Frontmen are cheap!

[newey]

MF has reduced the prices on Fender Frontman SS amps across the board. This usually indicates new models are in the pipeline from the mfr.

The Frontman 25R is now $99.95. They are even throwing in a Fender pedal-style tuner.

I paid (well, the wife paid, actually; it was a Christmas gift) $140 for one of these four years ago. I like it a lot, and it hasn't given me a bit of trouble in almost daily use (but it stays put, no gigging).

My likes are:

- Great Fender clean sound, with a bit more headroom than most amps in this price range.

- Decent analog reverb- well usable even deep into the knob's travel.

- Clean design, no cheesy digital fx.

- Loud enough for jamming with friends, more output than most "practice" amps. MF claims it's usable for small gigs but I'm a bit dubious of that claim- haven't tried it with drums so maybe it could.

- I tried a bunch of amps in the same $$ range before buying this, and this was the best of the bunch sound-wise.

My Dislikes are:

- Gain channel is mostly useless. It's OK to add a little grit up to about "2" on the gain knob; after that it's just noisy nasty SS distortion.

- Stock Speaker is pretty wimpy, I replaced it with a Jensen Mod 10-35 which is a big improvement.

- Footswitch is optional and only switches the channels; despite the (erroneous) ad copy on MF, there is no reverb footswitch.

- Limited connectivity- no Fx loop, no line out, no ext speaker. Has phones out and CD in only.

But at $99, if anyone needs a practice amp, this is a steal.

Gee, the 65 Watter with the 12" speaker is on sale, too . . . .

[ux4484]

newey,
I'm with you on the Frontman, though as you move up in the model line, the gain channel becomes more useful.
On my FM212, the clean channel is phenomenal. The first gain channel covers a lot of ground, as does the mid scoop control which nicely changes the range of the mid and bass tone controls for the gain channels. The gain 2 channel is very grungy, and covers a passable similarity of distortion from Green Day to the Scorpions.
I had changed my speakers as well: I have to mention how much the dynamic range changes when you update the speakers.
I found that the Jensen's I put in were actually a bit too clean for the gain channels and clearly induced less reverb than the stock speakers. Absolutely the amp was not as loud when I changed the speakers, but the volume curve was smoother than the stock speakers were (which jumped massively in volume above "2".
I actually put the stock speakers back in this summer as I had another project that I used my Jensen's for.
On Fender "New Models": Fender just updated this whole line a year ago and basically all they did was give them the "look" of their higher end amps (silver grille, and cursive Fender writing on the control area vs. the block printing as it was previously).
They jacked up the price on the FM212 $100 (they were selling so many, they decided to make another 100 per amp, too bad the economy tanked right when they did it ). The 212 is back down to it's previous price of $299 (which for the excellent clean channel alone is a good price). The included footswitch only controls the channels selection, not the reverb .
There is an effects loop, though I often just go directly into the padded input channel with my digitech. seems more responsive for most of the effects I use.

The whole FM line is an excellent value, I think you could easily gig with the upper end of the line, but you probably won't love it as much as (just about any) Fender Tube amp.