Tone Master Twin Hiss?

[Alex Stewart]

Hey all,

I just received my Tonemaster Twin today and was surprised to hear hiss when nothing is plugged in and the volume and treble are both at 10. Power at full; both channels, bright switch on and off. For some reason I thought I had read that these were absolutely quiet. Maybe I'm mistaken. Just trying to figure out if the amp I got is normal or not. Bought from Sweetwater, so I can return it if necessary.

It is the black tolex w/Jensens and I did the reverb-only firmware update before I even tried it out.

Of course I will never play it at volume/treble 10, but I can hear it a bit at vol 5, treble 10 (which I will never use), too. If this is normal, I'm fine with it. It is quiet enough that it will never be heard while playing, although I could imagine a sound engineer mentioning it. If it's not normal, I'd like to know.

I'd appreciate a confirmation of hiss or no hiss from some of you Tonemaster guys. Thanks-Al

[Steve Spitz]

Mine is quiet, no hiss.
Does it hiss with nothing plugged in ?

[Larry Dering]

Steve, do you have the volume maxed? I will check mine but I'm certain it will hiss on 10. Most amps will.

[Alex Stewart]

Steve,

It only hisses when the treble is also turned up. I received a reply from Fender saying that the modeling does have some hiss.

I also compared it to a vintage Fender and it seems like they nailed the hiss...lol!

[Keith Hilton]

Alex, try the amp in a different building with the same tests. See if the noise is the same or different. There can be noise in the ground line, this noise can be transferred to the board. Not many buildings have perfect grounds for audio equipment.
I can't think of any amp that would have zero noise with the volume maxed out on 10 and the treble maxed out on 10. There is a thing called "white noise", and I never understood how noise could have a color. How about "clear noise".

[George Macdonald]

I've had mine for over a year now and I can't hear much of anything when the amp is set at a reasonable level. At home I set the attenuator at 22 watts and the volume and treble at 5. Practically silent. When I last played at Church for some recordings for you tube services, I still set it on 22 watts with tracks. I can't imagine any amp being silent when set at maximum volume and treble. The Tonemaster Twin has the power of an 85 watt tube amp or 200 watt solid state. For me, it is the best amp I have had in over 40 years. [Since I had tube twins with JBLs, that weighed almost 3 times as much as the Tonemaster.]

[Brooks Montgomery]

No hiss on mine.

[Bill Terry]

Thermal noise maybe? It's always there, all those electrons bumping around, made audible by the extremely high gain (everything on 10)?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson%E ... uist_noise

[Stephen Cowell]

Swap around the 12AX7's/7025's and see if you've got the best one in your 'gain hole'. Each tube will have a different hiss... sometimes the hissy one sounds best, or is hotter... the only way to tell is to swap them around.

Folks can pay exorbitant sums (250$) for a good Telefunken or Mullard 7025 NOS. I like to pick up old PA amplifiers at hamfests and garage sales just to find these puppies. There is a big difference in tubes when you put them at the first of the chain.

[Alex Stewart]

Very true, Stephan, but these new ToneMaster models from Fender are tubeless! It's hard to keep up with all the new stuff coming out constantly, I know.

They make a ToneMaster Twin Reverb and a Deluxe Reverb. Look exactly like the real deal, but soild-state modelers with neodynium speakers. The Twin weighs in about 32lbs. and the Deluxe about 22lbs. A lot of guys really like them.

Thank you for trying to help me, though. I appreciate the effort!