troubleshooting Fender FM 212R Guitar amp for a friend, need some help

Factual Questions
1

Hello and thanks for looking. I can monkey with a tube amp but a friend of mine has a FM212 Solid State amp. When we plug a guitar cord into it, you can hear the speaker “pop” so I know that something is passing through.

We are not able to get a sound out of the amp, He does not have the foot switch and I thought that may be the problem but I looked at the users manual online and all the foot switch does is override the channels selected on the amp (if I’m reading it right)

The power light comes on but not the little LED lights that indicate the channel.
anyone have a clue? Could it be a lack of foot switch or do ya think there is a real problem here?
Thanks
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2

You might want to ask these guys: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/forumdisplay.php?f=11

3

I found the owner’s manual for it online, but it didn’t have much info in it. The owner’s manual says that if the foot switch is plugged in that it overrides the controls on the amp. This implies that you can run the amp without the foot switch installed. I don’t think the lack of a foot switch is the problem here.

Unfortunately there wasn’t a schematic included with the manual.

The amp has reverb. If it is a mechanical spring reverb unit, give the amp a good whack right on top of it (hard enough to make the springs shake but not hard enough to break the amp). If you hear the resulting bang from the springs shaking back and forth through the speakers, then the output stage of the amp is fine and your problem is on the preamp side.

4

thanks for the help, The reverb is an Accutronics Reverb and when I looked it up it says that it is a spring reverb. It failed the reverb crash test. Should I assume that it is the output stage? It’s a 100 watt Fender amp but it isn’t worth putting a lot on money into it. I’ll check the link above.

Thanks again and if anyone else has any light to shed that would be great!

5

Since its a solid-state amp, you’re pretty much SOL if its either of the power stages. You’d need to pay a tech to repair whatever component went south.

However – do you know when the amp was purchased new? My googling indicates that the amp came with a 5-year warranty; are you within that period?

ETA: this appears to be the schematic for that amp

6

Just for yucks, go find a 1/4" plug (headphones, guitar chord, whatever), and shove it in the footswitch socket a couple of times. Maybe something got gunked or corroded in there.

Also twist every pot on the front panel to both extremes a few times – dust or corrosion can mess up any pot eventually.

7

I’ll give it a shot thanks, It takes a stereo 1/4 inch cord, the switch has 2 channels bu one cord, I have one and will give it a try.
thanks!