Fender Blender

Extremely Easy. suprisingly versitile. (that's right $5 at a garage sale! I got lucky.)

I've run this through a '69 super reverb in a 2-12 cabinet playing a Gibson Explorer XPL, Fender Coronado, Cortez 175 lawsuit copy, and various other oddities through it. A very nice hendrix-like distortion. It gets a little too crazy for some of my hollowbodies but all in all it's a great distortion.

It is very dependable. Strangely though I haven't had any excessive battery drain that I've Heard about from other reviews. I would not use any distortion pedal on a gig without a backup.

good luck!!! Schematics are available on various websites. Anyone who can solder could work on one of these. (I don't know that I'd trust just anyone though. I like this too much!)

I play about any type of music that strikes me as interesting (pretty much everything except new country and teen crap pop). I've been playing for 3 years. It's a nice kind of Hendrix-like destroy-your-sound type of distortion. Other than this I pretty much just crank up tube amps for distortion. If it were lost or stolen I doubt I would since finding one for $5 is a pretty bizarre event

very easy, just turn all the knobs to 10 and play.

I use Fender strats, through a Fender Twin Reverb, my other effects are a Boss DS-1, Crybaby Wah, Digitech Whammy pedal, EH Poly Chorus and EH Small Clone. Not noisy until you switch it on, then its beautifully loud.

It seems like it built well, I've only had it a couple of weeks but it seems good.

Good luck, they obviously dont support them anymore.

I think this is a great pedal, very sick distortion sound which is good. I would defenitly buy it again if I could find another, the only problem I can come up with for this pedal is that the plugs are backwards, in other words, you plug the guitar in on the left side and the amp on the right side unlike more other pedals, but its not a big deal.

Very simple pedal. I use it mostly for Bass with the tone & fuzz all the way up and with some clean "Blended" in so there still low-end.

The sound quality is great in the sense that it sounds wonderfully bad. It's noisy and will crap out when you play hard because the hamonics are way over the top. When I step on the tone boost switch one of mine freaks out and feeds back like crazy if I'm within 10 or so feet of the amp. The other will only feed back alittle (so I don't use it as much.)

Very dependable. It's built really well. Some people complain that the battery dies quickly on them and with no warning, but mine is great: batteries last a long time.

Don't kid yourself.

If you have the means I highly reccomend it.

With this pedal its pretty easy to get the basic blender sound but its difficult to really get the amazing sound out of it is most definetly capable of. I was able to the get the manual which doesn't give any hints beyond saying the knob labeled tone is actually a tone knob and other statements of the obvious. another thing although i guess its this way with other pedals, but this one especially, is everytime you change a guitar on stage you've got to readjust the settings because it can come out sounding awful if you have it set for a strat style guitar then switch to a les paul style.

I use a hamer that runs through the blender and a couple other pedals into a digitech 2102 studio where the signal is split between a marshall head powering a 2x12 cabinet and the other into a fender blues deville 4x10. The Marshall side of this sounds great, the harmonics ring perfectly and the tone is awesome. The fender side however requires a lot of fine tuning. I have to role the presence off and the mid & low down to 4 for the harmonics to really stand out. When I have the rig all turned up it is very quiet but as soon as i step on the blender, without out even playing a note the thing starts making the speakers buzz. Any I mostly listen to modern rock and some classic rock and this thing is great for both. There really isn't a better pedal for imitating the pumpkins sound. This is the only pedal where I can get anything near the sound of the solo on cherub rawk. And with spending hundreds more this pedal is one of the better ones for copying hendrix's crazy shit. It should be noted though that this guitar has no use for rythym guitar players. it sucks....it sounds like a squall, the note becomes indecipherable when you strike a chord.

always worked. never had any problem. much better than the new pedal designs being used. the only thing that is difficult is that there is no indicator light, that can hint when the battery is wearing thin...so the only way you can tell is by being to hear the gradual decline in volume which sucks if its during a gig, or unscrew the thing and use a battery tester.

i doubt it.

this pedal is great for a particular sound which has very limited use. I hear of a lot of people spending a couple hundred dollars on these things now which I think is ridiculous. While they do have a pretty special sound, other things can be used to mimic it at a much cheaper price. for instance I had a big muff running into my amp, with my amp set at 10 treble, 7 mid, 6 bass, and was able to get pretty close. also I would recommend buying a processor instead where you can get a much more universal use and get extremely close. On the digitech 2101 if you mess around with phaser, dry tube distortion, a little delay and the equalizer you can get extremely close. Overall unless you have tons of money to spend I would not recommend buyuing one, they have one sound though it's pretty cool, it's really not worth 200-300 bucks.

Simple to get a good sound because all it seems to make are good sounds. The four controls are extremely easy to figure out (O Volume, O Sustain, O Tone, and O Blend.) Two footswitch pedal (On/Off and Tone Boost.) It's basically a fuzz with an added upper octave (more like the Tycobrahe Octavia than the original Roger Mayer [what Jimi used] though.)

I use it with a Dunlop Crybaby Wah, occasionally a violin bow, a Rickenbacker 330, and a Mesa DC-2 or Fender Bandmaster. It's a pretty quiet pedal considering all the fuzz and sustain it has. Even with the Sustain, Tone, and Blend all the way up, it doesn't feedback when used with the Bandmaster. It does cause the Mesa to feedback but that's nothing unusual, it always feeds back (even with the gain way down on the distorted channels.) Can get the Purple Haze and Fire Octavia sounds pretty good though you here more of the upper octave than an equal of both octaves. My favorite guitar players are Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Jimmy Page, Steve Hackett, Robin Trower, and Steve Howe. As I said before, you can get some Jimi sounds--especially his version of the Star-Spangled Banner. I also saw in guitar player that Robin Trower used one. I mostly used it for making new sounds or making leads more exciting. It almost gets a Flanger regeneration sound with a lost of sustain. Also works great with the Mesa's gain maxed to almost get an Arp sound. If you're just looking for a pedal for using with chords, this probably isn't unless you like excessive musicless noise like heavy metal, which I don't!

I would definitely use it without a backup? Why buy something you need a backup for? The knobs are also all protected by sitting down in the aluminum casing so they won't get bumped when used. The pedal itself is two pieces aluminum which slide together and are mounted together by only one screw (my biggest complaint) though it's really not a concern. Definitely roadworthy!

Mine was made in 1973 so I really doubt the new Fender would even know what a Fender Blender is. If they what they were they problem reissue them (well--if they had any sense which I don't think they do!)

I'm 15 years old and mostly play classic (Beatles, Cream, Hendrix, Santana, Led Zeppelin) and progressive (Genesis, Yes) rock. I don't play any 90's music because it basically sucks! I've been playing for probably 4 or 5 years and would definitely buy another if it was stolen and I could find another one. I didn't compare it to anything else because I really don't know of anything totally like it but played my dad's friend's and knew I needed one. They have a pretty high selling price so if you find one for a low price like I did, buy it because you'll probably love it.

four knobs (volume, sustain, tone, blend) and two switches (on/off, tone boost). the guitar input is on the left side and amp input is on the right, whereas just about all other pedals are the other way around.

it's defintely an old fuzz. mine is circa late 60's early 70's. the pots say they're from '68 and '69. it's not the smoothest fuzz i've heard, but it's pretty sickening. great for adding another notch over the fuzz sound you have. the sound is very dry, so don't get confused, this is a fuzz pedal, not a distortion pedal. also, it's got a built in compressor, so the sound will change depending on how hard you strum. the sustain that the instruction manual brags about isn't that big of a deal, the true sustain still comes from your guitar. you can get better sustain with a sustainer pedal. there is a trick to this pedal: when you roll either the blend or the sustain under 3 or 4, the fuzz will decrease a lot.

pretty strong casing, but it's still made out of sheet metal back in the 60/70's, so not as strong as say, a boss or mxr pedal. i've been using the first battery for quite some time and the sound is still the same.

never called fender.

rare and old. if you're into vintage pedals, get one while you can, the prices are going up everyday. it's best used in studio rather than on stage, but whatever floats your boat. if you want a smooth, long sustaining pedal, this isn't your best bet...instead go get the older big muffs. the blender is a great pedal and it's not hard to find an awesome tone. use it carefully and wisely.

Honestly, this thing is a piece of useless, noisy garbage. I have used it to punch thru for solo's but the signal DESTROYS the tone of my '70 Les Paul thru an over driven Orange head. I like it cause it's quirky, but it's not worth any recent hype. (ie: Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters...).

1970 Les Paul Custon usually dirty thru an old Orange overdrive head and cabinet. 10 being the noisiest, this thing is a 20. I tried the alkaline/ray-o-vac battery thing and it really made no "audible" difference. I suppose Fuzz was meant to be noisy...If your lookin for that long droney Smashing Pumpkins sound you will be hard pressed to find it with just a Blender. Add another $2000 in processing and maybe you'll get close.

Eats batteries like a mofo....I only use it in 2 songs, and then only briefly. It is however, built like a tank.

The good people at fender never heard of the thing.

I like old pedals....although they are usually big and require custom work to fit into my pedal board. In the studio they are a dream because you can produce and over-produce until the sound is A+...On stage it's another story altogether....Old pedals usually don't have led's so u can't even tell if the thing is on or not, and in the case of the Blender, there are 2 swithches to worry about.

The pedal is from 1970. A bit tricky to dial in. I thought the tone was broken, but it's just that mild. The key is the blend nob. It allows for the adjustment of the Octave effect. The tone boost jumps the output, almost to an out of control level. The effect itself is ""Outrageous."" There is one catch; it seems to work best with single note solo's.

If you don't get it, you don't get it. Pal, this is the best Octavia that I've heard. This pedal is best for Hendrix style Octavia effects similar to Woodstock. I realize the closest Octavia may be the Tychobrahe, but who wants to fork out that much. I believe that is what this pedal was designed to replicate, and it does a very good job at it. Robin Trower used this pedal extensively. You have to get used to the whole Octavia formula, which means it has to be used at the higher frets for maximum effect.

This thing is built well, however it is aluminum, which means a mike stand could extinguish it. As for service, bring it to a vintage tech. It has many rare transistors and diodes.

Fender is still around, but I doubt they would have any of the vintage parts left.

I don't have a Tychobrahe, and probably never will at the price they suggest,so I'll stick with this. I've compared a Fulltone Octavefuzz with it. I think the Octavefuzz is unbelievable, but the Blender takes it one notch higher. Get them while you can. I hear many top grunge players, including Billy Corgan are using this, so expect prices to go up. I love the vintage nature and sound of these old Fender units. All Transistors, all Germanium diodes with freaky old caps. You can't replicate the vintage nature of these pedals. It's like time stood still with them.

The Fender Blender is a fuzz box, which are always simple to use. It has 4 knobies and 2 footswitches. There are volume, sustain(fuzz), tone, and blend(octave?). There is a regular on/off switch and a tone boost switch which increases the fuzz & octave effect. I am unsure about the blend feature, it is how it got the name, but I don't know what the fuck it does! To use this pedal for its full impact keep everything on ten, trust me. Since you don't have to make any adjustments, this is the easiest pedal on earth besides the maestro ps-1a.

This fuzz sounds really bad. You can't distinguish any chords and the sound is totally abrasive. I love this pedal! I use it for weird momments in songs or solos. Never have I heard anything like it. It is gained to the max, and spiced up with a shrilly octave effect. Use it to just make noise, it is a wonderful "must have" novelty item. The octave effect is really bad, completely toneless. I don't know why they made this, there would be no commercial success. I am totally glad they did though, and same with many experimental guitarists. This thing is awesome. Good by itself with loud volume, and really good to layer over another fuzz like a big muff or a tube distortion.

Its old, who cares, I am just glad I bought. i does eat batteries though, but i use it about 10% of the time so it doesn't bother me.

its too old, damn you.

buy it now!bbbbb

4 Knobs (Volume, Sustain, Tone and Blend) and two footswitches (On/Off and "Tone Boost"). Fairly self-explanatory/intuitive, but this thing is not something you casually decide to suddenly start using without some considered experimentation beforehand, owing to its 100 Megaton first strike capabilty for very, very sick distortion, infinite sustain, and did I mention hitting tone boost with the tone, blend, and sustain controls set to more than 6 or so WILL result in bleeding ears and massive feedback.
A subtlety not mentioned in reviews so far is that tone boost accents the tone or boost selected by the tone control, either boosted treble OR boosted bass.
The "Blend" feature is very cool, and works great. See the other posts.
I have the instruction manual. It somewhat casually describes the Blender's ability for infinite sustain as follows: "To check the superiority of the Blender over any other effect available, pick a low string, and after about 15 seconds, advance the sustain control. Although the string cannot be heard without the Blender, by advancing the sustain control, you will be able to hear that the string is still vibrating." I suspect that this thing will sustain a plucked note as long as the battery lasts...

I play a Strat (25th Anniversary) and a '66 BF Deluxe reverb. I have a Vox crybaby wah, occasionally I use a Boss Chorus for grins.
It sounds terrible, and it knows it. It's supposed to. It's part of its charm... Yes, it's noisy. It's part of its charm...
Are the effects weak? Heh, heh. There is nothing weak about this pedal. It takes no prisoners. It is wanted for heinous offenses in 4 states.
I have carefully considered the sounds you can get. Grunge/thrash that is unimaginable. Boosted highs/lows that will fry ears/speakers/piss of band mates in a second. You can easily replicate Hendrix Band Of Gypsies type sounds, which, now that I think of it, is why I bought it in 1971 (I'm the original owner!). Also good for Doors stuff, like the feedback solo on "When The Music's Over", no shit. Old Steppenwolf (Pusher Man), Iron Butterfly InAGaddaDaVida, for christ's sake...
It tends to be a little on the dry side, though.

Stone reliable, very strongly/well built, with one quibble: the back cover is held on with only a single coin turn-screw and tends to come loose, which does then allow the pedal to slide around a bit under foot.

I can't believe that it is now supported in any way. If you pop one of the transistors or diodes in it, probably will be VERY tough to get an exact replacement. Now that I have it open, it does have some of the prettiest painted components I've ever seen - the color code on the silver mica caps looks like Hopi war paint.

I have to be in the mood to use it, my musical taste/style has evolved to more straight ahead blues/rock using a classic Fender tone without effects. I do love its ability to get a Hendrix thing going. At the time I bought it, I had a Big Muff Pi, which I recall using a lot more, overall, than the Blender. I'm considering selling/trading it, but because it is now a classic/vintage piece and pretty much unique, I would have to get a decent $/trade for it.