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Post subject: Did I REALLY just hear that??
Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 7:07 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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I was standing at the far end of GC Las Vegas from the guitar section today, when all of the sudden I hear this INCREDIBLE blues playing. Some dude was seriously going off!!

I had just walked away from that section about 5-minutes before, and saw some guy trying out a Strat through a Fender Deluxe.

Immediately I thought "Did that guy seriously make that Deluxe sound like that? I could never make my HRDV sound like that." He had some amazing overdrive and crunch going on. A seriously bomb sound.

So I go back over to see what's going on. There was a small crowd around him, so I couldn't see the amp. I'm a hard critic, but this guy could SMOKE some blues riffs. And the sound was insanely awesome.

A GC worker asks if he can help me and I ask him for reassurance, "What amplifier is that guy playing through? Is that the new Deluxe?"

His answer:

"No, it's the Fender Mustang IV.. "


:shock:


Did I seriously just hear that?.. For real?

Blown away. Effing incredible.

The EH organ pedal can wait. The Mustang IV will be my next purchase. I can honestly say that's the best SS amp I've ever heard.

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Post subject: Re: Did I REALLY just hear that??
Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 7:35 pm
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Welcome to the dark side.

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Post subject: Re: Did I REALLY just hear that??
Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 7:56 pm
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I've been in the Dark Side. But I've never actually heard Darth Vader in person until today.

I work in transfers.. On the 32nd floor of the CS department of the Death Star Stormtrooper VA wing.

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Post subject: Re: Did I REALLY just hear that??
Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 9:10 pm
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After I asked him what it was, we both walked over to a corner of the store completely out of site and were amazed at how it sounded like a tube amp. And, of course, we were giving mad props to the player. Local guy. Insane chops. Mad skills. That helps too.

He was playing one of the Hand Rubbed finish Strats.

Best salesman ever, and he didn't even work there.

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Post subject: Re: Did I REALLY just hear that??
Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 9:39 pm
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For Marshall tones, their old "Lead 12" SS amp knocked me out back in the day.
It was the last practice amp I needed to buy.

So SS amps can sound just fine.

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Post subject: Re: Did I REALLY just hear that??
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 2:12 am
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My Mustang III is awesome! Yes, welcome to the dark side, not only is it SS, it is DIGITAL!!! OMG!!!! :shock:

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Post subject: Re: Did I REALLY just hear that??
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 2:32 am
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omar59 wrote:
My Mustang III is awesome! Yes, welcome to the dark side, not only is it SS, it is DIGITAL!!! OMG!!!! :shock:


And you're convinced that 25 or 30 years from now it will still be playing, just as with the Fender amps of yore, right?

If you believe that then I've got a bag full of guitar picks that I lifted from the glovebox of Duane Allman's car that I'll be glad to sell you.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Did I REALLY just hear that??
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 3:32 am
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Retroverbial wrote:
omar59 wrote:
My Mustang III is awesome! Yes, welcome to the dark side, not only is it SS, it is DIGITAL!!! OMG!!!! :shock:


And you're convinced that 25 or 30 years from now it will still be playing, just as with the Fender amps of yore, right?



Why so convinced he won't? Unless Fender make something even better…?


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Post subject: Re: Did I REALLY just hear that??
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 3:59 am
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Although I haven't bought one or even played through one...yet,I have heard all glowing praise about the Mustang amps.Is the Mustang a true SS amp or is it a hybrid such as the Marshall Valvestate or the Vox Valvetronix amps? I have an old '81 Traynor TS-15 SS amp and every guitarist who played through it yet assumed it was a tube amp and were taken aback when I told them that there wasn't a single tube in it.

The Vox Valvetronix have an incredibly realistic mimicking capability of tube amps,so much so that I can pretty well nail the tone of my old JCM 800, 2204 model if I take enough time to tweak the controls-then with a couple of clicks off a couple of switches can save the tone.I can also,with a certain amount of twiddling,get pretty close to the tone of some older Fender amps.Vox went the direct opposite of other amp makers and put the tube in the power amp section as opposed to the preamp,which results in a far more realistic tube tone because the signal doesn't have to pass through a SS circuit before it goes to the speakers.....that's according to Vox...not me.

If amps this great sounding are being made now,I can't imagine how they will be able to better them tone wise because so many of them can create quite accurate copies of the tones of many iconic amps not only current ones but of vintage amps that are so expensive that few of us will ever get a chance to own or even play one.We may be in for some astounding developments in amp technology-if they just made it easy enough for complete Luddites like me to take advantage of all the features without having to take an I.T. course,that would be quite enough development for me.

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Post subject: Re: Did I REALLY just hear that??
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 7:54 am
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The other guitar player in my old band had the Vox Valvetronix. I played it quite a bit. Even tubed it with a nice NOS preamp tube. I also had a Marshall 8100 for over 10-years.

I'd have to say, I've never heard them do what I heard come out of that Mustang yesterday. Fender definitely needs to keep that technology rolling. If I'm not mistaken, its true SS. I think it blows away the Vox based on what I heard. It has way more of a tube sound than an 8100. The Mustang would make it sound like a toy. It's that good.

As far as it lasting 30+ years or so, I don't see why not. You can still buy vintage digital gear that works. It's all about how you take care of your gear. Don't spill a beer on it. Don't push buttons too hard. In all honesty, can you say the same for their amps with PCB mounted tube sockets?

I like gigging with SS amps. And I also require versatility. I think the Mustang would be perfect for me. I like the 2x12 for stereo capabilities. I'm down. I'm getting one by the end of the year. I can't wait to compare some of the sounds to the Heidkamp and Hughes & Kettner. Now THAT will be an interesting experiment.

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Post subject: Re: Did I REALLY just hear that??
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 8:09 am
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Retroverbial wrote:
omar59 wrote:
My Mustang III is awesome! .........


And you're convinced that 25 or 30 years from now it will still be playing, just as with the Fender amps of yore, right?......
Arjay

:shock: 25 years from now I'll either be dead or in a Home wishing I were! :(

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Post subject: Re: Did I REALLY just hear that??
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 8:16 am
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There are still plenty of working Yamaha DG amps out there, and they have motorized knobs. I have no real reason to believe an amp like this won't last. By that time, they'll probably have wireless 100 watt amps that you micro-chip into your brain anyway.

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Post subject: Re: Did I REALLY just hear that??
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 9:14 am
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guitslinger wrote:
Although I haven't bought one or even played through one...yet,I have heard all glowing praise about the Mustang amps.


All? Let's change that then. I bought a Mustang amp, thinking it a nice lightweight practice amp. And there's been nothing but problems, and it's "working" as intended.
First of all, it's ALL modeling. There's no clean where the sound isn't modified to sound like something else.
Then there's the configurability of all the knobs, which is NOT a good thing unless you're the sole user and have perfect memory. There's no telling what turning a Mustang amp knob will do, because it changes.
Then there are the unintuitive interface, where you have to hold down one button while twisting one of three knobs - with no indication on the bezel that you have to do so, or how.
Then there's the FUSE software, which depends on Silverlight, which Microsoft has abandoned as a failure. It won't work with high DPI displays, which is going to be pretty much every computer in the future. Whoever programmed it mixed scalable and unscalable elements. With high DPI, the bottom of the software gets cut off, so you can't see (or use) the pedals. Granted, for the Mustang III-V, you can use the display on the amp itself for most of the settings, but Mustang I and II users depend on the FUSE software.
ASIO drivers? Won't work if you have a computer with USB 3.0 only. Which is the future.
Then there's the problem of support. Fender won't say for how long it's going to be supported. Once the hardcoded preset web site goes down, functionality will be lost. The software hasn't seen any major updates in a long time, so my suspicion (which may be wrong) is that Fender has already ceased active development, and is only doing minimal maintenance at this point.
And what if the LCD display or SMC component gives out after a few years? Remember it's Made In China, where longevity isn't at the top of the list.
And say something does go wrong. Unless it's a blown speaker, neither you nor your regular amp tech can fix it, and you have to send it back to Fender and endure a long wait. If it's still under warranty, that is.
Sound quality? Not too bad at lower settings, but it doesn't take high gain well, and where most other amps sound better when cranking them up a bit, the Mustang II at least seems to like medium or lower settings. I think that's the speaker element, so it could be fixable, but I could be wrong.

In short, I found the Mustang to be rubbish. As I needed a lightweight solid state practice amp, I replaced it with an Orange. Best switch ever. And I won't even sell the Mustang II, because I think it's so bad that I don't want anyone else to be subjected to it. It's consumerist trash, in my opinion, made for planned obsolescence and to end up on landfills. And it's already outdated.

There! Now you no longer can say that you've heard all glowing praise about the Mustang amps.


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Post subject: Re: Did I REALLY just hear that??
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 9:34 am
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in 25 years those DSP chips might be considered 'vintage' and highly sought after for their warmth.

:lol:

Welcome to the dark side indeed JS. Enjoy. I have a Mustang II. Love it. Got it for something i could get quick and cheap til i got a replacement for my Deville that was stolen but now thinking Eventually will get the Mustang III or IV

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Post subject: Re: Did I REALLY just hear that??
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 9:55 am
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I think Arth brings up some good points. There are questions to be asked and certain things to consider.

The guy in the store did have it cranked. He was such a great player, nobody cared. If anything, it seemed like people wanted him to go on a bit longer. He had it to a volume much higher than a venue would want for mic'ing. Here in Vegas, it's very rare to play a gig where you're not being mic'ed into the PA. So in that respect, the volume handling of the IV was fine.

I'm telling you, as God as my witness, that amplifier sounded freaking incredible. I don't use high gain much. The solo sound was right about where I play things.

But I can't discount some of the concerns Arth brings up. It's worth researching. I try to be fair and unbiased to any product. So far, upon my initial hearing of it, it sounds fantastic. I've had and heard my share of modelers, and the Mustang IV sounds like a winner to me.

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