A look at the Fender Mustang GT "Generation Three" amps.

Bob Lawrence · Post by **Bob Lawrence** » 1 May 2017 8:29 pm

A look at the Fender Mustang GT "Generation Three" amps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o4Vb2GC0zY

Fender unveils wi-fi, Bluetooth-enabled Mustang GT guitar amps - world-first hands-on video demo

http://www.musicradar.com/news/fender-u ... video-demo

Tone Apps:

https://www.fender.com/apps/tone-app-amp-controller/

Thomas Kowalchuk · Post by **Thomas Kowalchuk** » 2 May 2017 9:47 am

That is very cool. We are seeing more and more sophisticated technology at our fingertips. Of course, none of it will help one actually play the instrument! But there is so much potential for smartphone interfaces and the like, and I for one am all for it. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Thnx for sharing this.

Gerald Shaw · Post by **Gerald Shaw** » 2 May 2017 12:56 pm

It's cool that the amps can interface with today's technology, but what about tomorrow? The amps will be like computers or cell phones, they will be outdated over time.
I've got Fender amps that are 40 years old, and still get the job done. It looks like the idea here is to make products that will be obsolete after a few years, and the customer will need to buy the next new thing.

These amps are cool and all, but I'd rather buy something that I know will be viable, and still have value 20 years down the road.

Ken Morgan · Post by **Ken Morgan** » 2 May 2017 2:34 pm

I'm not exactly sure what blue tooth and wifi have to do with serious music production outside of the home setting...but I'd love to hear how it could be reliably applied to the gigging musician.

Dyke Corson · Post by **Dyke Corson** » 3 May 2017 7:18 pm

Fender rep is bringing one in tomorrow. Stereo 2-212 amp that weighs 34lbs? I'll give it a try. I got really close with the Mustang 3, should be interesting!

Jim Kennedy · Post by **Jim Kennedy** » 4 May 2017 10:02 am

I bought a Fender Cyber Twin 17 years ago. It is fantastic for playing in cover bands where variety and flexability in tone and effects are required. No peal board, throw in a midi controller and life was pretty good. Scroll to the setting for a particular sond and that was it. And even then you could share your settings, via midi at tat time. Fender held off, let Roland work out the amp modeling bugs. This was their first releas and it was killer. IMHO closer in sound to vintage Twin than the reissues. $1200 in 2000.

The new amps are tecnolgical imprvements, with a huge redudction in price. The previous generation of Mustang amps sound fantastic, IMHO, and for the price I don't believe other modeling amps come close. They come as close to vintage sounds as anything out there, and the options are almos limitless. At this price point they are probably throw away, but what isn't anymore. WIFI and bluetooth are for the up and comers. As far as the youngsters are concerned if it's not connected, it just not. I am positive these will not disappoint for guitarists. Not sure about pedal steel. My cyber twin is not the best for that. I use a 74 Twin now.

Les Cargill · Post by **Les Cargill** » 6 May 2017 1:15 pm

I still use a first-generation SCXD. They're not very robust - my first one failed after a rehearsal at a house with bad power and being left in the sun while on. Still, for me, it's a great gigging amp. Some of the patches are very compressed but that's not without its uses.

The SCX2 uses the original Mustang digital, and it was noisy and full of digital artifacts. I traded it and an Affinity Tele for a guitar.The USB connection was fun, but it wasn't necessary. It felt like Fender was using it to develop a social media presence. The stock patches could easily have had all the changes I made to mine.

Before you commit to one of these, do a thorough checkout to make sure the DSP works properly. IMO, Fender messed the second generation units up pretty badly. I'd make sure to use good power conditioning on them.

Darrell Birtcher · Post by **Darrell Birtcher** » 7 May 2017 11:20 am

I checked out the GT40 and GT100 yesterday. The bluetooth and wifi basically replace what the usb did for the gen2 Mustangs. You can control and edit the amp from your phone via bluetooth, and to update firmware and download presets it must be on a wifi network.

I get some really great sounds out of the Gen2 Mustang, and compared side by side, the GT's amp models I tried just didn't sound as good. The GT's '65 Deluxe was very boxy and not as clean. Same with the Vox models. The '65 Twin was decent. The effects sounded pretty good but I still prefer the reverbs and delays on the gen2 amp, where they sou d warmer to me.

The Fender Tone app didn't connect on my Android phone which has the latest OS upgrade but it did work on an iPhone. Not sure if there's a way to back up the amp settings on this new system like you could on the old via usb. That's an important function so I hope it's available.

It would be nice to have the lighter weight but I'm not switching to the GT.

Greg Lambert · Post by **Greg Lambert** » 7 May 2017 12:41 pm

Gerald Shaw wrote:It's cool that the amps can interface with today's technology, but what about tomorrow? The amps will be like computers or cell phones, they will be outdated over time.
I've got Fender amps that are 40 years old, and still get the job done. It looks like the idea here is to make products that will be obsolete after a few years, and the customer will need to buy the next new thing.

These amps are cool and all, but I'd rather buy something that I know will be viable, and still have value 20 years down the road.

Im with ya Gerald. I still play through a NV 112 and NV 400. Both are solid amps and get the job done with great sound. I really dont need all the build-in's some amps have to get the sound I want.

Dyke Corson · Post by **Dyke Corson** » 8 May 2017 5:45 pm

So my Fender rep came last Thursday and did a quick impressive demo. Today is the first time I've had to plug in the Emmons, I have my Mustang 3 here for reference. I brought home the GT200 2x12" 200wx2 model. It weighs two pounds more than the single 12" Mustang 3. After fooling with it for about 10min I was able to dial in a really good Twin sound and added some nice large hall reverb and stereo "tape" delay. The stereo thing sounds nice. Pretty easy to navigate, to me it seems to have more parameters than the Mustang 3. I couldn't make it break up without driving the dogs crazy. Next I need to get the app on my phone and make changes without getting up from the steel to look at the top of the amp! So far, I like it.