Fender Tone Master FR-12 Disappointment

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cordelero68

New Member
I received my FR-12 a couple weeks ago, plugged in my FM3, and was completely disappointed. The sound was muddy and sounded heavily compressed relative to the same basic Fender BF Deluxe patch through monitor speakers or headphones. The patch is basic, Amp and Cab blocks only. I used the stock cab with 57 mic (turned off the 121 to get rid of unwanted bottom end). I have the Output 1 of the FM3 on 12:00, the output set to +4, and tweaked the cab setting to cut below 80 Hz and above about 6500 Hz. On the FR-12, I had all the knob at 12:00 except Bass (10:00) and Cut (9:00). I watched a lot of YouTube videos and read posts here to try to help me dial this thing in. Last night I took the rig to rehearsal with my classic country band, thinking that maybe the change in room and volume would help, but unfortunately no dice. The volume at 12:00 was not very loud either. The drummer is a finesse guy who I often have to tell to hit harder so I can hear the snare (they exist!). Do you all think that I may have a bad FR-12? The FM3 sounds amazing in the studio (where I also have an AXE FX III). I was so hopeful that I could use the FM3 live to replace my amp, but it really didn't work for me. Thanks in advance.
 
It's hard to diagnose something like that, except to say what works on one monitoring system sometimes doesn't work on another. This does not, of course, preclude the possibility of a bad component in your cabinet. I do know that volume with these cabs has not been a problem from the persons I have talked to using one. The comment about them being loud and punchy is common.

What were you using for a monitor with your band before the FR-12?
 
Something sounds off. Have you tried stock presets with it? It should be more than loud enough with +4 and volume at noon. Are you using an XLR out to the FR-12?
 
Lol, Maurice. No kidding! Love them drummers. It's like Goldilocks, except the one that's just right is always in someone else's band.
The patch is the stock patch for the BF Deluxe Reverb. It sounded terrible unmodified, so I made the modifications I listed. I am using XLR to XLR as my connection. I tried swapping all the cables as well. Based on everything I've read on this post and elsewhere, I think I may have received a defective unit. I'm sending it back to Sweetwater for a replacement. Hopefully, that will be the solution.
 
Here’s a guess... is your FR-12 on the floor? Against a wall? In a corner?
 
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In both rooms, the FR-12 was out in the middle of the room tilted back on the legs. I'm really suspect the unit is defective because of the volume/compression issue. It sounded like there is a dynacomp in the chain. No attack whatsoever. As usual, Sweetwater is bending over backwards to take care of it. Good dudes.
 
I set the Output 1 volume higher than noon on my FM3 (around 2 or 3 o’clock), and still need to put the FR12 volume at around 1 O’Clock on stage a lot of the time. You also might try dialing up the mids and treble a bit and backing the cut all the way off. It’s a bass-heavy sounding FRFR when set flat.

I’ve run guitar direct into mine with just a maxed out volume, zero gain Klon pedal in front to hear how it sounds alone, and it does have a kind of compressed feel to it. It actually sounded kind of cool like that for funky rhythm stuff. Not sure if the compression is a function of the preamp or just the cab design itself.

-Aaron
 
Just to make sure: Where do you have the Cut control set at? It works "the other way around" of what you'd normally think.
All the way to the left/off position, there is no cut and you get all of your highs ("attack") into the speaker. (All the way to the left is the flat/default setting: no high cut)
If you used the FR-12 with the Cut control rather high up, you'd get a rather muffled, "attack-less" sound because of the missing highs.

And: the preamp can take a beating and needs quite a bit of signal at the input for the cab to play really loud. Check your FM3 output levels, is it set at +4dB / line level?

Good luck!
 
I do find the FR-10s a bit bass heavy in my room/setup. I run the bass pretty low on mine.
 
cordelero68 said:
I received my FR-12 a couple weeks ago, plugged in my FM3, and was completely disappointed. The sound was muddy and sounded heavily compressed relative to the same basic Fender BF Deluxe patch through monitor speakers or headphones. The patch is basic, Amp and Cab blocks only. I used the stock cab with 57 mic (turned off the 121 to get rid of unwanted bottom end). I have the Output 1 of the FM3 on 12:00, the output set to +4, and tweaked the cab setting to cut below 80 Hz and above about 6500 Hz. On the FR-12, I had all the knob at 12:00 except Bass (10:00) and Cut (9:00). I watched a lot of YouTube videos and read posts here to try to help me dial this thing in. Last night I took the rig to rehearsal with my classic country band, thinking that maybe the change in room and volume would help, but unfortunately no dice. The volume at 12:00 was not very loud either. The drummer is a finesse guy who I often have to tell to hit harder so I can hear the snare (they exist!). Do you all think that I may have a bad FR-12? The FM3 sounds amazing in the studio (where I also have an AXE FX III). I was so hopeful that I could use the FM3 live to replace my amp, but it really didn't work for me. Thanks in advance.
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I have FR-12..with my FM 9 Turbo..everything goes like butter..enough volume,sounds translate perfect, I'm using two FR-12 on stage.I had Matrix 1000 with two cabs 2x12 Celestion V30...still using FR-12 with all my confidence
 
Try a tilt-back amp stand. I used a fender 4x10 deville on a tilt-back stand for years - playing death metal. Sounded great. being elevated off the ground really helped the sound project and as a metal act competing with screaming vocals and cymbals, it ended up being a very functional combination that i totally discovered by accident.
 
I'm pretty sure the unit was defective. I returned it to Sweetwater. Didn't get another one, so I can't compare. I'm assuming that everyone who is having a great experience with theirs are the norm.
 
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