Fender Mustang Micro

astro · Post by **astro** » Wed Apr 21, 2021 6:22 pm

Just got one today. I am impressed! The models sound pretty good. Although all the models are all designed for guitar, some sound quite good with bass. The 65 Twin + compressor model sounds best to my ears with bass guitar. I am playing this through mediocre ear buds and it sounds full and nice.

Post by **dots** » Wed Apr 21, 2021 6:25 pm

been seeing this advertised heavily lately (must be a large profit margin), so thanks for the review. may have to check one out.

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Wed Apr 21, 2021 6:34 pm

So can you plug this shit into an amp instead of headphones? It would be like a micro pod

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Wed Apr 21, 2021 7:23 pm

i was considering these but the L's for it seemed a lot. They have been hammering the youtube guitar channels with product placement for it but good to hear a first hand non incentivised review of it

astro · Post by **astro** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 12:08 am

robroe wrote:So can you plug this shit into an amp instead of headphones? It would be like a micro pod

I was curious so I tried it out. My youngest is asleep so I tried it through my Roland Micro Cube on low volume and it seems to work well. I will try again tomorrow through my Concert II to see how it sounds at loud volumes through a tube amp.

The instruction manual (available here: LANK) says you can use the USB-C port to output to a computer for recording. I am not equipped to try that out right now, though.

Overall I think this thing will be super handy for me: I tend to only have time to play after my kids are in bed, and of course when they're in bed I can't use my regular amps without waking them up. I've tried using the headphone output on my micro cube but it sounds like ass. The Mustang Micro actually sounds really good through my headphones. It was a lot of S's ($130 Canadian S's) for such a small thing but I feel it delivers the goods. I don't doubt that like Dots said, it's a high margin product for Fender, but really the price is comparable to an effect pedal and this thing will probably get way more use than a pedal from me.

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 6:10 am

It does sound very usable and the computer connector would be great if you don't already have a recording interface

jagsonic · Post by **jagsonic** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 7:51 am

is the price difference to a Vox Amplug justified?

Freddy V-C · Post by **Freddy V-C** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:11 am

Pretty intrigued by this! Been looking for a decent headphone solution...

BobArsecake · Post by **BobArsecake** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:23 am

Hmm, I wonder whether this might be the thing to get me back playing again.

Post by **Mike** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:11 am

Another thing you could try for our thirsty friends is connecting it into the output jack of a dirt pedal (or your pedalboard) to see how the clean amp settings like the Twin take pedals?

Post by **Doog** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:14 am

The 60 Cycle Hum demo-and-irritating-laugh video shows it with pedals, 41:15 onwards:

[youtube][/youtube]

Post by **Mike** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:16 am

Nice! Wow an hour - fuck me

He's covering all the bases though, sounds pretty good to my ears - definitely better than the old Fender Mustang modelling amp used to smell the glove

to be clear I only had a quick gander on the section Andy linked, if it sounds arse at other times don't kill me

Post by **Doog** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:52 am

I think I watched most of it when it dropped; it really does sound pretty good, and a great deal for someone who's not a total tweaker

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:54 am

This looks really handy, especially for use with the Bluetooth for that Blackstar Superfly I picked up from the SDOTD a while back

Post by **Doog** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 11:07 am

It's also firmware updatable, so hopefully Fender will drip-feed any algorithmic improvements they brings to their other larger digital products to this unit over the next few years

plopswagon · Post by **plopswagon** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 1:07 pm

IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m intrigued.

astro · Post by **astro** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 4:07 pm

I tried the Mustang Micro with the headphone out plugged into the "return" input of the effects loop on my SWR bass combo and it sounds pretty good. However, it didn't sound good plugged into the instrument input of the Concert 2, it was squealing up a storm. I suspect it would have worked better in that amp had I also used the return effects loop input there as well. Overall I think it sounds better through headphones when using the headphone output, though.

I'm not really sure how useful this thing would be if used as a modeller with a proper amp... the Micro is clearly optimized for portability and headphone use and has it's limitations that come with that. I am eager to try using it as USB interface to record with at some point, I suspect it will sound good that way.

singlepup · Post by **singlepup** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 7:58 pm

I'm curious about how this might sound plugged into a Tascam Portastudio... sorta like a DI box. I have been wanting to get back into cassette recording for awhile, but I don't have a proper hardware amp modeler. Was thinking to just grab a Joyo American Sound, but this looks a lot better?

Post by **Doog** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:13 pm

ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll sound the same recorded directly as on headphones, unless youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re further altering the sound on the Portastudio.

And this will sound waaaaaay better than the Joyo, the speaker sims on those are negligible.

Post by **Mike** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:18 pm

The joyo wonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t work direct to headphones - youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll need a headphone amp after it

Whether or not this thing sounds better than a joyo plus headphone amp I will reserve judgement on as my setup sounds pretty good to my ears and is ANALOGUE which matters a lot to us trendy media dads in our forties