The man that single handly brought down Rob Chapman with a single post (and a heck of a lot of research)! Keep doing what you're doing mate and please please PLEASE don't change your content and style!

Oh my god!!!!! He mentioned me!!!! Holy smoke!! Thanks, brother! You are the man!!!!

Fortin: "It's not a problem, it's a feature"

"edgy as a Fortin year old boy" hahahahahhahahah best pun ever :D

I started ignoring Fortin from the moment I realized it's impossible to buy their amps cos they're always out of stock. And the prices are just hilarious.

I always thought it was pretty wack to sell a BOOST pedal for $225, just because it says Whitechapel or Fredrik Thordendal.

Imagine a company treats it’s customers so bad that it offering full refunds for faulty products is considered noteworthy positive thing. For most I’d go as far as saying it’s a prerequisite!

When I worked in an electronics shop, we had a phrase for these kinds of problem. "It's not faulty, it's shit on purpose." In other words, if you want a replacement or repair on the grounds that it's faulty, you're SOL, because... It's not. It's just designed to suck. It's working as intended, and it's intended to work badly.

You're doing good work, KDH. Seriously. It seems like very few people look out for the average guy anymore without serving some kind of shadowy agenda.

Why do I always feel the need to have popcorn at the ready when you release a new video?

One thing people should know about electronic circuits is that they are not considered intellectual property. The PCB's (printed circuit boards) however are. Basically, the arrangement of the circuits on the board is intellectual property, not the circuit itself. All one has to do is reverse engineer it and make a new PCB, which is what everyone does. Your design is only protected if it does something novel that can be protected by a patent. Whether it is financially worth it to apply for a patent is another conversation. In most cases, nothing any manufacturer does is new. All the circuits and techniques are tried and true in many industries. A new sound doesn't mean new technology to achieve it. This is probably why we haven't seen evidence, just an exchange of "pleasantries" between a naive german and an opportunist's employee. This is also why some manufacturers submerge their products in epoxy to hide their secret sauce. It's not a secret. Many have probably built that circuit before just maybe not in a guitar product. The sooner companies come to terms with this and focus their efforts on adding value where their competition hasn't, the happier everybody will be. Better yet, learn to use a soldering iron. Save yourself the money and nonsense.

That amp on standby sounds like a Trent Reznor side project. Not in a good way.

I love when you do videos like this, keep them coming

I'm dying for an Audio Audit on Jared Dines. Please say it's coming.

When's the Jared Dines Audio Audit coming out?

Thank you for making this video. Subscribed.

I've been thinking about snagging an Evil Pumpkin when they launch. The Sigil fiasco has me slightly sketched out, not gonna lie. Another excellent video KDH, never stop the consumer advocacy.

I wonder how many potential customers Fortin lost due to how they handled this situation

That is a very important video, thank you very much!

KDH posts a new video, I hit like. Simple as that. Keep up the great work!

I always thought this brand had cringe written all over it when it first became a thing. Good to know my radar was spot on.

Thanks for the info from across the pond

They can write whatever they want in the privacy policy, they absolutely cannot share your information. As a UK company have they not heard of GDPR? The fines if they did would most likely bankrupt them.

Great content, keep it up man!

Residual voltage? Sounds like they need some bleeders across those filter caps. For $8,000.00 you would think they would know that.

Im a broke ass guitarrist so I buy joyo, good quality for small price also good QC and customer service

Your videos make me want to be an even more honest musician. Thank you for keeping us all in check 🤘

Great video man! Keep em coming :)

KDH doing what he does best. Great video mate keep it up.

Based on what I've seen so far...This Company Seems Like a cluster f*&k and operates on very selective and sketchy ethics.....I would beware doing business with this dumpster fire ...BUYER BEWARE!!! I was going to get one of these until.....lets just say ...I'm so glad I saw your video ..THANK YOU!!!!!

I'll try this again - that standby switch problem could hurt someone. If someone works on the amp and uses the switch expecting it to cut high voltage to certain parts of the circuit they might be in some trouble, or at least blow a probe up. There was some hysterical unlettered reject here before, suggesting that because he hadn't heard of people doing this it therefore must never occur; I have seen plenty of techs use standby switches for troubleshooting and repair purposes. Fortin himself is published discussing standby switches and their service convenience. It is reasonable to assume the standby on this amplifier is intended to work like most others - my simple point was that the unexpected presence of high dc voltage can be problematic, and normal people don't have any issue imagining why. Also reading up on the forum stuff is interesting, I get super TTM guitars vibes from Fortin and their fanboys

ahhaha keep going at it. You are the most refreshing channel on youtube.

A few other things: 1. The Zuul noise gate uses the circuit from the Marshall Kerry King JCM800s. The form factor's obviously different, but I think it's good for people to know where the design comes from, especially for something as hyped as it is. 2. The Grind and 33 are both clones of the TC integrated preamp with fixed resistors for bass and treble. Between the two, there's only 1 different resistor. The general consensus seems to be the Blade is again a TC Integrated Pre, just with knobs. 3. The Meshuggah is a Jose-modded Marshall circuit with minor tweaks, the Cali is a Mark Cameron Jose circuit.

I was waiting for this.

Never heard of Fortin before. Great video!

8000 dollar for an amp! AN AMP!?!?!? BWA HAHAHAHAHA!!! WTF?

The Sigil on the front of the Sigil amp is the Sigil of Lucifer. Sweet. Now I want one..

Presumably their 'doxxing' clause is in reference to contravening clauses such as Section 12 (Prohibited Use) which talks about things like harrassment, violating of laws etc. (and the 'doxxing' would be providing data to law enforcement) but yeah, they should absolutely be a lot clearer about this because, as you've raised, it really could mean anything - even clauses they may decide to add or update at their own whim

Oh, I totally believe that Mike FRAUDtin stole Larry Grohmann’s entire circuit. Hell, even the Evil Pumpkin headshell and chassis looks very similar to the Larry Dino 939, just with a different color scheme. Jon Schaffer from Iced Earth has been playing through the Dino for years, and his guitar tone was very unique at the time when he started using the Dino. Listen to the guitar sound on the Something Wicked This Way Comes album, and then compare it to the guitar sound of any pro demo of the Fortin Evil Pumpkin, and try to convince yourself that the tone isn’t identical.

Interesting seeing all the QC issues with these amps, every YT guitar channel practically sucks them off whenever they're demoing a product of theirs.

I liked the video because you care. It keeps suppliers on their toes and buyer's eyes wide open.

I own a Fortin Zuul (noise gate for those who don't know) and got it used. It is the best gate I've ever used buuuuuuuut the price new is pretty crazy. I have heard all kinds of bad about this company since that purchase which has definitely turned me off from the brand. Now Diezel amplification, that company is nothing but class. Their customer service is amazing and their amps sound incredible.

I bought the Neural DSP Fortin NTS and was pretty happy with it, didn’t have any supply issues, no technical problems and it’s pretty good sounding.

great job! Expose the living crap out of these scamming brands

'Dated' is a very interesting way to describe Jimmy Page's relationship with Ms Maddox. He was having sex with her and trying to hide the relationship as he knew it was illegal, and probably knew it was morally repugnant. Edit: oh, and another interesting vid. : )

Thanks.Kirlan. 🙂

Getting my buddy to build me a Fortin 33 copy using the same circuit board, except its got bass and treble controls along with the normal level control. I like how the 33 sounds, so to get the same thing with more features for less than half the price is amazing!

I don't get how a company can make what is CLEARLY a Marshall amp, give it their own brand, and then charge MORE for it than an ACTUAL Marshall. And IDIOTS ACTUALLY BUY IT!! WHAT THE FLOCK?!?!

I like the no nonsense, matter of fact tone of your videos. Some of the corny segments trying to be funny skits get old and distract from the content. Keep up the good work and best of luck to you!

never tried any of their gear as well out of my budget but after watching this I will defiantly keep clear of them

Anytime I see expensive products (or inexpensive actually) with tyranical policies, I automatically assume it's a piece of crap. Right or wrong, this has served me well and saved lots of money/headaches.

Great video as always. Nice bit of guitar drama here! 🔥 I'll admit I've never heard of Fortin. Sounds like a lucky escape. Seriously though, it must suck to be a consumer in the States. Here in the UK we have 14 days to return online orders for any reason at all 😎

Had a Cali mod years ago. Pretty much exactly the same as a ceriatone Chupacabra. Played them side by side.

great vid. more audio audits. it's a great series

Excellent video as usual. Even as an owner of a 33 pedal, Fortin have always struck me as weird. Edgy as a 14 year old with a Manson temp tat, and the 'boutique' nonsense always felts so forced to me. Having said that, I do quite like my 33 pedal, even if it's just a preset EQ pedal with an overpriced tag. I suck at tone shaping and this bad boy does a lot of work for me.

Well done, as usual. The "specifications" disclaimer isn't all that unusual. It protects the company if the specs change, and over squabbles about tiny measured differences. It's an amp company, not a research lab. You'll find similar disclaimers everywhere.

Dude you made some great points about marketing. We often have that perceived value when the price is outrageous. Fortin has always been more than I’m willing to pay...I’ll stick to my EVH

Keep them all honest KDH. Thank you

Currently shopping hi-gain, metallish amps. Good info and will definitely be buying something different.

With the risk of getting shit on both sides (I'm a Fortin Army member) I watched this play out. Now, I have the Sigil, a few amps from other stints in his career, practically all of the pedals and I am a fan of what they do (even though the Grind and 33 pedal are basically one resistor difference, but that can be a large change in sound.) My Sigil works great and the way I got it was outstanding. Basically, I ordered through Thomann because I missed the pre-sale due to my mom dying. They sell fast and I was in a glass case of emotion. AS SOON as they started to ship out, I posted on the Fortin Army page saying I couldn't wait to get mine. Then Fortin chimed in saying that Thomann could not fill U.S. orders due to their agreement. I was pissed (at Thomann as other companies do this, they should disclose). Fortin e-mailed me directly saying that even though they were sold out, they wanted to offer me a Sigil. They sent the invoice same day, I paid and I had my Sigil 3 days later. They went above and beyond for me. Like I said earlier though, I did watch the fiasco you described play out. Growing pains for a company with a small footprint being thrusted onto a scene. They seem to be learning the hard way too at times. Every instance is different. I look at it just like I do with my Abominable Electronics purchases (Another company with notorious customer service and an Infamous/edgy reputation). If something breaks, just be prepared to take it locally to a tech as it can happen with any amp.

"Natas" means "creams" in Spanish. Maybe they're not badass after all?

I’ve learned quite a bit from KDH 🙂

Horrible customer service. You should always put customers first. Anytime there's an issue with my pickups, I handle the problems personally

I’ll stick with Marshall and Peavy thanks

Wow. I’ll stick to my bargain priced lunchbox amp built by Orange, it’s a workhorse; a reliable and fantastic addition to my gear!

👏🏻👏🏻👍🏻👍🏻, Good Job and good video, Keep it up, Cheers

Oh God these amps are over priced. I should be greatful on spending only 1k on my evh 5150iii 50w 6L6.

Atleast the Sigil manages to sound Evil with the Standby.

Business practices like this need to be reported to the Better Business Bureau

That's why I'm glad I have a kemper.

Never heard of Fortin before.

I bought a Fortin 33 a while ago and man was I disappointed.

If you don't take care of your customer, they won't take care of you.

As seen on this channel...There r plenty of bad actors in the guitar, amp and pedal world. Some have good intentions but fail to properly run their businesses. Some r outright thieves that should be locked up. While other like Fortin only do the right thing after bad PR and pressuring from the online community. A sad state of affairs for musicians regardless. Keep up the good work KDH!!

I am a brand owner and power supply bleed off is nonsense. It is not a standby switch if it doesn't work as KDH shows with an amp. A fixed Q pedal contains about a dollar in electronic components. Also for whatever amp you make it is impossible to spend more than 1500 bucks in parts since there is nothing more expensive you can you to build unless you use gold bars. So 2500-3000 for an really amazing amp is good. 8000 is a sign that different interests are at play

interesting vid, not really looked into fortin but think i'll avoid just how I was looking at chapman guitars but now... less so (actually based on how he responded than the original content tbh!)

if that glitchy standby sound was a deliberate effect I'd kind of love it

Fortin standby problems appear to go back all the way to his time at Randall... My Diavlo RD100H has an issue with the volume randomly jumping in and out with the standby on and it also fades out the DI signal instead off it being active when the standby is on. ☹️

Apparently “Standby” on that amp is the noisy, “electronic fart generator mode”.

Technically the standby function works, it’s just different to the normal implementation. It seems that he’s either cutting the AC before the high tension rectifier, or the HT after the rectifier but before the main filter capacitors, causing it to take ages before the caps bleed down. It also probably have extra massive capacitors as that’s a common thing people implement these days to deal with hum, even though it rarely works. The way it’s usually done is to cut the HT after the capacitors, that way you don’t have to deal with the inrush current from the caps charging up every time you flick it out of standby, and it goes silent instantly. I can’t really imagine a good idea for doing it the way they are, except that you can maybe use a slightly cheaper switch depending on how they’re implementing their HT.

There is also a lot of bad-blood between Fortin and Randall, who employed him before he went on his own. #FortinFiasco

hm, i no longer ever want to consider a fortin amp.

I just got the neural suite for the Cali 🤷🏼‍♂️ boom instant fortin

I think this is just a soft start type switch. The standby switch has some resistors across its legs that let a small amount of voltage continue even when the standby is on. This will let the filter caps charge up some before the standby is turned off. It prevents a large inrush of voltage into the filter caps all at once when the standby is turned off since theyre already filled up some. Just a guess though would have to see the schematic.

Ya wanna tip quality made amp made in the USA try a Armored Amplification Sabot. Very reasonable priced and a top notch owner

I've owned a grind for a while and kinda ignored the bs, until they fucked up their silly shredder selfie contest with legator and i saw the dumb bullshit involved with that. I'm selling the grind and want nothing to do with them anymore

I bought a Fortin Grind pedal. The foot switch broke after two weeks of requalr use turning it off and on. I never bothered to get it fixed.

I once repaired Amps & much more when Peavey were here in the UK at their height. That is really awful customer support.

The only Fortin amps that work reliably are the NeuralDSP ones.

As a big jesus and mary chain fan I would love pedal that sounds like the standby setting on this amp

I bought one of those 33’s... man it was terrible for me. Sold it for twice the amount I paid though so I can’t complain.

I recently had a similar problem with Reverb.com. I ordered a pedal, the guy said he shipped it (and which he did). However, the pedal stayed without update for over 2 weeks. I asked for a refund and was denied 3 times. Reverb customer support told me that “I needed to chill out and just wait.” I finally got my refund within less than a day when I threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau; they were very attentive with their customer service once legal action was threatened. Haven’t even opened my reverb account since that.

I'll just chime in with the technical side... A standby switch just kills the connection to the B+ supply at the transformer. It does NOT drain the power capacitors instantaneously. This is why all amps when put into standby will fade out slowly. These amps seem to have either some kind of protection circuit or super robust power caps that aren't draining off as fast as we are used to. That doesn't mean it will damage the amp or anything else. In fact. using a standby switch AT ALL possibly damages your amp more than just switching the power on and off. There is my technical $0.02.

Hahah good vid! Thats good fortin is atleast fixing the amps at no cost though.... definitely some interesting policies though.... Louis Torres is good shit too though! Cool you credited him or whatever. Keep it up msn

that circumcision joke was funny!

Dude your hair is glorious :D

I think the natas is called that because Mike fortin was with randall for a bit, and made Ola's randall satan. The natas was how he was able to sell it under the fortin name. But now you scared me from wanting a sigil. Now I'm going to do more research on the kraken. Thanks. I didn't want the kraken bc I thought it wasn't "cool enough" but obviously its cool enough for Mike to copy it.

It's a good thing that Neural sells the fortin amp sims for less than 200 bucks and they sound the exact same if not better.

this is why you should never buy gear if you havent gotten to play it first to know exactly what youre getting

The mark of a good company is how well they look after the customer after the purchase has been made.