voggin
Well-known member
I suppose I could have just put my comments on Inkstained's thread, but then I would have lost the fun of my own NAD thread.
My wife got me a Mustang III for Xmas. We then had to travel to relatives, so I wasn't able to really test it out until this weekend.
I have a Fender Hot Rod Deville and a Pro Junior. (What can I say, I'm a Fender guy). they are both great at what they do, but I find they are a bit of a pain when you get a free 20 minutes to half an hour to screw around (I'm a hobbyist). the Pro Junior has a great sound, but if you're wanting to goof around with a gain-type sound, it can be a pain to hook up pedals, etc. And the Deville is great when you can give it some volume, but at low levels it loses a lot in tone. So I really needed (wanted) something to just turn on and play with. But I also wanted the option of playing it loud, too.
The Mustang III really seems to fit the bill for that. It's a modeller, of course, and has a "digital-ness" to some of its sounds, especially the effects, notably the reverb. But the amp models are really quite good, even great. The Fender models are very good. I really like the 65 Deluxe, in particular, and the Champ. I'd say they are 90 - 95% on the money. Which, when you think of it, is where you'd start with a good amp before you finally dial in the 100%. The tones are very easy to customize: the controls are very intuitive, and the video screen is a good size for middle-aged eyes. I also like the "British 70s (Marshall)" model for classic gain stuff, and the Fender Supersonic is really amazing for high-gain.
The one thing I really notice about the amp is that the presets (which are quite clever and useful, by the way) have a distinct Fender/single coil bias. What I mean is that with my strat, the presets are perfect. With my Gibsons with hum buckers, they need to be tweaked to get the best sound. For example, many of the clean presets on the fender amp models have a compressor in the chain, which is great for that Dire Straits-y tone, but needs to be shut off with my 339 (which is done with a touch of a button).
Speaking of strat tones, I was playing my strat (goddamn it, why does a guitar website like this always want to correct "strat" to "start"?) through one of the presets with compression (#14, I think) and my wife said it reminded her of the Lethal Weapon soundtrack: I was aiming for the EC/blackie in the late '70s tone, so the amp really nailed it!
With some tinkering with the 70s Marshall model, I got a really good Dickey Betts/Fillmore tone for my Les Paul. And by tinkering, I mean moving two knobs. And it's really very easy to save a sound when you get one you like.
I'm looking forward to taking it to a drummer pal's place in the next couple of weeks to see how it stands up at higher volumes. It's a $300 amp, after all, so I don't know how road-worthy it would be, durability wise, but I could certainly see someone using it in a small gig/open mic context.
By the way, the amp is very good with harmonic/pick attack subtleties. It also responds well to pickup changes and guitar tone knob changes.
But for what I needed, which is a plug in and go low volume practise amp, I think it's really good. I read some earlier reviews where there were some fizziness problems, but it appears fender fixed that. There's no getting over the fact that it is digital and not a tube amp, but the best way I can describe it is it sounds like a good recording of a good amp. If that makes any sense.
My wife got me a Mustang III for Xmas. We then had to travel to relatives, so I wasn't able to really test it out until this weekend.
I have a Fender Hot Rod Deville and a Pro Junior. (What can I say, I'm a Fender guy). they are both great at what they do, but I find they are a bit of a pain when you get a free 20 minutes to half an hour to screw around (I'm a hobbyist). the Pro Junior has a great sound, but if you're wanting to goof around with a gain-type sound, it can be a pain to hook up pedals, etc. And the Deville is great when you can give it some volume, but at low levels it loses a lot in tone. So I really needed (wanted) something to just turn on and play with. But I also wanted the option of playing it loud, too.
The Mustang III really seems to fit the bill for that. It's a modeller, of course, and has a "digital-ness" to some of its sounds, especially the effects, notably the reverb. But the amp models are really quite good, even great. The Fender models are very good. I really like the 65 Deluxe, in particular, and the Champ. I'd say they are 90 - 95% on the money. Which, when you think of it, is where you'd start with a good amp before you finally dial in the 100%. The tones are very easy to customize: the controls are very intuitive, and the video screen is a good size for middle-aged eyes. I also like the "British 70s (Marshall)" model for classic gain stuff, and the Fender Supersonic is really amazing for high-gain.
The one thing I really notice about the amp is that the presets (which are quite clever and useful, by the way) have a distinct Fender/single coil bias. What I mean is that with my strat, the presets are perfect. With my Gibsons with hum buckers, they need to be tweaked to get the best sound. For example, many of the clean presets on the fender amp models have a compressor in the chain, which is great for that Dire Straits-y tone, but needs to be shut off with my 339 (which is done with a touch of a button).
Speaking of strat tones, I was playing my strat (goddamn it, why does a guitar website like this always want to correct "strat" to "start"?) through one of the presets with compression (#14, I think) and my wife said it reminded her of the Lethal Weapon soundtrack: I was aiming for the EC/blackie in the late '70s tone, so the amp really nailed it!
With some tinkering with the 70s Marshall model, I got a really good Dickey Betts/Fillmore tone for my Les Paul. And by tinkering, I mean moving two knobs. And it's really very easy to save a sound when you get one you like.
I'm looking forward to taking it to a drummer pal's place in the next couple of weeks to see how it stands up at higher volumes. It's a $300 amp, after all, so I don't know how road-worthy it would be, durability wise, but I could certainly see someone using it in a small gig/open mic context.
By the way, the amp is very good with harmonic/pick attack subtleties. It also responds well to pickup changes and guitar tone knob changes.
But for what I needed, which is a plug in and go low volume practise amp, I think it's really good. I read some earlier reviews where there were some fizziness problems, but it appears fender fixed that. There's no getting over the fact that it is digital and not a tube amp, but the best way I can describe it is it sounds like a good recording of a good amp. If that makes any sense.
