Fender Tone Master Pro

[sonics]

Thanks for the update Wonks. I'm disappointed, but not surprised, at the apparent budget parts, but glad that the wadding tamed your boom. I did note that it looked mighty empty in there!

As for the speaker rating, well, it could mean anything. You'll know how amp and speaker ratings are all made up nonsense these days...

[Dave.P]

My TMP arrived yesterday- be back in a few weeks

[jle]

... they were TL084s!

They were replaced by TI OPA4227 chips.

Looks like a great upgrade to make -- are those chips in sockets or are they soldered?

[Wonks]

The originals were soldered in, but I fitted sockets for the new chips.

I cut the chip legs, then pulled them out one by one. Then I cleaned the holes up with a solder sucker and de-soldering braid (using flux paste).

The board is single-sided (tracks on just one side and no-through plated holes) so you need to be careful not to get the board too hot as it's easy to damage the tracks. Which is where using a suitable no-clean liquid or paste flux comes in as it takes less heat for the solder to melt.

[Dave.P]

I see the next update, 1.3.74 is out now.

New amps, effects and bug fixes plus a control app for tablets and phones...
Backup presets to Micro SD card too.

https://support.fender.com/en-us/knowle ... e/KA-02068

[Wonks]

I've yet to download it. I've been really quite bad with my first bout of Covid (18 days to stop testing positive) and I'm still not up to thinking about playing guitar.

[Drew Stephenson]

Sorry to hear that Wonks, hope progress is speedy from here on.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Sorry about the Covid.

I had my first bout back in March (which I generously shared with Mrs R), and that took us both nearly three weeks before testing negative, and the cough hung around for a couple of months..

I hope you get back to normal soon.

[Dave.P]

Hope you get better soon Wonks, easy to think this thing has gone away.
3 new amps and some huge general improvements when you get back to it including backup to that previously unused Micro SD card slot.

[tea for two]

I've yet to download it. I've been really quite bad with my first bout of Covid (18 days to stop testing positive) and I'm still not up to thinking about playing guitar.

Ouch. How on earth did that happen. I would take it oorrff you if I could.
I don't know if this helps lots of spicy curries.

[ajay_m]

I do admire your willingness to take a £1500 bit of kit, still presumably under warranty, and perform open heart surgery on it. While I did something a bit similar to restore my old S5 monitors, turning them into a kind of frankenmonitor with different tweeters and 3d printed mounting plates, those monitors were long out of warranty.
Still, you could do a tidy little business modding these for other owners
Bit shocking to see the corner cutting on a not inexpensive piece of kit though.

[Wonks]

The surgery was on the FRFR cab. Still not inexpensive but certainly not £1500.

Had it been surface mount tech in the FRFR cab, I would have left it alone. But single sided discrete components I can handle.

[ajay_m]

Interestingly in my monitors the circuitry was all surface mount, but luckily not the incredibly small stuff you see in a phone these days. I found you could cut the leads of the opamps with a small pair of diagonal cutters then just remove the debris with a needle point tip and a bit of desoldering braid.

What *was* trickier was soldering the replacements in. They're so tiny that lining them up with the pads and not having them move when you apply the tip, was almost impossible. Needless to say you're also squinting through a large illuminated magnifier on a stand and trying to keep your hand steady.

What I did was use a drop of UV cure resin to tack them in place, applied at one end and cured with a 405nm laser pointer. Then you could solder one pin at the other end to tack the damn things down properly.
I dropped one of the opamps on the carpet and took a minute or so to find it again!