freestompboxes.org

Hi Gents,

I hope this is the correct sub-forum? As I am pretty new to this site. My name is Ebethron. 36 years young and living in Canada. Born and raised in Amsterdam and moved to Ontario in 2010 due to the wife. Enough about me!

Back to the reason why I am posting here is because a buddy of mine gave me a pedal that I have some questions about. He handed it to me to check out the foot stomp switch since it is not working properly. He said besides this it works fine. He might offer to sell it to me since it's been sitting in a closet for many, many years.

It's a EHX Big Muff (version???). First thing that I noticed was that this thing is for freaking big compared to other Muffs I have seen. It looks pretty beat up and is missing one knob but besides this it looks like it's in stock condition. It has Dave Ray written on the bottom with white paint.

Here are some images:



















Now here are the questions I have:

Is it worth fixing it up? If so what do I need to look out for?

There is all brown residue on the board (flux) as you can see below. Is this normal and should I leave this like that?



Is it true bypass? If not, Should I make it true bypass?

It does not have a 3DPT in it but (see image below, sorry for blurry image) but a regular on/on switch it seems.



Where do I source parts (knob and 3DPT switch) that are from that era?

I am hoping to buy it from my friend. What is a reasonable price to offer him?

If he does not want to sell it to me and it sounds so awesome. I'd like to clone it as accurate as possible. I was wondering if there are some interested in helping me out a bit with this by either making a PCB or figuring out a Vero layout?

I can take it more apart and provide more and better images of it on request.

Thanks a lot!

I am trying to edit my post here but there is no button or I can't find it.

I would like to make the images a bit smaller as the size right now makes it a bit of potato quality.

The serial for the pedal is EH1322 but because the image is all warbled up it's hard to read.

It's a version4 or version5 opamp big muff. These fetch 150-250$ recent years because it Billy Corgan recorded Siamese Dream with such muffs. It's not true bypass. which would be a worthwhile mod. Definitly worth fixing. I have 3 of them and these are indeed the Siamese Dream rythm sound.

Grtz,
Thijs
(Born Amsterdam, current Leiden;)

Thanks for your reply Thijs!

I took the board out yesterday and indeed there are OP-AMP two chips on it. I am going to order a few parts today so that I can make it playable again.

I did some more reading up on this pedal and reading this replay from you confirms it to me. Let me keep you posted on this!

Groetjes uit Canada

The op amp BMP is one of the best sounding fuzz pedals I've ever played. Repair it and sell it and build a clone with diode switching options. I find using a germanium+MOSFET in series on one side and no diode on the other gives a surprisingly sweet sounding overdrive at low gain settings, but this is one you can experiment with and mod for aaaages and continue to find cool new sounds. I prefer a TL072 to the 4558, but the 741 for the last gain stage HAS to be there, nothing else sounds as good. You can also add a mids control to change the scoop but all of the tone stack values are different from those in the normal transistor based BMPs, so you'll need to be able to read a schematic and do some experimenting to get that working properly.

Of course, I would strongly recommend not modifying such an easy to sell and relatively valuable pedal. It's an easy build if you can etch and I believe strip board layouts are available.

Oh I missed that you don't own it. Yeah in that case just clone it. Gaussmarkov.net has a PCB layout and the Eagle project files for download.

If you are going to repair it FOR SALE, then I recommend repairing it with the proper parts. If the stomp switch is bad, use the same kind/type. Otherwise, the cork sniffing crowd will call you out on it and ask for a refund!

Cloning the V5 should be a good option. Plus you can squeeze it in 1590B sized enclosure without an issue. I've drawn a stripboard layout for V5 at some point. It's up at tagboardeffects, i you feel up for building it on vero.

The original is a very nice sounding pedal, but you'll end up spending something like $30 for the parts if you build your own - that will sound very much like the original. This, of course, versus the ~200 you'd need to pay for late 70's original unit.

Thanks Miro,

I have seen your name float around on the TagboardFx. I talked to my friend last night and told me the story on how he got the pedal. It was in the early 80's when he was starting a band with some friends. They went over to some guy to pick some P.A. speakers and stands for free. The guy asked my friend what instrument he played. My friend told the guy that he played guitar so then the guy handed the pedal for FREE!

My friend is not selling it he said last night so I'll fix it up. I ordered a normal 3DPT switch and will wire it for TB. I also ordered the knobs.

I will see if I can take it apart this coming weekend so I can see the components and clone it.

First on my list and that's the pedal I want to build is the Pharaoh fuzz from the TagboardFX. I have all the parts but have not found any time to do so.

@ Miro: I have seen that you helped some guys like me at the TagboardFX troubleshoot the Pharaoh Fuzz. Just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate it when you guys take the time to help us out with these builds and sharing your knowledge!

Nah. Don't worry about it. We're all just learning more every day. It's good to have communities to share information to make learning a little less painful. So you're welcome. And you're welcome :)