Fender Tone Master Pro presets and settings

Starting settings on the Fender Tone Master Pro

Values as the unit's screen shows them, on its own scale; each drawn knob shows that value's share of the range. They are where to begin, not Fender's numbers: pick the amp model first, then move one control at a time from here.

Clean

'65 Twin Reverb, which Fender's Model Guide calls one of the greats, prized for quintessential Fender clean tone. Bright switch on, Volume 30%, Treble 60%, Middle 45%, Bass 40%, Reverb 25%, with Intensity at 0% so the vibrato stays off. Tone Master Pro gives amp controls in percent: Fender's manual pictures this very amp with each knob at 50%. Keep Volume low for headroom and set the loudness with the amp block's Amp Level, or with Preset Volume in Preset Settings, which runs from 0 to 100% to even out presets. The amp's reverb is a convolution spring reverb, and a preset holds one convolution effect at a time, so a second reverb has to be one of the others. JC Clean, which Fender says is particularly well suited for modulation effects, ambient textures and pristine clean tones, is another clean to try.

Edge of breakup and blues

'65 Deluxe Reverb, Fender's mid-'60s classic, which in the guide's words produced great tone whether clean or dirty. Volume 55%, Treble 55%, Bass 40%, Reverb 20%. The model has no Middle and no Master, so Volume alone takes it into breakup: raise it for more grit and lower it for a cleaner rhythm part. For more push, put Tube OD before the amp with its Drive low and its Level up; its Tube switch selects a 12AT7, which Fender says gives slightly more gain and smoother, earlier breakup than the 12AX7. '59 Bassman is the other blues amp to try: Tone Master Pro jumpers its Normal and Bright inputs, so Vol Normal and Vol Bright blend the two channels like a mixer. Input Impedance in Preset Settings simulates how the real amp loads your pickups, and Auto-Impedance, the default, picks it from the first amp or effect in the chain.

Classic rock

British Plexi, which Fender's guide calls a late-'60s British amplifier voice whose blended channels unlock a wide range of classic rock textures. Volume I 65%, Volume II 30%, Treble 60%, Middle 70%, Bass 40%, Presence 50%. Volume I sets the Bright channel and Volume II the Normal channel, so raise Volume II to blend more of the Normal channel in. The Middle stays high because rhythm guitar lives in the mids: cut them and the part disappears under the drums. For more gain, put Greenbox 8 in front with its drive low, which Fender says tightens the low end and pushes an amp into singing sustain, or move to British 800, the guide's master-volume amp of '80s hard rock, with a Gain and a Master control.

Metal

Double Wreck, which Fender's guide calls a high-gain U.S. amplifier voice designed for modern heavy tones while retaining clarity and definition. Gain 55%, Treble 55%, Middle 45%, Bass 50%, Presence 50%, with Master to taste. Put Metal Gate first in the chain and raise its Threshold only until the hiss between chords stops: Fender says it keeps high-gain tones tight and free of unwanted noise between notes. The amp block has a Noise Gate of its own, next to Amp Level. Integrator Boost in front, its Volume up and its Bass low, adds attack and tightens the low end, and Fender calls it particularly effective for pushing high-gain amps into more focused territory. EVH 5150IIIS 6L6 Red is the other metal amp, which Fender calls the perfect sound for over-the-top metal; its knobs are Low, Mid and High, with Resonance for the power amp's low end. Start it at Gain 50%, Low 50%, Mid 45%, High 55%, Presence 45% and Resonance 40%.

Lead

Solo 100 Overdrive, a hot-rodded high-gain voice that the guide says is known for fluid sustain, focused mids and responsive attack. Gain 60%, Treble 55%, Middle 65%, Bass 45%, Presence 45%, Depth 40%. Put Tape Echo after the amp with its Mix low and set its Tap Division: delays follow the tempo you tap only when Tap Division is set. Its Spillover switch keeps the repeats going after the delay is bypassed, and Preset Spillover in Preset Settings keeps delay and reverb tails across a preset change. To bring the solo in with one press, give it a Scene, or set a footswitch to Parameter Change, which flips one control between two values, such as Gain, and add an On/Off assignment for the delay: one footswitch takes up to five assignments. British Jubilee Lead, which Fender pitches at melodic lead work and singing solo tones, is the other lead amp.

Scenes

A Scene is a variation of a preset: it sets which blocks are on and off, and it can keep its own settings for each block. A preset holds up to nine, eight on footswitches plus the base preset, and all of them share the same blocks in the same order with the same signal path type, so a Scene cannot reorder the chain. To make one, open Footswitch Assign in Preset View and choose Scene as the assignment type. Scene Edit, on by default for every block, keeps a block's changes to the current Scene; switch it off and the block shares the base preset's settings in every Scene. Each Scene can send its own Amp Control and MIDI messages too. SAVE stores the preset with all its Scenes. In Global Settings, under Footswitch, Scene Change Behavior decides what happens when you return to a Scene you have changed: Maintain Changes, the default, brings it back as you left it, and Discard Changes as it was saved. Fender's release notes add Scenes with firmware 1.4.71, of 20 November 2024.

Global settings

The gear symbol at the top right of the screen opens Global Settings, in seven parts: Preferences, I/O, Footswitch, Bluetooth, EQ, Mixer and Tuner. Preferences shows the firmware version and holds the backup to an SD card, up to 25 named backups, the restore, and Factory Reset, which restores every preset and setting. I/O has the -6 dB instrument pad for active pickups and the Output 1 and Output 2 Level: LINE, the default, for an FR cabinet, a PA or recording, and INSTRUMENT for the front of a guitar amp. It also sets stereo or mono outputs, Reamp Mode for USB and the MIDI receive channel. Footswitch picks the layouts for Presets and Effects modes, whether Tap Tempo is saved per preset or set globally, and how Scenes reload. EQ is a 10-band graphic EQ with flat, high cut and low cut profiles and four user slots, for Output 1, Output 2 or both; it returns to flat at power off unless Retain Global EQ is on in Preferences. Mixer has six faders for the output levels, the headphones, Output 1 and Output 2 among them, and sends the Aux and Bluetooth audio to the outputs you pick.