Does The Fender Tone Master Pro Live Up to the Hype? 

John, in a world of paid for promotion and videos which are just glorified adverts, your channel is a breath of fresh air. Thanks for your honest take on the fender tone master pro.

This thing is EVERYWHERE! On my YT page - there were 5 screens in a row and a few more above and below! Talk about a co-ordinated media blitz. Enjoying the vid - I tend to avoid the retailer ones and the 'excited and yelly' individuals . . . look forward to a 'how do I feel after a few weeks' follow-up and comparison with the other ones you work with. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Whoa! You got one fast! Can’t wait to watch this! Cuuuuuuute baby! What a great time! My babies are in HighSchool now. I miss those little baby guys.

I think all of these modelers are extremely close to each other soundwise. Pretty much ndistinguishable in a band mix. I think what it boils down to is which workflow works best for you. In my case i really like how intuitive the TM Pro looks, for my preference.

THIS was the review I was waiting for! Tons of useful insights and comparisons (vs. Line 6 Helix, Quad Cortex, Kemper and Fractal) from someone who is a true expert in using modelers. Great first impression video. I'm in the "benefit of the doubt" phase with this product and purchased the unit. Just from watching the videos I feel like I already know how to operate this. Making things simple and intuitive is hard, thoughtful work that should not be discounted as "aimed at beginners"--pros benefit too! I've had a Line 6 HX Stomp, a Helix floor model, and the Helix Native software for years and still feel intimidated when I use it. I don't feel I use them to their full potential. The skeuomorphism of the Fender TMP helps a lot with reducing the number of things you have to keep track of in your head (cognitive load) and making the product feel familiar and easy to use out of the box. I hoping Line 6 continues in the skeuomorphic direction it's started to with the Pod Go. And a touch screen would be nice. And a phone/tablet app. Out of the gate, Fender got these things right. Fender wouldn't risk putting serious resources and effort in this product without a game plan to eventually dominate as the #1 or #2 player in this segment. This is Fenders "minimum viable product", the least feature packed product they could release without risking ridicule and brand cred. The specs on this product would suggest that this device is capable of much more than what's being shown at launch. I'm looking forward to how the Fender TMP will evolve and how it will push the competition to up their game as well. UPDATE: Purchased the TMP along with the companion Fender FR-12 cabinet. I've had several hours to play with it. It's pretty impressive, especially when used with the desktop app. Only took 10 minutes before I felt like I was navigating it like a pro. It is stupid easy to use. I'm a massive Smiths fan, and for ages I have been chasing the tremolo sound of "How Soon Is Now?". To see it as a stock preset (46 How Late Is Then?) made me literally squeal and jump joy! 🤣 Fender put a LOT of thought into the user experience. Easily the most friction-free modeler I've ever used. Still need to A-B test it with the Helix and work through the initial excitement of the first few weeks of the honeymoon period before I can be objective about it. Still, I haven't felt this excited about a product in several years.

JNC is my trusted source for all things modeling. His patches and advice are always immensely helpful

so glad that you got one of these, looking forward to more videos from you after applying the firmware update/as you get to know the unit better.

The best demo I've seen of this by far. You're getting great tones out of it. This unit will absolutely be a big contender in the modeling world.

A good honest first impression from someone who has a lot of experience with modellers, so thank you. As someone who hasn’t used a modeller before but is thinking about it, first impressions are important. It does appear very intuitive to use. Looking forward to seeing your updates and if it grows on you over the coming weeks.

I had to go ahead and subscribe bro. Your consistency and quality are commendable. You pumpin these videos out like a beast!!! How are you this productive and the videos are still top notch?! Much respect

In this video alone, you deserve so much more subscribers. Super well done.

Bro - this is what we needed! Thanks for being real man - great insight and playing as always🤘

I'm looking forward to when you've had the time to deep dive into this unit, and make your own presets, snapshots (if possible with this unit)... You made it sound good right out of the box, and we all know with your ear, and a bit of tweaking, the sounds will be awesome!

Awesome Video...As a QC, Helix, Headrush and Boss owner...who does not own a single amp or pedal, I just placed an order for this Fender and cannot wait to get it. For me it's 100% UI and scribble strip that sold me on this unit. I won't be selling any of my other modelers, just hoping this unit is simple enough for me to actually enjoy building presets. We will see.

First minute of playing says everything , inspiration should be a huge deciding factor. Well done Fender.

I never used the capture function or profiling in any of my other devices so overall this is more convenient, intuitive, portable and sounds as good as my Kemper or Quad Cortex. They all have more options than I would EVER use.

Knew I could rely on your channel for a proper review! Was happy to see this pop in my feed 🤘👍

I've been waiting for this video. I ordered mine Monday. I sold a bunch of stuff to get it. I hope it's worth it!

Dang, you getting close to 100,000 subs. I feel like when I found you you're at 17,000 or something like that. Great work!

I am not knowledgeable about these and I had a tough time with the hx stomp, so this is fascinating and well done for sure. Great job John.

Man I am so tired of seeing these videos everywhere already. That being said, your review was very well done. I can't see myself getting one of these unless I were in a very, very specific scenario. Subbed!

One thing thats nice about this is they don’t try to give you sooooo many things to choose you can get lost in all the options instead of playing the guitar. Changing parameters is so much more intuitive.

Thanks for your unbiased and honest opinion John.

Absolutely refreshing to see an actual proper review/demo of this. It’s been nauseating to see the usual YT clique gushing over this. Obviously it’s to be expected that the retailers will big this up as it’s in their interest to do so, but some of the YT crowd reviewing this, should be ashamed of themselves for being a part of such a massive corporate marketing push. I’m sure some would sell the own children to get in bed with Fender. Will be interesting to see how many of them continue to use it over the next couple of months ( particularly the ones who don’t use modellers). That’s not to say I’m not gassing for one and for the most part it seems to be moving in the right direction. However, your review reminds me that none of the modellers are really just plug n play and all of them require a certain element of ‘deep diving’, which is where I get off, as anything I have to scroll in, through, up and down with instantly kills my muse and leaves me running back to my little Blackstar amped 2 set up.. Thanks for putting this out so quickly, you may have just saved me £1650 😏🙏🎸

One of the things that brought me to your channel was your blind tests. Would love an EJ tone blind test with this vs Fractal, QC, Helix, Ampero II etc. It could be any tone but yeah.. if you could find the time for that.. it would tell a lot. I've been unconvinced by the tones so far but love the UI. I was happy to see this video as it shows I'm not alone in some of my first impressions. Really good point about the UI making it sound better because we can see the amp knobs and it makes it feel more real (without necessarily sounding more real) but I think a blind test with no UI.. just seeing you play the same thing through different devices would tell a lot. The song isn't important, as long as you tweak each device to sound best (to your ear). The other thing about this is the price.. it really needs to sound good especially if it doesn't have capture technology. Maybe with some tweaks on a custom preset it could sound awesome? But it'd be nice to see that put to the test and blind tests are awesome for taking out our biases.

When you hit that neck pickup after Foot Switch mode - WOW! The sound of that guitar is glorious!!

Thanks for the short review, John. Hopefully more to come from you here with the new 7ender. Yesterday Greg Koch on Wildwood Guitars YTube did some tunes, too.

Loved the video - nice job. The Mission Engineering co branded and custom painted expression pedal is an obvious add on. The built in toe switch can be used to switch between volume and wah for example or switch one or more effects on/off. Will open up the control and creative power of the Tone Master Pro. The Mission SP1-TMP has a mono wired toe switch, that is needed

Yeah I was shocked to see smaller channels get this unit for demo but not you. I think you’re great.

I'm excited to try this out. A good friend of mine developed it at Fender.

It is Elodie!!!! I know one thing it has to get real soon, a great Dumble, and Trainwreck amps. I would like to see a Magnatone/personally. What will make or break the unit survival wise, is UPDATES, and how fast they come. AT it's price point it needs them badly. But honestly best user interface I ever seen, both the machine and Computer match, Brett kingman showed them together.

Haven't really heard enough yet to make a decision on the overall sounds and tones, but definitely like the user interface experience with the appearance and usability of the big touchscreen. I'm interested in a deep dive on the reverbs in the unit to see if we have anything like the dynamic plate in the helix.

Man I love your phrasing style. Great player

Great video from an impartial point of view. I look forward to the next sets of videos comparing this to the other modelers. Keep in mind capturing technology is different than modeling technology and the fender was never marketed as having that ability to capture as the idea is that component modeling is better than capturing. I wonder how this might work in conjunction with the fender FR-12 that's kinda what I'm thinking of doing

Yes busting out the unboxing machete! Seriously though you are the only trustworthy channel doing modeler reviews and I appreciate that.

Good Lord! That EVH sounds phenomenal on every RU-vid video review I have checked so far

Another observation - when you tried to add a new block to the "Wide Eddie" preset it looked like you couldn't add anything else because you were on "combo" amps. It does appear that a preset can only contain two cabinets, so you are not able to add any new combos, half-stacks, or cabinets, but you can add amps and other effects. I don't know if this also applies to IRs.

Thank you. This is honest review that i needed

Good review. Thank you for you opinions. Stay true!

Finally the one opinion I care about ;) I am pretty underwhelmed by this unit sound/tone. Id say it actually sounds very unpleasant/cheap... probably because I have an HX Stomp and I watch your videos basically every day lol. There's barely any amps in this and the price is absolutely outrageous for what you get. For me, this doesn't even come close to the Fractal/Helix stuff and I'm actually surprised at how much it sucks haha

Great first look/review of this modeler. After looking at other reviews it seems that tube amp players will still like the tube amps and for the modeler players this sits right in there with most of the other modelers sound wise. To me the user interface is far more friendly than say the Fractal units which I think is a big advantage for newer players going into the modeler world. The other thing is that there is no mention of the processing power of this unit in the specs or reviews. So not sure what is actually possible with this unit in the future as far as updates and new features. First release firmware except in a few cases are never the end product for something like this especially at this cost point. I really think that it is the Fractal world that is being left behind. Fractal still has in my opinion the best sounding modelers on the market however their user interface is really complex and in depth which for some probably may not be really wanted or needed. All the reviews of this unit are still very early and we should expect more in depth reviews and comparisons to similar units. Would really like to see the reviews and comparisons on the new Fender FRFR amp/cabs that were released at the same time as the modeler. We need to give this some time before jumping to any final conclusions.

The one thing that stands clear from multiple demos, even the ones with flawed audio recordings, is that the clean sounds, like Fender and Vox - is better than other modelers. In that respect, it brings something very important to the table compared to the competition.

Thanks for always helping me feel like I don’t need to move on the the new gear right away! As a side note, couldn’t find if you’ve done a video on the hotone mini? Would love to see what you could get out of it

Fender dropped the ball on the drop-day amp selection. I would have made sure to include some cult classic Fender amps that few other modelers have. Amps this is missing: -tweed deluxe, champ, twin, pro -brown princeton, deluxe, pro, vibroverb -black vibrolux, champ, bassman head -Pro Jr -Rivera-era 'Evil Twin' -Super Champ -Super Sonic -Excelsior Imagine having so many classic amps in your history, dropping an amp modeler for such a high price, and having that many hugely influential amps unaccounted for.

Can't wait for the new Predator v Cordy movie to drop.

That loop at the start was so musical.

I think I’ll eventually get one of these. Hopefully by the time I do they will have added some more out there effects. It seems like they’ve covered the bread butter stuff for release, but I’d like to see some them add some of the more esoteric things like a freeze and some string synth type sounds.

*My thoughts are your guitar playing is awesome, the demo of this modeler was nice and this unit is decent and sounds good.*

1:45 ❤CUTIE!!!❤ The preset sounds are really rough and yanky and way closer to my taste than the Helix presets. They almost sound like a good live outboard recording. I'd love to find out how to get more of that on the Helix

Glad you got your hands on one! Fender should have given you one. Gee

Agree with most of your comments. There are other brands that have been in the modelling and capture/profiling world for a while and fender has a lot of catching up to do. Although, for someone looking for their first modeller, I think the TM pro's UI itself makes this a great choice. As a former fractal and quad cortex user, I found this easier to use. It's a steep price for most people though but is it worth it? Too early to tell.

I don't know man. I think right out of the box, to me, it has a more "amp-like" sound than I've heard you play from other boxes, and you've had amazing tone from those other boxes. I think this is a step up. JMNSHO

The fact that it has zero gap between presets changes makes possible to have several incredibly different "snapshots" at disposal when in preset mode. If the tones and effects are good, this could be awesome. I'd like to know if the pitch effects are polyphonic, though.

I’m waiting for a modeler that models other modelers. Then you will really get everything in one box.

Your studio intern is a real cutie. Congrats Dad.

Very interesting... not that I'm convinced that I need to get one immediately. If you're looking for ideas for another video - can do a video with upgrading the firmware and whatever features are added?

Sounds good to me, big fan of the screen and usability compared to the rivals - seems simple. Couldn’t get my head round an HX stomp at all, this seems to look useable

Fender have released a modeller and the world is going nuts. Every five minutes someone has a negative comment about it on a forum or RU-vid. The reality is that it sounds pretty good and it seems very practical, plus a ton of advanced features. Not sure about the price tag, to be honest, but they must have done their market research and know they will still sell loads. John, thank you for this sort of review, really helpful. At first I thought you were slightly biased in your comments against Fender but as you played through I could see you were truly honest and you mentioned many things that actually impressed you.

Thanks for being the contrary voice. I had a feeling listening to the tones on the other channels that they weren't all they were cracked up to be. Decent enough, and amazing UI, but not gonna make me sell any of my Helix gear. I will say, I think the Tone Master Pro would be an amazing choice as a pedalboard replacement. The thing I missed the most using my HX Stomp XL as a primary rig is the instant tweakability. Run the TMP into an amp with an amp model programmed but bypassed as a backup (or possibly into FOH), and it really fulfills that tweakability aspect.

I agree with your comments on this especially that its missing the cloning feature which is useful for some of us. I think Fender is a little late to the game. But overal I really think its a good unit. I belive those footswitches are momentary capable which is a small thing but useful which i havent seen on the QC. They also put out some FR cabs 10 & 12 inch that are in an cab platform. Wondering how those sound.

It’s pretty clear that the “X sent me this product to review, but I can say whatever I want” argument essentially means “they sent me this product, and as long as I don’t say anything negative about, I’ll get the next product they release as well”

Those Fender amps sound really superb (probably as expected though right). They come across (and ive watched a few demos now) sounding much better than the Helix ones in my opinion. And that interface coupled with the rotary footswitches are excellent. I wont be selling my Helix just yet, but I'll be keeping a watchful eye on what people say after actually using it live, week in and week out.

I love my blonde Tone Master Deluxe Reverb, but I got it AND an HX Stomp XL used for less than HALF the price of one of these new. Price is hard to justify, but understand the neccesity of high price to ensure that the market takes a new a Fender modeling product "seriously" relative to its competitors.

I’m not sure whether to say congratulations on your new acquisition. I have a feeling it will be returned or sold on. Again I’ll say, there are a plethora of modellers available today, all offering more or less the same and, for those with super hearing, higher and lower quality sound effects. This one comes with a nice built in flat screen TV, but that’s about it. Still waiting for the “next big thing”, which was, by my estimates, the Kemper. If I were to give in to GAS, and part with my cash, it would have to be the Friedman IR-X. I have enough effects pedals.

Sooooo. I have been using the Quad Cortex for a couple years now but always needed an external midi controller. But this seems like that kind of thing is bundled in, and the seamless transition of rigs is really quite astounding. It’s the one thing that Quad Cortex is inching closer to but not quite there yet. I will sit on any decision for a while but damn this does look good but the multiple signal paths and flexibility / monolithic approach is still more appealing to me.

I really like the form factor and physical design. It sounds like you can get it to sound as good as any other modelers. I never really care for factory presets. I may have missed it, but does this have a snapshot mode, or is it just preset and footswitch / stomp? I can't see any reason to buy this if you already have a Helix or Quad Cortex. I can see a lot of people who are coming from the analog world liking the screen showing a representation of the amp / stomp-boxes.

I'm quite happy with my Helix floor ever since 3.5 firmware. It does very well with external pedals running into it's 4 FX loops. The plugin is equally as good in Pro Tools. For a non professional player I can't justify paying $1700 again for another modeler. From a money perspective the Neural Modeler from Steve Acktinson is very good with the right profile if your into DAWs.

John thx for this. Great review. Any chance you could do an apples to apples comparison of this and the boss gt1? Just a tone comparison. Like both with fender deluxe type of amps and maybe a tube scream style pedal and delay and reverb. Both on the same flat response speaker. Just from a pure tone front David vs Golioth kind of thing.

When I have been watching other people's videos, who've mostly demod the presets, I felt like I'd gone back in time. It reminded me of when I first got a helix with the older amp models and built in presets. It looks very nice and modern but sonically I think it's very okay.

Hey John, thanks for doing this review. As someone who is considering buying a biggish modeler, I am weighing up the Fender against the new version of the FM3. Curious on your thought about the quality of the reverb and delays in the fender vs the fractal. The fractal definitely has amazing spatial sounds and your video here sounded like the fender has pretty decent spatial sounds as well. Interesting because this did not come across on the video demos from other channels. Anyways thanks again for your video 🙂

As someone totally new to this world, and is in the market for one such device, there are a bunch of little things that attract me to this. The UI, the large screen and no power brick, the footswitch spacing, and that it has the desktop editor on day one are all huge pluses. Of course, tone is king in the conversation, but better tones sound like they could come down the road, if Fender chooses to do that, but they got a lot of the stuff “you can’t fix later” correct IMHO. Now, watch Line 6 make an update to the Helix in six months that blows this away, LOL…

The user interface and functionality look great. The way forward is for smartphone App and Touchscreen functions to combine up to make developing patches easier which means not having to be tethered to a laptop eg like with Fractal/Helix products currently. I am hoping that a smaller HX Stomp/Headrush Core type Fender version will follow and I am hoping that Line 6/Fractal etc develop products with this type of mobile use functionality in mind...ie, no computers being required to use the modeller. The other modelling manufacturers have to keep up with this surely. Now we need a tone comparison with all the other floor modeller units. Direct comparisons are probably the best way to evaluatie tones etc. Thanks for the review JC.

I have watched few demos, and sounds of this device reminds me old Line6 multifx.

In the US it’s the same price as the Helix Floor and Fm9. So right in line with competitors.

I think that with Fender in the game, the race may be on. If this unit is successful, It will be interesting to see if the other big players march out their own modellers. The price point on this unit is too high for me. However, I’m more interested in the Tone Master FRFR speaker. Right now, I will stick with the Helix, but it will be interesting to see how Line 6 answers. It is a great time to play guitar!

Sound-wise, it has the right frequencies.

Please never change. one of the only trustworthy guitar RU-vidrs

Had a play with one today. Unit feels a bit cheap- much prefer the QC form factor. Screen graphics are lovely but the screen is laggy- I hated the lag. I did end up buying the FRFR12 that fender also released. Now that’s great- paired with my QC finally I’ve got real amp in room sound. People haven’t given fender enough props for doing a great cab to go with modellers. The 12” is way better than the Kemper cab.

Sounded nice! Dont forget to update the firmware and let us know what changes it makes.

Appreciate your take on this. That's a serious machete you keep in your music room?

@23:19 had a real Billy Gibbons feel to it :-)

I know it's a lot more to add to your costs, but I'm really curious this paired with their new FRFR cabs in a live context. As someone who gigs, the question is do you get that decent amp in the room feel with the cab with the versatility of sending direct to FOH with your dialed in presets (I really like that the cab seems to have some EQ on it that isn't affecting the FOH setup, so you can dial in the amp to the feel how you want in the room while sending your preset signal to FOH). Like the new Headrush stuff it also seems like you can do a microphone in, so you can possibly do vocal stuff which is pretty cool for a grab and go gigging setup for a singer/songwriter or just a person doing covers with backing tracks (Bluetooth too). That means it has the versatility to bring to a rock cover gig with a band and then go out the next night as a solo artist and literally bring the exact same setup. The other draw to me is the easy tweakability on the fly with the foot switches becoming knobs to just twist and dial in a tones. That's really the problem with the HX stomp I have, navigating the menus on the fly to change something quickly during a rehearsal or gig is daunting (which is probably my fault for not spending more time with it not plugged into the computer as it's so much easier to change with HX Edit). It definitely feels like Fender actually spent time with the other units and really asked themselves, ok this works but how do we make it better or easier or more useful. If nothing else, hopefully this continues to push the digital modelling/capture units further as more and more brands enter the market. This is the future of guitar playing IMO, the idea of dragging a 70lb amp with only one sound in it to a gig on a 6 foot by 6 foot stage in the corner of a bar to play for an hour or two just seems more and more silly.

This (assuming that the reverbs and delays are great) is really everything I've wanted in a modeler, so I'm interested in it as a concept. I'm honestly not a customer for anything in this price range. I'm not sold that a capture is better than a modeler. I would rather have the versatility of a model over a moment in my amp that is manipulated by an eq and drive. I think the notion that this could be the last in the line of 1st gen modelers is really interesting. I don't know what a gen 2 would look like, but it is an interesting thought.

Wuh oh, John's got the big boy knife out ! I like the tones, but hmm.. considering the less flexible routing and lack of expression pedal, I'm not jumping up to throw nz $3k at it. Good test _ it's baby proof !

Fookin hell. 30mins! It's past my bedtime!

Forget the unboxing, let’s talk about that knife!

Funny, the Quad Cortex just dropped in price by 150 EUR since this launched. The Tonemaster Pro sells for € 1900 and the QC now for € 1700. It’s a good time to live and to think about getting into the modeling ecosystem. Can’t wait to see what Line 6 release next year. The Helix is up for a next gen unit…

where did you get that knife from ? i love it , was not expecting that lol i was interested in the fender tone master

Thats kinda cool that you can change banks while the loop goes on

Thank you so much for this video! I find the tones to sound a bit over processed. Would love to hear just the amps clean and crunch with no effect at all only playing with eq and gain to better appreciate the actual sonic print of the machine🙏🏾🤘🏾

I tried the Helix the Prime the pod go I personally like the fender much better because I’m a singer who plays guitar. I just could not wrap my head around the software on the other units. I will get a quad cortex eventually. Fender is also adding to the unit regularly if they keep it up it will mature into a great product line.

I like the UI. The Presets sound like they've figured out how to get the "thump" and big bottom end of a real Amp. So, users that like the "Amp in the room feel" might be able to get that from the TM. 🤷 Looks a bit big and bulky to double as a desktop unit. It's too early to tell, but at $1,700 US, I don't think it would provide $1,150 of additional value over my $550 HX Stomp and Helix Native combination in my particular use scenario. Thanks

Just tuck it out of the box and started playing a loop like that 🤟🏻

I have a Quad Cortex. At this point I will keep it, but if I was buying a modeler and had to choose between a QC, and Fender Tone Master Pro, I would probably go with the Tone Master Pro. 1. The user interface is better, 2. it has scribble scrips, 3. I do not consider the capturing aspect of the QC a factor, and, 4. the Tone Master looks like it can do everything I need it to do. I would have to be convinced the sound is as good as the QC, though. If the choice was between the QC, Tone Master Pro and the Fractal FM9, I'd be very tempted to go with the FM9 solely based on the variety of amps, cabs and effects, and I assume the sound is as good if not better than the other two. That being said, I really love the QC and I know how to navigate through it pretty well, at least to suit my needs.

I think this thing is pretty cool looking. Now let’s find out how far we can push this thing and what we can get out of it.

I'm looking forward to a second video after you do that firmware update and factory reset it told you to do when you unboxed it.

I am a Headrush Pedalboard user and I also have a Fender Mustang III V2. It looks and sounds like a great unit...my concern is Fender continuing to fully support it with firmware updates and repair support if it decides to misbehave. My Mustang III V2 is a great modeling amp... which still works and sounds great many years later. But Fender just suddenly dropped all support when they came out with their next generation of Mustang amps, which were not as good amps. The Tonemaster series of amps have been great for a few years...lots of support new models and firmware updates. When is the day when they move on to some other product and suddenly stop supporting the Tonemaster Pro? Headrush is great but very slow with updates..now they have new products Prime and Core... but there is word of an update for the older series of products...thank you very much. Before I invest $1700, and a lot of time learning a new system, and creating my own sounds...how do I know Fender will remain on board as my partner helping me to better using their product? I like that they have a desktop interface app...Headrush will not ever apparently...their touchscreen is all you need...per Headrush. Expression pedal is almost $200 add on...God this is just very expensive!

If it has the same fizzy overdrive as the Mustang gtx, no thanks. The touchscreen features are more important than a lot of people admit. Quad Quartex and Headrush are currently best, imo.

John, I knew we could count on you for one of the few truly honest reviews. I've spent the last 48 hours feeling gaslighted by all my favorite youtubers who all seem like Fender is holding one of their family members hostage.

The baby was cool checking it out.