Fender Tone Master Pro: Episode IV - A New Hope

[Mongillo19]

I'm going to be genuinely disappointed if after your gear hiatus you decide the Fender TMP is the way

 

[metropolis_4]

I'm going to be genuinely disappointed if after your gear hiatus you decide the Fender TMP is the way

I thought about it for a second, and then in every video showing the Vox or Marshall amps, or even the drive pedals, I immediately hear all the things I hated so much about it

 

[Aleksi]

I just had a look at the Fender Discord. It does actually look more like a traditional forum. Neural only has the text channels, which are useless for any kind of in depth conversation.

 

[DrewJD82]

I just had a look at the Fender Discord. It does actually look more like a traditional forum. Neural only has the text channels, which are useless for any kind of in depth conversation.

I think that’s intentional on NDSP’s part.

 

[Aleksi]

I think that’s intentional on NDSP’s part.

To be fair, they do have a unity forum. But most of the users are on discord and it's awful.

 

[mbenigni]

To be fair, they do have a unity forum. But most of the users are on discord and it's awful.

The names aren't exactly sneaky. I mean, you ask people whether they want "Unity" or "Discord" and they say, "Discord". You can only surmise that they got what they deserved.

 

[Aleksi]

I was actually wondering why they called it discord. Weird choice. I guess honda owns accord.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I thought about it for a second, and then in every video showing the Vox or Marshall amps, or even the drive pedals, I immediately hear all the things I hated so much about it

I found some solid things on the dirt side of tone in it. But it was so just flatline overall and miles behind anything else in the space it made no sense to wait around to see if things caught up. I would assume (hopefully for people who have one) that stuff should be coming here soon? No desire to revisit it.

 

[TimOwens316]

Discord is not a forum one way or the other; it’s a firehose of random comments and is therefore fundamentally useless.

Agreed, if you can't afford to create your own forum or don't want to for whatever reason, what does that say about your company?

 

[JiveTurkey]

The call to create a forum create a forum create a forum on a brand who closed their official forum not that long seems like a dumb ask when they should be focusing on developing the actual product they want a forum for. There's nothing deep to discuss on it.

 

[DrewJD82]

To be fair, they do have a unity forum. But most of the users are on discord and it's awful.

hahahahah yeah, the forum that’s meant for support where at best the moderator can also tell support “Hey, this guy has a problem” but usually just replies “I haven’t experienced that”

 

[DrewJD82]

I just shot a message to @jdzialak, he was one of the beta guys and has been using the TMP consistently since. Joe lives in the Marshall/Suhr tone world and is a rippin’ guitarist and I’d love to hear his thoughts on the TMP since he’s actually using it and has a nice stack of amps to compare it to.

 

[metropolis_4]

I found some solid things on the dirt side of tone in it. But it was so just flatline overall and miles behind anything else in the space it made no sense to wait around to see if things caught up. I would assume (hopefully for people who have one) that stuff should be coming here soon? No desire to revisit it.

I think the best thing I found on the dirt side was the Bassbreaker.

The two things that bothered me most were the aliasing and the response. Especially the response in the low end. There was just something weird about it on the Vox and Marshall amps. I can hear it all over Pete Thorn’s video.

When I started hearing about the way the speaker response was done it made a lot of sense to me because that’s exactly what it felt like

 

[metropolis_4]

This is total uninformed personal speculation/opinion, but the amps almost sound like they chose to under-sample the amps so you could squeeze more stuff into the signal chain before hitting the DSP ceiling.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I think the best thing I found on the dirt side was the Bassbreaker.

The two things that bothered me most were the aliasing and the response. Especially the response in the low end. There was just something weird about it on the Vox and Marshall amps. I can hear it all over Pete Thorn’s video.

When I started hearing about the way the speaker response was done it made a lot of sense to me because that’s exactly what it felt like

I thought the Recto was good. I tend to get along with those in anything other than Boss land? The Friedman was ok and I got a good to me Marshall thing with the 800. Bassbreaker was good but I didn't see myself using it.

Pedal detune was actually the thing that sounded the best to me but it had what felt like a TON of latency. The thing that was weird to me overall is there was no way near enough of a significant difference between using the presumably last gen amps in my Mustang GT combo with my go to IRs vs. the TMP with those same go to IRs through the same monitors. I am sure there are converter/hardware improvements but the sound was not $1.4-1.5k "better" (with the knowledge that I would still need to buy something to monitor the TMP with) vs. using the GT as an all in one "solution".

 

[metropolis_4]

I thought the Recto was good. I tend to get along with those in anything other than Boss land? The Friedman was ok and I got a good to me Marshall thing with the 800. Bassbreaker was good but I didn't see myself using it.

Pedal detune was actually the thing that sounded the best to me but it had what felt like a TON of latency. The thing that was weird to me overall is there was no way near enough of a significant difference between using the presumably last gen amps in my Mustang GT combo with my go to IRs vs. the TMP with those same go to IRs through the same monitors. I am sure there are converter/hardware improvements but the sound was not $1.4-1.5k "better" (with the knowledge that I would still need to buy something to monitor the TMP with) vs. using the GT as an all in one "solution".

Yeah, we’re coming from different places. I loved my real Dual Rec, but I tend to not like any digital models of Recto’s. Except maybe the Fractal one. I remember the Friedman being better than the Marshalls, but it sounded like a Friedman, haha.

My biggest problem with the 800 is that what I actually love 800s for the most is clean to low gain. I love the attack on the notes in those settings. But it was impossible to get those tones out of the TMP 800 because it didn’t behave at all like a real 800. It always had a weird distortion even with the gain on 0 and it wasn’t responsive like it should be to clean up with the guitar volume knob.

It’s been a long time since I played a Mustang but I feel like the blackface amps in the TMP are better? But the other amps do sound about the same as I remember.

 

[la szum]

I think the best thing I found on the dirt side was the Bassbreaker.

That's still fucking hilarious to me. Because everyone wanted the 2000's version of a $600 tube amp.

"Paging Peavey Valveking. Peavey Valveking. Come on Peavey Valveking."

 

[timbuck3]

I just shot a message to @jdzialak, he was one of the beta guys and has been using the TMP consistently since. Joe lives in the Marshall/Suhr tone world and is a rippin’ guitarist and I’d love to hear his thoughts on the TMP since he’s actually using it and has a nice stack of amps to compare it to.

but as a beta guy isnt he somewhat biased? I mean he wants to keep being a beta guy right?

 

[la szum]

This is the problem with it though. $1600 spent on something that's "good". "ok".

I'd argue "not good." You can't have that many glaring misses on what is an $1800 unit once you
get taxed.

Fender be like ....

..... with the TMP.

 

[DrewJD82]

but as a beta guy isnt he somewhat biased? I mean he wants to keep being a beta guy right?

That’s an awful lot of assumption for someone you know nothing about.

If YOU, TimBuck3, had an AWESOME pile of amps that you know and love and have gigged for years, would YOU stop using them in favor of an option that doesn’t do what you want, just so maybe someday if a company releases some new gear you might get the chance to try it before everyone else?

Because to me, that sounds like an exercise in fucking stupid.