Fender® '55 Tweed Deluxe
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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.Now You Can:
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. Manning
January 19, 2021
Outstanding tone and versatility
I own several amp simulators--including Tweeds--from a number of vendors. They are all great, but this plugin leaves them wanting. The authenticity and versatility of the tone, combined...
Read Morej. tavares
January 16, 2021
Awesome!
Great when you have a baby and can't crank your amp when you want to record
Read MoreD. Adams
January 13, 2021
Not perfect, but very good 5E3 Deluxe sound
Does a nice job capturing the overall tweed deluxe vibe and tweed breakup characteristics, but goes a little too far in the ultra saggy/fuzzy "exploding amp" direction too early...
Read Morej. davis
January 12, 2021
55 Tweed Deluxe
The 55 fender tweed deluxe is very realistic sounding. The presets are a good starting place. The clean sounds are very good. Totally enjoying this amp!
Read MoreD. Nelson-Ashley
January 12, 2021
Excellent
Fabulous. I wish I had discovered it years ago.
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
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Customer Reviews
Fender '55 Tweed Deluxe
J. Manning
Outstanding tone and versatility
I own several amp simulators--including Tweeds--from a number of vendors. They are all great, but this plugin leaves them wanting. The authenticity and versatility of the tone, combined with the wide array of mic choices covers nearly all situations for which I need electric guitar (I write/record modern country, Americana, and folk). Even used solo, I'm certain that even the most experienced guitarist would have a hard time distinguishing this sim from the real thing. I also own the Fuchs Overdrive and Marshall Plexi. With these three amp sims, I'll probably never use the aforementioned other products again. The UA amp sims--and the Tweed in particular--are just too good to consider anything else. It's an excellent example of the wisdom of using a couple of the best (and more expensive) tools rather than a lot of good ones.
D. Ballantyne
Lukewarm
I've been playing guitar since 1963 and I didn't know until UA made the claim that the '55 Fender Tweed was "the Holy Grail of tone". I think it's a very good amp sim, probably a lot better than some of the early digital attempts, and I appreciate the different speaker sims and the Unison control but at the end of the day, an amp is an amp. It has certain characteristics (which is why people love them or hate them) but I don't think this one is going to please anyone much. It's not for serious distortion fans and it doesn't do much for a clean sound fan like me.
j. tavares
Awesome!
Great when you have a baby and can't crank your amp when you want to record
D. Adams
Not perfect, but very good 5E3 Deluxe sound
Does a nice job capturing the overall tweed deluxe vibe and tweed breakup characteristics, but goes a little too far in the ultra saggy/fuzzy "exploding amp" direction too early on the volume knobs compared to the "real" ones I've played, especially on the low notes. The real thing has the same basic tone but stays a lot tighter than UA's version up until around 9-10 on the volume. Still, easily the best out of UA's amp sims imo and has awesome clean/edge of breakup tones.
j. davis
55 Tweed Deluxe
The 55 fender tweed deluxe is very realistic sounding. The presets are a good starting place. The clean sounds are very good. Totally enjoying this amp!
D. Nelson-Ashley
Excellent
Fabulous. I wish I had discovered it years ago.
Á. Gústafsson
Fender 55
I sold my Blues Junior
S. van Servellen
Great for an amp sim. Warm sounding amp.
I’ve not been a big fan of amp sims for guitar but have to say this tweed combined with channel strip, delay and reverb in UAD console is really starting to get there and offer more flexibility than hardware.
I. Babin
Perfect amp!
Warm analog guitar sound, easy to use, enjoy playing guitar
L. Pacheco
Best amp ever
I have an 1971 Fender Bassman Head, a Torpedo Captor, some insane good sounding IR's from Celestion and Two Notes, and everything is now stored safely in my gear closet, this amp completely fills those shoes, and it can take my pedalboard and sound amazing, I think that if you are hesitating in to what UAD2 AMP buy, buy this one first!!! You won't be disappointed!!!
G. Belpassi
Great sound!
As a guitarist I have never been a big fan of amp emulators or plugins specifically made for the guitar, I have always preferred to work with real knobs and (heavy) amps. I have tried severals in the past, but this time, even though I had read great reviews, I was really surprised by this plugin! Great tone, great flexibility, hundreds of "sound colors" through the microphones and their positioning plus (last but not least) an extreme ease of use. I bought the Tweed plugin in the morning, and on the same day I recorded a track of a new cd with its powerful, rich and harmonic sound. What else to say...thanks UA!
P. ONeal
Exceptional tones
Spot on emulation when in Unison slot. Fantastic!
H. Holzheu
Wonderful Sound
It Sounds fantastic, makes a great Guitar sound.
M. Divola
Best clean sound but...
I’ve tried (extensively) all the UAD guitar amps and this has the best clean sound by far. Rich magical and touch sensitivity. But as a live user (using a NUC PC and Bome) it lacks enough gain for a good lead sound IMO. if only you could insert a cranked 1176 of OD pedal whilst leaving it in the Unison slot. So I’m forced to use the second best clean sounding amp, Buxom Betty (but it’s no where near as rich).
j. ROCHE
Bon plug in
Tres proche de la réalité ,chaleur des lampes, je ne les pas assez exploité voir situation live ,utilisé en style jazz sur arthop un peu crunch mai possible d'avoir un song dans le style associant d'autre plug api nev et...
Je ne regrette pas ...j. ROCHE
Bon plug in
Tres proche de la réalité ,chaleur des lampes, je ne les pas assez exploité voir situation live ,utilisé en style jazz sur arthop un peu crunch mai possible d'avoir un song dans le style associant d'autre plug api nev et...
Je ne regrette pas ...C. Cross
Incredible!!!
This is a dream amp of mine, but finding an original is difficult and expensive! This thing sounds incredible! The fact that you can crank it to get that beautiful tube power section distortion without neighbors calling the police is nothing short of pure bliss!!!
M. De Carolis
Fender in your daw
I'm a guitarist, in this year I try some plugins that emulates the sound of my amplifier, finally the Fender '55 Tweed Deluxe is the perfect sound. I can't use my ampli because I can use and have the same sound with this UAD.
Also the graphics is perfect. Seems to have the ampli in my mouse.J. Tofte
Perfect for nice clean tones
I use the plugin in the unison slot on the Apollo Twin X. Easy to use, sounds great for the music I write which is reggae. I mostly want clean, warm guitar tones. Works fantastic. Thanks UA
J. casson
I'm not too sure I need my Amp
I recently bought an OX for my amp (which is also fantastic) the trouble is when you use this plugin its so easy to use and sounds so good I wonder if I need it!
