Late Night Headphone Practice

[Darren Mortillaro]

Anyone try these little portable headphone amps for late night practice? If so, what do you use? Is this little fender headphone amp any good for practicing?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TRQS1TX?ps ... KMA2TJCM1Q

[Lloyd Walsh]

Fender “Must”-ange..!!
This gadget is the best for practicing and the Bluetooth synching is terrific, no lag.. play along to tunes over your smart phone, laptop, computer, whatever has Bluetooth technology. Big bonus is not driving your loved ones nuts while you’re learning (in my case at least). Back when I bought a new laptop from Apple part of my “educators” discount included a free pair of Beats Headphones, they’d been sitting in the box for a few years till I bought the Fender MM. they work great together (hardwired though, but the MM synchs with your music device and you can hear both your music and steel together over the headphones).

(Edit) Also, it has a mess of presets built in. I use one of the reverb settings with a bit of echo/delay for slap back.

[Jeff Highland]

Lloyd, Bluetooth alwas has some (often too much) lag or latency, you just don't hear it when playing back recorded music and because your headphones are wired rather than bluetooth you don't get any latency from your instrument.

[Darren Mortillaro]

Can you use bluetooth headphones with the fender mustang headphone amp, or must you used wired?

[Jeff Highland]

The Fender specs say it is for wired headhones or earbuds, and that is good.

Normal Bluetooth Headphones don't really work well for LIVE music because the delay (latency) is unacceptable. I have gone wireless for Guitar and Vocals with 5.8G Transmitters and receivers and they work fine, but I am still monitoring with wired headhones till my wireless monitor headphones and transmitter arrive, they are not bluetooth.

[Lloyd Walsh]

I had the same confusion when I first got mine, you use “wired” headphones from the device to hear your instrument (as you see in my photo), the Bluetooth is for playing tracks from your music player (i use my phone) to the Mustang Micro, so you can practice along to it and no one can hear the track nor your playing.
To Jeff’s point Bluetooth latency is a real thing but in this case I’ve never detected nor had any noticeable syncing issues (Fender calls it “playing along in real time”). The device is relatively inexpensive, and with all the amp modeling built into it I think you’ll be impressed. Anyway, I’ve been using mine since late last year and it’s kept the peace in the house. I’ve been extremely happy with it.

[Jeff Highland]

Lloyd, you won't detect latency because it all occurs from the device to the MM before the guitar signal is mixed in so there is no problem with sync.
The problem only occurs when the BT wireless interface is between a live instrument such as your guitar and your ears.
So it is good that the MM uses wired headphones.

[Darren Mortillaro]

Thanks everyone. I think I'll get it. It seems like one of the better products out there which doesn't take up a lot of space or requires plugging into a computer.

[Jeff Bell]

It sounds like you're already sold on one of these. I've had mine since last fall and I'm very happy with it. Make sure to check for software updates. After updating mine, the sound did improve. There was another thread on these and it was suggested that you can use a volume pedal with this and I found that to be useful. You need a female to female 1/4" coupler for that.

[Lee Warren]

I use the Fender Mustang Micro for practice and love it.
I plug it into the output jack of my volume pedal. (No need for an adapter).
It sounds good to me, is reasonably priced, and has a tiny ‘footprint’.
My 2cents.

[Lloyd Walsh]

It sounds like you're already sold on one of these. I've had mine since last fall and I'm very happy with it. Make sure to check for software updates. After updating mine, the sound did improve. There was another thread on these and it was suggested that you can use a volume pedal with this and I found that to be useful. You need a female to female 1/4" coupler for that.

I didn't even think about checking for updates, thanks for the tip!

[Christopher Peck]

I've been using the NuX Mp-2 for just about a year. Great little rig, works like the Fender amplug but is a lot more flexible. It has a bunch of amps and cab impulses along with a nice selection of pedals. You can save up to 7 (iirc) presets through the ap then flip through them whether the NuX is connected via bluetooth or not.
In any case, it's another amplug option that's been a solid tool for me.
The Fender amplug is much more plug and play, while the NuX is more of something that you'll have to pick an amp, speaker cab, and whatever effects you want. Both are easy to use and very functional; they just come at the concept from a little different direction.
I've got the Fender but don't use it since I picked up the NuX, I prefer the flexibility of being able to set up everything like I would a regular rig.

Just another tool to consider for practicing with headphones.

[Dave Grafe]

My considered choice is the Cube Street from Roland. It features amp modeling but I'm happiest with the mic pre input selected, clean and sweet with 1/8" stereo input for backing tracks and superb effects.

[Darren Mortillaro]

Hi Christopher, With the NuX are you able to play along with youtube lessons and still hear both the guitar and video through the headphones?

I've been using the NuX Mp-2 for just about a year. Great little rig, works like the Fender amplug but is a lot more flexible. It has a bunch of amps and cab impulses along with a nice selection of pedals. You can save up to 7 (iirc) presets through the ap then flip through them whether the NuX is connected via bluetooth or not.
In any case, it's another amplug option that's been a solid tool for me.
The Fender amplug is much more plug and play, while the NuX is more of something that you'll have to pick an amp, speaker cab, and whatever effects you want. Both are easy to use and very functional; they just come at the concept from a little different direction.
I've got the Fender but don't use it since I picked up the NuX, I prefer the flexibility of being able to set up everything like I would a regular rig.

Just another tool to consider for practicing with headphones.

[Patrick Huey]

Thanks everyone. I think I'll get it. It seems like one of the better products out there which doesn't take up a lot of space or requires plugging into a computer.

Darren
I run power amp out from my NV 400 into a small four channel mini mixer w./ headphones and a small patch cable plugged into power amp in to kill the speaker. This gives me true unaltered uncolored signal that sounds…well exactly like my steel and a NV 400.
I have yet to find an iphone app or small “headphone jack plug in” or amp that really sounded good.
The mini mixer was under $50

[Christopher Peck]

Hi Christopher, With the NuX are you able to play along with youtube lessons and still hear both the guitar and video through the headphones?

I've been using the NuX Mp-2 for just about a year. Great little rig, works like the Fender amplug but is a lot more flexible. It has a bunch of amps and cab impulses along with a nice selection of pedals. You can save up to 7 (iirc) presets through the ap then flip through them whether the NuX is connected via bluetooth or not.
In any case, it's another amplug option that's been a solid tool for me.
The Fender amplug is much more plug and play, while the NuX is more of something that you'll have to pick an amp, speaker cab, and whatever effects you want. Both are easy to use and very functional; they just come at the concept from a little different direction.
I've got the Fender but don't use it since I picked up the NuX, I prefer the flexibility of being able to set up everything like I would a regular rig.

Just another tool to consider for practicing with headphones.

sorry I missed your question...

Yes, you can play along with whatever's linked by bluetooth to the device. I like using my ipad since the NuX mightyamp ap is easier to use due to the physical size of the sliders.