Fender FR-12 preamp mod : The Hissterectomy

[∞Fractals]

When I was building acoustic preamps years ago, almost half my business was international.
..But there are many countries and the entire continent of Africa that I won't ship to, or some countries that would be a national security risk to send electronic components.

No ITAR risks here I presume

 

[WKSmith]

Did I miss it?

No ...the first test run of boards are in production right now. It takes a little bit to do it right the first time

 

[WKSmith]

When I am happy with the proto boards and the final values ..and I have sourced the remaining components that I don't have here, I will order the final boards for assembly and wave soldering.

Depending on that timeline, there may be a pause for the Chinese new year around Feb 10th this year. Shenzhen will shut down and become a ghost town for a week and a half around the holiday.

 

[LolainNB]

what a time to be alive. I get to talk to engineers, scientists and get Shenzhen to fix my own amp.

 

[stephanfm3]

what is your planned batch size?

 

[WKSmith]

what is your planned batch size?

That is still fluid. It can scale either way.

 

[mrleon83]

That is still fluid. It can scale either way.

This all sounds rather exciting, would you/are you considering doing preorders to get an idea of numbers?

 

[WKSmith]

This all sounds rather exciting, would you/are you considering doing preorders to get an idea of numbers?

I am likely to do a waitlist, but I want to get past the prototype stage and any final tuning before I announce anything. That won't take much longer now that the first boards are almost finished.

 

[WKSmith]

Mostly sweet. Corporate security.

 

[WKSmith]

I'm kinda obsessed with putting hats on my Wife's dog

This is Reese. Named that ..Cause she looks like a Reece's PB cup



Oh and... the first V2 test boards have shipped and cleared customs. Next week is gonna be awesome!

I am going to fix one FR-12 ... the right way.

 

[Deadpool_25]

I'm kinda obsessed with putting hats on my Wife's dog

This is Reese. Named that ..Cause she looks like a Reece's PB cup

View attachment 132854

Oh and... the first V2 test boards have shipped and cleared customs. Next week is gonna be awesome!

I am going to fix one FR-12 ... the right way.

So exciting. The hiss is one thing but I could argue the phantom power protection and clipping indicator would be even more important for many people.

 

[WKSmith]

So exciting. The hiss is one thing but I could argue the phantom power protection and clipping indicator would be even more important for many people.

I think you will will love the tone. I rebuilt the whole damn thing from input to eq, to crossover, to zobel network. And used the good stuff.

 

[WKSmith]

They say there are two ways to do intellectual property protection in the electronics hardware business...

1) build it so cheap no one would bother.

2) build it with such premium parts that no one selling big box can afford to play.

I don't have bean counters. This is going to be next level.

 

[Famous_Snack]

They say there are two ways to do intellectual property protection in the electronics hardware business...

1) build it so cheap no one would bother.

2) build it with such premium parts that no one selling big box can afford to play.

I don't have bean counters. This is going to be next level.

3) Build it so confusing that no one knows why it works.

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

3) Build it so confusing that no one knows why it works.

I see a lot of code written in this style....

 

[Famous_Snack]

I see a lot of code written in this style....

I was never formally a coder, but I was in a position where I did a lot of fairly complex scripting. Sometimes when reviewing my code after we'd been using it a while, it was like looking at the work of a lunatic. Lots of, "Why did I do this? Had I recently hit my head?"

 

[WallyG3]

They say there are two ways to do intellectual property protection in the electronics hardware business...

1) build it so cheap no one would bother.

2) build it with such premium parts that no one selling big box can afford to play.

I don't have bean counters. This is going to be next level.

I've heard opinions (a la Bill Finnegan) saying the the layout of components, or more so, the spatial relationship between components on a board matters in the quality of an audio circuit. What is your experience? Do you think it matters?

 

[WKSmith]

I've heard opinions (a la Bill Finnegan) saying the the layout of components, or more so, the spatial relationship between components on a board matters in the quality of an audio circuit. What is your experience? Do you think it matters?

My layout style is more organic.
With the exception of the right hand rule of spin and magnetic fields propagating at 90°... I don't think my geometric layouts (sacred or otherwise) sound much different than one thrown down at random.

But I like it. I think it shows the extra time taken when a designer really cares about the final product.

I do find the board routing and layout can be terrible for stray capacitance or inductance ..especially if you use an autorouter , tiny traces, or lots of vias/jumpers. I always route my wires by hand, and try to cross at right angles, and I use heavy traces as busses for the voltage rails.

 

[Greg Ferguson]

But I like it. I think it shows the extra time taken when a designer really cares about the final product.

I do find the board routing and layout can be terrible for stray capacitance or inductance ..if you use an autorouter or lots of vias/jumpers. I always route my wires by hand, and cross at right angles, and use heavy traces like busses for the voltage rails.

Slightly off topic, but this is why I love the work that Mark Bartel does in his latest series of Bartel amps. I have never seen wiring anything close to what he does, short of old-school MilSpec work.

Check out the photos in the "Construction Details" section on his site.

 

[WKSmith]

Slightly off topic, but this is why I love the work that Mark Bartel does in his latest series of Bartel amps. I have never seen wiring anything close to what he does, short of old-school MilSpec work.

Check out the photos in the "Construction Details" section on his site.

I saw this in another post of yours. I love the attention to detail! It is far above and beyond even "boutique" amp offerings