Now that we have been at this google "best amp" thing for a cope decades

[Spook410]

..future proof boards, ICs.. *How would we upgrade the hardware in an amp anyways? By a new amp altogether, and hopefully recycle old? Or maybe like a PC? Buy a board online, install it and new drivers, attach to internet for bug fixes, etc. and away we go for another next 5 years? I mean, maybe?

The Fender Tonemaster (TM) is a standalone product. More like your toaster than your PC.

There will be more shiny objects coming out. Some with more features. However, that won't keep the TM from working. It only has to interact with an input analog signal. Not a universe of applications looking for compatibility across current software standards.

If a Fender Twin Reverb does everything you want an amp to do, then a Tonemaster provides most of that, has a few more useful features, and weighs 33 pounds. That won't change over time. 30 years from now it will do exactly the same thing it does now.

That being said, none of us know what failure modes will look like. Probably won't be as bullet proof as a point wired tube amp. If it breaks 10 years out, you'll be replacing it. Probably with some new tech as the Luddites lament the good 'ole days when we had Fender TM's and things were simple.

[Bach5G]

Are we still in love with the DV Mark Little Jazz?

[Woodstove]

i saw Larry Carlton play
a gig with his Dumble (main and a spare)
he got lots of different wonderful sounds out of it that night
from super clean to dirty growl and everything in between

i asked his roady after the gig about the setup and it was guitar straight
into the Dumble !

I’m voting Dumble

shame they’re so expensive/unobtainable

While original Dumbles are unobtainable, there are excellent clones. I have the Amplified Nation Overdrive Reverb head with their 12” cab. It is magnificent. The clean channel has a depth to it that the TM Twin lacks as good as the TM is. The overdrive is brilliant and the range of tones sans pedals is amazing. Pedals add more. I use a tremolo pedal in the effects loop. The reverb, using 4 tubes (!) is luscious, by far the best built in amp reverb I have heard. I went for the expense of the amp to be the centerpiece for guitar recording in my studio to please other guitarists. Fact is I loved the output so much it kindled my becoming a serious guitar player this year after (many) decades of being a keyboardist. The TM comes to gigs.

[CaptainLemming]

The Fender Tonemaster (TM) is a standalone product. More like your toaster than your PC.

There will be more shiny objects coming out. Some with more features. However, that won't keep the TM from working. It only has to interact with an input analog signal. Not a universe of applications looking for compatibility across current software standards.

If a Fender Twin Reverb does everything you want an amp to do, then a Tonemaster provides most of that, has a few more useful features, and weighs 33 pounds. That won't change over time. 30 years from now it will do exactly the same thing it does now.

That being said, none of us know what failure modes will look like. Probably won't be as bullet proof as a point wired tube amp. If it breaks 10 years out, you'll be replacing it. Probably with some new tech as the Luddites lament the good 'ole days when we had Fender TM's and things were simple.

I get the impression that many here would agree the Fender Tonemaster (TM) is the game changer we have all been waiting for then, which is great. I'll look into it more. Thanks!

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Are we still in love with the DV Mark Little Jazz?

I am. Yes, I recently sold mine because my long awaited Blu 6 and my longer awaited SBUS finally arrived. And I bought the LJ way back at the dawn of Covid just because.

I have a Jazz 12 in the backline at the club where I play twice a week, and it’s also great.

[John A.]

We all know of examples of fragile gear that's been trouble free forever. But based on a lot of collective experience, the probability seems significantly higher to me that a well designed and built SS amp will fail well before an equally well designed and built tube amp if both are subjected to the same use and care (or lack of same). I lost 3 G-K MB150s over about 15 years, two of them to dramatic smoke-and-sparks deaths (one in the middle of a session at Hard Hat Studios). An original 12" orange Roland Cube died on me after about 5 years of moderate use, and a Crate Powerblock just died a quiet death on a duo gig one fine night. I recall at least 8 SS amp failures among about 15 that I bought new and used regularly for at least 5+ years each.

A lot depends on how you define failure. A tube amp may stop working or its performance might degrade in less time than it takes a SS amp to do that (which has been my experience). However, in a tube amp made entirely from discrete components that are commodities, that's nearly always fixable (often just by changing a tube), whereas a SS amp is sometimes not fixable because it has boards and/or IC's that can't be sourced (or that no tech will work on).

OTOH, I've had about 20 tube amps since 1959, about half bought new and half used. I only remember one failure and it was a 6L6 that let go on the stand. My original Boogie Mk 1 lived a perfect life and went to its second owner about 30 years after I bought it with its second set of tubes (changed as a precaution). I used a Bassman 50 head from its birth in the mid-'70s until I sold it 25+ years later, and I dragged a B15N many miles over a decade with only that single tube failure. I sold my SF Vibrolux a few years ago after about 30 trouble free years.

Perhaps "trouble free" but not "service free"? You seem like the kind of guy who changes components preventatively, rebiases amps when changing tubes, and generally takes care of stuff in ways that aren't even possible on most SS amps (and you seem like a very electronically/mechanically handy guy, which bends the cost curve down dramatically).

I've have had 6 (if I'm counting right ...) since '79. To the best of my recollection, only 1 never needed any sort of repair (the only one I bought new). All the rest had some combination of funny noises, losing volume or tone, and conking out entirely (including smoke with a couple of 'em) more than once over the years I owned them. I have neither the skill nor the space to fix amps myself. Service gets more and more expensive; nowadays and I can count on at least a couple of hundred bucks for any sort of work. Really, the only argument I can see for tube amps nowadays is tone. They lose by all other practical tests. I have one tube amp left now (a SF Princeton Reverb), which I got in trade for another tube amp I had bought many years prior for an extremely lucky low price. As much as I love the way the PR sounds, I wouldn't buy one for what they cost now (and am leaning towards cashing it out and getting something like a Quilter).

[Litterick]

The Fender Tonemaster (TM) is a standalone product. More like your toaster than your PC.

There will be more shiny objects coming out. Some with more features. However, that won't keep the TM from working. It only has to interact with an input analog signal. Not a universe of applications looking for compatibility across current software standards.

No, it has software and firmware, which must be updated. Like any computer, the need for updates becomes apparent when the manufacturer receives complaints. The user is the tester.

But that aside, an awful lot of people who know about these things say modern amps have electronic components that will fail within ten years. The future of the amp will depend on the availability of replacement parts.

[Litterick]

Whats interesting to me is that this conversation has, perhaps for lack of a better word, devolved into a more or less latest hype cycle feeding frenzy. Lol.

This is why we can't have nice things. We seldom hear from disinterested people, who do not own the kit they are talking about. Nobody wants to contemplate the prospect of their innovative and expensive amp becoming useless.

[Woodstove]

This is why we can't have nice things. We seldom hear from disinterested people, who do not own the kit they are talking about. Nobody wants to contemplate the prospect of their innovative and expensive amp becoming useless.

Just much more interested in making music with the instruments we have while they, and we, are able.

[st.bede]