The Steel Guitar Forum

I've had mine for about two weeks and have only played it at home at low volume. It's a keeper for me. I was concerned about the stock neo Jensen speakers for steel, but so far they are doing a surprisingly good job. Sometime down the road I may experiment with different speakers but not until I get these broken in and try it out in the real world of gigs.

Got to looking at my Twin Custom 15 and noticed the speaker is rated at 4 Ohms.Then I started thinking I love everything about the Custom 15 except I didn't get the optional fork-lift. Looks to me like a Tone-Master Twin chassis would swap right in....I wonder what that'd sound like.Whaddaya think?

Dave, what kind of speaker is the 15". I have a JBL D-130 in my Evans SE 200. I'm really itching to disconnect the two 12's in my Tone Master and jumping a wire to my JBL. Keep us posted if you get a Tone Master and try it with your 15 custom.

George Kimery wrote:Dave, what kind of speaker is the 15". I have a JBL D-130 in my Evans SE 200. I'm really itching to disconnect the two 12's in my Tone Master and jumping a wire to my JBL. Keep us posted if you get a Tone Master and try it with your 15 custom.

George-- it's the factory stock speaker, labeled "Made for Fender by Eminence".I read somewhere(maybe here?)it's supposed to emulate a D-130...I'm assuming your Tone-Master is 4 ohms. Is it?

Dave,the Tone Master is 4 ohms but since the two speakers are wired in parallel, they are 8 ohms.
The Eminence 15-C is supposed to emulate a D-130, so that may be what is in yours. A D-130 weighs 13.5 lb. Assuming the neo Jensen's that are in the Tone Master weigh in the neighborhood of 7 lb. each, it would be pretty much an even weight swap for one D-130 for the two Jensen neo's.

I have had the Tonemaster Twin for 2 days now, I plan to keep it. I really like the sound of this amp. I don’t know if it sounds like a tube Twin or not as I don’t have one to compare it to. But I can tell you my ear thinks it sounds really nice.

Dave Hopping wrote:

George Kimery wrote:Dave, what kind of speaker is the 15". I have a JBL D-130 in my Evans SE 200. I'm really itching to disconnect the two 12's in my Tone Master and jumping a wire to my JBL. Keep us posted if you get a Tone Master and try it with your 15 custom.

George-- it's the factory stock speaker, labeled "Made for Fender by Eminence".I read somewhere(maybe here?)it's supposed to emulate a D-130...I'm assuming your Tone-Master is 4 ohms. Is it?

The D series JBLs had alnico magnets. The speaker in the Fender Custom 15 and the Fender Steel King was made by Eminence and sported a massive ceramic speaker much more akin to the JBL E-130. I believe those speakers weighed in at near 25 lbs.

Before swapping the speakers it might be worth letting them break in a little?

So far, so VERY good! Really liking my new (First Time) Fender Amp, The Tonemaster. I'm using the "Normal" side and use my own Reverb/Delay. The onboard Reverb is just fine. The ability to select from 1 W to 85 W is a nice feature. I'm not near smart enough to start speaker swapping but the tone I'm dialing in sounds just pretty good to my ears. After getting this new amp about 3 weeks or so ago, I sold my Telonics 500B within a week. Prior to the Telonics, I had only had two amps since '74 (That's 1974 :0) with both being Peavey's; Peavey Classic w/two 12's and the last, a NV 400 w/15" BW (Had it for 30 years!!). Anyway, wish I'd had this 33 pounder back in my gigging days with the "Half-Fast Band:...could've saved a hernia or two! ha Here's a shot of it along with a few other toys:

I bit the bullet and bought a new Tone Master Twin this weekend.

Now I understand the hype. I'm not usually someone who gushes over gear -- it's just stuff, after all, and probably has less impact on a person's sound than their technique has. But I gotta say... I love this amp!

If I had just one amp to use for the rest of my life stranded on a desert island, this is the best all-around choice that I have found.

As others have said, the amp really feels like a tube-driven analog experience. It doesn't have any of the sterility that I often hear from solid-state amps and/or modeling amps. The tones don't sound "optimized". They sound old-school. Congratulations, Fender, you perfected the sonic reproduction of your imperfections!

Granted, I have only played at the lower-wattage levels so far. I played pedal steel, an old Les Paul, and even an old Fender P-bass (my main instrument) through the Normal channel. I was able to get a full and pleasing sound for each of those instruments.

To my ears those Jensen speakers sound good across the full range of frequencies.

There's plenty of tone-shaping capabilities with 3-band EQ and the bright/not-bright switch.

There are only 2 teeny things that I would change if I could wave my magic wand.
1) I would have included a headphone jack for totally silent practice. I know you can do a line out to a mixer, and run headphones from that, but that's more gear. Fender could have easily added a headphone jack.
2) In my case the horizontal wood plank on the bottom back was cut slightly too long, so it was installed in a slightly bowed shape. Nobody would notice it except a detail nut like me, and it certainly doesn't affect the performance of the amp. It's just a small attention-to-detail thing.

Honestly, since those are literally my only two gripes, the amp is a winner.

Anthony Parish wrote:
Granted, I have only played at the lower-wattage levels so far. I played pedal steel, an old Les Paul, and even an old Fender P-bass (my main instrument) through the Normal channel. I was able to get a full and pleasing sound for each of those instruments.

Now I am going to plug in my P bass and see what it sounds like!

Can the Twin Tone Master handle a Bass without causing damage?

Gary Reed wrote:Can the Twin Tone Master handle a Bass without causing damage?

At low-watt volumes, I'm not concerned about damage to the amp.

Of course Anthony.
I didn’t remember to think about that wattage out selector switch.
Thank you,

Tim Whitlock wrote:

Dave Hopping wrote:

George Kimery wrote:Dave, what kind of speaker is the 15". I have a JBL D-130 in my Evans SE 200. I'm really itching to disconnect the two 12's in my Tone Master and jumping a wire to my JBL. Keep us posted if you get a Tone Master and try it with your 15 custom.

George-- it's the factory stock speaker, labeled "Made for Fender by Eminence".I read somewhere(maybe here?)it's supposed to emulate a D-130...I'm assuming your Tone-Master is 4 ohms. Is it?

The D series JBLs had alnico magnets. The speaker in the Fender Custom 15 and the Fender Steel King was made by Eminence and sported a massive ceramic speaker much more akin to the JBL E-130. I believe those speakers weighed in at near 25 lbs.

What I'm thinking about is swapping the chassis in my Custom 15 for a Tone-Master Twin chassis. AIUI both the Tone-Master and the Custom 15 are 4 ohms but the Tone-Master speakers are hardwired to the chassis while the Custom 15 speaker connects to the chassis with a 1/4" jack, so I'd have to figure something out about how to connect the Custom 15 speaker to a Tone-Master chassis. I DO like the Custom 15's speaker and slightly taller cab, but I won't pull the trigger on what amounts to a donor Tone-Master just for the chassis until I get the wiring business sussed out.

Dave,
I did a bit of swapping, maybe this will help, and apologies if you know this.
Maybe someone will chime in with an answer.

I’m not sure the re-issue twin and the standard twin have the exact same size chassis.

I can confirm the tonemaster and non-reissue twin are the same size, as I’ve made the swap.

I’m guessing the custom 15 uses the same chassis as a re-issue twin. Again, it’s a guess, so, If you plan on swapping it out, you may want to be sure.

While the speaker wires are hardwired into the TM chassis, vs. the 1/4” jack speaker out, they attach with spade connectors to the Jensens. I made some simple adapters with male spade connectors and speaker wire. Pretty easy, and reversible.

After all that work, the JBL 15” sounded no better for steel than the Jensens.

Steve-Thanks for the wiring tip.I checked cab sizes at Sweetwater.The Tone-Master is ever so slightly taller,wider,and less deep.The differences are in the tenths of inches,so it could be just measurement error.I'm almost certain the Custom 15 uses a regular Twin chassis....

I bought a Tone Master Twin last week. It is a great amp, although I am still working on finding the tone that I want. Here is a video of a head arrangement I came up with for "The Waltz You Saved For Me," played through the Tone Master Twin. I have only been playing 7 months, so go easy on me.

https://mixcord.co/acapella/p/7sUPuKMR9 ... -tXKuvgT2I

Jordan, not too bad. I'm working with mine again to see if I can find the sweet spot. Overall it's a good sounding amp, just not exactly what I was looking for in tone. Keep up the good work.

I purchased one of these after reading about them online. I haven’t been on the forum in a while and wasn’t surprised to see all these posts. This is a fantastic amp. I’m not sure how Fender did this. Great clarity and feel. Controls all stay true to its tube counterpart. I’m sure the trained ear could discern subtle differences, however, the differences may sway you to the Tone Master. I’m not by any means a steel guitar guru, but I do appreciate when a company goes the extra step to make a faithful recreation. Kudos to the Fender team. Here are a few vids from the other night running on the 40 watt setting. Excuse the questionable playing lol.

https://youtu.be/ZVvK6uH8ATY

https://youtu.be/F1RyuZma5Fc

This series appears to be pretty good, and I'm sure everyone is ga ga over the weight and tone, but I'm still wondering why, in 2019/2020 , AMP MFGs are making amps without a Phones out or an EXT Speaker out. I can live without Phones out, but for me, NO Ext Speaker out removes me from the interested party camp !

Sorry to revive an old thread, but has anyone played through the blonde version of the tone master twin, with the cream back speakers? If so, what are your thoughts?

Also, for those of you that have had the tone master for a while, are you still liking it?

I played through one at the Dallas show last year and really liked it, and am really considering getting one, so any input would be greatly appreciated...

Jeremy

I’m still happy with mine, and with the free reverb upgrade, a significant improvement.

These amps were flying off the shelf at the box stores we all hate. I bought this amp knowing I could always sell it to a six stringer if I didn’t care for it. I’m keeping it.

No regrets here.

Best do everything amp I’ve ever owned. Really like it.

..has anyone played through the blonde version of the tone master twin, with the cream back speakers?

I bought one back in November. I ended up with the blonde one for a couple of reasons; I liked the look, and I also like Celestion speakers for guitar. I've got a 'real' '69 Twin drip-edge (with original 2-12s), a Quilter Steelaire, and a first year Session 400, and the Blonde version 'seems' to compare favorably to all of those as an option for steel, subject to actually playing it on a gig of course. I really can't comment on how it will work on stage yet, but I'm hoping it can be my go-to amp for gigs where I double on guitar and steel (I like two channels). We'll see..

Caveat; I haven't played through the black Tone Master Twin, so I don't know how the blonde one with Celestions really compares to that.

BTW, I've got a bunch of 'real' Celestion green backs in other amps, and these cream Neos seem to be in the ball park for sure. I'm not sure they'd work for every steel player, but they are very nice with my Strat and Tele. I personally don't like a really bright steel tone, so they have plenty of 'edge' for me. YMMV...