Fender Mustang Micro Headphone Amp: What is it?
The Fender Mustang Micro is a headphone guitar amp that sells itself on the easy premise which you can play no matter, everytime you like and nobody else can hear it however you.
And there are a dozen amp fashions and one other results mixtures to mean you can dial within the tone that the majority conjures up you. The Mustang Micro is tiny. It matches inside your pocket, and has a quarter-inch jack that may rotate absolutely 270-degrees so it that it could match just about any electrical guitar, or “all widespread guitar fashions”.
For so many gamers, it is a godsend. Busy lives and crowded schedules make it onerous to eke out the time for guitar enjoying. Not all amps have a headphones output, and lots of events – younger ones in the home, late nights, crowded lodging – demand silent observe.
The take-anywhere side of the Mustang Micro is extremely interesting too. Stick your guitar in a gig-bag and take off and you’ll play it anyplace.
The unit has a easy format, with one massive dial mounted on the entrance to regulate grasp quantity, and a sequence of +/- buttons alongside the facet of the unit for choosing amp sort, EQ, results, and a modify button for adjusting one choose parameter of every impact. LED lights point out when these buttons are lively.
On the opposite facet of the unit, there’s a three-position slider that turns the amp on and off, or locations it in Bluetooth mode. Headphones and USB-C outputs full the spec. To use it, merely plug your guitar into it and join your headphones. And off you go…
Fender Mustang Micro Headphone Amp: Performance and verdict
The Mustang Micro couldn’t be simpler to make use of. The plug in and play side is a big a part of the enchantment right here. There is, nonetheless, one other tougher impediment to beat, and that’s rendering electrical guitar tone through headphones.
In the olden days, after we have been fortunate if our observe amps had a headphones output, that dry, direct sign had no sense of atmosphere or house. But pushed by the identical amp and results modelling expertise discovered throughout Fender’s Mustang sequence, the Mustang Micro does an distinctive job of providing you with a tone that’s enjoyable and provoking.
And there’s no latency, both. Appropriately, on condition that the unit is designed to suit all widespread guitar fashions, there’s a sound for just about everybody right here, from crystal clear chime via to high-gain weapons-grade metallic tones. With an amplifier lineup as storied as Fender’s, it might be amiss if we don’t reference a few of these sounds right here.
The clear choices embrace a ’65 Fender Twin Reverb (with a bit of compression to sweeten it up), a ’65 Fender Deluxe Reverb, and a ’57 Twin modelled after the basic tweed 2×12 tube amp combo. Rounding out your clear tone choices is a setting voiced after a Vox AC30. When these are chosen, the LED beside the amp setting lights up white, pink, inexperienced and blue respectively – a useful option to know which setting you’re on.
Also contemplate…
• Boss Waza-Air Wireless Guitar Headphone Amp
It’s mainly Boss’s much-loved Katana amp in a set of headphones. You get a wi-fi adaptor, join your telephone to the bundled Tone Studio app and get going. There is a lot to discover.
• Fender Mustang LT25
Modelling tones, onboard results and USB connectivity for recording your enjoying, the Mustang makes for an amazing worth observe amp.
Crunch choices supply a variation on the theme, together with a ’65 Deluxe plus Tube Screamer setting that’s simply the ticket when workshopping your Texas blues turnarounds. There are additionally Marshall Super Lead and Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier settings, along with your high-gain choices impressed by a Friedman BE-100, EVH 5150, and Bogner Uberschall heads. A direct mode provides a very clear studio preamp mode that pairs properly for bass guitar and acoustic.
EQ choices are restricted to 5 presets, with the center one set flat, however work properly. Adjusting brightness for humbuckers or single-coils is a cinch. The results blocks are organized equally, with 5 presets of various depth obtainable on every of the dozen results mixtures. The results on supply are properly thought out, too, classically Fender, too, if that’s what you’re after with spring reverb and tremolo, however there additionally some properly modulated sounds with delay and tape echo so as to add to style.
The Mustang Micro additionally is aware of when to play to its energy and take advantage of the stereo headphones output and panning delays each left and proper. With a full cost, the amp provides as much as 4 hours of enjoying time.
All this, allied to the value, would make a convincing case for the Mustang Micro as a gig-bag important however there’s extra. The Bluetooth connectivity permits you to stream music to the amp and play alongside, and that USB-C output makes recording your concepts very straightforward.
MusicRadar verdict: Practical and enjoyable, with an amazing vary of tones, the Mustang Micro is the guitar amp that permits you to play anytime, anyplace, and it is among the finest observe instruments in the marketplace.
Fender Mustang Micro Headphone Amp: The net says
“It all sounds excellent and the EQ presets assist to tame the excessive acquire fashions from getting too fizzy, however truthfully we have been greatly surprised at how a lot high quality is on entry wherever you’re. And it’s the mobility angle that’s key right here – choose up, plug in and play with an inside battery chargeable through USB to simplify issues additional.”
Total Guitar (opens in new tab)
“As a no-fuss residence observe device, newbie amp, journey rig, and even an emergency pedalboard amp, there’s no cause why all of us shouldn’t have certainly one of these stowed away in our gigbags.”
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“The most spectacular half about all the amp fashions I examined is simply how bodily responsive they’re. Good amps – analog and digital alike – supply a sense of how onerous you’re driving every be aware. I discovered that with a pair of in-ear headphones on, I may actually pay shut consideration to my articulation whereas working towards.”
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Fender Mustang Micro Headphone Amp: Hands-on demos
Fender
Andertons
R.J. Ronquillo
Thomann
Fender Mustang Micro Headphone Amp: Specifications
- TYPE: Headphone modelling amp
- CONTROLS: Volume, on/off/bluetooth pairing, amp +/-, EQ +/-, Effects +/-, Modify
- [effects] +/-
- FEATURES: USB-C recording/charging out, Bluetooth audio streaming, 12 amp mannequin, 12 impact mannequin mixtures, rechargeable lithium-ion battery (4 hours minimal and 6 hours max battery life)
- DIMENSIONS [LxWxD]: 77mm x 37mm x 17mm
- CONTACT: Fender (opens in new tab)