Fender Blender fans?

Any love for this wacky piece of work? I just got a brand new one for $79. It should arrive on Friday. It should provide hours of entertainment and hopefully inspiration. I've never owned an octave fuzz, so it'll be a learning experience.

$79??!! Sounds like a steal!

I have an original and it's literally outrageous. you want extreme fuzz, you got it! It has a mellower sound that's thick and deep, and a brighter sound that'll peel the proverbial paint off the walls. The octave effect is great, just great. I ignore the clean/fuzz knob and just set everything except the volume all the way up. I'll never part with mine. I've never heard anything else even close to it.

$79??!! Sounds like a steal!

I have an original and it's literally outrageous. you want extreme fuzz, you got it! It has a mellower sound that's thick and deep, and a brighter sound that'll peel the proverbial paint off the walls. The octave effect is great, just great. I ignore the clean/fuzz knob and just set everything except the volume all the way up. I'll never part with mine. I've never heard anything else even close to it.

Very cool. I got it b/c it doesn't sound like anything else I've heard. I was looking for something really different. I'm still waiting on mine to show up. It was supposed to arrive via UPS today, but we had over two feet of snow in the last couple of days, so it looks like it's been delayed.

My avatar is a pic of my pug in the fresh snow on Thursday.

Been wanting to try one of those little buggers for some time now!

How are you liking it? (Clips?)

Been wanting to try one of those little buggers for some time now!

How are you liking it? (Clips?)

It was supposed to arrive via UPS last Friday, but we had over two feet of snow so it's been pushed to today. Hopefully it'll be there when I get home from work, so I'll try it out and let you know. I'm pretty low tech, so I won't be able to post any clips. I really should get a decent web cam so I can do some pedal demos and post them to YouTube. That'd be fun.

Wow, this thing is fun! It's big, so don't expect it to fit neatly into your pedal board. I'm going to need to get a couple longer cords to really make it fit snugly, but whatever. It's straight out of the '60's, so it's large and in charge.

I'm just beginning to harness the awesome power of this weird and wild beast, but I love it so far. I've already figured out a great Smashing Pumpkins "Siamese Dream" era sound, and the fun just starts there. It's unpredictable at times and reacts to your playing, particularly higher up on the fretboard where the octave sounds really come to the fore. It also pairs well with my BBE Soul Vibe, and my Boss OD-3. And combined with wah, it really gets cooking.

But for serious wacky mayhem, it really goes off when paired with my Ibanez Fl-9. The oscillation almost makes your hair stand on end.

I don't know, maybe it was ahead of its time when it first came out and that's why it didn't catch on. Heck, so was the Telecaster! Whatever. I'm going to have a lot of fun with my new toy.

I'm just beginning to harness the awesome power of this weird and wild beast, but I love it so far. I've already figured out a great Smashing Pumpkins "Siamese Dream" era sound, and the fun just starts there.

Of course, the sometimes overlooked weapon in Corgan's arsenal back then. Everyone talks about the Big Muff (He actually posted a blog entry about the Big Muff recently on the blog detailing the recording of the new pumpkins stuff), but he made use of a Fender Blender quite a bit.

Check this out:

rE2tQ1Fjg24

The song starts at 1:30. Billy Corgan's using the Blender there. makes me want one bad. Nasty, the good kind of nasty.

I've heard the reissues suffer from a volume drop - is it as bad as everyone makes out?

Of course, the sometimes overlooked weapon in Corgan's arsenal back then. Everyone talks about the Big Muff (He actually posted a blog entry about the Big Muff recently on the blog detailing the recording of the new pumpkins stuff), but he made use of a Fender Blender quite a bit.

Check this out:

rE2tQ1Fjg24

The song starts at 1:30. Billy Corgan's using the Blender there. makes me want one bad. Nasty, the good kind of nasty.

I've heard the reissues suffer from a volume drop - is it as bad as everyone makes out?

Good stuff, there. I really liked "Gish" a lot. Billy ripped on that album.

Regarding the Fender Blender, I think the volume drop depends on where you have the blend knob set. The volume knob really controls the intensity of the fuzz/octave effect, not the volume, so it's been interesting trying to control that side of things. The blend knob allows you to blend in your regular guitar signal, so that seems to be where you control the loudness/volume.

The tone knob also seems to raise and lower the volume, so you get a volume boost when you step on the tone boost switch. All quite different and confusing at first.

But I wouldn't characterize it as an overall volume drop. You just have to figure out where to set the knobs. It's not entirely intuitive.