Fender FM212DSP footswitch?

english_bob

A mate of mine has got himself one of these amps, which sounds pretty good for an amp that's pretty much the opposite of everything most people on this forum lust after. Trouble is, he got it used and it doesn't have the footswitch that should come with it. 

Does anyone know which is the correct footswitch to use with it? Is it a bog-standard generic dual footswitch, or does it have to be the specific Fender switch? 

@MattFGBI ?

JayGee

Hugely underated pieces of kit

Youngest Son has it's smaller sibling (FM65 DSP - 1x12, 65 Watts) and it's a very useful little amp indeed. Clean channel sounds like, well, a clean Fender, modelling channel is much better than anything of its age and price has any business being. That one's missing the footswitch too so I shall be watching with some interest...

english_bob

The FM212 has amp modelling and effects on both channels and looks pretty much like a Twin from a distance (except where it says "FM212DSP" in big letters. It does sound pretty good- particularly the Fender amp models (as you'd expect).

I couldn't live with the effects- not nearly enough tweakability for my liking, but considering my friend paid well under a ton for it, I'd say it was a great deal. 

midlifecrisis

I had a 212 frontman, it wasnt a modeling amp just solid state, I gigged with it over 100 gigs when i got back into playing, never let me down nice sound. then i started reading forums and everyone said they were sterile, bad speakers, cheap and nasty, so i convinced myself to get a valve amp. Now it seams they are in favour again.  really miss it now, might get another one.

midlifecrisis

another nice thing about it, especially as it was quite a low cost amp, when my footswitch broke, out of gurantee, i phoned up fender asking to buy a replacement and they very kindly sent me one free of charge.

english_bob

Help me @MattFGBI, you're my only hope. 

ICBM

The only faults I've come across with these are blown speakers - which is unfortunately expensive to fix since they then usually blow both, if you've turned it up high enough to blow one - and a couple of high-power resistors inside desoldering themselves, which is easy and cheap to fix.

I don't think they sound bad at all - even the overdrive sounds - and they're astonishing value for money for something that loud and giggable. Not too heavy for the power either.

(Edit - not a standard footswitch.)

english_bob

I've got a two-button footswitch with a TRS plug for my Lionheart- I'll give that a go.

MattFGBI

Unfortunately it's discontinued! But here's a shot of the schematic which may help:

ICBM

Not a standard latching 2-button switch then. Worse, it doesn't appear to be the same as the 2-button footswitches from other Fender amps with a mono cable connection and LEDs… I can't see another one with the same combination of voltage sensing and polarity from a Google search.

This is annoying - Fender used to be very good for using a standardised footswitch system, but many of the recent models aren't the same, even when they appear to use the same technology.

Probably your best bet is to get someone to build one for you, but it won't be that cheap.

english_bob

Hmm. Thanks @MattFGBI.

In some sort of bizarre "Good News, Bad News", my friend does have a non compatible Fender amp footswitch, labelled p/n 0050419000 (channel select and gain/more gain footswitches). Any chance it could be cannibalised? 

ICBM

english_bob said:

In some sort of bizarre "Good News, Bad News", my friend does have a non compatible Fender amp footswitch, labelled p/n 0050419000 (channel select and gain/more gain footswitches). Any chance it could be cannibalised? 

Yes, although it's still a fair bit of work - the circuit layout is quite different so you would need to cut traces from the PCB and build a new circuit. It does at least have the correct LEDs, and one of the right Zener diodes. Much less difficult than building one from scratch.

This is the schematic -




(Notice the two functions are in parallel and reverse polarity, rather than in series and the same polarity.)

JayGee

https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/foot-switch/fender-2-button-foot-switch-channel-effect?gclid=CP2nneSvxM8CFUONGwod_wcA8g#information

Listed as compatible with the FM65DSP and Super Champ XD but surely the big one's going to be the same isn't it?

english_bob

Hehe. Or he could just go back to the Cash Generators he got the amp from and buy the one they're selling. 

Unscrupulous you reckon,  or just dumb? 

ICBM

english_bob said:

Or he could just go back to the Cash Generators he got the amp from and buy the one they're selling. 

Unscrupulous you reckon,  or just dumb? 

Unscrupulous - but also dumb if they didn't mention it at the time they sold him the amp, since they could have got the other sale at the same time. Or did they, and he didn't buy it?

Really unscrupulous is amp companies selling *new* amps which require a footswitch for their full functionality and charge extra for them. Not sure if this applies to the Frontmans, but the more expensive Fender amps come with it included.

english_bob

ICBM said:

english_bob said:

Or he could just go back to the Cash Generators he got the amp from and buy the one they're selling. 

Unscrupulous you reckon,  or just dumb? 

Unscrupulous - but also dumb if they didn't mention it at the time they sold him the amp, since they could have got the other sale at the same time. Or did they, and he didn't buy it?

Really unscrupulous is amp companies selling *new* amps which require a footswitch for their full functionality and charge extra for them. Not sure if this applies to the Frontmans, but the more expensive Fender amps come with it included.

The manual for the FM212DSP does say that the footswitch is included with the amp. And yes, charging extra for a footswitch that's required to make an amp do everything as advertised is pretty shitty, particularly when you charge well over the odds for a relatively simple switch. 

ICBM

Definitely Crack Generator pulling a fast one then.