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My reliable source confirmed something....

#122
lpdeluxe said:
I have owned only one Fender bass amp, and it was a loser.
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I'm not impressed with my 350w Fender Bassman 210 combo. It's 12 or 13 years old and I'm the original owner. I've had big rigs as long as I've owned it. Has VERY minimal usage (less than 20 hours), and I've had nothing but problems with it. Already replaced the motherboard once, and currently having more internal issues with it. Sounds like it's the board again. New board has less than 5 hours usage. However, when it worked properly, it did make a great clean guitar amp.
 
#123
jeffbonny said:
Maybe they'd buy them and immediately shut them down like Fender did with Tacoma.
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Except that Tacoma was already suffering QC and profitability issues before FMIC bought them. It seemingly wasn't viable to gear up for mass production of high quality acoustics. Tacoma's instruments were nice, but not Guild quality.

Making them in the Ovation plant makes a lot more sense.

John
 
#124
gustobassman said:
Really? I have been getting the same error page for days. I just checked on my phone and i can access it there.

I'm no IT guy.. it must be on my end...
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This is what I get:

The web site you are accessing has experienced an unexpected error.
Please contact the website administrator.

The following information is meant for the website developer for debugging purposes.
Error Occurred While Processing Request
Error Executing Database Query.
Could not create connection to database server. Attempted reconnect 3 times. Giving up.

Resources:

Enable Robust Exception Information to provide greater detail about the source of errors. In the Administrator, click Debugging & Logging > Debug Output Settings, and select the Robust Exception Information option.
Check the ColdFusion documentation to verify that you are using the correct syntax.
Search the Knowledge Base to find a solution to your problem.

Browser Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:20.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/20.0
Remote Address 10.1.1.130
Referrer
Date/Time 05-Apr-13 06:37 PM
 
#125
JTE said:
Except that Tacoma was already suffering QC and profitability issues before FMIC bought them. It seemingly wasn't viable to gear up for mass production of high quality acoustics. Tacoma's instruments were nice, but not Guild quality.

Making them in the Ovation plant makes a lot more sense.

John
Click to expand...

With the exception of GB IMO Fender has a history of buying companies that are in trouble QC and financial wise. Even Guild was in pretty bad shape when they got snagged up. Guild survived but a lot of other companies that Fender bought never made it.
 
#127
Allow me a brief tangent -The only experience with a fender amp I had was a 350 watt head I bought new, I believe in '89. Don't remember the model, but it was my first "pro" amp and I was stoked.

a few months into owning it, I turned it on and there was a hum and smoke started pouring out of my 4x10.

Fender fixed the amp and two fried speakers, but the mojo was gone and I traded it (in part) for a gk 800rb. I have never owned a fender product since.

Funny enough, the 4x10 my Fender blew was an early Genz Benz; a local store was dealing them. Have no idea what happened to that cabinet, sold for some gas back in the day..
 
#128
60bass said:
With the exception of GB IMO Fender has a history of buying companies that are in trouble QC and financial wise. Even Guild was in pretty bad shape when they got snagged up. Guild survived but a lot of other companies that Fender bought never made it.
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Well Guild wasn't in a QC problem. However, they were in a severe marketing problem. But Guild has had poorly managed marketing since Al Dronge passed away. Through multiple owners (at least four) since 1972 and before FMIC.

Fender's put a surprisingly large investment into keeping Guild as an American quality guitar company over the last 17 years. And even the Corona ones do not diminish Guild's history. The brand's gone through a lot of changes, and periods of no production, but FMIC's maintained them.

It's possible they will do the same with GB. Or roll the designs and thinking into a Fender brand. The difference being that Guild has had a long and honored respect as a brand. GB as a well known line is much newer, and perhaps not as attractive in the whole world as it is here on TB.

John
 
#131
deeptubes said:
I'm not impressed with my 350w Fender Bassman 210 combo. It's 12 or 13 years old and I'm the original owner. I've had big rigs as long as I've owned it. Has VERY minimal usage (less than 20 hours), and I've had nothing but problems with it. Already replaced the motherboard once, and currently having more internal issues with it. Sounds like it's the board again. New board has less than 5 hours usage. However, when it worked properly, it did make a great clean guitar amp.
Click to expand...

That's the model I had. I traded it for a set of Latin Percussion congas for my percussionist lady friend, and I came out 'way ahead on the deal.:D
 
#132
JimmyM said:
Are we really lamenting the demise of Tacoma here? Really?
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I sure as hell am! For the price nothing touched them. More than that though it just annoyed me that Fender would buy a company doing reasonably unique instruments and almost emmediately shut them down. Falls directly into the why bother category. Buying the competition (and it's not even like Tacoma was much competition) and shutting them down seems a defensive fool's strategy.

And back on topic a pal of mine who has retailed a ton of GB the last few years told me today saying it was straight from the rep's mouth that Fender is shutting them down. Certainly not proof positive but this guy isn't one to talk **** or spread rumors.
 
#133
In defense of fender amps, I use and have used a fender 800pro for the past 4 years now. Its toured across north america 8 times and has never once had any problems. I'd even argue that there pro line of amps that they had out for a while are some of the best sounding heads out there.





*Fender Endorser*
 
#134
thebean said:
In defense of fender amps, I use and have used a fender 800pro for the past 4 years now. Its toured across north america 8 times and has never once had any problems. I'd even argue that there pro line of amps that they had out for a while are some of the best sounding heads out there.





*Fender Endorser*
Click to expand...

The Pro 800 aka (Thunderfunk clone) is a solid amp. I've heard good things about the 1200 Pro too.

IMO Both those heads don't get enough love. But then that opens up the whole Fender can't market and sell bass amps even when they're good amps thing.
 
#135
I toured both the 800 Pro and the TB1200...both very nice amplifiers...I think the main complaint I heard about the TB1200 is it didn't look Fender-ish enough...lots of folks hate the way those amps look...I didn't really care :)
 
#136
I have a TB1200 .. Its a great amp/
I was using it as a power amp when i needed to run 2 810 cabs with the ShuttleMax9.2 as the preamp... or a 2 ohm load..
Im actually going to sell it though.. I dont need to go 2 down to ohms anymore
On its own it may be the most tubey hybrid amp around.. phat big tube type sound with lots o power... Dual channel and teh Room Balance Control tha is very helpful at times..
Personally , i like the way they look... Great amp. dependable and loud too..
 
#137
svtb15 said:
I have a TB1200 .. Its a great amp/
I was using it as a power amp when i needed to run 2 810 cabs with the ShuttleMax9.2 as the preamp... or a 2 ohm load..
Im actually going to sell it though.. I dont need to go 2 down to ohms anymore
On its own it may be the most tubey hybrid amp around.. phat big tube type sound with lots o power... Dual channel and teh Room Balance Control tha is very helpful at times..
Personally , i like the way they look... Great amp. dependable and loud too..
Click to expand...

I had no issues with how they looked either, just saying some folks just want the vintage Fender look...that's cool, I just don't get too hung up on it :)

The TB 1200 was a really dependable, great sounding amp for me...likewise, I just don't ever go down to 2 ohms anymore. I use one or two 8 ohm cabs, and sometimes one large 4 ohm cab and that's pretty much it...my ShuttleMax amps get the most play for the past couple years
 
#138
A buddy of mine who is a dealer also told me that his rep told him that SWR was going to be shut down. I also heard Jackson guitars.

However I did not hear about Genz Benz.

These rumors are coming from Fender Reps who are telling dealers this stuff.

Its AWFULLY interesting that more than a few other people have heard this stuff.

What happens remains to be seen but if reps are talking then there is something up.

About 3 years ago Fender fired a bunch of people right before Christmas and I heard all kinds of stuff that ended up becoming true from the disgruntled employees.
 

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