The Watering Hole

I know, I know...it's a cheap little SS modeler. And yeah that's what I thought when I bought it.

Now that I've spent time with it, this is what I know:
-The '80's Marshall' model sucks at high gain, even with compression or the stomp (no matter what cabinet is selected. And there are several to choose from)
-The '80's Marshall' model OWNS AC/DC and Jet tones at lower to mid gain. Just killer.
-The Recto and 5150 'high gain' models again are just ok.

Now for the Good:
As this is a Fender product, every Fender model on this thing is spot on. I've gone through the Fender amp models and compared them to the better recordings of those real amps on youtube. With some tweaking....I just about nailed every one of them. And the tones from this little monster are very sensitive to touch and style of play. Scarily so. The Bassman is righteous.

Now for the Better:
The Fender Supersonic model. I honestly did not know much about this amp before discovering it on the Mustang. 2 gain knobs...yes 2....not 1...but 2 gain knobs to give you better control over the character of the overdrive. Just like the real Supersonic.
This is now my main model of choice. It isn't really colored like a Marshall or a Mesa model. Just straight tone that can be used for either...depending on the amount of gain you use. And this model has stupid amounts of tight gain, even before adding Compression.

Once I get the Fender ASIO WIN8 drivers downloaded (had to do some research there), hopefully I will be able to post some clips. Gonna work on that this weekend.

Johnny,

Glad you are digging it.  There is an aweful lot of love for them at The Gear Page.  I was in the music store where I bought my Taylor, which is near Gatlinburg.  They are a huge store with tons of gear.  Typically they have over 200 each, Gibson, Taylor and Martin acoustics in stock at any time.  Anyway, last year when I went, the guy there told me "if you aren't going to buy one of the real Twins, or Bassmans or other top model fenders, than the Mustang III,IV or V is the best thing to buy."  He said it comes so close to the high end fender amps tones that he doesn't recommend anything in between the two.  He even said "yeah, if  guy comes in and says he only has $800 and he can't afford the twin, I just tell him to save his money and get the $300 Mustang III, that's how good it is."  I played one very briefly and thought the Twin, Deluxe and Bassman models all sounded REALLY good.  

As close as I come to a solid state modeler is my Super Champ X2 which relies heavily on modeling technology but it is a bunch fatter, but I am sure the Mustang is much more tweakable and has a lot more settings so I bet if you tweak it in Fuze you can really make radical changes with it......

Correct again sir DBM. The Fuze interface is just killer. Especially while I'm in 'recording' mode. I can record something, listen, make changes via the Fuze program, and re-record without ever having to get up and go over to the amp. Pretty nifty.

And to the Super Champ being fatter (I've owned one)....not so much if you were in my room hearing this thing through a rather large 1x12 cab fitted with a Scumback speaker :)  

Johnny — Mar 30, 2014And to the Super Champ being fatter (I've owned one)....not so much if you were in my room hearing this thing through a rather large 1x12 cab fitted with a Scumback speaker :)  

I have the Trebs turned down to 3 and the bass on 2 and the Mids way up on my X2, and any presence controls all the way off. I don't like "bright" at all. But of course I am not in a room, and I have done enough recording to know you cannot actually capture the real tones put into the DAW very easily........Plus I have an Eminence Lil Buddy hemp Cone Speaker in the X2, and hemp cone means fat and not very bright........