I have the Black Tone Master Deluxe Reverb, overall I'm very happy with how it handles pedals. One thing people should bear in mind is, the point of overdrive pedals was to achieve overdrive at lower volumes. With the TM, I find that there is a temptation to make full use of the attenuator feature to get a bit more drive from the amp, but then when you step on your pedals it can produce less than desirable results. Sometimes (depending on what I'm playing) I need to have some self-discipline and restraint with the amount of attenuation being used, reduce the volume knob level to have the amp running a bit cleaner, then let the pedals do the heavy lifting. That's the point where it all works really well together, stacking gain pedals and your delay/trem/reverb pedals are still behaving themselves. Use the available headroom to your advantage and give the amp room to breathe with the pedals running into it. Something that you don't need to think about with the valve version.
Whether it’s a tube amp with an attenuator or something like this tonemaster what you’re talking about is really important and a pretty delicate balance. When I’ve tried the Tonemaster it still seemed pretty tricky to use the attenuation to dial in heavy amp breakup at just the right room volume.
@@TheBenb1999 Absolutely, and the more you attenuate, the more difficult it becomes. There is a greater perception in change in volume when going from the 0.2W to the 0.5W setting than say from 12W to the full 22W. If I want the sound of the amp breaking up, I turn up the amp volume and attenuate down to suit, I generally ignore pedals (or maybe have something like the Tumnus at basically minimum gain). If I'm in a pedal mood, I'd rarely set the volume above 3 or 4 (depending on how much pedal gain I want, or how many pedals I'm going to stack together) and use the minimum amount of attenuation I can get away with. Usually there is a balance to be had, you just have to find what works with your pedal. Keeping the bass low is also a must the more you start pushing things, I'm often at 2 or 3.
This is excellent advice! Same experience with the Roland Blues Cube range, use the headroom available from less attenuated settings and be thoughtful about the effects of gain stacking or setting pedals above unity gain/volume
I thought I'd check out the Tone Master Deluxe in Blonde with some pedals and the results of this test are pretty much the same irrespective of which tone master you own. I've said for a while that it struggles with a clean boost so I've thrown it into the mix. Timestamps and links below. 0:00 - Unboxing, Overview, & Disclaimer 0:57 - Jam Track 3:10 - Tube Screamer & Delay (Kiesel) 6:02 - Klon-Style Overdrive (Telecaster) 8:12 - TS & Klon (Gibson) 8:48 - Dumble Pedal (Stratocaster) 9:40 - Volume Boost Pedal 12:16 - Overview of Tests - ►Sky Music - alnk.to/caWNUWD ►Sweetwater (USA) - imp.i114863.net/FenderTMDeluxe ►Thomann (Global) - bit.ly/34JX81e ►Amazon UK - amzn.to/2Kbgva9 ►Amazon Canada - amzn.to/3aihBeL (affiliate links)
Excellent guide for the ToneMaster series of amps! I appreciate the tips with multiple types of pedals through this ToneMaster DL and how best to set them up. These amps are a different beast and the approach to creating certain tones also have to be adjusted compared to their tube counterparts. Cheers Shane!🎸🎸🎸
I've only had one overdrive pedal that sounded good through the TM amps to this day, and that was the Wampler Belle. I have tried dozens upon dozens of them as well. Some work better than others, but for whatever reason it's been the Belle as the only pedal that actually sounded convincing without the grainy weird stuff that usually happens with overdrives into SS amps. As for people opting for the Deluxe over the Twin tone master, I cannot recommend the Twin enough. It is loads better in tone than the deluxe. It sounds way fuller, only weighs a few more lbs, takes pedals better, and can still be dropped down to 1w for bedroom use. I also feel that it sounds especially better with fuzz pedals than the deluxe.
Update: I have found a FANTASTIC OD pedal for these amp. The EQD Crimson Drive. They are kinda hard to find, but after someone recommended I try one because if how well it works with blackface amps, I was legitimately blown away. It's just like a overdriving a tube Fender. Exactly the same sound. So open and transparent with zero coloring or weird artifacts coming from the tonemaster.
Update 2: OK, one more drive pedal that is pretty glorious with the TM Twin. And it's probably not very surprising, but it's the Prince of Tone. Changing the switches to low mids mode and also dialing back the mini pot inside all the way is where it's at. I imagine the King of Tone is probably just as good.
I’m curious if you own the original model or the Blonde version? I own the blonde version and I have yet to find a pedal that doesn’t sound good through it. I am a huge pedal user and every single thing that I have on my board, 13 pedals in all, sounds great through this thing and I’ve been gigging it that way for a while. The Celestion Neocreamback is a phenomenal speaker for pedals.
@@jschwam1307 i own the blonde TM and gig 1 to 3 times a week using the helix effects only not modeling and i love this amp and i'm a tube snob. No more lugging around a deville or hot rod deluxe. at 24 lbs. my back loves it to.
I have the same amp and tried different OD pedals I had lying around- the OCD-Ge and cheapo Joyo American Sound both work beautifully with this amp. In fact I did a gig the other night, amp miked through a big PA and the sound was killer.
@@stevep1941 Fantastic! Yeah I'm really impressed with this amp especially for home use. I just did a shoot-out of the Boss Blues Driver, the Keeley D&M Drive and the Rowin Dumbler and all three sounded killer through it, especially with the attenuator all the way down and the volume cranked for break up.
@@astewart9410 Yeah, to me, it sounds best with the attenuator down to the lowest setting . I use it with my Les Paul on channel 2 and it is just killer sounding . sounds like the real deal with amp break up.
I’ve been using TM Deluxe Reverb for about 2 years now. It’s great! I turn the attenuator up full and use Fulltone OCD for high gain tones. It’s freakin’ LOUD, too! I have the black version. My ears are bad so I probably couldn’t tell the difference with the blonde upgrades. HA‼️🤪
Thanks for this. I’ve had a blonde TMDR for about a week and so far I’m pretty disappointed. I found it way too mellow and compressed with the factory firmware settings. Flashing to restore the bright cap helped with clean tones but added a hard to control fizz to overdrive pedals. Overall the amp is not very lively or dynamic and has honestly been a pretty big letdown, especially for the price.
I was excited to get the TM last year, but it underwhelmed me, and didn't gel with me at a couple of gigs I did. I now have a Roland Blues Cube Stage which is a better sounding amp IMHO
Same here! Blonde tone master deluxe reverb, very mellow and dull. Strange frequency in the low mids. I try many pedals, muff style pedal sounds OK, distortion kinda ok, but dull and lifeless. Overdrive pedal meh. very disappointed. This amp sounds nothing like a real blackface, no sparkling highs, no sweet and layback mids. All you got is mellow, like blanket over my head.
It certainly handles pedals very well but it is an emulation not the real deal so some adjustments have to be made and results will be a little different. That being said it is an excellent amp and totally suitable for pro use performing or recording.
I’ve got a black Tonemaster Deluxe that’s been on the old firmware, new firmware and now on the Blonde firmware with a neo cream speaker swapped in. I largely chalked up any fussiness with pedals to just being different amps liking different pedals. The Jensen version played very well with a Tumnus and loved a Hotcake dialled to be a bit TS flavoured, especially with single coil guitars involved. Going to cream speaker and it now loves the boost from my milkman delay, sweet honey overdrive and my humbucker guitars more. Each pedal I’ve introduced at any point has just felt like it’s just a case of dialling in around your rig and adjusting the signal path wherever needed including which amp channel, input 1 or 2 etc
This is exactly what i'm going through at the moment - to switch or not to switch to the creamback! the cost of the speaker is about $275 which is fairly affordable but is it going to be the solution to my perceived problems with the black. Cleans are great but suprisingly aren't as nice as the clean tones I get from a Fender SuperXD 15w tube amp we have in the same room. My real issues is in pedals, and i've updated the firmware to remove the bright cap, I find the TS mini pedal sounds like an AM radio and the Tumnus can on any given day sound a bit muffled to me. Like your comments on dialing in the EQ, I'm also now running attenuation at 12W instead of something ridiculously low, i'm also going into input 2 instead of 1, I think it does sound better but how are you finding the Celstion G12 Neo several months on since you swapped it in? any regrets or further thoughts?
Some Tone Master stuff I've come across with my twin - Pedals sound better in the #2 inputs normal or vibrato. The blond/black software can be interchanged in the amps. I'm running the blond software in my black face. There are instructions and code files downloadable at Fender.com. Easy to do and fun to experiment. I'm also trying different speakers. Right now I'm running a EVM12L- 8 paired with a Fat Jimmy C1270 -8 Warehouse from Vintage Fender Amp Repair. Sounds glorious! But, I'm going to swap the Fat Jimmy for a Celestion Gold - 8 because... tone is everything and I gotta know. Cheers for another great video and thanks!
I have a TM Deluxe Reverb and a cheap Chinese King of Tone clone. I think it sounds incredible. The Tube Screamer is also quite good. The Tone Master sounds a bit scooped in the mids, and the TS totally fixes that. I have an OCD clone that sounded good on my other amps, but think it is really bad with my TMDR.
I want to add that I enjoy using one side of the KoT as a clean boost. I really really like like the sound of the natural OD of the amp + the bit of color I get from the pedal. I was completely blown away by how good it sounded.
Shane nice honest review. Maybe you should try the Katana Clean Boost. I really like that pedal the best. It really works well with my other Keeley and OBNE pedals.
Great demo Shane ! The amp sounds great and I like the look, but Your playing is AMAZING ! Blues On....💙 PS Maybe you can explain something to me, I hope. Why don't all new amps come with a FX Loop ?
@@eltacoslayer It sounds fantastic, I like it more and more, but it's just my opinion. I have stopped using my analog pedals. Of course, the Tone Master without pedals, also sounds great!
Man when you kicked on that klon it sounded tasty! These amps seem to take pedals pretty well for digital boys. That v never ceases to impress either, you really scored a beauty with that one!
Believe it or not, the Big Muff Pi sounds absolutely amazing on it. You can get ZZ Top blues. If you just use the Wicker switch, it sounds really full and round, depending on your settings. I own one now. Yeah bro, this thing sounds great. Oh, and I hear a side by side with this amp and a tube 65. The only thing, after a certain setting on the 65's reverb is usable. On the Blonde, crank it to 10 and that is the setting of where it is the last stage of unusable on the 65. I know you only had a fee days with it. But I have had it now for a month. You need to tweak both pedal and amp settings settings. The clean boost is no problem for me. You need to start low and adjust from there. I don't know if I got the "good one off the line", but I put it up to a tube amp and it sounded like a tube amp. I mean a breaths hair under, but man, that close to a 65 reissue or the Blonde, Blonde all day brother
I wish you would have done a full review of that particular tone master. It is different from the original and you have not done a demo on that yet. So an actual run through 1st before the pedals would have been spot on. But that being said, I had just purchased that amp and it is coming in today. Lol. So thanks for the tease to add to my waiting. 🤣
@@intheblues yes I can hear little bits and pieces in between, but having you play around a bit more with the EQ setting a little bit would be more helpful. Especially some good soloing riffs with the volume up a bit. You will find that amp is way different than the original. Thanks to the Celestion pushing the mids a bit more. As you can tell, I'm still waiting for my delivery 😆
If you want the sound of the blonde TM Deluxe Reverb and already own the BF TM Deluxe Reverb, you can simply download the firmware update from Fender and apply it to your BF TM. That will give you the sound.
I have a Thorpy Heavy Water boost, it does a similar almost overly saturated sound with anything Solid state. Too scared to try my guitars mid boost with the pedal too. I havn't had time to try it with my Bantamp Bluejay yet. Fingers crossed the valve preamp handles it better.
Ironically, i like sound of the clean boost in your recording the best. Just seemed a bit higher clarity and that elusive "juiciness" that is missing from more muddied-up TS-style pedals. Suggestion: try Xotic's "Super Clean" as a booster ... may work even better, since that pedal has those dip switches that can adjust frequencies.
That thing sounds really great! Speaking of different guitars, would love to see a semi hollow comparison, something like a classic vibe thinline vs the Gretsch g2622 vs a 335 style might be interesting, not many channels hitting the affordable semi hollow market, Surely sky music could hook you up 😬
Well...I've had mine for 5 days now. After coming home from work daily, thus far, I've really not had a good opportunity to get to know the amp. I've only run it at 12w so far and that's loud!!! I wonder if the bright cap firmware would address the issue you speak of with your clean boost? Not applicable to me, I don't have such a pedal. But, I do use fuzz, which I know you typically don't use. Would be interesting to know how some of them play through this amp. I often find that fuzz pedals are the most sensitive of any pedal and can really 'play up' if not set up properly. Enjoyed this demo Shane, was to the point and covered plenty of territory. Not to mention you didn't go down the comparitive path & looked at the amp on its own merits. 😎 Cheers. 🎸🎸🎸
At the start I thought you were gonna play Superstition! That amp sounds really good, however, pushing it with that boost, seemed to cause some low end clip in it that a valve Fender would not get! Digital pre prob didn't quite know WHAT to do with such a HOT signal coming in!
Hey Shane! Can you update the firmware on the original deluxe reverb tone master and compare it with the blonde deluxe reverb. There's simply no videos on UA-cam doing it.
I'm a bit surrprised by how much the strat washed on of the mix on the opening tune, it just got buried in the mix completely! Also, the Johnny Hiland guitar lost a lot of definition when you added reverb, perhaps the on board reverb needs to be kept on a shorter leash...?? Otherwise the amp sounded good with everything else.
Would the black panel TM deluxe sound more or less like the blonde version if I swapped a neo creamback speaker in and uploaded the blonde firmware to it?
I have swapped my black panel to the celestion neo and changed the firmware to the blonde version. It makes the amp exactly the same as the blonde and definitely sounds different. I like it because the celestion speaker sounds better for blues and rock when it breaks up. The Jensen sounds pretty good though, especially clean. I can always swap back but for now I’ll leave it alone. However, I think the firmware change is a must. It makes the reverb, tremolo, and treble much better for either speaker.
I’m hoping somebody maybe able to help. I managed to get the tonemaster deluxe and overall I’m very happy with it. I have upgraded the firmware to remove the bright cap and tame the reverb. So it is better. But I know I can switch out the speaker for a celestion and update the firmware to the blonde version. So it’s exactly the same except just black not blonde. Does the blonde with pedals sound much better? I’m predominantly a pedal guy so am I better switching to the celestion ? What are peoples thoughts ?
I had the Twin reverb blone tonemaster for less than a week. Cleans were pretty good for solid state, but just not worth the price, even with a $100 discount I got. I used a blues driver and grunge pedal and both sounded pretty bad. Both pedals actually sounded better on my 30 watt solid state marshall that was no more than $300. I ended up returning it for a Marshall dsl40cr and I spent less and am way more satisfied.
It’s the ultimate CLEAN amp, for christsakes. Grunge pedal, & Marshall amp tells me, YOU chose the wrong amp for you. Don’t blame this incredibly genius invention for not having di
Well, by Electrical Engineering, absolutely NO, it can not. Can it sound good, if not great, sure! The video's tone were great, as well as the playing. Just because electrical circuits don't interact the same, doesn't mean you won't enjoy the amp and pedals. Thank goodness the real world isn't a binary choice on in a sea of options.
I can’t believe how much Fender is charging for a digital modeling amp with no options on it. Fender’s got some brass balls that’s for sure. Doesn’t sound any better than your Fender mustang 3 with that swamp thang speaker in it.
Fender ToneMaster Deluxe, Twin, and Super’s main competition is: Fender Tube Deluxe, Twin, and Super Reverb. Their pricing team use a lot of effort, time, and subtlety, choosing what to charge, still make profits, AND not wreck other of their product’s sales. It’s cheap & easy to say Fender “charges too much” for the Tonemaster series amps. It’s a free and open capitalist market, anyone can compete with them if they believe they can build a better,Deluxe, Twin, or Super clone and price them for less.
@@rickthomas393 lol I don’t need another company to make a better version. Fender did it already with the mustang 3,4&5. I’ve played the real deal tubes amps and the digital modeling versions and with a great speaker it’s 95% there. The sound is 100% there and the only thing missing is a lil of the “feel”. Overall, I bought a mustang 3 for practice and the 5 for gigs. I put two swamp thangs and two Texas heats in the 4x12 and shyyyyyt the only way I could sniff a difference is if you played it cuz u won’t hear it. Both amps, 5 speakers, and the 4x12 on the used market cost me about 200 bucks LESS than this thing does new. Cheers
I have the Blonde Deluxe. The Klon clone, Ernie Ball high gain pedal, and a light gain pedal all sounds really good through it. It looks like you may want to start adjusting your EQs on your pedals and amp. Because I have no problems with mine. Seems to me like a lot of you that "play" through them and have "problems" seems to be that 1, you didn't download the patch to take the digital bright off or 2 just place you pedals on as is from the last amp you put it on and just start whaling away thinking you will get the same results. Problem. You need to adjust. Everything. Like I said, it works very well on mine
Why would you get it if you were not going to use pedals. You’re not having any versatility just cranking this amp. I would leave after two songs your tone wad would be shot
I have the Black Tone Master Deluxe Reverb, overall I'm very happy with how it handles pedals. One thing people should bear in mind is, the point of overdrive pedals was to achieve overdrive at lower volumes. With the TM, I find that there is a temptation to make full use of the attenuator feature to get a bit more drive from the amp, but then when you step on your pedals it can produce less than desirable results. Sometimes (depending on what I'm playing) I need to have some self-discipline and restraint with the amount of attenuation being used, reduce the volume knob level to have the amp running a bit cleaner, then let the pedals do the heavy lifting. That's the point where it all works really well together, stacking gain pedals and your delay/trem/reverb pedals are still behaving themselves. Use the available headroom to your advantage and give the amp room to breathe with the pedals running into it. Something that you don't need to think about with the valve version.
Whether it’s a tube amp with an attenuator or something like this tonemaster what you’re talking about is really important and a pretty delicate balance. When I’ve tried the Tonemaster it still seemed pretty tricky to use the attenuation to dial in heavy amp breakup at just the right room volume.
@@TheBenb1999 Absolutely, and the more you attenuate, the more difficult it becomes. There is a greater perception in change in volume when going from the 0.2W to the 0.5W setting than say from 12W to the full 22W. If I want the sound of the amp breaking up, I turn up the amp volume and attenuate down to suit, I generally ignore pedals (or maybe have something like the Tumnus at basically minimum gain). If I'm in a pedal mood, I'd rarely set the volume above 3 or 4 (depending on how much pedal gain I want, or how many pedals I'm going to stack together) and use the minimum amount of attenuation I can get away with. Usually there is a balance to be had, you just have to find what works with your pedal. Keeping the bass low is also a must the more you start pushing things, I'm often at 2 or 3.
This is excellent advice! Same experience with the Roland Blues Cube range, use the headroom available from less attenuated settings and be thoughtful about the effects of gain stacking or setting pedals above unity gain/volume
Very well said, laddie. 🍀🎸🍀
A word fitly spoken. Timely too.
I thought I'd check out the Tone Master Deluxe in Blonde with some pedals and the results of this test are pretty much the same irrespective of which tone master you own. I've said for a while that it struggles with a clean boost so I've thrown it into the mix. Timestamps and links below.
0:00 - Unboxing, Overview, & Disclaimer
0:57 - Jam Track
3:10 - Tube Screamer & Delay (Kiesel)
6:02 - Klon-Style Overdrive (Telecaster)
8:12 - TS & Klon (Gibson)
8:48 - Dumble Pedal (Stratocaster)
9:40 - Volume Boost Pedal
12:16 - Overview of Tests
-
►Sky Music - alnk.to/caWNUWD
►Sweetwater (USA) - imp.i114863.net/FenderTMDeluxe
►Thomann (Global) - bit.ly/34JX81e
►Amazon UK - amzn.to/2Kbgva9
►Amazon Canada - amzn.to/3aihBeL
(affiliate links)
So you don’t have the Tonemaster Twin anymore?.
Excellent guide for the ToneMaster series of amps! I appreciate the tips with multiple types of pedals through this ToneMaster DL and how best to set them up. These amps are a different beast and the approach to creating certain tones also have to be adjusted compared to their tube counterparts. Cheers Shane!🎸🎸🎸
I've only had one overdrive pedal that sounded good through the TM amps to this day, and that was the Wampler Belle. I have tried dozens upon dozens of them as well. Some work better than others, but for whatever reason it's been the Belle as the only pedal that actually sounded convincing without the grainy weird stuff that usually happens with overdrives into SS amps.
As for people opting for the Deluxe over the Twin tone master, I cannot recommend the Twin enough. It is loads better in tone than the deluxe. It sounds way fuller, only weighs a few more lbs, takes pedals better, and can still be dropped down to 1w for bedroom use. I also feel that it sounds especially better with fuzz pedals than the deluxe.
Update: I have found a FANTASTIC OD pedal for these amp. The EQD Crimson Drive. They are kinda hard to find, but after someone recommended I try one because if how well it works with blackface amps, I was legitimately blown away. It's just like a overdriving a tube Fender. Exactly the same sound. So open and transparent with zero coloring or weird artifacts coming from the tonemaster.
Update 2: OK, one more drive pedal that is pretty glorious with the TM Twin. And it's probably not very surprising, but it's the Prince of Tone. Changing the switches to low mids mode and also dialing back the mini pot inside all the way is where it's at. I imagine the King of Tone is probably just as good.
I’m curious if you own the original model or the Blonde version? I own the blonde version and I have yet to find a pedal that doesn’t sound good through it. I am a huge pedal user and every single thing that I have on my board, 13 pedals in all, sounds great through this thing and I’ve been gigging it that way for a while. The Celestion Neocreamback is a phenomenal speaker for pedals.
@@jschwam1307 i own the blonde TM and gig 1 to 3 times a week using the helix effects only not modeling and i love this amp and i'm a tube snob. No more lugging around a deville or hot rod deluxe. at 24 lbs. my back loves it to.
I have the blonde TM DR and it takes all my pedals perfectly. Fuzz, overdrive, delay, reverb, you name it. Great stuff!
I have the same amp and tried different OD pedals I had lying around- the OCD-Ge and cheapo Joyo American Sound both work beautifully with this amp. In fact I did a gig the other night, amp miked through a big PA and the sound was killer.
@@stevep1941 Fantastic! Yeah I'm really impressed with this amp especially for home use. I just did a shoot-out of the Boss Blues Driver, the Keeley D&M Drive and the Rowin Dumbler and all three sounded killer through it, especially with the attenuator all the way down and the volume cranked for break up.
@@astewart9410 Yeah, to me, it sounds best with the attenuator down to the lowest setting . I use it with my Les Paul on channel 2 and it is just killer sounding . sounds like the real deal with amp break up.
@@sixslinger9951 I'm curious the difference you find between 1 and 2 on the Vibrato inputs? Truth to tell, I always just plug into Vibrato 1.
@@astewart9410 other than volume, the break up is better on Vibrato 2 when using humbuckers.
I’ve been using TM Deluxe Reverb for about 2 years now. It’s great! I turn the attenuator up full and use Fulltone OCD for high gain tones. It’s freakin’ LOUD, too! I have the black version. My ears are bad so I probably couldn’t tell the difference with the blonde upgrades. HA‼️🤪
Tumnus into a walrus Ages has given me every tone I’ve ever wanted out of my Deluxe TM
So we have the 4x10, a twin, and two different speakers with single 12s. For weight, for something light this one here is DOPE. Excellent demos Shane!
all J. Rockett overdrives work fine with the black TMDL. Specially with a strat and an EL Hombre... 😘👍
I enjoyed your playing and demo. It's good to know this Tone Master Deluxe Reverb amp takes most pedals well.
This is the one I have, looking forward to the difference with the twin!
Thanks for this. I’ve had a blonde TMDR for about a week and so far I’m pretty disappointed. I found it way too mellow and compressed with the factory firmware settings. Flashing to restore the bright cap helped with clean tones but added a hard to control fizz to overdrive pedals. Overall the amp is not very lively or dynamic and has honestly been a pretty big letdown, especially for the price.
I was excited to get the TM last year, but it underwhelmed me, and didn't gel with me at a couple of gigs I did. I now have a Roland Blues Cube Stage which is a better sounding amp IMHO
Same here! Blonde tone master deluxe reverb, very mellow and dull. Strange frequency in the low mids. I try many pedals, muff style pedal sounds OK, distortion kinda ok, but dull and lifeless. Overdrive pedal meh. very disappointed. This amp sounds nothing like a real blackface, no sparkling highs, no sweet and layback mids. All you got is mellow, like blanket over my head.
You have done well....better than most. But there is one thing you lack: unleash the Metal Zone!
Loved the little jam at the front of the video. Had a Mark Knopfler kind of vibe to it. Thanks for all the great content over the years!!
A ”Tonemaster 2” series featuring an FX loop and headphone out would clean up in the bedroom/home studio market.
Totally agree. Been waiting for that myself.
And also a Tone Master Bassman 59
It certainly handles pedals very well but it is an emulation not the real deal so some adjustments have to be made and results will be a little different. That being said it is an excellent amp and totally suitable for pro use performing or recording.
I’ve got a black Tonemaster Deluxe that’s been on the old firmware, new firmware and now on the Blonde firmware with a neo cream speaker swapped in. I largely chalked up any fussiness with pedals to just being different amps liking different pedals. The Jensen version played very well with a Tumnus and loved a Hotcake dialled to be a bit TS flavoured, especially with single coil guitars involved. Going to cream speaker and it now loves the boost from my milkman delay, sweet honey overdrive and my humbucker guitars more.
Each pedal I’ve introduced at any point has just felt like it’s just a case of dialling in around your rig and adjusting the signal path wherever needed including which amp channel, input 1 or 2 etc
This is exactly what i'm going through at the moment - to switch or not to switch to the creamback! the cost of the speaker is about $275 which is fairly affordable but is it going to be the solution to my perceived problems with the black. Cleans are great but suprisingly aren't as nice as the clean tones I get from a Fender SuperXD 15w tube amp we have in the same room. My real issues is in pedals, and i've updated the firmware to remove the bright cap, I find the TS mini pedal sounds like an AM radio and the Tumnus can on any given day sound a bit muffled to me. Like your comments on dialing in the EQ, I'm also now running attenuation at 12W instead of something ridiculously low, i'm also going into input 2 instead of 1, I think it does sound better but how are you finding the Celstion G12 Neo several months on since you swapped it in? any regrets or further thoughts?
Some Tone Master stuff I've come across with my twin - Pedals sound better in the #2 inputs normal or vibrato. The blond/black software can be interchanged in the amps. I'm running the blond software in my black face. There are instructions and code files downloadable at Fender.com. Easy to do and fun to experiment. I'm also trying different speakers. Right now I'm running a EVM12L- 8 paired with a Fat Jimmy C1270 -8 Warehouse from Vintage Fender Amp Repair. Sounds glorious! But, I'm going to swap the Fat Jimmy for a Celestion Gold - 8 because... tone is everything and I gotta know. Cheers for another great video and thanks!
I have a TM Deluxe Reverb and a cheap Chinese King of Tone clone. I think it sounds incredible. The Tube Screamer is also quite good. The Tone Master sounds a bit scooped in the mids, and the TS totally fixes that. I have an OCD clone that sounded good on my other amps, but think it is really bad with my TMDR.
I want to add that I enjoy using one side of the KoT as a clean boost. I really really like like the sound of the natural OD of the amp + the bit of color I get from the pedal. I was completely blown away by how good it sounded.
Good to know. I have a king of tone on the way to me and just ordered a TMDR to use it with🙌
Shane nice honest review. Maybe you should try the Katana Clean Boost. I really like that pedal the best. It really works well with my other Keeley and OBNE pedals.
Great demo Shane ! The amp sounds great and I like the look, but Your playing is AMAZING !
Blues On....💙 PS Maybe you can explain something to me, I hope. Why don't all new amps come with a FX Loop ?
Try it with a HX Effects, it's simply amazing. I think it's one of the best amps around now (I have the black one). Great demo as always!
Do you like the sound of the hx effects drives more?
@@eltacoslayer It sounds fantastic, I like it more and more, but it's just my opinion. I have stopped using my analog pedals. Of course, the Tone Master without pedals, also sounds great!
THANK YOU SKY MUSIC !
Phenomenal playing as always! I was jammin out 😎
Can't wait for the Tone Master Tweed amps, right Fender?
BTW, love that Maxon Apex! Man, that's a nice TS.
Man when you kicked on that klon it sounded tasty! These amps seem to take pedals pretty well for digital boys. That v never ceases to impress either, you really scored a beauty with that one!
Believe it or not, the Big Muff Pi sounds absolutely amazing on it. You can get ZZ Top blues. If you just use the Wicker switch, it sounds really full and round, depending on your settings. I own one now. Yeah bro, this thing sounds great. Oh, and I hear a side by side with this amp and a tube 65. The only thing, after a certain setting on the 65's reverb is usable. On the Blonde, crank it to 10 and that is the setting of where it is the last stage of unusable on the 65. I know you only had a fee days with it. But I have had it now for a month. You need to tweak both pedal and amp settings settings. The clean boost is no problem for me. You need to start low and adjust from there. I don't know if I got the "good one off the line", but I put it up to a tube amp and it sounded like a tube amp. I mean a breaths hair under, but man, that close to a 65 reissue or the Blonde, Blonde all day brother
I wish you would have done a full review of that particular tone master. It is different from the original and you have not done a demo on that yet. So an actual run through 1st before the pedals would have been spot on. But that being said, I had just purchased that amp and it is coming in today. Lol. So thanks for the tease to add to my waiting. 🤣
You should be able to hear what I can do :) It's a great little amp.
@@intheblues yes I can hear little bits and pieces in between, but having you play around a bit more with the EQ setting a little bit would be more helpful. Especially some good soloing riffs with the volume up a bit. You will find that amp is way different than the original. Thanks to the Celestion pushing the mids a bit more. As you can tell, I'm still waiting for my delivery 😆
If you want the sound of the blonde TM Deluxe Reverb and already own the BF TM Deluxe Reverb, you can simply download the firmware update from Fender and apply it to your BF TM. That will give you the sound.
@@TucsonBillD I don't own the TM original. Also, the original has a Jensen speaker not a Celestion.
I have a Thorpy Heavy Water boost, it does a similar almost overly saturated sound with anything Solid state.
Too scared to try my guitars mid boost with the pedal too.
I havn't had time to try it with my Bantamp Bluejay yet. Fingers crossed the valve preamp handles it better.
Ironically, i like sound of the clean boost in your recording the best. Just seemed a bit higher clarity and that elusive "juiciness" that is missing from more muddied-up TS-style pedals. Suggestion: try Xotic's "Super Clean" as a booster ... may work even better, since that pedal has those dip switches that can adjust frequencies.
If you listen on good speakers there's a really unwelcome overtone going on in the sound that comes and goes.
That thing sounds really great! Speaking of different guitars, would love to see a semi hollow comparison, something like a classic vibe thinline vs the Gretsch g2622 vs a 335 style might be interesting, not many channels hitting the affordable semi hollow market, Surely sky music could hook you up 😬
I have a black and a blonde TM and I go into a VoX Joe Satriani Saturator and split into both amps. Wow Great !
The blonde Tele always impresses me and I’m not a Tele fan. Wow.
Awesome playing Shane...the kiesel is fab
I just got a TM Twin Blonde.. I'm happy with mine.
Well...I've had mine for 5 days now. After coming home from work daily, thus far, I've really not had a good opportunity to get to know the amp. I've only run it at 12w so far and that's loud!!!
I wonder if the bright cap firmware would address the issue you speak of with your clean boost? Not applicable to me, I don't have such a pedal. But, I do use fuzz, which I know you typically don't use. Would be interesting to know how some of them play through this amp. I often find that fuzz pedals are the most sensitive of any pedal and can really 'play up' if not set up properly.
Enjoyed this demo Shane, was to the point and covered plenty of territory. Not to mention you didn't go down the comparitive path & looked at the amp on its own merits. 😎
Cheers. 🎸🎸🎸
At the start I thought you were gonna play Superstition!
That amp sounds really good, however, pushing it with that boost, seemed to cause some low end clip in it that a valve Fender would not get! Digital pre prob didn't quite know WHAT to do with such a HOT signal coming in!
Great Vid Shane.
Also yes. The Klon pedal plus any other freaks out the amp. I think it needs a patch. They will not know it unless we say
Hey Shane! Can you update the firmware on the original deluxe reverb tone master and compare it with the blonde deluxe reverb. There's simply no videos on UA-cam doing it.
You can
HI Shane, witch one do you préfère, the black or blonde one?
I'm interested to own one
Thx✌
What do you like better? This blonde deluxe or the new TM Super?
I'm a bit surrprised by how much the strat washed on of the mix on the opening tune, it just got buried in the mix completely! Also, the Johnny Hiland guitar lost a lot of definition when you added reverb, perhaps the on board reverb needs to be kept on a shorter leash...?? Otherwise the amp sounded good with everything else.
Would the black panel TM deluxe sound more or less like the blonde version if I swapped a neo creamback speaker in and uploaded the blonde firmware to it?
The speaker does make the difference between the two, but it just comes down to which one you like the sound of more.
I have swapped my black panel to the celestion neo and changed the firmware to the blonde version. It makes the amp exactly the same as the blonde and definitely sounds different. I like it because the celestion speaker sounds better for blues and rock when it breaks up. The Jensen sounds pretty good though, especially clean. I can always swap back but for now I’ll leave it alone. However, I think the firmware change is a must. It makes the reverb, tremolo, and treble much better for either speaker.
@@bobatlga1 Thanks Bob, that's pretty much exactly what I plan to do
The amp seems great, but watching this video, my mind drifts to a more burning issue: with that Kiesel be part of the great geat purge of 2021?
I’m hoping somebody maybe able to help. I managed to get the tonemaster deluxe and overall I’m very happy with it. I have upgraded the firmware to remove the bright cap and tame the reverb. So it is better. But I know I can switch out the speaker for a celestion and update the firmware to the blonde version. So it’s exactly the same except just black not blonde.
Does the blonde with pedals sound much better? I’m predominantly a pedal guy so am I better switching to the celestion ?
What are peoples thoughts ?
Is there a bright switch and would that affect what you experienced in terms of having to reset EQ on pedals?
I had the Twin reverb blone tonemaster for less than a week. Cleans were pretty good for solid state, but just not worth the price, even with a $100 discount I got. I used a blues driver and grunge pedal and both sounded pretty bad. Both pedals actually sounded better on my 30 watt solid state marshall that was no more than $300. I ended up returning it for a Marshall dsl40cr and I spent less and am way more satisfied.
It’s the ultimate CLEAN amp, for christsakes. Grunge pedal, & Marshall amp tells me, YOU chose the wrong amp for you. Don’t blame this incredibly genius invention for not having di
@@rickthomas393 Right
Yellow tone~! Very nice^^
Waiting on one of these for the super and a live show
@ᴛᴀᴘ ᴍᴇ ᴀɴᴅ sᴇᴇ Hannah This new tactic is better than spam comments. Still sucks though
nice, thanks
Did she handle pedals like a great tube amp yesiree.
Drive - yes but not great
Fuzz - ehhhh
The Blonde is better than the other one
Well, by Electrical Engineering, absolutely NO, it can not. Can it sound good, if not great, sure! The video's tone were great, as well as the playing. Just because electrical circuits don't interact the same, doesn't mean you won't enjoy the amp and pedals.
Thank goodness the real world isn't a binary choice on in a sea of options.
It is a PC, so what's the durability?
Like a regular computer, 2 max 3 years?🤔
Well the Original Fender Mustang's are still going strong 10 years later.
I can’t believe how much Fender is charging for a digital modeling amp with no options on it. Fender’s got some brass balls that’s for sure. Doesn’t sound any better than your Fender mustang 3 with that swamp thang speaker in it.
Fender ToneMaster Deluxe, Twin, and Super’s main competition is: Fender Tube Deluxe, Twin, and Super Reverb. Their pricing team use a lot of effort, time, and subtlety, choosing what to charge, still make profits, AND not wreck other of their product’s sales. It’s cheap & easy to say Fender “charges too much” for the Tonemaster series amps. It’s a free and open capitalist market, anyone can compete with them if they believe they can build a better,Deluxe, Twin, or Super clone and price them for less.
@@rickthomas393 lol I don’t need another company to make a better version. Fender did it already with the mustang 3,4&5. I’ve played the real deal tubes amps and the digital modeling versions and with a great speaker it’s 95% there. The sound is 100% there and the only thing missing is a lil of the “feel”. Overall, I bought a mustang 3 for practice and the 5 for gigs. I put two swamp thangs and two Texas heats in the 4x12 and shyyyyyt the only way I could sniff a difference is if you played it cuz u won’t hear it. Both amps, 5 speakers, and the 4x12 on the used market cost me about 200 bucks LESS than this thing does new. Cheers
The fox fuzz tone no one who works at the same things that remain the same could be the one......
I can't hear the difference
I have the Blonde Deluxe. The Klon clone, Ernie Ball high gain pedal, and a light gain pedal all sounds really good through it. It looks like you may want to start adjusting your EQs on your pedals and amp. Because I have no problems with mine. Seems to me like a lot of you that "play" through them and have "problems" seems to be that 1, you didn't download the patch to take the digital bright off or 2 just place you pedals on as is from the last amp you put it on and just start whaling away thinking you will get the same results. Problem. You need to adjust. Everything. Like I said, it works very well on mine
Yeah its good for solid state, but its not $1450-good-solid-state.
Says he gonna switch up from strats and tele's.
Plays on a strat/tele-hybrid? . . 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
Why would you get it if you were not going to use pedals. You’re not having any versatility just cranking this amp. I would leave after two songs your tone wad would be shot
Interestingly enough, not everyone uses things the same way you choose to.
My friend, don’t do that to a man. You can’t start your video with the Superstition drums and then go into some kinda grocery shopping tune!
Random comment guy. That's a royalty free backing track. All the best and keep shopping
FYI, the Blonde sounds nothing like the original. Man. You whiffed this opportunity to show off what it can do without the pedals.
seems painful to play real amp for you...
lol. I own 3 tube amps...
@@intheblues Maybe, but you always pinch when it get loud