I’ve been dissatisfied with my gen 2 Boss Katana 50 for some time and have kept searching for an amp that met all of my requirements for an amp and was starting to think such an amp didn’t exist until I found the Mustang.
Before I go on, I will say that the Katana obviously isn’t a bad amp, but the Gen2 50 was the wrong amp for me. The Gen3 seemed more like Gen2.5 to me and didn’t offer what I wanted. The Gen3 is close but if I was going to replace a working amp the new amp had to do everything I wanted, no compromises or workarounds
Here’s what I wanted. Many amps offered some of them but not many offered it all in one package.
Built-in Bluetooth (for playing with backing tracks) - no charging and pairing of separate dongles.
An amp that has a good phone/tablet app AND physical controls
An effects loop
The point about the app is important (to me). If the app ever becomes unsupported I want to be able to use the amp. Equally though I don’t want to have to play sat right next to the amp to be able to make adjustments. The vast majority of things you can do on the Mustang can be done on the app or the amp. Also important here is I’ve always got my phone/iPad on hand, my laptop is usually off so a PC/Mac app doesn’t (especially with a cable) does not work for me.
The Mustang comes as either a 50 or 100 but unlike with Boss, the 50 isn’t a stripped down poor relation of the big amp. The reason I got the 100 was it comes bundled with the foot switch whereas it’s an optional extra with the 50 and brings the price to almost identical with the 100. As well as the usual stuff, the Fender foot switch includes a tuner and a looper so it’s well worth getting.
First impressions are very good. I’ve been able to practice exactly how I want to practice with it. It does mean I’ll have to find some additional practice time. I want to keep up the acoustic playing that I have been doing but it’s now time to learn some metal as well
Congratulations Matthew on finding the amp that meets your wants and needs. It seems that the amp is most important part of our gear. It’s what gives you (everyone) ‘your’ sound.
fwiw, I know 1 guitar player local here. The mustang is where he landed at too. He went through several amps prior to deciding the mustang would meet his needs.
Have fun getting off on the metal music. I played my buddies mustang (once) and it seemed it would get to the metal sound real easy. At a 100w, ya ougta be rattling windows and peeling paint off the walls real easy.
I think one of the most under appreciated features of the Mustang GTX is the foot switch. Not only does it give you a looper and tuner, it also allows you to switch presets and then operate as a pedal board so you can turn individual effects on and off. Once you have your presets set up, you can fully control your amp with the foot switch alone. Plus, the foot switch does not require additional power which means that you can have a very clean playing area (I can’t imagine having a separate looper and multiple effects pedals all connected plus their power chords - what a mess!).
Agree with you about the foot switch and about cables in general. My guitar set up is in my front room (my house is small) so the less stuff and cables I have the better really. I do own a pedal board but unless I want a very specific sound then I put that away. I connect my guitar to my amp via a wireless adaptor also to reduce the mess.
One other feature in the Mustang is it also connects to Wi-fi and that’s how it does it’s firmware updates - no need for a laptop and a cable
Happy NGD from a Mustang III owner, though it is normally fed by my POD Go these days.
If its anything like my III you should be more than happy. I have both 4 and 2 way FS. The only feature I was not keen on with the GTX compared to the III was moving on the controls and knobs to the rear of the top panels but hey I am not a designer. Enjoy !
Also - if you want to clean things up a bit more, you can replace the included cable with a standard instrument cable (1/4" TS) that is the right length for your set up. I got a 1.5m cable that is just the right length for me and it keeps everything very tidy.
On the wifi, I keep it turned off unless I am specifically checking for an update. I think that some of the issues that people have had with the GTX series has come from keeping wifi on all of the time.
Hi. Sorry for this very long reply. Congrats on your new amp, I’ve had the GTX 100 for a year and it’s a great sounding amp and easy to use. Initially I didn’t use it for more than an hour a day and sometimes not for weeks so didn’t notice any problem other than no sound sometimes when I turned it on, turn it off then back on fixed that. I’ve always had wifi and Bluetooth turned on with no problems until a month ago when I bought another new guitar and a Boss looper and started using the amp for 3 or 4 hours a day. The amp volume started to randomly drop and then come back. Powering off and on fixed it for a while but it continued so following advice in another thread I turned off wifi but this didn’t solve it. The volume drop could have been happening since I first got the amp but as I didn’t play often I’ve not noticed it. I tried all the obvious stuff, updated firmware, used different effect patches, changed cables, changed guitars, turned off Bluetooth and disconnected the looper from the FX jacks in case this was the cause. After each power off it worked for a while and then the problem came back. I only play at home so it’s annoying but not a big issue for me, but as it seems to happen more frequently now I returned it to the dealer a couple of weeks ago to let Fender check it out. The dealer said he’d had a couple of amps returned with similar problems but from people trying to use Bluetooth to stream to it. My advice is to use it often for long periods if you can and listen to the volume levels after you’ve been playing for a while. I’ll update once the dealer gets back to me, he said Fender often just replace them but sometimes they give it a service and return it so I’ll have to wait and see.
Welcome to the Fender Mustang club. I end up getting the Mustang GTX50 (with footswitch, I got a deal used) a couple of years ago instead of the Katana because it seemed better. You having actually owned a Katana and switched to the GTX is a pretty unique situation. I don’t think you’ll regret it, it’s a great amp.
It integrates pretty well with an audio interface through the XLR out, btw.
It’s a pretty good modelling amp. It should keep you happy for a long time. I’ve since upgraded to the Tone Master Pro, but have that plugged into the GTX50 as its speaker.
BTW - when switching tones mid-song with the pedal, I found it easier to set up new presets and switch presets, rather than stick in 1 preset and switch individual FX on and off. That way you can instantly change entire pedals and even the amp with one stomp.
Well done . I bought one a couple of years ago and don’t regret it. I love the way you can add pedals and effects - especially the green box… amazing! Also saving a selection of your favourite amps to a set list saves time in finding what you use regularly. I’m using blues junior for the Blim course. I’ve got a modified setting for playing things like Apache- once I found out what Hank Marvin used! I dont use the footswitch but plug in a boss looper into the effects loop which works well.
Worst thing is if you get a text on your phone while you’re connected - makes you jump off your chair!
