REVIEW > MULTI-EFFECTS ROUNDUP
FENDER
The Mustang amp series has been a huge
success for Fender—combining amp and
effects modeling into affordable do-it-all
amplifiers. On top of that, they’re pretty
simple to operate, featuring an operating
system that has a shallow learning curve that
appeals to novice bedroom guitarists and
studio players that like to call up sounds
fast. With the Mustang Floor, they’ve condensed the entire package into a rugged
metal floorboard with a simple, clean layout.
The Mustang Floor’s firmware stores a
total of 13 amp models, more than half of
which are based on Fender amps including
the ’ 57 Deluxe, ’ 65 Twin Reverb, Super-Sonic, ’ 65 Deluxe Reverb, and others. The
other models are emulations tending towards
Marshall classics as well as the Mesa/Boogie
Dual Rectifier and Peavey 6505. Amp modeling can also be bypassed, just in case you
want to use the floorboard as an effects unit
with your amp, without the amp modeling
coloring the tone. Effects-wise, the selection
is much broader—packing in 37 fully-cus-tomizable effects that cover overdrive, wah,
compression, delay, chorus, flange, pitch
shifting, ring modulation, reverb, and several
other effect types. The floorboard’s expression pedal can be assigned to control pretty
much any amp or effect parameter on the fly,
making it possible to do things like gradually
increase an amp’s preamp gain or midrange,
deepen reverb depth, or push a delay’s repeat
count into self-oscillating craziness.
Like the other two floor processors in
this roundup, the Mustang Floor is designed
to be connected, routed and controlled in
a variety of ways. Two XLR outs and two
unbalanced 1/4" outs are available to hook
up the unit to a mixing board or amp input,
and a dedicated USB port for direct recording and patch updating is an option for
players who want to record direct without
crisscrossing cables. A MIDI control, a built-in effects loop, an auxiliary in, and 1/8"
headphone out are also part of the package.
The first thing about the Mustang Floor
that stands out is how well-built it feels. The
weighty floorboard’s metal enclosure feels
sturdy in hand, and solid under foot moving
through its switches. The expression pedal felt
a little tight, but is adjustable via a screw on
the side. After turning on the device, running
a USB cable to my iMac, and connecting an
Ibanez JS-1000 guitar, I fired up FUSE—
Fender’s software for creating and altering
patches for the Mustang series—plugged in
my headphones, and ran through the initial
patches. Right off the bat, it’s apparent that
Mustang Floor has the same tone and nuances
that typify the Mustang amps—full-bodied
cleans, and overdrive tones that often need a
lot of tweaking.
First off, the Mustang Floor’s emulation of
Fender’s classics like the Twin Reverb are pretty
nice, despite missing some of their signature
sparkle on the highs. Still, they are very respon-
sive and balanced on the whole. The Deluxe
Reverb model in particular had a very striking
midrange punch, through it could occasionally
sound just a touch cold and processed in mid-
range-heavy applications—almost like hearing
a great recorded tone played back from a mas-
tered recording, which is actually a really nice
thing if you’re using the unit to record direct.
Though if you’re looking for the feel and skin-
tingling snap of a great mid ’60s Twin blaring
behind you, the Mustang Floor routed through
the house system isn’t going to deliver all of the
subtle nuances that an authentic rig would.
RATINGS
Pros: Great effects. Excellent build quality.
Fender Mustang Floor, $299 street, fender.com
Cons: High-gain settings are bass heavy. Some models
sound one-dimensional.
Tones
Ease of Use
Value
