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Post subject: Can't decide
Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 12:36 pm
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Hey all,
I used to play in a band 30 years ago. Always been a Fender Amp man. I have not been playing since then. I would like to relearn how to play so I am only going to be using an amp in my home but do want something that is decent, not a beginning amp like a Mustang I. I have been looking at the mustang III or a G-Dec 30....Any suggestions with which amp line to choose?
thanks in advance
Tom


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Post subject: Re: Can't decide
Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:49 pm
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If you are only playing at home to learn again, then a G-DEC 3 Thirty (which I have). If you're going to gig or practice with others, go for the Mustang III. The G-DEC 3s are great with presets and band tracks, but tricky to adjust on the fly unless you have it connected to FUSE through a computer. The Mustangs have Gain, Bass, Treble, Mid, etc. for easier adjustment while playing. Also, the 4-button footswitch (optional with the III) allows you to turn on/off individual effects on a preset like a pedal board in the 3rd mode. Plus, the 100 watt Mustang is enough to gig with...not so the G-DEC 3 Thirty unless you mic it.

Hope that helps!


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Post subject: Re: Can't decide
Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 7:33 am
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hey Tom, the G-DEC are definitely nice amps, but I think the Mustang III is a better choice if you get serious again and start gigging. I've done several rehearsals with my MIII now and it's just a fantastic amp - incredibly versatile and wonderful tones. Even with the two-button switch (I've got a 4-button on order), it's pretty easy to setup multiple presets per song. If I need a clean tone for rhythm and a crunchier tone for lead, I just make the preset consecutive. You can expand that idea a bit (I do this on a couple of tunes) - where I need a tremolo clean tone on the chorus, light grit Bassman on the verses and a dirtier (louder) tone for the solo, I just put the light grit on say "21", tremolo on "20" and put the solo tone on "22". From there it's easy to pivot between tones - switching delay is almost instantaneous.

And at 100-watts (even SS), it has all the volume you will ever need for a gig - we always mic the amps, but this thing can easily keep up with a loud drummer on it's own.

I will admit that having band tracks on the G-Dec is nice, but I always use my computer for backing tracks at home so it's not as useful a feature for me. Just my .02. Hard to go wrong with either of these amps... ;)


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Post subject: Re: Can't decide
Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 9:44 am
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I owned a GDEC 3 15w and sold it pretty quickly. I probably should have given it a little longer trial, but I just felt that the sounds were not quite as good as I expected. All of the presets had tons of effects and needed a lot of tweaking to get to sounds that I would like to use. I did feel that I had to use FUSE to edit the sounds and make them usable. I've heard that the GDEC 3 30 does sound better and bigger, but I just wasn't interested.

The Mustang I and II blew me away with their sound right out of the box, and the Mustang III took it to a new level for me. The Mustang III has the open back, the better speaker, and is much easier to edit on the amp. The only drawback to me is not being able to use the backing tracks on the amp itself...which is a problem easily solved by just putting them on an mp3 player or having my computer plugged into my amp. (Personally, I have a computer with a cool sound system in the same room as my Mustang, so I'd rather just play along with the computer.

One advantage that people spout about the GDEC 3 is that the presets are matched to a great guitar tone. I do not find this to be the case. There were several where I just didn't understand why they were trying to push some tone with a bunch of weird effects along with the track. I didn't think that they all matched up great anyway.

If you love Fender tone, and want the amp for the tone...you'll like the Mustang III more. If you want the ease and simplicity of having the tracks installed on your amp...the GDEC 3 is for you.

I will say this though. The Bassman sound on the Mustang III is worth the entire price of the amp. So is the Deluxe 65. The tone on those amps is just so amazing.


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Post subject: Re: Can't decide
Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 1:35 pm
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paztormike wrote:
The Bassman sound on the Mustang III is worth the entire price of the amp. So is the Deluxe 65.
I gotta *second* that comment - they are both fantastic... :)


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Post subject: Re: Can't decide
Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 6:39 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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For any practice/training application, the G-DEC series excels. Fender is finally coming out with a learning series based on the G-DECs. The ability to store and play jamtrax on board is huge.

And they all, G-DECs and Mustangs alike, use the same basic modeling engine.

Get a G-DEC 15 for practice, and an MIII for gigs. Best $400 you could ever spend.


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Post subject: Re: Can't decide
Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 10:55 pm
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That Mustang lll is everything one could ever what in an amp! You get all those great classic fender amps, plus all those effects in a perfect size/weight amp. All for under $300(got mine for $269 on sale)oh and by the way it looks cool too! Come on everyone should have one. For 90% of the people out there this is all they will ever need.

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Post subject: Re: Can't decide
Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 2:17 pm
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tkdunn17 wrote:
I will admit that having band tracks on the G-Dec is nice, but I always use my computer for backing tracks at home so it's not as useful a feature for me. Just my .02. Hard to go wrong with either of these amps... ;)


How come ? is it because playing the back track thru the Amp sort of kills your Tone ? that's what I'm thinking... thnx

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