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Superfuzzbigmudd is alive and kickin’

It’s here! (and it’s frikken’ awesome…)

I’ve designed the graphics for a few Tym Guitars pedals now but this one is easily my favourite. Tim’s brief was basically “I want to build a Superfuzzbigmuff… like the Mudhoney album. No-one’s done that yet!” I thought it was a pretty cool idea.

I started thinking of some design ideas. The first one was to actually make it look like a Super Fuzz next to a Big Muff. But Super Fuzz pedal’s aren’t that exciting to look at (it’s basically a tin box), and it really wouldn’t sit with the rest of the Tym pedals I’ve designed.

So to get into the mood, I chucked “Superfuzzbigmuff” into my CD player and blasted it for a while. While listening to it I looked at the CD cover and the awesome hand drawn “Superfuzzbigmuff” text on the cover and knew that the pedal had to be designed around that. It was perfect.

I started sketching some designs up and was pretty happy with the results. All of Tym’s pedals are red & black, and the pedal was looking like a 70’s-era Electroharmonix pedal. One thing I changed was the word ‘Big Muff’ to ‘Big Mudd’. Apparently Mike from EH is pretty full on with his trademarks, so I thought better to be safe than sorry. Finding a replacement for Muff was pretty easy… this was a Mudhoney tribute pedal, so Big Mudd would be perfect.

The final bit was to fill the big space above the text on the right. I considered leaving it blank as a lot of EH pedals for a lot of space on them. Then I remembered I had the art from a few of the Tym shirts that Lenny from Tumbleweed had designed for Tim. Frankenstein playing a left handed Wosrite bass was perfect, and the speech bubble pushed the Mudhoney factor up a notch. I finished the art and sent it to Tim. 1 month later the pedal was ready for release.

Last Sunday (yes, Tym’s is open Sundays) I finally got the chance to play the pedal and was totally blown away. The Superfuzz side is hugely versatile. The regular Superfuzz tone is nasty and thin… like a pissed off bee in a beer can. Hit the ‘Expander’ switch and the bottom end explodes. It’s a FANTASTIC fuzz. If you’re into 70’s era Sabbath, you need this pedal. I was playing doom riffs so evil that passers by walked a little quicker past the shop in case Satan ate their eyeballs. Yeah, you heard me.

Then I tried the Big Mudd section. This is based on the rams head era Big Muff. I was shocked at how much better it sounded than my US reissue Big Muff. I could actually hear the notes in the chords, not just a wall of compressed mush. It would make an awesome lead pedal. I’d use the Superfuzz side as my rhythm sound, the Big Mudd as my lead section and both at once to make the crowd shit their pants.

That’s it, I’m getting one. Not just ’cause I did the design. It’s just a really, really good pedal.