Fender Tone Master Pro: Episode IV - A New Hope

Jarick said:
Do they have enough differentiation to stand out?
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That’s the big question.

Honestly, I can’t think of anything that makes it stand out that would make me recommend it to someone over other devices out there.

I guess spring reverb. If you play surf or if you are a fan of spring reverb it is by far the best available device out there today for spring reverb.


I think the selling point needs to be that they are THE authority on digital Fender amp tones, but they aren’t doing that right now unfortunately. Fractal has them beat at their own game by a good margin
 
Jarick said:
Now almost a decade later Fender's in the same boat. Can they rapidly catch up and compete? Do they have enough differentiation to stand out?
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The answer is probably no. But the bigger question is does it matter? When you have the Fender name, do you need to catch up to compete?
 
metropolis_4 said:
That’s the big question.

Honestly, I can’t think of anything that makes it stand out that would make me recommend it to someone over other devices out there.

I guess spring reverb. If you play surf or if you are a fan of spring reverb it is by far the best available device out there today for spring reverb.


I think the selling point needs to be that they are THE authority on digital Fender amp tones, but they aren’t doing that right now unfortunately. Fractal has them beat at their own game by a good margin
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I think the GUI and unit access and availability is the main selling point. The IOS, bluetooth apps are slick out of the gate. Good sounds can be had. I agree from a sound perspective that Fractal is no slouch.
Cliff's underlying decision to run sales privately is obviously his own choice but in the end, many people just go to the music stores and try things out - then can purchase and return items with no questions asked. That is huge. Just having floor units kicking around across the world will sell units. Many people aren't like me that buy all the units and try them all out. They just buy what is on offer and conveniently located for them. Fender is also a big name to music store chains. If they go to a store and complain, the music store chain is on the nut to satisfy their customers and Fender will get feedback from the chain. If Fractal ever decided to sell at certain chains it would be a big deal. Even if they just picked a few reputable places. If Sweetwater was one of them, it would rock the world. They don't even have to go mass pro. Just sell in bundles related to availability. We see that all the time anyway when we click on things. "new shipment expected on X day"
True story, I once bought a Helix because I accidentally bumped it's cardboard box that was on the floor in my path. Oh, what's this?
 
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Jarick said:
When Helix came out at $1500 it was a shock. Line 6 were competing with Fractal and Kemper in terms of price which was originally seen as a joke. They had to prove their value and they did a great job of it by being innovative and highly responsive.

Now almost a decade later Fender's in the same boat. Can they rapidly catch up and compete? Do they have enough differentiation to stand out?
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And the fact that they are launching at a time that is likely on the cusp of new product cycles from Line6 / Fractal
 
[Nathan] said:
I'd be more interested in Helix if they "TMP / Podfarmed" their layout honestly. Love the sounds but some of the UI/Sliders irk me.
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That’s cool, I just think it’s amusing when people talk about it like it’s something cool or unique and I see it and imagine the development team literally just said “what if you had to use Podfarm on a 7” tablet”?”
 
ian_dissonance said:
That’s cool, I just think it’s amusing when people talk about it like it’s something cool or unique and I see it and imagine the development team literally just said “what if you had to use Podfarm on a 7” tablet”?”
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I get that, but… he may not be wrong. I mean, those of us who have been using digital gear for decades get it, but I’ve seen quite a few people who seem to be just looking at digital for the first time and the TMP GUI does seem to be legitimately cool and unique to them. :idk

It’s all a matter of perspective

Honestly I think Fender knows their target market and are playing to them. Think about it, if you’d never used anything but a Princeton for the last 40 years and never touched anything digital in your life you could imagine it could seem less daunting to visually see something familiar that makes sense to you, and you might be more likely to buy that than something else that looks like a computer program.

We forget that not all guitarists are as tech savvy with gear as those of us who spend time in digital gear forums.
 
metropolis_4 said:
I get that, but… he may not be wrong. I mean, those of us who have been using digital gear for decades get it, but I’ve seen quite a few people who seem to be just looking at digital for the first time and the TMP GUI does seem to be legitimately cool and unique to them. :idk

It’s all a matter of perspective

Honestly I think Fender knows their target market and are playing to them. Think about it, if you’d never used anything but a Princeton for the last 40 years and never touched anything digital in your life you could imagine it could seem less daunting to visually see something familiar that makes sense to you, and you might be more likely to buy that than something else that looks like a computer program.

We forget that not all guitarists are as tech savvy with gear as those of us who spend time in digital gear forums.
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IMO, there's 3 simplified target markets:
- the Fender diehards
- those new to modeling that don't compare every little thing (eg. guy walks into store, what's this? I'll buy it)
- those finicky bastards like me that compare everything and want the best option for me.

I think Fender will have enough new purchasers in the first 2 categories for a while.
Once those are somewhat saturated, then it's up to Fender to have listened to all of the user feature requests and bugs reported to keep sales moving. (I'm still holding out for scenes/snapshots)
 
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norminal said:
Get it while it’s hot
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No Thank You Oasis GIF by AbsoluteRadio
 
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