The Steel Guitar Forum

Years ago I had a Fender Twin Reverb with two JBL D120F speakers. Never thought about it being "different" than only having one. Now with the new Fender and two speakers again, the initial tests this morning I didn't give it a thought.

I have had 2 days now to play with the new Fender Twin. It most definitely is a keeper. I really like having the extra channel with tone controls to play my tracks thru without having to use a separate amp. Rick, you did a good job with this one.

I took one out on a gig last night...looking for a one amp solution for Steel and Telecaster. I've been carrying out two amps because there has been no one amp that I have found that works well for both.

I would not have even considered a Twin an option for dual use before due to the regular twin amp weight. I ruined my back on a Music Man with JBLs in the 70s.

I used the tremolo channel for guitar and channel one for steel. It was a smaller club so I dialed it back to 45 watts. The room was full and the PA was Loud. I set the volume on both channels around 4-5. I could have dialed back the wattage for guitar more because when testing at home the sweet spot seemed to be like 6 or 7 at 45 watts, but with an Earth Drive the Tele sounded great. The Amp was miked so no report on the line out.

The 45 watts was good for steel.. plenty of headroom, clean and loud... a little verb and delay.. Telonics VP so opted not to use the bright switch. I did bump the bass up to 7 It was not too muddy.

FWIW..I also tried a Stelling Banjo w Kavanjo PU w Felix Pre .. at home ...it sounded really good

I am not the best reviewer because I am not a regular Twin player but after one night I was very satisfied with this amp for what I need it for. Not ready to sell the Telonics or Milkman Creamer but on gigs when I play both Steel and guitar this seems like a great solution. I would expect it would be somewhat better the more I dial it in and when the speakers are worked in. It will definitely need more workouts to really see.

I also have different larger venues coming up so it will be interesting to see what I might do with the wattage selection in the next few months.

I tried the "Twin" with my D-10 Franklin yesterday. Very reminiscent of my old real Twin Reverb.

I set it up as I normally do for live performances:
Franklin D-10 with Lawrence 710 pickups
Goodrich Matchbro (original version)
Hilton Volume Pedal
POD X3 for effects only no amp modeling and set on Delay/Reverb
Amp

I used the Vibrato channel
Channel 2
Bright Switch Off
Treble and Middle 5
Bass 6

Clean highs and lows. What I would like to hear, and I use hearing aids to compensate for high frequency loss.

The acid test will be a live situation and I'll use it at Cowboy Church Sunday and at my regular Monday night gig.

The only negative I've found is the crappy handle. I give Fender an "F" for the handle. Its tight and won't lay flat and feels like cheap plastic and no metal insert. Its not standard size or I'd replace it with a good Penn-Elcon like I use on all my case and cabinet builds.

I don't see a headphone out,,,no way for private practice????

Sonny,

couldn't one run the line out into a mixer and use headphones from there?

Actually, I don;t think any amp I own has a headphone out.

Did anyone try the Deluxe version?

Sonny Jenkins wrote:I don't see a headphone out,,,no way for private practice????

Sonny, the easiest way is to get a small, inexpensive mixer that has XLR and a headphone out. Plug the TM into it and then you’ll have silent practice!

I often keep it in standby, plug it into my ProTools interface, and use my studio monitors to listen. Sounds great!

I tried the Twin Tonemaster today in the store with a few six string guitars (no pedal steels). It sounds good.
I was concerned with the "touch-feedback" when playing the solid state version compared to the tube version. You know, getting string nuances from pick and fingers. The touch response felt pretty natural, like it would with a tube amp... Also , the attenuation dial for playing at lower volumes sounded good. The tone seemed pretty constant while the volume was attenuated.
I am still waiting to try a deluxe version.

K

The Tone Master Twin Reverb passed the "acid test" for me after using it on two gigs (Sunday and Monday). Even our lead guitar player, who is a must have Fender tube amp type, was impressed and comment how well I sounded last night. He even had to try it with his Strat Plus guitar and it sounded the same as with his black face Pro Reverb.

As with my initial evaluation the plastic (and non US standard size) handle still sucks.

Thanks for that update, Jack. Mine is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Can't wait to check it out.

Hi, I just found out about this and the Deluxe Reverb version last night, and they look very interesting to me. I do a lot of gigs on which I double on lead and steel, and have for the last 25 years been looking for a rig that works well and sounds good for both, and is simple and light and capable of keeping up on the loud gigs. I have gone through more permutations than I can easily count, and the quest continues.

One of the more successful iterations, as far as sound is concerned, involved a SF Dual Showman Reverb which has been "blackfaced" and modified - Reverb & Trem on both channels, jack for remote reverb control. For a while I had the chassis in a Twin-sized combo cab with a Telonics 15, but even with the neo speaker the amp was a backbreaker. In the head cabinet it is still heavy, and although it isn't as heavy as the combo, it is no easier to deal with, because it is still heavy, it is very unbalanced, it is still big, but the combo has casters whereas the head must be lugged. Either way my 66-year-old back isn't happy.

This (I reflexively shudder to type the word) digital Twin seems like it could fit the bill perfectly as far as features and form factor go, however I have a concern and a couple of comments. (Rick, apologies if I offend you on behalf of Fender Inc.)

1) Most stock Twins I have played have a piercing quality to the high end that is usually impossible to dial out using the amps tone controls. This is a real problem for me in getting the warm/bluesy basic lead guitar tone I am after. Admittedly this depends on what kind of speakers are installed. If this is part of the faithful emulation of the traditional Twin, I suppose it would make for the same difficulty.

2) I have only watched one video review, but based on that the reverb dwell is pretty long for my taste. Real spring reverb tanks are available with different specs so there is some choice in the matter, not so with this amp. A dwell control would have been nice.

3) Another design feature comment - an option to have the power scaling work on only one of the channels would have been very handy for a doubling amp.

I am under absolutely no illusion that Fender will be interested in redesigning the amp for me. But I thought the feedback might prove useful. Sometimes emulations can be too faithful. (I am reminded of the UAD powered plug-in emulations of vintage compressors. They have gone to great lengths to model original hardware units, but in their mission to create spot-on emulations they missed an opportunity to add features than could have been very welcome - for example a side-chain/key input on an 1176 would be extremely useful, and would have been fairly simple to add to the code. But I digress.)

I do look forward to trying one of these out. The quibbles above notwithstanding, I still think it has the potential to be a effective solution to my ongoing quest for a good doubling rig for the way-too-loud club gigs I do.

Regarding Per Berner's comment about intermodulation distortion, this is a phenomenon of physics, much different than the clipping that most of us think of when we use the term distortion. When two frequencies are superimposed on one another there are two additional frequencies which are naturally created - one that is the sum of the two, and one that is the difference, ie the result of subtracting the smaller from the larger. The closer the two frequencies are to one another, the lower the difference frequency will be.

An example that most of us are familiar with is the beats we hear when tuning two notes to one another - the slow pulse is the difference frequency and as the two tones get closer and closer the beats slow down. When they are perfectly in tune the difference frequency approaches zero and the beats stop.

This is very apparent when playing with a lot of distortion and bending one note into unison against another. As far as I know the best if not only solution is to limit the low frequency response of the circuit so that the low end is rolled off above the range of the offending difference frequencies.

I would add to my review above that I have played this amp on several more gigs now and still really like it. Two different guitar players that I have played with a lot over the years that have discriminating tone have commented how great the amp sounds.

I would agree with the feedback above about being able to change the wattage on a single channel would be really amazing feature and helpful for players using it for guitar and steel.

I will be interested to hear from Steel Players/ Guitar Players who have used the Twin for years and try the Tone Master amp.

It occurs to me that the above-referenced feature changes would only require re-writing some code and not require changes to the hardware, so maybe incorporating them in a firmware update wouldn't be completely outside the realm of possibility, although I don't see any port that would allow connection to a computer.

The USB port is underneath the chassis.

From the manual:

USB PORT (NOT SHOWN): For firmware updates, a USB port is located on the underside of the chassis beneath the OUTPUT
POWER section. Visit fender.com/firmware/support for periodic
firmware updates that improve and enhance the Tone Master
experience

Excellent!

I'm really excited by the statement Jack Stoner made when his guitar player compared this to his Pro Reverb. I had a Pro that was stolen years ago, my favorite amp. While I own 2 Twin Reverbs, both ultra linear tube type, they never measure up to my old Pro. Also Jack still likes the amp. That's saying a lot about it's tone. I will have to try one out.

Jack Stoner wrote:The Tone Master Twin Reverb passed the "acid test" for me after using it on two gigs (Sunday and Monday). Even our lead guitar player, who is a must have Fender tube amp type, was impressed and comment how well I sounded last night. He even had to try it with his Strat Plus guitar and it sounded the same as with his black face Pro Reverb.

As with my initial evaluation the plastic (and non US standard size) handle still sucks.

Jack, if that’s your only negative if the amp, I’ll take it! Haha.

The handle that comes on it is the same one that comes on the standard tube reissues as well and we’ve used it for twenty something years. It’s not exactly the same as the originals but it’s as close as we can get these days.

Hope you continue to enjoy this amp for a long time to come.

Rick

I haven't read all four pages of comments, maybe this has been addressed. How about a head version of that Twin--call it a Fender Showman Tone Master?

A few years ago I bought a fender head amp that was perhaps a precursor. I forgot the name--Fender 100 or something. It was a solid-state head with lots of model settings but the tone just wasn't happening. I only played a few gigs with it, then passed it on. Lots of us steel guitarists have several speaker cabs with different drivers. I have EV, Eminence, Sica and a Travis Toy. I really don't need more speakers but would love a head version of this new Twin.

Rick, I've built a lot of amp cabinets, effects cases, steel cases, seats, etc over the years. I always used a Penn-Elcon handle.

I "fixed" the handle which is tight and binding by replacing the original metal end caps with Penn-Elcon end caps which are slightly larger. The plastic (metal reinforced) handle can now move freely.

If the stock handles do not do this, then I need a warranty replacement for a defective one from Fender.

Jack,

I think you got a lemon handle: mine feels great. But, as Rick says, if that's the biggest problem with the amp, Fender is doing okay!

Jack Stoner wrote:Rick, I've built a lot of amp cabinets, effects cases, steel cases, seats, etc over the years. I always used a Penn-Elcon handle.

I "fixed" the handle which is tight and binding by replacing the original metal end caps with Penn-Elcon end caps which are slightly larger. The plastic (metal reinforced) handle can now move freely.

If the stock handles do not do this, then I need a warranty replacement for a defective one from Fender.

Jack, hmm, that sounds weird. I don't have that issue with any of the TMs I've seen or played. Please contact customer service at Fender and they will take care of you.

1-800-856-9801 (US Toll Free)
1-480-596-7195 (International)
https://support.fender.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

John Groover McDuffie wrote:Hi, I just found out about this and the Deluxe Reverb version last night, and they look very interesting to me. I do a lot of gigs on which I double on lead and steel, and have for the last 25 years been looking for a rig that works well and sounds good for both, and is simple and light and capable of keeping up on the loud gigs. I have gone through more permutations than I can easily count, and the quest continues.

One of the more successful iterations, as far as sound is concerned, involved a SF Dual Showman Reverb which has been "blackfaced" and modified - Reverb & Trem on both channels, jack for remote reverb control. For a while I had the chassis in a Twin-sized combo cab with a Telonics 15, but even with the neo speaker the amp was a backbreaker. In the head cabinet it is still heavy, and although it isn't as heavy as the combo, it is no easier to deal with, because it is still heavy, it is very unbalanced, it is still big, but the combo has casters whereas the head must be lugged. Either way my 66-year-old back isn't happy.

This (I reflexively shudder to type the word) digital Twin seems like it could fit the bill perfectly as far as features and form factor go, however I have a concern and a couple of comments. (Rick, apologies if I offend you on behalf of Fender Inc.)

1) Most stock Twins I have played have a piercing quality to the high end that is usually impossible to dial out using the amps tone controls. This is a real problem for me in getting the warm/bluesy basic lead guitar tone I am after. Admittedly this depends on what kind of speakers are installed. If this is part of the faithful emulation of the traditional Twin, I suppose it would make for the same difficulty.

2) I have only watched one video review, but based on that the reverb dwell is pretty long for my taste. Real spring reverb tanks are available with different specs so there is some choice in the matter, not so with this amp. A dwell control would have been nice.

3) Another design feature comment - an option to have the power scaling work on only one of the channels would have been very handy for a doubling amp.

I am under absolutely no illusion that Fender will be interested in redesigning the amp for me. But I thought the feedback might prove useful. Sometimes emulations can be too faithful. (I am reminded of the UAD powered plug-in emulations of vintage compressors. They have gone to great lengths to model original hardware units, but in their mission to create spot-on emulations they missed an opportunity to add features than could have been very welcome - for example a side-chain/key input on an 1176 would be extremely useful, and would have been fairly simple to add to the code. But I digress.)

I do look forward to trying one of these out. The quibbles above notwithstanding, I still think it has the potential to be a effective solution to my ongoing quest for a good doubling rig for the way-too-loud club gigs I do.

John, you have some interesting suggestions but as of now we have no plans to modify these amps. Most players absolutely love the feature set as is. The reverb trails replicate the original 60s amp we modeled them from. I just turn down the reverb to about 2 and it feels great to me. Some are used to a more modern hall reverb that is more transparent so that's when using a pedal comes into play.

As far as scaling per side, that would be very difficult to do and I'm not sure how many would use it that way. I think the misconception is someone just writes a little code and you update it via USB but the reality is far, far more complicated than that.

Also, no plans for a head as of now. I know steel players like this but in general we sell significantly less heads than combos so I would never say never but not anytime soon.

We have all kinds of ideas as to where we will take this line and all I can say is that I'm very excited as an employee and also as a player.

The Stage 100 DSP Fender head I bought some years ago. The Stage 100 DSP was mediocre and used prices will reflect that.



The one with the blonde tolex is the much more desirable Tone Master 100w head from the '90s. You'll have to pony up for that all-tube TM 100. Prices are in the $1200+ range. Or find an original Showman head.



Fender currently makes a Mustang 150w head with the TV-style control panel--not easy to see when you're sitting down.