Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi with Tone Wicker

The Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi with Tone Wicker is an analog fuzz / distortion / sustainer pedal from Electro-Harmonix, built on the standard Big Muff Pi circuit but with two toggle switches that change its voicing at a flick¹. One, the Wicker switch, opens up the high frequency bandwidth for a brighter, raspier top end; the other removes the tone control from the circuit entirely, for a gain boost and a different midrange response¹².

Delicious Audio reports the pedal is now discontinued, with the Tone Wicker concept carried over into newer models such as the Big Muff Pi 2 with Tone Wicker³.

The Tone Wicker and tone bypass switches

The two toggles are what separate this pedal from a stock Big Muff, and each works on a different part of the circuit.

The Wicker switch. Electro-Harmonix says it activates Wicker mode, "where the high frequency bandwidth is opened up for a bright and clear top end"¹. The maker describes it as opening up 3 high frequency filters, "providing a sustain that is raspy and defined"¹. Kit Rae's circuit history explains the mechanism: the switch "bypasses the roll-off filter capacitors in the first three stages of the circuit, adding a top end boost to the sound"⁵. Delicious Audio characterizes the result as a "spitty, raspier sound"².

The Tone switch. This one either activates the Tone knob or completely bypasses the tone circuitry¹. With the tone stage out of the circuit, the knob has no effect, and the pedal gains output level and a changed midrange response⁵². Kit Rae notes this mirrors the TONE-BYPASS Big Muffs of the late 1970s and early 1980s⁵, and Delicious Audio points to the V5 revision of the original pedal, whose tone bypass switch removed the EQ section, increasing output level and changing the midrange response². Electro-Harmonix's own summary of the Tone switch promises "a devastating broadband Big Muff slam!"¹.

The two switches work independently, so a player can run the pedal in standard Big Muff mode, Wicker only, tone bypass only, or both at once. Kit Rae found that in standard mode it can match the tones of the V10 Little Big Muff somewhat, while with the Wicker on "it becomes a much sharper and brighter sound, but not too harsh"⁶. He also notes the buzzy-fizzy character of the V9 and V10 Muffs can be smoothed out, and that with gain high and the Wicker on it produces a very clear high gain distortion, though a rather noisy one, with a built-in boost that cuts through a band mix very well⁶.

Controls and circuit

The knob set is the classic three, plus the two toggles and a bypass footswitch.

Under the hood it is the standard Big Muff Pi architecture. Kit Rae's analysis of the circuit counts five stages: an input/gain stage, two clipping stages, a tone stage, and an output stage, built from 46 components including 4 transistors, 4 diodes, and 3 potentiometers⁷. In this version the four transistors are BC550Cs⁵. The tone stage is a passive stack: the signal splits into a high-pass and a low-pass filter, blended back together by the tone potentiometer⁷⁸. That stack is what gives the Big Muff its characteristic scooped mids, with cutoff frequencies in the midband, roughly 200 to 2500 Hz⁸, which is the midrange loss players often fight in a band mix⁹.

The pedal runs on the included 9V battery or an optional 9.6VDC-200mA adapter with negative tip polarity, using standard Boss-type adaptors¹⁵. At 5mA it draws little current, so it is easy to power alongside other pedals¹⁵.

How it differs from the Big Muff π

Against the original NYC Big Muff Pi, the differences are the two switches and the size. Gearnews, picking it for a fuzz roundup, called it "both more versatile and smaller than the OG"¹⁰. The enclosure measures 4.75 x 4 x 2.25 in¹. Kit Rae dates production from 2009 onward⁶⁵.

The concept has since moved to other pedals. Delicious Audio notes the Tone Wicker feature first appeared here, and that the tone bypass switch from the op-amp version was brought back in this design³². Electro-Harmonix later applied the same idea to the Big Muff 2 circuit in the Big Muff Pi 2 with Tone Wicker¹¹.

Who uses it and what reviewers said

No artists are documented in the available material as users of this specific pedal, so none are named here. Reviewer opinion that exists is favorable. Kit Rae, whose site is the standard reference for Big Muff history, wrote that "this is one of my favorites of the Muffs produced since 2000"⁵. At Gearnews, a writer noted the pedal "I have owned for many years and still like using"¹¹. Delicious Audio described what players found with the Wicker engaged: harmonics and "raspy, sustaining distortion" that cut through a live band without losing the thickness the Big Muff is known for³.

The design is credited to E-H junior engineer David Tuzman, supervised by senior engineer John Pisani, based on the original Bob Myer circuit⁵.

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