In a previous post we combined a Pro Co Rate and EHX Big Muff into one enclosure with a few modifications. We decided to take this one step further and add both a Rat and a Tubescreamer into this USA Big Muff for an even more versatile sound. We didn’t want to dramatically change the tone of each effect but we did decide to go with some minor tweaks on each circuit.
Big Muff: We added our “Body Knob” to adjust the lower midrange and help the pedal sit well in the mix. We also moved the stock LED right next to the footswitch so it would match the layout of the added footswitches. This pedal already had true bypass so we didn’t need to change the switch but we did install a “Boss style” barrel jack to make it easier to power.
Ibanez Tubescreamer TS-9: For the TS-9 we converted the pedal to true bypass and simply replaced the stock IC with a socket and a JRC4558D as it should have had from the factory.
Pro Co Rat: While I think this pedal needs a bass boost we decided against putting that modification in as that may muddy up the Big Muff which is located down the signal path. We simply removed the stock chip and installed the LM308N and left the rest of the audio path unchanged.
This has been a great way to utilize the empty space in the cavernous Big Muff enclosure and make a convenient, all-in-one distortion pedal to cover a wide variety of tones.
