Pedals have made the already rising stock of guitars increase exponentially.
You most likely have noticed that when guitars are being played, there might be a sudden change of sound which can catch your) the attention of anyone.
The magic is due to the use of pedals. Pedals complement a guitar, and my goodness they are amazing.
In this article, I want to compare the two boss fuzz pedals, FZ2 and FZ3.
BOSS FZ2
The FZ2 pedal was made in 1993, and it was made based on the Univox Super Fuzz from 1968. However, they are different.
Unlike BOSS FZ2, the Univox Super Fuzz is a pedal made in the late ’60s, and was known during those days for its apocalyptic sounds.
Boss FZ2 has 4 controls which perform different functions but work together to make it one of the best fuzz pedals.
The level control is used to set the volume of the pedal; the second potentiometer on the pedal is used to set the bass and treble amount.
The last knob for the control allows you to choose between three modes which are the Fuzz I mode, Fuzz II mode and Boost mode.
FZ2 gives two distinct fuzz sounds; they are referred to as Fuzz 1 and Fuzz 2 like the Super.
There is an octave down which can be added to the tone of the guitar, this will give you a bass kind of sound and many more options.
It also gives you a better sound with a slight octave up, and it gives you a better sound as it nears the 12th fret.
In the pedal, Fuzz I takes the output of the circuit while Fuzz II flows the signal through a mis-scoop circuit, while the Boost mode takes the output back to the beginning while both the Gain and the Level knob act as a control for the boost mode.
The pedal features four knobs: a level knob, a tone knob, a gain knob and the mode knob which also consists of a three-way rotary switch to select between Fuzz I, Fuzz II and Gain boost.
Furthermore, a very common theme among the BOSS pedal brand is the sturdiness of their pedals.
BOSS FZ3
The first thing that comes to your mind about BOSS FZ3 is that it is an improved version of BOSS FZ2.
This is not the case. In fact, the major similarity between the two is that they were made by the BoSS brand and that their model names follow one another.
As I said earlier, FZ2 was made as an improvement of Univox Super Fuzz from 1968. However, FZ3 was made closer to the silicon fuzz.
Also, FZ3 was made in 1997, and some of the renowned users of the pedals are Billy Corgan and many others.
The pedal has 4 knobs right on top of the pedals. They are known as the control pedal. These control knobs are Mode control, Rate, Depth and Manual control.
For the Mode control, it has 4 modes. These modes are for different purposes and use. We have Ultra Mode, Standard Mode, Gate/Pan mode and Momentary mode. Each of these modes serves different functions. An example is the momentary mode which can be used by pressing down the pedal.
The depth control controls how permanent the mix of the effect will be. We also have the Rare control which is for the speed effect and the last control is for the manual control.
The Manual control is a two-on-one control. The bottom control is to control the frequency of the pedal when playing and the control at the top of the manual control is used for emphasis’ sake.
BOSS FZ2 vs BOSS FZ3
Your choice between the two BOOS fuzz pedals depends on your demands as a guitarist. So, I will let you be the judge of what you want, after this review.
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