Mustang III v2 as a Jazz Amp?

[DRS]

I'm looking for an inexpensive solid state amp for jazz. Myabe the Mustang III v2 could be it?

Requirements:

• 30w minimum
• Combo
• Good cleans without a mid-range bias all the way up the volume range
• mid control. Tired of trying to make a treble/bass set of controls work to tame too much midrange
• direct out for sending to a PA that isn't also a headphone out. Headphone outs kill the speaker which means I can't hear it. XLR would be best.
• Light but I don't mind up to 30ish lbs.
• Under $400 new or used
• I'm not playing with a band, mostly solo so I don't need massive headroom. But some.

I have owned a Cube 30 and liked it but the Cube 40X and below do not have a line out except for the headphone option. Cube 60 and 80 are good but they don't come on the used market much here and the 80GX is over $400.

The Mustang IIIv2 seems to fit the bill at $359 new here. It is 100w and has a 12" speaker and dual XLR line outs. It also has an FX loop which is cool.

My concerns are:

• Modeling artifaces - but they seem to have cured this
• Less than robust build. The Mustangs seem to have delicate controls compared to a Cube. This will be used out maybe 2-3 times a month. How about the circuit boards?
• Screwing around with amp patches on the FUSE. I already have a Pod HD500 and I wish I could have the time back spent modifying patches to get me where a basic deluxe reverb would have taken me in 10 seconds. I want to spend 5 minutes tops to get a useable tone.

I have an HD500 but the downfall for these is the amp set-up is 60% of the equation and I don't want to buy a power amp and lug a cab around plus my cab has a rock oriented mid-heavy speaker. Useable FRFR powered monitors start around $700. I have a cheapo that sounds like a$$.

Thanks.

[vinlander]

I hate to have to endlessly tweak patches to get a good tone.
After playing with a Boss GT5 in the early 90s and I trying my best with the various incarnations of the Pod, I got fed up of all that editing.
That was a huge factor in my decision when I was hesitating between the Mustang and the Cube couple years ago.
The fact the Mustang was afflicted with the notorious "fizz" bug at the time (probably fix now but try before buying) but mostly because I could get back the great JC 120 in a portable way.

[eduardosanz]

Hello... cant talk about the Mustang III, but I do have the Mustang I, and I dont recomend it at all for jazz. Maybe the 57 Deluxe or the Bassman modelings... but they dont sound warm enough, at least not for my ears. Dont forget neither that, unlike the cube, this does not have a clean specific chanel. Also, the FUSE thing is a messy one to work on. Is is well built though, and for blues and rock is quite nice, but not for jazz, at least I havent been able to set it adequately.

[Al_F]

It's a great amp! Had one for better than a year. It will stay clean all way up using the Twin model, is very loud, and the artifice noises you read about on the internet are gone even in V1's. The Fender amp models are great, especially the Twin, & Deluxe Reverb models.

You can get it set-up with a tone you like in minutes & don't have it connect it to a computer (though the Fuse interface is very nice). I haven't had mine connected to the PC in months.

Mustang III's and up are 'pro' level amps, very sturdy though not a rugged as a cube but what amp is.

It sat next to a late 70's Twin Reverb for a few weeks & though I think this kind of comparison is wonky, the Mustang sounded great, little less something, but it might just been 2 speakers against one.

[eduardosanz]

It's a great amp! Had one for better than a year. It will stay clean all way up using the Twin model, is very loud, and the artifice noises you read about on the internet are gone even in V1's. The Fender amp models are great, especially the Twin, & Deluxe Reverb models.

You can get it set-up with a tone you like in minutes & don't have it connect it to a computer (though the Fuse interface is very nice). I haven't had mine connected to the PC in months.

Could yo please explain me which are your exact settings on the Mustang to get the clean warm jazz tone we are all for? Thanks a lot.

[monkmiles]

The Twin, Princeton and Deluxe models should all get a good, warm, clean jazz tone. My SCX2 has those models and while I use it's first channel 99% of the time, these models definitely get a good clean jazz tone. Since I like Fender clean tones, I prefer it to all the Cubes I've owned through the years (micro cube, 30, 60, and 80).

[DRS]

Keep on with the ejercation.

[chemiorro]

I had Mustang III. I'm strongly NOT recomending this amp for jazz. I was trying for 2 years to set right tone and failed. This amp has a lot options but misses one thing: tone. It's perfect for young guitar players who need to learn how to use effects, it's wery light, you can plug it to your PC and download/upload tones. But you will never get "that" tone. It doesn't fit es175 for sure.

[wingman180]

I have owned the V1 and the V2 Mustang IIIs. The V1 had some problems but the V2 is excellent. Clean and warm tones are available in the presets as stated above. Excellent downloads available for the curious or the experimenter.

[DRS]

So I went out and bought a new Mustang III v2. None to be had used and I have little patience plus I had a $50 bonus at my store. After 2 hours, I think it will work.

Out of the box, it seems sturdy and the knobs are solid. I hope the rotary selector knob holds out.
I was able to figure out editing without opening the menu - it is a lot more intuitive than my HD500. The presets as loaded are 95% a$$ till you get up into around number 84 when you hit all the basic Fender amps with no FX. Most of the presets have way too much gain and they are slavered in delay and reverb. Even the clean presets have too much reverb.

And another thing, when you turn it on, it defaults to preset 00 which is some Mesa Boogie mark liquid lead. I made the mistake of turning it on while plugged into my Eastman archtop AR810ce. It started howling like a sick dog even with the master volume on 1.

First thing was to get position 00 as useable. 65 Deluxe Reverb with a bit of plate reverb worked. Next, position 01 was changed to a 65 Twin reverb with a bit of plate reverb. It is brighter and more transparent than the deluxe. I keep the gain low as the test guitar is the Eastman AR810CE. It already has a strong midrange voice plus I want the woody tone of the guitar to shine through.

Position 3 preset is a 65 Twin with compressor, chorus, delay, and reverb drenching it. It sounds like all the 80 new wave bands like The Fixx. OK with my strat but I took out the delay and turned down the reverb and it was in the same tonal camp as the JC clean on my Cube 30.

So I saved these presets. I spent 30+ hours on my Pod HD 500 to get those first 3 tones and using the computer editor. But that was also the fault of my FRFR monitor to a certain extent.

As an experiment, I tried the HD500 into the FX return and it was OK. Considering I've been fine tuning the HD to my FRFR since 2010, that was encouraging. I'm sure I can tweak the presets on the HD and have a better system than the Mackie Th12 monitor. I do not recommend this monitor although there are worse for 2X the money.

The thing has lots of volume. Maybe not loud enough for a big band but I bet it's good enough for any quartet with a decent drummer. The Fender models tend to be bright with a strat compared to the actual amps which I have owned and played which has to be tamed with the treble controls. They work with the Eastman. But I'm sure the FUSE stuff will let me edit this, further. One negative is it seems to pick up interference from the airwaves that the tube amps don't pickup. They hum, though. But it goes away when you touch the strings so it's coming through my body. The HD500 is also sensitive especially to my laptop.

It sounds as good as the Cube 30 at comparable volume and of course the Cube is lighter but this amp is OK at 36 lbs. The Cube 80s are in the mid $400s new and this was $359. So I think it will work for a moderately priced grab,n,go amp for the Eastman.

[rhoadsscholar]

Excellent Choice in the Mustang III v2. This amp continues to amazing me for its capabilities. I am sure you will enjoy it. I have some pretty classic fender amps and this does get pretty close, light, and loud. Good going

[DRS]

Thanks.

[Frank67]

Today I redid an experiment - I put my Mustang IV (Version 1) on the 65 twin amp setting (no effects) and my actual 65 twin RI on an A/B box and passed the same signal from my pedalboard to my looper and then to both amps, switching back and forth and having them both on at the same time. After a few minutes dialing, I found it quite pleasing how close the Mustang was able to emulate the actual twin. In fact, the differences were so small that in a band setting I bet nobody but you yourself would hear the difference (and one would probably hear oneself with the wallet rather than the ears :-)). The bottom line is - even low $$$ modellers can be quite good - the Fender Mustangs are cheap, good and crazy versatile amps IMHO.

[DRS]

Found a patch called Studio Pre. Very rounded burnished tone. Added some small room reverb and adjusted the EQ and it sort of has a Polytone thing going. So now I have 4 useable archtop tones with very little time invested - 65 Deluxe, 65 Twin, Chorusy clean, Polytonish.

Another thing I found to my dismay is the patch selector will whip around pretty fast. I managed to overshoot 00 down in to the high 90s which are all high gain amps. Instantaneous howling feed back even with the master on 3. So I edited the 5 of the patches below 00 so they had no gain or volume.

[Al_F]

Could yo please explain me which are your exact settings on the Mustang to get the clean warm jazz tone we are all for? Thanks a lot.

Hello,

Not exact but close.

In the Deluxe amp -

Treble-2
Mid- 9
Bass - 6
Volume-5
Gain-1
Touch of reverb, the 64 I think.

In advanced amp, in bias & sag settings, the left dial points to 8, right dial at 4.

Guitar (humbuckers that aren't real hot) tone is probably on 8, volume is 6,7

[Al_F]

Good deal, glad you like it so far. I'm going to search for the Studio Pre setting. I keep my patches organized by guitar e.g. 70-80 is Stratocaster settings, 90-100 es-335 etc, it makes it easy to find or get in right range quickly.

[jckoto3]

Found a patch called Studio Pre. Very rounded burnished tone. Added some small room reverb and adjusted the EQ and it sort of has a Polytone thing going. So now I have 4 useable archtop tones with very little time invested - 65 Deluxe, 65 Twin, Chorusy clean, Polytonish.

Another thing I found to my dismay is the patch selector will whip around pretty fast. I managed to overshoot 00 down in to the high 90s which are all high gain amps. Instantaneous howling feed back even with the master on 3. So I edited the 5 of the patches below 00 so they had no gain or volume.

I can't tell from pictures online, does the Mustang III v2 have up/down buttons or a twist knob for patch selection? My Mustang I has a twist knob for amp selection and sometimes if it's in the right (or wrong, rather) position right between two settings it will spontaneously switch while I'm playing, which is, at best, majorly annoying. *If* yours is like this I'd definitely recommend storing the same patch on 3 adjacent banks and use the middle one so if it switches itself mid-performance it will switch to another one of the same thing.

[DRS]

Good deal, glad you like it so far. I'm going to search for the Studio Pre setting. I keep my patches organized by guitar e.g. 70-80 is Stratocaster settings, 90-100 es-335 etc, it makes it easy to find or get in right range quickly.

Studio Pre is preset 83
I increased the gain, treble, and a bit of mid range.
I have yet to load FUSE and see what's up with the deep editing.

[DRS]

I can't tell from pictures online, does the Mustang III v2 have up/down buttons or a twist knob for patch selection? My Mustang I has a twist knob for amp selection and sometimes if it's in the right (or wrong, rather) position right between two settings it will spontaneously switch while I'm playing, which is, at best, majorly annoying. *If* yours is like this I'd definitely recommend storing the same patch on 3 adjacent banks and use the middle one so if it switches itself mid-performance it will switch to another one of the same thing.

I have the twist knob on the amp and can go up/down with the foot switch. The knob doesn't have a lot of resistance for each detent so you can whip into some pretty wild sh*t if you're not careful.

[jefg]

Best quickest simplest and intuitive method I've found is to choose from among the "Basic" Fender Amp Models (#88 to about #94 ), choose the "Basic Deluxe Reverb" or whatever you fancy, turn it up to around 4 or 5, and dial it in with the Gain/Volume/Treble/Bass/Reverb knobs as you would with a "real" DR amp. That's how the amp's designed to be used, and hits right on the head. The models as provided are a bit bright, but with any amp you play a chord, adjust the amp to taste, turn up and jump in. Same with the Mustang III. If you play awhile because you like what you're hearing, that's what the "Save" button's for.
The FUSE software is more visual, and an enjoyable place to really fine tune a model (if you're tying to match a particular guitarists sound on a particular recording for instance),but more of an extension than an essential. Plug and Play. It's a real amp.
The most prominent and pleasing (to me) adjustments were "Sag" and "Bias", the key for finding some of the more dynamic tone and touch characteristics of some fine amps. The Twin Models are especially pleasing.
I didn't expect to like this one, first modeling amp I've bought, and very quickly I loved it. A couple other amps I thought I needed are gone.

[LtKojak]

Using FUSE, the Mustang is an excellent amp for every kind of jazz.

I have a Mustang Floor, going through a couple of Behringer 210Ds, and I can dial-in everything sound I need. And this is my backup rig.

Live I use a laptop running Scuffham Amps S-Gear v. 2.26 in standalone mode, using mostly the Wayfarer amp with Ownhammer 212 G12-65 IRs.

HTH,

[eduardosanz]

Hello,

Not exact but close.

In the Deluxe amp -

Treble-2
Mid- 9
Bass - 6
Volume-5
Gain-1
Touch of reverb, the 64 I think.

In advanced amp, in bias & sag settings, the left dial points to 8, right dial at 4.

Guitar (humbuckers that aren't real hot) tone is probably on 8, volume is 6,7

Thanks a lot for your details. As soon as my Ibanez AS73 comes back from the luthier, i will try those set ups. Thnks again

[blkjazz]

Mustang III V2 works great for jazz. Not as warm as my DRRI or TRRI but close enough and with much more flexibility. If you want clean it will deliver. If you want a little dirt, it will deliver that too. Not too expensive and not too heavy. Cool amp.

[Jonathan0996]

Congratulations on the new amp.

At 100 watts, it should be fine for a big band. I've got an older Fender Deluxe 90 that has plenty of power for a big band. In fact, I can imagine very few situations where you won't have enough power.

So find your sound and enjoy the amp. BTW, I upgraded the speaker in my amp and it improved the sound considerably. I don't recommend that you run right out and do that now, but it might be something to keep in mind down the road.

[RonD]

Jonathan0996,

What speaker did you go with?