I went ahead and ordered my new Fender Mustang GTX100 amp from Thomann a week before I left London to head back home to Kuwait and it arrived early! So it was waiting for me to unpack today
Thanks to everyone for the advice and feedback on ordering from Thomann and helping me narrow down my new amp to go along with my new Fender Strat. Thomannās service was terrific (they helped me out with online ordering issues and even threw in a local power cable at no additional charge). They shipped using UPS Express/World Saver that arrived in Kuwait (and cleared customs) within 3 days and it was door-to-door delivery which was perfect.
As for the amp, I love it! Other than itās huge compared to my Fender Frontman and Marshall Code 25, the controls and footswitch are easy and intuitive to use, connecting the mobile app and wifi was straightforward and the quick browse through some clean tones and online preset downloads left me ecstatic with the tones on this amp! Of course, itāll take me days or weeks to clean up the not so useful presets and setup my own new ones, but Iām loving what Iām hearing and seeing so far Really happy that I went with this amp vs the others I was considering.
Iāll share my experiences recording with it once Iāve had a chance to finish practicing my next AVOYP and hook it up into my UV Volt 2 Audio Interface to record with it.
@RobDickinson it sure is versatile and checks all the boxes for me
@snoxracr They do make a beautiful couple. Thank you Tony
@CT Donāt want to start any amp wars Clint, but yeah Absolutely loving the Fender tones on it! Now to clean up all the other useless presets, setup variations of Fender clean & crunch tones, and some practice song specific tones. Starting with the Deluxe Reverb as that was one of my favorites on the Mustang Micro.
@Lisa_S Thank you Lisa Just have to be careful of going too far down the rabbit hole of tone hunting (which I did last night as expected) and get back to practicing
Wow, Firas, that last picture is truly worthy of a Fender centerfold spread
Congratulations and may they provide you with many pleasurable years.
Dare I equire whether you are likely to be tempted by their most recent stablemate or go down the pedal path? (I mean once youāve exhasted all the amps cababilities of course )
Haha, you may be right, but there is a 50% price difference
Congrats on your new amp man.
Aināt nothing better than new amp day imho.
And man, you got a nice lookin setup there with that beautiful strat and your new mustang amp. They really look great together.
I got a buddy that had many amps over time and now has one amp. The mustang is where he landed at. He says it just fills all his needs in a amp.
I kid of course. Itās up to the individual to assess value. The '65 Twin Reverb Emulation even on my old Mustang is top notch. The emulation for Fender tweed amps is excellent as well. The cab sims are great too! I can only assume that these things have gotten even better now, which would really be remarkable. Play on playasā¦
@Rosshkerr thanks Ross (for the compliment part not the jealousy ).
@roger_holland thanks Rogier! I wasnāt sure if NGD or NAD was the more appropriate acronym for the thread I guess both work (New Gear Day / New Amp Day)
@TheMadman_tobyjenner thanks Toby Already deep into the preset tone rabbit hole. Mostly just deleting tones, and finding new ones to build around. Iāve deleted over half of the presets, so many horrible sounding ones (they even had one named āHorribleā ), but the good ones are oh so sweet So already having fun exploring tones & FX
@brianlarsen thanks Brian The announcement for the Tone Master Pro came out just a few days after Iād tested the Tone Master amps & the Mustang GTX just before I placed the order. I was extremely tempted to go with a Tone Master Amp & the Tone Master Pro FX but looking at the price tag and the Pro moniker helped shoot that idea down quickly
Iāve already gone way above my playing skill level with the AM Pro II Strat purchase (I was initially considering the Player Series Strats) but the color and feel of it were like an irresistible sirens call to me So I think Iāll allow myself some time to settle down with these two additions to my guitar & amp family. Really get to know them and become familiar with their nuances. Iāve got more gear than I can play (3 guitars & 3 amps), but Iām happy with all of them as they led me to these two which feel right for me. So hopefully, Iāll be avoiding any more major gear purchases for the short term future at least and focus on learning and practicing new skills and songs (weāll see how long that lasts)
That being said, here are some more photos of my gear collection (with a new guitar stand, last purchase, I promise! ) since you liked the earlier photo
I pretty much replaced all of the factory pre-sets on the Mustang III and either downloaded new ones from Fender Fuse before they pulled the rug and also IntoTheBlue via YouTube. That and build my own. Most stock ones are probably ok once all the settings have been turned way down. I did the same with my old Zoom GFX707 MultiFx pedal for the same reason, factory settings all OTT bar a handful. Have fun !
If you are, specifically, after Fender tones, then a Katana is clearly not the right choice.
For a start, the Katana is itās own beast. It doesnāt try to be other amps.
Additionally, the all-analogue power amp on the Katana is, apparently, voiced more like classic British style EL36 valve amps, so it aināt gonna sound like a Fender.
Thereās plenty of ways to get a Fender sound, and some of the best ways are from amps from vendors other than Fender: Fender do not have a monopoly on the relatively simple technology that goes into classic Fender amps; you can even build your own clone amp which will get you that tone.
But itās clear that a Katana is not one of those ways, and it doesnāt pretend it is.
Either way, thereās plenty of tones to go around, and plenty of opinions and tastes and amps to match them. And not many choices these days are bad.
For instance, Ihave a Bugera tube amp that gets some decent Fender tones. Personally I keep the morph control towards the British side more often than not, because I prefer that sound.
@firasR so enjoy your new amp and have fun with it.
For reals! This is why I have preamp pedals that I can run through any amp or PA to get that Fender tone that I crave. This is especially true on amps that you can bypass the onboard preamp with a setting or through the FX loop. Itās OK to prefer some other tone, try to approximate a Fender tone with the gear you have, or remain ambivalent. A Fender amp is a slamdunk though. Live your best life!
@Majik Thanks Keith At the end of the day, āif it sounds good, it is goodā (I hope I got that Justin quote right. Even then, tastes change so itās all relative to an individualās preferences (āvariety is the spice of life and all thatā).
For example, Iām loving the clean Fender tones on the Mustang and now on the hunt for that crunch tone that was relatively easy to achieve on my Marshall Code, I want it all (so itās a good thing I kept the Code for now)
Will have to experiment some more with the British amp simulations and/or FX pedals to see if I can get there (or at least close enough to have a nice sounding crunch tone).
@Richard_N itās a pretty functional footswitch for sure. Havenāt delved into all itās advanced features yet but looking forward to that.
By the way, I love your profile blurb. I can definitely relate to that
Too many guitars and not enough practice.
Perpetual editor of typos.
@CT And thatās the beauty (and/or curse) of all the amazing, accessible and relatively affordable gear thatās available to us in this day & age. Choice is a beautiful thing
Also watched a few of his other videos and he explains how to get core tones with your amp very well and how simple adjustments to the gain, volume, and EQ knobs affect them all. Iām actually starting to understand and hear the difference that simple tweaks to these can make to a presetās overall tone. Good stuff
Song practice set list all configured.
Now, I can get back to practicing in peace
Really happy that I went with this amp vs the others I was considering.
Wish you loads of fun exploring tones!
Absolutely loving the Fender tones on it! Now to clean up all the other useless presets, setup variations of Fender clean & crunch tones, and some practice song specific tones. Starting with the Deluxe Reverb as that was one of my favorites on the Mustang Micro.
. E joy
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So already having fun exploring tones & FX 
