Fender FR-10/FR-12 noise reduction mod

[Humberd]

Thanks, Southpaw-DD
I sighed up on this site .
Don

 

[Lysander]

So I really don't think the units are "faulty", but that's the normal behavior for the factory mid.

It's possible

I was honestly shocked by how effective my mod was, because the way that preamp was designed makes it prone to amplify every minuscule bit of opamp noise to audible levels.

 

[eb.six]

Follow up, sweetwater was kind enough to send out a replacement. Bad news - it’s being sent back to them. I’ll just keep an eye out for the v3 preamp.

CHNF24 serial number has the same amount of noise as my own CHNE24

Still thankful for the help here!

 

[eb.six]

Alright friends, conspiracy theories - let’s start them. Does this look familiar?

 

[ian_dissonance]

Alright friends, conspiracy theories - let’s start them. Does this look familiar?

View attachment 37036
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Fender makes the EVH stuff so it’s not a big conspiracy. There’ll probably be a $200 up charge just for the blackout and badge even if it’s the same guts. I’m more interested in the street price of the FR212 is just saw.

Fender's Tone Master FR-212 amp is loaded with two 12-inch “special design speakers”

NAMM 2025: Fender has unveiled the Tone Master FR-212, the latest full-range cab to join its acclaimed Tone Master lineup.

guitar.com

 

[eb.six]

Fender makes the EVH stuff so it’s not a big conspiracy. There’ll probably be a $200 up charge just for the blackout and badge even if it’s the same guts. I’m more interested in the street price of the FR212 is just saw.

Fender's Tone Master FR-212 amp is loaded with two 12-inch “special design speakers”

NAMM 2025: Fender has unveiled the Tone Master FR-212, the latest full-range cab to join its acclaimed Tone Master lineup.

guitar.com

I really hope they attempted to actually fix the preamps. But seeing fender make a 2x12 that’s the same price as Tonex’s 1x12 is comical though.

 

[mbenigni]

Sent fender an inquiry about my FR12. CHNE24 serial number bought July of 24 through sweetwater. My place is pretty quiet and I don't really ever go over the 3rd notch on volume. But yet when turning on the FR12 I get the all too known hiss that can be heard over light playing. After months of owning this, I finally got annoyed enough to reach out.

Just received this response and signed up for TGF to post it.

Link to second video:
At 2:39 in the same video, OP mentions those over on the Fractal forum bypassing the EQ to solve the issue. Now, I can say this feels absolutely wonderful to be sent by a Fender employee. You'd think at that point you'd swallow your pride and push for the product to actually be fixed instead of paying the CS team to give a non-response. Hell maybe my time is better off spent sending this to one of the guitar youtubers who report on things like this for this issue to actually be "seen" if they'd be willing to make a video.

I got annoyed of this response and just started taking apart my FR12. Come to find out mine already has the "factory mod." Looks like I'll only need to replace half the amount I thought it would need! View attachment 36607View attachment 36611

This hiss is even worse than what I imagined the original design sounding like, when people first started writing about the problem. I would have sent that back straight away.

The FR-10 I received is much, much quieter. Is it possible the FR10's are quieter, on average, than the FR12s? At first I assumed they both used the same amplification circuit, but I later heard that the FR10 is less powerful. Which of these is true?

 

[jellodog]

The FR-10 I received is much, much quieter. Is it possible the FR10's are quieter, on average, than the FR12s?

I doubt it. My FR-10 is has hiss that's as loud as it was on the FR-12 I owned.

Seems to be a little bit of variance between individual units though.

 

[norminal]

Alright friends, conspiracy theories - let’s start them. Does this look familiar?

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Ok, now this may convince me to pick one up. Remove the badging and you have a solid and non assuming "FRFR".

 

[LustigePerson]

FR212

Double the Hiss! Yay

 

[Lysander]

The FR-10 I received is much, much quieter. Is it possible the FR10's are quieter, on average, than the FR12s

Shouldn't be, the circuits for the FR-12 and FR-10 are all but identical.

At first I assumed they both used the same amplification circuit, but I later heard that the FR10 is less powerful.

Nope. Exact same power amp and speaker rating as well.