Guitar effects pedal heavyweights Electro-Harmonix and JHS Pedals have joined forces for an all-new Big Muff fuzz pedal based on a long-lost circuit that had been lying around “buried in dust and time” for nearly 50 years.
All things considered, the Big Muff 2, so-called because it features not one but two op-amps, is something of a miracle. Josh Scott, JHS Supremo, chanced upon this lost schematic in 2021 when researching for a book he is co-writing with his friend and EHX über collector Daniel Danger, alongside writer/historian Dan Epstein.
Made On Earth for Rising Stars: The Electro-Harmonix Story will be published on 12 May 2026, through Jack White's Third Man Books, perhaps just enough time for an addendum to document this latest find – because this Big Muff 2 circuit is a part of the brand's history.
It takes the story of the Big Muff back to the start; this schematic was hand-drawn by the inventor of the Big Muff himself, the late Bob Myer.
Myer's blueprint read, “BIG MUFF USING (2 DUAL OP AMPS)”. Of course EHX and JHS had to put it into work.
“We breadboarded the circuit exactly as Bob drew it, and immediately knew we had something worth making,” says JHS. “We found that Bob’s design is unique when compared to the now famous late ‘70s Op-Amp Big Muff designed by Michael Abrams. Different clipping arrangement, an extra gain stage and various other elements that made this lost version extremely special.”
This isn’t one of your polite, sweet-sounding Big Muffs. This is different to the Op-Amp Big Muff that Billy Corgan famously used circa Siamese Dream.
This Big Muff 2 Dual Op-Amp is a little gnarlier, more aggro, louder, with what JHS describes as “the most pronounced low-end and midrange of any EHX Big Muff ever”.
In other words, this was an iconoclastic take on the classic fuzzbox by the man who invented it in the first place.
That said, it’s the same old, same old when it comes to dialling in your electric guitar tone. You have a Volume knob to control the overall output, Sustain to control the amount of fuzz, and Tone for your EQ'ing desires. Easy.
And given that this is a nigh-on 50-year-old circuit they are presenting, JHS and EHX have gone traditional, housing it in the traditional big-box wedge enclosure, and they are only making 5,700 of them.
Priced $249, the Big Muff 2 is available now. See JHS Pedals for more.
Made On Earth for Rising Stars: The Electro-Harmonix Story is available to pre-order from Third Man Books.
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