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Post subject: My Mustang III Live Experience...
Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 10:56 am
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Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2011 3:44 pm
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I've seen the question asked here several times, so I just wanted to post a quick note on using a Fender Mustang III in a live setting.

I have had the MIII for about two weeks now. Unfortunately, due to a busy work schedule, I didn't have as much time as I would've liked to dial in the settings a bit more in preparation for our gig last Friday. So, I just thought KISS, and not over think things. Ultimately, I decided to have a nice clean tone preset (tweaked the bassman model to my liking), and an over driven preset for solos and a couple of other "grungier" songs we perform. Then, configured the two-button footswitch QA1/QA2 to navigate between them...worked well.

This was an outdoor gig, playing to a crowd of about 200 or so folks attending a community bbq type event. I was worried about the MIII not projecting adequately to the large venue, but I set my levels, miced the amp into the PA and viola...sweetness to the masses! I was actually surprised at how good it sounded. The clean baseman with a bit of chorus blended really well with the other guitar and the boost cut through for the few solos I do. Had some trouble at first getting the volume right on the boost, but once I got it dialed in everything sounded fine.

So, I am very happy with the Mustang III. I was looking for my guitar effects solution through modeling pedals, and was never really happy with any of them. This amp, along with the effects, was the simple solution I have been looking for. We've got two more upcoming gigs where I'll use my Mustang III, and I'm looking forward to squeezing more sounds out of this portable powerhouse!!! :D


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Post subject: Re: My Mustang III Live Experience...
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 8:48 am
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Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:37 am
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Location: New York
didn't want to start a new thread just for this but ....

I saw a youth production of '13' (a Broadway Musical) the other night, and noticed the guitar player was using a Mustang II. I didn't get down close to check it out, but I think it was v1. Anyway, it certainly got the job done and sounded great. 8)

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Post subject: Re: My Mustang III Live Experience...
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 7:00 pm
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Joined: Fri May 27, 2011 8:28 pm
Posts: 102
Location: Battle Creek, Mi
elkchaser01 wrote:
I've seen the question asked here several times, so I just wanted to post a quick note on using a Fender Mustang III in a live setting.

I have had the MIII for about two weeks now. Unfortunately, due to a busy work schedule, I didn't have as much time as I would've liked to dial in the settings a bit more in preparation for our gig last Friday. So, I just thought KISS, and not over think things. Ultimately, I decided to have a nice clean tone preset (tweaked the bassman model to my liking), and an over driven preset for solos and a couple of other "grungier" songs we perform. Then, configured the two-button footswitch QA1/QA2 to navigate between them...worked well.

This was an outdoor gig, playing to a crowd of about 200 or so folks attending a community bbq type event. I was worried about the MIII not projecting adequately to the large venue, but I set my levels, miced the amp into the PA and viola...sweetness to the masses! I was actually surprised at how good it sounded. The clean baseman with a bit of chorus blended really well with the other guitar and the boost cut through for the few solos I do. Had some trouble at first getting the volume right on the boost, but once I got it dialed in everything sounded fine.

So, I am very happy with the Mustang III. I was looking for my guitar effects solution through modeling pedals, and was never really happy with any of them. This amp, along with the effects, was the simple solution I have been looking for. We've got two more upcoming gigs where I'll use my Mustang III, and I'm looking forward to squeezing more sounds out of this portable powerhouse!!! :D

Got to love it when a plan comes together. Glad it all worked out for you. I've been having a lot of fun with mine too.

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Post subject: Re: My Mustang III Live Experience...
Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 12:16 am
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Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2012 12:11 am
Posts: 299
I had an even more extreme example of the Mustang's flexibility this weekend.

Like you, we had a large outdoor event which was a music festival consisting of 5 bands. We were the hosts of the event so everyone was using our PA. We got there early in the morning to set up the PA and get volume levels set correctly. I play on a Mustang IV and the other guitarist uses a Mustang III. We use a Fender Rumble 60 for Bass and a Roland TD-15K electronic drum kit.

My master volume was set at just a hair above 3 on the master volume of the amp, but I draw that back on my volume pedal a bit in order to have enough overhead for leads. The Mustang III was set at a hair below 3 on the master volume. Not only was that more than sufficient for us to hear each other on stage, but was more than sufficient to cover the roughly 2.5 acres on which the event was held through the PA.

What's most interesting was that all but the last group used our equipment - drums, guitar amps, and bass amp in order to smooth transitions between bands because we were already gain staged and balanced. All we had to do for these groups was roll through the presets on each of the amps and on the drums until we found one that matched what they were used to. All the guitarists needed was to plug their pedal boards into our amps. We never changed any master volumes of any of the equipment on stage. All the bands were extremely happy with their stage sound and it sounded AWESOME out front.

The last group decided they needed to use their own gear, so naturally the transition was a LOT rougher. We endured several minutes during the first part of their performance tracking down feedback issues.

To put it bluntly...solid state modeling won the day!!!

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Post subject: Re: My Mustang III Live Experience...
Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2014 6:56 am
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Joined: Sun Apr 07, 2013 11:25 am
Posts: 107
Whether it was labor or luck, the speaker-cab-power amp design for the M3v2 is a thing of beauty. I bought my M3 to use as an open-back power cabinet and to add redundancy to a 4CM modeler setup but I was really surprised the first time I used it outdoors. Beautifully consistent with the indoor stage sound and volume settings, and no apparent loss of bass or projection due to wide open spaces in front of or behind the amp. I'm getting ready to replace my backup Tech21 PE60 (which only saw a few hours of use over the years) with a second M3v2. The PE60 is a nice unit (virtually identical to the dimensions of the M3), but in the ranges where the PE60 is stiff or honky or noisy, the M3v2 is supple and smooth and noiseless. Even going into the Efx return with a modeler setup, the M3v2 feels and responds like a real amp---and surprisingly sweetly outdoors. I'm a happy camper. Thanks again, Fender!

Paj
8^)


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Post subject: Re: My Mustang III Live Experience...
Posted: Mon May 05, 2014 6:14 pm
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Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2014 7:03 pm
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Since we're sharing... I had my first gig with my Mustang III V2 a couple of days ago. It's an outdoor fund raising event called Paddle the Don, where money is raised for cleaning up the Don River in Toronto, Canada. We are the house band for the day and we perform from around 10:30 am until about 3 PM...so a few long, solid sets.

I have to say that the amp performed flawlessly. I ran one of the balanced XLR outputs to the board, using the right channel so as to keep the amp's speaker engaged. I never raised the master volume beyond about 4 and had more than enough headroom for stage monitoring and for the PA. I used patches based on the 68 Twin, The Deluxe and an acoustic patch that I downloaded from the Fender site. Ran the acoustic and electric through an a/b switch. The electric sounds were really very good, with plenty of headroom and amazing touch sensitivity. The acoustic sounds, while not quite as natural sounding as my normal acoustic setup (a Tonebone pre-amp/DI), was just fine.

There were several wins. Over all, it sounded great and was really easy to dial-in and use with my band. Setting it up with the P.A was a snap and sounded terrific in the mains. Running a worry free solid state amp all day long was a pleasure...no concerns about tube amp failures and so on. Lots of compliments on the tone. The band was happy with the mix. It's easy to pack in/out. Considering the price, I still can't believe that you get so much for so little with these amps.

So yeah...I know officially miss nothing about tubes. This thing pretty much does it all.

:)

Jeff


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