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Post subject: Questions / comments about Mustang amps
Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 11:51 am
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I am a professional musician based out of Tucson AZ. I am a teacher, studio musician, a musical director for a performing arts center, and am in 3 working bands.
I own 4 Mustang series amplifiers: Gdec 2, Gdec 3, Mustang III, and Mustang V. Now....The Gdec amps are both great tools for teaching. They're also great little pre-amps for recording. I have been asked time after time by professionals what Marshall, or other high end amp I used in this recording or that, when the truth is that I was using a Gdec in the studio. Other than minor complaints about bugs in the software and some clean sound issues (more with the 2nd generation than the 3rd) these are the best amp for the buck I think I have ever owned.
Since I appreciated the Gdec so much, I invested in the Mustang III. Again, great amp. Good to take to auditions, Great for rehearsals, and very versatile. The III has some very nice tones and has stood it's own against even some Mesa Boogies that other guitarists have brought to rehearsals. And as with the Gdec, other than quirky stuff that only create minor aggravation, this is well worth the money.
NOW....The V. This amp kind of disappoints. Some of my band mates were telling me that I really needed an amp with some punch for the harder stuff we were doing. I figured that since all of the other Fender amps I purchased were great, I'd go ahead and invest in the Mustang V.
Now Before I proceed, I will confess that I have never been a tube amp player. Years ago I was touring and used Laney solid state mini stacks exclusively. And since I was pretty much a shredder and used all rack processing equipment, it worked well. When I started expanding my repertoire of styles, I seemed to be able to stay with solid state and emulate the "tube" sound just fine.
The Mustang V seems to work great in the practice studio. However, not so much when you really need it to be at it's best. I've used it now for several gigs and wow....Line 6 comes into mind. So here are my issues and I am interested to know if anyone else has any of these problems and if so, how do you deal with them. Recently, I stopped depending so heavily on my pedal board, and rack preamp effects and tried to use the preamp in the Mustang. It all sounded OK in rehearsal when the amp wasn't being pushed very hard. but when I got this thing out into the clubs, halls, and other venues where I have to push it. Tone, quality, and dependability went south pretty quickly. First things first. Those buttons on the floor switches are way too close together. Very hard when I'm on stage to not hit 2 at once in the middle of a tune and the whole configuration goes south. I fixed this problem though by having a friend build a larger case and just moved the electronics into it. I also took the 2 way and incorporated it into the larger case . One less thing to set up. Now I have a longer, 6 way switch. Fender....maybe you could think about that.
Tonally. Cleans that were nice and clean at lower volumes (4) are staticky and ungenuine when you push the amp to 5. I'm not talking overdriven, its just staticky. No matter what I do, can't shake that sound. Country riffs...forget it. I find the compressor just useless and went to my MXR Dynacomp. And again...at lower volumes, the amp compressor seems to be fine. Dirty sounds.....all work great...but then again....line6 same exact deal. Not being unfair, it really sounds and acts like a Line6 setup at times.
Sometimes the amp likes to just do whatever it feels like and not switch presets after I push the button. That's aggravating. I have to reboot the amp to fix the issue. My Gdecs do this from time to time but they're not $900 amps so I would expect this maybe from them. But it's like the amp goes to the dreaded "Windows" blue screen of death. This does not happen a lot but it does happen. And seldom enough to make it a problem.
Fuse......Can't say much other than I find it utterly useless. User unfriendly is an understatement. I never really bothered with it much at all until recently when I had the time and went up there to see if I couldn't find presets that got rid of that pesky static sound. What I found was a hard to use site. Hard to understand instructions on how to get anything from the site to the amp. No way of hearing what I was going to download anyway. And when I downloaded it, put it into the Fuse on my computer, it still didn't really work right. So Fuse is something that I'll just write off as a toy for kids or something at this point. Before I get bombarded with comments, there is page after page after page after page of these exact complaints about Fuse and the site on these forums. I didn't pull this out of my b-hind. I am certainly not the only one who found these same issues. Bottom line, Fuse is more frustration than it is worth. I can set the amp without having to pull my hair out with frustration going to the Fuse site.
And in conclusion, I want to say that I know there are alternatives to some of these issues. Mike the amp and keep it turned down, go back to using effects pedals, go back to a GSP 2101, or SGX2000, or get a better amp (definitely thinking about that one). But the truth is that for $900 or $850 or whatever I paid for this thing, I should not have to resort to these things. It is touted as a stand alone amp. I'm feeling like it will be standing alone soon in a room full of unused equipment or a hock shop.
So if any of you know how to get cleaner tones out of this thing, or if the Fender people know what I'm going through. By all means, share. I'll be happy to try whatever you have if I have not already done so. Remember, I've been around and know quite a bit about these things and have already tried the obvious.

Thanks and I hope that you don't think I'm being a jerk. I'm just trying to use this amp to it's fullest potential......but it seems to have already reached that.

Mark


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Post subject: Re: Questions / comments about Mustang amps
Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 1:13 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Could the Mustang V be defective? Have you brought it down to your local music store and compared it to others?

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Post subject: Re: Questions / comments about Mustang amps
Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2013 1:33 am
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Location: Lake Charles, LA
I've not been in a band so I have no idea how my Mustang V half-stack would sound in the mix, but I do not have problems with my tone "degrading" as the Master Volume knob gets turned up. In fact, it really starts to sound BETTER as the amp begins to push the 4 Celestion Rocket 50 speakers harder. I usually practice at home with the MV at 3. 4 is loud enough to bother people in the house and 5 would just start trying to damage my ears inside my room. I've pushed 6 ONCE when no one else was home and it was epic. :lol:

I will say though, that because the amp was pushing the speakers harder, the EQ frequency sensitivity of the speakers themselves seemed to shift. What I mean is, you'd have to tweak your EQ a bit to fix it for really loud playing. Also, while I love playing with the 4x12M cab on amps when I'm playing alone...when I put backing tracks on, I disappear into the background.

FUSE is one of those things that you either love or hate. I like it because I started with a Mustang II combo. That amp does not have the control layout of the 3/4/5, so you HAVE to use FUSE to truly edit presets. You really don't on the 3/4/5. It's one of the great things about those amps - that you don't need FUSE at all.

What I would suggest is that you hold the Tap/Tuner button the next time you turn your amp on. This puts the amp into a Diagnostic mode for the front panel controls. Now, just turn all your dials from 1 to 10 and back. Push all the buttons. Turn the Control Wheel and even push it. Then turn all the dials to 0, shut off the amp, and turn it back on. This will fix any glitches in your "digital" dials.

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Post subject: Re: Questions / comments about Mustang amps
Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2013 3:05 am
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It taste like a volume issue... if you set preset volume too low or too high you may compress or limit the sound, i guess.

Last year i wrote something on volume issues:

http://ridingthemustang.blogspot.it/201 ... -tips.html

It is not "updated" but i think you should just go to the amp and try the same preset with different preset volumes.

Also keep in mind that we still have some issue between volume and some effect like chorus...

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You can find all my Mustang tips here:
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An Unofficial guide to Fender Mustang Effects here:
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https://github.com/mordor74/mustang-raider


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Post subject: Re: Questions / comments about Mustang amps
Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2013 11:01 am
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mordor74 wrote:
It taste like a volume issue... if you set preset volume too low or too high you may compress or limit the sound, i guess.

Last year i wrote something on volume issues:

http://ridingthemustang.blogspot.it/201 ... -tips.html

It is not "updated" but i think you should just go to the amp and try the same preset with different preset volumes.



It is true! i didn't know your article about volume issue but some times ago i also realized that if you start with very high settings of presets volume , then the real Master knob becomes very sensible, too sensible unstable and sensitive to the slightest movement, I would say as if it were nitroglycerin. :)

Quote:
Also keep in mind that we still have some issue between volume and some effect like chorus...


Are you talking about the problem to balance the level on/off of some modulation effects ?
for example i noticed that when you have Vibratone in its default place , in post amp chain , also with level at 10, under certain settings of the effect you can't compensate properly the loss of volume or the difference in output level between the status of effect "on" and the dry signal when the effect is "off".
If you put that effect in preamp chain this problem doesn't happen.
I already suggested to Fender to check not just the level and behaviour of Vibratone (in preamp / postamp position, various combinations of parameters settings... ) but at this point all the levels of available modulation effects.. chorus and the others..
the Level parameter should be active so you can boost the ouput level if necessary and not just reduce it.
Of course that amount of boosting should be calculated just enough to compensate for the effect when producing the lowest output level (filter effect, cancellation of frequencies due to phase shifting, etc.) ... otherwise you may exceed the threshold and generate hard clipping as Fender has already pointed out.
to be honest this improvement does not require not even too precise calculations on how much boost to add: Roland/Boss products as my GR55 have that kind of level controls but apparently they did not bother to make a precise calculation not to exceed the threshold .. In fact, in the section Trouble shooting explain that if you are experiencing clipping you should just lower the level of some effect because it could be too much high.

So i would like that Fender do that software improvement ,leaving it to the common sense of the musician, a proper adjustment of the level: if it distorts, you lower it until it sounds good. Simple.

Dimitri


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Post subject: Re: Questions / comments about Mustang amps
Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2013 7:24 pm
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Mark William wrote:
Fuse......Can't say much other than I find it utterly useless. User unfriendly is an understatement.


OK that puts things in perspective. Fuse works just fine, the user just has to spend more than 5 minutes getting acquainted.

I didn't read the book you posted above, if you'd like to whittle it down to just the complaining part, I could try to help you - if you are looking for help.

If you're here to badmouth Fender's Mustang series of amps, I don't support your opinion.

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Post subject: Re: Questions / comments about Mustang amps
Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2013 10:29 pm
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The Fuse complaint was 3/4 the way through.

If you got that far, you'd know the bits he was complaining about, and that he's otherwise a Fan of the range.


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Post subject: Re: Questions / comments about Mustang amps
Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2013 11:37 pm
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Quote:
Are you talking about the problem to balance the level on/off of some modulation effects ?


I explain:

Take a preset without Chourus
Just add a chorus in the virtual send-return and save
Now try to play switching between the raw and the chorused presets, you will notice that the chorused one has a noticeable lower volume.

Consider that putting che chorus in fornt of the amp has a diffrent result especially with overdriven presets.

_________________
I love my Mustang!

---------------------

You can find all my Mustang tips here:
http://ridingthemustang.blogspot.it/
An Unofficial guide to Fender Mustang Effects here:
http://ridingthemustang.blogspot.it/p/unoffcial-guide-to-fender-mustang.html

USB Footswitch Opensource Project:

https://github.com/mordor74/mustang-raider


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Post subject: Re: Questions / comments about Mustang amps
Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 9:29 am
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Am working musician using Mustang Floor (MF) since last Dec. Blues and classic rock genre.

Support from Fender Forum users & TSL (Fender's support) has been very good.

There's a learning curve to FUSE & there are limitations to it. Making setting adjustments from the pc is more convenient for me. Live I do make "tweak" adjustments via the MF's Edit window when needed.

MF live setup:
MF XLR Out > House mixer
MF 1/4 Unbalanced Out > Blues Jr (clean setting)

Usually use "house" monitor system (in-ears/floor) to hear my guitar. Use BJr in case I need more guitar.

There are a lot of Fender Mustang users out here with plenty of tips.


Last edited by Ferny 01 on Tue Sep 24, 2013 9:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: Questions / comments about Mustang amps
Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 9:34 am
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Drubbing wrote:
The Fuse complaint was 3/4 the way through.

If you got that far, you'd know the bits he was complaining about.


I did not get that far, and do not intend to.

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Post subject: Re: Questions / comments about Mustang amps
Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 3:48 pm
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mordor74 wrote:
Quote:
Are you talking about the problem to balance the level on/off of some modulation effects ?


I explain:

Take a preset without Chourus
Just add a chorus in the virtual send-return and save
Now try to play switching between the raw and the chorused presets, you will notice that the chorused one has a noticeable lower volume.

Consider that putting che chorus in fornt of the amp has a diffrent result especially with overdriven presets.


Hi,
perfect! we are talking of the same problem.
Not just the chorus but most (all?) Modulation effects (another affected is surely Vibratone) in post amp chain or in the virtual send-return , have this noticeable lower volume compared with the dry signal.. I would say that the difference is even more noticeable if the "dry" signal is saturated/distorted.

for this reason i suggested to Fender to recheck (and i hope, to fix) the output volume of all the modulation effects.

if the modulated tone, is located in a different preset from that of "normal" sound there is no problem because you can use the preset volume, to balance the output of the two presets. (it is obvious).
But you usually can not and do not want, save presets duplicates : wasting presets is not a smart solution.
usually you have presets where in each of them the effect(s) must be turned on and off alternately and the output signal levels of the two statuses must be the same (or almost).

I really hope that Fender does this improvement as soon as possible by adding a boosting of output level in each modulation effect, in the next firmware update: it's one of the things may be most needed and useful in my opinion.

Dimitri


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