
Fender extends its digital modeling series into lower volume realms—adapting one of its great club and studio amps with appetizing and convenient results.
Beautiful black-panel clean tones at several attenuation levels. Six- and 3-watt settings enable cool gritty sounds at lower volumes. Light weight. Attractive vintage looks.
Some fit-and-finish miscues around the grille. Some digital artifacts at higher volumes, at high reverb levels, and when paired with fuzz.
$899
Fender Princeton Tone Master
fender.com
A lot of classic-car-heads (a certain Neil Young among them) believe the best way to ensure a future for 20th-century automobiles is to electrify them—to mate the designs of the past with technology of the present and future. In a way, Fender’s Tone Master modeling amps, which use digital processing in 1960s-style black-panel cabinets, are products of parallel thinking. Tube amps may not yet be an endangered species, nor CO2-spewing threats to the environment. But these days, you don’t need a big Twin Reverb cabinet to get a passably modeled representation of a Twin Reverb’s sound—just like you don’t need a 1959 Lincoln to get to work. Still, if you’ve spent most of your guitar-playing life in the analog realm, find inspiration in the company of vintage design, and never want to think about a tube change ever—well, then stuffing a little processor in a big, old-school cabinet makes perfect sense.
What’s cool and convenient about the Princeton Reverb Tone Master, of course, is that it’s not big at all. Nor is it heavy. Shunning a tube circuit means it weighs just 20 pounds—even with a ceramic, vintage-style Jensen C10R 10" speaker. And as far as digital-meets-mid-century design convergences go, you won’t find many examples that are more fun and practical.
Blink and You’ll Miss It
Just like a ’60s black-panel Princeton Reverb, the China-built Tone Master version is a slyly cool piece of kit. It’s small enough to go missing in the shadowy corners of a stage, save for the telltale glow of Fender’s signature jewel lamp. When situated more conspicuously, though, the Princeton Tone Master is the handsome essence of amplifierness. And if you’re not looking too closely, it’s easy to assume you’re plugging into a tube version. The control layout is the same, and apart from the jewel lamp glowing amber in mute mode, there are few hints that it might have a digital heart. The back side of the amp, however, reveals more clues. There are no heavy transformers or fragile tubes hanging from the chassis. And while the back panel isn’t much busier than a tube version, there are extra controls that are keys to the Tone Master’s extra flexibility. To the average player, the most critical of these will be the 6-position power attenuation switch, which moves between a Princeton’s traditional 12 watts down to 6, 3, 1.5, .75, and .3 watts. There’s also an XLR out which is accompanied by an output level control and a switch that activates two impulse response cabinet simulations. This additional functionality enables you to send the Princeton’s output to a recording interface or to a house PA.
At the full 12 watt setting, it’s a little fireball, particularly when you lean in with your picking hand.
Reverberations Across the Uncanny Valley
Like its cousin the Deluxe Tone Master (which we reviewed back in 2020), the Princeton Tone Master could leave a lot of experienced players scratching their head over whether it’s tube or digital—particularly when it’s situated in a mix, and especially at cleaner, lower volumes. Keen ears may hear less dimensionality compared to a vintage Fender amp (and really, you could say the same thing about a lot of amps). But the Tone Master is alive with a lot of the exciting, ringing high-end that makes a genuine black-panel Princeton an overachiever on small stages and a breeze to work with in a studio. Pairing it with a Telecaster sounds like heaven, whether you like jangly rhythm stuff or the greasiest Bakersfield twang. Low-end output is impressive, too. I’ve been surprised more than once at how much thump a tube Princeton can generate with a good speaker, and the Tone Master version hangs tough on that front as well. I guessed the semi-hollow with PAFs I used in this test would cloud the pretty clean details I heard with single-coils. But at moderate volumes, even low frequencies from the bottom string in D and C tunings resonated sweetly and with nearly as much heft as a Deluxe Reverb with a 12" speaker.
The Princeton is also loud. At the full 12-watt setting, it’s a little fireball, particularly when you lean in with your picking hand. But it still screams in 6-watt mode when you turn the amp volume up. In fact, these slightly quieter but more compressed, fatter, and toothy tones are some of my favorites from the amp. I loved the 3 watt mode for all the same reasons, while the 1.5-watt setting evoked an old black- or silver-panel Champ. Only at .75 and .3-watt settings did the amp sound discernibly thin and lacking in the well-rounded body found at other settings.
Generally, the Princeton Tone Master pairs well with effects. Drive pedals, though, should be used with care. Overdrives sound pretty good as long as you keep them in the low- to medium-gain realm. Fuzzes, however, tend to sound raspier than they would with an equivalent tube amp. I still had fun with these textures, and many can be sculpted with judicious use of the guitar and amp tone controls. But any digitalness you might sense in overtones at clean settings will be a lot more overt with a buzzing ’60s-style fuzz out front.
The Verdict
After reviewing the Deluxe Tone Master, I recommended it to several friends hunting for vintage Fender amp sounds, who also needed attenuated settings at home, and who would appreciate the ease and aesthetic of the 1960s amp format. I’d recommend the Princeton for the same reasons and more. It’s compact and it sounds great at civilized volumes. Plus, at 20 pounds, you can move it around the house, or to the car, bus, or subway, without a care. If you move between pristine, surfy clean tones and gnarly fuzz sounds (and I relate), you’ll want to listen to how the Princeton Tone Master interacts with your gain device of choice. But the less pleasing overtones you hear with some fuzz is one of the amp’s few limitations. For most it will be a very sensible and convenient way to bathe in the glorious sounds of black-panel Fenderness—and at a very appealing price, too.
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Stompboxtober Day 29 is live! Enter today to win a pedal from StewMac—more chances to win tomorrow!
StewMac International House of Overdrive Pedal Kit, With Bare Enclosure
The IHOO is based on the Crowther Hot Cake, an overdrive that became available around 1976. It was one of the earliest hand-made boutique effects pedals available. The circuit was designed to be what is now referred to as a “transparent” overdrive. An effect that enhances the player's sound while keeping the original tone intact.
This circuit has undergone many changes since its inception, and we have further expanded on the design by returning to an earlier version most revered by players and removing the buffer, which resulted in a reworked circuit that is true bypass but still retains the charm of the design.
We also include the original LM741 IC chip found in the originals, as well as the TL071 that is found in later versions so you can experiment with which IC best suits your playing style.
A 1000-watt speaker cabinet crafted for musicians who demand power and precision. Sunn Amps intends to reinvent the standard 4x12 configuration with the introduction of this new cabinet.
The Sunn Amps DoomBox is built to accommodate both guitar and bass, offering an impressive 1000-watt handling capacity—making it the first commercially available 4x12 cabinet with such high power handling. With four specially designed 12” drivers rated at 250 watts each, this cabinet provides clean, unrestrained sound levels that can maintain power integrity across all frequencies, ideal for high-volume performances.
Inspired and developed using feedback from artists and bands who rely on the depth of lower tunings and high volume genres, the DoomBox was engineered to meet the unique demands of professional musicians looking for a robust, high-efficiency cab that can translate the raw power of their sound without compromise.
Premium Craftsmanship and Materials
The Doom Box cabinet is crafted from solid finger-jointed Baltic Birch plywood, ensuring both durability and tonal clarity. Each cabinet is constructed by hand in the U.S.A. using original 1930s machinery, the DoomBox reflects Sunn’s historic commitment to quality, contrasting with some of the mass-produced, MDF-based cabinets on the market today. The cabinet’s aluminum basket, ferrite magnet, and custom Sunn weave Tolex with a custom grill design complete its professional-grade build.
Technical Specifications:
• Power Handling: 1000W
• Inputs: 1 x ¼”
• Impedance: 8 Ohm
• Drivers: 4 x Sunn 12S250
• Construction: Marine Grade Baltic Birch
• Dimensions: 29.25” X 30” X 14”
• Weight: 107 lbs
• Price: $2399.00
With clear low-end punch, even sound response, and ample air movement, the Doom Box ensures that every note reaches the audience with clarity and power. This cabinet is a game-changer for musicians who need high-performance, road-ready equipment that enhances their unique sound.
Does the guitar’s design encourage sonic exploration more than sight reading?
A popular song between 1910 and 1920 would usually sell millions of copies of sheet music annually. The world population was roughly 25 percent of what it is today, so imagine those sales would be four or five times larger in an alternate-reality 2024. My father is 88, but even with his generation, friends and family would routinely gather around a piano and play and sing their way through a stack of songbooks. (This still happens at my dad’s house every time I’m there.)
Back in their day, recordings of music were a way to promote sheet music. Labels released recordings only after sheet-music sales slowed down on a particular song. That means that until recently, a large section of society not only knew how to read music well, but they did it often—not as often as we stare at our phones, but it was a primary part of home entertainment. By today’s standards, written music feels like a dead language. Music is probably the most common language on Earth, yet I bet it has the highest illiteracy rate.
Developed specifically for Tyler Bryant, the Black Magick Reverb TB is the high-power version of Supro's flagship 1x12 combo amplifier.
At the heart of this all-tube amp is a matched pair of military-grade Sovtek 5881 power tubes configured to deliver 35-Watts of pure Class A power. In addition to the upgraded power section, the Black Magick Reverb TB also features a “bright cap” modification on Channel 1, providing extra sparkle and added versatility when blended with the original Black Magick preamp on Channel 2.
The two complementary channels are summed in parallel and fed into a 2-band EQ followed by tube-driven spring reverb and tremolo effects plus a master volume to tame the output as needed. This unique, signature variant of the Black Magick Reverb is dressed in elegant Black Scandia tolex and comes loaded with a custom-built Supro BD12 speaker made by Celestion.
Price: $1,699.