Fender Mustang I

[Lev]

I think I've mentioned in other threads that I recently got a Fender Mustang Amp, but I think this little baby deserves a thread of its own.

For what its worth I love tube amps, I gigged pretty regularly with my Hot Rod Deluxe over the past couple of years and love pushing to its limits and moving some serious air. But these days my playing is confined to late night practice with 2 kids asleep over my head. So I was looking for something small that I can move to a quite corner of the house as needed, I wanted an amp that sounded ok at low volume and decent with headphones. Up to now I had been using a PODxt for headphone practice and a G-Dec jnr as a practice amp. On paper the Mustang looked like it could replace both but I wasn't expecting much from an amp with an 8" speaker.

After a couple of weeks of playing with this amp it has exceeded all my exectations. The fullness of the sound coming from the little speaker is fantastc, it sounds like a proper amp rather than the transistor radio type sound from the G-Dec jnr.

The 24 preset sounds are fine but once you start tweaking using the Fuse software the amps potential becomes unlocked. The Fuse UI is pretty intuitive and I found it much easier to tweak than Line6 Gearbox for example. Its a tweakers delight right down to adjusting the virtual sag and bias in all the virtual amps :-)

There are fewer effects than you get with a Line6 amp but they are comprehensive and some are exceptional for an amp of this price. I've been easily able to create U2 and Police patches and found the delays and modulations to be excellent. You can also decide to place any effect before your amp or in an FX loop. So putting a compressor infront of a Fender Twin with a slap back delay in the loop is a sinch for some country spank. I've also created a very convincing 12 String sound using the pitch shift effect which tracks unbelievably well.

The modelled Fender amps sound fantastic, the Vox and Marshall amps need a little more tweaking but are great too.

All in all for me this little baby gets 10/10 when you take everything into account. Its user friendly, sounds great, looks to be solidly built and its really cheap! What's not to love?

Well done Fender, a fantastic product!

[Katastrophe]

Oh, you had to post this when my amph is still 4 days away from my grubby fingers. You're a bad man, Lev. Very, very bad!

PS: Thanks for the review, it was great! :)

[ZMAN]

The last time I was at my local store the manager sat down with me and showed me the Fender fuse sofware using his laptop, USB, Mustang 2, guitar and cable. He just asked me OK what is your favourite amp. Then your favourite effects pedals. It was amazing how the software changed the whole diynamics of the amp. He dialed in exactly what I requested and I was blown away by the tone. I had mentioned the Vibro champXD and the Super ChampXD that I had recently picked up. They are amazing as well. I am really amazed at what Fender is doing with their electronics. I think that down the road their guitars will have some of this technology as well. It is not being well received with Gibson but I think Fender is doing it a round about way by getting us on board with the amps then moving over.
I was always skeptical that the modellers didn't really sound like the originals. The ChampXDs changed that. I now have one that is going to my vacation home, and another for my place. I have a couple of my Marshalls for sale as we speak.
I still have a good cross section of amps but I really like the fact that I can plug in my guitar direct to the amp. and that is all I need. I just can't imagine what the pedal guys are thinking right now.

[Tig]

After demoing the 20 and 30 watt Mustangs and thoroughly enjoying them, I was enraged to find out how little they cost!
Where were you when I needed you, Mustang? I wasted money on inferior modeling amps in the past, and sure could have used something like this sooner. I hate you! :flamemad:

Seriously, I can easily see buying one in the near future. Most people would enjoy adding one to their collection. I like playing dual amps and also splitting the output of the HD-500 into two amps for panning effects and widening the tonal pallet.

[Eric]

Hey Lev, any chance you could post what you're using for a U2 patch? I'm trying to come up with something that uses the trademark 100% mix, 1/4 note + dotted 1/8 note delay combo.

[Lev]

Hay, Eric I've not used the amp for a while but I'm pretty sure I saved my U2 setting up on Fuse. If you search on Fuse for my username (Lev) there's a patch I created called 'YooToo'. I've also found that by far the most important element in re-creating a U2 tone is the pick. I use a Dunlop pick like the one pictured below with a pimpled grip and turn it around so that the rough grip edge strikes the strings. You end up with a kind of scratch effect when you pluck a string and when this goes through the delay it builds a kind of percussive trail which really captures the U2 sound.

http://static.musiciansfriend.com/derivates/6/001/188/013/DV019_Jpg_Regular_110020_.73mm.jpg

[Lev]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wQqqOGK34s&feature=youtube_gdata

...any pick with a grip should do the trick

[Eric]

Hay, Eric I've not used the amp for a while but I'm pretty sure I saved my U2 setting up on Fuse. If you search on Fuse for my username (Lev) there's a patch I created called 'YooToo'. I've also found that by far the most important element in re-creating a U2 tone is the pick. I use a Dunlop pick like the one pictured below with a pimpled grip and turn it around so that the rough grip edge strikes the strings. You end up with a kind of scratch effect when you pluck a string and when this goes through the delay it builds a kind of percussive trail which really captures the U2 sound.
Huh -- that makes sense, but I would not have figured that. I'll try to check it out this weekend. Thanks!

[stingx]

Lev, love the Mustang line of amps. I had the III for a bit and thought it was a great sounding piece of kit. My only issue was with fizz. I exchanged it once for another unit and I still had the same issue before and after applying the latest firmware. I think it's more of an issue with the III and there's a lot of posts about it on fender's forum and the gear page. I didn't detect fizz playing with headphones but it was annoying me when using the amp as an amp. I really wanted to get the issue resolved because I thought the amp was fantastic otherwise. The latest word on it, unofficially from Fender, is that it's the power supply. Past experience tells me that this won't be resolved and it's more cost effective for the company to just improve it and release in a newer model than fix the current. Anyway, if they ever do get this sorted I'll jump back in. I thought the cleans on amp were amazing. I liked the Fuse software and, at least on the III, the ability to control everything via the LCD. If I didn't already have modeling solutions, I would easily pick up a Mustang I for just that purpose.

[Eric]

Lev, love the Mustang line of amps. I had the III for a bit and thought it was a great sounding piece of kit. My only issue was with fizz. I exchanged it once for another unit and I still had the same issue before and after applying the latest firmware. I think it's more of an issue with the III and there's a lot of posts about it on fender's forum and the gear page. I didn't detect fizz playing with headphones but it was annoying me when using the amp as an amp. I really wanted to get the issue resolved because I thought the amp was fantastic otherwise. The latest word on it, unofficially from Fender, is that it's the power supply. Past experience tells me that this won't be resolved and it's more cost effective for the company to just improve it and release in a newer model than fix the current. Anyway, if they ever do get this sorted I'll jump back in. I thought the cleans on amp were amazing. I liked the Fuse software and, at least on the III, the ability to control everything via the LCD. If I didn't already have modeling solutions, I would easily pick up a Mustang I for just that purpose.
Interesting. I tend to agree with most of this. I think it (the Mustang I) is a nice practice amp and it's easy to record with. It's my only modeler, and owning the Mustang has actually made me realize that I need a modeler to be self-contained in an amp and pretty simple if I am to use it much. I get bogged down too easily.