Fender's limited Shields Blender fuzz sells out worldwide

July 1, 2023 · 4 sources

Fender released the limited-edition Shields Blender, a signature fuzz pedal designed with My Bloody Valentine guitarist Kevin Shields, in June 2023. It was limited to 700 units worldwide and sold out worldwide pretty much immediately, according to Guitar.com¹. MusicRadar reported the pedal as the product of four years of R&D and said it was available exclusively through Fender, Reverb in the US and Andertons in the UK². Guitar World called it the firm's first ever signature fuzz pedal³.

The pedal rehouses a 1970s Fender Blender fuzz circuit in an expanded format, with eight knobs and four footswitches². Channel one blends the fuzz voice with the original clean signal; channel two removes the clean signal and blends the fuzz with a monophonic sub-octave fuzz¹⁴. An octave-up push button toggles the octave-up fuzz voice on and off²⁴. A footswitchable reactive sag circuit uses dynamic sensing circuitry that Fender says creates "imploding fuzz tones" by starving the transistors of power relative to picking intensity¹⁴.

The chassis is angled brushed aluminum with vinyl appointments, and Fender lists LED indicators and a 9V DC power jack⁴. Each unit was hand-signed by Shields and came with a commemorative booklet and a plaque bearing his signature²⁴. It was assembled in the US³⁴. The US list price was $499²³.