The new Boss FZ-1W is a ’60s style silicon fuzz with Vintage and Modern modes, with silicon transistors in the circuit.
Boss FZ-1W
The Boss WazaCraft team in Japan has taken the knowledge learned whilst building the TB-2W pedal earlier this year and applied it to the new FZ-1W fuzz pedal. It is a silicon transistor-based circuit and comes with two distinct modes, labelled Vintage and Modern.
Vintage
With the FZ-1W’s Vintage mode, they have created a classic fuzz voice with more gain and a wider expressive range. The sound character is raspy and assertive without being harsh, and the player can smoothly transition from heavy fuzz to crunch to crystal clean simply by riding their guitar’s volume. The pedals Tone knob simultaneously adjusts the high and low frequencies to produce a variety of different fuzz colours. And by turning down the Fuzz knob and cranking the Level, the FZ-1W works great as a boost for amps and other gain pedals.
Modern
Modern mode on the FZ-1W delivers a more refined and versatile fuzz voice with a focused midrange and fatter tone, making it ideal for all types of current music styles. The gain range is even wider than Vintage mode, and dialling the Fuzz knob past three o’clock conjures rich, singing sustain for inspired solo playing. The Tone knob also offers a different tuning that lets players tweak the brightness without altering the midrange, ensuring their sound always cuts through. And when used as a boost, Modern mode dishes a heap of girth with rich, mid-driven character.
You can hear the new FZ-1W in action in the official demo video below, and follow the link to the official product page for all the specifications.
RRP – $199.99
You can buy the Boss FZ-1W here on Thomann
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After watching Rhett Shull’s videos of this and also Danny Underwood’s does it Gilmour video, I am very tempted to pick one of these up. I love my Fuzz pedals but Boss pedals always seem to play better with the other pedals on my board.