Opinions on Fender Tonemasters?

Re: Opinions on Fender Tonemasters?

What do you know about these things? wWhat should they be used for? How much would they usually cost?

I've not had the pleasure of playing through one but I've usually heard glowing things about them from friends & in reviews. They were designed by Bruce Zinky who built many of Fenders' best amp designs from the 90's http://www.zinky.com/archives.html & I know Jimmy Page used one (in tandem with an AC-30) when he played with the black crowes.

they used to go for about 1800-2000 brand new

there's many user reviews @ http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar+Amp/product/Fender/Tone+Master/10/1

I hope that helps, now rawk!:headbang:
 
Re: Opinions on Fender Tonemasters?

one loud ass 100w amp

a few of my friends have had or still have one. they sound nice clean, kinda twin like but no reverb. the dirty channel is really good for a fender. doesnt quite have the bite of a marshall but its got a good amount of gain.
 
Re: Opinions on Fender Tonemasters?

I know that for the first two albums/tours (at least on tour, don't know about on the album) Johnny Lang was using a Tonemaster for his tours so I'd say they can definitely do the blues/rock thing (the Jimmy Page w/ the Crowes story only validates this further) :)
 
Re: Opinions on Fender Tonemasters?

I will agrree with Jeremy on this one...cleans are that are not quite Twin and crunch that is not quite Marshall...great amps to be honest, and one of the loudest 100 watters I've ever tried.

I never saw Johnny Lang with them nor did I know that Page was using them but Joe Perry has had one in his backline since they came out...
 
Re: Opinions on Fender Tonemasters?

When the Fender CS amps came out, I was eager to like them, and ended up liking the Tonemaster the least. I like the high headroom clean channel, but the OD channel sounds like a Hotrod Deville to me.....far from a good Marshall, Mesa, Peavey gain channel.

I can see why someone would use it for it's cleans, but like most Fenders, the OD sounds best with the master high and gain low....as a boost for the clean channel. Anytime I've heard anyone use that channel as a real gain channel with humbuckers, it's sounded like a rat's nest. For example, Ritchie Sambora used them for a tour, and it was the worst he's ever sounded, IMO. As soon as he went back to Marshall or Diezel, he sounded great again.

From what I've seen, almost everyone who bought a Tonemaster either sold it, or doesn't use it as a main amp. I do see a lot of Vibrokings and Vibroverbs though.
 
Re: Opinions on Fender Tonemasters?

I will agrree with Jeremy on this one...cleans are that are not quite Twin and crunch that is not quite Marshall...great amps to be honest, and one of the loudest 100 watters I've ever tried.

I never saw Johnny Lang with them nor did I know that Page was using them but Joe Perry has had one in his backline since they came out...


when I saw Johnny Lang after this second major label album came out (Wander this World). He had the head sitting in a case and the 4x12 cab pointed straight up into the air I guess to keep stage volume down. He had a great tone through one, but he used the clean channel I'm fairly certain with a Z Vex SHO pushing it into overdrive
 
Re: Opinions on Fender Tonemasters?

when I saw Johnny Lang after this second major label album came out (Wander this World). He had the head sitting in a case and the 4x12 cab pointed straight up into the air I guess to keep stage volume down. He had a great tone through one, but he used the clean channel I'm fairly certain with a Z Vex SHO pushing it into overdrive

Cool deal!

I saw Johnny about a week or so after Lie to Me came out and he was running 2 Vibrokings on stage...had a Klon pushing it a bit more and sounded KILLER!
 
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