Boss Fz-5

[TheGrooveking]

Any of you guys play one of these yet, I just picked one up but have to wait to get home to try it. I'll post later as to what my findings are, but let me know your opinion, seeing that this unit is based on COSM technology we'll see if it captures the analog tones to be had in a good fuzz.

TheGrooveking

[lawrencedesigns]

I am anxiously awaiting your input. I have been looking for a fuzz pedal, and I have always liked Boss equipment. I am thinking about building one of the byoc's, but this might change my mind.

Keeth Lawrence

[TheGrooveking]

Well I'll give you guys the nickel tour, you have three knobs, from left to right, Level, Mode and Fuzz. Level is the volume of the unit, mode is a three position switch with very poor feeling (rubbery) notches. the left mode is Face (Fuzz Face), the middle mode is Mist Fuzz (Maestro) and the right model is Octave Fuzz (Octavia). Right knob is Fuzz, which controls the amount of fuzz, from full counter clockwise to noon is fuzz, above that it is fuzz with booster. Turning the Fuzz up into the boost area, gets some high octane fuzz, but with an increasing noise floor the more you turn it.

To evaluate I played a J.D.Bluesville Pilot which has a Duncan Custom in the bridge and a Duncan Pearly Gates in the neck. The guitar has switches for switching to humbucker, single coil and out of phase. The guitar is chambered carved top with bolt on neck, think PRS CE22 with chambering and a mighty cool flame maple top. I played into a Groove Tubes Soul-O 45 1-12 combo amp with a 1-12" Thiele extension cab loaded with a EVM12L.

Fuzz Face, isn't bad does clean up somewhat when guitar volume is lowered. Not bad, but it won't be kicking my Fulltone 69' off my board.

Mist Fuzz, a very snotty spitting fuzz, but this one suffers from tracking issues, if you guys have played through the OC-3 or some other analog to digital to analog converters that weren't right, this is it. It does have the high frequency boost of the original it's copying, this mode is not my cup of tea, but then again I do not have an original Maestro to reference, so YMMV.

Octave Fuzz, this tracks better than the Mist Fuzz mode, but it's somewhat muffled sounding, not much of a difference with either neck or bridge pickup, single coil helped but not much. Compared to my typical three octave units, Fulltone Ultimate Octave, Prescription Electronics Experience and Chicago Iron Ocatvian, all are much better.

I have both the BOSS FZ-2 and FZ-3 fuzzes, which to be honest with you guys don't really float my boat, so for those of you who dig the earlier BOSS fuzzes, the Fuzz Face mode on this to me is better than those two units.

Now from a value standpoint, this cost $119 plus tax, for around $120 or so you can score a used Fulltone 69', which is heads and shoulders above this FZ-5. Also this pedal with battery loaded seems to weigh less by a noticeable amount to other BOSS pedals, so may have found a way to reduce the amount of metal in these too.

Just my two pesos......

TheGrooveking

[Keith SIO]

$120???? Seems way overpriced...Seems like Boss would charge somewhere between 70-80 for this one...Not that I am interested in it anyway.

[Zillie]

Hi GrooveKing,
which of the modes of FZ-5 is the closest to the sound of FZ-3?

[mrbluetone]

How are the tweakers gonna mod this thing?

[Zillie]

bumb, looks like grooveking has faded away

[armoredfist316]

I agree.....i only played one for a few minutes in guitar center and i thought it was way overpriced. But then again, i wouldnt even pick it up for $50.

[Moe45673]

I quite like my FZ-3. Gives me that tone from "Dear Mister Fantasy", it's cool.

Grooveking, two of the settings on the FZ-5 seem to be right off the OD-20. This true?

[axpro]

Well, time for My $0.02

I LIKE IT!!!!!

It is clean, quiet and usable...

I used to have a Maestro Fuzz-tain, and aside from being a bit bright, the Maestro setting is pretty much right on. Just like my old Maestro, it chokes the notes out when they get too quiet... some may t hink of this a agressive noise filtering, but my original did the same thing, i love how it kills the notes as they die out,

The Fuzzface sound isn't extremely fuzz facey, but i find it pretty good with my rig to get that "Neil young in a box" sort of vibe, i find myself playing along with rust never sleeps with just that, my valve junior and my Singlecut trem.

The Octavia fuzz is my least favorite, it sounds neat. and has a nice farty bottom, but i doubt i will use it much.

Overall???

Yes. It is expensive. but to me it hits the nail nice and close, and is trustworthy and groovy. Being common BOSS gear, it isn't going to appreciate in value, unless it gets cancelled right away...e ven then there are thousands of them made in the first run...

Ina ll honesty (donning my flameproof suit) i think it is a better version of the early "Neil young buzzsaw distortion" than any of my other fuzzes (z-vex wm &ff, and Vodoo superfuzz)

I even like it more than the fulltone Soul Bender i have been playing with.

(ducking head behind asbestos shield)