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Post subject: Goodbye Mustangs
Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 6:33 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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So after some 50 gigs with the Mustang IV and after 2 and a half years, it's time for me to move on. I bought a Fender Supersonic 60 tube amp that is awesome. I will be putting the Mustang for sale as soon as I've got time. Might do a quick comparison of the 2 amps (regarding how well mustang models it) if I have time and both amps at the same place before it's sold, but no promises :)

Gotta say though that in this price range, Mustangs beats every other amp hands down. But comparing it to an amp that costs 3x as much - well if it didn't sound worse then something wouldn't be right :P

All in all I am very happy to have owned a Mustang IV :)

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Post subject: Re: Goodbye Mustangs
Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2013 7:35 pm
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Hope you have the opportunity to post the comparisons. I would really enjoy reading your findings.

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Post subject: Re: Goodbye Mustangs
Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 3:42 am
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I will do my best :) One thing I can tell for now, without having both amps with me, the pick response in Mustang can't be compared to the one in a real SS, same goes for bass settings. The overdrive is also far more creamy and awesome sounding on the real SS :)
I will do a real comparison as soon as possible ;)

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Post subject: Re: Goodbye Mustangs
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 12:59 am
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Neimenljivi wrote:
I will do a real comparison as soon as possible ;)


Yes please!
I really want to know how close "Mustang" Super-Sonic "Real" Super-Sonic is, because I think sound of Super-sonic on my Mustang is awesome, and I really like it. And I had a plan to buy the real Super-sonic.

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Post subject: Re: Goodbye Mustangs
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 6:10 am
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Well imho you won't be disappointed if you do buy a real supersonic. I don't know about the others, but the Supersonic 60 is awesome - it has an effects loop and you can set the send/return levels of signal, which is really awesome. Why? Because even if you do not have any effects, simply plug in a standard jack-jack cable (one that's as short as possible), set the send/return levels in such a way that the sound is louder when you have the FX loop turned on and you've got yourself a booster for free :D The SS60 has a 3-button footswitch, one button changes between Vibrolux and Bassman channel (the EQ settings are the same for both, Bassman is a bit louder and has a thicker sound, Vibrolux is a bit less loud and has an awesome sound for funky rhythms or stuff like that - I really dig both channels), the second button engages Burn channel (the sound on the Burn channel will also be different depending if you have the Vibrolux or the Bassman channel engaged, but the difference isn't as apparent as for clean channel - imho the Burn Bassman is better for Slash type sounds, while the Burn Vibrolux is better for Gilmourish sounds, but that also depends a lot on your guitar and the EQ settings themselves) and the third one engages the FX loop. So you can basically use the FX loop as a booster for solos.
You can also crank the amp enough to get tube distortion, turn on the FX loop and decrease the send/return levels to get that awesome tube distortion at a reasonable volume which won't make you deaf. So that is an awesome feature - what you can do with the FX loop.

The amp is very, very versatile. I was thinking I'd have to buy a multi FX unit, but honestly there's no need. I will rather buy separate effects as I don't really need the hundreds of effects possibilities with multi FX unit and I want to keep the amp sounding as awesome as it does. I have purchased a good floor tuner and a wah and will be, when I have the money, also buying a chorus and a delay. But that's it. No need for an overdrive or distortion or fuzz - the amp does it all if you need that. You can get highly distorted sounds, 'newage distortion' quite suitable for metal (although for extreme distortion uses I'd still recommend getting an additional pedal), and you can also get a good old fashion overdrive sound and turn that into a crounchy sound or bluesy type of overdrive just with turning the volume pot on your guitar.
The burn channel can get you pretty much the same sound as when you crank the amp up enough for it to distort on it's own. Separate volume controls for clean and burn channel are also a big bonus. Note - the burn channel is a bit more quiet so if you have the volume of the clean channel on 1 (the knobs on this amp go from 0 to 10), you'll likely be having the volume of the burn channel around 2 to keep roughly the same volume.

As for the sound itself - it's GREAT. It has enough clean headroom, VERY loud (I didn't turn it past 1 and a quarter on band session and we do have a very loud drummer), VERY responsive to pick attack and to changes with picking and a very versatile sound. Clean is as good as it gets, overdrive is as good as it gets and you don't need any effect to get the overdrive, which is awesome. The reverb.. Fender spring reverb, need I say more? :) One of the reasons why all the Reverb series are as awesome sounding as they are. The reverb is also a 'master reverb', you can't set it separately for each channel and imho that's a good thing because if you find out the guitar sound is floating somewhere in the background due to too much reverb, that can be fixed fastest just with turning one knob.

Ah I forgot to mention the amp also has a jack for an external cab so if you have a spare cab and want more pushin' for the cushin' - just disengage the amp speaker and plug in the cab (at least that's what I've been told in case I wanted to use a cab, I don't have one myself and don't know whether you can keep the amp speaker plugged in as well - there are 2 jacks so it is possible, but I wouldn't know whether that could overload or damage something). That way you can use your amp as a head for bigger venues and as a combo for smaller venues - something that can come in pretty handy.

Now the only sort of cons I could say about this amp are:
- the need to replace tubes every now and then (well it's a tube amp so that's the same for every other tube amp, but the amp having 10 tubes means that replacing them won't be as cheap as in most tube amps)
- no middle control for clean channel (the Vibrolux could use a bit more middle, the Bassman has enough middle so it's not an issue for the Bassman) - the burn channel has it so no worries there
- the reverb on Bassman seems a bit bigger than the reverb on Vibrolux (if you have the reverb on 2, Bassman will sound like it's on 3 while Vibrolux will sound like it is on 2.. if it's on 4, Bassman will sound like it's on 5) although that could very well be due to Bassman being a tad louder so it could just be an illusion


? Bassman louder than Vibrolux - I put the ? mark because it is not necessarily a con. It really depends on what kind of music you play and whether you use both the Bassman and Vibrolux channel and how you use them. For me, specifically, that phenomenon is sometimes a pro and sometimes a con.

So bottom line - searching for cons with this amp is nitpicking really. What might be cons for some , might be pros for some. If you are searching for a tube amp that's versatile enough for most stuff without any expensive pedals, an awesome sounding tube amp which can more than hold it's own, then the SS60 would, imho, be a thing to go for.
If you do use the amp mainly at home at low volumes, I'd suggest going for something smaller. Perhaps the Supersonic 22. You definitely won't be using the SS60 at home during the night, unless you live in a middle of nowhere and by yourself :) But even for playing in the bedroom during the day, you can keep it down enough for it not to bother your neighbors. Will it sound better at gig/band session volumes? Yeah it will, no amp sounds good at very low volume (there's something about us, musicians, always wanting to be loud lol) because you don't have that air movement. BUT using the FX loop trick you can get the same sound at low volumes than at high volumes with the only difference (which is always noticeable though) being the lack of air movement.

I will do a similar review of Mustang's SS model soon, but for now this is it :)

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Post subject: Re: Goodbye Mustangs
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 7:32 am
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The reason tube amp power attenuators are normally installed at the output of the amp (right before the speaker) is because the "tube tone" whatever that means to each person, comes in a big measure from the saturation of the power amp stage of the amp, which only comes at high volumes.

Adding an attenuation to the fx-loop actually makes the power amp work on the "hi-fi" zone of the power amp, if that makes sense. In other words, you will hear the pre-amp tone but not much more, losing some of the dynamics of the amp.

To have an idea of how the power amp saturation affects the tone you can try different settings on your mustangs or amplitube "master volume" settings on the advanced settings. Essentially adds the growl to the amp. If you are using an external cab, maybe you can get similar effect using some sort of external power attenuator in between the amp and the cab.


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Post subject: Re: Goodbye Mustangs
Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 1:39 pm
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Well yep, except that one does not need to buy an attenuator for the SS60 to get the same result as it's already present before and after (from what I imagine) the FX loop which comes in very handy :)

I can't judge whether it loses some of the dynamic or not as I'd first have to set the amp volume enough for it to distort naturally, test the dynamic, then test the dynamic with decreasing the input/output levels.. But I'd rather not become deaf, so can't really do that :P

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Post subject: Re: Goodbye Mustangs
Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2013 5:44 am
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When I buy a new amp I think I'm gonna keep one of my Mustangs :) (a V 1.0 in my bands rehersal room and a V 2.0 in my studio, you can get two mustangs for the price of a Bugera amp-head (and Bugera are concidered cheap amps, clones even, so for the price you get a lot of amp with the mustangs).

I have also looked at the Supersonic a couple of times. But I think I'm gonna get something complete different from the mustangs so I get some more flavours to play with.

However now when I have played around a lot with Fender-ampmodels I don't like marshalls so much anymore, I like the Fender-sound much more, more detailed and brighter. Maybe a Orange Dark Terror for my AMT-pedals (the Dark Terror have a tube-poweramp and TUBE-DRIVEN FX LOOP IN, I like to try that, will probably color too much with some pedals though)


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Post subject: Re: Goodbye Mustangs
Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 5:51 am
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Well IMHO you can't really judge Marshalls, or any other amps for that matter, based on the amp modelling. But IMHO no Marshall in this price range can better Mustang. I have played on good Marshalls and good Fenders, as well as bad ones. It all really depends on your taste. I prefer Fender sound, but you can't think what Marshalls sound like based on the Mustangs ;)

As for your desires - if you want a greater palette of tones than the Mustangs and want an awesome amp to build it on, I suggest buying around 40W tube Fender amp and Boss GT-100 to go with it. Should sound awesome imho :)

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