Fender ToneMaster V2...coming soon?

Danny1969

The part of a tonemaster which is very likely to stop working isn’t made by fender 
Icepower manufacture the power supply and class D amplifier … fender only do the DSP board 

If I was a tonemaster owner I would buy the icepower module now while it’s only £140 ish and readily available. Then keep it for spare like a set of valves. 

I use the same module in my own DSP amp, albeit the stereo version. It’s a clever design but not really designed for constant giging 

monquixote

Lewy said:

victorludorum said:

Why give the possibility of flashing sold amps with an upgrade when you can provide a new betterer (sic) product for us consumers to buy!

One reason would be to establish yourself as a trustworthy maker of digital products - if people can see you care about upgrading your products they'll be less hesitant to go digital in the first place. Mk 2 buyers will therefore be reassured that what they're buying isn't going to be automatically obsolete when Mk 3 comes along, by seeing that Mk 1 buyers aren't being dicked over.. It's worked very well for Line 6. People are still buying Helix.

In the synth world Polyend released a + version of one of their products very soon after the original version. Said "this is the version we always wanted to make" and it was a significant paid upgrade.

There was a massive backlash with quite a lot of fallout so doing this kind of thing can have significant consequences.

ryanverbena

munckee said:

Maybe tonemaster 2 will be all valve vintage style amps that sound like solid state.

valve amp, master all the way down, gain all the up!

jellybelly

I think there's something to what @Lewy has said about establishing themselves as a trustworthy software supplier. That's where all this is headed - hardware just has to be adaptable, the product is more the software than anything, and if you invest in a Fender amp, you don't get left behind. Justifies the £1k RRP of a digital deluxe IMO!

Just look at Line 6. Released a V2 Catalyst update that bunged 6 new amps onto the V1 so nobody felt left out. Can anybody reasonably say that money spent on Line 6 gear is money down the drain because it'll be 'obsolete' in a few years time? Their commitment to the Helix platform and offshoots like Catalyst is exemplary. Bet they're still selling plenty of full fat Helix Floor processors, even 8 years after launch.