Fender Blender

First, I would love to meet the man who engineered this product. I ask because i have seen many of fender products, older products, That could produce the most amazing sounds with the most simple and least expensive electronical conponents known to an engineere as primative! A Transistor, 2 capacitors and a few resistors coupled with a switch and a variable resistor made one of the best sounds a guitar could possibly make. This is not opinion, this is a fact. A Fuzz Face! Now i look at the engineering behind the sounds of these products, (Fender Blender, ect), and ask myself why is it that these products sound like ****? With double the components and less sound capabuilities these days i wounder if your just getting screwed by who ever is producing this ****. Im sorry but test your **** before you go bankrupt, I know kids these days dont know what a good sound is, however it would be nice if someone could actually bring back the definition of sound!!! Its simple, find a man named jamie Ward in New York, geneva area, and ask him about a man named jim bracket.
THis man will bring back your sound and keep your business going.

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before.i couldnt compare it to anything cos nothings that bad.it definately is an uninspiring pedal and must have been originally made in CBS days.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.

3-Knob version, easy as pie to use. Given to me as a gift. I mostly used the sustain feature. Never got a manual for it.

The Fender Blender was the first pedal that I really enjoyed the sound of. The Little Big Muff and the Small Stone didnt make it for me, I was looking for sustain and found it with the Blender. I used to use it with my 76 L.P. Custom, now it sits pretty much unused.I started out with a solid state Kustom and it helped a lot, I moved up to a Bassman for a guitar amp and it was louder, with the Bandmaster Reverb, it works pretty good. the "fuzz" is intense to say the least.

The Blender always worked, but with a wall wort it seems to have 60 hz humm in it. Now the battery will not work and it can only be used with AC power...hence ..a humm....bummer..I retired it.

Now that theres the internet, I see schematics, I may have an old TV repair guy look at it.

easier to say what styles I do not play. Playing since 1967..do the math. Other gear? Is there room here? ZOOM 606 pedal(the mother of all pedals) 76 LesPaulCustom, 73 Tele(natural Ash body white pickguard), Ovation Celebrity Deluxe, Kramer "The Duke" headless bass, 70's Bassman, early 60's Fender Reverb tubetype, mid-'70's Bandmaster Reverb, 2 Fender Cabs one with 2-15's, one with 2-12's, Hughes -Kettner 60 watter solid state, Gorilla carry around (nice sound), Peavey 12 ch/stereo mixer, Furman voltage conditioner, Furman 31 band stereo E.Q., ART stereo 3-way crossover, Alesis MidiverbII , Alesis stereo compressor/limiter, (2)Peavey CSX 800's, 4-JBL Voice of the Theatre Perkins Bins, 2-JBL 2426J compression driver horns with Altec H-11(?) steel bells. Most all of my gear is irreplaceable, I chose the Zoom 606 over the Line6 Pod. I need a trailer and a roadie with a strong back now days to move it from gig to gig. Am I too old for this yet? The Zoom pedal is the latest addition to my gear, and just when I thought I had enough instruments...I am messin with the mandolin...I intend to purchase an M-Audio Delta1010 sound card for hard drive recording when the price comes down.

Okay, I'll try not to say anything about this pedal that hasn't been said below, but my favorite fuzz is the Blender, and I have/had many fuzzes. But, I'll be reviewing the harder-to-find 3 knob version, just to mix it up--I do also own the 4 knob version (Go to sonicflux.com to see, they're selling a 3-knob as of this writting). With 3 knobs and only one foot switch, obviously it's much easier to use. It has LEVEL, SUSTAIN (fuzz amount), and tone select--and that's the special thing about this pedal. Whereas you get the 2 tone choices when you step on the right switch on the 4-knob version, they've put the tone selection preference in the center knob. It has 4 selections you click to, one is a clean boost (which bypasses the SUSTAIN knob), the other 3 are the fuzz tones. Two are the same that you get with the 4-knob (a trebly one and a mid-rangey one). The last tone selection is a BASS fuzz. Yeah, you heard right. You lose some tweekability without the BLEND knob, and you can't select between tones with your foot (the switch is only for on/off), but that added BASS fuzz is pretty cool, especially with the Blender sound that is fairly well-described below. Pretty easy to use--that's about it.
Actually, it did come with a manual--pretty cool. Also has an AC jack, some thing I wish the other 4 knobber had.

I won't elaborate on what's been said except to say that this is fuzz, people. Don't expect to play Stairway to Heaven broken chords through it. If you want fuzz, this is the place, though...

See below. Aluminum case should hold up fairly well...

See below...

I think I did pretty well considering I've only seen one other 3 knob version in all my years (been playing casually for about 20 years), and that one's about twice what I paid due to the rarity. I still like the 4 knobber better--nothing beats the BLEND knob and the second switch for tone select. It still gets that BLENDER sound, awesome over-the-top, Germanium-grinding fuzz with a wierd octave thing. A little less tweekability, but an extra tone selection makes it unique. A real gem in my collection. For fuzzes, I also have a Unicord Uni-Fuzz (similar fuzz, but not as much Octavia effect-see my review), a Sam Ash Fuzzola (same as the Uni-Fuzz), and a Foxx Tone Machine (my favorite after the Blender--raspier with that specificly-pitched octave switch effect).
Hope this review has been enlightening, and NO, it's not for sale, unless you have ridiculous money to spend...
I won't leave my email because I don't want a million messages, but you resourceful internet people can probably find me if you NEED to. There aren't too many homemikeys around.

The pedal is not exactly complex, but it's not Boss DS-1 simple either. You can't just plug in and play, it takes a little adjustment (particularly the blend and tone) to get a good sound.

Holy christ on a crutch, does this thing sound awesome. I bought it sight-unseen after I saw Giddy Motors play live through one of these, and I can't tell you how much better it sounds than any other distortion pedal on the market. The amount depth it has is stunning. And the sound is not typical fuzz or distortion......it's like an out of control Soldano Supercharger or Harmonic Percolator, both of which I own and love (played into a Peavey Classic).

The "boost" switch is almost like a ring modulator or flanging effect...it just puts the sound over the top and out of control.

I thought that all the rumors of this thing's sound were exaggerated until I heard one on "Make it Pop" and then played one myself. It really is insane.

The battery goes very, very quickly. Other than that, fine.

n/a

The myths are true, this thing really is the most over-the-top pedal you can find. I don't know what Fender was trying to do when they made this thing, but obviously it wasn't exactly what they expected because it was discontinued quickly.

This thing would have little or no use if you play jazz, blues, and all that stuff. You'd have to be ready to play some fairly harsh music in order to really be happy with this, but if that's what you're looking for, this is it.

This pedal is about as easy to use as any other standard fuzz pedal. Personally, I think that every fuzz out there should have a Blend knob. That has to the the most useful idea for an effect ever. The only thing that really sucks about the layout of this pedal is that the guitar input is on the left side, and the amp output is on the right side (anybody have a Russian Big Muff will understand this frustration).

Whew.....this is one intense fuzz. My current setup is a variety of Gibsons (two Les Paul Customs, a Flying V, and a SG Standard) into a Marshall Super Lead and a 5150 II at the same time. I also have a Sovtek MIG100H that I use from time to time. I have countless pedals, but I pretty much use a Boss CE-1, Zvex Lo-fi Loop Junky, Fuzz Probe, Super Hard-On and Octane, Ross Phaser, Ibanez FL-9, and two Ibanez AD-9's and a Line 6 Echo Pro. The Blender has the most fuzz out of any pedal that I've ever heard so far. This thing has more gain on two than a Big Muff on ten! Then, if you REALLY want to get your hands dirty, kick on the tone boost, otherwise known as the octave switch. JESUS! The octave has a VERY fast attack on it; you don't have to shake the strings to get it to really ring out. It's very present on the low strings, just as much as it is on the upper frets. This is the only octave fuzz that I've ever played the the octave doesn't get washed out on the lower frets on the low E string. This pedal in front of a driven non-master volume amp (like a Marshall Super Lead) produces a tone that is UNMATCHED. Incredible fuzz......

The casing doesn't have a clip to keep the battery from flopping around in the pedal. Because of this, the battery smacked into one of the diodes next to it, and broke it. I had to replace the diode; luckily, that part still is pretty easy to find.

It sucks batteries dry, and the bypass sucks. Get yourself a good DPDT switch, and possibly a 9-volt battery clip adapter that's filtered for noise.

I doubt anybody working at Fender now would even remember this piece of music history.....I wish that they would start making them again.

I play mostly progressive rock in the King Crimson vien. I love fuzz, and I try to play everything that is available in that category (this can take years, folks :P). Most octave pedals have a very soft octave sound, like my other favorite octave pedal, the Zvex Octane. This one punches you in the face it's so present in the sound.....it's really nasty, and I love it.

Great pedal, but you must experiment a bit with it. The blend knob and tone boost are great ideas, and very useful! Can cover a wide range of sounds from subtle sonic backing to all-out robotic death!

I bought this from a used music store. Some guy had about 4 of them in his basement from when he used to play bass and just decided to get rid of them. I couldn't believe I stumbled upon one of them at this music store for the price. I was looking for one, but Ebay was running them for $250 or more at the time. Some other kid had his eye on it for the same reasons, but he had gone home earlier that day to get $100 dollars to buy it. Hadn't returned in a few hours, so the shopkeeper offered to sell it to me for $110. You snooze, you lose. Kid's probably pissed off now, I hope he finds one !)

I run a Samick strat-copy into a Creamy Dreamer, which goes into the Fender Blender, to a DOD FX 90 Delay (another great pedal!), and finally out to a Line 6 2x12 Spider combo. The sound quality is a bit tricky at first, but once you get it down this pedal is very versatile! You can get Out-of-this-world Fuzz with a unique octive effect. The best additions are the blend knob and tone boost fuctions. With a little bit of tweaking, you can blend your original clean guitar tone with the hairy fuzz effect, which allows you to play chords clearly with no problem! This pedal provides a great sonic backdrop to your sound if used in a subtle mannner and can cover a wide range of sounds, while still remaining unique and original. Another plus is that it doesn't color your tone in any way when switched off or bypassed.

I bought it used from a pawn shop. When I brought it home, the footswitch buttons sometimes cut out. They seemed to be just dirty contacts (this pedal is old after all). I changed the buttons and the input jack, and there was no problem afterwards. I've never had any probs with the actual circuitry, but I've never really with it either. I mainly use this pedal in my home studio and for private practice about 3 times a week at low volume.

Fender Blender? Eh? They make kitchen appliances?

Thank goodness there's some schematics on the internet if I ever really need them.

Great pedal to own. Very good if you want something different in your setup. This pedal handles other pedals very well, and can be molded in a useful manner for many kinds of music. I mostly use it for Alternative Rock and Underground Rock to get a great lo-fi sound, and I use it to play some blues for the same reason.

I love the versatility of this pedal, but sometimes the unique octive effect is a little too muddy and uncontrollable. If I could change one thing on this pedal it would be to add a control for the octive effect. I really can't compare it to any other pedal because it has a sound all its own.

If it were stolen I would definitely try to find another one, but not for $250 unless I won the lottery. It is a great find if you can scout one out. All in all, this pedal is a pleasant find and an integral part of my setup.

Easy to use, four knobs, two switches, but you MUST experiment first.

I play through a PRS standard, an old Fender Mustang, and a new Strat with Lace Sensor pickups in silver, red, red (neck to bridge), cranking those through a mid-eighties JCM 800 (just like Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, who uses one as well!). I have owned five fuzzboxes in cluding the Blender: a Big Muff reissue, a crappy Fuzz Face, a MXR octave fuzz, and a Sustain Punch Creamy Dream. This is by far the most saturated, sickest fuzz ever. The octave effect on the blender is alot like my Voodoo Labs Proctavia. I still have the Big Muff and Sustain Punch, but sometimes I wonder why. Using low gain through the amp and cranking the Blender, you get a great fuzz that hangs with any pedal made. Crank your amp, and you get ear-splitting feedback, even while standing about 10 feet away. But this can be a problem. It sounds like listening to two jet planes take off with an earthquake and two tons of C4 as background noise. The speakers sound like they'll jump out. Once you crank it, don't try to use chords. It won't work. It's best left for VERY saturated solos and Sabbath-y one string riffs. If you want earth shaking distortion, this is for you, for the rest of you, just get a Big Muff.

It EATS batteries. Always have a backup. They're very old and I guess that's normal (mine's early '70s, exact year unknown), so consider yourself warned.

Fender probably regrets making it. You'll get no help from them. Good luck in finding parts, too. I had to pay big $$$ for capacitors.

I play in a emo/alt rock band. It works well in some areas, fails in others. Remember, chords don't work. At all. It's like alot of effects, cool to use for some parts of songs, but kind of a novelty. If you want a HUGE fuzz AND an octavia-style effect, this is for you. I wish it were more versatile, I would definately use it more. I got lucky to pay that much for one because I found it in a pawn shop (always check 'em out). I've seen them go for $300+. I personally wouldn't pay that but if you find one for under $100, buy it. If you don't like it, I'm sure there are buyers who would love to take it off your hands.

It easily sounds ugly if you don't work with it. You need to have good fingering and very good picking/muffing skills to make this work. Chords work if your modest. Once you get used to it the rating goes to 10!

Pristine saturated distortion with not a peep of background noise (while pausing) when used by itself. I recommend this box running parallel to other effects for this "clean" factor! Octave squirts through wall of fuzz and does exactly what it's supposed to do! Can be used as a booster too, but not recommended.

The pots in mine are date coded to 1968 and '69. I bought it used in
'77. It has been squealin' like a slit pig for me all these years with NO problem. During the mid '80's I gigged with it and used a Radio Shack battery eliminator with my custom resistor/capacitor hum eliminator network and used an A/B box for the bypass. I've since removed all that and wonder why I worried about squeezin' her so hard (for extra squeal!) 'cause she wails just fine (for months!)with just a battery. (Keep a wild boar nearby for a backup if you must!!!)

What?

Very complex circuit using very nice leaky Germanium transistors and diodes. Squeals perfectly with any guitar or amp I've pushed her through. Single coil neck pups probably sound best though. If it were lost I'd squeal. If it were stolen I'd find the thief and make 'em squeal like a slit pig! This effect is somewhat limited in my style to a few different phrasing technics. You don't use this effect,....IT uses YOU! The Roger M. Octavia is superior but does not have quite the "quality" fuzz this one does. The only improvement would be a switch to run the octave without the fuzz. (Like the.........Roger M. Octavia......!!!)

I found the volume and distortion getting very weak on this within the last 6 months. What I found with an ESR capacitor checker was that all 10 of the electrolytic capacitors(all of them 10uf@12V) had dried out. These pedals are getting close to 30 years of age on them and is to be expected. I replaced all of them with new capacitors(10uf@35V). These are the exact same size as the older ones and can handle over twice the voltage of the originals which hopefully they never will have to. Not only did this bring the volume back up but the effect has a much wider range of sound. Anything from a smooth distortion to a Hendrix-like fuzz to indiscernable harmonic static. These capacitors are only 21 cents each through Mouser Electronics. if you notice the distortion getting weak or decreased volume, check to see if your electrolytic capacitors are dried out.

If you think Fender still cares about these, I'm laughing along with them at you.

Simple... 4 Knobs, 2 switches... Infinite supply of Gnarly sound.

I have a 2000 American Series Fender Strat Limited Edition run through a cybaby 535q, a POD, and this killer and it is the sickest most gnarly sound I've ever heard.

It is built like a tank.

I play all sorts of rock. It fits with classic rock, metal, industrial, and more. Its good for making noise. If I lost it I'd cry. It's amazing... End of Story.

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.