You lost me at $1700.

J

Tqi wrote:

nismosurf wrote:

You lost me at $1700.

And (ignoring the thing that annoyed me) they lost me at:

Bassbreaker, Vox/Marshall/Mesa/etc copies yes;

Woodie amps, Tweed Champ, HPTT, 6G14, 6G8, 6G7, and anything from the Silverface like the Cobain super no.

I agree on all that, but even if it had better selections, $1700 is still very laughable. Especially from Fender who has a track record of putting out digital products and abandoning them a year later.

J

I didn’t even see the cabs until just now. Now I wonder what the point of any of it is. You’d be over $2200 into this and have a glorified Pod head on the floor to carry in addition to the cab. As per usual, I’ll stick to real amps. I’m sure this works for someone, but I’m not sure who.

J

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Wanted to just chime in here and offer a contrary, and possibly unpopular point of view. Now, I should preface it with the fact that I regularly gig in NYC with a Tone Master Deluxe Reverb and am totally happy with it.

When I first saw this, I was kind of bummed this was the route they went with the Tone Master line. I thought the whole point was "using all the processing power to totally nail one amp".

However, the more I thought about this, the more I saw the total usefulness of it (and I suppose any other amp modeler/profiler). As someone who plays live shows pretty regularly and doesn't own a car, I obviously see the appeal of being able to turn up to a live gig with something this small and plug straight into the board and being able to have a stereo set up, different amps running on each side of the stage etc. If you want additional stage volume, they're got the powered speakers, but you don't totally need if the stage has good enough monitors.

You have to think that Fender has been around for over 70 years and has to continue to innovate and modernize to continue to make new sales and to compete in the various spaces that newer companies create.

I don't think the Joe Bonamassas or John Frusciantes of the world will embrace this stuff, nor do I think they should. I think as long as people value the classic rock/ music of the 50's-70's, people will value the original gear used to produce those sounds. That being said, I think as the years and decades go on there will be diminishing returns on using that old gear vs newer technology, and I think we're just staring to see that happen.

I imagine this will be successful with guys who play at bars/clubs in Nashville every night or who play in wedding bands. Guys that gig hard very regularly, that don't have roadies and that need reliable, easy to transport gear to play long sets and cover tons of sonic ground.

Will there be a point where brining amps from the 50's or 60's out to shows is really just not realistic or reliable? Are we already there?Do they become purely collector items at some point?

I don't know the answer to these questions, and I don't imagine myself buying this thing. Just throwing some thoughts out there....

Very mixed feelings about this. On a technical level, I see a place for it. I could imagine having a collection of amps, for their unique voices, and assuming that the modeling works as advertised, this would be a fascinating tool. But …

Back in the real world, I don’t use all of these amps. Most of the time, I use a 5 watt EL-84 amp with an early Vox AC-15 front end. I use it in my living room, I use it for gigs and is does almost everything I want to do. I have another amp based upon the ‘62 Princeton circuit, and it fills in most of the gaps that the 5 watt amp can’t, and a an AB763 based amp for when I need that more scooped Fender sound. That’s it. I can get any sound I need from these three amps. I can’t get a Marshall sound, or a Mesa Boogie sound, but I never use those sounds anyhow, so it’s not much of a concern.

While I find this interesting, and would love to play through one, I don’t that I would actually have use for one. It’s an interesting concept, however.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

I’ll be dead in 50 years, who is using what at that point, or even now is of zero relevance to me. I prefer small tube amps. My point of view that $1700 is ridiculous for this (or any modeler) only pertains to me. Obviously there are people that will buy this and love it. I’m not the target market and my personal opinion on the thing is just that, personal. If someone wants to buy this and it works for them, good. There’s just no way I’d ever pay $1700 for it and still need a speaker to hear it.

J

Tqi wrote:

wipedoutnyc wrote:

I do like to think about it long term though. How will tube amps be viewed 50 years from now? 100 years from now? Is there a point where young musicians will just not care if they're using digital products or not? I think that's certainly possible as tubes become less widely used and manufactured.

Fender's first solid state amp was released in 1966. They currently make two guitar amps and a few bass amps that are solid state as distinct from digital. They also make quite a lot of tube guitar amps, and one and a half tube bass amps.

I see two hypothetical paths where tubes become rare in the west: we give up on the heroes in Ukraine, and Poutine keeps going all the way to Hungary through Slovakia (taking out JJ on the way). We also fall out completely with China so no Ruby. In that case, Western Electric will bring out 6L6GC and 12AX7 at an obscene price. (Also, the nuclear fallout will make this less pressing.) The only tube amps available will be "hand wired" models at insane prices, but they'll stay available. Or: environmental legislation comes in to ban valve amps based on efficiency. In that case, the "Valve Reactor" design (which should be out of patent now) will be adopted on mass, and someone will bring out a new production EF80 or baby power tetrode for preserving the power amp sound. If the legislation targeted some design material in the valves instead - same scenario as the "no eastern tubes" one. W.E. will bring out a new design without the offending component at exorbitant prices, and valves will become niche but never die.

And I know this because the Leica M6-2 was released last year. A brand new £5000 135 film camera in 2022.

Ok, I’m out.

J