Joe Bonamassa has been teasing this. Having nailed his colours to the mast as a high-profile convert to the tonal capabilities and practicality of the digital guitar amp, he has now officially put his name to one, with Fender and the blues guitar superstar unveil the Tone Master ‘59 Twin-Amp JB-Edition.
Finished in tweed, replete with vintage flourishes such as the chicken-head knobs on the control panel, this monster signature combo amp is created in the image of his original high-powered 5F8-A Twin from the late 1950s.
It, too, is loud enough to send plaster falling from the walls. It similarly has that super-quick attack and the headroom required to play clean at volume (we have heard this amplifier, and it is obscenely loud in the best possible way). And yet there are no tubes involved.
Just look at image at the top of the page. Joe Bonamassa is more Charley Patton than Charles Atlas; there is no way he is lifting a tube-equipped Twin like that without turning purple or popping a hernia.
This is one of the big selling points of Fender’s Tone Master series, a range of amps that offers classic Fender amp tone in a more lightweight package, and adding some of the convenient features we see in today’s digital designs.
This is one Twin you can carry up the stairs. Bonamassa’s Tone Master ’59 Twin-Amp also has a balanced XLR out, with switchable onboard cab sims (you can customise these IRs with the Tone Master IR Manager app) for going direct. It has power scaling, taking it from a full-throated 85-watts down to a more bedroom-friendly half-watt setting via a five-way rotary dial.
There is no question that this signature amp is a major coup for Fender. Given Bonamassa’s standing as one of the great curator’s of vintage amps, chief product officer of its Electronics and Digital divisions, Max Gutnik, describes the launch as a historic moment for the industry.
“Joe Bonamassa is one of the world’s foremost authorities on vintage amplifiers, and he knows these original Twins as well as anyone,” says Gutnik. “For someone with Joe’s ears, experience and deep commitment to vintage tube amps to choose a digital Fender, and say it sounds even better than the original, is a real inflection point for our industry.
“It demonstrates just how far this technology has come and, more importantly, the extraordinary accuracy with which Fender can now recreate the sound, feel and response of our most iconic amplifiers.”
The idea is that you can’t tell the difference between the 21st-century Tone Master replica and its mid-20th-century forebear.
“That’s what Tone Master is all about,” continues Gutnik, “preserving everything players love about these legendary amps while making them more useful for the way musicians play today.”
The amp was was staying much more consistent throughout the night. It wasn’t getting hot. It wasn’t fatiguing
Bonamassa can testify to this. We spoke with him ahead of the launch.
He was just about to catch a flight to Texas to play Crossroads Guitar Festival alongside Eric Clapton and company, and there was almost a note of surprise in his voice when talking about the moment when he realised that a digital version of a tube amp he considers one of the greatest guitar amps of all time was actually outperforming the original.
“Fender sent me one of the first ones off the line, sent it to Europe, on this last tour we did over there,” says Bonamassa. “I believe it arrived in Holland, and we stuck it in the slot. I use seven amps live. Now, that’s loud.”
Bonamassa’s ‘Amp Shanty’ is one of the more formidable backlines in guitar history. As Bonamassa says, there are seven amps in there, all with plexiglass baffles in front of them. There are two Marshall Silver Jubilee heads, three different Dumble tube amps, typically two high-powered Twins.
“We stuck the digital Twin in the slot with the microphone that mikes the high-powered Twin, and my production manager, tech, sound man, myself, people around us, Josh Smith, all agreed that it sounded better,” says Bonamassa. “I was like, ‘Well, that’s interesting.’”
Interesting enough to give it a shot that night. And then the next. The digital Twin stayed in the backline. The selling point for many of these digital amps is all about how they sound just like the old amps, but night after night on this Euro run, it didn’t just sound like the original, it sounded better.
“I was finding some really cool things by using the digital Twin,” says Bonamassa. “The amp was was staying much more consistent throughout the night. It wasn’t getting hot. It wasn’t fatiguing. And, and I was like, ‘Yeah, this is really, really cool.’
“Finished the tour, cut to the summer. We did a couple of one-offs before the main summer tour here in the US, and I went back to using the two tube Twins because I didn’t have the digital one. Fender was still building me my black ones. I was like, ‘Man, I missed that digital Twin.’ I really got used to it.
“That was the light-bulb moment for me. I’m the king cork sniffer of vintage amps and tubes and all that, but at the end of the day, you cannot deny the fact that it sounded, at least to my ears, better and more consistent than the tube ones.”
We have heard Bonamassa’s Tone Master Twin, and it is incredibly loud. Those 85-watts drive a pair of 12” Celestion JB neodymium speakers – the neodymium, again, helps keep the weight down.
“I always thought one of Leo’s greatest inventions was the 80-watt tweed Twin,” says Bonamassa. “Those things are one of the great amps ever produced. The fact that Fender was able to do this digitally now is really impressive. And the amps are 29lbs.”
As impressive as the original high-powered Twin designs were, when reengineering it as a digital combo, Bonamassa and Fender also took the opportunity to add switchable voicings that toggled between the traditional tube amp response and a more contemporary take on it.
“The best thing that we did with these amps, and originally they weren’t slated to have it, was the Vintage and Tight switch,” says Bonamassa. “Having that Tight button really solved a lot of problems in my world. I like super-fast recovery. I like that as soon as you play the note the amp is ready to amplify another note – that’s why I like the Dumble stuff so much because it’s super articulate.”
Be warned, though. These amps are unforgiving. The punish sloppiness. But when you hit a note well, and play well, it’s going to really carry those notes out to the audience.
When we did the Twin, having that Tight switch it was like, ‘Yeah, I wish I had them on the tube ones’
“There’s no forgiveness, and that’s why they’re polarising,” says Bonamassa. “‘I don’t like it. I don’t get it.’ No, if you’re very much a legato player, and pull-off a lot of notes, and need that kind of slower bloom, then that’s not really for you, but if you’re like me, everything’s picked, ‘cos I have no natural legato whatsoever, then it’s the perfect match.
“That’s why I always liked Fender-based amps. Dumbles are Fender-based amps. I liked Fender-based amplifiers because they were always quicker. They would recover fast. When we did the Twin, having that Tight switch it was like, ‘Yeah, I wish I had them on the tube ones.’ But they were able to recreate, sonically, what an old high-power would do.”
Sure, the Fender Tone Master platform, with its power scaling, makes it a viable proposition for smaller venues, with the direct output for recording or for bypassing the speaker on a silent stage. In a sense, the high-powered Twin’s tone has been captured, house-trained for modern use. But Bonamassa reassures us that, digital or not, it’s still a Twin. This amp has a wild side.
“You can also can recreate the violence of pushing those speakers to the point of ripping the cones out of the baskets,” he says. “And that’s always fun.”
Yes, yes it is. The Tone Master ‘59 Twin-Amp JB-Edition is available now, priced £1,789/$1,999. See Fender for more details.
