Fender FM-212R

solid state 100watts in the tank, plenty of volume paired with some real nice heavy fender speakers

this amp is pretty much 'no frills' in technology, -clean/drive/more drive channels do exactly what they say.

'mid contour' button to give you modern/traditional overdrive sounds

reverb is your only effect on this one, but pretty much ineffective if you're looking for the 'surf' sound.

i like this amp for its straightforward approach though(less things to go wrong!) i play this one with a Boss multi-effects pedal, which is a better option in my opinion, because in-built effects on amps are typically limited

clean channel- as far as solid state amps go, this is a beauty. it has warmth close to what you'd expect of its tube cousins and it's really clear. EQ is effective. i'm currently playing my american telecaster into this with distortion pedal and you can hear it loud and proud!

drive channel- you'll get from 'quiet blues' to 'metal' range on the overdrive. not my personal taste of 'drive' sound but nonetheless a good all rounder.

more drive channel-strictly speaking not a channel, what this does is give you a couple more bars of gain for your lead parts. beefs up the single notes nicely on solos, pretty sweet feature

mid contour button-pressed in drops your mid range sound to give you modern overdrive, sounds good

clean channel sounds alot better than drive channel. its definatly the strength here. i've recorded with this amp and the results were good. but this is what you would use at gigs, in a pub you shouldn't need to mic it, at middle to larger venues it would be

I have owned this amp for 5 years now, i practice twice a week and gig once a week in a grunge band. it's taken knocks, coffee spills, offroad car journeys, plugged in 'full blast' by accident and even had a guitars thrown at it!

It has NEVER cut out, lost power, faded in sound quality, had replacement parts or been visably damaged.

if you have this amp you will certainly not need a back up.

if a nuclear war broke out i would hide inside this amp

never had to ring them but there website is fancy?

i love this amp because is does the simple things very well, it sounds great especially running distortion and effects through 'clean'
i was able to afford this amp as a beginner for ??230 but you still get all of the fender build quality. i've started running it together with a vox ac30(??1299!) -many artists are pairing up tube and solid state amps nowadays because they BOTH have strengths. this amp is now part of MY professional rig.

I bought this item new as a back-up to my Laney VC30 212 valve amp which is my gigging amp. I use a Digitech GNX4 multi-effects unit so I only need to use the clean channel of the FM212R. I felt I needed to test the amp thoroughly and I was quite impressed with the sound of the drive and the more drive channels. The footswitch worked well, I couldn't discern any benefit from using the effects loop. For a solid state amp I was impressed with the volume. It doesn't have a line out or headphone output so I can't use it for in line recording which is a shame.

I play all sorts of styles but my band is a 50s rock & roll outfit and I use an Ibanez AFS-75 TRD Artcore guitar with low powered humbuckers and a Classic Players 60s Strat - the MIM model with the custom shop bits and '69 pickups. The cleans are nice, not chimey like a valve amp but nice nonetheless. The drive channel can be balanced with the clean channel to imitate the break-up point of a valve amp but obviously you can't get all those harmonic niceties that you expereince on a Class A valve amp. It is very loud and I'm used to loud. It can be tamed for home use but in a band situation I noticed that the higher volumes improved the tone as the speakers gradually began to open up. By the end of the first band rehearsal I was quite impressed. A word of caution though, the reverb unit supplied with the amp was crap. There was barely any reverb coming through even in the 7 - 10 range. I took another reviewers advice and contacted Tube Amp Doctor who advised me to upgrade to a Z-8DB2C1B Accutronics Reverb Can, it's fitted to various Marshall and Roland amps and is compatible with the FM212R - fitting is easy there is no electronics involved. This mod has elevated the quality of sound enormously.

I usually play with either a clean or a warm sound in this band with various effects added according to what is required for each song. I can achieve both tones easily with the amp alone, but the modded reverb is the icing on the cake. Before the mod I would rate it a 7 but afterwards I rate it a 9. I often get compliments on the authenticity of the 50s sounds when I use my valve amp. I am so impressed with the FM212R that I will use the valve amp as a back-up at tomorrow night's gig and see if anyone actually notices the difference in sound.

I play heavier stuff for a bit of light relief and again these sounds can be achieved well with this amp.

I bought the amp as a back-up because it is solid-state and because someone cut the power to my valve amp and blew all the fuses - it's happened a couple of times before and I decided that just had to have a spare amp around at gigs in the future. I thoroughly checked out the options and chose the FM212R as the 'go to' back-up.

Only time will tell me if I'm right or not.

I've been buying Fender gear since I was a teenager which was frighteningly a long way back in another century and I haven't had to contact Fender about a problem yet. Their website support is a mine of information though.

I've been playing for 36 years, you do learn about gear in that time. I only buy what I think is quality. I have a Gibson Les Paul, Fender US Custom 62 Re-issue Tele, Fender Classic Players 60s Strat, Ibanez Artcore, Laney VC30 212 amp, Digitech GNX4 (+ supermodels upgrade), various Keeley pedals and Carl Martin pedals.

If this amp was lost or I would buy another and do the reverb mod all over again. I really like the vintage blackface look of the amp and I think combined with modelling effects I use it will fool a lot of people into thinking that it's a Twin Reverb. It's excellent value for money. It's not a valve amp and it won't sound exactly like one, but I reckon it's a close second and you get a hell of a lot of amp for very little spend. If you spent nearly five times as much money you could get a nice top of the line Fender valve amp that will be better - but I've been around the block a few times and IMHO five times as much money does not buy you an amp that is five time better. The FM212R is a great little amp.

Amp was made in 2002 I think but I got it second hand. Very versatile for what it is. I think with enough time you can equate the two channels (there's a button on the footswitch for "gain" and "more gain" to help you along) and the reverb is kinda nice. I never bother with the mid-boost thing because I don't think its necessary and it makes hardly any difference when its turned on. Use it for practice and gigs and its plenty loud enough (I've never taken it above 6/10).

Distortion is a bit poor but comes out quite clear. I normally play this on clean through a distortion pedal (MXR+ or something) and it cuts through the mix way better than the channel on its own. Distortion channel buzzes a lot. Oh yeah, and the channels are LOUD as hell.

This thing is super reliable, I throw it into the back of my car and leave it out over night, pick it up in the morning, wipe most of the dew off and carry on. I gig quite a lot so it takes a lot of abuse and seems to stand up to it very well. I never use a backup. One time it did smell like burning plastic for a bit but it might have been because it was standing on top of a radiator. I moved it off and it was fine. Anyway, top marks for reliability.

Never had a problem with it so I've never contacted them.

For the price I paid (??130, about $150 at the time), this thing is ridiculously good. My friend uses a Fender Super Reverb 2x12 from the late 80s and a Super Tremolo and they've done nothing but break down while this thing carries on. Its heavy which is kind of a pain but it looks good and sounds great. If it was stolen I couldn't afford to replace it with anything else. In a perfect world I'd have a Fender Deluxe 2x12 but until then, I'm happy to stick with this. I've played myriad guitars through it (Fender Jaguar, Fender '50s Telecaster, Fender MIA Stratocaster, Gibson Les Paul Special II, Telecaster '72 Thinline Gibson Melody Maker II, Danelectro U2 and the Telecaster Custom Deluxe I play now) and they all sound great through it, the distortion channel really beefs up the single coils which is handy. I'd happily recommend this amp, Solid states in this price range are nowhere near as good.

My FM-212r was made in 2008.

I mainly play pop-punk and metal so the amp is good for this, although the "more drive" has alot of buzz. the clean channel isnt really used alot with me but seems to be ok.

With the 2 inputs the amp still sounds ok but any guitar with single coil pickups(eg. telecaster) would be drowned out by a guitar with humbuckers (eg.Les Paul) which for a solo over power chords just doesnt work...

I use this amp nearly every day on a low volume (which is hard to do as the volume knob is VERY sensitive and either blows the windows out or your stuck with your ear against the cone)

I use an Epiphone Les Paul jr. with a Gibson Dirty Fingers pickup and a Fender Mustang with a Seymour Duncan Hot Rail at the bridge. With the stock pickups in both guitars the amp still sounded good.

The amp has next to no variety with the tone that it produces, if youre looking for a cheap amp then buy this, and put an effects pedal through the clean channel, this will work a whole lot better for choosing just the right tone for you.

I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS AMP TO ANYONE!!!
but maybe thats just my bad experience.

This amplifier has broken on me twice in just over a year, both times doing the exact same thing. First comes the loud crackling noise then comes the smoke, then comes the burning smell and the lack of any sort of sound from your guitar. All there is is a low frequency hum. And this did not happen due to loud volume.

The first time this happened, it was fixed under warranty and came back good as new.

When my amp broke, i emailed fender and they were super helpful (I bought the guitar off ebay and they gave me the address of an authorized dealer near me to take it to for pick up)
The amp was fixed under warranty and got back to me in about 2 weeks.

I have been playing guitar or about 8 years (im 20)
In my house there are 8 electric guitars and 2 acoustic guitars.
The amp is ok, not too heavy, but some wheels would help alot with transport.

The only reason i bought this amp was because i wanted a reputable name and cheap price, this is TOTALLY not worth it, given any choice now, i would have rather paid a little more and gotten a 100w Marshall.

Kudos to Fender for the price and you really do get what you pay for, which is something not great...

GET A MARSHALL INSTEAD ITS WORTH THE EXTRA HUNDRED ODD QUID!!!

The amp was made in 2008, bought it straight out of the box from a Guitar Center.

This amp is quite versatile for quite a few genres. I play mainly blues, classic rock and indie rock, and for this the amp provides a very good base: the clean channel. The first channel is very powerful, has good tone and will hold up to a lot of gain coming from a set of pedals. In order to get a good overdriven sound out of the amp, you need a pedal, what kind of pedal doesn't matter. Regardless of how hard you push this channel, the speakers and tone stay nice and stable. The clean channel is also very good for reggae, country and hard rock, depending on what you send the signal through first.

The drive channel is a different story. The tone between the two channels is a massive change. No matter what settings you use for tone, it is impossible to get the two channels to get close to each other. The second channel has a blanket-like quality to it. That aside, this channel is excellent for tones that take out all the mids, such as modern hard rock and metal. The second channel also comes with a "mid contour" switch that is available on the footswitch as well. This further removes more mids from the tone, and boosts the highs and lows slightly. Very powerful, but the character of the sound between the channels is too great.

The amp features a spring reverb tank, as well as a preamp out, power amp in set of jacks. These are useful for powering another amp. Note: They are not cab outs, and must be plugged into the input of another amp for it to work. That being said, they do the job nicely. The spring reverb is quite nice as well, it has the sound you'd expect from a real reverb tank.

I use this amp for practice and performance both in my own music and with a jazz band. It holds well in any situation, although regulating the volume can be a little bit of a hassle sometimes.

Overall, this amp offers quite a few features. Some aren't exactly necessary or quality, but it has a lot of value within it.

The quality of the sound from this amp is excellent, though only on the clean channel. I play a custom-built stratocaster with Lace Chrome Dome pickups through a Dunlop Crybaby Wah > Boss BD-2 > Fender Starcaster Chorus > Boss LM-2 > BBE Sonic Stomp. It sounds great from the clean tones, to the heavily overdriven sounds from the Blues Driver to the funky tones of the wah pedal.

The amp only gets noisy when hum is added through bad cables or effects pedals. Aside from that, it's noiseless.

The clean channel does not break up. At all. I've played it at 10 just to break in the speakers and the clean tone shines right through. Naturally, with a distortion pedal it's unbearable at that volume, as is an undistorted sound. But the sound you throw at it is the sound it projects.

This amp is solid. As seen in other reviews, the construction is solid. It is moderately heavy at 43 pounds, but nowhere near unbearable. I would definitely use this at a gig without a backup. This amp holds together. No issues at all.

Have not dealt with customer support.

I've been playing for about two years, and I own a Line 6 Spyder 15 watt practice amp. I had used a Fender 165 Watt Vibroverb amp for a time, and this compares to it in sheer volume and clean tones.

If it were stolen, I would get another one the same day.

I love the fact that the clean channel allows you to create whatever tone you want from it. On the flip side, I don't like the fact that switching between the channels is impossible.

I chose this amp for it's power and it's versatility. Other solid state combo amps do not compare to this at its price.

If anything, I would want a wattage limiter switch in the amp like on the new Fender Twin models, to allow for easier to dial quiet volumes.

You already know tis amp's feautres, so I will not mention it.
I would say it has no more and no less of what I would expect to get from a combo amp.
Maybe that's because I'm old school.
I bought this amp on eBay for cheap, and it worked fine though it had a no-name replacement speaker.
I bought it just to experiment a stereo set up along with mu 65 TRRI.
Now I don't use it much since I found a '70s SuperTwin (yes, the 180W monster!!!).

Adequate clean channel, nothing to compare with a tube amp, and not even up to my SS Princeton Chorus, but I can live with it.
The Lead channel is pure crap.
But I have never found a lead channel of my liking, not even on more expensive tube amps (Marshall, Mesa etc.)
Once again, I'm old-school, from the days when you had one only channel you had to crank all the way up to get distortion.
Boosters and Overdrive pedals came only much later.

The amp worked fine till the day I tested it in my studio at stage volume.
It sounded much better than usual for about one minute and a half, then it died.
The repair guy told me he had to re-solder about EVERYTHING, as it was VERY crappily assembled (you get what you pay for).
Now the amp works fine, and seems rather reliable.
I might use it as back-up for the Twin.

Never dealt with Fender.

I've been playing since 1966, and I own (or have owned) about every piece of guitar equipement.
My current rig is: 1981 (modified) Les Paul Custom, 1974 SG Custom, 1990 Gibson Lucille, 1996 (modified) E.C. Strat, 200 Custom Shop 60 Strat, Reissue 52 Tele, a few more assembled strats, Gibson J200, Guild Electro-Acoustic, Alvarez 12 String, and a bunch of Banjos, mandolin & Sitars. 1994 '65 Twin Reverb RI, 1979 SuperTwin, '70s London City (Marshall Clone) Head with 1960Ax cabinet (plus a few more cheap ones).
If stolen or lost I wouldn't replace it, as I own way too much equipement, and I don't tour anymore (..but...you never know!!!!)

I like this amp WITH THE MODS. I would reccomend to replace the reverb tank as well.
I see somebody has dropped a couple of Vintage 30s, but that's going too far...
It would be too expensive for this kid.....

My amp is a fender frontman 212r and was made in 2007. It's a 100 watt power house. Real spring reverb, overdrive and a 2 channel foot switch.

I have a fender MIM HSS strat, a squier jagmaster with 2 duncan designed humbuckers, and a squier standard tele. All three guitars sound great through this amp. The clean channel is awesome. The overdrive is good for playing blues. Great for playing clean, rock or blues. Not the best for metal. Over all great sounding amp and very LOUD!

I throw this amp in the back of my truck every Friday for Friday night jams. I'm not a gigging musician, but I've been playing about 5 years and this thing is very durable.

Never had to deal with customer support. I've never had a problem

I've been playing for 5 years or more. I own a fender strat, 2 squiers, an alverez acoustic electric, a fender acoustic electric, a martin J-15 acoustic jumbo, a vox valvetronix ad15vt couple of boss pedals ibanez tube screamer, crybaby wah and thats all I can think of off the top of my head. I've owned many other amps, crate,marshall,vox and this amp is a quality amp for around $300. This amp has a great clean sound a good spring reverb and a fairly good overdrive channel. This amp is very loud and it is also a nice looking amp. If it was lost or stolen I would probably buy another, I'd like to upgrade to a tube amp though.

hi
my fender is build in 2005.
its realy a monster thing, its variable for all my styles im playing.
punk/blues/rock/metal it doesn't matter it can do it all.
it has 2channels, clean,drive and extra drive and spring reverb and mine came with an original fender switchpedal.
im using it with rehearses and gigs, and it does the job really good:D and power? omfg its not normal hehe above 5? no way ;)
im realy loving it :) and for the price im not complaining

im using different guitars with this amp.
my Dean ml,aria pro2 (les paul),fender jagstang and a fender mim.
and it fits to all my styles.
it doesnt fuzz at all, sometimes some feedback, but i like that :P
the clean can get a little brutal at high but why pushing it that far?
5 is realy enough, believe me!
the distortion is good for ac/dc,status quo and so on, when using the extra drive it can do some metallica,iron maiden, and others, but for the heavier ****, bui yourself a pedal(30 a 80bucks)and you can do it all

i'm using it for gigs and rehearsing but i always bring my marshall 8080 with me as backupamp(its always good to bring a backup with you,
its electric and can be busted! just like televisions;)
the amp hasnt broke down yet, i have it just a few days

i don't have it for so long,but a friend has fenders formore than 20 years and never had anycomplaints with the fender fabricators
the amp came with a warranty for 5 years, it was 1year old when i got it, so 4 years to go :D

im playing since i was 5, im 25 now so do the counting :P
im owning all kinds of amps/guitars/effects, from the cheapest to the expensive stuff.
if it would be stolen, i would buy it again(just because i love the sound, and other fender amps are to expensive for the quality you are getting,this thing does it all that other fender amps have.
people, if you can buy this amp just buy it and get surprised, or go to a musicstore and try one, when the price and sounds are right, dont complain later because someone said something bad about it!

Ok, here's the reason it gets a '10' in features. To me, a clean and tansparent tone is hard to fine these days for amps in this price range. It has vintage sounding spring reverb(no, it is NOT digital, this is a VERY good thing.) It has an effect loop and jack for foot switch. It also comes with a 2-button footswitch for two-channel operation, and a "Drive/More Drive" button that allows you to boost the drive channel. This amplifier has a LOT of treble. I like treble. I'm not one of these old guys who turns the treble down because he's still hungover from the last gig. I like my tone to be clear and bright. So it's nice to have an amp that gives you plenty of treble without even having to turn the control up very much. The mids are nice and so is the bass. You can dial in just about any kind of tone that suits you with this amp. To me, that is versatility. A bunch of fancy amp models, effects, and other bells & whistles just limit you, IMHO. Overall, the tone on this seems pretty balanced. It only amplifies your guitar and effects pedals or stompboxes as you would expect. Everything sounds clean.

It's not very noisey unless you've got too much plugged electricity coming out of one circuit. Otherwise, its pretty quiet. As I stated in features, this amp is pretty clear and transparent. I disagree with a lot of these old die hards who say it's 'gotta be tubes or it's crap.' Solid state has come a long way since the 1960's. When I tried this thing out I sat it next to a Fender '65 Twin Reverb. I switched back and forth between the two amps and couldn't notice too much difference. The '65 Twin had more warmth (naturally), and not as much treble. But after playing with the controls on both amps for awhile, I got the clean channels to sound pretty much the same with very subtle differences. The sales clerk was amazed and took a note of the settings so he could use it for demonstation purposes. I was amazed myself. If I had the money of course I would've bought the '65 Twin Reverb. But I'm working musician and I needed more volume. I'm a diehard Vox fan and I'm used to mic'ing up my 30 watters with other bands. The band I'm currently working for doesn't mic up anything. I needed a lot of bang for the buck. I needed something with high output, and a very transparent tone. This thing doesn't sound like a Vox, it sounds like a typical Fender amp. But thats ok, I'll probably never use it in the studio, but for live work it'll get the job done. The clean channel does seem to break up nicely around 8 or 9, but as of yet I haven't needed to crank it up that high. This amplifier is LOUD. So far I haven't needed to push it past 5 for the clubs I've played. Anything louder than that and you'll really need a pair of earplugs.

It's never broken down but I've only had it for a short time. I think the idea of playing a show without having a backup is a bad idea. I'll still drag my Vox's to the shows in case this thing died, but I don't think it will. Some advice from a seasoned musician to all of you who are aspiring: ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP. At some point in your career *something* will go wrong. Always have extra picks, plenty of cables, a backup guitar and a backup amp. I even carry a double of my favorite overdrive pedal just in case it dies on me. The worst time to be unprepared is in a live situation when you have 100 or more people looking at you and wondering what's going on....

Haven't dealt with them yet. With Fender's track record I don't think I'll have to. Unless I bought a real lemon.

A genuine Fender amplifier rated 100-watts for only $300? Yeah! Its a fantastic value. The sound qaulity really is not bad, its what you'd expect from Fender. If you're a working musician on a budget and need volume, don't buy crap. Crate? Ick! Kustom....I've been there and done that....Valvetronix??? Oh god....
But this little amp. You won't regret it. Don't listen those guys that own like $5000 in just one guitar and amp alone. Most of those guys brag about thier equipment but they can't play anything but 12-bar blues either. Just because it isn't a tube amp doesn't mean it's worthless. I like this thing...

Basic features, no built in effects beyond reverb (this is a good thing in my book, I'm not a fan of amps with too much circuitry). The tone knobs on this are VERY responsive, to the point of allowing configurations that are too bassy or too trebly. That taken in mind, it makes for a very flexible amp, you just have to know how to reign it in. If you are in the habit of just dialing everything to 10 and rolling with that, you may not like the sound of the amp.

3 guitars -- 1.) = MIM strat with seymour duncan humbucker in the neck position 2.) = PRS SE guitar with stock humbuckers, 3.) Ibanez talman electro-acoustic. I play a mix of blues, alternative, classic rock some metal and some punk. Very flexible sounds. As some have said, this amp does have the tendency to be trebly when you just crank the knobs to 10. If you spend a little time dialing in your tone, you can get a good tone relatively fast. Distortion is decent, not super brutal but this isn't a mesa so you will need to get a pedal of some sort for more extreme musical styles. I some times play my digitech GNX3 through this and it doesn't seem to color the sounds too badly. I like how the amp attempts to replicate tube amps responsiveness to touch. With the right settings on the distortion, it can do a good job of allowing you to get a clean sound when picked or plucked lightly or more distorted when you hit the guitar heavier.

Haven't had the amp long so no opinion. A buddy of mine bought one and needed work done on the reverb which I've heard is a common problem on these. I don't use reverb all that much so haven't seen any problems yet.

Haven't needed to contact Fender.

I've had a chance to play these a bit before buying one. I'm pretty happy with it. To get better sound I'd have to pay more but for the price I think this is a great unit.

It is a 100W 2x12 solid-state amp. It's quite versatile, the knobs respond very well so you can definitely shape your sound. I play metal and post-rock/hardcore, and this amp satisfies me with both genres. It has plenty of power, it's good for practicing and gigs as well.

I'm using it with a Les Paul Studio, the clean is great, it has a lot of dynamics and it's really bright, a typical Fender clean. Sure, it doesn't compete with tube amps or high level transistor amps, but it's damn good. The distortion is not bad, but the more you raise the gain, the worse it gets. If you keep it at 7-8 it's good for blues or classic rock. Add an overdrive pedal if you want to play metal, otherwise use pedals like I do. I use a ProCo deucetone RAT and a tubescreamer-like OD pedal, and they sound great with this amp as long as I keep the highs low (about 4). It's not noisy at all, and it stays clean until almost the maximum level (which I don't recommend testing as it is EXTREMELY loud).

It's built in China, so maybe it isn't as sturdy as USA made ones, but I think it's pretty solid. You can hear no parts moving inside when you move it (like my valvestate did). I had a single problem with it: it buzzed like hell when i brought it home, but then I found out it was a loose screw. I bought it used, so I guess it's the previous owner's fault.

I didn't have to contact Fender. I'll give this an 8 because of the problem I had (explained before)

I don't know if I'd buy it again. I'd probably try out another Fender amp, they're all good... I need only the clean channel after all.
I love its clean and responsiveness (and loudness too). The reverb is standard, neat and absolutely not useless like someone said before. It's a good Accutronics reverb. The effects loop works great and it has all the features I need. I'd give this amp an 8.

I believe that the one I owned,was a 2005 model,made in China with 2 Fender special design speakers,rated at 100 watts.It's a 2 channel amp with a mid contour switch,affects loop,etc.Oh,it is a solid state amp.

I used,at the time,a 2006 MIM sunburst strat(which I still have)and a 2005 Epiphone Cherry Red G-400,which I've since gotten rid of.I noticed no matter how you set the clean channel,it always has a very trebly tone to it,and the distortion on this amp is just plain horrible.Very muddy and not clear at all.The only good thing about this amp is,when I did use it on gigs,the loudest I had to turn it,was on 2.

Here's where it scores a high point.This amp is durable for a Chinese made product,and I did not have any problems with it breaking down when I owned it.I have used this on over 50 gigs with no worries at all.

Fender is always good to deal with,but I feel that they made a mistake by having this made in China.I used to own a Frontman 25 with the Black grille cover,which was made in Mexico,that would blow this amp away.I feel that this amp could've been made in Mexico if Fender wanted to produce a low cost but effective amp for those on a limited budget.

I've been playing for over 35 years and this has to be one of the worst sounding amps that I have ever played through.I've since gotten rid of this amp and have traded it for a 1997 American made,Peavey Studio Pro 112,which I feel,is a far superior sounding amp and is much more durable,and it is easier on my back.Those FM212's weigh a fricking ton.Besides my Peavey,I own a 2006 MIM Fender Strat,a 2006 Squier Telecaster Custom,Digitech RP 50 effects unit.

100 watts
2 Channels (Clean & Drive)
3 Band EQ for both Channels
Spring Reverb
Send/Return
Has everything you would need if you're a beginner or a veteran.

Has a good clean channel. The drive channel is probably best not to be used on stage (I've never actually used the drive channel). The clean channel stays clean at decent volumes. I use a Strat with Tex-Mex pickups through a TS-9/Compression/Katana/BD-2/Crybaby and that gets me close enough to all of the tones I need. Suits my style well for a practice amp. Doesn't seem to be noisy at all.

Seems to be pretty reliable. I've never gigged with it, but if I had to I would. I've never had any problems with it at all.

Haven't had to deal with Customer Support.

I've only been seriously playing for two years. I've owned a few other solid state amps for practice purposes and haven't been as pleased with them. If it were stolen/lost and I could buy another for the same price I paid, I would probably buy another. I love that it's a dependable practice amp that gets me the tones I need instead of having to transport nicer gear around. There's really nothing I hate about it or anything I wish it had, just a good practice amp that I am very pleased with.

My amp was manufactured in March, 2006.
2 channels (clean & drive), 3 band eq for both channels, more drive & contour (less mid) buttons, spring reverb, send/return, footswitch. It has 100W, much more than I need. Solid State.
It's a pretty versatile amp.

The clean channel is real clean, until almost the full volume. I think it's good to use with pedals.
The drive channel is 'usable', with some interesting options, but not good at all. You can achieve from light drives to hi-gain distortions.
I use a stock Fender Mexican strat, into Cry Baby - Boss SD-1 - Onner Carbon-x overdrive - Fuhrmann booster - Boss DC-3. Playing from blues to classic rock stuff, and some things of 90's.
Very silent amp. One of the best SS amp you can look at.

This amp is strong like a rock. If you are using it, don't need nothing else for backup.
I never had any problems with.

I never had any problems with. Don't know yet.

I'm playin for about 8 years, if I lost it somehow, I'd probably try an 30-60W all tube ampl.
I like very much the clean channel, very brilliant and very usefull.
I recommend it if you need an strong SS amp, with good clean, much power and pretty versatile.
Sorry about the English... I'm from Brazil.

O.K. here's is the gist of this whole review - picked one of these up last summer from $350 at a second hand shop. I traded my Peavey Studio Chorus 210, plus a pedal & Mini Marshall. The FM212 sounded great at the shop. Once I got it home & cranked it to more gig comparable volumes, I couldn't figure out what was bothering me about it. I had my brother in law come over & play it, and I finally clued in - the clean channel , while clean to absurd volumes, give you the same irritating highs that the first CDs had when they came out in the 80s. Not quite natural, sterile & hard on the ears.

Kept it for a week, then got my Peavey Studio chorus 210 back (alas the pedal & the mini Marshall were gone). Read the reviews for the Peavey. Then wonder why I preferred the it to the FM212r.

Again, if you've heard it, you know it. Oh, & I don't do mods. If I need to spend a few hundred dollars to make something sound good, I'll pay more in the first place for quality.

good features solid state i play most styles of music .worship heavy matal clasic rock. blues .sherding ect.

distrotion is better than i thought it would be .but a small problem with a fuzz noise that cuts in and out.i use a jackson dinky with duncan design pickup sounds good .but when i use my other gtr a sx strat style with single coil pickups it screaches an a low volune /NOT good with cheeper guitars

about a week after i got the amp a fuzz noise that cuts in and out became an anoying problem .so i sent it back .and when i got the amp back the problem was still there .its just about spent just as much time in the shop repair room as i have owned it .and i look after all my music geer with respect cos this sort of stuff costs a lot of money

havent payed 4 any thng yet

ive been playing guitar 4 about 5 years .i own 2 acoustics not sure wot brand but ones 12 string and the other 6.2 eletrics a jackson dinky and a sx strat style .a boss ds1 ,digitech rp200a .peavy rage 158 but to be honest my 15 watt practice amp sounds better than the fender FM212r

This amp is made in China and the date of manaufacturig is January 2007. I found this amp very simple as far as its features is concerned but I always believe in simplicity as it tends to make you able to shape your sound in least time and without any confusion. This amp is quite versatile enough as far as clean and overdrive sounds are concerned. I wish it may have a Presence control and a large spring reverb unit as the former one can give you more sharpness and cut through sound and later one can give you more depth/quality reverb sound. However it is still sound very good without these features. I use this amp for jam and live performances and it has enough power to handle the big shows with overloading. I like the big cones of its speakers as this property gives extra boost and punch to the overall sound of amp. I like its Mid contour switch which is a very useful feature with which you can get a superb beefy and punchy sound both for clean and overdrive modes. I am rather surprised that this amp does not have a heat sink plate for its power transistors for cooling purpose and it is a Must during hot season. I like the storage places nominated at the back of amp for tighten up the power cable and foot switch with provided straps.

This amp makes very good sound. In clean channel the souund is transparent and bright and if you add a graphic equalizer and a compressor than you will get some most wonderful/powerful sound out of it. Yes clean channel get somewhat distorted at high volumes but it is still very clean and I again suggest to use a compressor for that reason. However I find the slight distortion on clean channel very pretty at full volume. On overdrive channels the distortion is very brutal with bundle of sustain especially at more drive channel. I like the Mid contour mode very useful and I always engage it all the time. It is somewhat noisey at more drive mode but it is common with every amp at very high gain settings and again I suggest to use good quality pickups and proper sheilding of your guitar. I used both humbucking and single coil pickups guitars on it and they sound excellent. I play Metal, rock , blues and country and found this amp fulfilling my requirements. I found it slightly noisey from it main power side but it is acceptable and I recommend to use good quality guitar cable and proper grounding/earthing of your amp at power outlet.

Though I own it for the last one month so I can't exactly tell regarding its reliability but nevertheless I found this amp quite reliable and of course it has a Fender name plate so I am pretty sure that it won't let me down. Yes I have full faith in Fender products so I will not use a backup while using it in a live performance.

I found Fender people quite helpful. It has a five years warrnaty. As I live Pakistan and we have no authorized dealer of Fender here so in case it get faulty I have to get it repair at some local workshop. One of the reason of choosing simple amp by me is that it can be repaired easily and cheaply.

I have been playing for last 27 years and I have lot gears including two Yamaha amps JX50, G50 112 III, Yamaha les paul copy SL400S, Yamaha AES 620, Yamaha Pacifica 412V, Epiphone les paul black beauty, Fender 12 string acoustic D6, Ovation electric acoustic CS257, Yamaha acoustic guitar FG470S, Zoom G1, Korg & Tohshiba guitar tuners and lot of Boss, Ibanez and MXR effects pedals. If this amp is stolen I would buy the same one if my budget falls in this range. I love about it is its simplicity and beautiful front pannel. I hate about it for the very ordinary speakers magnets labels which looks more like home-made ones. Fender should replace them with sober looking labels. I choose it because it is simple and has a Fender name plate and also due to Fender clean sound history.

This amp is made in China and the manufacturing time is January 2007. This is a very basic amp as far as features is concerned. I always liked the simple amps set ups as it requires least time to shape your desired sound. I liked the storage place provided at the back of amp for foot switch and power cable. I also like the plastic back side pannel plate for noise dampening and prevention from electric shock. I like the front power indication light which is bright and fades away in very cool way when you swithch off the amp. The reverb is good and the mid contour mode is very useful. The indication lights on the foot switch are very bright. The foot switch cable and power supply cord are of very high quality. I wish this amp should have a Presence control and a large size spring reverb. I also wish it should have a second speaker output at the back of amp in case you want to connect it with external speaker. I also wish it should have heat sink plate at the back of amp in order to cool down the power tranistors especially during hot season as I heard that it gets overheated so I guess that Fender should reconsider this point.

The sound quality of this amp is great. The clean channel sound very good. The drive and more drive channels are equally great but require a bit of tube like compression. Overall the sound quality of this amp is fantastic. The amp really comes to its own when you use effect pedals especially compressor and a graphic equalizer. The over drive channels works great when you use the effect loop though it reduce its overall power output but the sound of the drive becomes very sweet with a little bit compression and of course the solo notes starts to swell beautifully. The amp is very quite indeed but makes a little bit noise at more drive channel but this normal with every amp at very high gain settings. I used both humbuckers and single coil guitars with this amp and they sound great all the way up. I heard that this amp produces feedback but I have not noticed it as long as you stay at a apporiate distance from amp and futhermore you should have a good quality pickups installed on your guitar. The speakers are brillant with large size cones which makes them sound amazing. The amp stays quite noise free at high volume and the drive channel speaks brillant at medium to high volumes. This amp has got lot of head room for high power signals for metal type stuff. At more drive settings you get screaming solo sounds with bundle of sustain. I mostly use mid contour switch engaged with treble at 7, Mid at 5 , Bass at 8 & reverb at 5. The clean channel stays clean at full volume but distorts a little bit when you hit the strings hard but again it is very interesting to hear such a nice sound.

I have been using it for one month but I am pretty sure it will give me a trouble free service as the quality of this amp what I have observed is great. No would not use a back up as this amp is Fender not a unknown brand.

Fender people are quite helpful.

I have been playing for the last 27 years. I have got Yamaha AES620, Yamaha Pacifica 412V, Epiphone les paul black beauty 3PU, Yamaha SL400S les paul copy, Ovation electric acoustic CS257, Fender 12 string DG6 and Yamaha FG470S. I have two Yamaha amps JX50 & G50 112 III. I have lot of Boss effect pedals and few Ibanez/MXR ones. I found the overall quality of this amp very satisfying and I am very much happy with it. I wish it might have chrome corners on it front top end as it looks a bit incomplete without them. I basically choose it because it has a Fender name plate and secondly I need a low price and Loud clean sounding amp. If this amp is stolen I would like to experiment with some other amp like Behringer GMX212 or Yamaha DG60 if my pocket allows me to do so otherwise I will buy it again.

I recently bought it and it is made in China. It has standard features very basic ones and I always like the simple set up of amp as it is very easy to shape your sound in shortest possible time. It has a very good clean channel. The speakers are very loud and clear. The newly designed speakers from Fender has very large cones which enhances it tonal character. The amp is surely very versatile if you use your effect pedals. I always believe in simple amp layout and this amp just reflects my vision. It has three channels i.e. clean, drive and more drive. The clean channel is not that much loud and if you use your graphic equalizer and compressor then it gives you tons of power output. However it still gives a very good sound. The drive and more drive is very useful distortion effects which I found very impressive if you use them through the effects loop. Though the effect loop tends to make the output and sound a little muddy or slightly weak but the quality of sound I found is very impressive indeed. The drive effect really comes to it own while using the effect loop as the distortion starts to swells beautifuly if you hold the note and let it sustain. The best features are the power light which starts to fade away gradually as you turn off the amp which I found it very cool. I like the feature that it have straps for tighten up the provided foot switch and the power cord securly at the back of the amp's compartment. I rather did not like the stickers or monogram at the back side of the speakers magnents which are somewhat makes the speakers overall out look a bit like cheap amps with no name. It is a mono output amp and a solid state circuit. The power cord is of very high quality and the foot switch is also very well build with very clear and brightly lit indication lights. On the drive channels this amp has a hell lot of power. The spring reverb is also quite nice and useable one. I use this amp for jam sessions and also medium size performaces and I am sure it can very easily handle the large venues as well. I like the plastic back side pannel which is also prevents against electric shock and tends to make the amp quite lighter as far as weight is concerned. Futhermore it also provides damping/insulation effect against nosies. I wonder that Fender did not provided any heat sink plate for cooling down the power transistors at the back side of amp. I suspect that it could might gets overheated in summer season while using it at high output for longer time and neither it has ventilation slots nor fan at the back of the pannel. Overall my observation is quite satisfactory for this amp.

The sound quality is great for the clean channel and of course the drive & more drive channel works wonderfully if you use the effect loop for that purpose. The amp is well sheilded and makes very little noise and that depends how good quality guitar and cable you are using. The control knobs are very smooth and very effective as well. I found the mid contour switch at the drive channel very useful. The more drive produces some of the most powerful and screeming solo sounds with bundle of sustain. The amp does not produces unecessary feedback but then again it depends upon how much good quality guitar pickups you are using. If you add digital delay and compressor at the drive and more drive channel through effect loop you will get some most interesting solo sounds. I wonder how some people did not like the drive channels sounds. These are probably one of the best overdrive sounds you can get but you have to find it out for yourself how to tweak them. I suggest you to use the effect loop if you are looking for good sound and do use a compressor at low setting and add a delay effect and you will love it. This amp is operated quiet enough but it produces some nosie at more drive channel but this is normal with every amp. The amp has a very punchy sound and can handle both bright crystal and bassy sounds very well. I have not noticed any rattling sounds from the amps cabinet or speakers. I have checked this amp both for humbucking and single coil pickups and found it very good. If you need a good amp with simple set up and bundle of power and pretty sound quality then you should not wait for any longer and try to get this thing as early as possibe before you get double minded.

Oh yes it is quite reliable but let me first use it in hot weather with full volume then I would be pretty sure regarding its reliablity. Nevertheless I am confident that it is a Fender and not a no name company so I am least worry about this aspect. No I will never think to use this amp with a back up because it seems to me very tough in every way.

Yes Fender people and dealers are quite helpful. I happenned to dealt with some of them and they extended their cooperation to me all the time. But some dealers do not reply my emails which is disappointing. This amp has a 5 years warranty but I would not get its beneifit as I lives in Pakistan and we do not have any authorized dealer of Fender here so I would probably get it repair from local workshop.

I have been playing for the last 27 years. I have lot of gears including Yamaha, fender, ovation, epiphone, Boss, Ibanez, MXR & Seymour duncan. If this amp is being stolen I would probably buy the same one if my budget does not allow me to get some other one. But may be I give a second thought and try to buy Behringer GMX212 just due to more features and with back pannel's more options. I wish it should have a bigger spring reverb unit with more sound depth and with some more sober speakers magnets stickers probably grey or black color. I choose it because I heard that it has a very nice clean channel sound and if you have a very good clean channel then you can do anything by using your own effect pedals. I wish the depth of this amp should be around 11 inch for a more hefty look. Lastly I wish this amp has chrome corners at the front top side which I find not there.

Purchased amp in Australia for $550 new from Allans Feb 2007. Has 2 channels. A clean channel, a drive and a more drive channel. Amp also has a spring reverb. 100watts

I purchased this amp as a back up for my Hot Rod Deville 410. For a transistor amp it is fantastic. Has a beautiful clean sound. I play in a duo and the amp is great for jazz with Hollow Body Guitars. I have used it with a Gretch, Ibanez Artcore and Epiphone casino. The distortion is not bad for a transistor amp. It is useable.

The reverb unit in this amp sucks. It is so weak that on 10 you can just barely notice it. The reverb unit sits at the base of the amp and is connected by 2 RCA cables. I contacted Fender Australia and emailed Fender USA to see if this unit could be replaced. Fender Australia said no and I received no answer from Fender USA. The reverb unit is Accutronics. I did a web seach and emailed the distributor. He recommended that I replace the reverb unit with an Accutronics 8DB2C1B 3 spring reverb. I ordered one from Electric Factory in Australia for $94 . It is a substantial improvement making a cheap amp sound awesome. FENDER if you are reading this, I suggest you replace the reverb unit in this amp. I am sure that buyers would pay extra money for a better quality reverb. Your existing reverb is CRAP.

The amp is bare basics. It has a wonderful clean tone which is ideal for jazz. I love the distortion as well. Remember, it is not a tube amp. If you play metal, you will have to use a pedal. The reverb is useless. I have tried using spring reverb effects from pedals. Placing a guitar through effects unit changes your sound that it sounds artificial as a result of the processor. There is nothing like a good spring reverb. Change the reverb unit as stated above and you will have a great amp.

I use it mainly with hollow body guitars. Really clean. Sounds great with Les Paul and Strats as well. The 2X 12 inch speakers give it a full sound.

Purchased it as back up. However, may use it all the time. It is more than enough power for a gig, it is 1/4 of the weight of my Hot Rod Deville and I do not have to worry about valves needing replacement.

Only had the amp for 3 months and have done 5 gigs with it. Have not yet had any problems.

AS above

I have been playing for 20 years and I would rate this as one of the best transistor amps (after replacing the reverb unit) that I have ever owned. The sound is traditional Fender. Do not buy Transistor amps with amp simulations. I also own a Roland Cube 60. It is a heap of CRAP. Had I seen this amp first, I would not have purchased the Roland Cube. A natural clean pure tone is far better than an unnatural simulated tone.

This amp was made in January 2007 as mentioned on the bottom side of amp. I always believe in simple things as they are never gets outdated and helps you to add any kind of effects with it as per your liking. It is also very easy to set your sound in seconds no confusion atall.I like the features that it has storage places/straps at the back side of amp for power cable, foot switch plus conecting cable. It has a very high quality foot switch. I liked the power indication light very attractive and bright. It has a wonderful feature that as you switch off the amp the light starts to fade out gradually in a very cool manner, very interesting indeed. The front panel is very attractive/smart and highly finished with very smooth variable knobs/controls. I like the back pannel covered with a plastic sheet which is again very attractive and also provides protection against electric shock in case the unit is accidently gets wet. I like the extra large speakers cones which gives the amp an extra sound advantage. It is a mono output amp and a solid state one but construction wise it is very well made. I like that probably its front grill can be removed very easily so cleaning/washing has been made very simple and easy. I like the build quality (very solid) of the foot switch with very bright lights. The power cord is again made with very high quality material.

This amp produces all kind of basic sounds like very clean, overdrive and more overdrive. I found the overdrive very useful and nice. The more overdrive has a very high gain and very good for solo/metal type of playing and of course it has a brutal distortion with bundles of sustain. Though the more overdrive mode produces some hiss noise but it is common with almost every amp. The control knobs are very effective and the mid contour is a real treat to use. I use every kind of pickups with this amp and it responds all of them very well. I have heard people saying that it produces feedback problem and I must say that it mostly happens due to cheap pickups. So if you are using good quality guitar you would not face this problem. Yes there is some electrical background noise with this amp even using clean channel and I think that you can eliminate it by Grounding/Earthing the amp properly. The drive channel is very very loud but the clean channel is loud enough but not that much loud as that of drive channel so I recommed to use a graphic equalizer with this amp.

Yes certainly I can depend on it without any backup. No I have been using it for the last one month and it is working just fine.

The Fender company is quite cooperative. But I do not find the fender dealers so helpful as I myself experienced it that I live in Pakistan and here we do not have any Fender dealer so I contacted various fender dealers near our region and I only got the reply from half of them. So atlast I made the deal with Tom Lee Music Honk Kong and I found them very helpful and cooperative. They provided me every infomation regarding this amp on telephone and they never showed any kind of anger. Apart from this dealer other are quite slow in this regard and futhermore if any thing is not in stock and you ask them when it got to be available they do not reply, I do not know what happens to them. So this is surprising for me.

I have been playing for the last 27 years as a hoyybist. I have got two Yamaha guitar amps 50 watt each. Three Yamaha electric guitars SL 400S, AES 620, Pacifica 412V. One Epiphone Les Paul Black Beauty 3PU. One Yamaha acoustic guitar FG470S. One Ovation CS257 electric acoustic. One Fender 12 string guitar DG6. Lot of Boss & Ibanez effect pedals. If this amp is being stolen I would buy it again execpt that I only have the budget for this price range amp otherwise I will probably go for Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.

2 channels, 3 if you count " more drive".channel switching pedal also turns more drive on and off.

bought this amp because my marshall took a dump just before a gig. figured i needed a back-up amp anyway and didnt have time to try out a bunch of amps. 5 gigs later and im really likeing this amp. play a strat deluxe and a strat 50th anniversary standard. clean is very clean. boost it with an eq or a commpresser pedal and it breaks up nicely. more drive is very noisy but drive is a nice distortion and with the mid contour you can get variety of different distorted sounds. i have a noise gate in my pedal chain, sometimes i need it, sometimes not. its not a metal head amp but it could be with the right effects

so far so good. the thing has a 5 year warranty so its in fenders best interest to make sure that its built well. oh, i almost forgot, the footswitch went bad. took it back to the store, 3 days later fender sent a brand new one. no problems before or after.

like i said before, footswitch went bad (the button itself) fender sent a new one promptly.

been playing forever. was thinking about getting another one of these and have a stereo rig! paid less than $350 for it so why not! i play medium to small venues, some outdoor jobs. blues, classic rock, oldies. my band doesnt mike anything but vocals and kick drum,snare. plenty loud.

I got one of these beauties in 2005. It's a great solid-state amp, 2 channels (clean and drive, also a 'more drive' feature for the drive channel) both featuring 3-band eq's, reverb. 100W total through 2x12 inch speakers. It has served me well in several gigs.

I've noticed people giving this amp bad tone reviews on here (to which I can only pin down to personal preference), but the clean tone is great, drive is brilliant for classic/hard rock with a bit of mid and when you scoop the mid out and chuck on the 'more drive' button it gives a great distortion tone. I've found this after trying several different guitars through it, from the cheap Vintage guitars I own (I'm a student with little money) through to a proper Les Paul and all sounded pretty mighty through it. One critisism I had when I first got it was that the overall tone was far too bassy (as I'm a lead guitarist and prefer the treble!) but it really does have great highs and is pretty good sustain and the bassy tone I have since realised was my own disliking. I've since grown used to it and love it as it provides a really punchy low-end. Used it for metal, rock and blues and in all instances it has proven itself superb.

The amp itself is solid as a rock although the cable for the footswitch is very cheap and not particularly great (think of those rubbish sealed-plastic guitar leads that come with starter amps) and I've noticed others moaning about the sound cutting out half-way through gigs. I've had the same problem in practices (it's been perfect at gigs so far) and it all came down to that flimsy footswitch cable. Solution? Buy a descent guitar cable and replace it with that, its exactly the same cable. Problem solved! The thing has been bashed about down stairs, into cars, travelled for hundreds of miles under piles of heavy stuff and so far nothing other than a small bit of paint from a door frame on it. It still works perfectly.

Haven't had to deal with them, so I wouldn't know.

I've been playing for over 7 years now, mostly through cheap equipment (although have used other people's expensive stuff) and this amp has a great tone for its price. Won't be as versatile as most high-end amps but it has enough volume and durability for mid-sized gigs in clubs. If it was stolen I'd probably get another one (I've played through a LOT of similarly priced amps and none of them were as good, in my experience, for what I play through it). I played it side-by-side with a Laney TFX3 Twin that my rhythm guitarist owns and this thing thrashed it in every way (excluding digital effects, of course, because the FM212R has none), absolutely obliterating the Laney's inadequate digital distortion warbly, trebly tone that won't go away. Would I add anything to it? Probably not, for the price it's fantastic and until I get enough money to actually buy myself a Mesa Boogie, this amp with serve me well I will not replace it until then!

My amp was made like 2006 i believe, it looked pretty new. I play a variety of things, and i make the most out of this amp. It has clean, drive, and more drive channels, (and a mid contour button) and honestly all 3 serve their own purpose. it also has reverb but its pretty weak. not alot of features, no good effects, but for a 100watt solid state amp with that great range of tone, its a good buy

the clean sounds amazing right up to 10 volume, the drive channel gives u a nice range of rock sounds, and the more drive is awesome when coupled with its mid contour feature for metal sounds. the only thing is, it'll feedback painfully on high volumes/high gain levels. Then again...when your using that much gain, your probably playing metal, and feedback is a good thing when your playing metal.

Ive had it for about half a year now, and for a few days i stuck it next to my window (in the middle of winter) because im an idiot... but the coldness didnt do anything to it. I also kind of dropped it a little on my driveway once, and it still works perfectly fine.

If i were to lose it (or break it doing something stupid) i'd DEFINATLY attempt to get another one. i rented this thing out before i bought it (to see how it sounded when i cranked it n stuff, cuz i didnt wanna crank it too high in the store), which knocked down the cost of it a bit, it came to a little over 300 canadian when i bought it.

if your looking for something LOUD, that can do a small gig, that has good tone, and u DONT need ten zillion effects, and your budget is like mine...
GET IT!

Well i dont think this amp has too much to it, no on board effects which i love about it, most amp effects BLOW, exept on twin reverbs, tremelo and reverb are SUPERB, but this thing is more simple, and i always say simple is the best way to go with sound. Has reverb, but its pretty bad, but works.

Ok, first off i got this and thought that it was the biggest letdown ever. Mainly 100 watts for like 350buxx, couldnt be too bad, and after just smashing a bluescube while drunk one night... i know dumbass, i needed a new stage amp, and i thought why not. For 2 years i thought this thing was jsut a pain in the ass, but lately ive been playing it with a Twin Reverb, and for some reason one day the sound was just great, and ever since then just been playin' well. One thing it does get ALOT of feedback when drive is over 6, but as long as you stay away from the amp it dies down, and for 350 bux, ain't that big of a deal. You can def. get better sounds from other amps for the same price, but this one is just simple and easy, only thing is also the footswitch has a delay on the swithcing on it, if you play this amp get used to timing that differently.

Had it for like 3 years and hasnt died on me yet, so not too bad in my oppinion

This thing won me battle of the bands this year ('07) so hell, it can do the job if you know how to use it. I would DEF NOT use distortion pedals with it, it dosen't handle other overdrive other than its own well (IE muddy bad bad sounds will ooze out of it if you do) so just stick with whats on it, reverb dosen't go all the way off either, but i can't even tell its really on half the time. Not bad in my oppinion, im prolly gonna ditch it after i save up and get my Mesa Boogie, and use that for distortion and clean with my twin, and i know that'll make the sound i want, but untill then i know this thing can handle what i need.

This amp was built in 2006. I play R&B, blues and country... my style I have coined as Funky Cowboy Blues. I bought it as a back up for my Deville, which was in the shop for some warranty work... Oh yea, you get what you pay for. However, depending on who you pay determines who'll back up their product. And the for 300 bills and some change this amp is the best deal on the market. If music is your business and not just a hobby, you'll appreciate that fact. I originally bought the Marshall MG50 for a back-up... I had to return it because the digital reverb destroyed its worth. However, the FM-212R amp has real reverb, 100 watts, two twelves and an effects loop which I use a pinch of Voodoo Labs Tremelo pedal on. In all honesty, I don't really use the drive, more drive channel.. having played for 35+ years I get my drive from driving the amp and punching the guitar and not through effects. This is a great amp for those who want to amplify their playing, it's bare bones and it will not give you chops. Consequently, I understand those who didn't like it. However, for those who want a solid amp, this is a great package.

I did try out the drive more drive channel... They were loud and had a nice singing quality to them when dialed in. The clean channel is what I use and when cranked has a nice thump to it... I play mostly on 7, however on 10 it is still quiet, clean untill you punch it. When punched, on volumes from 5-10 the speakers break up nicely, again with a nice musical quality to them. I play three nights a week in a medium size room. My go to guitar is a Mexican Strat with some Custom Shop Fat 50's and a copper lined pick-up cavity. This amp for me, has great sound.

Like I said... This is my back-up for a Deville an old school tube players dream! Curiously, I don't worry about the FM-212R when the Deville is in the shop. No back up is needed.

As I said before... I bought this Fender because my other Fender was in the shop for some warranty work. If music is your business, then customer support is a critical feature in your choice of gear. This is one of the reasons I chose a Fender amp, though they're very reliable, things happen. Fender backs up what they build and put their name on.

I've been playing 35+ years and for over 22 years I've been gigging an average of three nights a week. I have a variety of Guitars and have owned a variety of amps over the years... but in the end a nice strat with a great Fender amp... what else do you need?

Made in 2006. Solid state combo with Two channels with a more drive feature, Channel switching with supplied foot switch. Fx loop, Reverb, 100 watts @ 4ohms, 2-12" eminence speakers. I dont play out anymore so i wanted an amp that i could just plug in and play at home and get a good sound at den volumes. Very loud amp. Kinda suprised it doesnt have a presence knob.

When i went looking for a new amp i really never intended to buy this one but decided to try it out since it was there and i was totally suprised by its tone. It has the low end girth of a 4-12 cabinet with the right amount of midrange and treble bite. The clean channel is pretty much what i expected to be but the drive channel floored me. Smooth chunky with tons of sustain. I play blues classic rock hard rock metal and some country pickin and this amp does it all great. The mid contour button is the gem with this amp. Fender and solid state has come a long way. Im a die hard tube guy but this amp is really impressive. I have many guitars from les paul to strat and some hot kramers and others and this amp serves them all well. It makes single coil pickups sound thick and fat. The only concern is the reverb is weak. Its a small spring box but doesnt have the depth of other fenders or peaveys. The speakers seem fine.

When it came i completly inspected every inch of it and it seems to be a top notch build. The made in china had me worried but it seems like its going to last. Ive had other fenders before and have had no problem with them.

never dealt with them.

Was pleasantly suprised with this amp. I didnt think fender could have such a great distortion. Its pretty much what i was looking for in tone and size and price.

most features as above in other reviews.
basically a 100watt 212 speaker solidstate amp with reverb, no other features.

i play an epiphone g-400 (sg) and a washburn chigago series kc45v.
i originally bought this around christmas time 2 years ago when i was very much into blues, and this amp i belive had a good enough clean to play it. however, as i started play rock and metal such as zeppelin, hendrix, sabbath, nirvana, pantera and sepultura i felt this amp could not hold up ANY of these bands. no matter how i tried to change the settings, it just couldn't do it. the amp, has very little low end and should be avoided if you want to play metal.



i havent even gotten into the wonders of feed back in the second channel, as for feedback, i think i broke a new record!!! which isnt really a good thing, the second drive channel feed backs terribly.


the only decent channel on this amp is the clean, if you want distortion, USE A PEDAL!!!

i can not depend on this thing for anything!!!
i have played 2 decent sized gigs with this thing, and both times it failed me. the first time, for whatever reason, the distortion turned absolutely clean!!! the second time (by this time i got myself a good pedal) during my second song (iron man) it complete died!!!! (in the middle of the solo i might add)
but even after that i was forgiving of this hunk of junk.
during a jam with another guitarist, it started making this horrible banging noise, frequently, i changed my leads, used my other guitar and still this noise when ever i did anything on the guitar. DONT TRUST IT!!!

havent dealt with the company, in australia, the warrenty lasts for 1 year, and it started stuffing up around the 18 mounth mark....

Good clean channel...other than that you got nothing, the reverb sucks and the overdrive sounds really shitty.

clean channel is ok

NOT RELIABLE! let me down at three different shows... I only use it at home now... If you want something reliable you have to pay the price.

Looks good in my basement and thats where its going to stay.

Basic solid-state Fender amp, with 100 watts its' major attraction! Basically a two-channel amp, normal-n-drive; consider that 3rd "more drive" mode a sonic steroid! Mid-contour emulates Mesa Boogie types of Recto-vibed distortion if one certain mod is performed(see below). Spring reverb for subtle retro Fender vibe. Separate bass, midrange, & treble tone controls for both normal-n-drive channels. Pre-amp out & power amp in jacks for additional tonal flexibility. 2-button footswitch for channel access.

Considering this amp retails for around 3 bills, Fender had to make a production short-cut somewhere. It's in them stock Eminence speakers! They're voiced to emulate Jensen's C12Ns(1204s to vintage vibers), which means they don't suffer brutal wattage gracefully! Plus, they're wired in parallel! That lowered ohmage leads to sucky tone-n-electrical meltdown! As for that aforementioned mod, replace them stock Eminence drivers with Brown Soun's hemp-coned Vintage 30s, wired in series! All of a sudden that normal channel delivers classic Fender clean! A guitar geek bud said it sounded like a 60's-era Twin! Then when you kick into drive, you've got Mesa Boogie-ized Recto-Verbed distortion; more drive morphs into poly-phonic putty! Add pedals of choice if ya need more tonal versatility! Them hemp-coned V30s converts that lowly 212R into a veritable mini-stack! You'll have volume bordering on pain thresh-hold; yet that 212R aint even huffin'-or-puffin'! For added electrical protection, use an appliance surge protector like those sold @ Ratio Shaq! Used a Fender 50th anniversary Yngwie'ized Squier Strat, Mexican Jazz Bass, & Ibanez Les Paul Custom copy(with P.A.F. & P.A.F. Pro pickups) to put this pup through its' paces!

With that V30 mod & surge protection adapter, you've got a versatile, portable mini-stack for around 6 bills! A modded 212R should suffice until ya can afford that multi-kilobuck boutique amp! Ya can take a 212R out to a gig & not worry about some five-finger-discount Freddie; whereas ya gotta keep constant surveillance on a classic Twin or Bassman amp! Who sez ya can't be smug coaxin' scintillatin' tones outta a lowly 212R???

Have never had to find out, thankfully!!!

Mesa Boogie built their empire moddin' Fender amps! With the aid of hemp-coned V30s, ya get the feelin' a Fender engineer returned the favour by incorporatin' Recto-vibed distortions into them drive channels! For around 6 bills total, plus a little bit of elbow grease, ya get a sonic slice of harmonic heaven!

I don't own this amp but the club owner of the gig we played last night keeps one as a backup. I used it because I threw my back out and didn't feel like lugging my Vibroking with Webers. And, a few weeks ago, my DRRI took a dump, so I had no usable small amp. I don't know about all the features, you'll have to read the other reviews here.

I have a good pedalboard with Analog Man and Keeley modded stuff so I just used the amps clean channel. I was really shocked... this little solid state piece of crap actually sounded pretty good. It's the first solid state amp I've used that takes pedals well. Clean sound was decent and so was the reverb. It didn't make my TS-9 or Boss Blues driver sound farty like some other solid state amps I've used.

Only used it one night. It didn't explode.

Customer support? What the hell is that? If you want customer support, buy a Dr. Z or some other smaller company amp, not a mega-company like Fender.

Playing 20+ years. I use a Fender Custom Shop Strat as my main guitar but have some nice old stuff like a'69 Les Paul, '69 ES340TD, '90s Tele, Carvin solid body, etc.

If I were Fender, I'd take out the distortion channels (because they're useless) and invest the saved money in some better speakers. I wonder how that would sound?

2004 Chinese made. If you need it to be versatile, get a multi-fx stomp box.
I play classic rock and metal.
I bought because it was cheap. Cost me $350.
It started out alright. I've had it now for a year.
The first five months it was ok.
Then one day I turned it on and out came a loud screaching noise.
The repair person told me it was humidity.
That didn't help.
It's gone in and out of the repair shop some 4 times.
Are all new products as disposable as this piece of crap?

The distortion is ok, it's not brutal, but since the amp feedbacks pretty easily, which I don't mind, it's ok in that sense.
It's good for classic rock. It lacks a bit for metal or thrash.
It sounds best in a midrangey setting.

I can't depend on it. I play in a power trio. Do you know how embarrassing it is to be playing "Are you gonna go my way", have the whole crowd dancing and rocking out at 3 am and then the thing just shuts down on you, nothing, zero... your drummer stares at you and you bark: "Drum solo!!!", the drunks and the crowd look at you, the Manager of the pub looks at you, and the only thing you can come up with is "Drum Solo!!!! Yeah!!!" Somebody should shoot those chinese Fender guys.

In and out of the shop a zillion times. Useless.

Avoid by all means.

2005
not versatile at all.
three channels, but two in fact.
i wish it had a more decent distortion
a lot of power
noisy amp
noisy reverb
useless parametrics
terrible lack of basses

i use an sg: alnico on bridge, dimarzio fred on neck
it doesn't suit with my style: as I said, playing hardcore i don't really need an amp made of gold, but I dare say a decent one. the distort channel does really sucks. the clean channel is decent, so i managed to use this one with a dist pedal.
no variety of sound: the tone knobs seems fake: even setting 2/10 high and 10/10 bass the sound is so damn high that is simply impossible to reach a good distortion. the clean is decent, but no more than decent.

cheap plastic. i think it will last no more than a year without breaking.

this amp costed 300?.
despite of his brand, this amp is a cheap box, with cheap plastic rifinitures.
i see you guys shooting tens, i'm happy for you. i will sell this amp as quick as possible, and buy a better - and more expensive :( - one.

For years starting with my first amp (Vox Bently 2) I used just tube amps. But about 3 years ago I bought a behringer V-amp for recording. But when I plugged the V-amp into my marshall the programmed settings just didn't work.
To make a long story short I found the FM212's clean channel to be just what the doctor ordered. It was CLEAN and loud and when I connected the V-amp to it the sounds matched what I had already recorded.
I really don't use any of the features except for some fine tone tuning to match the room I'm playing in.

I am a solo musician and really have no need to go above 4 on the clean channel. Most of my sound comes from custom settings on the Bheringer V-amp. I use 4 banks on the V-amp. One for each guitar. And they are a Fender Strat, a Ibanez pf200, a Gretsch Duo Jet and an Aria pro 2 FA70. Each bank has 5 channels so basically any sound I use is right at hand.
The amp performs without problems as I go from guitar to guitar and I am really pleased by the fact that I can get the live sound exactly as I recorded it.

Because I rely so much on the V-amp for my sound and I am a solo performer I don't always need to use the FM212. Sometimes I go directly into my PA system. But I have had no problem with it's reliability so far.

I had been looking for a clean loud amp and mine is probably one of the first they made. So far so good. And at the price they sell for you can't ask much more than the fact that it just works.

While there may be a legitiment complaint about the FM212 not having a specific character, to me that was it's selling point. Basically I was looking for a PA for my V-amp and guitars and found it in the FM212. Truthfully if I was playing in a blues band instead of solo I probably wouldn't buy it and would haul out my old Marshall. But anyone leaning heavily on a modeling effects unit like the bheringer V-amp you should try out this amp.
I've been playing guitar for over 35 years and never thought I'd go solid state with my amps. But times and equipment change.

Made in China 2006. Has channel switching from clean ch to drive and more drive ch. Reverb does not switch via pedal. 2x12" small magnet speakers. Weighs very little for a 212. It has usable features for the working musician.

Using a Fender USA Strat with vintage alnico singles. The amp is quiet unless you put the more drive on 10, then it has a lot of hiss. But you don't need to do that anyway. The channel switching is totally quiet and no lag. The more drive switch automatically boosts volume for leads which is OK with me. The FM212R can handle pedals in the clean channel and make the pedals sound very good. For 80's rock, southern rock, I think the Fender drive sound is right on. It is smoother than a Crate type distortion. It doesn't go there, know what I mean. But you can get a smooth distortion where you cannot with a Crate. Just because it is different doesn't mean it's not usable, need more distortion get a pedal, they work great with this thing, BTW.
This amp is better than I thought it would be. But I did think the reverb would be stronger in a Fender 212, c'mon! You can give us a little more than that, Fender! The same people who buy this won't be
passing up a Twin Reverb just because this has some decent reverb!
Of course Fender thinks so, so this FM212R (notice the R for reverb) has weak reverb. Other than that I wouldn't be ashamed to play out with this amp. It is loud, works great with pedals, and what more do you need? Yeah, tone. It's in yer quality guitar and yer playing. You can't get great tone with a cheap guitar on any amp. That's a fact.

Well, it makes a great seat or footrest if nothing else. 5 year warranty
helps a lot.

Five years warranty is plenty of time in yer career to get to the top and back down and still have some warranty left!

I've been playing since before SRV ever picked up a guitar, which means nothing actually...but if we'd had amps like this back in the 70's and 80's we would have been jumping for joy! I think it is much better than
most people say if you know it's limitations and work with them. Replace the black grille cloth with salt/pepper and you got a real Fender! I've grown to like the thing. If someone steals it, it won't get enough at the pawn shop to pay for the gas to get home, that's a good thing! Buy one for 300 or less and use it. Don't listen to the snobs who don't give anything a chance. This amp will do some work for ya. For the category this amp is in it rates a nine. 100 watt 212 for 300 bucks is great!
If they raise the price too high, look at Peavey, Crate, Epiphone, Laney, Behringer, Marshall, Vox, Randall, etc., etc.

Standard features: two channels, gain boost on the distortion channel. Spring reverb. Separate EQ for both channels (which is, of course, a godsend. I can't believe the companies that make amps with only one set of EQ). Two 12" speakers and probably 120 watts RMS, I didn't check. If there's one thing this amp does well, it's volume. The thing can get loud.

Two button footswitch (channel select/more drive), though it's odd they didn't have a Reverb on/off switch - a lot of amps do. Probably wouldn't use it anyway though, so I can't complain.

At first glance, it seems to be able to cover a lot of ground sonically, and it's got that typical alluring Fender amp look to it. Resembles a Twin Reverb, which, as far as guitar amps go, is one of the better looking models out there.

To tell the truth, this isn't my amp, this is my brother's brand new baby. Granted, he's only been playing for a couple of years (I've been playing for a bit longer), but I drilled him for weeks beforehand to go tube, knowing that he would regret this purchase eventually.

I came home one day to find it all set up in my recording room, with his Ibanez Jet-whatever plugged in. Curious about the amp itself, I turned it on and gave it a shot. Thoroughly unimpressed, I decided to stop playing with the kid's toy, give the amp the benefit of the doubt, and haul out the big guns - my PRS and Les Paul (both, of course, REAL ones - a CE-24 (I like the neck more than its more expensive brothers) and an old Studio (it was a deal I couldn't pass up) respectively). Now, here are my thoughts after an hour of knob turning with 30 second spurts of disappointed playing in between.

Despite using these, the amp responded the same way. The clean channel - which can be wonderfully pristine when solid-state - is simply brittle and absolutely lifeless. It doesn't have that beautiful Fender chime and shimmer heard on its (distant) cousins. There is absolutely no bass - which is an incredible feat with 2 12" speakers. To give it the benefit of the doubt, it was in a room with hardwood flooring. HOWEVER, the bass control should still have done something to shape the tone. Likewise, the middle control seemed to have no effect. I prefer my cleans to be "fat" but still retain clarity, and this was impossible. The only sound the clean channel seemed to make was a brittle sound with way too much treble, no sustain, and absolutely no character.

Moving on to the distortion, there's only one way to describe it: MUD. Pure, unadulterated, incomprehensible MUD. Alright, alright...if you play power chords or single notes, it isn't muddy...and you can get a pretty fat sound out of it. The Drive/more drive feature is nice, and seemed like it could be useful. My ears actually perked up for a bit when I switched to this channel. They just didn't stay perky for too long.

It doesn't really crunch. It doesn't sing, scream, wail, no, the sustain doesn't last for days. You can get a decent bluesy low-gain kind of sound that's good for doing 12 bar. You can play in a garage punk band and knock out songs consisting of two progressions of 3 powerchords each. Just don't try to play more than two notes at once - or else any clarity you might have once found is gone.

I did get an ok sound when I combined the Drive channel with a Boss DS-1. But YOU try hitting two pedals in a stage situation every time you need to switch channels. Tried it before...you're bound to screw up more than a few times.

Overall, just a terrible sound coming out of this. Maybe - just maybe - if you used some tube preamps and good distortion pedals, and just used the amp for its speakers and volume, you could get a good sound. But I wouldn't be caught dead playing this in front of other people.

If it's like other Fenders it should hold up ok. Less chance of breaking down since it's solid state. I wouldn't worry about it breaking down too much.

NA - it's new.

I've been playing for about 6 or 7 years (I can't remember, really...it started as a point of interest and has been my passion, pasttime, and creative outlet for the past 3 or 4 years)...been in and out of all the different kinds of bands you make out of boredom and the kinds you actually want to do well. My current (and probably permanent) darling is my PRS, which will soon be singing through a Vox AC-30 or an older Mesa nomad. Haven't decided yet.

To ground this review, I have Crate 2x12 that I used for the longest time (and still do sometimes, mostly for personal practice), which is roughly the same price and has the same features. The crate, even without a tube pre and distortion pedals just blows this thing away. I simply cannot stand this abomination of an amp, and I don't think you could get me to buy it for $100, let alone $300. I hate the whole push towards digital and all solid-state equipment, but there are $100 modeling pedals that make better noises than this.

The only thing I don't feel sorry for is my brother. He had the opportunity to get himself a nice tube amp, and instead went for this piece.

Can't wait to see him start complaining, just for the "I told you so" satisfaction of it all.

Bought brand new in the box April 1, 2006. Just took it out of the box this morning, April 2, 2006 to try it out and make sure everything works. So far, so good! First off, I did not need this amp. I currently own a Traynor YCV40 1x12 Tube combo w/add'l. 1x12 Traynor Ext. Cab. This has been my gigging rig for the past year or so. Also own a Roland JC120, Peavey Bandit 1x12 (Delta Series), Peavey Revolution 1x12 (Delta Series)and you may think this crazy, but I traded a Peavey Special 1x12 160 watt amp in for this Made in China Fender FM212R amp! As all guitar players will tell you, they are looking for that one "special" amp that has that "special" tone/sound, that they just can't live without. I've come close on several occassions, but not quite, not yet.
Versatility means different things to different people. Knowing what you want or need from a piece of gear is where you really need to start. I look for a very sparkling, brilliant clean tone from an amp; first and foremost. If the clean doesn't sound good, then you might as well look at something else. That's why I own the Roland JC120, the most beautiful clean tone and most lush chorus you can get from an amp! I tried 3 of these amps out at 3 different music stores and found that all 3 of them were very consistant in tone, on both the clean and lead channels. I had to keep the "in store" volume down to about 2, so not to be obnoxious to the store help or to other customers. So far, this amp has plenty of volume, but will know more when I have a chance to rehearse and gig with it.
This is a quasi-3 channel amp, but I really only consider it a 2 channel amp with the "more drive" option being a boost function for the "drive" channel. The channels can be switched via the included footswitch, as well as the "more drive" function. A very handy feature and it's nice to see the footswitch being included. Some companies have gotten away from including footswitches, and expect the consumer to pay extra for these.
I find the distortion channel(s) to be very usable for my situation/use. Except for the Roland JC120, I can usually find a usable setting on the distortion channel. I view an amp as a tool to be used, and with any tool, you have some that work better than others. Except for my Traynor, I have always used solid state amps, from Peavey and Fender and have been very satisfied with the tones obtained from almost all of them. It took me quite a while, and quite a bit of money, to finally get the kind of tone I was looking for out of the Traynor. I've never had to do that with a solid state amp. I guess I choose amps as more of a "general purpose" piece of equipment than some. I also don't think it's so hard to get a good general tone from an amp, since most of the people who come to see your gig wouldn't know the difference between a Pignose or a Mesa Boogie.
All in all, this should be a good general purpose 2x12 combo amp. I usually like an amp that has a "presence" control, but this amp really doesn't seem to need it. Has quite a bit of high end tone, and the mid and bass controls seem very usable and controllable also.
For the record, I play in a 4 piece band, which covers Classic Rock, Southern Rock, Top 40 and classic Country. We usually gig about 3 weekends per month, medium size clubs. We don't mic anything up, just use stage volume for the room.

I play Tele style guitars almost exclusively. I do own 3 Fender Strats and a Carvin DC127. My main stage guitars are a new G&L Tribute ASAT Classic Premium w/ash body, maple neck/fretboard and USA G&L pick-ups. Also use a stock Fender Standard Tele and Fender Deluxe Nashville Tele. When I tried out the amps at the different music stores, I was able to pull these guitars off the rack to try out the amps. I also took my G&L Tribute with me, but didn't find it necessary to take it in the store, since the standard Fenders sounded so good!
As with any amp, when you use standard single coil pick-ups, you should expect to hear some noise/hum. When I tried out the amps at Guitar Center and Sam Ash, there was no noise at all. At I.R.C. Music, I know up front that no matter what guitar you try out in an amp, you're going to have noise, due to the wiring of the store. As I expected, the hum was pretty nasty! But, the tone was still there, as with the previous amps I tried out. If there are no problems with wiring at the clubs you play, you should not get any more noise than with any other amp.
I'm very impressed (so far) with the clean channel of the amp. And again, (so far) I find the distortion channel(s) to my liking. I will know more after use at rehearsals and gigs. Afterwards, I will make any add'l. comments, as needed.

Will reserve opinions for this section after I have the opportunity to actually use the amp at rehearsals and gigs.

Never had to deal with Fender directly. This amp has a 5 year warranty, 1 year on the cab, handles, speakers and misc. things. But the electronics should be covered for 5 years, so if it breaks down, I'll take it back to the dealer, since they have in house repair for all major brands!

I have been a gigging musician for the past 35+ years. I am a gear "junkie". I have owned just about every piece of gear you can imagine! From original 52' Gibson Gold Top to PRS, Pre CBS Fender guitars and Blackface amps. I've owned it, played it, sold it, traded it! I don't do the "vintage" thing anymore. All my gear is something that can be replaced at any time with a like piece of gear.
So far, I find this to be a very usable 2x12 combo amp. I only use a Ernie Ball Volume pedal and a Boss CH-1 chorus pedal. With the right amp, I can even live without the chorus pedal. If you use a good amp and guitar, then ultimately, the tone comes from YOU!
If you're interested in one of these amps, you should try to find one to try out. I would've liked to have tried out the head and 4x12 cab combination, but none of the stores I went to had them.

I don't know when this amp was made, it is a reletively new model. I play everything from Metallica to the Sum 41, and this amp is great for all of them, when the right settings have been applied. It has an Effects Loop, and can be connected to another amp by the Pre out setting. This Amp is friggin loud........in comparison, my friend's 120 watt marshall which he spent $1600 australian on in a SALE on 5 is the same volume as this on 3....i have no idea why that is considering this is 100 watts but it's true....im not sure what model the marshall is, but the fender's distortion on this sounds comparitively (when taking into account its amazing price) good to the marshall. I tend to use the mid-countour switch extensively as it helps eliminate unwanted noise i have found.

I use this with an (esp)Ltd viper and it seems to fit perfectly...sometimes when you turn the drive up particuarly high it feedbacks, but by lowering the distortion on the amp and mucking around with the tone knobs on your guitar you can get a great sound without feedback.

I currently have it the amp set on:
CLEAN CHANNEL
Volume:(whatever you want)
Treble:7
Mid:5
bass:4-6 i change this quite often haha
(drive channels)
drive:4
volume:(whatever you want) wouldnt want this on past 6 either without a decent set of earplugs.
Treble:6
Mid:3.5
Bass:8.5
Reverb:2 (i dont like much reverb)
mid countour switch on
the clean channel is typical of what you would expect from fender:amazing, does not distort at high volumes.

I know the settings i have described seem very mellow (eg 4 distortion) but i assure you it works great but only when you muck around with tone knobs on your guitar. I'm not sure settings such as this would work too great on a single coil pickup guitar, but it seems to work great with double humbuckers...

I can depend on this amp....I would not use it on a gig without backup because thats stupid, but THIS AMP is reliable...simple as that, no question...it is strong, light considering the noise you can make with it (which is loud enough for me to let myself, and everybody else around me know how happy i am with it), and has never broken down. If you are reading this review and have read about the reverb breaking it is because they have tried to MOVE THE AMP WHILE THE amp and REVERB ON...this is not a good idea....it makes a horrible reverb strange reverb noise mixed with a crack, and breaks.........at least thats what mine seemed to do. luckily i managed to fix mine, so just dont move it when it is ON and you will be fine.

i have never dealt with customer support. i bought the amp 8 months ago and the warranty extends to a year (limited warranty). Im sure that i wont have to use the though.

I have been playing going on 4 years now. I own the ltd viper, an ashton electric guitar, and ibanez acoustics (not sure which models and cant be bothered checking, not really relevant though). I play a crybaby through this thing and that sounds pretty good to.
I am yet to find something i hate about it....i compared this with so many other products over about the period of 4 months. I checked out countless amps including crates, rolands, marshalls, behringers, randalls etc etc. This came out the best.
if this was stolen i would buy it again definitely, for 520 australian you cant go wrong.

2005 model, despite what others say I absolutely love the drive, more drive distortions. Yeah its not the best, but running straight into the amp without effects Its not bad at all. This amp is exactly what I wanted, that classis fender tone in a 2x12 of just pure fkin power!
I have played through tube amps, and personally I prefer solid state. I say that because thats my opinion, and sound is a preference. Im pleased that it came with a 2 button footswitch. It has all the power I could ever hope for.

Like everyone else has said the clean is amazing, the distortions are cool but something I think that is wonderfull is that this amp is affordable and with the clean sound u can plug in whatever effect, distortion pedal u want. I have a digitech multi effects processor that sounds incredible with this. I play a DOD grunge, DOD Supra distortion. I use a Standard strat, which sounds great through this, and a BC RICH Mockingbird with a Digitech DF-7 for my hard rock, and metal applications! I went through about 3 other amps before I found this one and fell in love. I bought a Behringer GMX212 (would not recommend to anyone) just for the fact that its power output is pathetic. My Fender Champ 25R is seriously louder and cleaner. Then I traded it in for a VOX AD212 semi tube amp, it was awesome but I didnt care for tube sound. Then I got a Line 6 Spider 2 which is wonderfull, but again wasnt quite what I was after. Then I decided that I just wanted simple raw solid state power. THis amp has it with great tone.

ITs a tank!! will be using it for gigging!

havent needed them!

been playing for 10 years on and off. 4yrs solid. I would definately buy it again! I love the power output and tone!, I wish it had a powered out line to fuel an external speaker cabinet.
I bought a Behringer 212, a VOX 212, a LINE 6 Spider 2 2x12. with exception to the Behringer, I think these are all wonderfull amps. But I traded them all in one after another until I was fully satisfied with the FENDER FM212,
I wish it had an onboard tuner.

Ok, so I've had this Amp for a while now, and i have to say, it's never done me wrong. I only play it with my BC Rich Warlock(Bronze series), And one time with my friend's cheap starter Epiphone, and got an amazing sound on both(an amazing feat with the Epi, i might add). The clean is good enough for me(I mainly play death metal, so i haven't realy used it that much). The distortion is quite amazing for the price of the amp($299 American).I'm always getting yelled at by the neighbors and my brother to "turn that crap down!!!", even though the highest ive gone is about 5.5.

I've been playing for about 4 years now, but this is my first Fender. I've gotta give it to ye Fender, this is one of the better amps I have owned. I would trust this amp completely for any type of gig i played without backup. The best part about it is it has never died or even lost its sound(even though ive dropped it numerous times).

Never had to deal with them

So, I bought this amp in an effort to replace a dead one(that took WAY less abuse than this one in a shorter period of time).After hours of searching music stores and pawn shops, and testing at least 50 other amps, I decided on this one because of 3 factors(Distortion and drive, Price, and power).I love all those features(especially the price....now thats "Bang for my buck")If it were to get stolen I would buy a new one right away.But i would recommend an equalizer pedal to give the distortion a less muffled tone.

100W Solid-State, a clean and a drive channel, the latter with a boost. 2 12" speakers, so it's plenty loud. Pre out, power in, and a spring reverb

First of all, the clean channel is very nice. I have heard better, but from much more expensive amps - for the price, the clean is great. I mostly play clean, so I was happy with this amp when I first got it. The drive channel is not so good. When I played around at practice volumes I thought it was ok, bluesy at low drive settings and warm at high ones, not good enough for metal by any means but ok for more alternative stuff. The drive boost, however, is pretty much horrible and useless. However, I cranked it up during jamming and notices the following:
- The drive channel sounds shit - digital, harsh, and horrible. You'll need a pedal. It makes the fender sound like a toy amp.
- The thing is loud. The drive channel can go extremely loud, but that doesn't really matter now because it'll sound like ass anyway. The clean is fine up to about 4, and it starts rattling your eardrums at about 4-5, but pushing it up further will crack it up with no real gain in power. 100W solid state though, what'd you expect?
The reverb is also quite nice, if subtle. I've heard of others having lots of problems with it though.
I've gigged with it once, miked, and it did the job. No complaints there. However, I do have one big complaint, and that's as below.

OK, this is where it goes to shit. After owning it for a bit more than a year, it developed a strange buzz. Whenever I would play notes on the low E, most noticably an A or an E on the 12th fret (the problem was by far the worst there) it'd rattle, like something is loose inside the amp. It's quite noticeble and bad on those 2 notes, and somewhat noticable on a few others - the bassier the tone, the worse it is.
I took it in to a local guitar tech, who told me it looked like shit inside, really badly built and all loose. He replaced the transistor and some other parts and did his hooby-dooby (I'm no tech), but basically said he did all he could and made it a bit better, but that he can't fix it completely. It was sort of OK for 2 weeks after (the buzz was only present on the 12th fret and somewhat quiet at that) and then went back to how it was before. I'm saving for a tube amp now anyway.

Never dealt with Fender

Overall, you're getting what you pay for. It's a 100W solid state amp that will sound like shit if cranked but would do it's job mic'ed at a gig, if it doesnt fall apart first. The build quality is shit, but the clean is great and it sounds alright. Personally, I'd save up for something a bit better that won't fall apart on you after a year.

Basic solid state amp, 2 footswitchable channels, 1 with footswitchable a boost. 3 band eq for each channel, reverb.
Comes with 2 button footswitch
effects loop/direct out kinda thing.
100watts
2x12" speakers
LOUD!

The clean is great, flexible eq too. It's good for playing your pedals and multi effects through too.
But it's a tad sterile, but i'm sure thats beacuse it's a soild state, i played a hot rod deluxe (thast a tube amp of course) clean once and that sounded beautifull.
The distortion is not so great. It's unresponsive and lacks that special drive charm that a marshall has. And at high volumes it's theres way to much treble, and the eq becomes less responsive. Also there is a "more gain" setting, this adds a tad more drive but it's only just audiable. Works best with high gain settings. There is also a mid contour. This makes heavy distorted settings sound a bit better.
I only use this for a touch of clean drive/Blusey crunch. I never have the gain past 3.5. It's the only driven sound thast it comparable to the good clean sound. Though the contour high gain sounds are average.
This thing is WAY LOUD. I've never had it past 4, and my band has officialy the loudest drummer ever.
Also this thing looks kinda weedy on stage, so stack it up on some chairs or boxes or somthing. My friend has got a marshall jcm2000 half stack that blows this thing away. But hey, whos got #800 to waste?
verstile amp, but not the best performance.

This is my first gigging amp. Which is a good choice for others looking for their firest gigging amps. So i do depend on it alot for mose of my band rehershal and perfomances.
It's built like a brick, it feels soild, it's heavy, ugly, never broken down or lost signal. Perfect.

When i first got it, it came with a US power cable, whereas i live in the UK!
I went back to the shop and they new exactly what the problem was straight away. Gave me an exchange there and then.
But i have never dealt with fender directly

This is not a bad amp, if you are buyying your first gigging amp.
It;s loud and takes pedals easily. The sound of my guitar and my big muff shines through!
Though the sound qaulity isn;t nearly the greatest, for its VERY cheap price this has lots of values and bang for your buck.
If you need your first big amp get this, if you got a bit more dough though, take a look at somthing with somthing abit more special.

not a bad amp, especially for the price. this thing is fucking LOUD, in normal situations you wont even need to think about going above 4 or 5. it claims 3 channels, but i'd put it at only 2 cause that boost isnt really independant enough to count. the clean is amazing, and theres this cruch that comes through when you crank it, its a pretty good sound. that mid contour button is an interesting thing to play with, it just releases the distortion and gives it a cool tone, i try to use it as much as i can, but with only 2 channels its hard to really bring it into songs, it'd be great if you could use that along with a modern distortion....like as the clean channel.

100 watts going through two 12" is fucking crazy, theres such an over kill of power for these speakers, there should be a powered output jack so you can run another set of speakers, maybe even a cab, but there is a line out to go to a mixing bord, or to use as an FX loop

your definately gonna need an fx pedal. i have the RP 100 digi-fx, works great with this amp, you can make it sound like anything. and the amp itself has such a clean sound, and the distortion is really something you have to play with a lot, but you can get some pretty good sounds. and the contour button is really an interesting feature i havnt encountered in other amps.

i mainly run it with a fender highway-one tele, the single coils sound amazing with the clean, but the distortion sometimes is dissapointing with the single's, but thats why you have to play with the settings. but i also use it with a gretsch jr-jet, the humbuckers sound pretty damn good going through this amp's distortion, and the clean channel doesnt sound as good as the single's but it can definately hold its own against other amps.

you really can rely on this amp, ive had this thing fall off the top of a half-stack and it worked perfectly afterwards. i would easily use this without backup, but as said before, it does look really pussy-ish having this little thing behind you....but you definately could run a show without having a backup.

never had any problems with the amp, so theres no point in calling up the company just for a chat

ive been playing for a bit over 3 years and this amp is more then i need right now, and prolly for a long while. Ive tried a few other effects pedals and shit, but all you need is a versatile pedal that you can dial through a chorus, or maybe another distortion. and the reverb on this is pretty basic, but i just keep it at 5 or so and it gives a great sound.
this amp is all you need until you go pro, and even then you could use it as a backup. i have considered the option of getting a half stack and a basic head to hook up to the line-out just to be able to push more sound out and look a bit tougher, but it really isnt necessary, as ive said before, this this is fucking loud.
but it is basic, really basic, but i think its one of the best deals going, fender really got it right with this amp.

2004 i think. this amp is amazing i am astonished of the power that this beast shoots out of its 2x12" fender special design speakers. I have a band and am a lead guitarist we play from aerosmith to greenday. the spring reverb adds the final touch to this subliminal amplifier. I play at school and will be playing at pubs soon. i can dround my drummer out with the volume on just 3 the great power of this amp is unbelievable !!!. this is a solidstate amp and WEIGHT: 48 lbs (21.7 kg) DIMENSIONS: Height: 19.5" (49.5 cm) Width: 26" (66 cm) Depth: 9.5" (24.1cm).

I have a bc rich ironbird and a squire strat. the amp is perfect for my guitars you cant ask for more from this versitile monster. It suits our music fine. its a non-feedback amp great for giggen with. Basically these are your amp settings ? CONTROLS: Normal Channel:
Volume,
Treble,
Bass,
Drive Channel:
Drive,
Volume,
Channel Select Switch,
Treble,
Mid,
Mid Contour Switch,
Bass,
Reverb,
Footswitch Jack
Effects Loop:
Preamp Out,
Power Amp In,
very easy to use and a wide variety of sounds. I cant describe to you how clean the fender amps are believe me its beyond this earth.Then we have the overdrive very very brutal!!.And then MORE OVERDRIVE which is so so so crunchy words cant describe it.!!!!!.

I would definatly gig with this amp i would travel into space and back and that would be fine it is a reliable amp and dont worry about it you will always be garenteed a warrenty of up to 5 year. this has never failed on me and never will !!! .

i bought my amp from newcastle from soundslive. they are one of the most friendliest staff i have ever met. they are very carefull with your ordered product and make sure you have the correct gear before you leave !!!.i have a garenteed 5 year warrenty

i have been playin for 6 year.I also own a fender frontman 15watt amp. And this beasty of corse. If this amp was stolen i would definetly buy a new one. I love everything about this amp and dont dislike anything.I compared this with a marshall avt 100 and funny enough i believe this has a fatter and heavier overdrive than marshall and definetly a cleaner channel. I like this amp the way it is as it is simple and not complicated. This amp is reliable, not that heavy with a open back and is loud. it also has a few velcro straps on the back in the open hatch for leads and effect pedal !!!. this amp is a 100% perfect and cheap its perfect.

I've been playing guitar for about 3 years now so I'm only recently starting to really hone in on types of tones that I like. I play mostly retro-rock styles with a bit of a punk type influence (well that's how I would class it anyway).
I've been playing with this amp for about two months now and whilst I do like it a lot, I wouldn't advise anyone buy it if you're after a variety of good features. In my opinion, the reverb does little to nothing to the sound and the 'Mid-Contour' does open up tonal options, they just aren't that great (well not for my tastes).
Having 'Drive' and 'More Drive' is nice, especially having them foot-switchable...however I use the 'Clean' channel 99% of the time with an effects pedal to supply the OD/Distortion.
This is a cheap amp and its great to have the footswitch included in the already low price.

I play a Epiphone Les Paul with stock humbuckers and an Epiphone copy of a Gibson 335.
I have found getting a good clean sound on either of these guitars to be a breeze with this amp. The clean sound of this amp is its real strength and its all I ever use (combined with a DigiTec RP80 multi effects unit).
I've given up trying to get a satisfactory tone from the amps drive channels and I'm sure that with better quality pedals, I can use the clean channel to get some really great tones.
I haven't had either channel much above 4 as it is REALLY LOUD but to my ears, the sound quality (clean channel with effects pedal) held up great.

I've only had it two months but it certainly seems pretty rugged!

Haven't had any dealings with Fender as no problems so far. Hope this continues!

Overall I am very impressed with this amp. When you remember the price tag, I think that it becomes very hard to fault it.
If you are looking for an amp that will give you all the tones you desire then this won't do it (unless you don't desire much of course), however if you're light on cash but you need the volume to compete with a heavy handed drummer then this is a great choice. Especially if you love your stomp boxes, the clean channel holds good integrity with the sound so you can use other means to tweak your sound.
Overall, this amp is a good, solid, and cheap way to amplify rather than shape your sound. If this is all you can afford right now then I'd definately recommend it until the world of tube amps is within reach (which sadly it isn't for me yet *sigh*).
If it were stolen and I had the same budget, I'd definately buy another one.

Straight foward Amp. 2 Channels (clean/gain). The gain channel has a boost the can be accessed by the footshitch. The gain side also has a switch to scoop the mids if you like. Basic EQ on both channels which is nice. Has reverb which is not controlable by the footswitch. This would be a nice feature to add. The effects loop is on the front pannel. The amp has 100 watts pushed through 2 fender 12" speakers. The back of the cabinent is open. There is no ext speaker jack which would be nice to have. 100 watts could easily drive an extension cab. What do you expect for 300.00 dollars.

I am sure if you have hundreds of dollars to spend or dont care how high your credit debt is, You could find a much better combo amp. This is by no means comparible to any high end tube amp. But for 300.00 dollars this thing does not sound to bad. The clean side is very nice. The eq is responsive to change. The volume works very well also. This amp will get as load as you want it. 3-4 is quite sufficient for most situations. The gain side is ok. I have found a few useful settings, with the gain at 2 or 3. Any higher things get a little muttled. I would suggest using a good pedal on the clean side for OD or Distortion. With the pedal od/dist sound good. I use a Charvel Preditor with Seymor Duncan AlincoII Pro pickups = Teese Picture Wah =analogman ts-808/vintage mod tubescreamer into the amp. This setup sounds very nice through this amp for classic rock and blues type music. The amp also sounds good with the LINE 6 POD into the clean side.

Solid State Fender amp. For 300.00 if it breaks I buy another. I have owned several Fender amps through the years and have always had a great experience. It comes with a 5 year warranty

Never have had a problem with Fender

I have been playing guitar about 30 years both pro and as a hobbiest. I have a bad habit of buying and selling gear so I have owned and sold several guitars and amps over the years. As I said before this is not comparable to any high end tube amp, You won't find that here or anywhere for that matter. If that's what you want, save your 300.00 and add 10 times that to the price. If you want an Amp thats inexpensive and still sounds pretty good this is a good choice. It has plenty of volume to play in most situations. Hope this is helpful

This a 2004 amp made in China. I play a lot of rock and metal, every once in a while some jazz and latin. I do some studio work and I've been playing for 35+ years. It is not a cyber amp with a million different sounds so don't expect it, not for + or - $300. But it does deliver in some other ways. It does have send and return jacks, channel switching, the basics. Some of the other reviews bash on the distortion sound. The distortion is ok. You just have to tweak it. This a bassy sounding amp, which is the modern trend, and it's ok at that. Clean trebly setups will have a lot of body to it. Iin that sense it does differ a bit from the traditional Twins and Supers from the 70s and 80s. The really good thing is that is as loud or louder than any thousand bucks 5150 combo. It's ideal for loud metal band, if you need to cut through, you've found yourself the right tool for it.

This is a bassy amp. You'll have to cut the bass a bit on the eq. It has a couple of gain stages so be prepared to deal with some hum and feedback if you really drive it. You will need a volume pedal if you need to clean up the anarchy. The mid contour button will take you to very scooped sounds. I rather not use it and have warm mids through out. The clean channel is always clean no matter how loud. The distortion can be tweaked for light blues all the way to anarchistic feedback land.

It is sturdy and I would trust it without a backup. I'm even thinking of buying a second one since they are give so much value for so little money.

I have lots of guitars: Gibson LP Custom, Strats, Yamahas, Dimes, BC Richs. It works great with a POD PRO or a Boss GT 3 pedal. My only gripe is the hum when you really drive it, but this is inevitable with any amp. My estimation is that experienced players will find it to be a usefull workhorse.

I bought this amp about a year ago, and in the heat of the momment i wasted my money. I sounds shit in bassicaly any style i try to play. It needs a better distortion, im pretty sure its only got a overdrive which aint chunky enought for me

I got a Epi sg with a dimarzio eveloutin and a EMG81 in the neck, and a silvertone blues king.

This things is only good for one thing.
being the speakers for a effects chain.

yeah it sure is reliable. thats the best thing of it

fender rock
but its never broke

its cheap
its loud
but it sounds bad by itself, if your after guitar lead amp setup this is not what your after.
try the marshall mg50 those things rock

Based on the other reviews this is a 2004 amp. I play stuff with mostly clean and light overdrive, like Pink Floyd and A Perfect Circle, and this amp seems to work out pretty well. But this amp is very bare-bone, not good drive or reverb. Basically a box with speakers that sound good only on clean.

I play a standard strat with seymour duncan hot rails in the bridge and middle pickup, and usually use the setting which engages the neck and middle pickup. On clean with this setup, the amp sounds GREAT. It has better clean than them Mesa F50's even. The reverb is a slight dissapointment since it hums noisily and isn't good anyway. The drive channels are not even worth the effort of them being made. There is a drive and a more drive channel, but they both sound equally muddy and death. They are extremely bottom heavy and make your guitar sound like you turned the tone nob to -100. Not to mention the hum. But stick to the clean. It has a beautiful crisp sound, not a warm tube sound but a, well, clean sound. It is also very responsive to your dynamics (not the distortion). I like to think of this amp as a hi-fi amp: it doesn't change your tone, just amplifies it. If you already have the tone your looking for, i.e. effects pedals, then this amp is great. I use all Boss pedals: an overdrive/dist, a chorus, a dig. delay, and a metal zone. If you use chorus and delay you don't even need reverb. Oh yeah, its quite LOUD. I've never turned it past five, even at an open-air gig.

This amp is quite touchy, but is fine if you leave it alone. You won't have to worry about it imploding at a gig or something - as long as you leave it alone. If you move it or bump into it while it's on, you'll get this sound as if a piano fell down a nine-story building (literally). When I take it in the car, I can hear something rattling, and it also rattles if you play loud enough. But don't worry, you can't hear over all the music, it's just that knowing that something is rattling in the back of your head makes you feel a bit dodgy. I haven't fixed it yet since I've been so busy sitting but it hasn't broken yet, and it's lasted a bunch of high volume gigs.

N/A

For the price range this amp is amazing. It's also amazing if you only stick to the clean channel. Just use a bunch of effects pedals and it sounds proffesional. I guess this is analogous to a souped up Mitsubishi, where as a Mesa Stack would be a Ferrari. Both go at the same speed in the end of course.

I bought this amp in 2004 because I thought it was great value for money at 250 quid. I play a range of music from System of a Down to AFI, this amp seems to be versatile to match the very different guitar sounds. I play in a goth rock band this amp gives me the best sound for our music bassy and powerful. This amp has three channels clean, light drive and overdrive. I never really use the light drive unless i'm playing classic tunes or solos. The reverb is not that great but it does it's job reasonably. Also it doesnt have a headfone socket, which pissed my dad off but oh well! If you think this amp may not be loud enogh for you, you are probably wrong! This amp is a stereo and i personally have never had it above 5 at a practise!

I use humbuckers in my aria les paul which makes the clean channel very mellow sounding. really nice! There is a button on it which scoops the mid range heavily to get a sharp and extreme metal sound which is fun sometimes! This thing is very loud although when its turned down the clean channel is a bit fuzzy and the distortion a bit weak, but who plays quietly anyway!?

Never had any problems with it altogh i would suggest buying a decent reverb pedal with it, or some other effects. I have used this at a gig in my local town hall without a backup although the size of it looks a bit pussy.

I have a two year warrenty I think. never had to have it repaired.

I have been playing for about three years and I love its variety of sounds it looks nice and is great value for money. depending on budget i may replace it if it was stolen or lost although I might get a marshall. very nice for begginers or people o a tight budget.