Frontman 15R

[hello]

Hello everyone!

I recently bought a Fender Frontman 15R.  The moment I turned the thing on it began to hum and emit other sorts of white noise.  This was particularily noticeable while using headphones.  I was told that I could remedy the problem by installing an "RF shield over the circuit board".  I suspect any sort of conductive material should function properly but I really have no idea as to where to begin, so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[J M Fahey]

Please explain whether it makes that kind of noise always, even with all controls at "0" or only on high settings of the drive channel.

[phatt]

I reinterate what J M Fahey asks,,, that is important for us to solve your problem.

Generally I've found some of these modern amps have horedous Hiss which might be the white noise effect you speak of.
I assume from your comments you purchased this amp sight unseen so is it brand new or S/hand?
If it's a new purchase ,,,take it back before you mess around inside it.
Phil.

[hello]

Thanks for the responses.

The amp is new, but it is also a present from a family member.  If I could have returned it I would have done so already.

The hum and noise are present on all channels even when all controls are set at 0.  The distortion channel becomes distorted as soon as the gain was turned to 2 on my guitar. It becomes perceptibly worse when the headphones are plugged in.

[phatt]

OK now I understand,,, Hum before we start hacking away at the electronics ,,, have you considered that it might be wise to go to a music shop and find another frontman and see if it has the very same issues?

Fender may still replace it if it is a circuit fault.  does happen!
Phil.

[hello]

Well, I looked up some reviews and many of the reviewers complain about the same problem.
I plan on taking the thing apart soon and having a look inside at least.

[J M Fahey]

Excuse me, I still don´t get it. If you set *all* knobs fully to the left or anti-clockwise, ingluding volume, gain, whatever, *all* of them, ¿does it still hum and hiss?.
I mean, not with an ear close to the speaker but, say, 1 meter away.
Because you talk about "my guitar distorting on 2" and that´s not "everything on 0" . Thanks.

[hello]

If I set *all* knobs fully to the left or anti-clockwise, ingluding volume, gain, whatever, *all* of them, it stills hums and hisses.

When I turn the gain knob to two, the sound distorts.

[phatt]

Sounds like it might be the amp design This seems to be a common issue with a lot of gear out now.

I recently fixed/tweaked a Laney LC 30 and the high gain section was just unuseable. This was untouched from new ,,so the hiss and heater hum was how it left the factory.
There is a point where more gain just destroys the playability of the equipment.
Sadly while ever consumer demands more and more *Gain* this is what we have to expect.

The best I can offer is: Take a pic of the guts of the amp (concentrating on the input area and preamp sections) and maybe hunt down a schematic for the amp as well if you can ,,, even then no promises from me but other minds here maybe of more help.
Hope it pans out,, Phil.

[J M Fahey]

OK Hello, now I know that there is something wrong with your amp. I think I have the schematic somewhere, I´ll post it for you and we´ll see what´s going on. Good luck.

[J M Fahey]

Hello Hello.
Download the schematic from:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fender.com%2Fsupport%2Famp_schematics%2Fpdfs%2FFrontman_15G_Schematic_68F.pdf&ei=d1x5SuOpFNa_tgfw1OWWCQ&rct=j&q=Frontman_15G_Schematic_68F.pdf&usg=AFQjCNFsY8bdTcaavnRA4c7DaIGsf5nvNw
Good luck.
J M Fahey

[Enzo]

The warranty doesn;t care if the amp was a gift.  If the family member has the sales receipt, then your warranty is accessible.  ANY authorized Fender repair center can handle the process, but indeed the original dealer can exchange it.  In this model Fender would want to replace your unit rather than repair it anyway.

[phatt]

I'm with Enzo on this,,, good advice :tu:

JM Fahey you seem to have a nose for sniffing out those Schematics,,, good on you.
Interesting as the input section is almost identical to the *Rock Pro* and or *Perfomer 1000*. A friend of mine has the 1000 and he is not happy even though he bought it on the basis that it had a Valve inside it.
Phil.

[J M Fahey]

Hi Phatt, thanks.
Sniffing out schematics is unfortunately a daily necessity.
Enzo has made a great effort posting *many* at Ampix.
Fender, unfortunately, seems to have a head designer with weird ideas, to say it lightly, and many of them can be traced to the Music Man era, they are used over and over again. One of them is the input bandpass filter. Nothing bad about it, only that it should be buffered and not driven straight from the guitar. I´m sure that what he measures with a generator is very different from the curve on actual usage. They make a big fuss about clipping with  Leds in series with regular Si diodes , supposedly "to get the best of both worlds". In your Performer/RocPro, the 12AX7 is *not* used as a triode amplifier, but as a simple diode clipper. They power only the filaments but not the plates, which are tied to the grids. They call them (appropriately) "black tubes", being soldered to the board and covered in black heat shrink tubing, showing only some of the "magic" orange glow. I guess they recycle all microphonic/gassy/leaky 12AX7s that way. Their clean sound is usually very good; for distortion everybody I know uses some pedal. Bye.