Bassic Review – Fender® Tone Master® Pro Multi-Effects Pedal

Fender Takes the Floor

Of all the flagship floor-borne modelers on the market, Fender’s Tone Master Pro most closely resembles Neural DSP™’s Quad Cortex®, sharing very similar dimensions and form factor, footswitch layout, 7” touchscreen, staid dark gray finish, and more. However, that comparison doesn’t carry over to the top-mounted I/O section, through which Fender offers a greater set of input and output capabilities for more flexible signal routing. In addition, each footswitch enjoys its own two-line scribble strip display, which is a fantastically useful feature. Touchscreen functionality is good, and generally works in the ways you’d expect from your smartphone or tablet, in regard to item selection, touching and dragging, and many other common gestures. Speaking of phones and tablets, Fender provides a very well-designed and executed app for Android and iOS that interfaces with the Tone Master Pro via its built-in Bluetooth functionality, which also supports audio being streamed to the processor from a mobile device. PC and Mac editors are available, as well, and work over USB. Updating the firmware was simple and relatively fast, thanks to the included, extra-long USB-C to A cable that made the reach from floor to PC more manageable.

To amplify the output of the Tone Master Pro in as true and flat a way as possible – but, of course, to do it with some style – Fender also offers the Tone Master FR-10 and FR-12 companion powered speakers, at $499 and $599, respectively. While they both sport tried-and-true Fender guitar combo styling, these are actually designed as full range/flat response solid-state amplifiers, complete with high-frequency drivers, 1kW class-D power sections, and 3-band active EQ networks.

Putting the Tone Master Pro Through Its Paces

The inventory of factory presets in the Tone Master Pro are undeniably geared toward various levels of overdrive and distortion, generally through the use of amp/combo voicings and settings, versus more equal emphasis on effects, positioning the Tone Master Pro as more Kemper™ than Helix®; however, effect models inserted primarily as modifiers are present in nearly all presets. Being that there isn’t much in the way of bass-intended inclusions, here, two of the factory presets that spoke to me the most were 113 Bassman Creamery, and 127 Studio Bass (both of which I’ve featured in the demo video). [Editor’s note: Fender points out that the various drive pedals do include BLEND controls, which were specifically added to accommodate bass players.]

Aside from the aforementioned and a small number of other interesting presets, I found the greatest utility of the Tone Master Pro for my designs by setting it up as a virtual pedalboard. I love that Fender incorporated what appears to be a model of the BOSS PH-3 Phaser, including its awesome Step Phaser mode, which so few models of this iconic pedal do! There’s also a Mu-Tron® clone, some great fuzz (including a germanium Fuzz Face®) and distortion stomps, and an excellent-sounding tape delay unit. The scribble strips make everything easy to see and functions within different screens easy to discern. The implementation of the easily switchable “FS Mode” to quickly turn on and off single effects or amp channels and features was outstanding, although I found it a little unusual that bypass switching wasn’t provided for a preset’s amp/cab model itself – which further supports the perception of this unit being geared primarily towards (guitar) amp tones.

The prominent Preset/Gig View button, while very convenient and a nice feature to have, was unfortunately all too easy to accidentally rotate with my foot while trying to switch into or out of Gig View – a simplified screen mode that largely displays the preset number and name, rather than smaller signal-chain elements. This is potentially highly problematic when performing or recording, as you might imagine, especially if the preset switched to sounds significantly different. Another point of contention that can no doubt be improved upon with a future firmware update is startup time, which I clocked twice at 41 seconds, from switch flip to passing instrument signal. That is an unacceptably long time for the hardware to initialize in contexts of running an all-direct rig – which of course the Tone Master Pro is built for – in the case of an accidental power cable yank or momentary voltage drop at a venue. Being a longtime Line 6 Helix user, I can say, though, that startup time is something that can be improved upon with OS revisions, so this may not be that concerning of an issue for long.

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