Fender Blender

if you want a good sound then this is not the pedal for you! i cant remember if there was a manual with it.huh?

i was using this with an american strat and a fender deville, its noisy allright nut not in a good way,it sucks, the effects arent weak at all,there powerfull but bad,if my favourite artist was like jimi hendrix on speed, acid and heroin with broken powertubes in his amp then yeah id be getting pretty close with this thing, its supposed to be a reproduction of like a 70s fuzz box but it just sucks so much more than fuzz and i hate fuzz.

you could definately depend on it to work,its built solid as and you wouldnt want or need a back up, but the sound sucks so i would reccomend that you leave it at home..or on the main highway wheres theres lots of traffic

ive never dealt with fender but had many of there products which are all great...accept this one

i play country-rock music and this pedal isnt good for that...or any style..maybe nirvana. ive been playing for 6 years and had many pedals,this one just isnt good.if it were stolen....unlucky for the person who stole it thats for sure.i love the fact i dont have it anymore and i hate the fact that i had it before.i couldnt compare it to anything cos nothings that bad.it definately is an uninspiring pedal and must have been originally made in CBS days.

I'm still working on getting the right sound out of this monster; I've only had it for a month now. I recommended it to the bassist in my band, who was previously using my Boss HM-3, and looking for something sicker. He hated the octave sound, so i stuck it in my chain and couldn't make myself give it up. The four knobs are pretty self-explanatory, I turned the volume and blend all the way up and the sustain all the way down right from the get-go. But finding the perfect balance with the tone knob is still taking a little bit of work.

But WHY IS THERE NO LED? Very frustrating.

My setup runs as such: Maple neck Fender Stratocaster -> Boss OC-2 Octave -> Fender Blender -> Boss DS-1 -> Ampeg Scrambler (octave effect on this one all the way OFF) -> 50 watt tube Crate 2x12 combo. The Blender sits in front of all the other dirtboxes because i'm using it more for the octave effect/ring modulation insanity than for the fuzz, which is kind of a waste considering how much gain this pedal has. Honestly, I like the Scrambler's octave sound a little better, but that pedal doesn't have a gain knob, and this one doesn't have any way to turn off the octave effect. So i use the Scrambler solely for the fuzz (which it does amazingly well, but that's for a different review) and the Blender solely for octave.

I play in a 3 piece band with a bass player whose life goal is to be as loud and distorted as humanly possible, so finding the right frequencies to fill and be heard is extremely important. As such, I really can't use this pedal all the time. It tends to take away some of the upper mids which are so crucial to being heard over my bassist's behemoth wall of fuzz, so i don't usually switch it on unless i'm playing way high on the neck where i'll be getting all kinds of high frequencies that will sit on top of the mix. Turning on either the Scrambler or the DS-1 helps fill in the frequencies a little bit.

When the Boss OC-2 is switched on, the Blender emphasizes the lower octaves surprisingly well, so I often use the two of them together to get some really sick four-octave-thick sounds. My bassist feels jealous and inadequate.

I am using a reissue model, so the bypass switching sounds fine. Whether it's true bypass or not, i don't know. Don't really care. And the Tone Boost is a joke, when it's off the output is essentially halved. I just leave it on all the time, and roll the tone knob down a bit to compensate.

I haven't had this thing long enough to break it, but I would probably be hard-pressed to do so. The casing is thick as a brick.

See above.

A very unique sound that few people can really appreciate. I really wish it had an LED to tell whether it be on or not, because having 3 distortion pedals running simultaneously makes it difficult to tell in a live setting how many of them are on. And it would be nice to have a knob to effectively roll off the octave sound without changing any other aspects of the tone. The Blend knob is nice, but it's essentially useless. As are the Volume, and the Tone Boost. Which makes 3 out of 5 controls on this pedal purely decorative... Well, I'm sure other people know how to use them. But they don't really do much except compromise your rig's output.

As with all the highly dialable pedals meant to cover a smattering of fuzz color, from cool blue sultry octave up low gain, to the torch of flames belching forth from your amp at high gain settings. Ease of use is really all on your ear, your rig, and your patience level for eaking a useable nuance(or pummeling) from a pedal that will turn droves of inexperiernced guitar players right around to take it(Blender) back to the store from whince it came. At full bore gain settings the Blender will make a loud amp sound somewhat like a swarm of bees, really fuzzy bees that are devouring your amp. I liken it to bees due to it's portense for tipping a fairly stable amp/guitar combo at stage volume into a squelling pig running for it's life if your not on your toes. Mind you that's maybe not a bad thing. It effects each of my amps a little differant so(for me) the non-ease of use,(for me),has been getting it to sound good with several amps on at the same time. Close your eyes Luke, the Force is in your ear canal.
Thus the 8. I'm a picky bastard so I deduct 2 solely because the knobs react in a together kind of fashion.

setup: '66 Guild StarFire III, Mex strat, Ibanez Am73 semi-hollow body->Fulltone Clyde Standard->Fender Blender->TS9-> Ross distortion->maxon SD9->Boss DS-1->MXR 6 band EQ-> AnalogMan Bi-Comp ->DD5->ABY->DLS RotoSim->#35 Provibe->
~'65 Gibson Falcon GA-19RVT 112 combo amp->
1st run MusicMan Sixtey-Five Reverb head->ported MusicMan cab ->SilverTone 1484 head->Weber Ferromax 10" loaded open back cab->
Peavey Classic 100 head->Crate VC212E diagnally loaded close back cab with a Celestion Vintage30 and a Celestion GreenBack.
I deduct 2 for the lack of note clarity at high gain settings.

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I wish the unboosted signal was louder compared to the boost channel. This pedal has a niche there somewhere. It would be nice to be able to adjust the bias on the transistors AKA AnalogMan SunDail. The octave up function is a lesson in coaxing the octave out of your guitar more than the pedal. Touch is key with that. I like the boost better than the un boosted Blender.
Over-all the Reissue Fender Blender is a welcome oddity in a sea of fuzz pedals. It takes some getting used to, worth the time twiddling. This is the kind of pedal that is you couldn't use all night, but strategically placed once in a while will add some new color to your tube amp. I don't think it will fair well in front of a cheap solid state amp.

I just put every knob on 10

It sounds so amazing on my bass. I was using a pignose detonator and/or a big muff PI but then I discovered the Fender Blender. You turn it on and you end up wanting to just hit a note and just listen to it goi9ng,"wow...it's so good!"

it works well.

I don't know.

I play raw nasty rock with a bit of punk and a bit of country mixed in. I am hooked on fuzz bass. THis petal makes my yamaha bb450 and my crappy little amp sound like a jet engine.

Does need some tweaking, depending on your needs and setup. Thankfully all the controls do respond well - it's not all or nothing.
No manual so it is important to know what the controls do. The Sustain controls the amount of effect, while Blend adds it to the clean signal, Tone and Volume as normal. The Boost footswitch boosts your setting of the tone pot. Once set, it's a pussycat.

I gigged for about 10 years but now play at home in a soundproof studio. I am using this exclusivly with smaller Fender valve amps for this review - a 1966 Deluxe reverb and a 1978 Musicmaster, I'm also using a 1963 Stratocaster. I am a bluesman and i am writing this review soley to promote the Fender Blenders virtues as a subtle tone and volume boost rather then the raucous indie type effect it has been portrayed as previously ( and which it obviously suited to as well). In contrast to previous reviews I find the bypass to be excellent with virtually no loss of volume and tone through my tube amps set clean and quite low ( 6/7 ). A Fender amp tech once told me that the trick to avoid noise from effects was to set the pedal at maximum volume and adjust your amp's volume. As I said previously I was looking for a boost to the natural tone of my valve amps especially when set at lower volumes, after about 30 minutes i arrived at this group of settings: Volume 10 ( see note above ), Sustain 3-5, Tone 10, Blend 5. With the boost switch off, i then set my amp volume to a perfect rhythm volume. Thats it - with such good bypass i can leave the unit's on/off switch on, then use the boost switch to lift the volume and tone for solos. With these settings you can still get the full charachter of your amp coming through but the subtle tone and sustain boost allows you to do this at lower volume - effectivly giving you the tone and charachter of an overdriven valve amp at controllable volume, my amp sounds as good on volume 6 as it does on 10! I would also add that this more subtle gain also allows full tonal access to the guitar - you can hear all 5 positions on the strat - this is often lost when using too much gain. One note - as previous reviews have indicated, i do find the overall charachter of the pedal quite dark, hence the tone set to 10 and the boost switch on for lead work - very similar to the top boost and cut settings on an ac30. The sustain can sound a little raucous when you play commando but sounds very smooth with backing - somewhere between clapton ( after his lace sensor/banal sustain period ) and rory gallagher.

The pots date this unit to 1968 so it's knocking on 40 years old and still sounds great! slight concerns over the lack of battery retraint in the casing but she won't be going far in my custody.

Obviously no warranties still valid but a wealth of schematics, advice and opinion on the net

As i said before i'm a bluesman and would recommend this to anyone for that purpose. I have a few other vintage effects - 1968 Vox Wah, 1970's Colorsound Overdriver and Swell pedals and a 1983 first issue Ts9. In all honesty i bought the unit out of curiosity and as an addition to my vintage collection, but it's blown me away - very,very useful to me in my home studio set up at lower volumes.

Volume, sustain (compression), tone, blend (gain), on/off and boost footswitch. Battery powered only (will not take an adaptor). Definitely NOT TRUE BYPASS. I A/Bed the pedal with a true-bypass looper, and there is a significant loss of volume and tone when the pedal is off, compared to bypassed. I would not use this pedal without a true-bypass looper switch (which can be a bitch to set up). Despite that, the Blender is a great effect. If you crank the knobs you get a unique ring modulation/heavy fuzz (noise city). On lower settings you can get some old-fashioned fuzz+octave sounds.

(used SG with P-90s> Peavey Delta Blues 2x10) Big. Fat. Bassy. Tonally shaped like a pyramid (big bottom with a little pointy top). It is a little dark in normal mode, but the boost is super BRIGHT (and super loud). Though the boost is bright, none of the aforementioned bass is lost- it just sounds as big as ever!
It offers a lot of fuzz, and the harder you play, the fuzzier it gets. The softer you play, the cleaner it gets! Very dynamic. But be careful when playing two notes at the same time; you?ll get ring-modulation, and it can sound pretty discordant. However, the softer you play, the less ring-modulation!
There is also an upper octave in the fuzz. The octave isn?t as obvious sounding as a 12-string guitar, or a harmonizer. It is subtle. It sounds more like an overtone. It blends with the fuzz very nicely, but it comes out more when you rub the strings against the frets (vibrato, or hammer-on).
The sustain knob offers an insane amount of compression. It can compress to the point that, if you strike a full chord and let it ring, your attack is virtually non-existent and your sustain volume grows till it?s shaking the room!
For the amount of gain and noise it makes when you?re playing, this thing is dead quiet when you?re not playing. Even with my P-90s and everything on the pedal cranked, there is little noise- negligible noise.
Carbon/zinc batteries did not affect the tone of the Blender (no different than alkaline).
There is a major tone and volume suck when the pedal is off. It is NOT TRUE BYPASS, and I would not use this pedal without a true-bypass looper switch (which is a bitch to set up and takes up space).
Playing leads, the Blender can sound very 70s psychedelic. It often reminds me of Pink Floyd or Jimi Hendrix (solo near the end of Purple Haze), or Jimmy Page?s solo in Whole Lotta Love. It can sound a bit more modern (Pumpkins or Nine Inch Nails) when playing hard rhythm.

RONSOUND FLENDER COMPARISON
The Ronsound Flender is a Fender Blender clone. It is $185, TRUE BYPASS (total bypass, 3pdt footswitches with 2 LED indicators), and takes a standard 9v AC adaptor.
The Ronsound Flender sounds exactly the same as the Fender Blender, except it has little bit more edge to its fuzz, and doesn?t ?clean up? as easily. The Fender Blender fuzz is slightly smoother or ?creamier;? just a little less harsh than the Flender. Don?t get me wrong, both pedals can get as harsh as hell, and sounded identical till I started looking for differences. At first listen, I thought the Flender was quieter than the Blender, but I found that they just hum at slightly different frequencies- the Flender hums more in the upper mids, while the Blender hums more in the lower mids. Neither hums more than the other- they are both super quiet. The Flender might have a little more bite in the upper mids than the Blender. The Blender sounds slightly warmer. But, most importantly, the Flender does not phase out the ring-modulation the lighter you play. I tried turning down my guitar?s volume as far as possible, and playing as lightly as possible, but the Flender kept giving me the discordant ring-modulation effect. The Fender Blender does not do that; It cleans up everything -fuzz, ring modulation, and octave- when you play lightly.
To further my inspection, I tried the Flender with a carbon/zinc battery, and did not notice any change in sound. Every other sonic feature the pedal has is identical to the original Blender.
In conclusion:
The Ronsound Flender is edgier, not quite as warm & smooth, and does not clean up as well as the original Fender Blender. If you want a great, unique noise maker, I recommend the Flender. The true bypass is a must-have, and the price difference is remarkable. However, the original Fender Blender is not only more pleasant to the ear, it is more versatile and musical. It?s also way overpriced and sucks tone when it?s off.

Looks like thick aluminum. There?s a small crack/hole in the back that has been covered with tape. There?s nothing holding the battery inside except for the power connector- could possibly cause a problem if it gets shaken up, or an old battery starts leaking. But in the two years I?ve had it, the pedal has never let me down or done anything weird. I can depend on it.

N/A

Great, unique pedal. Better for noisier, dirtier music. Wish it had true bypass. Wish it didn?t cost so much. For much less money, the RonSound Flender is worth it. I haven't tried the Fender re-issue Blender yet, but I'm skepticle the great original can be reproduced.

It takes a lot of tweaking. Ultimately, I found less is more when it comes to sustain and blend. If you just want to make ugly dissonant farting sounds, just turn everything to 10 and hit the boost.

My Setup is Am. Strat Plus (w/ hot rails) or 72 tele deluxe reissue> Fender Blender> Thomas Organ Crybaby (CA)> Boss CS-2> Tonebone HB> HBE Powerscreamer> Boss DD-6> Boss EH2> Dano Fish and Chips> Hush Systems "The Pedal"> Fender HotRod DeVille 2x12.

Surprisingly, this pedal is dead quiet. I've been playing around with it, trying different settings and positions in my chain. Basically, this thing needs to be first, even before the wah. The volume on the normal setting is still too low compared to any thing on my pedalboard, or clean. The Boost is just f@#king ridiculously loud, but a cool effect.

When this pedal is set to full bore, its pretty much unusable except for making noise. "Fuzz" is not a strong enough word for what this thing puts out. Even with with the volume low (really low), it rattles everything in my house. It's pretty freaky.

Anyway, I found that when you roll back the sustain (gain) to about 4 and the blend to about 7-1/2, this thing is a whole different animal. It's got a real warm feel, chords are rich and bloomy.
But the volume thing is still an issue.

I've found that running my Tonebone hot brittish after it, really solves this problem. It doesn't change the character of the Blender. I can still get some sick tones when I turn up the blend and sustain knobs. But it evens out the Blenders volume. It fits right in with the rest of the board.
It also mellows out the boost so that everyone won't run screaming from the stage when I step on it. I get the same effect when I use it with the Power screammer too, but its a bassier tone, not as much edge.

The boost also provides an octave up effect and ring modulation. These disappear when you roll the blend knob back to far as it mixxes in the clean guitar signal. The blend knob is also the key for getting chords to sound better. When set at ten you get some very spacey sounds, but chords sound like the guitar is out of tune.

I think my volume issue might be due to some dried out capacitors, but I've also heard that they all like that. Otherwise, this thing is 36 years old, all original and works great. That's pretty reliable.

Blender Who?

I've been playing rock/blues fro over twenty years. I love this pedal, just for it's uniqueness. If it were stolen, I would cry for a few days and then go by a clone from Ronsound.com.

first, this refers to the 4, not the 3.

i rate it as i do because getting useful tones calls for patience, tweaking, and other general tweaking between amp, unit, and guitar. be patient with her, and she'll reward you something fierce!!

the believers are to be believed...this is the mother-lode of fuzz. (again, when applied properly...gingerly, even!)

amps are vox ac30, peavey classic 50 4x10. guitars are ibanez talman 3 lipstic, squier jagmaster (2nd issue, from 2k2), and jay turser surf master. other efx are spare, and never applied when the blender is running.

since most of you are looking at this cause billy corgan said that kevin from my bloody valentine said it rocks, try facing your amps together, run the blender through the "clean" amp, and use just a bit of bright gain on the "dirty"...place mic between the two...hit record...

instant wash of sonic ecstasy

as has been stated....sucks batteries like a golddigger who's just been given a diamond.

heh...thats funny.

yes, i traded this to a disgruntled fool who thought he'd bought a piece of tonal crap. even better, it was a pathetic excuse for a bass guitar that i pieced together from spare bits were lying about!

thats the trouble with this much maligned unit, kids...you gotta treat it with respect and curiosity. you can't just plug it in and turn it up and expect anything useful. play with it a bit...in tandem with the gear its attatched to, and you'll be pleased.

if it were stolen or lost, i'd kill everyone who got in my way of recovering it!

it helps me add texture to music, however if i were foolish enough to try and write a song with only it, a guitar, and an amp from scratch...well, i'd have to call the song "scratch", wouldn't i?

i've been playing for 22 years, and the other gear i own is far too long a list.

the style of music i play is kind of valentine/sigur ros/radiohead/u2 ish...

thankyou...goode niite.

it takes time to tweak it...trust me..

Fender Jazzmaster re-issue / Fender Cyclone / Fender Std Japanese Stratocaster --> Earnie ball volume --> Mutron Wah --> Pro Co Rat vintage --> BOSS Fz-3 fuzz --> Fender Blender --> Electro Harmonix Big Muff russian Pie [modded for true bypass] --> Electro Harmonix Small Clone chorus --> BOSS CE-2 chorus --> BOSS BF-2 flanger --> Ibanez PH7 4/8 stage phaser --> BOSS DD-3 digital delay --> Electro Harmonix Holier Grail reverb --> Rocktron Distortion [for white noise application] --> Ibanez LoFi pedal [for noise as well] --> MoogerFooger Ring Modulator with expression pedal -----> Fender Twin Reverb / Fender Hot Rod / Peavey blazer 158 paired with a Bassman copy for noise intermission...

okay..it is pretty obvious that i play in an experimental / noise / stoner rock band...so the usage of multiple fuzz / distortion / modulation effects are a necessity to me...

As for Fender Blender...this thing sounds TERRIBLY GOOD...if u're new to the world of fuzz...dont buy it...for comparison...it sounds like a guitar playing thru a ripped speaker...constant rattling and fuzzing...this is is soo fuzzy...sometimes..u cant even hear what u're playing on your guitar...makes your guitar into some white noise machine...but it serves its purpose to me...i only used the blender when i need a wall of fuzz ala My bloody valentine type of riffs...

yeah if u have Smashing Pumpkin's Vieuphoria documentry...check out the part when they performed "Slunk" in some japanese program...Billy corgan used a Fender Blender for that show...

yeah...never broke down on me before
but eats battery like hell..

nil..

Suite my playing style well..
if this thing is stolen or lost...i would go on a bloodbath massacre...cuz this is like the holy grail of all fuzz...and its friggin rare...

4 knobs , 2 switches....just can't get a usable sound from it.

Thin, extreme, sterile, undynamic, unmusical, harsh, irritating, over the top, unusable, etc...

I don't get it. These things are selling for over $300 on eBay and the one I played over the weekend (a friend of mine has had this pristine one in a box for the last 25 years)and as much as I love fuzz and the Smashing Pumpkins and all...I hated it! I spent an hour with it! Yuk!

I'll stick with my 5 vintage Electro Harmonix pedals! I have 3 old Big Muffs, an old Hot Tubes and an old Deluxe Big Muff. These pedals all have very different tones from each other and yet all sound 1000% better than the Blender. No 2 Big Muffs are alike! Some are quite suitable for mellower rock while other are just insane. I hate the Russian Big Muffs. I tried a new USA Muff but was unimpressed.

I will say that Fender built this thing well. Knobs are well protected from being stepped upon! Solid container. The placement of the battery is sketchy as it can fly around inside.

I've been playing since 1969. I play blues, rock, grunge and metal. I play rythym and lead. I play in a church band and do a show every Sunday. I have 5 vintage Marshall half stacks and a real 1964 Stratocaster I bought from Norms Rare Guitars in Reseda back in 1979.

I have over 50 old effects pedals from over the years.

If this pedal was stolen my friend would have killed me.

It's over the top fuzz is useless. I have a Big Muff that is more extreme but is at least fat and dynamic. Far more musical than this lifeless noise box.

I read somewhere that Billy from Smashing Pumpkins mentioned that the Fender Blender had tons of drive. This must be the reason that people are throwing $$$$ out the window to buy these things. I don't know of any band who has ever used one. You know Billy uses Big Muffs. However, if you have ever seen the Smashing Pumpkins video where they are playing in Japan on a TV show...at first I thought Billy's amp was fried but it was the same sound the Flender Blender produces.