The Big Muff Pi 2 is not a reissue, a remix, or a modern reinterpretation, but a genuine piece of lost Electro-Harmonix history finally brought to life.
The story begins in the late 1970s when EHX founder and president Mike Matthews and serial inventor Bob Myer were deep into their long-running collaboration that started with the very first Big Muff. Bob was constantly refining and reimagining circuits to keep pace with evolving technology, and while some designs made it to production, others were quietly set aside. One of those forgotten ideas was a Dual Op-Amp Big Muff circuit that never left the page, filed away and eventually forgotten as the years passed.
Decades later, while interviewing Bob Myer in his old workshop, fuzz historians Josh Scott of JHS Pedals and artist Daniel Danger stumbled upon a hand-drawn schematic buried among Bob’s personal notes. Recognizing the significance of what they had uncovered, Josh Scott took on the task of decoding the original design and working with Electro-Harmonix to resurrect the circuit exactly as intended.
The result is the Big Muff Pi 2, a pedal that feels both familiar and refreshingly strange, offering a new voice within the Big Muff family while remaining unmistakably rooted in its legacy.
Sonically, the Big Muff Pi 2 delivers everything players expect from a Muff, including long, singing sustain and generous amounts of gain, but with a distinct personality of its own.The Dual Op-Amp design introduces a slightly rawer character, with a crispier top end, booming lows, and less refined clipping that gives the fuzz a grittier, more aggressive edge. It feels a bit more dynamic under the fingers, responding more readily to picking attack while retaining that unmistakable wall-of-sound character that has defined the Big Muff for generations.
Control-wise, the pedal sticks to the classic Big Muff layout of Volume, Tone, and Sustain, making it immediately intuitive for longtime users. Sustain sweeps from medium grit into full-on fuzz saturation, Tone balances brash bite against deep thunder by boosting treble while reducing bass, and Volume sets the overall output. The circuit is housed in a Nano-sized die-cast enclosure featuring artwork by Daniel Danger, whose visual style perfectly complements the pedal’s rediscovered, almost mythical origin story.
The Big Muff Pi 2 also introduces a first for the Muff lineage with silent true bypass footswitching that offers both latching and momentary operation. A standard click engages the pedal as usual, while pressing and holding the switch unleashes a brief burst of fuzz before snapping back to clean, making it as expressive as it is heavy.
Get the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi 2 here for $122 and keep up with all our Electro-Harmonix coverage right here!
