I have a GT 200 that arrived yesterday. Latest firmware updated but sound cuts out quite often! WTF!

Right. There are no high voltage caps. As long as it isn't plugged in you're fine.

Some switching power supplies will store voltage in the primary capacitors. This can be 150 vdc. Not enough to kill, but it sure can surprise a screwdriver. Just remove your metal rings before you poke a finger in there.

Been away for a week and when i got home turned it on and cutting out again. Gonna pull the chassis tonite or tomorrow and chopstick all possible cables etc. To those who don't know chopsticking, it's a testing procedure where u take a non conductive stick like a plastic pen or such and push on various suspect areas while the amp is on and listening for the issue. For example, If it is a ribbon cable causing the cut out as fender has said, pushing on while sustaining a note it should cause it to start cutting out, or if it's already cutting out it should stop. Any time it;s an issue with a connection, and i am positive this is, this is about 90% effective in finding the issue. I will post back if i find it and take some pics to show the culprit and how to fix it.

For Tim.... if the cable is of the type below i know how to fix them. It entails seperating the 2 halves of the plugs and cutting out the end of the cable to reveal a new end to push the halves back together on. Problem is as u likely know, with these it's not a matter of if but WHEN they will go intermittent again. My question to you is do you know of another of the same type that's more reliable?

My advice is to return it ASAP. Get a new one. I made the mistake of thinking it wasn't a serious issue and let my guitarcenter return window close. This will not get better unless you can do a complicated fix like others are describing. If you have their skill level, then great. If not, you will not likely be able to have it fixed elsewhere. Easiest thing is to return it and start over with a new one (return that one, too, if it doesn't work).

Well, as i said i would above, i spent probably 2 hours chopsticking the H out of the thing and inspecting it with a fine tooth comb and i could not recreate the issue at all. So it's a tricky one. I'm beginning to think it is a digital issue even tho i have been able to stop it from cutting out by dropping the amp to the floor to jolt any bad connections. That typically denotes a connector issue or a bad solder joint, the latter being impossible to find in a amp like this vs a tube amp. But i'm pretty clueless when it comes to digital and how issues can manifest. So guess i'll just live with it and hope it continues to sound as great as it did last time out which i attributed to having re seated and cleaning all the internal connectors. Maybe the cutting out is NOT related to the intermittent tone quality issues, who the f knows. I just wish fender would redesign a reliable version with quality hardware and figure out if the firmware is part of the issue and fix that too. I'd buy it even tho at this point i should be boycotting fender after what i've been thru with this thing.

Yeah, and to make matters worse a rep said they fixed the issues and it was a ribbon cable. So much for honesty. I actually figuired that was likely BS on that when i first heard it. I know how these things are handled. Fender is no different than any other company when trying to cover thier azz.

So I just bought a brand new Mustang GT40 and MGT4 pedal, immediately updated the firmware upon opening the box, followed by factory reset of the presets.

I am getting the same behavior described here, amp will play fine for a random amount of time, then suddenly (usually after switching through a hand full of presets) it will cut the volume/gain on the initial attack of a note to what seems like 50%, and then comes back to full volume/gain within half a second to a second, as the note sustains.

Other times, it seems like the whole amp gets stuck at this lower gain level until changed to another preset and back, but it is so random it is hard to identify some times.

It seems to be related to the software in my opinion, it almost always happens after cycling through a few presets, seems to be more common on high gain presets, but can happen on any preset.

I have tried multiple guitars, multiple cables etc, issue persists. All of these cables and guitars work flawlessly on my other amps.

I need to do further troubleshooting, but so far it seems to clear up temporarily if I pull the input cable out and put it back in, only to return again in a random amount of time (accelerated by cycling through some pre-sets, or high gain options)


Seems like the amp is cutting out some part of the gain stages as some kind of protection, as if it is being overloaded at the input or something.

It does seem to have some kind of relationship to high gain/high input levels, however once it starts happening, I have found that the issue persists even when rolling down my guitar's volume knob, maybe slightly less pronounced but definitely still there, unlike some other posters here.


I am frankly quite shocked that Fender hasn't come out and address this, it is clearly a persistent and wide spread issue, and apparently even now, 3+ years out from release, this is still an unresolved issue on brand new purchased amps.


I quite like the amp when it is cooperating, I really don't want to return it, or go through RMA hell, just to get another amp with the same behavior.

Are we really here heading into the end of 2019 without any official word from Fender on this?

Yep. Fender stopped replying here and is totally absent when questions are posed unlike at the beginning. I have no doubt as to the reason. Some, and particularly me, have been extremely outspoken about the issues and WITHOUT kid gloves. Apparently they are angry and decided more or less F these guys (probably with myself at the top of thier list) for all the negative posts. But heres the point I believe fender misses.....how would YOU (fender) like to be in my shoes?!!!

Seriously, if i wrote a book on the issues this amp has had it would weigh 5 Lbs. And still there are lot of issues after more updates than anything i have seen in the past. If fender is angry about my and others responses here, i say to them YOU sold me a hideously defective amp that made me miserable more then any piece of gear i have ever bought then YOU are mad at ME ?! So you screw me and I'm the @hole? Nice.

Like you (jametheth) i too love the amp as far as the tone and features (after about the 7th or 8th update) goes and that is in part why i still have it. If fender can't fix things they should do the right thing and admit it and tell the truth about what they are doing about it, be it hunting for a fix or letting it be and working on the next model or whatever. But instead they just leave us in the dark and don't even post here anymore. Remember fender...i gave you my money. Till you make it right you as much as robbed me. Not only does it cut out as so many other say, but a rep lied to me that that issue was fixed. As we see with jametheth's post thats a lie. Even the knob acceleration is still totally screwed after many updates and several mentions of having fixed the issue in a few update. Fender tried for the first year but once they couldn't fix things they just stopped caring. Nice. Probably moved on with the new tonemaster series and are done with the GT. God help those who buy the tonemasters if they are 10th as problematic as the GT has been. They should probably stick to guitars and tube amps. And while this post may piss fender off further, note that i and other GT owners are also pissed but unlike fender we have the right to be. The truth hurts. But without it we enable this kind of thing to go on and on uncontested. Sorry fender, but walk a mile in my shoes b4 u hate me for telling it like it is.

What really irks me, is I have made some strong positive recommendations about this amp to a handful of some close friends who trust my opinions before I noticed this issue.

I am not quite ready to give up on it yet, the IT troubleshooter in me won't let me, or maybe I am a glutton for punishment...


I can say for sure the issue happens somewhere in the input stage. On multiple occasions I have had a loop playing via the integrated looper, jamming along with it, when suddenly the issue starts happening but only on the input signal, not the looped recording. IE; the loop continues to play without any problems indefinitely, but the guitar input starts cutting out.


I am going to be doing further testing today so I can't say for sure yet, but so far it seems to happen significantly more frequently/quickly when I am playing a guitar with single coil pickups (2000 MIM Stratocaster stock ceramic bar pickups) vs a guitar with Humbuckers.

Also strangely last night while playing my Strat, the issue occurred about 15 mins into playing (looper still playing fine), unplugging the input jack didn't seem to clear it up as it sometimes does, I switched over to my humbucker equipped Les Paul without power cycling the amp, and the issue seemed to have gone away. I continued to play for another 15 minutes or so and it all seemed fine.

Another time a few days ago I had the same symptoms happen, and switched to totally different guitar I own with humbuckers (an Ibanez Artcore jazzy something), and actually DID have the issue continue. So I still have not reached any real conclusion here.


I intend to do further deep testing/troubleshooting on this, something is definitely strange about this behavior. I have never had any issues like this on any of my guitars, running through a Line6 M13 stompbox modeler into a 30w tube amp, or direct into the tube amp.


Also worth noting, I am not playing the GT40 at high volumes, I am playing it at like 1/4 - 1/2 max on the master volume output, low living room practice volumes, generally on clean simple amp models with no effects, and still getting this cutting out.

Yeah, thats the hard part is that you can at times stop it by doing certain things but another time it will have no effect. So it's near impossible to narrow it down. I still think it it may be a connection issue because of the fact the one and only thing that will get mine to stop is picking the amp up and dropping it on the floor from a foot or so to jolt any connections that may be causing it, whether that be a connector or a solder joint or whatever. Thankfully mine now only does it maybe a couple times a month. If it happened often enough i'd have to $hitcan it.

The sad part is i really think this amp has the potential to wipe the floor with all other low/mid priced combos and even some higher end stuff if they would just fix the d@mn thing and put a proper speaker in it like the old mustang.

Having same problem gt100. Mine started after my volume took off on its own full blast. Also all effects are unbearable sounding now.

This is definitely proving true on my end. These kinds of issues make the engineer/troubleshooter in me go into over-drive.

I wish a Fender engineer would reach out and show even a fraction of the passion that some of us have to troubleshoot this issue and get to the bottom of it.

I would gladly fire up all my various meters/oscilloscopes/signal generators etc. and do my best to provide useful troubleshooting data.

Unfortunately they have not released any kind of schematics or diagrams for this amp, which isn't that surprising considering it is almost entirely chip based.

Sometimes I can play for an hour or more and it is totally fine. Some times it occurs 10 mins into playing, and resolves itself shortly after me noticing it. Some times it occurs and I can get it to go away by cycling the patch model to another patch and back, other times that doesn't help.

Sometimes it almost entirely mutes (or severely reduces) my input signal altogether, other times it just seems to mute the initial attack of the note, and then bumps back to normal volume during the sustain/release phase of the notes signal envelope.

The only things for sure I can say is;

1. My single coil guitars seems to cause it more frequently, and my humbucker equipped guitars seem to cause it much less frequently.
2. Turning the amp off and back on again always clears it up temporarily.

Almost seems like the input stage is entering some kind of fail safe mode as if it is being overloaded, or has an impedance mis-match on the input that builds up over time and triggers the software or circuit to engage some kind of safety cutoff on the input / initial gain stage.

Single coil pickups in your average Stratocaster tend to have a lot more high frequencies being pushed through to the input as compared to humbuckers on a Les Paul (even if at a lower output level then some hot humbuckers), I can't help but think that is related based on my testing.




So even after power-cycling your amp when the issue occurs, the issue continues to persist when it boots back up?

Mine has never had this issue occur immediately after a reboot of the amp / continue to happen after a reboot.

There may be multiple issues out there, maybe even with similar symptoms, but I am pretty confident that my issue has nothing to do with physical connectors. It really seems to me to be related to software, particularly somewhere in the analog to digital process of the input signal.




When this amp is working correctly, it is simply the best practice amp out there IMHO, which makes me extra sad to see this issue plaguing it.

Not always, it;s random but if i had to take a guess i;d say it is still doing it after powering down and back up about 75% of the time. The only thing that always stops it is dropping the amp. Sometimes takes 3-4 times or more but it works. That's why i tend to think is a bad connection. Also, mine seems more level oriented than frequency. If i pick soft enough it won't do it. Then if i pick normally it does it. I have hardwire bypassed two 18 pin connectors and re seated and cleaned the other connectors with deoxit and that seemed to stop it from being as often as it was, tho it was never really often. At it's worse it would happen maybe once every couple weeks roughly. Now it's sometimes go months w/o doing it. I have run into a lot of intermittant issues with many other amps that were impossible to troubleshoot because of not only the randomness, but also because common sense and logic seemed to go out the window when troubleshootng them. This one is one of those really senseless ones. You would think that since dropping/jolting the amp stops it, then logic should dictate that chopsticking every part over and over when it IS working right would startt the issue. But i did that and could not coax it into doing it. So it makes no sense that it's a connection after doing that, yet jolting it causing the issue to stop would suggest it IS a connection. Senseless.....

I know this is a long shot, but the only few occasions this has happened to me is when I've tried to use Bluetooth to play along with something. Not only did the Bluetooth audio dropout, but so did the guitar sound.

Have you tried disabling both Bluetooth and WiFi on the amp? Even if you're not actually using them.

I suspect that (in my case) the dropouts are caused by the amp's processor occasionally maxing out, so that it's unable to do anything until it slows down. This may be caused by interference. The same might happen with WiFi, if you have a poor signal. (Dropping the amp involves moving it, which might temporarily fix the problem.)

Like I said, it's a long shot...