Fender Tone Master

Two channels..vintage and drive(Footswitchable). Fat switch for each channel. Simple straight foward features. 3 12AX7s and 4 6L6s, 100 watts. Dampening switch on the back panel for switching impedences. Great feature..allows the amp to be run at different wattages. 2 effects loops. One for each channel. Vintage early 60s looks, like a Blonde Bassman or Showman (awesome!!!!). Wish it had reverb, but oh well. Just about perfect features (I like simple and straight foward).

This could possibly be the best amp I've ever played through or owned. Simply amazing tones.

Clean - Very lush and warm clean channel, but can get sparkly like a Twin. Starts to break up around 4-5 on the volume (single vol control, no gain or preamp control). Cranked, it reminds me of a Bassman (I know because I own 2 Blackface heads). Easy to get that Keith Richards/Black Crowes type of grind going. Can get very SRV like with a Strat. Fat switch adds some girth and edge to the tone. One of the best cleans I've heard.

Drive - WOW!!!!!!! This channel is amazing as well. This is not a high gain metal amp!!! It's a rock n roll amp. Very smooth overdrive and gain. Very up front sounding. Kind of a cross between Marshall type crunch with that Fender grind. Thick and fat sounding. Clarity is right there. You can hear every single note sing in chords. Punchy. Gets a Aerosmith/Led Zepplin/AC/DC tone with the gain on about 4. Putit at 7 and you get a thick GnR type crunch. Maxed, it just screams, but retains it's clarity. Not muddy or mushy like a Mesa. Lead tones just cut right through. Very thick sounding. One of the smoothest overdrives I've ever heard. Sounds great at low volumes, and cranked it's just beautiful. Like I said, it's a Rock amp.

I use a wide varity of guitars from Les Pauls, SGs, Strats, Teles, and Gretsches. Speaking of....great Brian Setzer type tone on the clean channel.

No probs so far.

Fender is kinda hard to deal with. Don't reply to emails very well. Bought it used so no warrenty.

Been playing for 13 years. I own 7 other amps including 2 Marshalls, Soldano, Mesa Heartbreaker, 2 66 Bassman heads, Victoria. This is one of the best, if not the best amp I've ever heard (and I've heard a lot). I would buy it again in a heart beat. I love everything about it, except I wish it had reverb. If you want a Rock N Roll amp, this is one that must be looked at!!!!

See other reviewers

"Clean" channel :
- very dark, no brightness for a fender amp !
- distords very very quickly : impossible to get passable clean tones !

"Overdrive channel"
- rather good tone but far too polite and thin
- limited sustain
- lacks balls

Overall good volume power
Excellent noise rejection with the totaly isolated ( signal transformers ) fx loop : good idea that might be deserved to other amps !

Much much too expansive amp, big bucks for poor tones !

The features you already know from other reviews, but you must know there is no reverb (ca! Ca!) Starting off bad already! When I have to add efeects to the signal, I begin to get nervous. What was Fender thinkin? Dont mess with outboard stuff at the start man! Cheesus K. Reist!!

I use a Les Paul Custom and a strat with lindy Fraelin's Baby!! These guitars smoke! But I am dissappointed with the distortion of this amp. I simply thought it would be fatter. I prefer the beefiness of a Boogie (Heartbreaker) or a Bogner Ecstacy, or a VHT. anyway, the cleans were surprisingly less Fenderish than some cheaper Fender models, Im gonna subtract mucho points for that. Also, this amp does not sound good at lower volumes when using distorion mode, even with the boost, not very warm. Loud, any tube amp can sound decent! But if I have to use a fuzz pedal, what is the point? I do not want to have to use a fuzz pedal with a TWO THOUSAND DOLLAR AMP!!!!!! I can get a piece of junk and get the best pedal in the world right? WRONG!!!! great tube sounds come from TUBES! any way, I kept this amp for three months and lost money on EBAY, what a waste! i bought a Tophat combo and the distotion on this amp is the real deal, this Fender is just not wotrh the price!

Did not have the amp long enough, but it looks like it can last as long as a roach after an atomic bomb was dropped!

Never had to deal with them.

Not very impressed with this amp. I am a devoted Fender man and own a twin and a Vibrolux and my new TOPHAT, but this amp does not do it for me, yeah its loud, but where is the real tone? just playing loud? Low this amp really blows, add a pedal and you have wasted your money.

Confession - this is actually a modded out "bastard" ie. a Tonemaster pre-amp handwired to a 60W Prosonic power stage all inside the chassis of a silverface Bassman 50 Head! But OH MY GOD it has the most hellacious guitar tone of any amp I have ever played (10 years exp, 300+ live shows, 2 eps, 1 album). This thing is wired so that it IS point to point a Prosonic on channel one - for gorgeous cleans - and a power-dropped Tonemaster on Channel 2, for pure making mesa-boogie cry filth ... The swtiching is noiseless and real-time. It also has a valve-buffered, mono (obviously) effects loop with adjustable send and return levels. This can do it all with the right order and combination of pre- and post- loop toys.

I play a Fender Strat Plus deluxe and/or an Ibanez Futura (rare Gibson Moderne copy) through nothing in front of the amp - straight in. Yes, the tone is that good. In the loop I have Whammy II, original Ibanez Flying Pan, DOD Echo FX (and soon a Roland Loop Station and Digitech Space Station). I play Swervedriver-meets-Radiohead-meets Gish-era Pumpkins aggressive psychedlically-inflected ROCK. My cleans need to be Persil white, and my dirt must allow for much manually controlled adjustments and shadings, gradually tapering up to sheer filth (but well-defined, textured, screaming midrange filth). This bastard does it all - 60W of tits-oot power driving two pre-Rola Celestion greencaps is the sound of god whispering tonepoems just for me ...

Never had a problem. The guy who did the mod has 20 years experience and knows everything there is to know about thermionics.

N/A

Simply the best amp I've ever used - and I've owned and loved JCM 800s, Musicman combos, Fender Bassmen, all sorts of stuff. Hopefully you'll get to hear some of it soon ... My Mesa Boogie V-Twin was made redundant by the gain of this beauty - who would've ever thought it from a Fender ...
To those who claim high-endyness or tinnyness ... what's the power rating on your cabs and how hard are you driving the output stage? You're not going to get that delicious harmonic distortion and tube high-end roll off until you star making your output valves sweat a little, which means turning these sorts of all-valve (no IC or op-amps) gain circuits up past 5. Yeah it's loud, but this is rock - if you're scared, stay home. And for practice level, use a pedal of some kind, that's just bedroom antics anyway. Rehearsals, recordings and performances should be loud. You gotta feel it. Music is a physical thing, Move some air.

This amp doesn't come with many features and that is the point.Simple 100w (Four 6L6's) 2 channels of point to point tube tone. No reverb. (2)Effect loops (1) per channel, which is a set back really unless your effects are stereo and you can run them mono (1) for each channel.
Variable (impedence)gain switch, regardless of the cabinet impedence. Cool feature.

Excellent A+++. If you are into the older amp tones then this amp is a dream. Clear, punchy and very up-front tones.100w gives massive head room. Distortion is the breakin up' type, Similar to Marshall Plexi. For those seeking high gain metal tones this is not your amp.
Im playing it with Gretsch hollowbody,s and a Space echo. I am using the matching 2x12 cab. Great rockabilly,psychobilly tone.

It is as I said, Simple. It is built to last and built like any great old amp. Always carry backup tubes but would easily gig without a backup amp.

For this amp I have never tried to contact Fender. In the Past Customer service at Fender has been brutal. Absolutley terrible.

Been playing 13 years and play primarily Rockabilly, Psychobilly, stuff. I own only Hollowbody,s . Great tone. Simple. reliable. I would buy it again if it were lost or stolen. Wish it had 1 effects loop for the whole amp instead of 1 per channel. There are few amps made today like the old ones, This is an old amp with many years left to its life. Expensive, but considering the price of everything else out there that can't touch it for what it is, it is worth it.

New bought it in 97.Never used it ore than three times.
Loud but no tone.I tried a tubeworks reverb with it and hated it more.

I have some wonderful vintage guitars and they all sound bad.

works great but who cares!LOUD tin can tone.Distortion sounda like a BIG HORNET.

None and all the amp gurus around Canada can't save it.

I changed the tubes and no better results.Wanna trade?
I bought a Rivera M-100 now I'm saved.Please steal it so I can get my money back.It akes a great coffee table.

2 channel, all tube, hand wired. Clean channel is like a deluxe on steroids, dirty channel is all Marshall. Designed after the tone on Vanhalen's 1st album.

I use a '76 Les paul standard, A '96 PRS McCarty and a Charvel Sandimas Strat. The single best feature of this amp is no matter what guitar I plug into it, I geat immediate great tone! With out adjusting the amp! Every guitar sounds good. The clean sound is one of the best I've heard. I play in a couple of cover bands playing everything from the Eagles to God Smack to Stevie Ray to Stone Temple Pilots and Alice in Chains. The most Important Thing to do with this head is to match it with the right cabinet. I owned 2 Marshall 4x12. One with Vintage 30's and one with green backs. The vintage 30's are the speakers. The 25's could not handel the quick response ane power of this amp. The head room and punch caused the 25's to be shrill and sound like an ice pick in the ear. The 30's on the other hand sound huge. I also own a re-issue plexi that I put a Hoffman board into with a gain stage mod. This amp has a better dirty tone, but is no where near as versitile. Other reviewer's have said that this amp does not get "heavy enough" for them. Thats a matter of opinion, But I use a Full tone Full drive in front to add more when necessary, which isn't very often. The trick is to read the owners manual and experiment with the impedance selector. I miss match it depending on the volume the amp is set at. I set it at 8 ohm's in a larger room and 4 ohm's in a smaller one. When set at 4 ohm's with a 16 ohm cabinet you get the power tubes working an the low end pumping. I prefer the 8 ohm setting as there is a slight loss of definition at the 4 ohm setting.
The clean channel is the best sounding of the 2. If I played in large places, where volume was not an issue, I would consider using it exclusively. Using the guitars volume pot to adjust the gain.

Reliable amp! I did switch to Svetlana 6l6's, which smoothed the amp out. I bought the amp used about 4 years ago. When i tried it in the store, I was blown away. When I got it home and hooked up my Alesis quadra verb, I got pissed. This version of Tone master has a single effects loop. The clean channel worked fine, but the dirty channel absolutely killed the quadra verb, way to hot. I called Fender a total of 6 times. It took that many to get thru to an engineer who knew what I was talking about. The 1st 2 people just talked down to me like I was a moron. "Are you using professional equipment, because the amp is for professionals". Man did that asshole piss me off. But any way, The last guy I spoke to said they did have problems with the effects loop and there were 4 versions of this amp out. Mine, serial # 0066, is one of the prototypes. I could not understand why a large company would sell a product that did not work propely, neither could he! My tech ended up making the amp useable by making a buffer to reduce the signal before it enters the effect, and modifing my hush unit to bring the signal back up to the same level it left the amp at.
I gig with out a back-up, and am very happy with the tone I get, just kind of leary of Fender.

I think I said it above. Customer service sucks, but if you get to the people who do the work, you will get results.

I've been playing for 25 years.
I would try out other amps, But would probably end up with another Tone master.

It's a new amp. Two channel with bass, treble, mid equalizer for each channel and channel switching through a footswitch. A separate "fat" switch for each channel gives "edge" to the tone if you want it.

100W Top with enough power for every club.

For me it's versatile enough, the only thing I sometimes miss is a switchable second volume level. And I miss the reverb.

It sounds very very good with almost every kind of guitar. I use it with different strat's (the '62 reissue sounds pretty good) for texas blues style. A 335-like Ibanez Artstar has pure Jazz through it. And my LP classic delivers the early zz top tone with the drive channel ("fat" with gain at 3.5).

The dynamic response of the amp is absolut wonderful. The amp has tone tone tone tone tone.

The amp is not good for the heavy things, therefore i use my Mesa/Boogie DC-5. (Although the boogie for itself has a thick fat tone, it sounds thin when you compare it to the tone master)

I play it for about one week. My other amps are a Mesa/boogie dc-5 and an old Marshall 4203.

I compared the tone master with my Hot Rod deVille and a prosonic. Forget the other ones.

The features I like the most about the Tone Master are as follows:
-It has INDEPENDENT EQ controlls for both channels. There is nothing I hate more than a good tube amp that uses the same EQ controls for the clean and lead channels.
-It has independent "FAT" switches which allows for a boost in gain on either channel, which will alter the overall character of the channel.
-It has independent effects loops for both channels, which is great for pre-setting what efeects you want for you clean, and lead channels...I hate it when I have to click off my effects for my clean, then swich channels for the heavier parts....way too much work for a singer/guitarists. Just one click and your on your way. Also you can loop both channels together if you want and have a universal (like a standard effects loop) chain, just run one into the other.
-It has an ipeadance selector that will regulate the wattage from the head to the cabinet, also very usefull to fine tune the tone of the amp.
-HAND-WIRED 100 watts...no circuit boards in this baby...which translated to a very powerful tone. There are no dull sounds in this bad boy.
-I also have to add it looks way cool, and is built like a tank.

First off I have to say that I have been looking for the right amp for my band for about 3 years now. I have owned 2 Mesa Rectifiers, 2 Marshall JCM2000 heads, A Fender Hot Rod DeVille, A Fender Twin, A Budda Stringmaster, and a Johnson Millenium 250 head. I have sold, or taken back every single one of them for one reason or another. The closest amp I had that almost did the trick was the Dual Rectifier, but the clean was just lame. I can now honestly say I have found the amp I have been looking for for years. As soon as I plugged my guitar into the head (without adjusting any knobs) I was in tone heaven. The clean is very similar to the Fender Vibro King, accept it can get much louder without breaking up unlike the V-King. The lead channel is pure beef, but very versitile. At certain settings the gain can get buzzy sounding, which is fine for certain applications, but with a minor adjustment to the gain setting it loses the buzz and keeps on rockin. My band plays a very aggresive, but melodic modern rock style...like the Foo Fighters / Lit / Plankeye / Nada Surf. We do a lot of channel switching clean, to drive. I use guitars with humbuckers (single coils are too thin, unless in the neck position)... Guilds, Schecters, Ibanez, hopefully a Parker soon. A very good pickup to use with this amp is a 57' classic plus from Gibson. The humbuckers add a fullness that single coils can't. I am sooooo picky about tone, so please take my advise and get a Tone Master. I got a great deal on a barely used one. Check around.

Built like a tank. Very heavy due to a hand wound transformer. Was made for touring bands.

Fender has a great warranty, that is transferrable. Call the 1-800 # and talk to them about anything.

I can't say enough about this amp.....but I'm tired of typing so....All I can say is I have used this site to help in aiding me when tring to find any music gear, and I have never owned a product worth leaving a response on. Today I consider my self the luckies man-man-man-man on the face of the earth-th-th. The Tone Master isn't going anywhere without me. Rock the party off the hook.

I was looking for an amp that would give me a decent clean sound for my Les Paul, JB in bridge & Seth Lover in neck, and the Tonemaster was my answer. For years I have used a Vibrolux and a Pro reverb which resulted in great classic Fender sound, you know when the power tubes start to cook and you hit that bit'o'breakup area on the volume knob (2.8 to 3.5). For playing classic rock all night long this was fine. These days,to get more gigs,we have to play current material, thus I had to find an amp that would yield more clean headroom. The Tonemaster solved this problem.
At 100watts you think the clean channel would be like a twin, but this is not the case. It is more like my Vibrolux on steroids,you get a loud tight sound with a bit of punch, that is just about to break up. Actually with the volume set at 3.6 you get a beautiful crunch. Turn the clean to 5 and you get an amazing crunching Marshall sound, and mabey some hearing loss. Now the clean setting I use is the volume at 2.3 to 2.5 with the bass at 4, treble at 4, mid at 6, and the fat switch on. This setting will give you a lovely clean sound that will be more than enough volume for most club gigs. For the lager rooms you would put the amp to 3. All of the mentioned settings will give you excellent of clarity and definition to your sound.
With the dirty channel I put the volume to 7 and the gain to 3.5-4. This will give you a moderate crunch sound, very close to a marshall. I tend to keep the base low, at 3.5, the treble at 5 and the mid at 6, with the fat switch on. If you play around with the pre amp and gain settings in no time you can get a nice 70's Billy Gibbons tone, or even a Thin Lizzy, Cowboy's Song, type of Crunch. I have directly compared this amp to a 50 watt Marshall 1987 head, for those of you not in the know this amp was made in 1972 and the model is 1987, and the similarities were striking. At any Marhall setting I could come very close to mimicking that sound on the Tonemaster. Infact I could even go 1 step higher in gain than the Marshall cranked and I had more definition and a tighter bottom end, which could be contributed to the extra 2 powertubes.
All in all, this is one hell of an amp. If you need versitility, clarity, headroom and crunch, this amp is it.