Overly Loud Fender Performer 1000

[homer1co]

I JUST BOUGHT THIS AMP. IT'S A '90s HYBRID--TUBE PRE-AMP, SOLID STATE OVERDRIVE. IT SOUNDS GREAT, BUT IN ORDER TO STAY IN THE ROOM WITH THIS BEAST, I MUST HAVE THE OVERDRIVE OFF, THE MASTER VOLUME SET ON ONE, AND MY GUITAR ALSO ON ONE. I DON'T THINK THIS IS NORMAL. ANY THOUGHTS?

[JJGross]

I don't have any SS or hybrid Fenders, but I have a couple Fender all-tube amps.

I've spent a lot of time tweaking my Fenders to get them down to a usable volume.
Even a HRDx at 40w is a very loud amp unless you engineer it to be otherwise.
My SF Twin took a lot of work to get it warmed up at less than concert levels.

Cheers

[Enzo]

Speaking of loud, turn off your caps lock.

I don't think there is a problem if the controls will turn it down. SOme amps are just freaking loud.

[second wind music]

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to add a tip I found to help the overly loud problem and a very non-linear volume control on the Fender Performer 1000. I am working on this amp for a friend of mine and after fixing a couple of cracked traces on the pc board by the input jack and replacing both jacks in the front panel due to stripped threads I discovered this horrible volume control. I traced the signal from the input jack through each amp stage and all responded appropriately to the volume control until I got to the last one. It is a high voltage op amp (marked U7 on the board) and has a ridiculously high gain. The input on pin 3 pretty much follows the volume control but the output jumps to very high values very quickly. So in order to drop the gain by 10 or so, I jumpered the 680K feedback resistor (R94) with a 68K resistor in parallel. I just soldered it piggyback on the component side of the board. The amp is probably not a loud wide open as it was before but the volume control actually does something now. The mod can easily be done without removing the pc board and is reversible in case anyone ever wants to put it back. If anyone else tries this, please post if it works out for you too.

[nevetslab]

I dont' have the schematic for the Performer 1000, but, if there are at least two 12AX7's in the preamp, you could change the input stage tube to a 12AY7 (medium mu low noise tube) and a 12AU7 in the next stages. The 12AY7 has an amplification factor of 44, and that of the 12AU7 is 10, whereas the 12AX7 is 100. Just a thought...simple, no soldering involved.

[DrGonz78]

Only one preamp tube in there. On page 11 of the schematic there are service notes about replacing the pots on the volume controls to make loudness between 1-4 more adjustable. Very common fix that I have done myself on similar amps and seen recommended here online before. It involves changing one pot from linear to log and the other from reverse log to linear. Even after the mod it still was pretty loud though at 2 or 3 on the pot, but it does improve.

[glebert]

The tube isn't even a gain stage, just used as a diode for clipping. I found putting in a 5751 tube instead of 12AX7 and reducing some of the gain in the drive channel (piggybacking resistors) helps bring the gain down to a crunchy sort of overdrive instead of hair metal. Haven't really gotten a great blues distortion out of it though. Great amp for gigging, lots of power and compact and light.

[second wind music]

I have played with this a bit more since my post and I agree, killing the gain on U7 is probably not the best solution. I can't understand why there is not a log pot on the volume control to begin with and I decided that would be the best fix. As for the 12AX7, I don't think it is used on the "clean" setting on the amp, just on the "dirty" side.