Fender Tone Master Deluxe Reverb (And Twin) Review

Lebarque

HandwrittenHero said:

Lebarque said:

^ Yep. At the end of the day, you've got to hear these things with your own ears and with your own gear. It's ridiculous the amount of hours I've spent researching and choosing gear online, only to know it wasn't for me within 10 seconds of plugging it in. For all those making decisions based online demos, be cautious. It occurs to me that most of the people who have actually tried the Tonemasters in person, rate them. Except TPS of course. But that was pretty obvious!

I didn't get the impression that they didn't rate the Tonemaster...pretty sure multiple times they emphasised the amp sounded good, just to their ears not close to the DRRI which they preferred. Particularly in the midrange.

They always say things like that, so as not to offend the manufacturer.

munckee

I have watched the video now, my only thought was the reverb sounded much better on the valve version.

One telling thing of the tonemaster is I haven't seen any used for sale yet. so either they haven't sold many or everyone who buys one keeps it!

dean111music

Not sure if this was mentioned, but did the TMDR have the update? The update has the bright cap switched off and better reverb.

Surely that will change the sound massively with pedals and how bright they thought it was?

ThePrettyDamned

stickyfiddle said:

Just got through most of the TPS vid. Both amps sound great and any differences are no more than you’d get on any two vintage DRs, and I suspect half the differences could be removed or at least minimised by tweaking knobs further and at worst a speaker swap.

I’m still very keen to get a TMDR.

(also slightly disappointed that with all their clever switching kit they didn’t make an effort to get them set as close as possible then do a blind test)

That's what I don't understand - they didn't even try to dial them in as best possible. 

I don't know, I can make my ac15 sound nasty. Actually, it's really easy to do that... 

RandallFlagg

Just listened to Chris' Guitar video and I prefer the Tone Master until the TS is switched on then just very slightly prefer the original with it's woodier mid range. That could probably be sorted by just dropping the bass on the Tone Master.

I would buy a Tone Master.

pedalo

Back in January I read the biggest forum thread I’ve ever seen on the gear page about these. There was a lot of negativity on it but I was completely sold on the concept of them and went to the shop fully intending to buy one.

When I go in with that mindset it takes a lot to not buy what I was planning to but they were completely underwhelming to me I wouldn’t have bought one for half the price. I ended up trying a Princeton and it was leagues apart so I bought it. The 65 in the TPS vid sounds so much better to me as well. 

StefB

munckee said:

One telling thing of the tonemaster is I haven't seen any used for sale yet. so either they haven't sold many or everyone who buys one keeps it!

There's been a good few used examples sold on eBay over the last couple of months - https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=fender+tone+master&_sacat=0&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=1

dtr

I reckon over half the live music events I've seen in the last year have been run from solar/battery power, and there can sometimes be that conversation between the sound and solar engineer and the band that turn up with a bunch of valve amps to be mic'd up who seem surprised that 1950 era power efficiency means they burn through their battery quota in a very short set.

It only seems to be an issue that affects a narrow genre of guitar-based rock though, and I've yet to see a funk or reggae or world or jazz act who's not prepared to DI for the cause, and rap or acoustic acts pretty much demand it.

It's got me thinking that I don't really see guitar bands much these days, because the grassroots music scenes I frequent are all based around small festivals, community events, pop-up street stages, etc.  Are we witnessing the dying of the light for the guitar rock dinosaurs, trapped in their pub swamps, basking in the glowing orange heat, tethered by their IEC power leads?

I guess I have a particular viewpoint where I see the covid and environmental crisis affected future leading increasingly to outdoor stages, solar and batteries.  That's the 21st century we've got, whatever we might want.  It's a nice thing that the Tonemasters exist.  It's like the 21st century reaching a hand into the past to those stuck there, inviting them to join in.  Maybe it'll mean I get to see more guitar bands

p90fool

I don't think I've ever heard of a solar powered gig, let alone played at one.

I do live in Wales though. 

Wazmeister

A Rehearsal Update

Our 4 piece band managed to get together again last night, and I decided to 'travel light' and take just the following gear;

- Fender Broadcaster (in a gig bag)

- Fender DR TM (Blonde)

- Small pedal board consisting of;

  - Chase Bliss Automaton Preamp
  - BJFE Honey Bee
  - BJFE Model H

I'd already had a lot of joy using the CBAP with the DR Tone Master, so I thought Id see how these two pedals worked with the new amp.

I have to say the DR took the pedals well; retaining its own sound as an amp, whilst at the same time absorbing the 'colour' that each pedal offered. The BJFEs in particular, clean up really well and I was delighted with this small rig, and again with the performance of the amp.

I used the rear line out straight into the desk and then into 2 x DXR 10s. Simple, effective and sounded great.

HandwrittenHero

Nice with the Honeybee. Been using a SHOD when strat goes through my TMDR just to have a bit more kick with it being way lower output than my humbuckers and since I’m too lazy to set the amp different for each guitar. Works well for me.

p90fool said:

I don't think I've ever heard of a solar powered gig, let alone played at one.

I do live in Wales though. 

It’s amazing what hydro power can do though.

ennspek

@Wazmeister bloody hell mate. When you start a thread, you start a thread!

TINMAN82

ennspek said:

@Wazmeister bloody hell mate. When you start a thread, you start a thread!

Bottom line, TM works great, just budget in a £750 boutique preamp pedal too 

mattdavis

I’ll confess I’ve not read every comment in all 8 pages but has no one pointed out that Lazy J’s are better yet? :-)

AndyJP

@Wazmeister thx for the update on the band setup. Personally the only thing that matters to me is how an amp sounds with a band.  Glad it's working out.

What style of music do you play? 

Wazmeister

TINMAN82 said:

ennspek said:

@Wazmeister bloody hell mate. When you start a thread, you start a thread!

Bottom line, TM works great, just budget in a £750 boutique preamp pedal too 

Give me strength.

Read the review; I used the BJFE...

Wazmeister

AndyJP said:

@Wazmeister thx for the update on the band setup. Personally the only thing that matters to me is how an amp sounds with a band.  Glad it's working out.

What style of music do you play? 

Andy, a mix of Who, Beatles, The Jam, Crowded House, Clash etc 

All the great melodic stuff.

TINMAN82

Wazmeister said:

TINMAN82 said:

ennspek said:

@Wazmeister bloody hell mate. When you start a thread, you start a thread!

Bottom line, TM works great, just budget in a £750 boutique preamp pedal too 

Give me strength.

Read the review; I used the BJFE...

Just poking fun, apologies. I play through a Helix Stomp most of the time, nothing against digital tech at all. Interesting and worthwhile thread that you started.

stilwel

dean111music said:

Not sure if this was mentioned, but did the TMDR have the update? The update has the bright cap switched off and better reverb.

Surely that will change the sound massively with pedals and how bright they thought it was?

The alternate firmware doesn't necessarily make the Reverb "better".  It changes the virtual taper of the Reverb pot so that it comes up a bit slower so you can have more granularity of adjustment at lower settings.  

There is one bothersome bit about the TPS video and that's when they ran both amps into a random 3rd party cab/speaker.  The TM amps don't have any cab sim related tech in the modeling, but for best results, they do rely on the speaker being a Jensen C12K or N12K to ensure proper interaction between speaker and the virtual power amp. Running the TMDR into an unknown speaker will yield unknown results that may emphasize unusual frequencies. 

Dan_Halen

stilwel said:

dean111music said:

Not sure if this was mentioned, but did the TMDR have the update? The update has the bright cap switched off and better reverb.

Surely that will change the sound massively with pedals and how bright they thought it was?

The alternate firmware doesn't necessarily make the Reverb "better".  It changes the virtual taper of the Reverb pot so that it comes up a bit slower so you can have more granularity of adjustment at lower settings.  

There is one bothersome bit about the TPS video and that's when they ran both amps into a random 3rd party cab/speaker.  The TM amps don't have any cab sim related tech in the modeling, but for best results, they do rely on the speaker being a Jensen C12K or N12K to ensure proper interaction between speaker and the virtual power amp. Running the TMDR into an unknown speaker will yield unknown results that may emphasize unusual frequencies. 

Surely, once they did it, the 'unknown results' became known results and it sounded fine?