Tonemaster hankering (now successfully hankered)

TimmyO · May 2023

I have an idle hankering for a Fender Tonemaster

I’m over valve amps (medically, carrying heavy things is not something I can do any more)

I have semi-realistic thoughts of playing out (just jams) in future - main barrier being time.

I like my AMP1 and Neo cab but just have a general hankering for something in a more traditional format that won’t continually be tempting me to faff with midi or multiple channels.

My preferred way of playing is riding the volume to go between clean and gritty, and pedal for something more obviously ‘lead’

Which models would you be leaning toward, or trying out in store?

bermudianbrit · May 2023

The DR blond. Great speaker, light, loud enough. I have one and its a great thing.

Jalapeno · May 2023

Princeton, with a pine rather than MDF cab and a neo speaker for your delectation - give Rift a call ...

stickyfiddle · May 2023

I absolutely love my DR. I have the regular black one and it kicks ass. Easy one hand carry, attenuation is great, and the DI out is an absolute boon for gigging

Littlejonny · May 2023

Those of you who have these - how do they compare to your valve amps?

chrisj1602 · May 2023

I’ve had a DR and I am now a very happy Princeton owner. I think they’re great amps. They’re versatile for different situations, they sound good and take pedals well.

stickyfiddle · May 2023

Littlejonny said:

Those of you who have these - how do they compare to your valve amps?

For me, pretty damn close. I’m certain it doesn’t sound identical to a valve DR, but it’s close enough in a mix and the other benefits far outweigh any downside.

If I had a detached house or studio and never needed to move it I’d probably choose a valve one but I don’t so I don’t!

HAL9000 · May 2023

TimmyO said:.

I... ...have a general hankering for something in a more traditional format that won’t continually be tempting me to faff with midi or multiple channels.

My preferred way of playing is riding the volume to go between clean and gritty, and pedal for something more obviously ‘lead’

^ This is me. However, rather than going down the ToneMaster route I’ve recently ordered a (yet to arrive) Award-Session 5E3 Extra. It’s essentially a three-knob analogue solid-state amp - tone, volume, and master so no faffing necessary. I tried one out recently at a local blues jam and was impressed enough to place an order when I got home.

Barquentine · May 2023

Maybe look at a Quilter Cub. I love mine.

Teyeplayer · May 2023

stickyfiddle said:

I absolutely love my DR. I have the regular black one and it kicks ass. Easy one hand carry, attenuation is great, and the DI out is an absolute boon for gigging

This has been my experience, it’s a great bit of kit. I’m not going to pretend I’m not gassing for something else so have it up for trade right now, but I know from a rational perspective (because gas is never rational) that it is very hard to beat.

dazzajl · May 2023

I would say Princeton if you’re thinking of jams without a drummer. It’s small, gorgeous and has the nicest breakup of the three types I’ve played. If you need more volume, then the DR is your fella. Black wrapped is my personal preference but the Blond is very popular.

Wazmeister · May 2023

bermudianbrit said:

The DR blond. Great speaker, light, loud enough. I have one and its a great thing.

This - 100%.

jellybelly · May 2023

Love mine. Is it the best amp, tone wise, I've ever owned? Nope, not miles off though. But it's by far the easiest amp I've ever owned to live with.

TimmyO · May 2023

HAL9000 said:

TimmyO said:.

I... ...have a general hankering for something in a more traditional format that won’t continually be tempting me to faff with midi or multiple channels.

My preferred way of playing is riding the volume to go between clean and gritty, and pedal for something more obviously ‘lead’

^ This is me. However, rather than going down the ToneMaster route I’ve recently ordered a (yet to arrive) Award-Session 5E3 Extra. It’s essentially a three-knob analogue solid-state amp - tone, volume, and master so no faffing necessary. I tried one out recently at a local blues jam and was impressed enough to place an order when I got home.

I had a look at the website yesterday - sounds very interesting - I’d want to be able to play one before it turned my head though

johnhe · May 2023

I still own a Vibrolux, a Blues Deluxe, an Origin 20 and a Pro Jnr. I really like them all. But the amp I use now, both at gigs and at home is a Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb.

Teyeplayer · May 2023

That’s high praise @johnhe, some nice amps there.

Gassage · May 2023

This is the ONLY Tonemaster I hanker after....
One of Fender's finest ever.

Image: https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--M4mt-ArX--/a_exif,c_limit,e_unsharp_mask:80,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_south,h_620,q_90,w_620/v1449375917/fbwlbknrevfso6eqrwdf.jpg

ICBM · May 2023

Gassage said:

This is the ONLY Tonemaster I hanker after....
One of Fender's finest ever.

Unfortunately it’s one of the few amps I’ve ever played that really does need to be turned up properly loud to really release the magic. At low volumes it’s a bit lacklustre, even on the clean channel, and the ‘dirt channel’ sounds actively poor.

But when I finally got the chance to play one at full stage volume, I realised that it’s not really meant as a preamp-distortion channel-switcher - it’s more like a big non-MV amp with a *boost* channel. It sounded like the voice of god…

Unfortunately after about five minutes an irate woman appeared and asked/told me to stop! (Owner’s wife rather than mine, or I’d probably have just ignored her

.)

Gassage · May 2023

ICBM said:

Gassage said:

This is the ONLY Tonemaster I hanker after....
One of Fender's finest ever.

Unfortunately it’s one of the few amps I’ve ever played that really does need to be turned up properly loud to really release the magic. At low volumes it’s a bit lacklustre, even on the clean channel, and the ‘dirt channel’ sounds actively poor.

But when I finally got the chance to play one at full stage volume, I realised that it’s not really meant as a preamp-distortion channel-switcher - it’s more like a big non-MV amp with a *boost* channel. It sounded like the voice of god…

Unfortunately after about five minutes an irate woman appeared and asked/told me to stop! (Owner’s wife rather than mine, or I’d probably have just ignored her .)

Absolutely agree. A force of nature cranked into a 4 x 12- literally how I imagine Attila the Hun to summon his hounds.

Insanely loud, insanely powerful. Sambora sounded like God through one (well 4 of them)

TimmyO · May 2023

I’ve gone a bit demo-blind lol.

The TMDR is probably a safe bet. But Blonde or regular?

dazzajl · May 2023

I think the regular model is the sound I have in my head for a DR. The very scooped, deep, bright and warm Fender thing. The Blond seems to be the preferred choice on here though, suggesting most are indeed ‘Gentlemen’

stylesforfree · May 2023

Gassage said:

This is the ONLY Tonemaster I hanker after....
One of Fender's finest ever.

Zinky designed I imagine?

Johnnyseven · May 2023

Has anyone had experience with the Twin and Super Reverb Tone Master? Been thinking about getting something Fender-y with a mid control that I can use at home and gig. Would need to sell my heavy as hell Bassman first though.

chickenbonejohn · May 2023

HAL9000 said:

TimmyO said:.

I... ...have a general hankering for something in a more traditional format that won’t continually be tempting me to faff with midi or multiple channels.

My preferred way of playing is riding the volume to go between clean and gritty, and pedal for something more obviously ‘lead’

^ This is me. However, rather than going down the ToneMaster route I’ve recently ordered a (yet to arrive) Award-Session 5E3 Extra. It’s essentially a three-knob analogue solid-state amp - tone, volume, and master so no faffing necessary. I tried one out recently at a local blues jam and was impressed enough to place an order when I got home.

I recently got rid of a handwired Fender 75 combo (way too heavy for me at about 70 pounds) and a Sessionette 75 which had been my regular gigging amp for years. I put a Session BluesBaby 22, into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe cabinet that was given to me, and to me it sounded better than the Sessionette, so that's why I sold the Sessionette. As the Blues Baby is a single channel amp, and I use variety of sounds during my live work, from clean thru' to moderate overdrive, I wondered if I might be better having a two channel amp, so I too developed a hankering for the Deluxe Reverb Tonemaster after reading and watching lots of reviews. The two channels, light weight, plus trem and reverb seemed to tick all the boxes. After trying one (the blonde version) I'm cured of that hankering. It's a nice amp, and I did compare it at the same time to a handwired Deluxe Reverb, just in case that might have swayed me into getting a heavier and all-valve amp again...but the weight and cost ruled that out. I went into the shop fully prepared to walk away with a Tonemaster, so why didn't I buy one? It sounded fine, but it didn't make me feel like taking it home with me, I didn't fall in love with it, certainly not a £1000's worth of love. To get some drive I had to wind it up a fair bit, but the attenuation click switch on the back was too crude for me (22, 12, 5, 1, 0.5 and 0.2W). To my mind it would have been much better if it was a normal master volume so I could get exactly the right onstage volume. It's twin channel but the reverb and trem only work on one channel, and so I'd still need at least a trem pedal if I wanted to use the full capabilities of the amp, and ideally I was hoping I wouldn't need a pedal for that. The 68 Deluxe seems to be the only version of the Deluxe Reverb that has trem and reverb on both channels. The trem was still noticeably noisy when turned down, in terms of a persistent background "ticking". The sound was OK, but my BluesBaby has a mid tone control as well as treble and bass, plus a "fat" switch" and "blackface" voicing switch...and because it has a master control, I can get the sound I want at whatever volume is appropriate for the venue - The Tonemaster had none of these, and the attenuator just didn't cut it as a substitute for a master control. I've decided to stick with my existing amp, and just bought a T Rex Moller twin drive which allows me to get four different levels of drive from clean to heavily overdriven out of the one channel. I've already got a trem pedal, so no change there.

soma1975 · May 2023

Did you also get rid of your paragraphs?

TimmyO · May 2023

Johnnyseven said:

Has anyone had experience with the Twin and Super Reverb Tone Master? Been thinking about getting something Fender-y with a mid control that I can use at home and gig. Would need to sell my heavy as hell Bassman first though.

@newi123 has the Twin I believe

TimmyO · May 2023

chickenbonejohn said:

HAL9000 said:

TimmyO said:.

I... ...have a general hankering for something in a more traditional format that won’t continually be tempting me to faff with midi or multiple channels.

My preferred way of playing is riding the volume to go between clean and gritty, and pedal for something more obviously ‘lead’

^ This is me. However, rather than going down the ToneMaster route I’ve recently ordered a (yet to arrive) Award-Session 5E3 Extra. It’s essentially a three-knob analogue solid-state amp - tone, volume, and master so no faffing necessary. I tried one out recently at a local blues jam and was impressed enough to place an order when I got home.

I recently got rid of a handwired Fender 75 combo (way too heavy for me at about 70 pounds) and a Sessionette 75 which had been my regular gigging amp for years. I put a Session BluesBaby 22, into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe cabinet that was given to me, and to me it sounded better than the Sessionette, so that's why I sold the Sessionette. As the Blues Baby is a single channel amp, and I use variety of sounds during my live work, from clean thru' to moderate overdrive, I wondered if I might be better having a two channel amp, so I too developed a hankering for the Deluxe Reverb Tonemaster after reading and watching lots of reviews. The two channels, light weight, plus trem and reverb seemed to tick all the boxes. After trying one (the blonde version) I'm cured of that hankering. It's a nice amp, and I did compare it at the same time to a handwired Deluxe Reverb, just in case that might have swayed me into getting a heavier and all-valve amp again...but the weight and cost ruled that out. I went into the shop fully prepared to walk away with a Tonemaster, so why didn't I buy one? It sounded fine, but it didn't make me feel like taking it home with me, I didn't fall in love with it, certainly not a £1000's worth of love. To get some drive I had to wind it up a fair bit, but the attenuation click switch on the back was too crude for me (22, 12, 5, 1, 0.5 and 0.2W). To my mind it would have been much better if it was a normal master volume so I could get exactly the right onstage volume. It's twin channel but the reverb and trem only work on one channel, and so I'd still need at least a trem pedal if I wanted to use the full capabilities of the amp, and ideally I was hoping I wouldn't need a pedal for that. The 68 Deluxe seems to be the only version of the Deluxe Reverb that has trem and reverb on both channels. The trem was still noticeably noisy when turned down, in terms of a persistent background "ticking". The sound was OK, but my BluesBaby has a mid tone control as well as treble and bass, plus a "fat" switch" and "blackface" voicing switch...and because it has a master control, I can get the sound I want at whatever volume is appropriate for the venue - The Tonemaster had none of these, and the attenuator just didn't cut it as a substitute for a master control. I've decided to stick with my existing amp, and just bought a T Rex Moller twin drive which allows me to get four different levels of drive from clean to heavily overdriven out of the one channel. I've already got a trem pedal, so no change there.

I honestly don't think I'd think of a DR as a "2 channel amp" in that "you have 2 songs on tap to switch between" way - more that you can choose which of the 2 you want to use, then use that one channel.

I've heard a couple of good things about the Award Session amps but there's no way I'd buy one blind (deaf?) - it may well be my loss but I can't see me going that route.

dazzajl · May 2023

Johnnyseven said:

Has anyone had experience with the Twin and Super Reverb Tone Master? Been thinking about getting something Fender-y with a mid control that I can use at home and gig. Would need to sell my heavy as hell Bassman first though.

I’ve had the Super Reverb for a few days and the jury is still out on whether it’s going to be a long term love or not. It’s an amazingly easy carry for any amp of its volume ability, let alone a 4x10. So that’s a massive win just there.

Whether the sound is for you or not gets a bit more complicated and depends on what you like from a big Fender. It does break up and it’s not unpleasant when it does at all but it’s nowhere near the sound of a hot running Tweed. At around 6 on the volume it has a nice edge of break up thing going on when you dig in that I like. On the lowest power setting it sounds shite though, as the speakers really aren’t at the party then, so you’re not going to get that without everyone in your house and next door (if you have one) enjoying it too. That’s still a nice level to be in the room with, you can feel the air move but it’s not going to leave your ears ringing or give you tinnitus.

If you want a really manageable big fender with a huuuuuge sound spread and amazing cleans, this could be your answer.

Fishboy7 · May 2023

I'm curious to try one. Might make a good living room amp.

Power-Beef · May 2023

Jalapeno said:

Princeton, with a pine rather than MDF cab and a neo speaker for your delectation - give Rift a call ...

And @Modulus_Amps too.

markslade07 · May 2023

I’ve got the Twin at the min, which I used for the last few gigs of 2022 before I packed the band in. I liked it and used it mainly as a clean pedal platform with fairly budget multi fx. I got the Twin rather than the Deluxe as at the time I fancied a 2x12 for something different to anything I’d had before. It certainly worked well for me, and sounded pretty good to my ears, and being lightweight was a massive benefit for a gigging amp.

As I don’t gig currently, I’m contemplating selling it as it’s just taking up room and getting something smaller (maybe the TMDR), but I’d definitely have one again if needed. Would love to try the Super one day, but just for shits and giggles rather than any need for a 4x10!

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Tonemaster hankering (now successfully hankered)

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