Fender FR-1000

The unit is easy enough to use.Only three knobs.As far as getting a good sound out of this unit, it is impossible.I had two of these units,and both of them was not worth bringing home.I adjusted these units every way possible and the sounds was terrible.

You can not get a good sound out of this reverb.In my opinoin it is a piece of junk.I owned two of these and throwed both of them away.I used A Gibson ES-335 with a 1963 Fender bandmaster amp.I adjusted everything I could on this unit and never could get a good sound.I bought these back in the early 1970s.

I did keep one of these units for a while before throwing it away.My son used it for awhile.It went bad and he tried to have it fixed.The lay out of the circuitry is so bad ,they could not fix it.These units was not built by leo fender.These are CBS fender reverbs.CBS built several transistor amps in the 1960s with this type of circuitry.And they where so bad they had to discontinue all of them after only three years.This should give you some idea of what these are.

Never dealt with them.

I have been playing all my life.And I am getting up in age now.I had two of these back when these units was fairly new.I have had ampeg amps,fender amps,gibson guitars,SOME OF THE BEST EQUIPMENT MONEY CAN BUY.But in my opinion,there is not a rating low enough to rate these units.THEY ARE BAD.They are not worthy of the fender name.CBS built these after Leo Fender sold fender in 1965.Do not be fooled by the fender name.If someone was to give me one,I would be waisting my time taking it.Because I would just have to throw it away.

Once you get one of these old solid-state spring reverb units in working order, there's not much to it. A gain control, a blend control, and a reverb tone control. Foot control jack on the back takes old fender standard (phono plug) footswitch. Found a schematic online which was useful.

This reverb can go from zero to one of the most echoey, washy reverbs I've ever heard. The gain control coupled with modern high output pickups can really drive the spring tank hard - to the point of a lot of distortion. I like to back that one off. The gain and blend (dry/reverb mix) work together and there is a pretty wide palette of reverb sounds. Finally the tone control lets you put reverb across a spectrum, it's most noticeable in the amount of reverb added to your highs.

This is not a clone of the 63 fender tube unit. It has its own sound. You won't exactly get the single waterdrip splash from the tube unit, but something that gets a similar vibe. I find this sound to be more aggressive, especially if you add a little gain... you can even use this as a combo reverb/overdrive and have a really unique sound. You can do surf with the FR1000 (purists probably wouldn't) but it seems like a natural for psychedelia.

My closet classic find sounded terrible when I first fired it up, but responded great to a cap job. Hardly any hum but beware the stock unit has a two-prong power cord and besides the safety issue, if you get the polarity wrong you will get some buzz.

I've tried this with a variety of tube and ss amps and it sounds good with all.

Other than the electrolytic caps, there isn't much to go wrong with these units unless you drop it and damage the spring reverb unit. Solid 3/4" wood box with tolex cover, all heavy grade hardware.

There was a schematic online.

I'm guessing this is a late 60's or early 70's piece. It's a historical curiosity from Fender's strange early exploration of solid state gear. It has a spacey look with the severely angled front, brushed aluminum panel and marshallesque metal piping in the joints between sides and top, mixed with really oldschool wood/tolex construction and a decidedly cheap one-sided, one-layer pc board. Production techniques were all by hand, and low volume. The result is a truly unique effect that will give you a distinctive sound. The uniqueness factor has to boost the overall rating!