I bought this pedal a while back and when it came, I opened it up. It was not broken when I received it. However, I was only able to use it once before it broke. I tried changing the batteries before taking it to a technician, who said that the motherboard had cracked. These pedals are built extremely cheaply, and I would not recommend one.

I'm not a big fuzz guy but, this pedal does well to dip my toes in the water. Vintage fuzz gives me a slight torn speaker tone with distortion like fuzz at full gain. Set to Modern, that torn speaker tone is gone and begins the more modern low, low-mid AM radio fuzz that I'm not totally into. On vintage setting and stacked with the Maestro Ranger Overdrive, the tone is quite 90's grunge to my ears. If you don't love fuzz and want to try it out, this is a good 1st step, but not for $. For less or equal money, a Big Muffin variant is a better option.

I had no idea what I was missing out on. It sounds great with all of my guitars. Very versatile. Top notch construction as well. Bravo Maestro!!

Sounds beautiful. Working great v

Started my 1st pedal board this year. The Maestro was my choice of Fuzz. I'm a big fan of Gibson/Mesa Boogie products. This pedal is pretty harsh, and is more like a distortion pedal in my mind. I was hoping for a fatter, fuller sound. The pedal works well and is well made. However, I run a JHS Cheeseball through this into the Maestro, and an OD pedal to get a really close "Ina Gada Da Vida" sound!

The FZ-M Fuzz nails the vintage tones. "Satisfaction"? Check. Hendrix-y? Check. Sounds great, cleans up, or gets fuzzy - in the complete onomatopoeia sense of the word. Full marks on all counts - sound, looks, construction. Heavy metal box and weighs in heavier than the average pedal. I have no complaints with the pedal itself, but I am going to offer one criticism that applies to this Gibson Maestro as well as MANY other well known, big name pedal makers. PLEASE! In your manuals, it is essential that you state whether or not the pedal takes a battery. One sentence! Otherwise, what is the owner to do? Open the pedal if there is no obvious batt compartment. Why? Two reasons: batteries leak and ruin pedals and some of us always tape off the battery attaching leads just to be sure that contact with the metal case doesn't cause any problems. I can't believe how many manufacturers make no mention of battery use - at all. BTW, input and output impedance would be greatly appreciated as well. This fuzz pedal DOES take a battery. It has a very nice, sturdy chrome battery clip riveted to the base of the pedal box. Impressive! I have not seen that before in ANY pedal at any price. Usually just a skimpy little piece of foam stuck to the case inside. AND they also included a plastic block inserted into the battery terminal so that taping it off as I mentioned above is not necessary. Nice detail! One final nit pick caution. The 4 screws holding the top and bottom together are TIGHT! As in, you'll likely strip the heads. I almost had to use a "T" handle screwdriver to get them loose. I'll also say mine was a DEMO unit with accompanying description of light scuffs or scratches. I didn't see any. They may be there but are inconsequential to me. I have purchased a fair amount of DEMO gear from Sweetwater and have never been disappointed.

Sounds like ROCK AND ROLL!

Back to the Sixties! Tune in those old fuzz tones . You will definitely get some "Satisfaction ". Sweetwater's fantastic service as usual. Unbelievably fast delivery and product follow up. Thank you Mike Arango, you are awesome!

I was trying to find the old Keef tone from Satisfaction but couldn't find an origional at a decent price then this was re-released. It gets the exact tone I was looking for and quite than most Fuzz pedals I have tried.

This Pedal is a must have if you like the Rolling Stone's. I really like the sound a lot.

Great sounds, well-designed. Usable range of dirt. Mode switch is a nice touch. A bit pricey.

For years Maestro pushed their name behind some pretty mediocre gear to keep the brand active , but I was really impressed with the fuzz re-release. Lo fi fuzz works well with all of my amps and appears to be sturdy enough to pack up and gig with . Thanks again to Kevin Spunde for being my sales rep all of these years - Thanks Again !!

Sounds amazing, prefer b 4 Wha

I've been looking for a replacement for my old Fuzz-Tone for years and I can honestly say that I found it in this FZ-M. Not only does this pedal capture the awesomeness of the original it also provides you with some new flavors to add to the repertoire. My old Fuzz-Tone can take a break now!!

I would have given it 5 of 5 stars if not for two things. First off, I get about three times as much hum from this as I do from the Analog Man Prince of Tone or Ibanez TS808HW. Still way less hum than a fuzz face. Second is that it doesn't break up the signal as much as I'd like, whereas the fuzz face I previously used had ample breakup but a volume knob that was way too hot. The Maestro Fuzz Tone is a classy looking pedal and sounds really sweet with my new 60's standard Les Paul as one would imagine. Hopefully if there are any future versions of this pedal, those two issues will be addressed.