Fender FR-12 preamp mod : The Hissterectomy

Lysander said:
I noted this on a different forum, but i found nothing wrong with how the FR-12 is built, or even its preamp design philosophy. It's made to look and feel like a "normal" guitar combo, down to how the tone controls and high-cut/presence behave. At $500-ish, is also competitively priced.

The only reason i'm going through mine right now is the noise floor, which is IMHO unreasonably high for a FRFR. I've owned similar solutions from other companies which are essentially noiseless without an input; this is not rocket science.

As a side note, i'd like to see someone press Fender reps on why they're advertising this line as 1000W, when the amps are clearly nowhere near that.
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This is my point! It's Fender that is doing this... their first real push into the world of FR cabs and modeling as we know about it and they come out with a somewhat week impression on quality and execution on both fronts!

Maybe I'm expecting too much from them with my expectations or it's a case of Fender management thinking it's good enough for the masses so market the shortcomings with the same old BS and sell winthrop sell!
 
Sixstring said:
This is my point! It's Fender that is doing this... their first real push into the world of FR cabs and modeling as we know about it and they come out with a somewhat week impression on quality and execution on both fronts!
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Thing is, noise aside, it is a really good sounding FRFR. There's a fullness to it that i'm yet to find elsewhere; i wouldn't be giving a crap otherwise :D
 
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jellodog said:
Their sales guy has already been saying hand-wavy things on TGF and has even told me things that are technically untrue concerning the Tone Master Pro.
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Laughing … that’s so sales-rep. I learned to distrust the sales people inside one company I was in. They’d tell customers that we already a product that could do X when we had never even worked on it and we knew it was technically impossible. And of course, they’d convince the CEO we needed to make one and we’d/I’d have to go explain to the CEO that the salesman had his head up his a**. Commissioned sales people are not playing with the same set of rules.
 
Sixstring said:
Maybe I'm expecting too much from them with my expectations
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Probably. It’s not like same company as it was when Leo Fender ran it.

Sixstring said:
or it's a case of Fender management thinking it's good enough for the masses so market the shortcomings with the same old BS and sell winthrop sell!
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Much more likely. They’re making the simplest design that they thought would be acceptable. It’s like their amp choices now, they still have the handwired and custom shop amps, but they’re much more expensive, and the rest of the amps are so-so.

I’m happy to see that the amp in this case is something that can be repaired and is not a throwaway.
 
Joe Bfstplk said:

Maybe get Sully in there to show the new recruits how it's done? :D

Seriously, though, if it is that inexpensive to make it noticeably better, they should spend the $10 and do it....
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Right! I mean, it's only Fenders name on it but hey I'm not going to sit here and claim to be an armchair electronics engineer I'm just trying to use a little common sense. :cool:
 
WKSmith said:
I can tune another eq design to those same bands that will not hiss. ..and using the same pots and less gain stages. I have one that is pretty amazing.

I built the cleanest Acoustic Preamps in the world until Parkinson's and life set in. My eq is freaking clean ! Several CandyRat monster fingerstyle players toured and recorded with them.

Here is what they sound like:


This is a prototype that I built for Antoine Dufour.
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Didn't know that, impressive. 👍
 
Greg Ferguson said:
I think “repairable” might be a good word to use too.

I cringe when someone starts telling me how wonderful their new modeling amplifier is, “and it was so cheap!”, knowing that the “cheap” amp won’t be that cheap if/when the board has to be replaced.
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Truth. My Helix Rack had a board go bad (warranty had long expired), and it wasn't cheap getting it replaced (not to mention it took about a year to make it happen - that's another story, though).
 
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