Fender Frontman

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Fender Frontman
Topic Started: Jan 12 2009, 02:25 AM (648 Views)
Toast565	Jan 12 2009, 02:25 AM Post #1
Member Posts: 36 Group: Members Member #9,020 Joined: November 25, 2008	I bought a Fender Frontman 65R a few months ago when I had just started a band and needed a loud amp that would be fine playing with drums. I am beginning to think I should have chosen more carefully. As it was I needed something loud and cheap, and this was the first thing I found. Does anyone know what general opinion is of this amp? It's solid state, goes up pretty damn loud but has a lot of... feedback? static? whatever it is it buzzes like crazy even on relatively low volumes. I play through a multi effects pedal with a noise gate but this does nothing to reduce the buzzing. Thanks!
	Guitars: ESP LTD EC 1000 w/ Seymour Duncans Marlin strat copy, unknown model Amps: Fender Frontman 65R Ibanez Toneblaster 15R Effects: Digitech RP500


monwobobbo	Jan 12 2009, 03:24 AM Post #2
Posts: 1,032 Group: Moderator Member #8,625 Joined: June 23, 2008	one of the unfortunate drawbacks to solidstate. they often sound fine at low volumes but one you crank it up they go to hell. 65 watts of SS power aren't as loud often as a tube amp thats half that wattage. do you use the amps distortion or from your multifx pedal? if its from the amp then put it on clean and get your distortion from the pedal this will work better at higher volumes. the other thing is that budget amps well get you budget results. not that they can't work but you can only push them so far.
	and now for something completely different


Toast565	Jan 13 2009, 11:29 PM Post #3
Member Posts: 36 Group: Members Member #9,020 Joined: November 25, 2008	Thanks for the reply... I'm already playing through the clean channel and using my pedal for everything. The pedal does have amp modeling on it, maybe I should try disabling that and just using the effects and distortion with my amp. Yeah, it seems I made rather a bad decision on this, I wish I'd found this place earlier. Are Solid State amps really as bad as all that? What makes tube amps so much better exactly?
	Guitars: ESP LTD EC 1000 w/ Seymour Duncans Marlin strat copy, unknown model Amps: Fender Frontman 65R Ibanez Toneblaster 15R Effects: Digitech RP500


voodoorider	Jan 14 2009, 12:40 AM Post #4
Garry Posts: 673 Group: Members Member #8,964 Joined: November 3, 2008	Not all solid states amp suck ass as such, they just have a less complete tone! Valve amps are warm and thick sounding and have a lovely sweet spot which is when they blow away a solid state.. BUT the drawback is that to hit that sweet area you have to make the amp work for it by cranking the volume! so if you have a 30 watt valve amp that you want to get a mild breakup on in your bedroom, you'll probably want to live in a detached house on your own If you want to play a valve amp at a reasonable volume and get a nice tone, unless you have a 5 watt amp it's not gonna be practical! So if you are gigging, a valve amp is the way to go! Also a valve amp puts out around twice the volume of a solid state.. although it isn't as simple as this, a valve amp carries the sound in a different way, it's hard to explain but you tend not to gain volume noticeably so much after a certain volume point, but you cut through the rest of the band better and the sound travels further, i expect someone else has a bit more of a proffesional explanation though?
	Guitars: PRS CU 22 R/W neck \| Organic Classic \| Heritage H-150 \| Fender Eric Clapton Strat \| Fender Deluxe Ash strat, scalloped \| 2001 USA std Telecaster \| 2008 USA std Telecaster \| 1996 Gibson Les Paul standard \| PRS Santana SE \| Maverick X1 \| Epiphone SG \| Freshman FA400J Amps: Orange Rockerverb 50 \| Mesa Boogie Electradyne \| Traynor YCV40T \| VOX AD60VT \| Fender Pro 185 \| Zoom Fire 15


monwobobbo	Jan 14 2009, 01:10 AM Post #5
Posts: 1,032 Group: Moderator Member #8,625 Joined: June 23, 2008	higher end solid state amps aren't bad but yah know you get what you pay for. the frontman amps aren't really meant for band use per se. the other issue could be what are the other guys using in your band. drums are way louder than you think to begin with and if the other guys have better equipment that can drown you out as well. work with your eq as well. some settings will allow you to cut thry better than others. your tone changes at higher volumes so you may have to tweak it. experiment with that. i suggest a distortion pedal over a mutifx distortion as they tend to suck.(usually fine for time based fx though) your amp in theory should be loud enough to play with a band for practice at least but you're only going to get so much out of it. what kind of guitar are you using?
	and now for something completely different


jimbob	Jan 14 2009, 02:36 AM Post #6
Member Posts: 30 Group: Members Member #9,054 Joined: December 9, 2008	Toast565 Jan 12 2009, 02:25 AM Does anyone know what general opinion is of this amp? It's solid state, goes up pretty damn loud but has a lot of... feedback? static? whatever it is it buzzes like crazy even on relatively low volumes. I play through a multi effects pedal with a noise gate but this does nothing to reduce the buzzing. Does it still buzz when you connect the guitar direct? Are there any other mains supply electricity near it? Have you tried other guitars with that amp, single coil and humbuckers?



Toast565	Jan 14 2009, 07:49 PM Post #7
Member Posts: 36 Group: Members Member #9,020 Joined: November 25, 2008	voodoorider so if you have a 30 watt valve amp that you want to get a mild breakup on in your bedroom, you'll probably want to live in a detached house on your own Or a valve amp that has a headphone socket? I think I've seen ones that have them. Can the tone still sound as good through headphones? voodoorider So if you are gigging, a valve amp is the way to go! We are gigging regularly, although not all that often. At our first gig I was using someone elses amp (lots of bands were playing) and the settings were all wrong, it was painfully trebley. Bad experience :P. So valve amps are the way to go? That's bad news, I'm pretty much skint :(. I have GCSEs in May though, I may negotiate a suitable reward if I get the right results monwobobbo the other issue could be what are the other guys using in your band. drums are way louder than you think to begin with and if the other guys have better equipment that can drown you out as well. Volume really isn't the issue. The other guitarist has a line 6 spider 3 150w, but we don't play very loudly, neither of us go above about 2.5 on the master volume. More than enough to be heard over the drums. But yeah, had band practice today and literally if I took my hands off the strings the feedback would start almost immediately. monwobobbo what kind of guitar are you using? My new ESP LTD EC 1000, with Seymour Duncan humbuckers. I can't remember whether it was as bad with my single coil strat imitation... jimbob Does it still buzz when you connect the guitar direct? Are there any other mains supply electricity near it? Have you tried other guitars with that amp, single coil and humbuckers? I'll have to get back to you on that... I can only really experiment at loud volumes when noone else is in and during the day. What do you mean by mains supply electricity? Any other electrical appliances? Or an actual plug socket? Thanks for the replies guys edit: could it have anything to do with the leads I'm using. They're the average �5 3m stagg cables, one from guitar to pedal, another pedal to amp. I don't really know much about leads, Edited by Toast565, Jan 14 2009, 07:55 PM.
	Guitars: ESP LTD EC 1000 w/ Seymour Duncans Marlin strat copy, unknown model Amps: Fender Frontman 65R Ibanez Toneblaster 15R Effects: Digitech RP500


voodoorider	Jan 14 2009, 08:49 PM Post #8
Garry Posts: 673 Group: Members Member #8,964 Joined: November 3, 2008	I never even think about using headphones to be honest lol! But no they wouldn't sound anywhere near as good if they have a headphone socket, (i reckon the rest of the band would struggle to hear it too :P)! the speakers in an amp are matched to the amp to get the best from it, plugging in a set of headphones would be like owning a ferrari and only ever driving it when it was due a service, kinda pointless! You could go for solid state.. it's just you'd have to spend as much on an equally performing solid state amp and maybe more to get the results you might be after! And it probably wouldn't sound so good! The guitar should be no problem with your feedback! But if you have a lot of distortion on in a small room it's nigh on impossible to stop it! A lot of people overdo gain, for example Angus Young of AC/DC hardley has any gain on his tone, that's on an old Marshall Plexi, but to hear it you'd think he was running a pretty hot gain tone! I think people just tend to overcompensate with gain for lacking in something else, but yeah that's something that doesn't help with feedback :/ So the buzzing could well be an earthing problem, does it stop when you touch any metal part of the guitar (that includes the strings)? Cheap leads are rubbish, that's been proven, a horrible crackling static is usually a damaged lead! so if you plug the guitar in, wiggle the cable around (the whole cable) if it reacts by crackling at you then that's probably all it is! Edited by voodoorider, Jan 14 2009, 08:50 PM.
	Guitars: PRS CU 22 R/W neck \| Organic Classic \| Heritage H-150 \| Fender Eric Clapton Strat \| Fender Deluxe Ash strat, scalloped \| 2001 USA std Telecaster \| 2008 USA std Telecaster \| 1996 Gibson Les Paul standard \| PRS Santana SE \| Maverick X1 \| Epiphone SG \| Freshman FA400J Amps: Orange Rockerverb 50 \| Mesa Boogie Electradyne \| Traynor YCV40T \| VOX AD60VT \| Fender Pro 185 \| Zoom Fire 15


monwobobbo	Jan 14 2009, 10:20 PM Post #9
Posts: 1,032 Group: Moderator Member #8,625 Joined: June 23, 2008	yup cheap chords can cause problems but probably not crazy feedback. the gain thing can cause problems though. does the guitar feed back when used clean? if not then the gain is your culprit (or defectivie amp but lets hope for an easy solution) find out and let us know what your amp settings are perhaps that will tell us something. OH and you can use tube amps for practice at home without people wishing to kill you. just put a distrtion pedal (or overdrive) in front and you'll get good distortion sounds at lower level. it won't have the major crunch but a little knob fiddling will take car of that.
	and now for something completely different


Toast565	Jan 14 2009, 10:59 PM Post #10
Member Posts: 36 Group: Members Member #9,020 Joined: November 25, 2008	I think I fixed it. It was the gain. My pedal includes amp modeling, and I had it on high gain, as well as some distortion. I set it to bypass the amp modeling and the feedback problem stopped. I also switched one of the leads which was a bit broken (the metal bit came loose and slid down the cord), and replaced it with a better quality (I think!) lead which I wasn't using before because it's a bit too long. But anyway, problem seems to be fixed :D. There is still quite a bit of buzzing when I use my strat copy, but that stops when I touch the metal bits of the guitar, so that means it's an earthing problem right? :P. I'm not surprised that guitar has electronics problems, it was pretty cheap, and it probably didn't help that I took off the pickguard and then realised that all the bits were meant to be attached to it, and I'd just unscrewed them all... voodoorider Cheap leads are rubbish, that's been proven, a horrible crackling static is usually a damaged lead! so if you plug the guitar in, wiggle the cable around (the whole cable) if it reacts by crackling at you then that's probably all it is! Apart from not breaking, do more expensive leads actually do much for your sound? Just curious monwobobbo i suggest a distortion pedal over a mutifx distortion as they tend to suck.(usually fine for time based fx though) Sorry, what are time based fx exactly? Delay I guess? Thanks for the help
	Guitars: ESP LTD EC 1000 w/ Seymour Duncans Marlin strat copy, unknown model Amps: Fender Frontman 65R Ibanez Toneblaster 15R Effects: Digitech RP500


monwobobbo	Jan 15 2009, 01:27 AM Post #11
Posts: 1,032 Group: Moderator Member #8,625 Joined: June 23, 2008	single coil pups are subject to 60 cycle hum and cheaper ones tend to hum louder thats normal. glad you found the problem and yeah to much gain will do that. time based fx are like delay, chorus and flange. better chords (leads) will impove your sound. you can spend silly amounts on them which isn't needed but decent ones will run around L10-15. use shorter chords for practice the longer the chords the more noise you may encounter. i use a 10ft into my distortion pedal and a 3ft from the pedal into the amp for practice. Edited by monwobobbo, Jan 15 2009, 01:34 AM.
	and now for something completely different


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