Drunk Beaver's Pedal Drop #25 - the Ivano-Frankivsk Fuzz is a superb extended range take on Boss's legendary FZ-3

I’ve long been a fan of the Boss FZ-3 Fuzz - whose output straddles both classic Tone Bender and Fuzz Face tones and can get pretty full-on. I’ve had my pristine copy  of that since 2018, and I’ve always loved the vibrancy of this fuzz.

And Drunk Beaver’s Vitalli has exactingly recreated the FZ-3 circuit using expertly matched Toshiba SMT Transistors with the exact same values as the Toshiba THT originals.

The profile of the two pedals is incredibly close - with that same excellent guitar volume gain cleanup - obviously the additional Mids options give you more granularity for the Ivano-Frankivsk, while Vitalii has also managed to eke out more volume and sustain from the circuit - via the addition of a gain recovery circuit. And that added volume and sustain seems to create a little more compression too - especially when the Volume and Fuzz dials are cranked.

Both the Ivano-Frankivsk and FZ-3 have no less than 8 Silicon Transistors - where 6 of those are generating the fuzz voicing!

I tested the Ivano-Frankivsk side by side with my FZ-3 - and their profiles are very well matched, while I feel the Ivano-Frankivsk can be slightly more articulate and slightly thicker at times, and the tone control renders somewhat differently. You can get all the essential FZ-3 tones from the Ivano-Frankivsk - and the greater range and Mids Boost and Scoop options - give you quite a bit more scope to play with.

Controls - Volume, Tone, Fuzz, Mids : Boost / Stock / Scoop

I tend to have the controls set somewhat differently for my favourite settings - on the FZ-3 the Volume and Fuzz are cranked, while the Tone control is set to noon. For the Ivano-Frankivsk I tend to have the Volume @ 2 o’c, Tone @ Max, and Fuzz at around 10 o’c.

The Ivano-Frankivsk can get a little more full-on than the FZ-3, and its Mids settings give it a far greater versatility - while you can easily match it to the output profile of the original.

Vitalii îs proving to be quite the expert Boss modder - somewhat Robert Keeley level really - and several of his Boss takes are my favourites of their kind - including his exceptional Khelnytskyi OD, Kyiv Lead, Mykolaiv Grunge, and Uzhhorod Xtortion!

This Ivano-Frankivsk was a late $150 release last year (13th December) - I think there were only around 20 in that batch - so these are long since sold out. All hope is not lost though if you still want one - as Vitalii is asking people to name their favourite Pedal Drop Editions - with a view to making a few more of that kind in a slightly different colourway - like he did for the Liontaur. All the evolved Boss ones are well worth consideration! Where my own favourites are this Ivano-Frankivsk, and the Khelnytskyi OD.

I would also quite like for the #1 Pedal Drop Kherson Drive to be reissued - as that is the only one of those what I don’t yet have!

This one definitely deserves to have a few more out there - so I sincerely hope that people show their support for this one, and that more can be made - it’s well worth it!

There is no official demo out for this pedal - as is usually the case for Pedal Drops - so I’ve referenced a classic demo of the original - as below!