Excellent interface design enables this evolutionary unit to go toe-to-toe with multi-modeler titans.
Exceptional, and exceptionally intuitive, interface. Road-worthy build. Easy for modeler newbies to get started.
Many models exhibit trebly, fizzy tendencies. No amp capture capability. Less expansive user community than competition.
$1,699
Fender Tone Master Pro
fender.com
There are a few ways to think about powerful multi-modelers like the Fender Tone Master Pro. On one hand, they address 21st-century music industry realities—namely that everyone from wedding bands to high-profile touring acts can scarcely afford the techs and transport required to maintain and move heaps of gear. They are a natural fit for home recording, enabling a lot of players to make huge sounds in small spaces. Philosophically speaking, they also reflect the state—and possibilities—of a super-postmodern art moment, where every sound can be accessed, ingested, inhaled, scrambled, and reassembled in any way a musician’s whims and processing power may take them.
On the other hand, some find the notion of, say, playing, a virtual Marshall Super Lead without a 4x12 pushing air disorienting—the musical equivalent of walking the uncanny valley. Others find modelers less conducive to chance discoveries. On this latter count, though, Fender’s Tone Master Pro is a measurable step in the right direction. From the time you power up the unit and start tinkering with its engaging, intuitive touch screen, the Tone Master Pro reveals a knack for illuminating both well-trodden musical paths and unexpected detours with fluid facility. It’s satisfying to use in ways that could tempt even the most resolute analog devotee.
Applause for the Interface
The TMP’s touch screen user interface (and the way it dovetails with hardware elements like the rotary footswitches) is a huge part of its appeal. Lest you dismiss the well-executed representations of analog gear as merely “cute,” bear in mind that legions of modern engineers consider such skeuomorphic depictions of recording gear faster and easier to use in studio environments. That’s certainly the case here. The Pro’s interface facilitates casual experimentation and complex routing alike. It looks sharp. It’s also functional and flat-out fun—no small factor when courting reluctant and first-time modeler adopters. In theory, though, experienced users should find a lot to like in this thoughtfully executed touch screen.
The I/O array is practical and comparable to most competing modelers. There’s an option for two stereo effects loops or four mono effects loops, which opens up more possibilities via integration of your own favorite effects. As you’d expect, there are two stereo outs (one is fitted with XLR and ¼" jacks,) MIDI I/O, USB (for firmware updates), and more.
“The interface is functional and flat-out fun—no small factor when courting reluctant and first-time modeler adopters.”
The TMP does have some shortcomings compared to the competition. Most notably, you cannot capture amp sounds as you can with some other modelers in the TMP’s class. That also limits the breadth of sounds an extended user community can create and share.
Sounds Sourced from a Deep Well
I usually hear modelers as toppy and sometimes a bit woofy compared to real amp equivalents. (I’m also generally shocked by how many players claim modelers sound exactly the same as comparable amp rigs, but vive la differénce!) Most users find EQ fixes for these issues, and some of those solutions—high-end attenuation, primarily—were effective here. Still, I think it’s helpful to consider modeler sounds in context of the recorded environment. Check out the audio clip from the online version of this review. It contrasts a rhythm-and-lead loop played via a Tone Master Pro’s ’65 Deluxe Reverb model—miked with a virtual Shure SM57, on axis, at the speaker cap’s edge and sent straight into a UA Apollo Twin—with a real tube-driven ’65 Deluxe Reverb reissue miked with a real SM57 in precisely the same manner. Can you pick which is which? This is far from an airtight experiment. Heck, two real Deluxe Reverbs can sound pretty different. I hear minor differences in the two clips and, in isolation, prefer the airier, less-compressed sound of the real deal. But could I tell the difference in a mix with bass, drums, guitar, and organ? I’m not so sure. I also doubt I would scrap an inspired take from the Tone Master Pro in favor of a crappier one from an all-analog rig. These are real questions I might ask in a fast-moving recording session. Typically, the answer is “pick the take that suits the song, mood, and arrangement,” rather than “let’s use the less inspired take that, arguably, sounds 6 percent more like a vintage Deluxe.” Your opinions and process may differ.
High-gain sounds, too, are represented in plentitude. Predictably, perhaps, the top-end spikiness I heard in clean tones was more pronounced in these settings. The TMP’s EQ tools, including virtual mic placement, can make a pronounced difference in lending gentler contours to these frequencies. And again, in the context of a recorded mix, these sounds are likely to pass more than a few blindfold tests.
The Verdict
Big-ticket modelers tend to incite more tribalism and snobbery than almost any other guitar equipment—which is saying a lot. But while one could make valid gripes about any of these platforms, a certain truth that holds for any piece of musical gear applies here: No two players, nor their music predilections, needs, creative urges, or life realities, are alike. The Tone Master Pro’s approachability and thoughtful interface design make it well-suited to players that will benefit from quick integration, fast workflow, and a graphic interface that employs lucid representations of familiar analog equipment.
The Tone Master Pro often sounds authentic and inspiring, as do many of its competitors. Are any of them light years beyond each other in fidelity, or bound to spoil an otherwise stirring mix, song, or performance? That depends on the music you make, and the emphasis you place on tone purity. At the time of this writing, The Tone Master Pro costs the same $1,699 that you will spend for a Neural Quad Cortex or Line 6 Helix, and 100 bucks more than a Kemper Profiler. If you find the sound from a certain modeler appreciably superior and indispensable, find significant value in a more mature user community that has already generated oodles of tradable presets, or find the lack of an amp capture function a deal-breaker, you might ask how much time you’ll save using Fender’s exceptional workflow and interface—and how much real creativity that might spark. For many players for whom fluid creation is as important as tone nuance, or for whom modeling is a new experience, the Tone Master Pro’s intuitive operation could tip the scales in Fender’s favor.
Fender Tone Master Pro Demo | First Look
Witness how the self-proclaimed World's Best American Band values pragmatic workhorses over rock 'n' roll excess.
Tired of pretentious music? Are you looking to just have fun and rock out? The good-time, make-you-move-and-groove medicine you're after is what White Reaper dispenses.
The band's core was formed in 2012 when Louisville high schoolers Tony Esposito (guitar/vocals) and Nick Wilkerson (drums) started jamming as a duo. Then Nick recruited his twin brother Sam (bass) and Esposito added friend Ryan Hater (keys). And the fearsome foursome released their rowdy, ripping 2015 debut, White Reaper Does It Again, on Polyvinyl Records.
Carrying forward their blend of lo-fi garage rock and pop-punk hooks, the quartet added second guitarist Hunter Thompson in 2016, before recording 2017's (tongue-in-cheek) The World's Best American Band. The glee blossomed with shinier, poppier melodies that soared over harmonized guitars—think crossing Cheap Trick with Thin Lizzy.
The World's Best American Band graduated them to major label Elektra, where they earned studio time with producer Jay Joyce (Cage the Elephant, Halestorm, Eric Church, Carrie Underwood, Emmylou Harris). With Joyce providing a slicker, tighter sound, the quintet unveiled an even catchier package that employs the sheen of peak Cars and early Maroon 5 in danceable tracks like "Might Be Right" and "Eggplant." (The former earned them a No. 1 slot on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart.) But rock purists still got to stomp and howl with the hard drivin' "Headwind" and redlining "Raw."
Hours before their headlining gig at Nashville's Exit/In, White Reaper's Esposito and Thompson checked in with PG to talk tone. The guitar duo showed us how the rigors of the road have impacted their touring gear decisions and why COVID-19 handcuffed one of them to the digital life.[Brought to you by D'Addario XPND Pedalboard: https://www.daddario.com/XPNDRR]
Come Fly With V
It's said rock 'n' roll is a young person's game. And while the garage-rocking gentleman of White Reaper have no plans of slowing down any time soon, guitarist/vocalist Tony Esposito already knows the importance of a strong back. The combination of lumbar-compressing Les Pauls and thin leather straps resulted in soreness and welts that have forced Tony to keep his Lesters at home.
Above is the first of his lighter Gibsons: a 2000 Flying V he bought on his birthday in 2015. During the Rundown, he refers to it as the School of Rock guitar, since fictional student Zack Mooneyham played one in the film. Aside from Esposito's sweat, skin, and some dust, this guitar is completely stock.
This V stays in E-flat-standard tuning and rides the stage with either a custom set of Augustine Spectras (.011–.052) or Ernie Ball 2226 Burly Slinkys (same gauge).
Light as a Feather and Ready To Rock
Not wanting to show favoritism, Esposito is quick to note that this 2000s Gibson ES-335 isn't a backup. He's actually used it the most since playing live shows again, because the fly-date-heavy schedule worried him about the angular fragility of the V. He even revamped his amp and pedalboard setup to mesh better with the 335 (more on that in a minute).
Who You Calling Runt?!
Vox have been a big part of White Reaper's DNA, and both Esposito and guitarist Hunter Thompson (not from Louisville and no relation to Dr. Gonzo) have used them live and in the studio for years. "I loved the reliability of the AC30s, but I was using more pedals (than now) to essentially turn it into a plexi," says Esposito. "I had a compressor, Tube Screamer, and EQ pedal that were always on, but when I switched to the Friedman Runt 50 it was already that thing."
While touring with the Struts he noticed how much guitarist (and Rig Rundown alumnus) Adam Slack loved his Friedman Small Box 50, so he did some research and landed on the 50W, EL34-glowing Runt. The Runt 50 hits a stock Fender Super-Sonic 60 2x12 extension cab that has its original Celestion Vintage 30s.Dials for Dimebag
Passing time in the van by listening to Pantera's Cowboys from Hell, Esposito wondered how Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott set his Randall for the nasty breakdown during "Domination." He lucked out and found an old '90s Guitar Magazine article displaying Dimebag's Randall settings. He's since loosely adopted those for his own live tone, as seen here.
Simplifying Esposito’s Stomp Station
With less purposes for pedals, Tony Esposito's pedalboard has shrunk. Basically, he has the Way Huge Green Rhino MkIV for additional drive, and a Boss DD-5 Digital Delay and Jacques Meistersinger chorus for spacier sounds and occasional leads. The pair of Boss pedals—an NS-2 Noise Suppressor and GE-7 Equalizer—are in place to squelch any unwanted feedback from the 335 and to supplement any anemic backline amps he encounters on fly dates. Everything comes to life via a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus.
This Baldwin Baby Bison Burns
When White Reaper started, guitarist Hunter Thompson toured the world with this 1965 Baldwin Baby Bison. He stumbled across the guitar on Reverb.com and, after some homework revealed it was a choice instrument for Jeff "Skunk" Baxter when recording with Steely Dan, pulled the trigger.
His favorite part of this peculiar 6-string is its Burns Tri-Sonic pickups (similar to the ones in Brian May's Red Special). They're stacked single-coils. Additionally, Thompson enjoys how the "tone" knob acts more like a presence control that "blends in the bottom pickup, allowing you to make the guitar's sound really gain-y or really clean." To take things to another level of weird, Thompson added a Roland GK-2A Divided Guitar MIDI pickup to have fun at home.Can I Interest You in a Strat, Sir?
Aside from the aforementioned Bison, Thompson normally rocks Les Pauls or Teles. However, he recently scored this lightly worn Nash S-63. For its speaking voice, he opted for the Lollar Sixty-Four single-coils. And you'd think the tonal differences would throw off Thompson a bit, but he said the biggest transition to a 3-pickup guitar is being careful to not rake the middle single-coil with his hand and/or pick. This S-63 stays in E-flat-standard tuning, but Thompson goes with a lighter set of D'Addario NYXLs (.010–.046) and hits the strings with Dunlop Tortex Flow .73 mm picks.
Ready for Your Profiler?
White Reaper was in the middle of a U.S. tour supporting 2019's You Deserve Love when COVID-19 struck and the world shut down. The band's gear went with the Kentuckians back to Louisville, but Thompson retreated to his home in Austin. For the first few months, he hunkered down in the Lone Star State with his one electric and some crappy desktop sims. Longing to play proper electric and be creative, he ordered a Kemper Profiler. Its diverse sounds and intuitive interface prompted Hunter to play guitar more than ever. Everything he needs is backed up on a thumb drive and his entire rig fits in a laptop bag.
"When it came to touring again, the use of the Profiler was a practical decision," admits Thompson. "It's not the coolest rock 'n' roll decision [laughs], but until someone else is setting up my gear, I'll probably be taking the Profiler." And most of his profiles are built off a Divided by 13 model that's brighter than Tony's and sits a bit higher in the mix.
Caution: Cab at Work
Thompson does run a direct line to FOH, but he also craves stage volume, so he splits the Profiler into this ValveTrain PowerTrain Stage 50—an all-tube (6L6GC) powered monitor designed to work with digital modelers. It has a flat EQ, a single level knob, and comes stock with an Eminence Legend EM12.
Austrian black-metal magus Matthias Sollak realizes his panoramic vision for Mӕre via cues from prog, shoegaze, and neo-classical.
For all the black-metal bona fides Matthias Sollak has accumulated as a guitarist, his musical range extends into areas you might not expect from a 31-year-old who's been running with headbangers for most of his life. Even during his long stint with Bifröst, the band he co-founded in his native Salzburg, Austria, at the age of 16, he brought elements as far afield as bagpipes, folk instruments, and keyboard samples to a freewheeling and unpredictable sound that helped set the group apart from their self-avowed "pagan metal" contemporaries.
Sollak launched Harakiri for the Sky with singer-lyricist Michael V. Wahntraum (known simply as J.J.) in 2011, while he was still a member of Bifröst. Conceived as an outlet to explore a more personal narrative in their songwriting, HFTS quickly became a full-time pursuit for Sollak, whose primal riffs, intricate melodic textures, and instinctive feel for subtle and moody dynamics put his peers on notice. A versatile guitarist with a producer's ear, Sollak wrote all the music and played all the instruments, including drums, on the duo's first three albums, only giving up the kit to veteran death metal drummer Kerim "Krimh" Lechner beginning with 2018's Arson.
In the past, I could always cheat a little bit with a lot of distortion, but as soon as you crank it down, it automatically forces you … to hit the downstrokes harder and play tighter.
Mӕre, the group's new double-disc epic, finds Sollak and friends crafting an even wider and more diverse sonic palette. Gloom, doom and redemptive catharsis still play their roles, but there's a quasi-shoegaze feel to the album opener "I, Pallbearer," which concludes with a lone guitar soloing in the murky distance behind a poignant piano melody. "Sing for the Damage We've Done" builds slowly and resolutely in its gradual onslaught before pivoting into an Opeth-like break, stripped down to the barest prog essentials with guest vocalist Stéphane Paut, known to French metal fans as Neige, from the band Alcest. And these are just the first two songs—so there's a lot more to Mӕre than the term "post-black metal" can do justice.
It was a long road to get there, and, as Sollak describes it, HFTS wrapped production under unusual circumstances. "We got pretty lucky because we finished the recording two weeks before we went into [COVID-19] lockdown," he recalls. "The only thing we still had going on were some of the guest vocals, which was a bit problematic because Neige is living in Paris, and they had the toughest lockdown of all. But by then we had to delay the release anyhow."
As it turned out, Sollak was able to make maximum use of the extra time during the album's mixing phase. But to grasp how he did, first it helps to understand how he changed up his routine to record the guitars on Mӕre. "We always have the music and the lyrics worked out before we go to the studio," he says. "I write the music and send it to Jimbo [J.J.], and he writes the lyrics—we have a strict separation because it just works for us." From there, Sollak relies on a Kemper Profiler to layer his guitar tracks, and normally records the rhythm parts on his trusty Jericho Elite with the Kemper's distortion effect cranked.
This time, however, he took a different approach. "I was definitely not going with the full-blast distorted sound," Sollak explains, "but I was listening to the actual DI track while we were recording. We had the distorted sound mixed into the background, because that automatically forces you to play way tighter. In the past, I could always cheat a little bit with a lot of distortion, but as soon as you crank it down, it automatically forces you, with the rhythm guitars, to hit the downstrokes harder and play tighter, and I think that's something you can hear in the overall sound."
Although Harakiri for the Sky have earned their place in the contemporary heavy music spotlight, Matthias Sollak has eschewed shredding, sweep picking, and other genre conventions to concentrate on songwriting and the specific techniques—and instruments—his songs require.
Photo by Soralover
Sollak mixed the album with Vienna-based producer Daniel Fellner, whose own history as lead singer and guitarist for the now-defunct Devastating Enemy was integral in raising the sonic stakes on Mӕre. "He has a huge amount of amplifiers," Sollak says, "so we decided to try them out and just reamp everything. We used some typical things, like a Peavey 5150, a Marshall JCM800, a Fender Bassman, and a really old Framus Dragon, but the freakiest thing was using a Roland Jazz Chorus for the clean sounds. It just sounded really good, and I would have never imagined using such an amplifier. It was just sitting around, so we thought, 'Hey let's try this out.' That was definitely a mind-opening experience."
Sollak and Fellner also used different amps on the left and right sides of the stereo mix, and reamped with very little gain. Taken together, the reamping and mixing techniques bring out all the articulation and complex melodies in "I'm All About the Dusk," an 11-minute excursion that, in some sections, rolls thick with as many as four guitar parts. "Silver Needle // Golden Dawn"—which features a cameo from the nameless lead singer of Portugal's mysterious black metallurgists Gaerea—is another instance where the song benefits from careful reamping and attention to dynamics. It actually recalls the compression-heavy, high-transient sound that Tom Scholz perfected back in the mid '70s on the first Boston album, only heavier.
TIDBIT: For Mӕre's solos and lead lines, Sollak dipped into producer Daniel Fellner's amp collection, which included a Peavey 5150, a Marshall JCM800, a Fender Bassman, a Framus Dragon, and a Roland JC-120.
But the song that really lights a roaring fire under Mӕre is "Us Against December Skies." Sollak's favored drop-D-flat tuning helps define the mood. He opens with a siren-like repeating octave, accentuated by chord punches that Lechner echoes with precision on the drumkit, before a soaring, almost Wagnerian wave of sound takes hold—a symphony of guitars that seems to inspire J.J. to pin his vocal performance in the red. About halfway through, everything stops on a dime, with another round of chord punches opening the door for a guitar lead (after J.J. full-throats the line "You can touch the sky") that Sollak develops into a theme, pushing the song to its coda: a dialed-back groove with stacked clean guitars that quickly surges into yet another wave—this one positive, powerful, and uplifting.
"I love when the song builds up, goes back a bit, and then explodes again," Sollak raves. "If you already have a repeating riff, and then, for example, the vocals drop out all of a sudden, it needs to expand in another way, which I usually do by adding another guitar melody so it doesn't totally die down. I try to alternate everything a little bit. So there are some parts that are similar, but then I might add a piano melody. If you want someone to pay attention for 10 minutes, then you have to create music in an interesting way."
As gifted as he is in arranging and producing, Sollak insists he's a shirker in the woodshed. He took up classical piano at a very young age but lost the patience for it. Getting his hands on his first electric guitar inspired him almost immediately to start writing and arranging. He used early versions of Guitar Pro and Magix Music Maker to teach himself how to sample beats, create sequences, and record tracks—so learning to shred became less of a priority.
Matthias Sollak's Gear
Guitars
- FGN Mythic 6
- Fender Limited-Edition Daybreak Telecaster
- Fender Jim Root Tele
- Jericho Fusion Blacktop
- Jericho Elite
- ESP Horizon
- Godin LGX
- Schecter JL-7
- Epiphone Les Paul Classic
- Sire Marcus Miller V7 bass
Amps
- Kemper Profiler
- Peavey Triple XXX
- Peavey 5150
- Fender Bassman (studio)
- Marshall JCM800 (studio)
- Roland JC-120 (studio)
- Framus Dragon (studio)
Effects
- TC Electronic Flashback
- TC Electronic Hall of Fame
- Maxon OD808
- ISP Technologies Decimator
Strings & Picks
- Elixir (.011–.049 and .012–.052 sets)
- Nologo picks .76 mm standard
"I'm really, really lazy when it comes to practicing," he quips. "I'm not a fast shredder, and I'm not good at sweep-picking and all this stuff, but by writing more music and trying to mature with it, I definitely got better—just less sloppy with everything, with no special focus on a certain technique. In general, it gets more important to me not just to play anything, but to play those things that I can play as tight as possible."
Considering that Sollak started out by diving into the deep end—by age 10, he was already listening to In Flames classics like Whoracle and Clayman—it's no surprise that chasing the sound he had in his head became a lifelong mission. Along the way, he discovered Iron Maiden, and then eventually Deftones and Placebo—bands with low-tuned guitars who wrote distinctively melancholic melodies.
"I didn't have this classic thing going from '70s bands to harder music," he says. "It was all completely mixed up, but maybe it influenced me as well in my style of playing. Back then, I just went to the record stores with this really small, hard and heavy section, and I tried to listen to Sadist or other bands that sounded similar because I was just in love with old In Flames. Later on, I listened to Nirvana and all this other stuff that came."
Co-bandleaders Sollak and vocalist J.J. have recorded most of their group's catalog themselves, but onstage Harakiri for the Sky expands into a 5-piece.
Photo by Helsing Photo
Fittingly, Mӕre closes with a cover of Placebo's "Song to Say Goodbye," which was on a short list of tunes Sollak wanted to cover. "It was easy to choose," he says, "because J.J. said he has a personal connection with that song from when he was younger. He's not as big a fan as I am, but I think with Placebo in general, when you read their lyrics and listen to their music, it's not too different from what we do. They're very thoughtful, very melancholy songs, mostly."