@RobDickinson it sure is versatile and checks all the boxes for me
@snoxracr They do make a beautiful couple. Thank you Tony
@CT Don’t 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 you’ve 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.
Ain’t 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. It’s 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 playas…
@Rosshkerr thanks Ross (for the compliment part not the jealousy ).
@roger_holland thanks Rogier! I wasn’t 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. I’ve deleted over half of the presets, so many horrible sounding ones (they even had one named “Horrible” ), 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 I’d 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
I’ve 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 I’ll 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. I’ve got more gear than I can play (3 guitars & 3 amps), but I’m happy with all of them as they led me to these two which feel right for me. So hopefully, I’ll be avoiding any more major gear purchases for the short term future at least and focus on learning and practicing new skills and songs (we’ll 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 it’s own beast. It doesn’t 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 ain’t gonna sound like a Fender.
There’s 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 it’s clear that a Katana is not one of those ways, and it doesn’t pretend it is.
Either way, there’s 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. It’s 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, “if it sounds good, it is good” (I hope I got that Justin quote right. Even then, tastes change so it’s all relative to an individual’s preferences (“variety is the spice of life and all that”).
For example, I’m 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 it’s 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 it’s a pretty functional footswitch for sure. Haven’t delved into all it’s 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 that’s the beauty (and/or curse) of all the amazing, accessible and relatively affordable gear that’s 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. I’m actually starting to understand and hear the difference that simple tweaks to these can make to a preset’s overall tone. Good stuff
Song practice set list all configured.
Now, I can get back to practicing in peace
Congrats Firas, I’ve never played through a Mustang but they always get spoken of highly so I’m sure you’ll have plenty of fun getting to know it and thrashing it
Yeah it’s a good reality check to revisit every once in a while. Good gear is like the final 5% polish after 95% work, hence why I’m putting the brakes on now. I got what I craved the most gear wise (a beautiful guitar and a versatile amp), now there’s no excuse to not put in the work
I still keep a “guitar gear wishlist”, so I feel you, the lusting doesn’t go away, just gets reigned in until a future major milestone sets it free
Thanks Stefan and yes sir Sgt Working on polishing a few new songs to recording level. So you haven’t seen the last of me and my new Strat. No slacking here
@brianlarsen the heart wants, what the heart wants brother But at some point the wife and the wallet are each gonna put their foot down and say “enough is enough”
@Notter Thanks Mark Got my practice tones dialed in, and working on fine tuning some performance song tones. I’m definitely more impressed than I was when I first dabbled with them
It’s all in the fine adjustments of the amp sims & FX knobs. I’m definitely appreciating the tone versatility of this amp.