Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone (PAF)

[The Captain]

Hey Bjorn, Really cool to see you here!! Very honored to have you aboard

[JP30]

BJF. makes cool pedals. actually, I like his Mad Proffessor stuff.

Does anyone know how the reissue FZ1 compare to the old models?

you are talking about FZ-1A reissues right? I ve owned two reissues... and had chance to mess with two original ones later.

I remember that the reissues were bit smoother than the originals that I had... but very close...
BUT again... two reissued FZ-1As that I had sounded little different from each otherl, so it's really hard to tell.

I was not liking Fuzztone AT ALL until I started to grow into it recently. i thought that it was too spitty and too brassy... can be too gated and... all that...

[cubba]

Hey Bjorn

Good to see ya here buddy!



Thx for all the info and as usual,
always leaving us with a good story.

I was closely listening to Satisfaction today on the iPod and had such a great moment
when I heard Keith step on the Fuzz-Tone right before the riff kicks in
and you can clearly hear the thing POP ... then later in the song
he steps on it about a second too early before the riff,
a quick "errrnt" comes in, then the riff to follow.

Truly 'mistakes' that would never survive the current days of Pro-Tool-Digital-Anemia.

[JP30]

FZ-1/FZ-1A/B's don't give a shit about picking dynamics, the circuit wants you to bash the crap outta your strings. Sustain is achieved by brute force, play your Gibson pedals with a hockey mask on!

Ha, that was a few weeks ago. Now>> I don't need a hockey mask.
Me and Fuzztone(fuzznugget) are singing like a pair of canaries. :geek:

anyway ... Fuzztone is a MUST HAVE for fuzz Geeks.

[psycho*daisies]

Hey Bjorn

Good to see ya here buddy!



Thx for all the info and as usual,
always leaving us with a good story.

I was closely listening to Satisfaction today on the iPod and had such a great moment
when I heard Keith step on the Fuzz-Tone right before the riff kicks in
and you can clearly hear the thing POP ... then later in the song
he steps on it about a second too early before the riff,
a quick "errrnt" comes in, then the riff to follow.

Truly 'mistakes' that would never survive the current days of Pro-Tool-Digital-Anemia.

Two of the finest moments in R&R, imo...
much more character than sterilizing everything.

another good one is when Keith accidentally turns the beat inside out
on the Bitch solo...(weaving in and out of the backbeat)

[Richard Groff]

Hey Bjorn

Good to see ya here buddy!



Thx for all the info and as usual,
always leaving us with a good story.

I was closely listening to Satisfaction today on the iPod and had such a great moment
when I heard Keith step on the Fuzz-Tone right before the riff kicks in
and you can clearly hear the thing POP ... then later in the song
he steps on it about a second too early before the riff,
a quick "errrnt" comes in, then the riff to follow.

Truly 'mistakes' that would never survive the current days of Pro-Tool-Digital-Anemia.

That pop is one of my favorite "mistakes" on record. It goes down with John Bonham's squeeky bass drum pedal on "Since I've Been Loving You"...

[Richard Groff]

Hi,


I made a pedalmodel called Candy Apple Fuzz from the ideas and explanations that the King of Cheese gave as I asked him to explain what he liked about all his fuzzes and I wanted to make something that would do that but in a package that would not breakdown as easily as those vintage units and be a little easier to use.
My neighbour at my workshop really enjoys those sputtery sounds and called me one day extremely cheerful and played for me something that did not sound like a guitar! Ohwell such sounds have their time and place I would presume.No the CAF is not similar to the Gibson fuzz

However, the sound of the FZ-1 as described above is somethingelse than sputtery and dying moans.....and it remains a favourite of mine for reasons outlined above.

BJ

I usually think of "extreme" fuzz sounds as coming in 2 basic flavors, with and without some kind of octave/ring mod sound. Candy Apple Fuzz has an octave effect, however I'm curious why there aren't more extreme non-octave fuzzes around. C'mon Bjorn you know you WANT to create your take on a FZ-1. There are a few people here who would shell out for one (me bein one of them)

I could sound check it against the FuzzNugget Band is sending me.

[Graham]

Wouldn't life be boring for us committed fuzzslingers if there were really only two flavours

I've got hundreds (says he with a slight degree of embarassment ~ as at some smutty secret unwittingly revealed ) and to some degree or other they all have their idiosyncrasies (long word for charms!) like my kids HA!!

Greedy Grumpy Graham

[BJF]

Hi,

Well, I'd think of extreme fuzz in many shades and some may have just a long fuzz tone.
Hm, not sure as I'd want to make a take on the Gibson/Maestro FZ-1: I don't have a stash of RCA 2N270's
allthough they might be available here
http://www.4starelectronics.com/part_detail/2N270.html
but what you get in terms of useable 2N270's I don't know.
For sake of bandwidth and some other caractheristics transistors used in this circuit ( that is without alteration to set bias et.c) germanium transistors would be the choice and of course many other transistors could be used but I'd think the captain of this board would be the guy to ask for something like that ;)

Pleased to meet you Captain Main.

I'd agree with Sickle FZ-1/FZ1A/B's would not at all be about picking dynamics but on the contrary about the attack and hence the Attack control and so only if you'd play with a hockeymask you might pounder away some sustain;)

However if such a unit would be rebiased to allow linear amplification at sufficiently low levels then that would be a totally different ballgame........

Possibly I could make one attempt just to show the principal, but only if I can find some germaniums that would work.

Have fun
BJ

[psycho*daisies]

Hey Bjorn

Good to see ya here buddy!



Thx for all the info and as usual,
always leaving us with a good story.

I was closely listening to Satisfaction today on the iPod and had such a great moment
when I heard Keith step on the Fuzz-Tone right before the riff kicks in
and you can clearly hear the thing POP ... then later in the song
he steps on it about a second too early before the riff,
a quick "errrnt" comes in, then the riff to follow.

Truly 'mistakes' that would never survive the current days of Pro-Tool-Digital-Anemia.

That pop is one of my favorite "mistakes" on record. It goes down with John Bonham's squeeky bass drum pedal on "Since I've Been Loving You"...

As i said, i love the switch "pops" on Satisfaction, but i cannot stand squeaky bass drum pedals!
Gets on my nerves, cause it's continuous. Very common on 60's recordings...

Bad Girl by The Zakary Thaks...garage masterpiece almost ruined by squeaky bass drum pedal.