NGD: Fender FM 212R plus Fender strat clone

Amps, Cabs, Speakers, etc
User avatar
laurie
Posts: 1628
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 2:07 am
Location: Canada
SBZ: Multi Platinum
Bossarea: Multi Platinum

NGD: Fender FM 212R plus Fender strat clone

Post by laurie » Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:59 pm

Picked these up over the weekend.

Amp was advertised as not working. Tested the speakers before I bought it and they were "blown". Got it home and found one of the wires from the terminal to the speaker cone was damaged on both drivers. No idea how that could happen. It is physical trauma for sure, probably something shoved in the back of the amp. Fixed that, needed a few more parts and a few hours work. Perfect now.

The FM 212R takes a lot of heat because it is solid state, and the distortion sucks. But it is pretty much the Fender equivalent of a JC-120 (without the on-board chorus). Clean it sounds VERY good, particularly for the price :) Add a CE-5 and it sounds nearly as good as JC-120. Plus it takes distortion pedals really well - an ML-2 gives a credible heavy tone.

Guitar is a "Fleetwood". Picked up from a local thrift store. Never heard of the brand and not much on the WWW. Spent a few hours setting it up. Plays well... not as good as a Mexi strat, but not bad at all. Certainly better than most of the cheap crap guitars I've seen in thrift stores.

Total cost for both ............ CAD$80.
.
Fender+fleetwood.jpg
Fender+fleetwood.jpg (142.55 KiB) Viewed 6424 times
.
.
Wire break in driver.
.
speaker_wire-break.jpg
speaker_wire-break.jpg (56.97 KiB) Viewed 6424 times

User avatar
Old_Iron
Posts: 413
Joined: Sun Oct 28, 2018 11:18 pm

Re: NGD: Fender FM 212R plus Fender strat clone

Post by Old_Iron » Mon Aug 02, 2021 4:10 pm

Nice score Laurie!

People like to put stuff like pedals, straps and cables inside a combo amplifier, ends up damaging the speakers.

The guitar is ready to be upgraded, came to my mind to turn it into a Gilmour's black strat (Seymour Duncan SSL5 + Fender CS69 + Fender FAT50) or a Dave Murray's 57 (2x Dimarzio super distortion). :twisted:

The amp can be turned into a Fender tube clone, and the original solid state circuitry can be accommodated in a case for rack mounting, I did that with a cheap combo amp, turned it into a Fender Champ clone.

The original amp was like this one, but very beaten up:
Image

The original amp circuitry in a rack case:
Image

PCB:
Image

Chassi in and outside:
Image
Image

End result:
Image

User avatar
laurie
Posts: 1628
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 2:07 am
Location: Canada
SBZ: Multi Platinum
Bossarea: Multi Platinum

Re: NGD: Fender FM 212R plus Fender strat clone

Post by laurie » Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:14 pm

Nice job with the rehouse on the amp!

I'm happy with the FM 212R as it is. I only have one other amp and that's a Dr Z Maz 18 (very different).

User avatar
Pepe
Posts: 1663
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 2:19 pm
Location: Germany
SBZ: Multi Platinum
Bossarea: Double Platinum
Contact:

Re: NGD: Fender FM 212R plus Fender strat clone

Post by Pepe » Mon Aug 02, 2021 8:09 pm

We sold quite a few of the Fender FM 212R amps in our small shop. It has an enormous amount of power. The only bad thing is the main level potentiometer of the clean channel. "1" is off, "2" is already too much for bedroom levels. We sold it to lots of local bands for their practice rooms. The dirt channel is indeed not that good, so a lot of people came back to purchase a BOSS DS-1 or a Marshall Jackhammer or Guv'nor Plus.
Pepe at YouTube and Instagram

User avatar
Old_Iron
Posts: 413
Joined: Sun Oct 28, 2018 11:18 pm

Re: NGD: Fender FM 212R plus Fender strat clone

Post by Old_Iron » Mon Aug 02, 2021 9:48 pm

laurie wrote:
Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:14 pm
Nice job with the rehouse on the amp!

I'm happy with the FM 212R as it is. I only have one other amp and that's a Dr Z Maz 18 (very different).
Thanks Laurie, It was just a suggestion, if you are happy, that's what matters.

I love the Dr Z amps, the Carmen Ghia is in my DIY list.

User avatar
laurie
Posts: 1628
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 2:07 am
Location: Canada
SBZ: Multi Platinum
Bossarea: Multi Platinum

Re: NGD: Fender FM 212R plus Fender strat clone

Post by laurie » Mon Aug 02, 2021 11:22 pm

Old_Iron wrote:
Mon Aug 02, 2021 9:48 pm
It was just a suggestion
All good!

These two I'm going to leave standard. They are-what-they-are with honesty.

User avatar
laurie
Posts: 1628
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 2:07 am
Location: Canada
SBZ: Multi Platinum
Bossarea: Multi Platinum

Re: NGD: Fender FM 212R plus Fender strat clone

Post by laurie » Fri Aug 06, 2021 11:25 am

An update on the guitar.
  • The acoustic (unplugged) resonance is excellent. Don't know what the body wood is, but the tone is good.
  • After a few days of incremental tweaking the truss-rod nut, the neck is now almost flat - just the right amount of relief. It is clear that this guitar was made somewhere in Asia - the truss-rod nut is metric.
  • Intonation done.
  • After adjusting the saddle height the action is really nice.
  • The machine heads feel good and work well.
  • The pickups are OK after adjusting the height... a tiny bit microphonic. Easily changed, but I will leave them.
  • Pots are all smooth after cleaning and lubrication.
  • The bridge is now balanced - someone had screwed the trem spring adjustment plate all the way in so that the bridge was jammed against the body, rather than floating - the trem arm released tension, but could not add tension.
  • One of the screws on the trem cover plate had stripped out of the wood. Doweled it.
  • Frets are good. Gave them a quick polish with 600 grit sandpaper. Bends are very smooth.
  • Cleaned and polished. Finish has only a couple of tiny scuffs and marks.
  • The fretboard is unmarked and came up perfectly after cleaning with lemon oil.
I am really impressed. This guitar is at least as good as a Mexican strat, and is approaching the quality of my (regretfully long gone) Japanese Aerodyne strat. An absolute bargain for CAD$60. I'll be keeping it. If you see a "Fleetwood" strat for cheap, grab it.

User avatar
laurie
Posts: 1628
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 2:07 am
Location: Canada
SBZ: Multi Platinum
Bossarea: Multi Platinum

Re: NGD: Fender FM 212R plus Fender strat clone

Post by laurie » Sat Aug 07, 2021 4:23 am

Pepe wrote:
Mon Aug 02, 2021 8:09 pm
We sold quite a few of the Fender FM 212R amps in our small shop. It has an enormous amount of power. The only bad thing is the main level potentiometer of the clean channel. "1" is off, "2" is already too much for bedroom levels. We sold it to lots of local bands for their practice rooms. The dirt channel is indeed not that good, so a lot of people came back to purchase a BOSS DS-1 or a Marshall Jackhammer or Guv'nor Plus.
Yeah. The volume pot is linear. It should be logarithmic. I'll change it next time I have the amp apart.

User avatar
Sinom
Posts: 28
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2018 5:03 am
Location: Pattaya, Thailand
SBZ: Silver

Re: NGD: Fender FM 212R plus Fender strat clone

Post by Sinom » Sat Aug 07, 2021 6:05 am

I have the FM100H - it can get loud.

I changed out all the pots as the MIC ones were badly oxidised, got a Fender set from StewMac. I also put a new Reverb Tank in it. I usually play clean/ reverb through an FM412 cab, which is good floaty reverb, surf music etc. with a Strat or Tele.

I enjoy it, but the two stage drive channels can get loud and dirty

Cheers

Sinom

User avatar
Pepe
Posts: 1663
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 2:19 pm
Location: Germany
SBZ: Multi Platinum
Bossarea: Double Platinum
Contact:

Re: NGD: Fender FM 212R plus Fender strat clone

Post by Pepe » Sat Aug 07, 2021 6:57 am

laurie wrote:
Sat Aug 07, 2021 4:23 am
Yeah. The volume pot is linear. It should be logarithmic. I'll change it next time I have the amp apart.
I always supposed that! That's a quite dumb design, isn't it? A lot of people didn't like that behaviour and chose another amp for bedroom levels.
Pepe at YouTube and Instagram

Post Reply