Pedals that emulate the classic Fender sound?

[DWBH]

There are several pedals out there that 'emulate' to a certain extent, the classic british sound. Thor, BSIAB, among others.
However, I've never seen one that emulates the Fender/American sound.
Lovepedals have one or two, that try to emulate the 5E3 sound. However, I'm looking more towards the Blackface Sound. I love that loose overdrive, that break up.
Is there any pedal emulation, or do I have to buy a Deluxe Reverb and crank it?

[DougH]

http://www.bossus.com/gear/productdetails.php?ProductId=855&ParentId=90

http://www.bossus.com/gear/productdetails.php?ProductId=854&ParentId=90

[Marcos - Munky]

The only Fender emulator I know is the ROG's Professor Tweed. And to me it sounds great. I didn't built it (yet), but I'm sure there are lots of guys who built it here.

[DWBH]

http://www.bossus.com/gear/productdetails.php?ProductId=855&ParentId=90

http://www.bossus.com/gear/productdetails.php?ProductId=854&ParentId=90

Yes, I'd saw that.
Although I'm curious about how do they sound (live, not in vids - in vids they sound great), I was looking for a more DIY-able approach.
Has anyone tried one of these, though?

[cpnyc23]

I haven't tried one but I have a friend who uses one.  Apparently Boss thought that it was a good idea to emulate a Deluxe that was in ill-repair.  He said that the pedal will randomly make bizarre noises like the reverb is suddenly flipped on a full strength and then off again. 

Weird. 

He liked it at first but found that it was too unpredictable.

-chris

[cpnyc23]

You should check out ROG's fetzer valve.  The components are dependent on the JFET you use - the tutorial on their site for how to calculate the different component values makes it a great learning experience on the breadboard.

-chris

[arawn]

The professor Tweed sounds great but it really is a very low gain circuit. Personally I love it buit I play blues at home, results may vary however you can mess with the jfet's used or even try mosfets. I havent yet but i may in the future just because I can't leave anything well enough alone!

[8mileshigh]

One question I would have is.. How can we define what the classic Fender sound is ?

Sure, the tweed amp tone is probably the most sought after in terms of overdrive but Fender have produced so many models over the decades that it doesn't have a single identity like Marshall has.  When I think of Fender, I think of glorious cleans, lush reverb and depending on the model, sweet breakup like the tweed amps and some of the lower powered amps like the Deluxe Reverb, Champ etc.  

So what sounds are you after ?
Chris

[DWBH]

Yes, my description wasn't that good.
I don't want a pedal to emulate clean sounds. Just overdriven ones.
So think Fender overdriven tones.
There's that fat, smooth tone from 5E3 and Tweeds
Then, there's that open, airy, overdriven but still 'fairly' clean (crap, this is hard do say in words) from the blackface brothers. Of course, these are clean machines, but I like their overdriven sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBXntqgPo6Q From 3:50 on, he demonstrates more overdriven tones.
THAT's what I'm talking about. Although a tiny-ity bit more of gain would be better.

[bumblebee]

To me the classic fender sound is crystal cleans at stupid loud volumes, I doubt you can emulate that if the amp you use already breaks up.

[DWBH]

I don't want a pedal to emulate clean sounds. Just overdriven ones.

[DougH]

One question I would have is.. How can we define what the classic Fender sound is ?

Good point. When I think of Fender I think of black face clean, not necessarily a good candidate for a distortion pedal.

I don't particularly care for the tweed deluxe or '59 bassman sounds myself. They just sound like poorly tuned marshalls to me.

(sigh...) I guess once a marshall fan always a marshall fan...

[cheeb]

You should really just buy a Fender amp instead of trying to fake it.

What kind of amp are you using?

[mojotron]

You could checkout the Vibin Champ:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=47371.0

A few years ago, I put this design out to the forum. I added lots of sound samples, schematic mask and notes. This is a Fender frontend circuit that is applied to lots of Fender designs. If used in conjunction with a decent amp you can get a lot of fender-ish tones. The most interesting thing about the fender distortion is the phase-splitter and output transformer when the amp is really cranked; but add a little compression after the Vibin Champ and I get a good Deluxe sound.

[Ben N]

For the blackface sound, eq is key: http://runoffgroove.com/tonemender.html
Or you could try a couple of Fetzers with a Fender tonestack in between, tune to taste.

Actually, if you are up to a high voltage project, do it in glass: Make an Alembic F2B. 12ax7, BF tonestack and enough gain to easily overload your amp input. If you don't need clean, you could even use the Real McTube back-2-back wallwart trick to simplify the power supply (otherwise the hardest part).

[snoof]

what he said ^^^^^

[Ben N]

I just looked at that Vibin' Champ design, and that looks exactly like what I was talking about above in terms of 2 Fetzers + tone stack.

If you are plugging into a tube amp and don't require any additional "warmth", I would still recommend trying the Tonemender first, because (a) it's easier to build, with no jfet biasing madness involved, (b) it may be all you need, and (c) it looks like a versatile and useful thing to have in your bag of tricks in any event--more than a one-trick pony. (Caveat: I have not built one.)

[DWBH]

Thanks for the answers.
I'll try Fetzer -> Tonemender -> Fetzer one day.

[SonicVI]

The Tech 21 Blonde sounds pretty good.

[drewl]

Well to some it's the tweeds which break up easy and have that loose vibe.
To others it's that sweet blackface distortion with lush reverb, later silverface amps have that mean clean with crushing volume like the twin reverb.
So, has anybody opened those Boss/Fender pedals yet?
they modelers?