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.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
S. Kallimanis
September 25, 2024
Very Good Amp Sim
Very good emulation. I have no problem getting clean sounds at normal volume levels following UA tips and tricks. Although is not...
Read MoreD. Bronson
September 6, 2024
Best guitar amp emulation I have used
There are a lot of nice amp emulations out there but very few actually 'feel' like an amp when you're playing through them. This actually does though. Very impressive. For the rare time...
Read MoreS. Hernandez
August 31, 2024
Great Tweed Sound
If you like the sound of old tweed amps, this is the plugin for you. It's a really easy way to get that iconic sound without too much hassle. Makes you play with controls differently;...
Read MoreP. Salvador
July 14, 2024
Great Sim
Great amp sim. The best amp sim I´ve worked with. Have been playing for hours with this wonderful toy.
Read MoreA. Pashka
July 10, 2024
Saves time
I find myself using this more than micing my real 55. Excellent purchase!
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
P. Perez
Fender 55
Only works with Apollo?
S. Kallimanis
Very Good Amp Sim
Very good emulation. I have no problem getting clean sounds at normal volume levels following UA tips and tricks. Although is not my favourite sound I think it is an excellent emulation.
D. Bronson
Best guitar amp emulation I have used
There are a lot of nice amp emulations out there but very few actually 'feel' like an amp when you're playing through them. This actually does though. Very impressive. For the rare time that I want a tweed Fender sound, I'll happily use this. PLEASE make a Vox AC30 and blackface Fender!
S. Hernandez
Great Tweed Sound
If you like the sound of old tweed amps, this is the plugin for you. It's a really easy way to get that iconic sound without too much hassle. Makes you play with controls differently; turning down the volume on your guitar really cleans it up.
T. Glosser
A Must fot guitar players
You have to hear this.
P. Salvador
Great Sim
Great amp sim. The best amp sim I´ve worked with. Have been playing for hours with this wonderful toy.
A. Pashka
Saves time
I find myself using this more than micing my real 55. Excellent purchase!
b. defilippis
SOUNDS GREAT!!!
I've never played a real 55 tweed but all I know is this plugin sounds great. From clean to mean and everything in between. Cleans up nicely with the guitar's volume knob. The more I use it the more I like it. Different speaker and mic selection allows for even more tone choices. And I got it on sale so it was well worth it. My only complaint is the DSP consumption since I use the Apollo solo.
賢. 藤井
good sound
安心のUAD製品なので、いい音なのは間違いないです。
R. Butler
Lotsa Bang For The Buck!
I spent last weekend checking out this plugin, and I'm absolutely floored with the sound. I've owned a few Tweeds in my time, and this really is an excellent reproduction. Rich, gritty goodness you'd expect from a Tweed without the huge price tag. Warning: It's very DSP hungry, so if you have a smaller device like Apollo Solo you'll be limited to any additional effects running simultaneously.
M. Haasdijk
Very realistic amp plugin!
What this plugin does very well is that it seems as if you can hear air moving trough the amps speaker. I miss this in most other plugins. Great job and awesome sounding plugin!
a. cristofalo
fender vst
i have several ampsim and the fender is one of the greatest
J. Pino
Very realistic recreation of a classic
This plugin really does sound and behave like a small Fender tube amp. I don't have an actual Fender '55 Tweed Deluxe, but I do have a Fender Bassbreaker 007 tube combo, and I can tell you that the resemblance is spot-on, complete with great dynamics and response to input gain -- roll back the guitar volume and the amp cleans up very nicely while remaining warm and retaining good volume. In fact, I have a track where I recorded my real 007 with a ribbon mic, and another track where I recorded with this plugin, and they sound nearly identical. Keep in mind that you may not like the raw sound of a small tube amp without effects (I very much do), and if that is the case, this amp sim may not be for you. In any case, the engineers did a great job on this one.
M. Saur
Sound amazing !
Great sound, as usual easy to use !
N. Maciel
Fender Uad
Best fender emulation amp, is nice that have unison capability, and you can print the sound, I hope they release a native version of this plugin
E. Sedrick
To Obtain Clean Tones Easily.
Some advice to reviewers who were saying they can't get a clean tone: in the bottom microphone controls panel, set your output volume up, and your mic volume mostly up.
Make sure you're using the MIC inputs on the virtual amp. Turn up the mic gain knob on the amp a bit. That is how you obtain clean tones, not just in this plugin, but on the real Tweed amplifier.
Great sounding virtual amp!f. previtera
FENDER 55 - difficult to reach a clean tone especially on mid low tones
I've tried the plugin with a Jazz guitar but it is not convenient to reach a full clean tone typical of this style. Better results on Neve without amp simulation
f. previtera
FENDER 55 - difficult to reach a clean tone especially on mid low tones
I've tried the plugin with a Jazz guitar but it is not convenient to reach a full clean tone typical of this style. Better results on Neve without amp simulation
D. Pintaldi
My basic clean/crunch American guitar amp .
It is essential for me to obtain classic twangy, clean and very realistic crunch tones.
I like his fluid and natural behavior in following the dynamics of my picking
S. Lambeth
Authentically Comparable
Did a good comparison of the UAD Plug-In to my Mesa Mark V90 "Tweed" preamp setting on Channel 1 @ 10W. Not just similar sonic context, but very much the same feel and response. Shout out to Leo, Randall, and especially the folks at Universal Audio for bringing specialized boutique to the plug-in world. Cheers!