Fender FR-12 preamp mod : The Hissterectomy

Nsurround said:
Yeah, and what about those who bought the Hissey . . . . . .
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I have two and I guess some are more hissy than others. I think mine measured lower than all others who measured so I am just fine. :)
But…valid point for those who are disturbed by the hiss. Some were in a return window but those who bought early like me and others are screwed as far as I know. I think Fender missed the fact that most of their customer base are bedroom players.

But still, they fixed the problem quickly, which was my only point!
 
LolainNB said:
What do you mean “being a garage update”? components and soldering is not what you’re getting. You’re getting way more. Would an official fender corporation update be better? I doubt it. Is your name tony McKenzie?
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I mean not mass produced, never meant to discredit it. I think ir is a great modification, call it “boutique”. The original Fender PCB (single side paths, jumpers, THT components) look like an old design, i do not think their update will be better. And I never hear about T McKenzie until now, I notice is a video blogger, he made bad reviews?
 
jcueto said:
I mean not mass produced, never meant to discredit it. I think ir is a great modification, call it “boutique”. The original Fender PCB (single side paths, jumpers, THT components) look like an old design, i do not think their update will be better. And I never hear about T McKenzie until now, I notice is a video blogger, he made bad reviews?
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Ah I get it now.

Anyway Tony M is a caricature of a reviewer who discredits products because the “components cost only $x so why is it more expensive”

Anyway #2

The day is near people
 
200man said:
I am not defending the hiss. But I love everything about this product except the hissue.
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Yeah, I get you. I had purchased a Fender Blue's Jr (new) a number of years ago and had nothing but problems with it. It went to the shop twice but still had issues. I finally looked into it myself and found how shoddy put together it was. The circuit boards connection to the actual tubes section was really badly done IMO. I do not know how anybody would tour with this or move it about much. Finally sold it and started looking into modelers and now have a FM9. I think Fender's amps as far as actual internal construction goes leaves a lot to be desired.
 
Nsurround said:
Yeah, I get you. I had purchased a Fender Blue's Jr (new) a number of years ago and had nothing but problems with it. It went to the shop twice but still had issues. I finally looked into it myself and found how shoddy put together it was. The circuit boards connection to the actual tubes section was really badly done IMO. I do not know how anybody would tour with this or move it about much. Finally sold it and started looking into modelers and now have a FM9. I think Fender's amps as far as actual internal construction goes leaves a lot to be desired.
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To be entirely fair, the FR-10/12 construction is actually quite good for the price - including the "old school" single-sided analog preamp board, which is mechanically very sturdy, and super easy to mod/repair. Good qualities for amplifier hardware. The problem is the circuit design, not so much how it is manufactured.

But yeah, HissGate is a thing. Fender didn't fix anything here, they just quietly started shipping amps with my mod from the factory, never acknowledging noise was an issue to begin with. Anyone who unknowingly bought the hissy version (they're still out there for sale!) got basically screwed in the process.
 
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Lysander said:
To be entirely fair, the FR-10/12 construction is actually quite good for the price - including the "old school" single-sided analog preamp board, which is mechanically very sturdy, and super easy to mod/repair. Good qualities for amplifier hardware. The problem is the circuit design, not so much how it is manufactured.

But yeah, HissGate is a thing. Fender didn't fix anything here, they just quietly started shipping amps with my mod from the factory, never acknowledging noise was an issue to begin with. Anyone who unknowingly bought the hissy version (they're still out there for sale!) got basically screwed in the process.
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Sorry in advance if this is a dumb question!

But I am thinking - is it possible that they got complaints about the hiss and fixed the problem independently from your solution (with the same solution) ?

Like is the fix generic enough that it could have happened organically from Fender? Or are the parts and changes specific enough that it's clear they took your fix?

I'm not doubting what you posted is exactly what happened..... and I haven't been following this entire debacle on any other forums.
 
MicroMort said:
But I am thinking - is it possible that they got complaints about the hiss and fixed the problem independently from your solution (with the same solution) ?

Like is the fix generic enough that it could have happened organically from Fender? Or are the parts and changes specific enough that it's clear they took your fix?
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Honestly? Not very likely. My fix is basically an (expensive) hack to work around some dubious design issues - namely, cascaded noise due to the high number of opamp stages in the preamp design. The timing is also suspicious, as we got the first reports of "revised" preamp boards in the wild just a couple months after i made my original post.

I was genuinely surprised to see Fender going YOLO and putting that in production, because slapping in premium Burr Brown audio opamps can't be cost-effective in the long run.
 
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@Lysander - gotcha. thanks for the clarification.. and thanks for the solution that you so selflessly posted out in the open for anyone to implement. I hope Fender takes it as a lesson learned and maybe they will spend more time/$$ in the design phase of new products like this (but probably not).
 
Ok I take it back. There is a bit of hiss but to my ears it seems normal. Not overwhelming. Like an amp is on and ready to go.

I will say the construction feels very cheap to me compared to fender amps I had in the past. But I guess people want things lighter. Just everything feels a little cheaper than usual. Even the power switch. 🤷🏻
 
WKSmith said:
Fender has for sure put a hiss fix in place. This will be a very limited run for the V2. For people like me that bought a hissy one.. It is a cool solution. I'm not making much on these at all. I just wanted to share this project with my fractal family.

The clip light and phantom protection are utility features but pretty cool.

The eq is pretty freakin awesome. More on that soon. But grab some knobs and it does some magic the stock FR Can't.

This is an awesome trick too . The jumper can bypass the crossover input straight into the class D amps line in. For Fx200 ish coax drivers.
Or using spdt switches on the mute and across those terminals, you could also have a switch to kill the horn and take the low pass off the 12" from the crossover low side bypass. (Instead of the jumper). For a more conventional 12" backline ... if you are into that thing.

View attachment 134607

The pots turn with 40 really fine notches in the travel. They feel expensive and sexy.

The opamps are in sockets for trying different models.

Lots of cool stuff. For a very few busted FRs
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How can I tell in my new unit if it as a 'new one' or not? If I open it up, can I tell somehow? @WKSmith
 
sick pickle said:
How can I tell in my new unit if it as a 'new one' or not? If I open it up, can I tell somehow? @WKSmith
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Yep
if you crack it open and it has 3 green adapter boards sticking up and soldered on with smaller ICs than the two stock ones that they left in there... that is their Big-F hiss solution .

If it has 5 adapters in it, that's the Lysander Hiss Reduction mod. And most excellent.

If the board is black and it says Archangel. That's a V2 .

If the pcb is brown/tan it is a hissy piece of work, all of them. And it has a 2 yr warranty. That apparently doesn't cover hiss and crappy design .
 
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