scooped

Scooped describes a tone in which a frequency range, most often the midrange, is reduced or removed. The term is used in sound descriptions of distortion and fuzz pedals, where a scooped midrange is a noted characteristic of units like the Big Muff Pi¹. In the Big Muff, the scooped mids result from a notch caused by the pivot point of its tone control². Scooping can also affect bass, as in the Ibanez Tube Screamer, which has a sizeable chunk of bass scooped out alongside an upper midrange bump³. Sources describe scooped sounds as appearing in fuzzes suited to bass or downtuned guitar⁴, and players can dial down a pedal's Mid control to achieve a scooped metal sound⁵.