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Gear Avail

Alternative rock

Billy Corgan

The Smashing Pumpkins, 1991 to 1996

The Siamese Dream guitar sound is dozens of tracks of the same Big Muff, and specifically the op-amp version rather than the transistor one. Which variant of a Muff you have changes the record you can make with it, which is a good argument for reading the model line before buying.

Load this board into the builder

The chain

Shown in conventional signal order rather than the order the sources list them, so it reads the way it would be wired: guitar on the left, amp on the right.

  1. 1
    Wah / filterNo photo available

    Dunlop Cry Baby

    Wah / filter

    Occasional, and usually parked.

    Not stocked by any store we track

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  2. 2
    Drive / fuzzNo photo available

    Electro-Harmonix Op-Amp Big Muff

    Drive / fuzz

    The buzzing, brittle crunch that got multi-tracked into a wall. The op-amp variant, not the transistor one.

    Not stocked by any store we track

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  3. 3
    ModulationNo photo available

    Boss CE-2 Chorus

    Modulation

    The watery cleans on the quiet sections, which is the whole dynamic those songs are built on.

    Not stocked by any store we track

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Documented on

  • Siamese Dream

    album · 1993

    • Cherub Rock
    • Today
    • Rocket

  • Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

    album · 1995

    • Bullet with Butterfly Wings
    • Zero
    • 1979

Editorial gear history, assembled from interviews, rig rundowns, live photography and liner notes. Billy Corgan is not affiliated with Gear Avail and nothing here is an endorsement. Rigs change between tours and between takes, so this one is scoped to 1991 to 1996 rather than presented as a career-long setup. In most cases what is documented is that a pedal was on the board during those sessions or that tour, not that it is audible on a specific bar of a specific take.