A legacy as weighty as Fender's can be a curse and a blessing. On one hand, the visual simplicity, elegance, and enduring appeal of most Fender products means that they don't have to reinvent the wheel every day. On the other, deviation from classic formulas can incite minor riots among purists.
In the case of the Tone Master Deluxe Reverb, Fender found a way to have their cake and eat it too. They've adapted the look and operational feel of one of their most iconic products to an impressive digital engine that, in most critical respects, nails the sound of a blackpanel Deluxe. And while replicating a Deluxe's many nuances isn't exactly earthshattering news (several companies have engineered excellent emulations in the digital realm), the way Fender replicates the classic Deluxe Reverb user experience as a whole makes it a masterstroke of product design.
If It Ain't Broke, Make It Digital
From the opposite side of a club, you'd probably mistake the Tone Master Deluxe for a '65 Deluxe Reverb reissue. The only overt differentiating visual cues are the "Tone Master" plate on the lower right corner and the and the lamp that glows orange when the amp is muted. The front-panel control set is identical to an original blackpanel or a modern reissue, complete with "normal" and "vibrato" channels and bright switches for both.
Lift the Tone Master Deluxe by the handle, though, and you grasp that there's much more (or less) here than meets the eye. At just 24 pounds, it's freakishly light. In fact, when the amp arrived, I carried it, in its box, up three flights of stairs with a hand full of onions. The rear of the amp reveals more important differences and extra conveniences.
There's just enough ambient, amp-at-work hiss to make you wonder if you aren't just listening to a freshly tuned tube unit.
The power attenuator, which features settings for 22, 12, 5, 1, .5, and .2 watts of output is invaluable for home use and gigging alike. And the amp's ability to retain most essential performance characteristics at even the lowest output is impressive. The other important back-panel addition is the balanced XLR line out and cabinet simulator with three distinct impulse response simulations, which enables you to silently record (with the help of the "mute" switch that replaces the standby) or run out to a PA and use your amp as a monitor in mic-less situations.
Grace Under Pressure
At clean and low-gain settings, many listeners will struggle to tell a Tone Master and a tube-driven '65 Deluxe Reverb reissue apart. It's certainly quieter, but there's also just enough ambient, amp-at-work hiss to make you wonder if you aren't just listening to a freshly tuned tube unit. If you are among the many players who favor the Deluxe as a foundation for effect-based sound sculpting, you'll love the warm, soft, crystalline, and delicate dynamism qualities of the Tone Master at clean settings.
The amp is even more impressive at low-gain settings, which apart from a little extra excitability and sparkle in the top end, replicate the sounds and responsiveness of the Tone Master's tube counterpart. You can also start to hear very small differences in saturation characteristics here: Most tube versions will exhibit slight, but perceptibly softer compression. But I'd also venture that most players will prefer the extra clarity, which flatters many effects, including low-gain overdrive.
The tremolo and reverb, by the way, are superb. The reverb has a little less of the clanging, electro-mechanical resonance of a vintage tank, but comes dang close and is probably better suited to modern tastes and applications anyway. The tremolo, meanwhile, has a satisfying throb that would likely be indistinguishable in isolation, but which can sound a little less soft and contoured than vintage Fender tremolo side-by-side.
If there is any minor weakness in the Tone Master's performance envelope, it's when extreme fuzz is introduced into the picture. I subjected the Tone Master to an intentionally perverse fuzz brew pairing germanium Tone Bender Mk III and Ampeg Scrambler octave fuzz clones. This tandem can give any amp fits. It's hissing, chaotic, and searing in the high end. Under assault from the Tone Bender/Scrambler tandem, the Tone Master effectively communicated the gnarly ear singe and super-toppy tone profile of the combined pedals. But where my vintage Fender amps maintained a softly compressed and airy space around those tones, the Tone Master Deluxe compressed in a very different way—thinning the overall sonic picture and squeezing the sound in a manner more like an outboard digital limiter than a tube/speaker complement.
The resulting tones are not necessarily harsh or unpleasant. Some players will prefer the way the Tone Master Deluxe makes such radical tones more predictable. But there's less sense of wrangling a living, breathing beast than I experience using the Tone Bender and Scrambler with vintage Fender amps, or the almost equally hectic SuperFuzz/wah/'65 Deluxe Reverb reissue I also use regularly. Such compression characteristics could be a function of the neodymium speaker or a limiting function in the DSP. But on this count, at least, Fender's digital magicians may find room for refinement.
The Verdict
The Tone Master Deluxe reverb is a brilliant, if not revolutionary, concept. It effectively makes what's arguably the greatest-ever gigging amp into a lighter, more flexible, and convenient version of itself. And while the Tone Master Deluxe Reverb is too new to gauge its long-term reliability versus a tube-driven Deluxe, we're guessing few players will miss the hassle and expense of changing and biasing 6V6s every few years. Given how effectively it replicates most of the performance profile of its illustrious inspiration, and the fair price, this excellent emulation may well have the staying power of the original.
First Look - Fender Tone Master Deluxe Reverb
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Price unveiled her new band and her new signature model at a recent performance at the Gibson Garage in Nashville.
The 6-string was inspired by the J-45 she bought at Nashville’s Carter Vintage Guitars after she was signed to Third Man Records, where she made her 2016 ice-breaker album, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter. But her affection for Gibson acoustics predates that, going back to when she found a 1956 LG-3 in her grandmother’s home. The guitar had been abandoned there by her songwriter great uncle, Bobby Fischer.
“I played it for years before I found my J-45,” Price recounts. “At Carter Vintage, I tried a lot of guitars, but when I picked up that J-45, I loved that it was a smaller guitar but really cut through, and I was just really drawn to the sound of it. And so I went home with that guitar and I’ve been playing it ever since.”
“Having a signature model was something I had dreamed about.”
Of course, Price was also aware of the model’s history, but her demands for a guitar were rooted in the present—the requirements of the studio and road. The 1965 J-45 she acquired at Carter Vintage, which is also a cherry ’burst, was especially appealing “compared to a Martin D-21 or some of the other things that I was picking up. I have pretty small hands, and it just was so playable all up the neck. It was something that I could easily play barre chords on. I could immediately get everything that I needed out of it.”
If you’ve seen Price on TV, including stops at Saturday Night Live, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, you’ve seen her ’65. And you’ve also seen, over the years, that part of the soundhole’s top has been scraped away by her aggressive strumming. It’s experienced worse wear from an airline, though. After one unfortunate flight, Price found her guitar practically in splinters inside a badly crushed case. “It was like somebody would have had to drive over this case with a truck,” she relates. Luckily, Dave Johnson from Nashville’s Scale Model Guitars was able to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
After that, an alternative guitar for the road seemed like a requirement. “Having a signature model was something I had dreamed about,” Price says. Friends in her songwriting circle, including Lukas Nelson and Nathaniel Rateliff, already had them. Four years ago, a tweet asking which women they thought should have signature models appeared, and one of her fans wrote “Margo Price.” Smartly, Price tagged Gibson and retweeted. Codey Allen in Gibson entertainment relations spotted the tweet and agreed.
The double pickguard was chosen for Price’s J-45 because of its symmetry, as a nod to the Hummingbird, and due to her heavy strumming hand.
Photo courtesy of Gibson
“The neck is not quite as small as my J-45, but it is just a bit smaller than many J-45s fives, and very playable no matter what size hands you have.”
“And so we began our journey of building this guitar,” Price says. “I debated whether it should be the LG-3, which I still have hanging on my wall, or the J-45. I went to Montana and visited their [acoustic] factory and sat down with Robi Johns [senior product development manager at Gibson acoustic], and we ultimately decided that the J-45 was my guitar. Then we started talking about the specs. We did pull from the LG-3 in that the body of this signature guitar is a bit smaller. It still has a really loud, clear sound that rings through. The neck is not quite as small as my 1965 J-45, but it is just a bit smaller than many J-45s, and very playable no matter what size hands that you have.”
The pickup that Price selected is a L.R. Baggs VTC Element with a preamp, and she took a prototype of the guitar on the road opening for the Tedeschi Trucks Band. “I am used to playing with a really loud band, with drums and sometimes a couple electric guitars, and I wanted to make sure that this guitar just cut through,” she says. “It was really important to me that it be loud, and it cut beautifully. It’s got a mahogany body and scalloped bracing, which makes it very sturdy. This guitar is a workhorse, just like me.”
The Margo Price J-45’s most arresting characteristic, in addition to its warm sunburst finish, is its double-sided pickguard with an etching of a quartet of red-tailed hawks in flight. It’s practical for her strumming style, but it’s also got a deeper significance.
“We talked about all sorts of things that we could put on the pickguard, and I’ve always been a big fan of the Hummingbird, so what we did is a bit of a nod to that,” Price continues. “I’ve always been drawn to red-tailed hawks. They are supposed to be divine messengers, and they have such strength. They symbolize vision and protection. I would always count them along the highway as I’d be driving home to see my family in Illinois.”
Birds of a feather: “I’ve always been drawn to red-tailed hawks,” says Price. “They are supposed to be divine messengers, and they have such strength. They symbolize vision and protection.”
Photo courtesy of Gibson
With its comfortable neck, slightly thinner body, and serious projection, Price notes, “I wanted my guitar to be something that young girls can pick up and feel comfortable in their hands and inspire songs, but I didn’t want it to be so small that it felt like a toy, and that it didn’t have the volume. This guitar has all of those things.” To get her heavy sound, Price uses D’Addario Phosphor Bronze (.012–.053) strings.
Price says she and her signature J-45, which is street priced at $3,999, have been in the studio a lot lately, “and I have a whole bunch of things I’m excited about.” In mid March, she debuted her new band—which includes Logan Ledger and Sean Thompson on guitars, bassist Alec Newman, Libby Weitnauer on fiddle, and Chris Gelb on drums—in a coming out party for the Margo Price Signature Gibson J-45 at the Gibson Garage in Nashville. “I’ve been with my previous band, the Price Tags, for more than 10 years, and it’s definitely emotional when a band reaches the end of its life cycle,” she says. “But it’s also really exciting, because now, having a fiddle in the band and incredible harmony singers … it’s a completely different vibe. I’ve got a whole bunch of festivals coming up this year. We’re playing Jazz Fest in New Orleans, and I’m so excited for everyone to hear this new iteration of what we’re doing.”
With its heritage cherry sunburst finish and other appointments, the Margo Price Signature Gibson J-45 balances classic and modern guitar design.
Photo courtesy of Gibson
