I've Tonemastered myself again

stickyfiddle

Princeton this time. I still love my Deluxe for the band but this popped up for a steal locally, and the guy was happy to do a part-ex with a pedal I was shifting as well, so I thought why not. 

I've always preferred Deluxes when I've tried valve ones but this thing is really nice because you can turn it "up" more (yes not sure if its strictly "up" when the attenuator is almost at the bottom!). Even more suited to home and sounds absolutely phenomenal with a Klon in front of it.  .

Not sure if I'll keep long term but it's a great little box for what I paid. Very impressed. 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

I have TM Princeton. Great little thing, I love it! 

I have very limited space in my little house, so for me it's the perfect solution for home and gigging. Gets surprisingly loud when you want/need it to, and he excellent XLR out means it's suitable for any small to medium sized gig.

Only thing I wish they'd is release a software update that can increase the intensity range on the tremolo, as I find it's a little too tame.

stickyfiddle

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

I have TM Princeton. Great little thing, I love it! 

I have very limited space in my little house, so for me it's the perfect solution for home and gigging. Gets surprisingly loud when you want/need it to, and he excellent XLR out means it's suitable for any small to medium sized gig.

Only thing I wish they'd is release a software update that can increase the intensity range on the tremolo, as I find it's a little too tame.

I had the same thought - it seems to do nothing until at least 4 on the dial. 

There is a firmware change for eh reverb taper so it’s a bit odd they haven’t done the same for the trem

Lewy

stickyfiddle said:

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Only thing I wish they'd is release a software update that can increase the intensity range on the tremolo, as I find it's a little too tame.

I had the same thought - it seems to do nothing until at least 4 on the dial. 

There is a firmware change for eh reverb taper so it’s a bit odd they haven’t done the same for the trem

Although actually that could be them sticking to the integrity of the model because bias trem is more gentle and subtle than the opto trem you get in Deluxes. It should also duck when you have the amp breaking up. 

BlackbirdCabs

Yeah the tremolo on my valve Princeton Reverb (clone) is very subtle compared with the 'wump wump' of my Tremolux. So I think your right that the TM is faithful to the original.

stickyfiddle

Yeah i'm sure it's reasonably authentic. I just wouldn't mind them virtually changing the pot taper. Hardly a major problem though  

ICBM

The intensity of the tremolo on the originals is also dependent on the bias setting - if you bias the amp too hot, the tremolo does less.

chris78

I’m really keen to try the tonemaster pro. If the models are as good as the individual tonemaster amps, it’ll make it good value.
You’ve got a super (circa £1200), twin (circa £1000), deluxe (circa £900), princeton (circa £800) plus all of the other models in one box for £1800 including the frfr

ICBM

chris78 said:

I’m really keen to try the tonemaster pro. If the models are as good as the individual tonemaster amps, it’ll make it good value.
You’ve got a super (circa £1200), twin (circa £1000), deluxe (circa £900), princeton (circa £800) plus all of the other models in one box for £1800 including the frfr

Part of the brilliance of Leo Fender is that these are all actually the same amp, apart from the Princeton . All the models from the Deluxe up to the Dual Showman used the same preamp circuit, just with different power valve, transformer and speaker sets to create a whole range of amps at various price points.

jellybelly

ICBM said:

chris78 said:

I’m really keen to try the tonemaster pro. If the models are as good as the individual tonemaster amps, it’ll make it good value.
You’ve got a super (circa £1200), twin (circa £1000), deluxe (circa £900), princeton (circa £800) plus all of the other models in one box for £1800 including the frfr

Part of the brilliance of Leo Fender is that these are all actually the same amp, apart from the Princeton . All the models from the Deluxe up to the Dual Showman used the same preamp circuit, just with different power valve, transformer and speaker sets to create a whole range of amps at various price points.

I assumed all the ToneMaster amps so far - Twin, Super and Deluxe all had the same software with the bigger amps doubling up on the power modules. 

However the Princeton (IRL) is quite different I think? Different circuit that's almost unchanged from the Brownface era, obviously different tremolo, very different phase inverter implementation making it sagier and less efficient? Can anyone confirm? Or is it just the Deluxe's normal channel voicing repackaged?

chris78

ICBM said:

chris78 said:

I’m really keen to try the tonemaster pro. If the models are as good as the individual tonemaster amps, it’ll make it good value.
You’ve got a super (circa £1200), twin (circa £1000), deluxe (circa £900), princeton (circa £800) plus all of the other models in one box for £1800 including the frfr

Part of the brilliance of Leo Fender is that these are all actually the same amp, apart from the Princeton . All the models from the Deluxe up to the Dual Showman used the same preamp circuit, just with different power valve, transformer and speaker sets to create a whole range of amps at various price points.

Interesting. So they’d need to have modelled the speaker differences etc to make the various models different enough to justify them. Odd they’ve only got a single tweed - the bassman

stickyfiddle

jellybelly said:

ICBM said:

chris78 said:

I’m really keen to try the tonemaster pro. If the models are as good as the individual tonemaster amps, it’ll make it good value.
You’ve got a super (circa £1200), twin (circa £1000), deluxe (circa £900), princeton (circa £800) plus all of the other models in one box for £1800 including the frfr

Part of the brilliance of Leo Fender is that these are all actually the same amp, apart from the Princeton . All the models from the Deluxe up to the Dual Showman used the same preamp circuit, just with different power valve, transformer and speaker sets to create a whole range of amps at various price points.

I assumed all the ToneMaster amps so far - Twin, Super and Deluxe all had the same software with the bigger amps doubling up on the power modules. 

However the Princeton (IRL) is quite different I think? Different circuit that's almost unchanged from the Brownface era, obviously different tremolo, very different phase inverter implementation making it sagier and less efficient? Can anyone confirm? Or is it just the Deluxe's normal channel voicing repackaged?

It's all DSP, so I assume they all use the same chips in the preamp, running different software to model each amp. 

Then the output sections are Class D. Princeton is 50W, Deluxe is 100W, Super & Twin are 200W. 

Speakers & cabs are obviously different for each model, which helps them sound like themselves. But obv for the line out & USB outputs they're also providing IRs to model the relevant cab/speaker/mic chains

ICBM

jellybelly said:

However the Princeton (IRL) is quite different I think? Different circuit that's almost unchanged from the Brownface era, obviously different tremolo, very different phase inverter implementation making it sagier and less efficient? Can anyone confirm? Or is it just the Deluxe's normal channel voicing repackaged?

You’re correct, it’s a totally different circuit from the Deluxe and upwards. Bias trem not opto, cathodyne phase inverter not long-tailed pair.

So if the Tonemaster Princeton has been done right, it should use a different model as well.