Fender Enters the Multi-Effects Market with a Bang with Feature-Packed Tone Master Pro Floor Unit

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The Big F has taken the fight directly to Line 6 and Neural DSP with a pedal packed to the brim with immaculately-engineered features – including the first-ever brand-approved EVH amp model.

Fender's Tone Master Pro multi-effects pedal
(Image credit: Fender)

Fender has taken a massive step forward in its involvement in the amp-modeling and effects worlds with the launch of the Tone Master Pro, an incredibly well-appointed floor unit that sees the legendary firm taking on the likes of Line 6 and Neural DSP. 

The Tone Master Pro is the latest evolution of the Big F's fast-growing, acclaimed Tone Master series of digital guitar amps, and is chock full of features. 

You can hear it in action in the demo video below.

It's difficult to know quite where to go first with the Tone Master Pro, but we'll start with its 100+ amp and effects models. One of the former, it's worth noting, is the first-ever EVH 5150 III Stealth model to get an official license and seal of approval from the usually modeling-averse EVH firm.

Powered by an even eight processors, the Tone Master Pro also comes with an incredible collection of Fender-captured IRs – over 6,000 (!), with third-party IR support, plus cab and mic options – and 500 user preset slots that can be created, and then stored and recalled.

Controls-wise, the core of the pedal relies on 10 footswitches – which also pull double duty as rotary parameter controls – laid out in two rows of five. The Tone Master's seven-inch control screen, meanwhile, can be used to tweak settings and signal chains, and browse between the amps and effects themselves.

Additional live-friendly features aboard the pedal include a 60-second stereo looper and a “Song and Setlist” mode.

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Fender's Tone Master Pro multi-effects pedal
(Image credit: Fender)

Accompanying all of this firepower are a bevy of connectivity options – including dedicated Instrument and Mic inputs, four effects loops, a pair of expression pedal jacks, a headphone output, and a ground/lift switch.

The pedal is also fully Bluetooth- and MIDI-compatible, and boasts a USB for connecting to Fender's Tone Master Pro Control desktop app for editing, downloading, and sharing presets, and for firmware updates.

The Fender Tone Master Pro is available now for $1,699 – a price point identical to that of Neural DSP's Quad Cortex and the Line 6 Helix.

For more info on the unit, visit fender.com.

Jackson Maxwell
Jackson Maxwell
Associate Editor, GuitarWorld.com and GuitarPlayer.com

Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com and GuitarPlayer.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.