what do you think about the fender mustang III 100 watt amp.

[staggl400user]

what do you think about the fender mustang III 100 watt amp for in home use only. Here are a few  youtube video http://youtu.be/56agzsH9jo0      http://youtu.be/PNgTipganH4

[phatt]

Yes ,,, Bedroom,, but limits the use.
The Pedal version and a half decent plain old Second hand SS Amp will sound just as good.
Which ever works out cheaper for you.

The *All in one concept* might appeal but hi-teck stuff today does have a nasty habit of failing just after the warranty runs out.

IMHO,, The novelty of all the digi stuff wears off fairly quick.
Try before you buy and compare as much as possible.
Phil.

[bobhill]

Isn't the Mustang III 100 watts into a single 12"? If you are planning on using it just in the home, you might find it a bit much unless you have very understanding people you are living with, and even more, very tolerant neighbors.  :cheesy:

I tend to agree with Phil, there are easier ways to do modeling, and offer more flexibility down the road. I do have to admit, the Mustangs I have played through I tend to set on a clean Blackface setting and use pedals to produce what I want, but my experience with them is limited, so take that for what it's worth.

[staggl400user]

yes bobhill its just 1 12 inch speaker ,I guess I should just go for the mustang 4 it has 2 12 inch speakers and its not that much more. The amp will be just for me to play in my basement ,what I got from all the youtube videos I watched the volume can be set on 1 or 2  with out losing any of the sounds it makes for the amp you pick . I downloaded the fender fuse software using a made up serial number just start it off with uo and add 5 numbers , so I could check things out and start downloading what they call band tracks ,theirs thousands of them and you can lesson to them before you download them. you can play along with them .I only have a small yamaha 10 amp  amp now and it doesn't sound very good  but I plug my head phones into it and adjust the volume's from the computer speakers and the amp so I can TRY to play along.  The Mustang with all the different amp sounds and the fuse soft ware thing just sounded like a cool way to get  bunch of different amp sounds and a way to play along with band tracks .Once I get the mustang if I get it I can just put my laptop next to me on the couch or bed and put the amp away from me and do all the changes to the amp right there on the laptop computer. I just though since this was a solid state guitar amp forum they might be a few people on here that might already have one and could tell me about it  likes or dislikes .

[bobhill]

Over on Strat Talk they have a Mustang owners club, you will find a lot of information there on how the owners use them. I dare say that here you will also find a few people that have them, they just haven't spoken up yet.

[bobhill]

And as an aside note, I have looked at the Mustangs just for the recording interface, but if I add yet another amp to the five Fender amps already in the house my other half just might take exception. I hope it is not until after I somehow sneak a bass amp into the collection, but you never know...

[joecool85]

Stagg,

I don't have one, but I have seriously thought about the Mustang II.  I can't justify a larger one because, like you, this would be for home use only.  The Mustang II comes with a 12" speaker and 40 watts, WAY more than necessary for jamming by yourself and would keep up with most any drummer if you turn it up.  I can't see why you would want anything larger unless you were gigging it...which I'm not sure I would do until they've been around a few more years and we can tell how long they last.  It appears they are quite cheaply built and I'm not sure which component(s) will fail first.  If you wait, then you can get some data and be prepared for what will break better.

Hope this helps.

[Enzo]

Who says they are going to break any more often than anything else?  WHy do we expect components to fail?  As a service center, the majority of entry level amps like this come in with broken off parts, not failed components.  Some kid steps on his cord and breaks his jack, or has his guitar fall over onto the controls and snap a couple off really can;t blame cheapness in the amp.   

Sure they will some of them kill their speakers, but that happens in thousand dollar bass cabs too.  Will the power amp fail on some of them?  Of course.  Now what amp DOESN'T do that now and then?   Will some percentage of them have a marginal solder connection that will cause trouble?  Yes, and so will those hand wired custom shop amps that cost ten times as much.

I am interested in the how long they last thing.   AVT50 and VS100 Marshalls have been around a long time.   How long does one of those "last?"   A Peavey Special 130 would be 25 years old, so we ought to know on them, how long to they last?   There are cheap bullshit little Gorilla practice amps that are still working as well as they ever did 30+ years later.  And believe me there is nothing out there cheaper than those things.   Did some of them blow up in a month?  Sure.  We can say the same thing about $4000 Bogners too.


OK, I'll stop ranting now...

[joecool85]

Who says they are going to break any more often than anything else?  WHy do we expect components to fail?  As a service center, the majority of entry level amps like this come in with broken off parts, not failed components.  Some kid steps on his cord and breaks his jack, or has his guitar fall over onto the controls and snap a couple off really can;t blame cheapness in the amp.   

Sure they will some of them kill their speakers, but that happens in thousand dollar bass cabs too.  Will the power amp fail on some of them?  Of course.  Now what amp DOESN'T do that now and then?   Will some percentage of them have a marginal solder connection that will cause trouble?  Yes, and so will those hand wired custom shop amps that cost ten times as much.

I am interested in the how long they last thing.   AVT50 and VS100 Marshalls have been around a long time.   How long does one of those "last?"   A Peavey Special 130 would be 25 years old, so we ought to know on them, how long to they last?   There are cheap bullshit little Gorilla practice amps that are still working as well as they ever did 30+ years later.  And believe me there is nothing out there cheaper than those things.   Did some of them blow up in a month?  Sure.  We can say the same thing about $4000 Bogners too.


OK, I'll stop ranting now...

Enzo, I know what you mean but I have to disagree.  What I was referring to are the cheap plastic board mounted jacks, wimpy push buttons and poor quality potentiometers on modern inexpensive amps.  Not to mention that on the Mustang the cab itself is very thin.  For home use probably fine, but gigging I wouldn't be surprised if one or two good drops breaks the cab entirely apart!

Like you, I have seen many cheapo amps hang around forever and not die, and I have seen expensive (both tube and solid state) amps crap out when relatively new.  I was say beyond that, not talking about lemons, but rather "the good ones" and how they hold up over time with regular use.  Many inexpensive amps hold on for a long time because they only get used for a few hours a year.  Try playing some of them for 1-2 hours every single day and most of them just won't hold up.  Course, that's my experience and my opinion, so feel free to take it with a bucket of salt.

[staggl400user]

bobhill  there is a  bass amp for sale at this pawn shop  http://www.facebook.com/192Pawn  you should call and check it out . I think I will stick with the Mustang 2  I really don't need all that watts  the way you all talk I haven't had a amp over 10 watts so I don't know what I really needed for basement use.

[bobhill]

Thanks, but I was just making fun of myself. If I need a bass amp I can get one very easily.

[phatt]

Hi Enzo,
I get what you say,,,, but I've discovered some of these fancy pants systems can be problematic.
Sure I am only a small hobby guy and not up to speed on all the latest,,,but A local chap (A serious blues player) brought in a Genzbenz complaining that the digital efx stuff just stopped working at a gig.

After a few questions I established it was a very hot day and a badly laid out stage (I know the gig,,and it the Pitts, yuk)

The Analog part of the Amp worked fine but I did note the chip with all the trick effects was quite hot in only a few minutes.

My answer was simple ,,forget it mate,, go buy the pedals unless you want to send it back to the factory and wait forever then still no promise it will work.

Side note;
He also asked about the claimed Wattage.
(These are the new lightweight class D things)
Although it claimed 40Watts you would be darn lucky to hear 10Watts.
Go figure?

Another one;
Years ago A mate had a Zoom 90?? half rack efx unit which kept dropping out of chorus halfway through hot night gigs.

2 small strips of alloy bracket on some very hot reg chips and no more trouble. Stuff like that just cry's out CHEAP crap design. :trouble

I could write up quite a few stories like this,, lol
So Yep I'm always a little skeptical when I see equipment with lots of fancy built-in efx on multi channel Amps with lots of relays.
I Often find the analog audio is intact and working fine just the relay setup has failed prematurely.
I would much rather have a plain old amp with direct audio path and do all the tricks via out board gear.
Just my View,, Phil.

@ Stagg400,
           I'll take a stab and assume you are much younger than myself? 8|
I feel for the younger ones as the Hi tecky stuff is full of promise and the options today are endless.
I have been playing guitar since my early teens and in my experience I have found tiss far better to purchase an Amp that does one thing very well rather than something average with all add ons imaginable.

Having already heard the pedal version through a good amp which was quite impressive,,but Now having heard the Amp rig on your links ,,, well It just reenforces my thoughts,,,you need a good amp first,, winky.

While researching Keyboards many years ago I found it far better to turn ALL digital efx and other fancy gizmo's OFF and THEN do an A/B test to Hear what they really sound like. :tu:

Same goes for Guitar Amp Rigs with built-in processors.

Vox Valtronic Amplifiers was another example,,, turn off all the bells and it's just a cheap second rate average Amp.
Remember at the end of the day it's a Guitar Amp you want not a software app. lol

Phil.

[joecool85]

Remember at the end of the day it's a Guitar Amp you want not a software app. lol

I agree...and I'm a programmer!

[Enzo]

Yes, you can buy a Fender entry level amp with a DSP full of digital EFX.  Or you can get a plain amp and some pedals.   And just what is in those digital multieffect pedals?  The same DSP as anywhere else.


It is easy to find stories of some cheap amp that failed.  I can tell them all day myself.  But I can also tell the tales of the $4000 amp that failed too.  A cheap amp may have a cab that faqlls apart the first time yo0u knock it ove, but there is not as far as I know a supply of cheap unreliable DSP chips and then the expensive good ones that never break from somewhere else.

SOme part may be insufficiently heat-sunk (if that is proper grammar), and more likely to fail.  The exact same part in that amp might fail more often than the same part in some fan cooled large heat sink thing.   But there are well made quality systems that wind up having insufficient something or others all the time TOO.

I wouldn;t call a Peavey 5150 a cheap piece of junk.  It is a solid, reliable, well made, in the USA even, amplifier.  yet it has a weak design in the heater wiring.  More ribbon cable connections fail in that carrying heater current than occur elsewhere.   Point being, cheap stuff doesn't usually expose itself by components dropping dead.

It bugs me whenever I hear someone say, my amp died, and someone else says, "Well of course, it is from China."   We don't have to like Chinese-ness, or cheap-ness, or even Elliot-ness, but we owe it to ourselves to blame failures on the actual cause.   Is an insufficient heat sink the result of Chineseness?  Or cheapness?  Or simply a marginal design that could happen in Shanghai or Pittsburgh.

[J M Fahey]

Not to agree or disagree with anybody, just to mention China originally started gaining markets by being the cheapest of the cheapest, no matter what.
No surprise here.
Now some of its production is rising standards steadily and, of course, prices are going up too.
So much so that (official data), 600 out of 1600 German companies installed in China already *left* the country for cheaper labor ones (such as Viet Nam). 
Their salaries are raising too, big way.
I *think* in the long run, it will happen something similar to what happened in Japan, Taiwan and Korea.
I am old enough to remember when Japan made stuff was cheap bad quality, go figure.
Their "Zippo" lighter copies failed 6 times out of 10.
Vividly remember when ***Yamaha*** guitars were *bad* ; was surprised when Santana started using one ... which was real good as far as the instrument was, but pickups had to be replaced by original Gibsons for it to be usable (the Yamahas squealed).
Yamaha drums were also cheap and all over the place.
I am a photographer also, and remember the terrible quality of the first Korean made SLR lenses .... after 5 or 6 years they were as good as any.
So it does not surprise me at all seeing China follow the same path. Why wouldn't they?