For any Music Historian, Maestro would be a name you probably remember. In 1962, The Maestro FZ-1 was one of the first pedals made for distribution and was famously used by Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones on the song, Satisfaction. In 1979, Maestro discontinued the pedal production and fell into the vault of other companies Gibson owned. In 2022, Gibson revived the Maestro name with a line of new pedals for today's musicians and while they all caught peoples attention, the one that stood out the most, was the FZ-M Fuzz pedal; A new fuzz pedal for fans of both a classic sounding fuzz or a new modern sound.
It has the same knobs and controls you would see on the classic FZ-1, Level, Tone, and Attack, as well as a Modern/Classic switch for more versatility. For the test, I used both a Boss Katana 50 and a Marshall DSL40C to see how it would do with both solid state and tube amps. Luckily, both amps sounded great with this pedal in front of the amps. I also used a Gretsch Electromatic Jet and a Schecter Solo 6 Standard tuned to Drop C# to see what it was able to do. To my surprise, the Modern/Classic switch works perfectly for getting that "Satisfaction" fuzz or going into Modern for more Punk or Doom vibes with lower tunings. I had a blast when I first got this pedal. I even went a little further and tried it on a Schecter Stilleto Extreme 4 string bass through an Ampeg Rocket 108 amp. If you want a great fuzz in a bass tone, this nails that too. I even went a step further and pluged headphones into both the Boss Katana and the Ampeg Rocket to see how it would sound through headphones and not an amp speaker. It sounded exactly the same, so getting the exact fuzz sound I wanted out of it was super easy, compared to others I have tried.
Not to mention it is in an all metal casing with the LED lights being next to the footswitch on the pedal showing nice and bright, but not enough to be distracting. these new Maestro pedals are built to be stepped on for gigs. It currently sells for $149.99 at retailers, so it is a little on the pricey side (but not as much as other Fuzz pedals this versatile), so it is reasonable and worth the value.
Overall: I personally have this pedal on my board set up in a way that blows minds when they hear it. This is a great pedal for players that are wanting to experiment with Fuzz or are just happy trying to get that classic fuzz sound from the 60s.
Pros:
- Easy to Use
- Sturdy Design
- Versatile
Cons:
- Pedal Design is not for everyone.
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