Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb for £799? Not anymore!
A digital recreation of a classic tube amp
4,0 / 5,0 | 
This new Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb combo offers an all-digital 12-watt version of the classic tube combo. This is the latest budget offering in the Tone Master series of amplifiers. But how close to a real tube amp will it actually feel and sound?
UPDATE 22/02/23
That Fender Tone Master Princeton is now officially out and unfortunately, the price has risen to £899. When I first wrote about this new amp it was listed at £799 in the UK. I guess price rises are inevitable in today’s volatile world energy market, but adding an extra hundred to the official price is a bit of a kick in the teeth for potential buyers of these modelling amps.
With a significant price hike for 2023
Official Features List
- Proprietary DSP modelling
- 1 x 10″ Jensen C10R speaker
- Rear-panel output power selector for full power and five attenuated settings
- Balanced XLR line output with impulse response (IR) cabinet simulations, level control, and a ground switch
- Resonant, lightweight pine cabinet
- Power jewel illuminates in different colours indicating normal operation, warmup, and mute/silent mode
- USB port for firmware updates
- Universal worldwide 100V – 240V operation
- Cover and two-button footswitch included
How does it sound?
Fender has also now uploaded an official demo video to YouTube and so we can finally hear it at last. Albeit in a very closely controlled marketing way.
Our partner, Thomann is taking pre-orders now and has them listed for €919 * down from the official MSRP of €1039.
Video
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Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb
Fender’s Tone Master Princeton Reverb is the latest vintage-inspired recreation in their digital amp range. Offering the classic 12-watt tube combo at a much lower price point, because this time there are no tubes. This combo has two inputs and controls for volume, treble, bass, reverb level, tremolo speed and tremolo intensity.
Tone Master
Power Scaling
On the rear panel, you will find the on/off switch and a mute switch. The amp also can be run at either the full 12 watts or dropped down to 6, 3, 1.5,0.75 or 0.3 watts via the power scaling control on the rear. It also comes with an XLR output for recording. This output has two cabinet simulations, or you can use your own Impulse Responses. Unfortunately, there is no headphone output on this combo, which is a shame.
New Princeton digital recreation added to Tone Master range
10″ Speaker
The Tone Master Princeton Reverb is powered by a single 10″ Jensen Special Design speaker. This speaker uses a ceramic magnet and not a neodymium one like the ones on other Tone Master amps. I guess at 10.5 kilograms it is already a pretty lightweight combo and so Fender can save some money by using the slightly heavier speaker.
Princeton rear
Price and Release
The amp has yet to appear on the main Fender site, however, a few UK dealers are already showing it for sale and are listing it at £799. Which makes it cheaper than a regular all-tube Princeton. As they are normally around £1.2k-£2k plus each, depending on which version you opt for.
UPDATE 09/09/22
It is now showing up on the main Fender site, and you can check all the details here.
Hopefully, we will get an official Fender demo video soon, so that we can all hear how it sounds. The shipping date quoted at dealers is 17 November 2022, so not long to wait for these.
MSRP – USD 899/GBP *99 including cover and two-button footswitch
More Information
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- With a significant price hike for 2023: Fender
- Tone Master: Fender
- New Princeton digital recreation added to Tone Master range: Fender
- Princeton rear: Fender
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6 responses to “Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb for £799? Not anymore!”
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On Thomann, the all-tube Princeton is closer to £1,200 than the £2,000 listed in the article.
Updated that for you
hmmm, 4 or 8 ohm 10″ speaker? Easier to replace if 8 ohm, if a person wants.
Honestly, I don’t know why there aren’t head versions. A bassman tonemaster head? Forget about it
I have tried the digital deluxe reverb tone master and like all the digital ones I have tried they have always been the ones that have sounded the worst to me, even for line recording. If I had to make a ranking according to my ears by type of amplifier it would be:
1. Point by point tube amp with tube rectifier
2. Point by point tube amp with solid state rectifier
3. PCB tube amp with tube rectifier
4 PCB tube amp with solid state rectifier
5. Hybrid amp with tube in preamp
6. Hybrid amp with tubes im power amp.
7. Pure solid-state transistor amplifier.
8. Digital amplifiers
I thing this is grossly overpriced, £199 more like. This is just a modern frontman. Now with tonex out, I think all these amp makers are going to have rethink it bit.