The Fender Shields Blender is Fender’s first-ever signature fuzz pedal and is based on the pedal used by Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine. Limited to only 700 pedals worldwide, each with a signed booklet and a fancy cardboard box.
Shields Blender
The original Fender Blender had four knobs volume, sustain, tone and blend, and a second footswitch was used to engage a Tone Boost circuit, which offered a high-end frequency boost.
Controlled Chaos
Whereas the Shields Blender adds even more control and knobs to the circuit. With a total of eight knobs and four footswitches!
An Octave footswitch kicks between a blend of fuzz and a clean on one channel and a blend of fuzz and monophonic sub-octave fuzz on the other side. There’s also a reactive sag circuit which will respond to how hard you play. This starves the transistors of power to create “controlled chaos”.
Key Specifications
- Original vintage Fender circuit combined with an all-new control set.
- Two channels and three octaves of blendable, analogue fuzz tones.
- Foot-switchable, reactive voltage sag circuit controlled by picking dynamics.
- Custom 1970s-inspired roadworthy chassis with top-mounted jacks.
- Includes collector’s booklet hand-signed by Kevin Shields.
- Limited edition pedal, only 700 units available worldwide.
- Powered by a 9-volt battery or centre-negative AC adaptor (not included).
- True-bypass switching.
Limited Run
This limited-run pedal will no doubt be a scalpers dream and so expect inflated prices in the near future.
I just hope it sounds better than the 2000s reissue of the Fender Blender that I owned, as that thing was terrible at best. During the video Shields mentions that the reissue wasn’t accurate compared to the vintage unit he owned.
MSRP – USD 499 / GBP 449
Video