Having had the benefit of speaking with Maestro ’ s Craig Hockenberry ( Director of Engineering , Gibson Brands , and Lead Designer of Maestro ) and Anthony Pascuzzo ( Product Engineer – Maestro ), I was able to add some depth of field in terms of what they had in mind with this line . The short version is that Gibson Brands , Inc . has to design looking ahead and behind , which can be a blessing given their history , but a bit of a curse in that the diehard fans don ’ t always take to change well . Fortunately , this is not Maestro ’ s first rodeo , and the more I meet people from the team , the more impressed I become with the talent Gibson is bringing into the fold .
A key overarching goal for the line was to take a nod to Maestro ’ s storied past while also incorporating modern technology . My FZ-1A came with an original insert reminding the player that the ( germanium ) transistors operate best at room temperature . While the silicon transistors in the FZ-M are frowned on by vintage purists , unlike their germanium counterparts , they are incredibly consistent sonically speaking . Noting how close this box gets to the original sound , the Maestro team gets a gold star for doing their homework as well as an ‘ A ’ for being at the top of the reissue class . While this unit is not designed to be an exact replica , the fact that it gets as close to the original , adding a host of modern amenities is most impressive . The most noticeable modern amenity is light that causes the iconic Maestro horns to illuminate up when the pedal is engaged .
Truth be told , aside from nailing one of the most iconic guitar riffs of all time , I ’ m more excited about what my FZ-1 and the box candy represent than the sound of the unit itself . While the FZ-M comes remarkably close to the original , the addition of a Tone control plays a key role in making this a far superior device that delivers a surprising wide range of tones to an equally wide range of instruments .
When most people think of fuzz , they tend to think of Keef ’ s riff on “ Satisfaction ” or Jimi ’ s performance of “ Wild Thing ” at Monterey Pop – full on fuzz . While I love that sound , it ’ s kind of a one trick pony , which probably explains why Overdrive pedals dramatically outnumber Fuzz pedals on most people ’ s boards .
In Classic mode , the FZ-M tends to be brighter and quieter than in Modern mode . The Maestro guys were clear that Modern mode was intended to add the body that many vintage fuzzes are missing , and it does that . This is a pedal that begs being played with , and besides not turning the Tone control past noon in Modern mode , or 9:00 in Classic mode , it ’ s a lot of fun to play through and with this pedal . It might actually be my favorite Fuzz pedal since you can get so many usable tones out of it . At lower Attack ( drive ) settings it kind of sits in a sweet spot between Overdrive and Distortion pedals which is really intriguing . It ’ s not quite as groovy when you back off on your Volume
control as a Fuzz Face , but it has way more tones on tap when you work the Volume control and Pickup selections . Ironically my favorite sounds were just a dab of Attack , which into the Maestro Discovery Delay and a Fender Deluxe Reverb were lovely .
Sterling Doak ( Director of Marketing , Gibson Brands ) had this to say about these new pedals , “ We encourage everyone to plug-in , dial-up your settings , and shape your sound .” I have well over a dozen Fuzz pedals in my collection and none of them deliver the varied range of useful tones that the FZ-M does . If you ’ ve never tried a Fuzz pedal , this is a great place to start , and if you have , I encourage you to check out the Maestro FZ-M !
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