Fender Tone Master

The tonemaster is a solidly built amp with great up-front sound. I use this amp for professional playing and it has the sound I was looking for. The only feature I do not like is the pair of effect loops, one for each channel.

Incredible up-front sound and an all tube warmth with plenty of power and low end. It far exceeds anything I have used in the last 20 years of playing engagements that includes the use of other Fenders, Marshalls and Carvins.

I have only owed it for less than one year but it has been trouble-free and is built solidly in the tradition of the older Fenders.

If I had to, I would purchase this Amp again. I fact, I think would be great to own another and run them stereo

All valve, sorry tube, amp using 3x12AX7 and 4x6L6WGB/5881. More than enough volume for all but the insane - 100Watts.

Two channels with separate EQ (treble/bass/middle) and a separate 'fat' switch on each channel which kicks in a 3db boost - I prefer to leave this on all the time on the clean channel, but not on the overdrive channel. The overdrive channel also has an additional gain control and master volume. *Note: the clean channel operates separate to the OD channel and as such is non-MV.

Reverb would be nice, but I don't really miss it - having never been that big of a user of this effect.

The sound/tone of this amp justifies it's cost. The best tone of any amp I've ever had (believe me, that is allot of amps). I use it with a custom built SJB Audio 2x12 cab moddled on the official Fender one and use Celestion G12-80 speakers. I play mostly old school type rock (AC/DC, Free, Hendrix etc...) and this amp suits me just fine.

First off, I replaced the stock tubes because I bought it used and it had Sovtek 5881's in there. Some NOS Jan GE 12AX7/A's and NOS Jan Philips 6L6WGB/5881's had the amp sounding at least twice as good as before.

I like the way the clean channel distorts early (about 3) and is really beefy sounding, not shrill on toppy like some Fender tube amps can sound. The note definition is really good as well and cranked up with a strat, this channel alone justifies the price. I use a LP mostly with SD Seth Lover p/ups and the amp sounds just as good with this as with the strat.

The OD channel runs from barely distorted to a decent Sabbath tone. I couldn't imagine any thrash bands getting off on this amp, but for rock/blues it does the business. Some people (magazine reviewers) have said that the OD channel is very bright, but I must admit to never having experienced this - very 'full' or 'brown' if you like. I set this channel up with the fat switch off, gain on 4-5, treble 5-6, bass 4-5, middle 6-7, MV to taste.

I also keep the impedence selector on HI, as I think it delivers the best top end response and clarity with this setting.

I've never found it to be any noisier than most other amps when turned up loud and last time I used it in the studio, we had no problems with noise.

Very reliable! - only ever broked down once in rehearsals, but this was my own fault. I'd been tinkering under the hood, and one of the wires must have snagged on the screws that stick through the underside of the cabinet from the carrying handle. The result was that the OD channel wouldn't work (the clean channel did though). I simply opened up the amp and spotted the broked wire - two minutes with a soldering iron and hey presto!

I would feel safe playing a gig with this amp having no backup, but since I use another amp simultaneously, that's never a problem (unless of course they both go down at the same time - nightmare!)

I've dealt with the Fender custom shop with enquiries about this amp, but they've generally took up to a couple of months to get back to me, but have always delivered the requested help/info.

The UK distributer, Arbiter, on the other hand wouldn't know their arse from their elbow. When I phoned them up for help with a 'popping' noise I was getting during switching channels, they simply told me outright that they never get TM's in for repair and therefore have no experiene with them at all. They also could not come up with any usefull help on how to resolve this matter. In the end it took me three months to get a response from Fender's USA custom shop who's advice on how to remedy the situation did lessen the problem, but still has not totally got rid of it.

I've been playing for a little over ten years now and mainly use a LP and sometimes a strat. If this amp were stolen, I couldn't afford to buy it again new, but if I could afford to, I would.

It's the tone of this amp that sets it apart from the others IMO and the clarity even when everything is maxed out.

I bought it because I got a *really* good deal on it and otherwise the new price would have just been to much to even bother sickening myself by trying it out.

The separate FX loops for boths channels are a good addition as I'll generally set up an old Melos delay for the clean channel only.

This is an actual Custom Shop amp made in Arizona. it is 3yrs old and was in better condition than 2 out of 3 brand new TM amps I played in the stores, the 3rd was in the same perfect shape. With no Reverb or Clean Channel Master it falls behind most amps in features... or in other words it is easier to use and dial in a great sound. That actually puts it ahead of most amps. I would have liked reverb except for it gave me a chance to use and buy the fender reverb tank "great sound!! I use this amp for every thing and now I do not have to drag around 2 amps as this thing kicks on it's own. With 100 watts it keeps up with my bass players Ampeg Rig from Hell and now he has to beg me to turn down!!

With my Strat it sounds Great I have not even tried my other guitars as I can't put this combination away. I use it in my all original band which mixes Rock, Funk, Blues, Metal, Folk, Pop and the Kitchen Sink into one sound. this amp can handle it all. I do not here the noise that I would get from other amps it has enough gain for basic Metal but if you need to make the dirtiest sounding music known to man than buy a Marshall and suffer with the poor clean channel and footswitch delay. The clean channel at 5 is pure rock heaven and the guitars volume control can clean it up The lead channel gets good sustain and you can still make out the notes "What A Concept" "Note" it sounds so good I am having a hard time singing as I just want to shut up and play my rig

I will not take a backup amp to my gigs as I have a lot of confidence in this amp. I will take a portable Sans Amp and cringe with every note!! if I have any proublems

I have not hade this amp long enough for a service call but as with most amps I expect one here and there that is not a proublem as nothing is perfect. I will not use fender Customer support as it is not under warrenty and I can get it done faster and cheaper from a privite party repairman

I have been playing for almost 30yrs and have owned more amps than
most people. I still have a Fender Twin Reverb, Blues Deville and my trusty Roland JC120 head W4x10 cab. which I will be buried with, but the sound of the Tone Masters clean channel has even retired that amp " My main guitar is a 70s cherry sunburst fender strat" Seen One?" "the Tone master kills Boggies on Impact "I have owned 7 doesn't have the channel switching delays of the Marshalls not the gain either "Can't have it all "I have owned 3...more balls than a Twin Reverb will ever feel..I have owned 2.. Matchless has met it's match there is nothing solid state that even compares "Maybe Roland for a different clean" and all that Peavy,Carvin,line 6,etc stuff which is good for kids. I know I am blowing a lot of smoke but I have been thru so many amps with only one thing in mind and that is pure tone how strange it is to find the TONE MASTER.. if this amp were destroyed or stolen I would buy another and have it straped to my body! Also the Fender VibroKing kicks but it will not do metal or hard rock with out a stomp box "Fender could install a Master Vol and gain in that amp but it will lack the power of the true King of Fender... THE TONEMASTER...
Buy one used today and save $$$. look for an engraved serial # on the back that will tell you that it is the real totaly handmade deal and do not mind the tolex seams it still looks great on stage and will resell if needed in a few years for more than you paid for it. If there is a peel and stick Serial # on the rear it is not an original Custom Shop Amp it comes from there new custom shop which as rumor has it is cutting corners to possibly start mass production of the custom shop amps and guitars. See What Happens to a Good Thing

1999 all tube point to point wired 100 watt amp and box. normal tone controls, marginal effect loops, not working first class anyway. two channal with some extra contour (fat) lift.

Iam playing about 30 years, different styles, from jazz(hardbob) to ZZtop like powerblues. I use different old guitars gibson, fender. the amp has approximatly three sounds. a normal clean, somwhat better than marshall, not twin or showman(2x15), tone. b. on channal drive preamp low, a powerful edge not chrunch, but pure penetrading tone, mutch better than matchless or soldano, rivera, it sounds very mutch like my old vox ac50 (4x12 greenback). c. leadsound like many others marshall, or boogie, distortion is not very tight, loose like small amp driven very hard.

iam using it only for nine times sofar it gets very, very hot. almost to hot to handle the switches on the back ! recently I have changed the power tubes and modified the amp to possible drive clean and drive togeter.

Ihave been using almost every other good brand and model on the market, mostly I used amps like sounds so using at the same time! a vox ac30, a bassman, atwin, marshall, and boogie all got to mutch to, carry so I needed to mutch groupies to help.

The Tone-Master is a 100W point-to-point wired gui- tar amp head with a tube-based preamp and power amp and a solid-state rectifier. The amp has two foot- switchable channels (Vintage and Drive), an effects loop and an impedance selector switch (which can be used with a 16 ohm cabinet to effectively reduce the total power of the amplifier and induce power tube sat- uration at lower volumes).
Initially, this configuration did not provide enough flexibility. I felt that I could have used a third channel so that I could have access to footswitchable clean, crunch and lead channels. However, I solved this "dilemma" by purchasing a Boss LS-2 line selector pedal, which I configured for two different footswitch- able clean gain settings. Switching between these gain settings while the amp is in the Drive channel effec- tively gives me the footswitchable crunch and lead tones I need.
The amp also has a "fat" switch in each channel, which boosts the preamp gain, especially in the midrange. By manipulating the fat switch in the Drive channel and the preamp gain, I can get the full range of overdrive tones I require in my blues/jazz/rock band.
This amp does not have reverb, but there is a separate effects loop for each channel. I added a Digitech TSR24S for reverb and other time domain effects. The TSR24S was chosen because it was the only effects device available at the time (for less than a grand) that could be configured for completely separate two chan- nel operation (i.e. separate I/O level controls for each channel).
The only reason I dropped the score to '8' in this cate- gory is because I had to add the LS-2 in order to emu- late a third footswitchable channel and the Digitech for reverb. As for the gamut of tones available with this amp, I can cover them all for the type of music I play. If you need extremely heavy, industrial-style dis- tortion, this amp probably won't give you what you want. For that style of music I would suggest using a stomp box and/or a transistor amp and/or one of the Mesa Boogie amps.

As for sound quality, the Tone-Master certainly deserves to be ranked among the best available today. I auditioned other Fenders, the Mesa-Boogie line, Sol- dano, Ampeg, Marshall, Peavey, Crate, VHT and Matchless. With the exception of Peavey and Crate, I probably could have been relatively happy with certain models from each of these manufacturers. However, given my personal tastes in guitar tone and the style of music I play, the Tone-Master repeatedly edged out the other models in A/B listening tests. When comparing amps of this caliber, I believe your decision will ultimately come down to personal taste. The high-end models from the manufacturers mentioned above ALL sounded pretty darn good to me! According to Bruce Zinky (former Fender Custom Shop amp designer), the Tone-Master Drive channel was designed to sound like a late 60's "hot-rodded" Marshall Super Lead (i.e. the "plexi"). I am 38 years old and have played in bands with other guitarists who've owned these amps and can say that Bruce is fairly accurate. The sound is similar to the plexis I've heard. I believe that any differences encoun- tered would be due to the fact that the Tone-Master uses 5881s and the plexis used EL34s. In addition, the type of speaker cabinet used makes a big differ- ence. The clean channel is full and warm and very "Fender". (See #3 below regarding distortion in the clean channel). I've found that in order to get the best possible sound out of the Tone-Master, you need to do the following things: 1.) Set the impedance switch to "Low". This causes a mismatch between the output transformer imped- ance and the 16 ohm Tone-Master speaker cab (I chose the 2x12 loaded with Celestion G12-80s). The power tubes will then saturate at lower volumes. In general, the tone is fatter, rounder and sweeter with the impedance switch on "Low". 2.) Run the master volume as high as your situation allows and keep the preamp gain at the lowest set- ting which still gives you the sustain and compres- sion you need. I find that about 5.5 (with the fat switch ON) is about right for me. I use Fender Sil- ver Lace senors in my Strats and set the Boss LS-2 for a small amount of clean gain (about 2 o'clock) in one LS-2 channel for my "high gain" lead sound and for a small amount of cut (about 9 o'clock) in the other LS-2 channel for my "crunch" rythym sound. I primarily use the NECK pickup for leads. This setup sounds VERY similar to Eric Johnson's lead tone when playing his `54 Strat on the BRIDGE pickup through his old plexi. (I saw EJ live, so I know which pickups he uses to get his various tones. I read that he uses a Dimarzio HS-2 stacked humbucker in the bridge position. That's why his tone is fatter than you'd normally expect from a stock single coil in the bridge.)
3.) If you want a clean sound out of the Clean chan- nel, keep the clean volume at 2.5 or below (that's still very loud!). If that's not loud enough for you, you may have to set the impedance switch to medium to reduce the power tube breakup. BUT, you'll also lose some fatness and warmth out of your Drive channel. 4.) Replace the stock Fender tubes with a MATCHED set and adjust the bias on the hottest tube for about 30-32 ma cathode current. (The other tubes will then run at or slightly below that level.) If using 5881s, stay closer to 30mA. If using the new Svetlana 6L6GC, you can safely use 32mA. This amp sounds best after it gets hot, but you don't want to blow tubes...especially in the middle of a perfor- mance!
5.) For a Stevie Ray tone (almost identical to the one he got on Empty Arms), turn off the fat switch, set the preamp gain to about 3.5 and crank the mas- ter gain as high as possible. Of course, use that NECK pickup on your Strat! (Remember also that I'm boosting the signal a bit with the LS-2.)
The only reason I've given this amp a `9' rating is because, at times, it seems somewhat bright to me.(The old plexis I've been around have sounded that way to me too.) That's the reason I change

As for reliability, this thing is built like a tank. I've been gigging and rehearsing with this thing for about two and half years and have only had one seri- ous problem, which I attribute to my own stupidity. I had purchased a set of Chinese power tubes (hey, it was a "good" deal!) and significantly underbiased them such that one of them overheated during a per- formance. I was also experimenting with a Marshall Power Brake at the time and had the amp cranked to the max! Luckily, I was using two amps at the time and was able to play the rest of the gig with the other amp. However, I now gig with just the Tone-Master and have recently given up hauling the other amp around for backup. After replacing the Chinese tubes with some Russian 5881s and rebiasing them to the proper level (given above and recommended by Groove Tubes), I've never had a problem. (I'm planning on trying the Svetlana 6L6s when these are due for replacement.)
I should also mention that the amp was shipped with a nonconducting washer between the nut and chassis on both of the effects loop channels. This prevented contact with "ground" and caused some nasty hum whenever I used the effects loops. The factory was totally useless in helping me solve this problem and it took TWO different local Fender repair techs to find it! However, it was a simple fix and was covered completely by the five year warranty. The effects loops have worked perfectly from that point on. As for the quality of workmanship in the finer details, I was a little disappointed. The blond tolex is beautiful but there are too many seams and many of them are not joined neatly. For the price I paid, I would have expected a better job, much like what you'd find on my buddy's Trem-O-Verb. In addition, the internal wiring is a bit sloppy although still elec- trically sound. And lastly, I was astonished that the Custom Shop doesn't use matched tubes. The cath- ode current on the stock tubes ranged from 22 to 44 mA! In my opinion as an electrical engineer, that is inexcusable! Since I couldn't get all of the tubes into the proper range of bias (some were running danger- ously hot while others were far too cold for optimum tone), I had to purchase a set of matched tubes and rebias the amp myself. Once again, for the price paid, I would have expected matched tubes set at the proper bias! However, I still need to give this amp a rating of `10' for reliability. When used within design constraints, it has been totally reliable.

Fender's customer support is the worst of any com- pany I have ever dealt with! I have never spoken with anyone directly from Fender who ever knew anything about their products! If it weren't for their reasonably competent distribution network, these guys would be out of business!

Overall, the amp deserves a '9' rating, mainly because of its incredible tone. In addition, I love the way it looks and the simplicity of its layout. Sometimes I wish it had a third channel and reverb, but have found adequate workarounds for those minor deficiencies. If this thing were lost or stolen, I'd try to find a shop where I could listen to the Electroplex Rocket and the Bogner Ecstacy before buying the Tone-Master again. I would also take a look at the Marshall JCM 2000. I believe the Tone-Master can probably hang with those other amps, but there may be small differences that could tip me in favor of something else. As I said earlier, when you're comparing amps of this caliber, it probably comes down to personal taste or little features that tip you one way or the other.

This 100W Custom Shop amp has two channels (clean and drive), each with its own FX loop and FAT (midrange boost) switch. Channels can be switched with the included footswitch, and have separate EQ. This amp will drive a 4, 8, or 16-ohm load, and features point-to-point wiring.

This amp has a good (Fender-ish) clean tone, with a lot of warmth and headroom. The tone controls are interactive and fairly responsive. What really impressed me about this amp is the drive channel. It is a departure from the old-style Fender distortion, with more of a vintage high gain tone (ala early modified Marshall). The distortion is bright and crisp, and does not get muddy when maxed out. The FAT switch really beefs up the sound.
I tried a variety of guitars through the Tone Master (Telecaster, Les Paul, Rickenbacher, Gretch, etc.) and got good tones with all of them. I play in an original rock/pop/alternative band, and needed an amp that could switch from a good clean tone to a good crunch. I also tried the Pro Sonic, which has a few more features than the Tone Master. I liked the pre and post-EQ gain controls on the Pro Sonic, but the tone was just too dark. The Tone Master is much brighter.

I have no reliability experience with the Tone Master, but have had good luck with older Fender tube gear (I have played through the same Twin Reverb for the last 20 years). I would expect the Tone Master to outlive most bands.

I have not dealt directly with Fender since they were located in Fullerton, CA back in the late 1970s.

I did not end up buying this amp, and the main reason was price. I test drove 15 (or so) amps in my search. Most of them had a similar layout, one clean channel and one for distortion, and a lot of them could get similar sounds for a lot less money. Nonetheless, I do think it is Fender's best sounding amp yet, and if money was no object, I would probably own two.

This is an all tube Custom Shop amp, 100 watts RMS, point to point hand wiring. It has 2 channels, clean and gain, which can be switched via foot pedal or on the amp. There is a separate effects loop for each channel. This head has power to spare, and sounds awesome at any volume. All tube, with a "Fat" switch for each channel, which boosts the overall gain in each channel, mostly noticed in the bass and midrange. Volume, treble, bass, and mid knobs on each, with a gain also on the gain side (duh). The only feature is doesn't have that I wish it did is reverb. Switchable from 4, 8, and 16 ohm, and has a main speaker and external speaker jack. The controls are simple and straight-forward, and each does what it's supposed to do, I haven't experienced any "dead" spots. Again, though, no reverb. There's no headphone jack, but you won't want to use one with this unit! There is more than enough power.

This head is suitable for just about everything, it has a great sound variety. The clean channel tends to distort a little at very high volumes (ear bleeding), but it is not undesirable. The gain goes from very subtle to super crunch, especially with the "Fat" switch on. I play through a lot of different guitars (PRS, ESP, and Fender) and this head is just to unbelievable. The only minor quibble is the gain gets a little bit "buzzy" after about 8, but it just depends on what you want. Stick your favorite overdrive or distortion pedal in front of it for some super lead sounds, and you're off and running! The clean side isn't totally Fender clean, but there are other and cheaper Fender products for that.

I use this head with no backup, and it has never broken down. Do the regular servicing, and you'll be fine. I read a lot about some Fender stuff not being reliable, but I've never experienced this. What are you doing to them?!!?

Never had a problem, so I don't know. Fender just changed their warranty policy, so keep that receipt safe!

I'd buy it again without even thinking about it. Check one out, these heads are just incredible. I can't imagine ever being without one. I spent about 6 hours at a music shop and played through every head/cab combination possible, and this just blew them away. It's so versatile that there really wasn't any other choice for me. My only aforementioned complaint was no reverb, but that's not really a problem with all the reverb units and doo-dads these days. The Tone Master is exactly what is says it is, a true Tone Master. The price may be a little more than some heads, but it's well worth it.