole lot, this will just be a two way toggle. So essentially, the double muff will always be on (unless the toggle is flipped) in some capacity.

I'll definitely post innards if I get a chance to use a decent camera any time soon.

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Post by noisepunk »

Okay, so I'm not actually trying to get ridiculous, but I just thought of another idea for this beast of a pedal: Russian big muffs are jack mounted and sits on the bottom of it's enclosure, while the other two are potentiometer mounted, so there's actually room to stick both big muff Pi's inside this enclosure. I would use a third toggle switch as footswitch-land has a nice population I'd rather not upset, and connect the wire leads to the NYC big muff pots- would this work?

I also decided that I'm going with the next size up in that regard- I made a real life mock up, and the 6in width isn't much bigger than a regular big muff enclosure, which could maybe do two DPDTs comfortably- three would definitely be pushing it- so, the new box is 7.5 inches wide.

I guess I'm going to start drawing up some rough wiring guides.

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Post by Nocentelli »

Wow, sounds like you're planning on creating a monster... I'm afraid you can't simply wire two BMPs to the same set of pots - you'd have to replace the pots with dual-ganged versions, which would mean you couldn't keep the standard ones that are currently board-mounted on the NYC.
modman wrote: Let's hope it's not a hit, because soldering up the same pedal everyday, is a sad life. It's that same ole devilish double bind again...

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Post by noisepunk »

Nocentelli wrote:Wow, sounds like you're planning on creating a monster... I'm afraid you can't simply wire two BMPs to the same set of pots - you'd have to replace the pots with dual-ganged versions, which would mean you couldn't keep the standard ones that are currently board-mounted on the NYC.
I thought of that just as a went to pedal- you can't really tell electricity where it can't go without making things complicated. But, that's okay, it'll be enough of a monster as is, and still fulfills the main reason for building the pedal- maybe someday when I'm feeling ambitious I'll add the other section.

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