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Post subject: USB Recording Noise, fizzing amp, busted guitar
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 7:27 am
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New user here, this is my second post and fair warning, it's going to be a rant. And trust me, I would rather be doing other things this Sunday morning, but I feel the need after my experiences...

I owned a Peavey Vypyr, for $99 it was a good little amp for what it was. BUT, I was sold by the 100 watts, amp modeling, and USB recording of said amp modeling of the Fender Mustang III. Did I "need" a new amp, no, not really, I just owned a fender strat in the 1990s and I loved the thing until I sold it for money reasons back then, but I TRUSTED the fender name. I saw Fender as "quality". Well, no more, that is for sure. I have two of their products now. I purchased a Fender Blacktop guitar and the Mustang III amp. Problems with BOTH. Since this is an amp forum I will make the guitar issues brief. Boils down to: 4 guitars in my home studio, other 3 are just fine (ie no humidity issues or anything), Fender Blacktop's neck is bowing and the action and intonation are out of whack already, the B string tuning knob is sticking terribly, and the guitar is sounding like garbage. My Godin, ESP, and Ibanez are brilliant.

Now for the Mustang III. Bought it at guitar center. Brought it home excited like a little kid at Christmas. Made the mistake of tearing down the box and pitching it like an idiot. First of all that tail end FIZZ that everyone is talking about, yeah I hear it too, lovin that! I upgraded the firmware, and I tried to stay positive and said to myself "well self, you bought this for your home studio as a nice practice amp, you can live with a little annoying fizz while just messing around after work or whatever, let's plug this bad boy into your mac and see how it records in garageband or logic". After about an hour of trying to figure out how to increase the recording level of the incoming digital signal, I found the USB Gain knob in the advanced amp section of the fender fuse software. Yeah, it felt like finding a needle in a haystack to me for something that should be very very easy in the DAW itself via the volume knob or slider. NOT needing to open third party software outside of the DAW and then going into a secondary "advanced" menu to adjust your recording volume. But again, I thought to myself, "ok, that was frustrating, but my fault, it was there, I was just too stupid to find it".

Then I recorded something through the USB into garageband. It sounded great while I was recording, then during playback I experienced: No sound for like 3 seconds, then a very loud, 1/2 second white noise burst, then time lagged recording, then it sounded normal! So I deleted the recording, and tried another track, same problem, but not exactly the same. Sometimes it lagged, sometimes it didn't. Sometimes white noise, sometimes not. SOOOOOOOO it's like a 50/50 shot that when I'm recording it's going to record good or not! Ridiculous! I have used amplitube 1.0, 2.0, guitar rig 4.0, 5.0, amplitube metal, apple amps, etc... NEVER had issues with any of them. Computer is plenty fast and I've been doing computer based music for over 25 years now, it's NOT latency or my settings.

Bottom line. I just gave Fender roughly $750 of my hard earned money for a Blacktop, and a Mustang III and both are worthless to me right now! I'll probably end up selling both on craigslist for half that value eventually. Because while they do "function", that isn't what I gave Fender my money for: A guitar that doesn't maintain right and an amp that doesn't play or record right (fizz and recording issues). I paid them for an experience, I paid them for the ability to concentrate on my music making without a second thought about busted equipment. Since I got the gear, that's all I've been concentrating on is how to fix their problems instead of enjoying my hobby, this isn't how it should be.

So here is this little, single, annoying, not worth the engineers/lawyers/workers of Fender's time, customer's statement: If my mustang III isn't able to record, through USB, into my mac within the next 6 months (yes I'll give them time to do the right thing), I will NEVER buy another Fender product for as long as I live. I will tell every hobby musician I run into in my job and life not to buy Fender products as well, this is my promise to you Fender. Do the right thing, fix these problems. There are too many people complaining about this for it to not be real. Whether it is 5%, 10%, 50% or whatever of your product line, you need to do the right thing or suffer long term for it. It's your choice.

Eagerly awaiting firmware version 2.5 that will finally fix this garbage.

Signed a once loving customer, now completely dissatisfied...

Have a great day with my money!


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Post subject: Re: USB Recording Noise, fizzing amp, busted guitar
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 10:53 am
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What's the amp's manufacture date? Could you add the info to the poll thread?
I still wonder if the problem might be fixed in newer batches, or will be.


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Post subject: Re: USB Recording Noise, fizzing amp, busted guitar
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 11:17 am
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I just checked the back of my amp, it is showing "112010" so I'm assuming November 2010. Does that mean something? Guitar Center told me that it was a brand new truckload, so either Guitar Center is lying or Fender is still shipping old units I guess. Great... Thanks for telling me about the poll mpr, I voted that I have fizz too.

I just bought the thing Jan 4, 2012. Come to think of it even though I destroyed the box already, I think I am going to call Guitar Center and speak with a manager to see if they'll take it back without the box. The more I think about this, the madder I get that I bought this thing mainly because I wanted to be able to record the sound I was hearing when practicing. So the fizz itself doesn't really bother me that much because although I hear it while playing through the speaker, I do not hear it in the recording, BUT the recording isn't working right. So honestly the thing is useless to me and I'd rather have my money back than this thing. I was going to give away my Peavey Vypyr to a guy at work since Guitar Center was only offering me $30 on trade-in and I'd rather a friend have it than GC making even more money off of me. I may just move that thing back into my studio from storage and just use it again and stick with Guitar Rig 5 for recording as it works as sold to me plus more. Hmmm, yeah, let me make that call to see.

Ok, edited this message again, Guitar Center will take back without the box since within 30 days for a full refund. Not what I wanted to do with my Sunday, but I don't feel charitable to give Fender 6 months anymore, I think I'm done now, I want my money back... I think I may take my Fender Blacktop along too, see what they'll give me for that on trade. Maybe pick up another Ibanez, or an Epiphone or something. I'm tired and don't have time for this anymore...

Peace...


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Post subject: Re: USB Recording Noise, fizzing amp, busted guitar
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 12:24 pm
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Ravenwolf40 wrote:

Then I recorded something through the USB into garageband. It sounded great while I was recording, then during playback I experienced: No sound for like 3 seconds, then a very loud, 1/2 second white noise burst, then time lagged recording, then it sounded normal! So I deleted the recording, and tried another track, same problem, but not exactly the same. Sometimes it lagged, sometimes it didn't. Sometimes white noise, sometimes not. SOOOOOOOO it's like a 50/50 shot that when I'm recording it's going to record good or not! Ridiculous! I have used amplitube 1.0, 2.0, guitar rig 4.0, 5.0, amplitube metal, apple amps, etc... NEVER had issues with any of them. Computer is plenty fast and I've been doing computer based music for over 25 years now, it's NOT latency or my settings.



Ravenwolf40, welcome to the forum.

While I don't disagree with most of your post and am not defending Fender in any way, the recording issues you're having with Garageband doesn't sound like it's necessarily the amp's fault. I have seen this glitch happen on full blown DAWs using pro and amateur level interfaces. It usually involves hard drive fragmentation, the amount of apps currently running, recording onto the startup drive, permissions repair and when was the last time the computer was restarted - especially after software was installed.
It can also happen if you're using a USB interface as well as a USB hard drive to record to.
On the glitchy recording, did you happen to have a look at the track in Garageband's basic waveform editor? Are there actual visible gaps in the recording? Does it play normally if the Mustang is not connected?

As for the guitar, I haven't played a Fender guitar that suited me for years -
quality-wise and neck feel-wise. Admittedly, I don't like most stock guitar necks as I find them too thick and too narrow at the nut.

O.


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Post subject: Re: USB Recording Noise, fizzing amp, busted guitar
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 12:44 pm
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Ravenwolf40 wrote:
I just checked the back of my amp, it is showing "112010" so I'm assuming November 2010. Does that mean something?
I don't know. That's what the poll thread might help figure out. If enough people post their amp's data we might see a pattern emerge. So far it seems like there's still stock from 2010, so it's difficult to say. It'd be interesting to see if it's the same regardless of voltage, or if amps manufactured late 2011 or even 2012 still exhibit the problem. Maybe there was a silent fix.


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Post subject: Re: USB Recording Noise, fizzing amp, busted guitar
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 5:15 pm
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Hey Ravenwolf,

You're not alone. I just took my Mustang III back today as well. Recording was a bear with only Ableton actually recognizing the amp. Playback got messed up. Plus, the fizz was there. The only thing that worked well was playback through headphones. I may order a Mustang Mini just for that. Too bad, it was an amp with such great potential. Interesting thing, it's the most common used amp at my local GC.

MD


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Post subject: Re: USB Recording Noise, fizzing amp, busted guitar
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 6:34 pm
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Thanks for the responses guys. It is really a shame because the concept of the Mustang amp series is amazing, if it would just work right! It was an hour drive for me to return the amp to Guitar Center, they charged me a restocking fee since I didn't have the box. So I still got well over $250 back which I'm happy with. They only offered me $150 on the Blacktop (I paid like $450 for it) so I declined that offer. So that guitar will sit in my arsenal until I'm ready to buy another guitar someday I guess and then I'll trade it in. The loss won't seem as bad with more time passing and a shiny new guitar in front of me to take home in trade LOL, I'm sad like that.

And yes, I don't doubt that the used amp section is packed with these. I didn't wander back to the used section while I was there but that wouldn't surprise me in the least. The hospice of a good amp idea is Guitar Center's used section LOL.

I LOVE the concept of being able to dial in any sound I want. And I'm hoping other companies move on this free online concept. I had a guitarport years ago from line6 and it was cool for the time, but they screwed it up with a monthly fee which killed the community and thus the product over time, and in all honesty their products, instructions, and website navigation was/is HORRIBLE. Fender crushes them there for sure. Oh well, I'm sure it's just a matter of time before all of the amp makers are doing something like this. I can wait. I should check if native instruments guitar rig has a community of preset sounds like this. I never thought to look. If that is the case I guess I really don't need an amp at all. I just play my guitar into my M-Audio Firewire solo into my iMac and listen through my KRK Rokit Studio Monitors.

Well guys, thanks for hearing me out. I guess it's not appropriate for me to keep on responding in here since I am officially no longer a fender customer from now until I die LOL. Heck, I'm a talker, not a doer for the most part, I may be in here next year with a Mustang I or something LOL.

Oh, and Orcatraz, I appreciate the effort in the response. But I have to state a main point before I go: Plugging a guitar in to a computer to record should not involve a detailed analysis in 2012, it really shouldn't. I understand the terminology for DAWs and interfaces. I understand computers (both PCs and Macs). Heck I KNOW DAW issues, I can remember using my serial port MIDIATOR with cakewalk 1 another lifetime ago LOL. Now THOSE were the days of problems LOL. The Mustang III was the ONLY piece of gear giving me problems in my setup. All of my other USB and Firewire devices are working and recording flawlessly. There is no excuse, the product just isn't done yet, and they are selling it, that is just wrong.

Anyway, whatever, it doesn't matter to me anymore, peace all, and good luck with your music!


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Post subject: Re: USB Recording Noise, fizzing amp, busted guitar
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 7:12 pm
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Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2011 6:36 pm
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I don't know about the blacktop, but Fender's usual warranty is lifetime on guitars for twisted/warped necks. You should pursue warranty service if a standard action tune-up can't correct the problem. I would be very interested if Fender fails to honor warranty on that.

Ravenwolf40 wrote:
TThey only offered me $150 on the Blacktop (I paid like $450 for it) so I declined that offer. So that guitar will sit in my arsenal until I'm ready to buy another guitar someday I guess and then I'll trade it in.


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Post subject: Re: USB Recording Noise, fizzing amp, busted guitar
Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 5:25 pm
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Hey Ravenwolf,

I'm sorry that your experience has been less than satisfactory. Regarding the recording portion, I can only say that the amp uses the built in Core Audio driver on the Mac and is an input only device. It sounds to me like you're experiencing some playback issues. Is it possible that the amp isn't to blame for that?

Regarding the guitar, Bruce is right. Your instrument has a lifetime warranty and we'll do whatever it takes to make sure that you are satified with it. Please contact us directly or PM me a number that we can reach you at. Thanks.

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Fender Musical Instruments Corporation
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(800) 856-9801


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