Hands On Review: Fender Mustang GT Modeling Amp

Recently I was able to sit down with not just one, but all three model of the Fender Mustang GT. There is a lot of information out there about these amps. Some rave about the features (and there are some innovated and ambitious features in these amps). Others complain about performance. The best way to navigate all the information out there is to spend enough time to get to know these new amps form Fender. That's exactly what I did. Here's what I've found:

Fender Does Fender Well

Fenders Modeling amps have always done their clean tone the best. This may be because they know their particular tone better than anyone, or maybe they just aren't that good at doing models of other amps... The Basic 65 and Bassman models are my favorite. Now, this is across all version of the amp. The clean tones are standout, but that is partly due to the fact that the dirty channels don't really hold up. Marshall type tones aren't hitting mark here. Vox tones don't come across convincing either. Although the worst offender here is the metal sounds. The preset isn't impressive, but changing the setting, at least in my experience, just made things worse. Muddy tones and tons of mush are found in the metal tones. This amps doesn't djent (not that I'm an expert here).

Tech Troubles

I was prepared to check out the app that accompanies this amp, and I did sort of. As I was getting everything set up, I connected my phone to the amp via bluetooth... for a few minute until I lost my connection. I did not reestablish the connection after that. It wasn't for lack of trying. It did force me to get to know the physical controls on the amp. Lets be honest, if you are at a live show, you aren't relying on bluetooth to do on the fly changes. The controls are cleaned up from the previous model. However, that's not always the most convenient when making fast changes in the middle of a set. The large wheel is pretty integral to making any changes. You have to make selections by rotating the knob and then pressing it. This is not always the easies thing to do. I'm sure you can get used to this, but I found my self scrolling past my intended selection and rotating the knob when trying to push it. I will say that the controls are rather easy to get the hang of, but quick and reliable changes aren't easiest thing to do with this set up.

Pecking Order

How does this amp compare to other amps. Well, put this next to other fender amps and you'll find it wanting. Next to a Blues Jr., this amp doesn't stand up well. Even more so with a Princeton. Typical with solid state amps, there seems to be a cap to how loud the amp gets. There is an organic volume level and when you pass that the amp just can't handle it. Instead of tube break-up, these amps react harshly to high volume applications. Comparing the GT next a BOSS Katana is where it really get interesting. These amp are very comparable in price, however they function is a different way. The Mustang and Katana both start in the mid $200 range, but they have different strengths. The Mustang has decent cleans and can mock many of its high dollar relative. The Katana is a little sterile on some clean settings. Other than that, the Katana takes the cake. The higher gain models of the Mustang do not have the convincing openness of the cleans. The Katana shines in the higher gain settings. The Katana also handles effect in the front of the amp better than the Mustang. Which brings up a another point... The effects in the Mustang are a little less than convincing. The list of overdrives is a little thin as well. Just a reminder, the Katana has access to 55 effects... The Mustang doesn't stand up very well to many other amps...

Conclusion

I really wanted to like these amps. Fender took their time coming to market with their latest modeling amps. It looked like Fender had everything wrapped up, but the most important part of the amp is performance. No matter the feature set, at the end of the day, you want the amp to sound good. The more features you add, the more opportunity you have to get it wrong. We want an amp that does everything, and it's tempting to think that "Now they've done it", but they haven't yet. Specifically, the Fender Mustang GT hasn't.

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