I saw another thread about Fender Catalogs, so I was going through the cupboard here in the Music Room when I noticed my old Fender Blender sitting there on the shelves with a bunch of my other foot switches.





A guitar playing friend of mine who knows how much I love Fender gear gave this to me about 10 years ago just to get rid of it. I have had it working, though not for a while. At least one of the battery connections inside is broken and it has no AC adapter jack. I honestly can't remember what it did to the amp sounds, but since I now have about 10x as many amps as I used to I think I'll get it going and try it out again.

Arjay - do you know the story and the vintage of this unit?

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

i call dibs if you want to sell it! that looks freakin awesome!

wow been awhile since i've seen one of those puppies. they were a distortion fuzz type unit that were out in the late sixties and then reissued once or twice. the original version only had three knobs so i suspect that yours is a reissue from the seventies. Beck and Trower have used them...they have a very different sound...quite responsive though. hope that helps.

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Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancin'

The Fender Blender was introduced in late 1969 and is shown on page 69 of the 1970 catalog. It featured four variable controls (volume, sustain, tone, and blend) and two footswitches (on/off and tone boost), operating on 9VDC battery power only. The original Fender part# was 96-0100 and according to the catalog description it used five silicon transistors (no geraniums here) and four silicon diodes. If "63 Supro" happens by he may be able to provide further details on the original pedal (mine's a contemporary re-issue).

HTH

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Thanks, guys! My ISP has been down all day and I only finally got back online. I guess I should open it up again and see about getting it functional. Would it be foolish, Arjay, to wire it so that it would take an AC adapter or should I, in the interest of originality, just see if I can get the battery connections rewired? I just purchased a new Blues Junior, which is superb for low volume clean tones, but it might be interesting to see what it sounds like with the Blender out front.

Thanks!

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

found these sound clips http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/fender/blender maybe help you decide what to do with it

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Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancin'

That's a tough call, sir. "Original" is always better in regard to vintage gear and its resale value. The re-issues can be had for around a C-note and like the prototypes from "back in the day", they're silicon-based devices. Thus, the new edition probably sounds the same as (or close to) the vintage model. That said, we're not talking a minty-and-vinty geranium Arbiter Fuzz Face or Vox Tone Bender which typically command several hundred dollars. I would repair the damaged battery-wiring harness only but that's me. The decision to mod or not remains yours to make.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Thanks, again, guys. I'll stick with the words of wisdom from the Arjay and repair the battery connections, leave the rest of it alone. Looks like it might be rarer than I thought, a good piece of Fender history, especially if it's working and original.

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

I took the single screw out of the bottom of the unit and popped it open. Everything is there and it appears that the battery connections are just shorting out - you have to keep constant pressure on the connectors against the battery posts. So it looks like I will swap out the terminals and put in a couple that will maintain proper connection with the battery.

I did put a battery in and, after a little popping through the amp, got the Blender to work just fine. All knob functions are working good and the two switches are good - the sound through the Blender was very interesting - fuzzy, but not terribly distorted. I will post pics of the innards shortly and once I got it back together will try to get some sound bites.

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

The '68-'69 Fender Blenders are worth about $350-$375 in mint condition and the '70-'77 would be worth $275-$300.I can't tell the vintage of yours but I believe it may be a mid 70s-then I could very well be off on that.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I'm pretty sure, per Arjay's earlier post, that this is the '69 vintage model. Once I really get a chance to play with it again it'll be interesting to see what I can get it to sound like. It's in very good condition, everything's there and I haven't even cleaned it up yet.

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

Interior shots of the Blender:

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

You can approximate the unit's date of manufacture by the EIA codes stamped on the pots.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

I love those knobs, I would love to throw a set on a strat or jag.

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The only number appearing on all of the pots is 7152.

The other numbers on the pots, left to right inside, appear to be:
D21873 100K LIN 137-
D49015 25K LIN 137-
D21899 10K AUD(or 0) 137-
E?5000 50K LIN 137-.

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963