Drunk Beaver's latest Fuzz Master Pedal Perfects the Maestro FZ-1S Formula with Silicon BC109C and MPSA20 Transistors

I’ve long been after one of Vitalii Bobrov’s Maestro FZ-1S Style Fuzz Master pedals - where I loved everything about the previous iterations of the pedal - but didn’t get on with the pedal’s previous graphics. Sometimes we are just idiosyncratic in our preferences - and if things don’t look quite right to us - we can’t get fully onboard. While I feel the current graphic is just perfect - with the War of the Worlds style Tripod Transistor beaming out its death-ray!

The Fuzz Master is an excellent added bells and whistles take on Maestro’s follow-up FZ-1S Silicon Super Fuzz - which came out in the early 70’s. This is distinctly different to the original FZ-1 and FZ-1A Germanium versions - where the very original FZ-1 from 1962 was the first guitar effect - and famously utilised on the Rolling Stones’ ’Can’t Get No Satisfaction’. 

There is no shortage of Maestro style fuzzes out there, while this is surely one of the smartest and most distinct takes - utilising no less than 9 Transistors - where the main Fuzz Gain Stages are powered by twin BC109C’s, and  several MPSA18’s are on Buffer / Splitter and Output Buffer / Signal Sum duties, and SMD 2N3604 for Switching.

The Fuzz Maestro has essentially 5 controls - Volume, Balance (Clean Blend), Voice : Classic / Loud / Smooth, Sustain (Fuzz / Attack), and Mode : Red - Unfiltered / Blue - Scooped. Internal Dip-Switch = Output Gain.

The Three ’Voice’ options are essentially different Clipping Options - where Classic utilises Motorola MPSA20 Transistors per the original, Loud is two Red LEDs, and Smooth is DV9 Germanium Diodes.

You essentially use the Balance / Clean Blend knob to temper the Fuzz - while it works pretty well with guitar volume clean-up too. This is a truly great take on the format - especially with so many alternatives out there including a recent Gibson Maestro addition too.

With the new Graphic in place - this has to be my favourite format of FZ-1S - it’s always nice to see a formula perfected - and I feel most will be very happy with the Fuzz Master’s Textured Output - where I tend to have Volume and Sustain Maxed, and Balance at Minimum - and apply further control with the Guitar Volume Knob.

Actually my exact settings are Volume at Max, Balance fully dialled back, and Sustain at 4 o’c. If you Max the sustain you get a touch too much compression for my liking - so 4 is around about optimal. I really like the Classic and Loud Voicings - both in Red Unfiltered and Blue Scooped Modes. This pedal sounds great at near full throttle.

It would have been nice to have had a Bias and / or tone control here too - perhaps Vitalli can make a Deluxe version of this in the future. The current batch is almost all sold out on the Drunk Beaver Reverb.com Store - where these are priced at $175. There will be more soon enough!

This is just a fantastic take on a very underrated and under-the-radar variety of Maestro FZ-1 - I.e. the often forgotten about later FZ-1S Silicon variety. Most still aren’t particularly aware of that and always think of the FZ-1 / FZ-1A Germanium varieties! I myself am guilty of this on occasion!

How do you like your Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz?