Roland Cube 60 vs Fender Mustang III

[Meggy]

Sorry to hear that the Mustang makes the fizz. I hope your dealer does the right thing.

I've been following the series of threads and comments on this issue over at the Fender forum and I am taken by the fact that all the comments I have read from users as well as those from Fender reps have focused on the digital signal processing (as in sound treatment) and firmware upgrades as opposed to the basic electrical power circuitry as in the preamp, for example.

Is everyone assuming that the Fender Mustang III preamp stage is flawless with respect to creating unwanted sound artifacts?

Cheers bborzell, I'm going to at least try the online firmware update before taking the amp back - matt.guitarteacher has apparently managed to fix his Mustang by doing this, so I am now a little more optimistic about things. If there is an easy online fix then fine, and I will forgive Fender for the stress and annoyance they have caused me. Even so, should the amp ever have been shipped out with this problem? Answer: NO - this should have been sorted before taking it to market, but anyway, I will let the forum know how things go with this firmware update fix, and am feeling hopeful about it for now.

[Meggy]

Sorry. That sucks. Don't feel bad. It's good you discovered it and can take it back.

I tried one at the store that was the same manufacturing date as mine but sounded fine but didn't want to haul it on the bus home just to find it was not working like the one i have. Others have reported this as well and people are speculating about dirty wall power, low voltage, etc. There is a big issue and Fender is burning lots of goodwill while there are threads with unsatisfied users that continue to grow, yet they don't address it. If you aren't totally soured the II is supposed to not have the issue, but for me, i'm just staying tuned until they say there is a fix or recall. The good news is you found an amp you really like and that is all that matters.

Cheers spiral - as you may have read above, there is an online firmware update now available, which matt.guitarteacher feels has fixed his Mustang 3, so I'm going to at least give that a go before taking the amp back (or hopefully it works so I don't have to). Will let you know the outcome anyway!

[spiral]

If there is an easy online fix then fine, and I will forgive Fender for the stress and annoyance they have caused me.

Are you ready for this? There are two "fizz" problems. The first is a note tail issue, where the noise would happen at the end of the decaying notes. That was across all of them and has been fixed by firmware. There is a new issue of digital artifacts that happens on the III-V that sounds like this:
FenderFizz by spiesTeleviv on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

[Meggy]

Are you ready for this? There are two "fizz" problems. The first is a note tail issue, where the noise would happen at the end of the decaying notes. That was across all of them and has been fixed by firmware. There is a new issue of digital artifacts that happens on the III-V that sounds like this:
FenderFizz by spiesTeleviv on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

That doesn't sound so good! Still, we will see, and at least I'll try the update to see what I think. Who knows, maybe I'm just a wild optimist!

[matt.guitarteacher]

Are you ready for this? There are two "fizz" problems. The first is a note tail issue, where the noise would happen at the end of the decaying notes. That was across all of them and has been fixed by firmware. There is a new issue of digital artifacts that happens on the III-V that sounds like this:
FenderFizz by spiesTeleviv on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Sad. It's almost a great little amp. I hate that it's got these issues.

[bborzell]

Are you ready for this? There are two "fizz" problems. The first is a note tail issue, where the noise would happen at the end of the decaying notes. That was across all of them and has been fixed by firmware. There is a new issue of digital artifacts that happens on the III-V that sounds like this:
FenderFizz by spiesTeleviv on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Wow! Even I can head the decaying fizz and I have 20 years of racing 2 stroke motorcycles with open expansion chambers which fine tuned my hearing capability to include low and mid sounds exclusively. If I can hear it, the fizz must be like fingernails on a chalkboard to those with unfettered hearing.

I plan on calling Fender tomorrow to get to the bottom of the official line on this matter. Until then, the Cube 60 gets a reprieve from Craig's List.

[spiral]

I plan on calling Fender tomorrow to get to the bottom of the official line on this matter. Until then, the Cube 60 gets a reprieve from Craig's List.

Loren will be glad to hear from you. I've called a few times and they won't tell you anything because they are "working on it", but please report back if you get any good details!

[strumcat]

Sad. It's almost a great little amp. I hate that it's got these issues.

Yeh, you said it. That second artifact is obnoxious.

All three of the inexpensive amps I've been looking at have issues:

The Mustang III, as stated.

the Roland 80XL has no master volume -- if you use the footswitch often to change channels, and you want to change overall volume, you have to adjust all three channel volumes instead of one master volume. Also, the amp models reportedly don't respond very naturally to picking attack, except for the "Dyna" amp model.

The Vox VT50 reportedly has it's own noise problems, as well as having only a headphone jack for electronic output.

Sigh. Wish I still had my original Fender Princeton. I sold it in a gas station for $50 in 1969. It would probably be worth about $1500 now.

[billkath]

Are you ready for this? There are two "fizz" problems. The first is a note tail issue, where the noise would happen at the end of the decaying notes. That was across all of them and has been fixed by firmware. There is a new issue of digital artifacts that happens on the III-V that sounds like this:
FenderFizz by spiesTeleviv on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Cripes-the one I played in the shop didn't sound like that, and I was going to spring for one in a couple of weeks. Do they all sound like that, or just some of them?

[Meggy]

Are you ready for this? There are two "fizz" problems. The first is a note tail issue, where the noise would happen at the end of the decaying notes. That was across all of them and has been fixed by firmware. There is a new issue of digital artifacts that happens on the III-V that sounds like this:
FenderFizz by spiesTeleviv on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Tried the firmware update just now - at first I thought it was better, but quickly realised all was still not right. Testing on a clean preset I could hear exactly what spiral refers to here as digital artifacts - it's not at all nice to my ears. Well, ho-hum, such if life I guess, but for me that is it - the amp is going back, and I will order a Roland cube 80XL to replace it. As I said before, I hope the shop will be reasonable about this.

Just about to start putting everything back in the box, a shame, as Matt said, so nearly a great amp.

[Meggy]

Tried the firmware update just now - at first I thought it was better, but quickly realised all was still not right. Testing on a clean preset I could hear exactly what spiral refers to here as digital artifacts - it's not at all nice to my ears. Well, ho-hum, such if life I guess, but for me that is it - the amp is going back, and I will order a Roland cube 80XL to replace it. As I said before, I hope the shop will be reasonable about this.

Just about to start putting everything back in the box, a shame, as Matt said, so nearly a great amp.

Just to update, the shop took the amp back, no questions asked, and I have ordered a Cube 80XL which should arrive in the next couple of days. So I feel relieved to have got out of all this bother, but also a bit sad still, as if it had worked, it would have been perfect for what I wanted. Hope others having trouble with the Mustang do get a proper fix before too long.

[Pete Becker]

I currently own both the Fender Mustang III and the Roland Cube 80XL. I did the software upgrade on the Mustang and noticed a slight improvement in tone. It sounds okay to me now, but the distortions are too digital sounding and I couldn't bond with it. When played side-by-side with the Roland Cube 80XL, to my ears there is no contest, and the Roland wins, especially for the Fender Deluxe tone. The Roland totally rules on that, I think it's the best Deluxe tone I've heard for a modeling amp. I also find think the clean tone is better on the Roland. I played a Stat through them both.

The Roland Cube 80XL does very good clean to medium-gain Fender tone, other than that, it seems not very flexible to me. To my ears, it doesn't cover medium-gain Marshall tone very well, or high-gain. This led me to look at the Vox Valvetronix Plus line. These amps are able to cover a broad range of tones very well, from cleans to high gain. I have owned the VT40+, VT80+, and VT120+. To me, the sweetest of the bunch is the little VT40+. The other two sound bigger, but not better. The Fender Deluxe tone on the VT40+ is almost as good as the Roland 80XL (though the larger Roland definitely has more body), but the VT40+ can also do high-gain, giving it the edge, unless Deluxe tone is your main thing, in which case I highly recommend the Roland.

The only problem with the Valvetronix Plus line is that they don't do a very good medium-gain Marshall tone. I therefore recently picked up a Marshall Haze 40 watt all tube combo that I am really digging. The clean tone on that amp is actually very good, and the distortion is good too, not too over the top. A very nice medium-gain vintage Marshall tone. Plus it has a few decent built in effects. The delay is nice.

Right now, after a great deal of experimentation, my main gigging rig is the Marshall Haze 40 watt combo along with the Vox VT40+ as a mini-stack. I use an ABY box on the floor to combine or switch amps, and it sounds awesome with my Strat! Great variety of tones. YMMV.