Fender® '55 Tweed Deluxe
-
Get all the bloom, chime, and grind of Leo Fender’s most iconic amplifier.
Vintage Fender tweed Deluxe amplifiers are the Holy Grail of tone for good reason. Their low-volume clean sounds are pristine and complex. And as you inch the volume upward, you’re greeted with sweet, blooming overdrive, before arriving at full-on distorted, utterly viscous tube saturation.
After two-plus years of research and development, Universal Audio is proud to introduce the Fender ’55 Tweed Deluxe plug-in for UAD-2 hardware and Apollo interfaces. Designed 100% by Universal Audio, and endorsed by Fender Musical Instruments, the ’55 Tweed Deluxe plug-in captures every nuance of this historically unrivaled tone machine by emulating every last ingredient of the hallowed 5E3 Deluxe circuit.Use your Apollo to track through the only authentic emulation of a 1955 Fender tweed Deluxe amplifier — with no latency
Hear the results of an exhaustive two-year R&D project — the first real guitar amp emulation
Easily track perfect studio amp tones with different microphone combinations and placements — without phase issues
Re-amp previously recorded tracks with any UAD-2 hardware
Take A Listen
UAD Tones & Techniques:
Fender '55 Tweed Deluxe with Josh Smith
History of Tweed
The Deluxe was one of Leo Fender's first amp designs, with early versions being produced in 1946 — years before the release of his first solidbody electric guitars. After various circuit tweaks, Fender landed on the now historic, "wide-panel" 5E3 Deluxe in 1955. This version became a favorite among country, blues, and early rock players as the ultimate bar gig, mid-sized club, and studio amp, with its single 12" speaker and two 6V6 power tubes delivering around 15 watts.
Endless Tones
Before the invention of overdrive, boost, and distortion pedals, recording engineers and guitarists valued the tweed Deluxe’s uncanny ability to seemingly speak to the microphone with a perfect balance of sweetness, detail, compression, and, when cranked, glorious raunch. From Neil Young’s feral roar to Daniel Lanois’ lilting textures, Billy Gibbons’ early boogie to Larry Carlton’s singing lead tones, the tweed Deluxe seemingly begged to be recorded.
Through Science We Found… Magic
To that end, Universal Audio chose two bone-stock 1955 tweed Deluxe amps as “golden units” to be emulated. This began a two-year R&D project to capture every single component — from speaker paper and heat dissipation, to filter caps and transformers — the essential ingredients that allow the tweed Deluxe to deliver expressive, dynamic, easy-to-record sounds, with only Volume and Tone controls.
Three Genre-Defining Speaker Choices
The ’55 Tweed Deluxe plug-in gives you three common “hot rod” speaker mods that pros have been using for over 40 years. The stock 1955 Jensen P12R speaker gives you jangly treble and thick bottom, while the 25-watt Celestion yields thicker mids, velvety treble, and a more aggressive voice. Finally, the JBL-D120F — a 120-watt hi-fi beast — stays clean and pristine with more airy presence than the stock Jensen, giving you extended treble snap.
Expertly Placed Dual Mic Setup
The ’55 Tweed Deluxe plug-in offers expertly placed multi-mic tones with a collection of legendary mics — and zero phase issues. Mix and match with a rare '60s Beyer M160 and white Sennheiser MD-421 mics, a modern Royer R-121, and a hand-picked vintage Neumann U-67 from Ocean Way Studios. And use the intuitive Mic Mixer to season your tones with separate Level, Pan, and high-pass filter. Additionally, you can set each mic to a secondary off-axis position for further tone tweaking.
Unison™ Technology for Apollo Interfaces
Harnessing UA’s groundbreaking Unison technology, the Fender '55 Tweed Deluxe plug-in gives you the impedance, gain staging, and circuit behaviors that have contributed to making the tweed Deluxe one of the most recorded guitar amps in history. And like the original amp, you can plug into any of the amp’s four inputs and achieve different gain levels or impedance changes, or plug in using a vintage “Y” cable to jump the inputs and blend the channels.
*Note: Artist names contained herein do not constitute official endorsements of Universal Audio or its products.
“The UAD Fender '55 Tweed Deluxe is the best sounding guitar amp emulation available.”
– Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beach House, Future Islands)
“The UAD Fender ‘55 Tweed Deluxe is my favorite amp emulation. Finally a plug-in that gets the crunchy power tube distortion just right.”
– Peter Mokran (The Flaming Lips, Michael Jackson, Mary J. Blige)
“The Fender ’55 Tweed Deluxe plug-in is hands-down the best amp emulation there is. It has tons of sonic options, and with Unison™ technology for Apollo, the plug-in feels just like the real thing.”
– John Paterno (Robbie Williams, Badly Drawn Boy, Bonnie Raitt)Watch The Reviews
Customer Reviews
J. Reinhardt
April 22, 2022
"55 DELUXE" AWESOME!
SaaWeeet! Little two-faced amp., very sweet or gritty just like the real deal - add a little delay/reverb and it's 3D; add some Tele or Gretsch with single coils it's Rockabilly time,...
Read MoreK. Oldmeadow
April 5, 2022
Sounds mint!
As per usual UA just get it right. An amazing addition to a seamless workflow. Love it!
Read Morea. kamal
March 22, 2022
Just as fartsy as the original
I own an original 57 Tweed deluxe. And yes they have been on many many recordings which I love. Staples are Kid Charlemagne, Neil Young’s sound, Etc…..all...
Read MoreR. Shotton
March 18, 2022
Perfect tone when blended
This was the missing ingredient in my guitar tone. I just mix some of this with my miced princeton reverb and it's literally a perfect pair. Each on their own are pretty good but...
Read MoreB. Blazevic
March 11, 2022
I Highly recommend it!
My new to “go to” plug-in. Clean to crunch. Everything in between. I own a real Victoria.. This is very close in dynamic response. Captures every nuance. Give it a try.
Read More -
Key Features
Tweed Deluxe licensed by Fender®, modeled by Universal Audio
End-to-end emulation of the entire 5E3 tweed Deluxe circuit
Unison technology allows for authentic guitar interaction with Apollo Interfaces
Best-in-class speaker/cabinet emulation
UA's first complete, stem-to-stern guitar amplifier model
-
Customer Reviews
Fender '55 Tweed Deluxe
J. Reinhardt
"55 DELUXE" AWESOME!
SaaWeeet! Little two-faced amp., very sweet or gritty just like the real deal - add a little delay/reverb and it's 3D; add some Tele or Gretsch with single coils it's Rockabilly time, add some humbuckers and it's Real Blues time! Very well done UA. Now please give us a 1965 Fender Super Reverb with both Normal and Vibrato Channels with Bright Switches and choice of Ceramic of Alnico Speakers - Please!
K. Oldmeadow
Sounds mint!
As per usual UA just get it right. An amazing addition to a seamless workflow. Love it!
K. Kearney
Fender '55 Tweed Deluxe
That warm and fuzzy feeling!
a. kamal
Just as fartsy as the original
I own an original 57 Tweed deluxe. And yes they have been on many many recordings which I love. Staples are Kid Charlemagne, Neil Young’s sound, Etc…..all over. I use mine a lot for recording. Funnily enough whenever I play through it and listen to it while playing, I always find the sound terrible, anaemic and dull….BUT then you play back what you recorded and everybody is hollering and high fiving…..well, this plug in does exactly the same. It is a truly authentic emulation. Now when my Tweed gets serviced, I can SEAMLESSLY deviate to the plug in, and once the amp is back again use the miked signal. This slightly convoluted review means to declare that the Tweed Deluxe is a temperamental but inspiring beast, which the plug emulates beautifully.
R. Shotton
Perfect tone when blended
This was the missing ingredient in my guitar tone. I just mix some of this with my miced princeton reverb and it's literally a perfect pair. Each on their own are pretty good but seriously, mix it up and you'll be happy. I imagine the negative reviews just aren't looking for a bit of tube breakup. I used a Tele with single coils so it's very different from humbuckers.
B. Blazevic
I Highly recommend it!
My new to “go to” plug-in. Clean to crunch. Everything in between. I own a real Victoria..
This is very close in dynamic response. Captures every nuance. Give it a try.D. Wieland
Play Loud Anywhere
I am so impressed by how far these amp emulations have come. Combined with the Apollo's UAD console, it's great for practicing and recording. This amp has more presence, growl and bite than some other amp emulations that can be either a bit murky or prone to digitisation artefacts. With bit of effort you can dial-in a sound that will fool most people into thinking you were recording with a real Tweed Deluxe.
V. Vlodarchyk
Fender '55 Tweed Deluxe
Nice plug-in I recommend
M. Ferreira
Wow! It a real Fender!
It Sounds and feels great!
K. Fulford
Look elsewhere
Can't get a clean sound no matter what I try. Might work with a strat or tele but Gibson owners stay away. If you turn the instrument gain down almost all the way and the mic volume up it kinda works but still breaks up (maybe that's by design?). Really need a Fender Twin Reverb emulation on the UAD platform.
J. Walker
A Worthy Software Amp
I have a collection of vintage tube amps that I use for recording and this is the best software I’ve found to compete with the real thing. It’s better than the UA/Softube stuff (which is pretty good) and I think it’s more articulate and real sounding than both Bias and Guitar Rig. I like the interface and how it mimics the OX software. I’d like UA to make more of these amp sims - I would buy and regularly use a Blackface collection (Deluxe, Twin, etc.) as well as a tweed Bassman sim. I’d also love to see UA’s take on Marshall.
The one improvement I’d make is to add some overhead to the volume output in the mic section as it’s pretty easy to overload the inputs on my Apollos when I’m using humbuckers.P. Bartušek
Fender
Top
P. McMillan
Pretty good emulation!
Nice range of sounds on offer, filled a gap for me on the clean side. Captures a lot of the sound if not the feel of a nice fender amp. I go to this plugin more than I do the other emulations, so I recommend it.
M. WRIGHT
Patience
Expectations are a strange thing. All sorts of tones available here, but not without approaching it like a real vintage amp. Modern gainstaging puts the details on dedicated controls, but here the details are found in the balance of input levels, channel volume and speaker choice. The I respond to the amp has as much to do with feeling as it does with sound. For a player there’s the potential for the innocent joy of discovery here.
F. Ramirez Jessen
ONE OF THE BEST SOUNDS
I had the Eleven Rack and after demoing this plugin a sold it.
A. Mouridsen
Not up to UAD standards
I love and swear by my UAD plug-ins, but for the life of me I can not get any of my amp models to sound even halfway decent. I have this one and the Marshall and I can’t even get a decent clean time out of it! Crazy unpleasant treble and ugly unnatural distortion - I’ve tried it all and it seems to simply be the sound. I love UAD, but I’d ask for my money back for this one if I could.
R. Rattanakorn
Classic Fender Tweed Sounds
Very happy with my purchase. The UAD emulation of the Fender 55’ Tweed Deluxe sounds amazing with my Fender Strat. The presets are also pretty varied. I really love playing with the plug-in through my monitors. It almost sounds like an original amp.
M. McMillan
Incredibly Musical Emulation
I picked this up and used it on a session to track guitars that needed to sound like Revolver era Beatles. I found this emulation to be incredibly flexible and musical. I love the variety of mics and mic placements, as well as the unique tonal character of the different inputs. Amazing Work UA!!!
A. Tebeleff
Great Emulation
Hard to beat emulation, not normally a fan of plugins like these
G. Craig
Even better than the real thing…
Being the recording artist, the sound engineer, mixer, mastering engineer, marketing consultant, graphic designer and distributor for a one-man show out of the home office recording studio is hard enough. Anything to streamline the process is necessary. So, I stopped mic’ing my super champ and started tracking with the UA ‘55 Tweed. The time saved is invaluable, but if the sound quality was compromised I would have gone back to the microphone and amp. I’ve sold the amp.
The tonal qualities are dead-on. The flexibility of tones is remarkable from the presets to the virtual microphone controls to the plugin’s pristine integration with the UA verb, compression and eq fx in LUNA or if you run it through Console. It’s the first amp I go to when tracking my strat or telecaster.
