Mustang III review

[Inkstained]

Santa was kind enough to drop off a Fender Mustang III Monday night/Tuesday morning.

I've been playing it for only about three hours. Not very long. I took it out of the box just yesterday morning.

I don't know if I'm keeping it. There's a real, ever-present digital sheen there, an ultra brightness, especially on the top strings, that I can't get rid of. Reverbs are incredibly artificial sounding. I'm not sure why I would expect anything else. This is a digital amp after all. But there's no 'warmth' there. There's no 'there' there.

On the plus side, there are a lot of sounds on tap, a lot of versatility and with the III, you can modify them right there at the amp. I haven't even used fuse yet because I can do everything at the top of the amp.

And no doubt, it's loud.

To longtime III owners, a question: Does this amp grow on you at all? Does breaking in the speaker help? Did anyone find themselves falling in love, or like, with the amp after being initially underwhelmed?

Compared to the three tube amps I own (Blues Jr. first-generation, Princeton Recording Amp, Marshall Class 5), this is one cold amp, that's for sure. Does it ever warm up?

Addendum: Zero fizz that I can perceive. My tube amps make a heck a lot of noise compared to the Mustang.

 

[symptom]

Re: Mustang III review

A friend of mine have a Mustang I. It's one of the worst sounding amps that I've ever heard. Digital, artificial and really nonsense to me. I think it has too much confuse controls and it doesn't compensate with a great tone. But I'm a weird guy. I've never liked any of those modeling amps.

 

[DankStar]

Re: Mustang III review

First bad things I've heard about them. Several people have it here and dig it. Didn't sound too bad when I goofed with one. But geeze if you have a fender princeton recording amp, you're set!

 

[Inkstained]

Re: Mustang III review

First bad things I've heard about them. Several people have it here and dig it. Didn't sound too bad when I goofed with one. But geeze if you have a fender princeton recording amp, you're set!

Yeah, that's what I'm starting to think. These amps aren't aimed at people with experience with good tube tone. This is more for kids who have played little else but solid-state amps and want a variety of tones at the spin of a knob.

The good reviews here were one reason I bought the 'Stang, though. And I seem to remember that at least some of those good reviews came from someone who builds his own amps ... but maybe I dreamed that.

 

[symptom]

Re: Mustang III review

Yeah, that's what I'm starting to think. These amps aren't aimed at people with experience with good tube tone. This is more for kids who have played little else but solid-state amps and want a variety of tones at the spin of a knob.

The good reviews here were one reason I bought the 'Stang, though. And I seem to remember that at least some of those good reviews came from someone who builds his own amps ... but maybe I dreamed that.

To me, it sounds worse than some simple ss amps too. But I think this is because I'm more of a plug and play guy and don't have the patience to spend hours tuning it up.

 

[drpietrzak]

Re: Mustang III review

Well, I do not know if I have experience with good tube tone or not as I only have 40 years in with tube amps. My Mustang II is not going to replace my tube amps I suspect. But, for a modelining amp I think it does pretty well. However, what works for me is not the issue. It is what works for you that is important.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Mustang III review

digital modelers can not and will not replace real tube amps...

but the Mustang is the best one out there for any decent money these days...

 

[oliverwade]

Re: Mustang III review

Not really a fan of inexpensive modelling amps, however these are said to be the best of the bunch, and well, id totally disagree, these, as you say are very harsh sounding and the digital tone is ever present. They just dont cut it for me, id prefer a cheap valve amp and one of those £35 Digitech multi effects pedals..

 

[Dr.J4ckal]

Re: Mustang III review

I tried some modeler amps in the music store just before xmas. I'm looking for plug and play amp that can give me bluesy/blackface tone at lower volume. I'm a bit underwhelmed by the mustang III after reading glowing reviews. I think roland cube XL sounds best for clean (Jazz chorus and blackface model sounds great). The mustang's distortion tone also sounded very artificial, line6 POD HD, peavey vypyr or vox VT+ sounds way better.

 

[gvis]

Re: Mustang III review

I like the mustang II i bought last month, but really because of how cheap it was and my requirements, which were something small and light I could transport around the house or to my mom's house, as something I could practice or jam with quickly when i don't want lose time pulling out the pedal board and booting up the rig; also wanted to avoid burning tube life just practicing.

For $100 I got a simple to tweak package with built in tuner and effects. I did not want to have to mess with pedals and extra cables in the chain.

Yes, overall the tones are pretty sterile, but there is a pretty nice clean fender sample in there, and that's the one I use most. Most of the heavier OD samples are pretty bad imo, but better than nothing if it's all I got to mess around with. the cleaner samples with gain set a little higher is about the only dirt I can tolerate on this thing.

No idea how it compares with others in its price range. I read decent reviews here, went to the store during a sale, got a good price, sounded fine for me, so I bought it, knowing pretty much anything I tried at this level was going to have pluses and negatives and never match my full rig.

No way I spend extra dough for the bigger version.

 

[Rockstar216]

Re: Mustang III review

You might want to give the new blackstar SS amp line they are coming out with Im not sure how much they are but from what ive heard they sound great and are versatile. I cant say much for the mustang as ive never tried one only SS i own is a Marshall MGfx 30 watt its not bad for what it was intended for as a practice amp and small gigs when you dont fell like lugging a huge combo or head and cab.
Here is a review of em

 

[kjrocks]

Mustang III review

Had one for about a year and although it is great amp I still just couldn't stand playing at band levels. They still don't have the feel and response of my Rivera.

 

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: Mustang III review

Definitely not going to compare with your tube amps, however, for an amp with all the built in goodies and able to handle low volume levels (the III can get pretty loud too) I think its a great little practice amp. Like gvis said, no hassle of hooking up pedals or searching for the tuner when you just want to rip for a little bit. Also great to dial in the effects for jamming with covers etc...

FWIW I don't like modelling amps for the most part, but the Mustangs I'll take any day over the line 6 stuff, I sell alot of the I,II, and III's at my work. I wish I had a mustang I/II starting out over my old Rage 158!

 

[JeffB]

Re: Mustang III review

Here is a review of em

Nice crunch tones out of that thing around the 11:50 mark+, Sounds better than their "tube" amps IMO.

As for the M3, I think the Fender tones are pretty good across the board on the Mustangs, but the gainier amps (including the Marshalls) left me cold.

 

[thespricket]

Re: Mustang III review

I work for GC and whenever I just want to plug into something for a quick easy nice tone, they're my go to. As far as I can tell they're the best sounding digital amps out there. If i ever needed a digital amp I'd go for one. They sound wayyy better than the spiders or vypers or even the cubes. Whatever guitar I plug in, sounds like that guitar. Most digital amps don't allow guitars to sound the way they should, from what I've seen they do.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Mustang III review

Well, I've been playing through good tube amps for almost 15 years now (current main amp is a Mark V half stack) and my Mustang I is great for what it is.

I have no illusions of it being a perfect main amp for anyone other than a novice. I use it for home practice and demo recording, and for those purposes it's awesome.

You also pretty much HAVE TO use the Fuse software on your computer to take full advantage of all the Mustang amps can do.

Check out the recording of the Game of Thrones theme I made using only the Mustang I for guitar tones: https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?237968-Winter-is-Coming-to-my-Mustang-I

 

[Inkstained]

Re: Mustang III review

You also pretty much HAVE TO use the Fuse software on your computer to take full advantage of all the Mustang amps can do.
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For the Mustang I and II, yeah, I guess you HAVE TO use Fuse on the computer. But with the III-V iterations of the 'Stang, you can simply make whatever modifications you like at the top/front of the amp. I guess that's one reason I went with the III.

Edited to add: Nice job on the clip! Well done, indeed.

 

[whatshisname]

Re: Mustang III review

I have the Mustang I. A lot of the stock sounds aren't great, but, once I got into it with the Fuse software, I've gotten some GREAT tones out of it. For how much it cost, and just for jamming at home(which I do much more often these days), it's fantastic. I made a preset, with the "British '80s" model, that, for all intents and purposes, nails Michael Schenker's JCM 800 tone. Considering the fact that it's just not realistic to have a real JCM 800 CRANKED at home, this amp is perfect, for what I need it for. It just took a bit of effort.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Mustang III review

Had a II. Sent it back. Gotta III. Easier for my old eyes to read. Open back big plus. Celestine speaker much much better than the stock in the II. Good bang for the buck beach amp for me. I won't blink an eye at taking it out on the sand whereas, my tube amps don't get that kind of abuse.

 

[Inkstained]

Re: Mustang III review

Yeah, one of the reasons I don't feel compelled to return/sell the amp is that it was just so cheap. But I'm still honestly not sure I'll ever bond with the thing.