Fender FR-12 preamp mod : The Hissterectomy

WKSmith said:
I just found something funny as shit!

Our phantom poster Mr Mooney.. whose F-corp posts disappear like vanishing ink .. and read like F-corp fanboy sales pitches generated by Ai.

He shares the same name as the Fender CEO Andy Mooney. Surely this ain't the same dude?

But if so..
I'm so glad I have your attention... And I apparently have for quite a while. We should chat. Glad you have fixed the hiss a bit, and cleaned up the support response. There are still a couple major problems in the stock pre that need to be addressed.

I'll be happy to license you a white box design when you get tired of throwing time and money away by fixing a really bad preamp by replacing it with another bad preamp that hisses less and costs more.. but still is out of phase with the input, and still has zero phantom power protection. Also your phasey graphic gyrator based eq sounds like ass. And the crossover has a nasty notch. And the gain is way too hot for the hissy horn amp. And lose the stupid charge pumps.. they arent even regulated to 36v. And who thought 4558 tube screamer ICs were a good idea? What idiot designed this thing?

I have already solved all of this from input to output.

Do better. You are the largest music instrument corp in the world. Lead .. or follow.

Fly into JAX and book a conference room and bring your "golden standard" FR and if common sense doesn't lead you to the V2 .. the tone and effiency of the V2 will absolutely make you a believer... and with only half of the number of opamps. Your FRs have never sounded better.

Welcome to the revolution.



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Could it be that this thread got the CEOs attention? Then the V2 is a success ! If only he could hear one.

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That’s just poor trolling. No one is that silly
 
Deadpool_25 said:
It absolutely can't be that guy. No way. That would be HILARIOUS. NO. F'N. WAY.

Right?? 🤨
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it's either that guy, or someone posing as that guy. Everyone kinda ignored his posts. They didn't pass the smell test.

I'm sure he figured out pretty quickly that Fractal dudes are a lot smarter than most.

The real Mooney was an exec corporate officer at Nike, Disney, and Quicksilver before landing the Chief exec spot at Big F in 2016. He is behind the push for digital products like the educational subscription stuff.

I would like to buy him a pint and talk shop.
 
Well the Gibson spokesman (Marc Agnessi) WAS that dumb and “motivated” musicians to play Gibson only by threatening legal action.

So it’s possible

But for those late to the party: Yes, @WKSmith ’s V2 is the best modeler amp out there for me.
 
LolainNB said:
Well the Gibson spokesman (Marc Agnessi) WAS that dumb and “motivated” musicians to play Gibson only by threatening legal action.

So it’s possible

But for those late to the party: Yes, @WKSmith ’s V2 is the best modeler amp out there for me.
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I think Agnessi's predecessor Jerkowitz was way worse. He was behind buying off and killing some great companies and instruments like Oberheim and Stienberger.

And Thank you! I think the FR and V2 is a serious FRFR contender and it fills the gap between modeling or profile/capturing rigs and real amps.
 
PSea said:
is satriani playing your v2 in this video? cant tell.

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I'm pretty sure that show was before he got the V2. But if that is in the last 2 months there is a good possibility that is the V2 .
The tone sounds pretty great either way.

..and if Satch can make the Fr sound that good with a TMP.. maybe there hope for me and these ham hands of mine.
 
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Dolphinado said:
Ooooh now this is an interesting development. I’m still dead set on getting a V2, but I joined the waitlist kinda late so I’m not sure how long of a wait I’m in for, and I sadly wound up with one of the particularly bad FR10s for hiss so it’d be nice to not have to suffer in the meantime.

I wonder if this means Sweetwater can fix them now too? My sales engineer had a sort of script to heavily discourage me from making an exchange, citing that Fender supposedly didn’t have a fix in the wild yet, but it seems that they do now.
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Update on getting Sweetwater to replace the hissy PCB - they basically ghosted me? I submitted a tech support ticket the normal way, didn’t hear back after a few weeks, then got an email saying they were going to close my ticket if they didn’t hear from me (???)

I can only speculate, but it’s a bit questionable that Sweetwater’s aware of the issue, has a script for sales engineers to discourage returns, and is also ignoring my support ticket to get it repaired. Maybe I’m just unlucky though, and other folks would have better luck.
 
Dolphinado said:
Update on getting Sweetwater to replace the hissy PCB - they basically ghosted me? I submitted a tech support ticket the normal way, didn’t hear back after a few weeks, then got an email saying they were going to close my ticket if they didn’t hear from me (???)

I can only speculate, but it’s a bit questionable that Sweetwater’s aware of the issue, has a script for sales engineers to discourage returns, and is also ignoring my support ticket to get it repaired. Maybe I’m just unlucky though, and other folks would have better luck.
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Sweetwater is usually pretty solid IME. However they may be trying to figure out the new path to take since Fender is apparently offering a free fix (finally!) to anyone with a hissy one. Maybe contact Fender support?
 
Yeah, you can have Fender fix it.

For any cabinet within the applicable Serial Number range of CHNA23XXXXXX through CHNI23XXXXXX, with “X” equaling any single-digit number, we will be replacing the FR’s pre-amplifier PCB with a newly revised version, at no charge to the consumer. Please reach out to one of our Electronics Service Centers to have your cabinet upgraded. You can find the nearest one using the link below:

https://www.fender.com/en-US/service-centers

Beneath the phone number, you can check the Service Center's designation. Please contact service centers with the "services electronics" designation to have your cabinet upgraded.

Feel free to get in touch with us if you are having issues locating an Electronics Service Center near you. We will be happy to assist.
 
mtb said:
Yeah, you can have Fender fix it.

For any cabinet within the applicable Serial Number range of CHNA23XXXXXX through CHNI23XXXXXX, with “X” equaling any single-digit number, we will be replacing the FR’s pre-amplifier PCB with a newly revised version, at no charge to the consumer. Please reach out to one of our Electronics Service Centers to have your cabinet upgraded. You can find the nearest one using the link below:

https://www.fender.com/en-US/service-centers

Beneath the phone number, you can check the Service Center's designation. Please contact service centers with the "services electronics" designation to have your cabinet upgraded.

Feel free to get in touch with us if you are having issues locating an Electronics Service Center near you. We will be happy to assist.
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This is exactly why I was going through Sweetwater for the repair - they're one of the biggest Fender service centers in the US (plus I bought my FR-10 from them anyway). I surprisingly don't really have any good service centers in my area either.
 
LolainNB said:
To me, when you consider the time effort and risk having Fender fix it vs. the time, effort and risk of replacing it yourself, it’s a no brainer.

Get a V2 and be free
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Oh for sure, I'm on the waitlist already. Getting Fender / Sweetwater to "fix" it would've been a stopgap until the waitlist gets to April :sweatsmile:

But, I guess there's a risk that Fender's fix could render the FR-10 incompatible with the V2? (Maybe not now, but it seems like the potential's there for that to happen at any time.)
 
mtb said:
Yeah, you can have Fender fix it.

For any cabinet within the applicable Serial Number range of CHNA23XXXXXX through CHNI23XXXXXX, with “X” equaling any single-digit number, we will be replacing the FR’s pre-amplifier PCB with a newly revised version, at no charge to the consumer. Please reach out to one of our Electronics Service Centers to have your cabinet upgraded. You can find the nearest one using the link below:

https://www.fender.com/en-US/service-centers

Beneath the phone number, you can check the Service Center's designation. Please contact service centers with the "services electronics" designation to have your cabinet upgraded.

Feel free to get in touch with us if you are having issues locating an Electronics Service Center near you. We will be happy to assist.
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I sent an email to Fender Service centre 2 weeks ago with the above info and my serial numbers asking for replacement and haven't heard anything from them...
But ya...can't wait to get my V2 so it won't really matter, I just don't want them getting away with it...with ignoring people!
 
Dolphinado said:
But, I guess there's a risk that Fender's fix could render the FR-10 incompatible with the V2? (Maybe not now, but it seems like the potential's there for that to happen at any time.)
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I don’t think there’s a risk unless they changed power supply or power amp. I doubt they’ll do that to this revision. It would cost too much. The fix is just op amp swaps on the original preamp board. Plug and play.
 
Dolphinado said:
This is exactly why I was going through Sweetwater for the repair - they're one of the biggest Fender service centers in the US (plus I bought my FR-10 from them anyway). I surprisingly don't really have any good service centers in my area either.
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Your situation sounds like an 'accident' by Sweetwater, or 'slipping thru the cracks' .. I would call them and tell them what happened, and I pretty much guarantee they will act very quickly.
 
mtb said:
Yeah, you can have Fender fix it.

For any cabinet within the applicable Serial Number range of CHNA23XXXXXX through CHNI23XXXXXX, with “X” equaling any single-digit number, we will be replacing the FR’s pre-amplifier PCB with a newly revised version, at no charge to the consumer. Please reach out to one of our Electronics Service Centers to have your cabinet upgraded. You can find the nearest one using the link below:

https://www.fender.com/en-US/service-centers

Beneath the phone number, you can check the Service Center's designation. Please contact service centers with the "services electronics" designation to have your cabinet upgraded.

Feel free to get in touch with us if you are having issues locating an Electronics Service Center near you. We will be happy to assist.
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Interesting. So am I to assume they mean that any cabs that fall out of that range have their updated fix or ???? I checked my serials and they are both out of those ranges.
 
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