Fender Frontman 212R 100 watt Guitar Amp Combo

The Fender Frontman 212R packs 100 watts of power in an easy to transport package and delivers the volume necessary for practive sessions with other musicians as well as live sets in medium to small venues. The two 12" Fender speakers are good, solid speakers that deliver at low to medium volume and easily driven by the amp's power while the drive and overdrive channels offer the right amount of distortion effect without drowning over the tone of the guitar. The good side of this amp is its ease of use for the beginner to intermediate guitarist who likes to have a clear tone of the instrument and then dirty it up a bit with overdrive- fun to experiment with, while the cords and footswitch are easily secured into the back for transport. The down side maybe its lack of warmth when compared to a tube amp like the Fender Blues Jr. or a VOX amp, but that depends on how "pure" one wishes to sound in the practice room and club. (I have to admit my ear may not be that good in distinguishing the "warm tone" some musicians desire.) The other issue in this amp is the speakers not having quite as clean a reproductive tone when the volume is set above 8, but I don't really think is a major issue. For the price, the Fender Frontman series are hard to beat and the 212R is a good investment that will last a long time with minimal maintenance.

Bought this amp as my first larger amp. I was using some bad 30 watt thing. Clean sounds great, of course, as Fenders are supposed to. Reverb sounds authentic(spring reverb), and having the overdirve/more drive channels is nice, if only they were a little easy to control. I have a hard time getting the tone I want from the two drive channels, mainly because there is a big volume jump between drive and more drive. However, you can simply use a pedal and forget about the built in drive, it sounds great (I'm just using a $15 FAB Overdrive pedal). Works fine with effects pedals.

Hardware/build- perfect, no need for improvement. Metal corners and feet, sturdy handle.

Volume/Treble/Mid/Bass controls for clean and Drive/Volume/Treble/Mid/Bass controls for drive channels, plus mid-contour button for drive channels, for added tone control.

PRE OUT/PWR IN jacks for effects loops, multiple amp control, or recording.

Overall, this is a nice does-the-job amp, awesome clean tone, works with pedals, can be loud enough for whatever you want (volume 2 or 3 out of 10 is MORE than enough when you're indoors). Too bad about the drive channels, but easy enough to work around.

What a great little solid state guitar amplifier. This baby packs a punch with "Drive" and "More Drive" The 2-12 inch speakers put out the classic clean sound or the dirty delta blues sound. I switch between a marshall stack and the Frontman, and the Frontman has no trouble keeping up at all. Great value for the money and you can actually pick up the amp and carry it, unlike the Marshall (Heavy). Great amp for a small club venue, classic Fender sound and even though it is not a tube amp, you can still get close to that overdriven tone.

I purchased a lightly used Fender FM-212R "as-is," the "as-is" applying mainly to the dust and pet hair that collected in the back of the cabinet. Overall, the amp is as described: "like new," and is apparently in the "mint" working condition as designed by Fender. That's part of the problem. I did not do my homework and read other reviews of FM-212Rs or Frontman 212-Rs. They are supposed to be identical, but the tendencies on earlier FM-212Rs are a little more irritating: i.e. volume pots that have absolutely NO gradual or in-between decibel output between silence at "1" and blaringly loud at "2;" and horribly thin, shallow, hollow low-end -- poor bass response. Is there "bass?" Yes. If you crank up the volume, you'll hear some more bass, but it still lacks solid substance. Drive is OK-to-good (a little tinny); and reverb is OK but lacking compared to other Fenders and other makes. So - I got what I paid for, which -- over all is still a pretty good deal. It works, sounds decent, and is definitely a solid workhorse. I'm keeping it and I am enjoying using it, but it definitely will not be my final amp purchase. I hoped it would be, but there's bound to be a better sounding workhorse out there that will be my final "keeper."

Fender is a great Amp for Guitars. This one has the Reverb built into the system.want a good 100 watt Amp with this Reverb built into the system so thats why I got this one