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Post subject: Mustang III review
Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2012 11:33 am
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I've been playing my new Mustang III for only about three hours. Not very long. I took it out of the box just yesterday morning.

I don't know if I'm keeping it. There's a real, ever-present digital sheen there, an ultra brightness, especially on the top strings, that I can't get rid of. Reverbs are incredibly artificial sounding. I'm not sure why I would expect anything else. This is a digital amp after all. But there's no 'warmth' there. There's no 'there' there.

On the plus side, there are a lot of sounds on tap, a lot of versatility and with the III, you can modify them right there at the amp. I haven't even used fuse yet because I can do everything at the top of the amp.

And no doubt, it's loud.

To longtime III owners, a question: Does this amp grow on you at all? Does breaking in the speaker help? Did anyone find themselves falling in love, or like, with the amp after being initially underwhelmed?

Compared to the three tube amps I own (Blues Jr. first-generation, Princeton Recording Amp, Marshall Class 5), this is one cold amp, that's for sure. Does it ever warm up?

Addendum: Zero fizz that I can perceive. My tube amps make a heck a lot of noise compared to the Mustang.


Last edited by InkStained on Wed Dec 26, 2012 11:40 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Post subject: Re: Mustang III review
Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2012 11:39 am
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I would suggest you reserve judgement until you have really explored what the amp can do. There are 2 major things I would point you toward. 1) The factory presets have a ton of effect on them. First thing I did was turn all effects down or off for all presets. 2) Check out the advanced amp settings, particularly Sag and Bias settings. Play around with those and then let us know if things get any warmer.

InkStained wrote:
To longtime III owners, a question: Does this amp grow on you at all? Does breaking in the speaker help? Did anyone find themselves falling in love, or like, with the amp after being initially underwhelmed?


1. Yes, bigtime for me
2. Maybe. It sounds better to me now than it did at first, but then I've changed a lot of settings.
3. Yes, after I found the Sag and Bias settings, the honeymoon was on.

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Last edited by strings10927 on Wed Dec 26, 2012 11:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: Mustang III review
Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2012 11:41 am
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Will do. From the amp, how do you get to sag and bias?


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Post subject: Re: Mustang III review
Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2012 11:42 am
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I'm going from memory, but I believe you can get there by pressing the AMP button and scrolling though the settings.

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Post subject: Re: Mustang III review
Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2012 3:45 pm
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InkStained wrote:
I've been playing my new Mustang III for only about three hours. Not very long. I took it out of the box just yesterday morning.

I don't know if I'm keeping it. There's a real, ever-present digital sheen there, an ultra brightness, especially on the top strings, that I can't get rid of. Reverbs are incredibly artificial sounding. I'm not sure why I would expect anything else. This is a digital amp after all. But there's no 'warmth' there. There's no 'there' there.

To longtime III owners, a question: Does this amp grow on you at all? Does breaking in the speaker help? Did anyone find themselves falling in love, or like, with the amp after being initially underwhelmed?


That's exactly how I felt about my MIII until the speaker broke in. You have to let it soften up. On the other hand, it was about when the speaker broke in that I first started hearing the fizz, so it's possible that the two are related.


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Post subject: Re: Mustang III review
Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 10:04 am
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Wow, this amp is a lot of work to get a decent sound out of it.

If you enjoy endless tweaking, here's your dream amp. If you're of the plug-n-play school, the Mustang III might get frustrating.

The 'deep' editing lets you do a lot, but it really doesn't get rid of the treble-on-steroids, digital sheen that's covers the whole affair like a sheet of ice. Which is odd, because you can nail the sound of pushed tubes and strong bass.

Still don't know whether I'm keeping this. I have to say, the price was right, though. Another $100, and I don't know whether there would be a market for this.


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Post subject: Re: Mustang III review
Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 2:02 pm
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After wrestling with this thing three times already today, I think my ears are shot. I'm going to put the guitar down until tomorrow.

Frustrating amp. I'm starting to think that people like me -- people familiar with good tube tone -- just aren't the target audience for the Mustang series. This is aimed at kids who've owned nothing but solid-state amps, who want a variety of tones at the turn of a knob, I think.


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Post subject: Re: Mustang III review
Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 7:07 pm
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I do not want to hear from anyone saying that there mustang or any other modeling amp does not sound good only after playing it for 3 hours,you have to spend much more time with modeling amps to find the great tones that many of these amps have,i would say spend at least a week with your mustang and also get involved with the fuse software so you can tweak your amp even further.

I do not know why you said: the mustang is like treble-on-steroids, digital sheen that's covers the whole affair like a sheet of ice. Which is odd, because you can nail the sound of pushed tubes and strong bass.

Compared to other digital modeling amps the mustang in my opinion has a very warm tube like tone and not shrill at all,just do a google search and read some reviews of guys playing for 30 and 40 years and how good they say there mustang amps sound comparing them to there tube amps.

I have the mustang I,V,peavey vypyr 15,30,75 and a vox VT20+,i had to add a beam blocker in my vypyr 30 and 75 and also i put one in my vox VT20+ because these amps sounded like as you stated(treble-on-steroids,digital sheen that covers the whole affair like a sheet of ice). I never found this to be true with my mustang amps,maybe you do have a problem with your ears? No offense.

The only time i had a problem with my ears was when i had ear wax buildup but what i heard was the opposite as what you heard with your mustang,i would hear a lack of high frequency and the overall tone was very muddy sounding.


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Post subject: Re: Mustang III review
Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 7:53 pm
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The amplifier's charm is its versatility. You can sample a good number of different amp "characters" in one box, set up presets with varied effects and such, and have a good time. I think you get passably good tone from the amp, and I like being able to bounce between the bassman, twin, and champ models. Certainly fun to be had. Great practice amp/intro amp.

Definite advantage to tube amps, but I've had a chance to run this side by side with a twin, and when set to model the '65 twin, the mustang did a fair job of getting the general character of a twin reverb amp. The tube amp, of course, had that indefinable "something" that the Mustang did not.

Still,not a bad showing for a solid state amp. Not my dream amp, but good'nuff for my purposes, and much cheaper than its tube sporting cousins.


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Post subject: Re: Mustang III review
Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 11:07 pm
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I got my Mustang l in April of this year. I have been a bass guitarist since 1969, but started on 6 string in '65. I had gotten myself an Ibanez Artcore guitar and wanted something I could play around with. Gigging out again was the farthest thing from my mind. The ability to just plug in any time with decent headphones and get lost in any tone, at any volume I wanted was heaven. The aux in for playing along with songs or tutorials on the web or my sandisk player has been a dream for me. All for 110.00. I got free shipping. Since getting that guitar and and amp, my world changed.

I got a Les Paul studio and an Ibanez SR600bass. With a real electric guitar to play my Mustang was even more fun. I bought a Bronco for my bass guitar. I the bought an American Standard Telecaster and then a Modern Player Jaguar. This November I bought the SuperChamp X-2 and my affair with tubes started. I will plug in one of my guitars and strum it at low volume just to hear the magic of what tubes do to the signals you send them. The clean channel on the SCX2 is as sweet a tone as I've ever heard. The warmth of tubes is heard from the moment amplification starts. No screaming required.

If it is late and I want to just play loud, with other music or do some recording, my Mustang is my go to amp. The private musical world it allows me to enter at anytime of the day or night is a gift. Mustangs are one of the many brilliant pieces of equipment that Fender has brought into the world. They are still finding ways to get quality innovative music gear into peoples hands at any budget.

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Post subject: Re: Mustang III review
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 8:49 am
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Metalman50 wrote:
I do not want to hear from anyone saying that there mustang or any other modeling amp does not sound good only after playing it for 3 hours ...


I've spent many more than three hours with the amp at this point. I can't get a good sound out of it to save my life.

Metalman50 wrote:
I do not know why you said: the mustang is like treble-on-steroids, digital sheen that's covers the whole affair like a sheet of ice. Which is odd, because you can nail the sound of pushed tubes and strong bass.


Because that's how I perceive it. Altering the bass and midrange cannot dial out the strident, artificial quality of the treble sounds. Even turning the treble down all the way doesn't do it. It's like some kids with little experience with real Fender amps got together in their mommy's basement to whip up some software designed to be a simulacra of these classic amps.

Metalman50 wrote:
I never found this to be true with my mustang amps,maybe you do have a problem with your ears? No offense.


I'm very open to the idea that my ears are the problem here. But my ears have never had a problem with my Blues Jr. or my Princeton Recording Amp or my Strats or my Tele. So I don't know.

I think I'm ready to throw in the towel. I keep telling myself the amp is less than three bills, so it shouldn't matter, but I'm one of those guys who think even cheap amps should sound good.


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Post subject: Re: Mustang III review
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 9:17 am
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The speaker in the MIII is really a good match for the amp, but like most speakers it has to be broken in. Until the spider and cone soften up, your ears are going to hurt from the brittle treble response. It's not just the MIII, but many other amps as well, both tube and solid state.

The first month I had my MIII my ears hurt after less than an hour of playing. I couldn't figure out why people were saying the Twin model was so wonderful. But as the speaker broke in things became much sweeter.

I have my issues with this amp, but the overall sound quality is not one of them. The problem you are having will go away with time.


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Post subject: Re: Mustang III review
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 10:00 am
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same here, I played a gig early on after getting the MIII and when I listened back to the recording I was bummed out about how it sounded. But it definitely sounds significantly sweeter now, presumably because (1) the speaker is more broken in and (2) I learned about the Sag and Bias settings. It sounds like a whole different amp now.

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Post subject: Re: Mustang III review
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 12:44 pm
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I have to agree that there is a break in period. I've had my MIII for going on 2 years now. So its well broken in, but also I've spent enough time getting to know the little nuances required to get a good warm tone (to my ears).

Yes, the sheer amount of tweaking possibilities can seem overwhelming at first, but its really no different than having a room full of analog gear at your disposal. Part of the charm of the Mustang amps is that they respond very pleasantly to your gear and playing style. You have to take into account if your using SC or HB pups. You have to tweak your tone and volume on your guitar just like you do with a real tubes - try it, it makes a difference. If you want to sound like Eddie Van Halen, you buy the same amp, same guitar, use the same setting, and play using the same techniques as EVH. And you hope you get close. Well the same goes with the Mustang amp models, the best you can hope for is to get close, but you have to account for all the factors going into it. If you just want to spin the dial to the "aussie steel" preset (or whatever) and expect to sound like Angus Young you may be disappointed.

I can certainly understand how these amps aren't going to be the perfect amp for everyone. And how some people won't like every amp model or effect. And I can even understand how tube aficionados may find digital modeling to always be inferior no matter how good it is. But I can't understand how, if one spends enough time with a Mustang, that they can't find at least a small hand full of very satisfying tones.

To answer your question, after almost two years with the thing, the honeymoon is still going strong.


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Post subject: Re: Mustang III review
Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2012 4:31 pm
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Sorry but i do not have the mustang III and my previous statements were not really fair to InkStained,as already mentioned i have the mustang I and V,i was thinking that fender would not change the tone that much in there mustang III compared to the other mustang models?

I run my mustang V through my line 6 spider 4x12 cab(i had to modify this cab to work in true stereo with my mustang V head) and what really surprised me was that my spider 4x12 cab used to sound very bright with my line 6 HD75 head but my mustang V head sounds very good with this cabinet without the high end brightness and i did not have to put a beam blocker on it like the other amps that i have that sounded too bright,(peavey vypyr 30,75 and my vox VT20+).

I never thought fender would choose a 12" speaker that sounds so bright as InkStained and some others here have stated. Even after a speaker breaks in it may sound somewhat warmer and have a little less high end but if the mustang III is as bright sounding as InkStained says,i would suggest putting in a 3.5" or 4" beam blocker in the mustang III,you can buy a weber beam blocker or make one for yourself,i made mine out of a blank cd for my vypyr amps and i used a 3.5" circle cut out of cardboard and used two black emery boards to hold it in place inside of the speaker grill on my vox VT20+.

My vypyr's speakers were well broken in on my vypyr 30 and 75 and they still sounded way too bright! A beam blocker was the only solution for me!


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