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Fender introduces pedal that has all their ToneMaster sounds and more.
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09-26-2023 12:31 PM
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Correction: it’s a full blown amp modeler, not just a pedal, lol. Sorry for the use of the wrong word.
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From a Beta Tester (apparently):
That pricing is a mistake, its going to compete directly with Fractal, QC and Helix, it'll be $1699 Retail
I'm looking at one right now in my living room. Out of the box, the amps sound better than Helix (I owned one for 5 years) and on par with AxeFX (its sitting right next to my FM9) The form factor beats FM9 for air travel, and beats QC which is legit too tightly packed together.
Things you can't really tell from that video:
- Full Color Touch 7" Screen- Want to move your delay before the reverb or after? No menus or PC based editor needed, just touch the effect and move it where you want.
- Encoder Knobs - When you touch an effect or amp it maximizes in the window, you can move the virtual knobs on the touch screen, pull a virtual slider for more accurate adjustments or grab one of the encoder knobs(all scribble strips automatically display the current parameter of the encoder knobs) for exact adjustments.
- Internal Power Supply - No external adapter like QC
- On Unit Work Flow - You can 100% operate and program this unit from the unit. No companion app needed. I never even read the manual, just the quick start guide, and I was off to the races. I would never in a million years attempt that on my FM9 and I've been using Fractal products for a couple years now....still terrified of their on unit programming interface. For the first 3 weeks of the beta test we didn't even have the companion app.
- 2.75" footswitch spacing. I'm 6'2" and hace a size 12 shoe. The unit is super comfortable for me.
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From same beta tester: product to be released on October 3.
“In the room, with the unit running to a power amp and then a guitar cab, its sounds great. The mid gain stuff is the best I've heard in a modeler, with some reverb, I'd use the word inspiring. I would say that like my other modelers, the distortion sounds are missing some of the harmonic complexity of my dedicated tube amps. However, and this is a big however.... what the audience actually hears through the PA is easily as good. The direct sound of this unit, through a PA is on par with my real amp through a load box and an IR, and superior to a 57 on a cab(by a pretty big margin)”
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Finally, as to amp models it contains, the beta tester claims:
”Its a bit of everything. You've got LOTS of Fenders as you'd expect, plus Vox, Marshall, Boogie, EVH, Friedman and others. Much like Line 6, I would expect more amps to be rolled out over time. In the time from the first beta firmware to what I have now, they've alreadey added many amp and cab models. Whats not on there yet, and for me its a good thing, is a zillion radom extraneous swap meet tube amps. Personally, I'm just as happy to do with out the Sears amp offering of the 1960's clogging up my model list.
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Videos to be coming next week, apparently. A final note from the beta tester:
“TLDR version
Touch screen is awesome, very responsive, icons look like their real world counterparts. Its just better than the QC display in that regard. You see your actual rig rather than generic icons meant to represent your rig. FM9 and Helic don't have touch screens so its light years ahead of those.
Modeling is IMO better than Helix, on par with Fractal and the clean/mid gain tones are the best I've heard out of a modeler.
Programming is EASY. Like the QC, you don't really need a desktop editor or manual to intuitively build presets. Things just work as you expect they would. Nothing is hidden in submenus or weird places. Unlike the QC, this also has a robust desktop app, backup to your desktop or the cloud.
Form factor is the best of all the modelers. With its integrated power its still smaller than FM9 and Helix, while still offering the same footswitch spacing, unlike QC which is super small and has cramped switches, not to mention that gross external power adapter.
I don't know the specifics on the processor or memory but unlike the FM3 and FM9 Turbo) I have not been able to bump up against its limits, so its either got more computing power or a more efficient allocation of resources under the hood.
Its priced on par with Helix and FM9 and lower than Neural QC. Given the feature set, it feels like you'er getting more for your money. I can't stress enough how easy it is to use. The workflow is just great.”
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It should be noted that the beta tester is John Nathan Cordy who is about as knowledgeable and trustworthy as you're likely to find on the Internet. (And it wasn't him who leaked the review)
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Interesting take from same beta-tester, on overall assessment and state and progression of the modeler market:
“If you're looking for a 'wow, gotcha!' type answer, I'm not sure there is one. The Floor Modeler market is a mature one, we're talking almost 10 years since Helix, longer still for POD. The days of revolutionary features/value propositions are in the rear view (IMO). We're talking incremental improvements to sonics, workflow, features & footprint.
Reasons to buy over Fractal, QC or Kemper.... vs Fractal: Easier to program and operate than Fractal, smaller footprint, touch screen, ability to run more amps and delays simultaneously, available in stores, no waiting list. vs QC: Better switch spacing than QC, display looks like the real amps, DESKTOP EDITOR, ability to store off the cloud, much more robust effects section. vs Kemper : Doesn't look like 1960's cold war technology, touch screen, sounds great out of the box, legit effects, easy to program, operate and make changes at the gig. Of course, if you require profiling, then I can't offer a compelling reason to buy this over your QC or Kemper, personally, I think a great model is just as desireable and m ore flexible than a capture, but that's just my opinion
Its also the only place you can get the exact algorithms from Fenders award winning Tone Master series of amps, although I realize that sounds awfully close to Mark Agnesi's 'play authentic' but I digress
You'd have to plug in and play yourself, see which one floats your boat. Thankfully this unit will be readily available for you to demo, Fender has a huge dealer network to get these to market.
RE the Mono bag....c'mon. Yes, it fit in a bag I happened to have. My point was its about as big as laptop, about twice as thick, but it doesn't need a proprietary case/bag.”
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- Desktop Pro Control App with Mac and PC support
- Added New Features
- New Factory Presets
- Added Song and Setlist modes
- Added Looper
- Additional MIDI support
- Additional template routings
- Additional footswitch layouts
- Auto brightness for screen and scribble strips
- Speed improvements for UI
- Bluetooth now supports pin pairing
- User global EQ’s
- Added New Effects
- Nashville Overdrive
- Round Fuzz – Germanium
- 3D Chorus
- Triple-Double Chorus
- Electric Flanger
- Orbit Stereo Panner
- Rotary Speaker 122
- Rotary Speaker 147
- Auto-Swell Delay
- Dynamic Delay
- ‘63 Spring Reverb Convolution
- ‘65 Spring Reverb Convolution
- Cloud Reverb
- Nebula Reverb
- Shimmer Reverb
- Auto-Swell Volume
- Chromatic Pitch Shifter
- Diatonic Harmonizer
- Feedback Generator
- Pedal Detune
- Added New Amps
- ‘59 Bassman
- British Jubilee Clean
- British Jubilee Rhythm
- British Jubilee Lead
- Marksman Ch1
- Marksman Ch2
- Added New Speaker Cabinets
- 1x12 Mega EV
- 4x10 ‘59 Bassman
- 4x12 British GB
- 4x12 British Jubilee V30
- 4x12 Mega Shadow
https://support.fender.com/en-us/kno...ticle/KA-02067
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Plug and Play indeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...ture=emb_title
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This reads as if the pedal is a merger of the Fender Mustang and ToneMaster
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34 minute first review. A few have said it kills the Fender clean tones, which is great for our purposes.
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This pedal has been in the works at Fender since before '17. Beta testers signed their first NDAs in '18. The Tone Master amps came about because of this piece of equipment, not the other way 'round. I may grab one in the future when they drop below a grand used; I really wanted to love my Fractal AX-8 but the learning curve for that bit of kit was more like a perpendicular line LOL
Originally Posted by TedBPhx
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Seems pricey. Crowded market that Fender is late to. Will see if the Fender name converts the unconverted .
For myself I just want a flipping Tonemaster head. I don’t want this.Last edited by Christian Miller; 10-03-2023 at 03:45 PM.
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It is pricey, it seems their only big mistake so far. I don't believe Fender is betting on the current market size, their bet is the market will considerably expand, and they want a signifcant share of that... Modelling has been growying really fast - the advantages are too big. Originally Posted by Christian Miller
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Sounds cool, but price is prohibitive for me. Maybe they will come out with a more limited version with just the standard Fender models at a price geared more toward average players.
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Wonder if they have some good bass options on there.
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https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/O...de_English.pdf Originally Posted by Bluedawg
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The early consensus seems to be they did a great job with the Fender Cleans and the wets (i.e, reverb). And the Fender 1x 10 or 1 x12 FRFR is really good (and cheap: $500). There is a bunch of discussions about the EVH-high gain stuff, which seems to be most people’s concerns.
For myself I care about the Fender Cleans and the reverb. As most of us here probably do, lol.
Someone mentioned the much more advanced processing power:
”TMP features an 8-Core DSP. Not sure if that is 2 x Quad Core chips, or a single 8-Core. The combo Tone Masters have a single Quad Core, in which 2 of the cores are used up by the convolution Reverb. So, there is plenty of power on tap.”
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The cleans and the UI seem great, which is all I need. My only problem is the 60-second looper, still trying to figure out if you can do 120 seconds in mono - otherwise it's a deal breaker for me.
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Ok, two bad news for jazzers.
Looper is fixed at 60 seconds (which is very easy to get if you are recording comping for a jazz tune).
Tuner is fixed at 440hz, so if you play with a piano at 442hz, forget it. I have to say, this tuner issue is incredebly weird for a pedal that has been in development since 2017 - no one remembered to suggest this?
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Bass options seem limited compared to competitor's offerings. Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
I suspect there will probably be more options eventually if they can sell enough of these to justify a few updates.
The Fender cleans will probably be the biggest reason to have one.
I love the cleans on my old Mustang III at low volume.
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Needs more tweeds.
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This clip has plenty of (great) clean sounds.
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