Earlier than Fender made guitars, they made amplifiers, with a heritage stretching all the way in which again to the ‘Woody’ designs of 1946 and even additional, should you depend the amps Leo made underneath the Ok&F model throughout his quick partnership with Clayton ‘Doc’ Kauffman.
Ever since, the corporate that may arguably declare to have invented the primary correct guitar amplifier has continued to innovate, not simply with valves, however strong state and digital applied sciences too.
Fender’s first modeling amp, the Cybertwin, wowed everybody when it appeared out of the blue in 2001, and its ongoing heavy funding in digital has paid off with different successes just like the reasonably priced Mustang and, extra not too long ago, the astonishing Tone Grasp vary – which recreated a few of Fender’s basic black-panel period designs, leveraging the most recent heavy-duty digital sign processors, with no menus or presets.
Now, Fender have as soon as once more caught everybody without warning with their first entry into the skilled modeling preamp market, the Tone Grasp Professional.
Initially, it seems as good as you’d count on from Fender. There’s a big full-color contact display screen flanked by two sizable management knobs; under it are 10 sturdy footswitches which additionally perform as rotary encoders, with colored illuminated surrounds and dynamic LED ‘scribble strips’.
On the rear panel, you’ll discover all of the connectivity you’re ever more likely to want, with a single enter jack and a combi jack/XLR mic/line enter, 4 results loops and three pairs of stereo outputs, together with one on XLR.
There’s a pair of expression pedal jacks along with toe swap and exterior amp management sockets, aux in and headphones out, MIDI out and in/through. Desktop connection for recording and modifying is dealt with by a USB ‘C’ jack and there’s a micro SD socket for future software program growth.
There’s additionally Bluetooth for wi-fi music streaming from cell units. A miniature model of Fender’s well-known jewel energy mild sits over the mains enter and energy swap.
The 7” contact display screen involves life with vivid full-colour shows of the amps and results. The left-hand management knob handles looking and organising presets, whereas the right-hand knob is a grasp quantity which additionally opens a mixer display screen, displaying all of the Tone Grasp Professional’s outputs and their standing.
The sounds, which use the identical modeling know-how because the earlier Tone Grasp amps, are beautiful, with over 120 amp cab and results fashions, together with many basic Fender designs. There’s a number of British and boutique amps, together with the primary formally licensed mannequin of the EVH 5150 III Stealth head, whereas results embrace all the most well-liked and cult circuits. There’s additionally a selection of 6,000 IRs for cupboard emulations.
Modifying and creating presets is just a matter of dragging and dropping parts into the sign chain; tapping on an amp or impact zooms in on that merchandise and the controls change into editable by the rotary encoders constructed into the footswitches. It’s swift and nice enjoyable to make use of, with no lengthy menus to get slowed down in.
The quantity of processing energy used to generate all these wonderful sounds is big; the Tone Grasp Professional has an eight-core processor, double that of its closest rivals, permitting for seamless preset modifications with spill-over of reverb and delays if you’d like it.
There are over 500 preset slots, which could be organised into songs and setlists, whereas different extras embrace a 60-second looper and probably the world’s largest tuner show.
The Tone Grasp Professional doesn’t do profiling, although the presence of a mic/line enter hints that it’s a tantalising chance for a future software program improve. The standard of the amp sounds is critically spectacular, nevertheless the factor that hooked us is how straightforward and intuitive the Tone Grasp Professional is to make use of.
Even with no guide, we have been in a position to entry and use virtually all the pieces inside a couple of minutes. Whereas rivals can come shut with the standard of their amp fashions, the Tone Grasp Professional is method forward in terms of accessibility and being simply plain enjoyable and inspirational to plug into.
With lots for area for future growth, the worth is an identical to its closest rivals, so proper now, we reckon Fender’s Tone Grasp Professional is the one to beat.
Specs
- PRICE: $1,699/£1,649
- TYPE: Digital amp modeler and multi-effects pedal
- DIMENSIONS: 288mm (w) x 149mm (d) x 81mm (h)
- WEIGHT: 1.98kg / 4.35lb
- CABINET: Alloy/metal
- PRESETS: 504 Consumer pre-set patches, over 125 amp/results fashions
- CONTROLS: Navigate/mode knob, grasp quantity/mixer knob
- FOOTSWITCH: 10 assignable footswitch/rotary encoders
- CONNECTIONS: Guitar in, line/mic in, results loops x 4, 3 stereo outputs on jack and XLR, aux in, headphones out, MIDI in/out/through, expression pedal x 2, toe swap and amp management, Micro SD (for software program growth), USB ‘C’
- POWER: IEC mains connector
- RANGE OPTIONS: The FR-12 and FR-10 full-range powered cabs promote for $549/£519 and $499/£469, respectively
- CONTACT: Fender
