Bass FZ2 - The Heaviest, Black Hole, Star Exploding Octave Fuzz Unit Tuned For Low End

for built to order- please allow at least 10 days. I hand place and solder a couple hundred components needed to make this pedal, it is a delicate and tedious process. Thank you for your patience.

V3 is here.

Octave toggle instead of blend.

FZ2 tone stack revoiced to the original except with an added mids control and LOW LOW.

Knob layout revamped to allow for 2 big ol knobs.

Improved pcb layout- this will help minimize noise potential.

general performance improvements.

I’ve always been an FZ2 fanatic, and over time, I’ve designed nearly a dozen circuits orbiting this cult classic, each one a twist on the original, a new realm of that iconic fuzz. 

This one though, is meant for those who like to get low.

The Bass FZ2, born from a long-distance engineering collaboration with Santiago from Guatemala, is sonic ritual, a gateway into strange, shimmering frequencies and tectonic plate shifting walls of fuzzed-out chaos.

While it carries the name “Bass FZ2” this pedal is an eccentric companion to any instrument. Guitarists, bassists, noise synths, sonic explorers.

about its features and sounds. a bit of a long one since this pedal is expansive.

the core circuit

I experimented modding the FZ2 platform quite expansively. Honestly, it is quite perfect as is. The octave and gain sections are stock. 

If you are not familiar with the FZ2, it is a pedal that boss made in the mid 90s and made quite a small number of, but it inspired the sound that would carve a deeper dive into the work that black sabbath started.

With electric wizard, the heaviest band in the universe, using the fz2 hyper fuzz as their core sound, the true sound of doom metal was born.

It is a ripping, octave fuzz that is revered in that it does not feel like most fuzzes feel to play. It has almost a distortion like character to it. It is a weird cross of the texture of fuzz, with the dynamic and playing style sculpting of a distortion. In other words, a tight fuzz, yet with the richest harmonic over and undertones ever due to the octave section of the circuit.

One of the best things about this circuit though, is its unique 3 way mode switch. It feels like you get 3 completely unique pedals all in one box.

middle is boost mode- goes all the way from sparkly clean, to heavy overdrive/medium gain distortion. with the flexible tone controls you can dial in whatever frequencies you'd like to boost, effectively using this pedal as an EQ as well. In HM2 tone mode, with the boost toggle position activated, you can use any pedal with the bass fz2 to transform it into that nasty HM2 style sound- with the texture and character of your favorite drive.

down is mid scoop fuzz mode- makes your guitar sound like colossal waves of lighting and cosmic flares, has extremely interesting harmonic tones that evolve as the guitar signal decays. My personal favorite mode.

up is mid boost fuzz mode- thick and crunchy, a lot more clarity and tight. in hm2 tone mode, it sounds eerily like an actual HM2.

The magic happens deeper with these mods though.

extra octave up toggle

I have added an additional, bypassable or engageable octave up section. The V3 version is significantly different than the one on the V2 or V1.

With the extra octave up stage, I reconfigured where its input and output lies within the circuit, and it resulted in an extremely strange, squash, compression like mode for very uniquely broken fuzz sound.

a foot switch that changes between two sets of eq/tone controls

LED off is a 4-band EQ

the left foot switch, toggles between the stock voiced high and low controls, with the addition of a LOW LOW control for massive, earth moving low end, and a mid control for full spectrum control.

This mode opens up a whole new tonal dimension, adding extreme frequency manipulation and shifting how the fuzz cuts and roars.

LED on is HM2 Chainsaw mode

tap the left footswitch and the circuit transforms the EQ into an HM2 chainsaw voice, but with a mod—the original HM2 merged high and mid controls, meaning that the high control actually simultaneously controlled the highs and mids. I’ve separated them here for maximum tonal flexibility. If you want it stock, just match the mid and high control positions.

 With this mode, you’ll discover brutal bursting metal shard HM2-style textures, seamlessly integrated with the FZ2 architecture.

a fully featured clean blend module

This one’s featured, with a low-pass filter for the clean signal, a transparent gain control to properly match levels, and the freedom to mix crystal-clear dry signal melody with the dirtiest, gnarliest, loudest fuzz imaginable. You can place your clean tone in front of the fuzz like a beam of moonlight piercing storm clouds. 

This clean blend module isn’t just practical for bass. Sometimes, the FZ2’s ripping, unrelenting nature is so colossal that melodies can get buried. The clean blend brings clarity and contrast, allowing riffs and chord progressions to shine through the chaos.

There’s something beautifully jarring about hearing a clean signal juxtaposed against an apocalyptic fuzz wall, it feels like finding a delicate crystal in the middle of a volcanic eruption.

I do not really feel like this circuit needs to evolve further. I feel like it has reached its final form. Experience it and you will understand the power within.

PROTOTYPE

this V3 prototype is for sale. Works very well with a ton of cool little toggle mods on the top jack side of the enclosure, that will be unique to this prototype.

Right toggle - octave bypass or octave engage (stock fuzz circuit) for a normal or clanging and harmonically biting fuzz.

middle toggle- only for clean boost mode. Adds clipping diodes (kicks in when gain is set high) to make the clean boost more of a distortion, as I was using the boost into cranked amps and wished it had a bit more crunch to it. Middle position is stock clean boost with no clipping diodes.

left toggle- pre octave. This adds another octave up fuzz stage at the input, going into the FZ2 circuit. So in the FZ2 fuzz modes, you have dual octave up for just raunchy madness. This toggle switch works more like how I wanted the octave up toggle on the faceplate to work. The faceplate octave up does this really interesting swell thing and works very interesting, was worth keeping as its own effect but due to its location in the fz2 chain, it works rather non linear and unpredictable.