Fender Stage 112SE

Solid state. Clean, distortion, reverb, pre out and power amp in. 12" speaker.

I use a strat and a 4x12 cab with it. No two ways about it - this amp is extremely loud. I started to tire of the sounds after a year, then got a cab and was happy again. As you can expect, the cab tightened up the bass and the sound improved ten-fold.
As stated in previous posts, there is a minimum volume on the distortion channel - it goes from no sound to bang! Which is ok - if you're looking for apartment type sound pressure levels, why would you buy a 160W amp?
Clean channel - not too bad. Contrary to some previous posts, this will distort at high levels. After about 7 on the vol dial it starts to break up - and it isn't tube style break up! It's a piercing, shrill edge that I could do without. Having said that, I've never had to turn it up to 7 in any real situation. I only did it to see what it sounds like. After 4-5 it's just too loud - but isn't that what a 160W amp is about?

Distortion - OK for a ss amp. Contour knob is key. The cab really helped this out.

There really aren't any fabulous sounds in the amp, but there a quite a few decent ones.
Did I mention it's loud?

Died on me once. My buddy has one and it died on him 3 times! Heat is a problem for this amp - keep it away from floor vents, fireplaces, baseboard heaters, etc. No fan required, just don't add anything extra!

Tough to say - the music store was really good about it dying, they lent me the same amp while mine was being fixed up. But after 6 weeks and still no fixed amp I was getting pissed! But it was fixed under warranty without any real hassles.

An OK amp. For the $$, it's fair. Did I mention its really f---ing loud? Really, that's what this amp is about, it gives OK sounds (nothing spectacular) at massive sound pressure levels. Just keep it away from heat!

-160 watts output
-2 channel w/clean and Overdrive
-Reverb effect
-footswitch for channel and Reverb on/off
-Mid shift for clean channel
-12" loudspeaker

With a single pickup on a 'Strat' I get an excellent clean sound suitable for classical, accoustic, any clean tone sounds great with the reverb high, and the mid shift keeps the irritating noises quiet.

On the drive channel the distortion does the job, but is not very suitable for heavy metal where lots of bite is needed. For lead guitar (solos) it does quite well on a single-pickup or humbucker.

In a year it has not broken down, and I have taken it with me in a trunk many times. No noticeable wear on this amp yet. Would not need a backup amp.

I rate this amp fairly high, and it would be missed if stolen. I see no need for improvement on the clean sound or the loudness (it is deafening when you want it to be). With a little meaner drive and less sensitive volume control it would be hard to top.

It's your normal 2 channel amp... clean has volume, bass, mid, treble and a mid shift switch... OD channel has gain, bass contour, treble and volume... the reverb is the same for both channels.... has effect loop and a line out... comes with a footswith for channel selection and on/off reverb switch

This amp is real loud.... but I only use the clean channel because the OD is not all that great but still usable if you're stuck.... I never put gain past 3-4... past that, the amp becomes noisy... I use a tubescreamer and BOSS EQ pedals for my distortion sound... I mainly play hard rock, using a heavily modified fender tele... the clean stays clean depending on your pickups.... I have Seymour Duncan Hotrails on bridge and at loud volumes, since it's a hot p/u, the sound breaks up... but not too much..... but playing with standard output p/u, it doesn't.... the reverb is ok...

Clean:9
OD:5
overall:7

It broke down on me twice... bought it in late 96

once was my fault, october 98... I plugged a cab with the wrong impedance... power supply fried....

second time... july 1999... maybe it was because I was too loud... but something disconnected inside... bad connection... I dunno.... so the sound came and went... I was using a tubescreamer, a boss EQ and a Morley volume... It was loud, but I'd have never thought it'd have broke down on me.... it was the 1st time I was playing that loud... but still... it's loud enough for you're rehearsals and small-medium club gigs, believe you me.....

that pissed me off because an amp is supposed to stay in working condition even when it's pushed.... looks like its not the case with this one

Both times, the amp was fixed within a week without charge at the store where I bought it... so that was cool!!!! it's a 5 years warranty... but I think it depends on what needs to be fixed... I don't have any details on that...

been playing for 7 years... bought it in late 1996... It's a good amp overall.... it's not a tube amp but still ok.... if you're looking for loudness, it's a great choice.... you can always get pedals to dial some very usable distorted tones and the clean is good.... it's not very expensive and can do a good job...

2 footswitchable channels, clean and drive. Reverb is also footswitchable. 160 watts RMS, Solid State, w/ tube emulation.
Mid shift on clean chanel. Contour on gain channel. Effects loop and direct out. Spring Reverb. It can handle prob. any gig size, it handles a crowded concert hall with 200+ people on about 2 1/2 volume.

Here's where it gets you. This amp takes alot of patience. The volume goes from whisper to way too freakin loud within 0.3 and 0.5. The tone knobs radically increase/decrease volume just like the big Ampeg head I used to play through. If you take the time you can nail the vintage Fender Deluxe Reverb tone. (seriously) Gets a fairly good metal tone but I would recomend a seperate pedal. Another thing, you know how a good dist. pedal sounds like crap through most solid states, however if you use them with gain channel on low gain it drastically improves the sound. Heres a new one too, the clean channel distorts at high voulume like overdriving power tubes, and I dont mean the speaker vibrating out of the amp either. If you lower the volume through the effects loop you can crank the volume without suffering brain damage. Oh yeah at 160 watts ITS LOUD!!!

It never broke.

never talked to them.

This amp can be very good if you take the time to work with it. And if you need volume you wont be dissapointed.

Solid State, 160 watts, 2 channels, pre-amp out, power amp in, foot switch, and 8 ohm external speaker output. It also has a mid boost on the clean channel, along with reverb, and contour on the drive channel. It doesnt have a headphone output, or a mid eq on the drive channel.

It sounds good with a single coil guitar on the clean channel, and the reverb is good, but the drive channel doesnt sound so good. There is no mid eq knob on the drive channel which makes the drive channel kind of un-versitile, but there is a contour knob. I have never tried it with a humbucker, so i cannot comment on that.

When ever I play on the clean clannel, and switch to the drive channel
the volume decreases greatly from what it was at before, and that makes me mad as it is hard to control the volume on the drive channel (Basically what happens is that half way between 0 and 1 on the volume dial there is a major increase in volume, I guess like the problem the guy before me had). Other than that it works good. It seems to be built rather tough, and it is very heavy.

I've never dealt with Fender

Id say this amp is sufficiently loud enough, but I have never turned the drive channel past one. Oh, wait I did ONCE, and I almost blew out my fricking ear drums! Like the guy before me said, this amp is really LOUD! I personally do not like loud amps for practicing, but they are ok for gigging with. I have a bronco amp also, and I like that amp much better. It just sounds better to me.

This solid state 160w Fender amp is pretty standard fare, two inputs, high and low gain, with two channels, clean and drive and a 12 inch speaker. The clean channel features a mid-boost while the drive channel offers gain and contour settings.

For the most part I play a 1978 American Standard Strat and a 1997 American Standard Tele. This amp is a great one if you're a single coil fan. With proper tweaking it offers some very tubey tones and can give you more modern, grungy distortions as well. The clean channel is VERY clean. I've used the amp for dozens of club gigs and it's done well for me. Volume issues were a major concern however, I'll discuss that below. I play everything from jazz and blues to classic and hard rock. With a few good effects peddles, his amp was able to fill the bill nicely until it burned up.

After a little over a year of steady use, this amp began to sizzle (a transformer issue I'm fairly sure). I never left it on for more than a few hours, used no screwy effects loops, nor tried to drive a cabinet more than 8 ohs (make sure you don't...this amp would fry fast). Fortunately, Fender has a 5 year warranty and it's currently being repaired.

We'll see...it's at a Fender "Silver" authorized repair center as of this writing.

I've been playing and gigging for over twenty years and have never had any other Fender product poop out on me, so this one was a surprise. While I liked the simplicity of the amp and it's excellent tone (surprisingly versitile for a low end unit), the drive channel was problematic as it is on all the stage series amps I've experimented with. All the amps in the Stage series (I've played with them all) have one MAJOR problem...volume. Fender is trying to keep up with Peavey and has significantly boosted the wattage on these combos...a sad mistake I'm affraid. In the drive channels of these amps you have two volume choices, off and too damn loud. It is virtually impossible to make a minor adjustment to the volume on this channel and it is seriously LOUD at 1.5. I never put the amp above 3, and that was outdoors at a Biker rally (seriously). I ended up buying a volume pedal to compensate, but that made the distortion very this.
If you like loud exclusively when opting for distorted tones, the Stage series amps are for you, if not, avoid them. Were this amp to be stolen, I'd find it because I'd hear it. Would I try to get it back...NO! Again, while it's a Fender and, like all Fenders has excellent tonal color, it inherent volume problem makes this an amp I would never buy again. When it gets back from the shop, I'll trade it in. I put money down on a Peavy Transtube yesterday.

this amp has 2 channels, a foot switcher for channel and reverb. The clean channel has volume and three band eq and a midshift button. the midshift move the eq's up where they are centered one ocatave higher. It seems to make the eq's react different. The distortion is ok not the best but good enough to play live with. The reverb is cool. It acually uses strings inside the amp that reverbarate your sound. It is a warm solid state amp

I play through this amp with a crate electra. It is a cheaper guitar but has ok pickups and after messing with the brige began to love the neck. It has 2 singles and a humbucker pickup. The amp plays well with most styles. I play in the prays band in my youth group. The clean channel doesn't distort except the bass makes all the pictures and you wall vibrate. The distortion could be better but I like the distortion

This amp has never broke. I am depenting on it now with out a back up but If I had money to back it up I would get another guitar instead.

they sent me a free magazine about fender gear when I wrote them

I have been playing guitar for about a year and a half. If this amp were stolen I would buy the same one. I love the fact that I can add an extra speakers to if I need more power. I compared it to peaveys. THey weren't even close

- 2 input and 2 channel -- clean/dist - reverb - preamp out, foot switch, poweramp in, line out, ext speaker jack - LOTS of power

I used this amp with an epiphone Junoir, Gibson Les Paul studio, fender squier II strat and for the most part it seems to sound pretty good. It works great in a live sound setting, but I hate to use it while recording. Mic'ing it is the only option because both the line out and the preamp out are very very noisy and not the same character as the sound that comes out of the speaker. This amp is loud. It is impossible to get a reasonable sound out of it with out it bleeding into all the other mic's in the room. If you want to do home recording, get something else -- a nice tube preamp for direct and then a smaller tube amp to mic.

It seems really sturdy and it is heavy. I hate to carry the damn thing.

No expirence here. I got it used and I do my own repairs.

If this were stolen I would get something better. I don't really like it because I am doing alot of recording, and this is something it performs the worst in. I don't like loud amps, and I like tubes. This doesn't fufil either of my requirements

This is an amp about 2 years old. This amp is truely extremely versitle, i for one do not like to run anything between my guitar and my amp, and with this amp i do not have to. Features that stick out are the mid-shift, whitch brings alot more bassy sound on the clean channel, Most of the time the mid-boost is to much, a word of advice is not to use it with LP's and hallow body's, it causes the voice coil in the speaker to rip. This amp is waay enough power, i rarely need anything more for small club gigs. One thing about this amp is that, if you turn all the knobs to ten, the speaker blows, so don't do it!

The guitars that i've used with this amp are a Les Paul Custom and a 62' reissue. Both kick ass through this amp, just be careful with the volume levels because the preamp is greater as far as size compared to a fender. I am very versitile as far as style, from jazz, to blues, to rockabilly, to country even! this amp gives it all, from twang to honk to smooth. Its great, no distorting at high levels! big enormous sound out of the clean channel with zero distortion.

Ok the only thing thats ever gone out on this amp is the damn speaker which really pissed me off, the amp is 160 watts rms, which in turn means that the 8 ohm speaker that comes with the amp brings the wattage down to barely a 100 watts. and still the damn voice coil gives. Other than that the damn thing is like a rock.

um, they did give me a free speaker

This amp really kicks ass, i cannot say any more good things about it, its a true versitile amp with enough power for small clubs and small concerts and jazz combo's. I love the drive channel its great, sound just as good as a tube amp, i love, it. And without running anyting bewteen the guitar and the amp its sounds great! I even used it to record with no effects and it sounded great!

That's been pretty well covered by everyone below. I had the opportunity to test drive a few of the new Fender solid state models today and the Stage 112SE was one of them. It's got all of the necessary bells and whistles that I usually pay no attention to. It lacks a middle control on the distortion channel. That would probably help tame some of that transistor nastiness.

The clean channels on all of the SS Fenders are quite good sounding. It's probably wise to just stay there full time and use a good pedal (Fulldrive, Bluesbreaker, etc.) for the dirty sound. The dist. channel of the Stage 112SE was particularly disappointing. It's REAL honky in the midrange, and with the "contour" control (whatever that means) you can almost tune that honkiness out at the expense of losing something in the upper freq. It's most pleasant sound on this channel is still fairly unpleasant IMHO. Great clean channel though. And LOUD!

Couldn't tell ya

Couldn't tell ya

Overall, I don't have a very high opinion of this model unless you're gonna stay on the clean channel, which is quite nice, and the reverb works well with this channel. I also tried out a Deluxe 112 Plus which almost had a usable tone on it's dist. channel with a lot of tweaking. The best sounding of all of them? A little 15 watt tweed Bronco. Although all solid state, it sounded the most authentic of all of them so long as you don't turn the gain up too much. It has a lot of bottom for it's size to (1-8" speaker).