Fender Tone Master Princeton Reverb Guitar Amplifier, Black

I live in an apartment where a loud amp isn't an option. The amp has a mute option that allows me to play through headphones which is perfect for my situation. The amp sounds like a tube amp even when it is attenuated through the built in attenuator or even muted.

I have been thinking about getting ones of these since they first came out several years ago. I have some other small amps, a 2008 Tweed Blues Jr. NOS and 2019 Fender Super Champ X2 1x10" 15-watt Tube Combo Amp - Lacquered Tweed Sweetwater Exclusive with Eminence Ragin Cajun Speaker. I saved my Chase Amazon points until I had half the purchase price because I thought 950 plus 8% NYS sales tax for a made in China solid state Amp was a little ridiculous. Shipping from the vendor was lightning fast. I received it the day after I ordered it. I never played a Princeston before so maybe my expectations were set too high. After reading a number of reviews, I expected to be DAZZLED. I have been playing a variety of guitars through it the last few days. I plug in straight to the amp and do not use pedals. Anyway, it is a nice amp but in some ways, I prefer the sound of my other two amps. I will keep it though because I do not have to deal with the expense of changing tubes.

As soon as I got this amp, I A-B’d it to my tube amp. Tone sounded virtually identical between both amps, could only start to pick out differences once I started throwing a lot of distortion at it. This amp doesn’t sound bad with distortion though, it just distorts different than a tube amp. Also, I’ve heard people say that this amp doesn’t handle fuzz well, but in my experience it handled fuzz just fine, I used an MXR 108 Classic Fuzz for reference.As for build quality, it’s built just like a modern Princeton Reverb. Same materials, and I haven’t discovered any QC issues at the time of writing this review.Tone wise, it’s a very clean and fender-y tone. It basically sounds how you’d expect. The reverb on this amp is amazing, it’s mind blowing good. The power attenuator is extremely useful for getting the tone you want without having to crank the amp and wake your neighbors. Also, this isn’t a 12 W solid state amp, it’s a solid state amp that sounds as loud as a 12 W tube amp; That’s to say it’s loud as ****. This thing will melt your face off at 12 W, so the addition of the attenuator is a great modern feature!Overall this is a great amp, and look forward to not having to worry about tube maintenance for the rest of this amp’s life.

As a player for more than 50 years, I've played a lot of Fender amps. Wanted to not take my '68 Black Face Princeton to gigs for fear of getting it stolen. Bought the Tone Master version, and was horribly disappointed. It doesn't come close to sounding like a proper tube-driven Princeton. It sounds sterile, brittle and weirdly bright. It's also 3.5 lbs heavier than advertised, so the alleged weight savings is not as great as it is promoted to be. Moreover, it definitely does not take drive pedals well. Used it with my trusty Dumbler and it just sounded like a really bad fuzz pedal.

I A/B'd this amp with several guitars at the store with it's tube version which I went in there to buy. I was blown away at how similar this and the tube version sounded. Very minor differences. Comes with a DI out with 3 different IR's which all sound great. Thing weighs almost nothing. I had been using a Vox AC15, AC30 and a heavily modded Blues Junior amp. This is now my go-to. If you need a small amp with decent volume, this is it. If you're tired of having to hang a mic or throw a stand in front of your amp this is the amp for you. Only complaint I have is the price.