I Am Obsessed With the Long-Gone Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz

Like many other guitarists that were, are or will be, I am obsessed with collecting guitar pedals. And like every other pedal-collecting guitarist that is, was or will be, I have Very Strong Opinions on various guitar pedals that were, are or will be, some of which are considered Blasphemy™ by the guitar pedal intelligentsia. In the spirit of transparency, let's list them upfront:

The Big Muff is shit. Where the fuck are my mids?
The ProCo Rat is shit. Where the fuck is my treble?
The Dyna Comp is a $100 placebo. The Boss CS-3 Compressor Sustainer and the Keeley Compressor Plus kick it so hard in the teeth it needed an entire new jaw to be fabricated.
The Turbo Tube Screamer is the bestest one.

Well, with that out of the door, let's switch gears to a long-gone but not forgotten piece of gear, the Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz.

My obsession with fuzz began with two of my favourite records: Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth and You're Living All Over Me by Dinosaur Jr. It was once upon a place that I listened to the opening track of Sonic Youth's 1988 opus, "Teen Age Riot", and instantly, that guitar tone at the beginning of the tone captivated. It was so thick, and hazy, and punchy, and good.

The guitar tone in Daydream Nation has since been an obsession of mine. The complicated layering between Ranaldo and Moore, kings of tone, and the many iterations of that thick hazy fuzz employed on that record live rent free in my head. I mean, that pick-scraping and overdriven fuzz combo in "Z.) Eliminator Jr."? It is heaven. There are other reasons why Daydream Nation is one of my top 10 albums of all time, but the abundance of amazing guitar tones is a good start as to why.

After a friend of mine told me the good news about fuzz pedals, the Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz came into my life by way of its cheap copy, the Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz. I mean, where else? It's the cheapest fuzz pedal on the market.

I was immediately entranced by the sound of the SF300 Super Fuzz. Now, you need to understand something about me and my tone preferences. I like bright, trebly guitar sounds. I like mids. I like just enough low end that it doesn't sound thin.

The SF300 Super Fuzz was my second pedal ever, after the Boss OS-2 Overdrive/Distortion, and its impact on me as a guitar player was akin to when the monkey people are granted intelligence by the Monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Suddenly, I was thrust into this world of endlessly customisable dirt. I could create dirt that was thick and rich and bright. It truly blew my mind how good the sound of the SF300 Super Fuzz was. I loved the OS-2, but I revered the SF300 Super Fuzz.

Over time, though, I fell out of love with the SF300 Super Fuzz for reasons entirely unrelated to its sound (mostly). While the actual sound of the Super Fuzz is pretty spot on, it’s a bit more prone to mains hum to than the original FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz, and it has a plastic casing that really doesn’t like being treated roughly.

Ah well, then. By then, I was replacing all of my cheap Behringer pedals with either the one it was replacing (like the TO800 Vintage Tube Overdrive with an real Ibanez Tube Screamer) or just another one above entry level. Replacing the SF300 Super Fuzz, however, was not so easy.

This is a journey into money. Loadsamoney.

Leaving aside the fact that it is very much not in "very good" state (Reverb sellers will list a pedal actively on fire and stored in the ninth circle of hell as "excellent"), that's three hundred units of negotiable American currency. I know the Boss FZ-2 is a highly collectible and super-sought after fuzz pedal, but come the fuck on. $300!?

I think that's more hilarious, though, is that no one can make a good FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz clone, for the most part. Take this one, for example:

Thank you, Occvlt Pedals, for making a FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz clone that misses the entire fucking point of why people love the FZ-2. The micromanaging of the treble and bass of the resulting sludge is part of why that pedal is so beloved; one may even say that's the entire point of the pedal.

Absolute prokaryotes.

Now, you might say "but what about one of the successors of the FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz?" And that leads me to the next point. Reader, take a look at the Boss FZ-3 Fuzz.

You might notice it has almost none of the features of the FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz, and that's because it's actually a Fuzz Face clone. It's actually not bad, even though it's just a Fuzz Face clone with a treble control, but as a successor to the FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz it's akin to following a fine Beef Wellington with an uncooked pop tart.

The real breakthrough, however, came when I came across this:

If you can picture me like Patrick Bateman going over Paul Allen's business card, that was pretty much my reaction. It’s pretty much I ever wanted off a Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz clone. It has a nice thick metal case, big knobs, an HM-2 Heavy Metal circuit blend, and a clean blend for some reason. It also has a “Mode 3” switch, which is an ascended version of a glitch in the Behringer clone that let you use modes 1 and 2 simultaneously.

Naturally, I ordered. A couple weeks later, I was the proud owner of this:

Because of course this thick, sludgy beast should be themed after Princess Peach and then crowned with two Mario coin pedal toppers.

So, I originally had no hopes for a replacement of my cheap Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz, but dreams never die, do they? After all, Boss announced a FZ-2W Hyper Fuzz Waza Craft. In 2020. What year is it, now?

Rest in peace, Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz, 1993-1997. Gone, but certainly not forgotten.