Worth the Risk? Two Broken Mustang amps

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 3:07 am

A guy on CL is selling 2 broken/partially working Mustang amps.

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/msg/3288861559.html

Should I take a gamble on one or both? Anybody had to fix any problems on their Mustang amps?

mastermorya · Post by **mastermorya** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:29 am

It's not a ton of money but they are kind of consumer throw-away amps when they go bad because of how they are made that are generally more expensive to repair than they are worth. This looks like a case in point. They've got fantastic technology inside of them, but chips and PCBs you'd need to fix are expensive and could require EE-level skills to diagnose and fix. That could be an exaggeration but you'd likely spend plenty more than $25 getting them up to snuff unless there is a simple fix.

bradzeera · Post by **bradzeera** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 1:41 pm

A guy who runs an amp service company in my hometown was giving me some pointers on shopping for an amp, he strongly advises staying away from Chinese amps because they are extremely difficult to service. He says that servicing them is mostly a guessing game due to non-standard placement of the amps components. So I would say it's definitely not worth it since the Mustangs have a lot going on digitally which I can only imagine would further complicate servicing them.

mkt3000 · Post by **mkt3000** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 1:45 pm

I'd buy the Mustang II and just use it as a 1x12 cab.

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 1:49 pm

I am tempted to offer him like $40-$45 for both amps and see if he would go for it.

It's only worth it if I can get them cheap enough. I mainly need one to leave at school for guitar lessons, so if one works already I might be okay. I didn't think about using as a Cab.

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 3:19 pm

I wouldn't, unless you were planning, as suggested, to use the II as an extension cab (The I could be gutted for one too, but it doesn't sound good).

These things are printed circuit boards, I really doubt there's anything you can fix on them.

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 3:24 pm

thanks for the advice.

The seller also has another Mustang I that works. I will probably go for that.

George · Post by **George** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 3:34 pm

To me it sounds like he could have bought these to do some SICK CRAZY MODS to as a business venture, and shagged them up something horrid inside. Hence why he can't return them, and hence why they look pristine but somehow magically stopped working.

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 4:28 pm

taylornutt wrote:thanks for the advice.

The seller also has another Mustang I that works. I will probably go for that.

The Mustang I is a good amp... for the price. If you can get it at a good deal, go for it.

That said, while they're kinda awesome, they also kinda suck

The tiny closed back enclosure and 8" speaker will never give you a good, convincing emulation or pretty much any of the modeled amps, but, it does sound decent for what it is, and is good value. I use mine all the time, but I've been considering letting it go for something like the Yamaha THR10, which seems to have better sound, and better hi-fi capabilities when playing your mp3s through it (which is something I do a lot through the Mustang when I'm working and living away from home... it definitely does not excel in this area).

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 10:24 pm

Buy them both for $40. profit.

If the guy doesn't know shit about amps, then the one that doesn't power on might have a blown main fuse, or more likely if they've changed that, a blown internal fuse.
crackly one is probably a dirty/bad pot - dirty pots cause all sorts of problems.

louis · Post by **louis** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 12:51 am

*touch wood* not had a problem with my mustang 5.