In keeping with Fender marketing’s propensity to try to brand everything in sight, we meet the Fender Mustang Micro Amp, a device with a name larger than the device itself. While this kind of mcmarketing makes my teeth ache, let’s bypass that frustration and go straight to the unit.

What Is It?

You’ve seen micro amps before, some of them actually made by amplifier companies, but for the most part cheap junk with a logo and crappy guts and speakers. Best left on the shelf in general or used as props to remind oneself that one is a musician, like those little scale models of guitars.

The Fender Mustang Micro Amp, here forth called the FMMA, is a different critter. Fender has offered their Mustang line of digital amplifiers for some years. Their target audience has been the home musician who didn’t need mountains of power, who wanted decent sound and a number of built in effects without having to go into massive debt. Because these amplifiers also have headphone out jacks they are ideal for parents who have no reason to hear Purple Haze played out of tune at full house volume, or for those whose living accommodations would not survive a regular amp at ten. Or perhaps two.

Purists typically look down their noses at these amplifiers. I owned one for a short time for low volume practice or headphone use and did not like it. It was too big for a headphone amp, and to my ear, just didn’t sound awesome. I have to declare that I am one of those old fools who find no substitute for tubes in the preamp or power sections and who believes that louder is more better, at least once I have learned my parts. I like the rush of air being moved by a pair of 4x12 cabs, but have the luxury of being able to do so.

With the FMMA, I think that Fender has a winner. First, it’s really inexpensive. I bought mine at The Arts Music Store and it cost just under $130 CAD before tax. Second, it’s really small, it can literally go in my pocket. Third, it sounds very good through headphones, meaning I can play loud on my back deck and not annoy my neighbours or interfere with the music that they make with their gas powered leaf blowers. (Being facetious there. I own a gas powered leaf blower myself).

Getting Connected

For my first hours of trial, I plugged the unit into a Gretsch double cut hollow body and into a Fender Stratocaster with Fralin Pure 54 pickups. I also used a pair of over the ear Sennheiser headphones that cost more than the little FMMA. Earbuds are not a tool that I like, so I prefer over ear headphones myself so that is what I have here. The sound was not like what I expect from any of my heavy and loud tube amplifiers, but for $130, expecting that would be delusional on my or anyone else’s part.

I do want to clear up a misconception early for those who will not read the full article. The FMMA has Bluetooth so you can use it as a target for your Bluetooth equipped music play and thereby hear the music through connected wired headphones. The FMMA does NOT work with wireless Bluetooth headphones. Fender never said it did, but there is confusion on the Internet.

The device has a nice rotating ¼ plug and if I were at all cynical, I would say that this was designed by someone who lives and breathes Stratocasters, because the fit is ideal. The side mounted buttons are accessible and if your eyesight or memory is excellent, you can easily make settings changes. However if your instrument has a side mounted jack like my Gretsch, or Les Pauls or PRSs, then developing some muscle memory for what switches do what is important if you want to make quick changes, or get a short ¼ F-M extension and attach the device somewhere you can see it.

In Use

The device is simple and that makes it really easy to use. Here’s what Fender has to say about it on their site.

All-in-one personal headphone amplifier with onboard DSP

• 12 amp models for a wide range of clean and dirty tones

• 12 effect combinations with parameter modify control

• Adjustable EQ

• Convenient volume control

• Bluetooth audio streaming with audio/video sync for playing along in real time

• Rechargeable lithium ion battery (charged via USB)

• 4 hours of continuous play time

• Rotating input plug for compatibility with most guitars and basses

• USB interface for recording output and firmware updates

Sure this is marketing material but it is all accurate. The charging is via USB and the device actually comes with the appropriate USB A to USB C cable. Full marks Fender, Universal Audio, you should learn from this. There’s also a handy wallet sized card that details all the setting options and so long as you can read small print, it is very useful. Also the LEDs change colours based on the settings so if you can see them, they are very informative.

Amplifier Options

I am pasting the table from the owner’s manual as it is quite self explanatory. Kudos to Fender for acknowledging other maker’s trademarks to help buyers easily understand what the DSP modelling for the selection is doing. Other vendors of similar offerings could learn from this.

I have not yet played all the options available and probably won’t get to all of them for a while. I have played the Clean White and it’s pretty close to my Blackface Twin with a Fender compressor. I didn’t really care for it, mostly because I really dislike the Fender Compressor. I would love the sound of a Twin without the comp.

The Clean Red is awesome. It’s not a ‘65 Deluxe, but man in headphones it’s pretty close and certainly good enough for practice or jamming.

The Clean Blue is indeed quite Vox-like, more in the regular input than the Top Boost but great for Beatles type jangle.

I skipped Crunch Yellow because I don’t care for Tube Screamers in general.

Crunch Magenta doesn’t have the visceral oomph of a Plexi but has a nice similar tone, certainly as good as any other similar modeller from Boss or others.

Direct Cyan is very nice indeed. It works great for acoustics with pickups not for silent practice but to use as a DI to a DAW via USB, although in that case you do need a much longer USB cable. My 5 String P Bass sounded good this way as well, and I even tried the Strat on this setting using an amp sim in the DAW instead of one of the ones in the device.

You have some basic EQ controls over the amp sim section. The table documents what the EQ buttons do.

Fender does make mention of using the FMMA as an audio interface to a DAW and it works. Do I think it is an amazing option? In truth I do not, but my default rig involves Universal Audio Apollo units and they sound better. Simple as that. Consider however the non-producer musicians who just want to get their sound into GarageBand or whatever those poor souls on Windows use, and the FMMA could be ideal for those use cases.

What About the Effects?

Honesty here, I am a pedal junkie. I have too many pedals because I like their variety and idiosyncrasies. Some DAW based effects are really good, and so are most of the effects in my Kemper Stage. In general though, I am not inclined to DSP based effect sounds. What one has to consider is the incredible repertoire that come built into this little amp. While the amp’s Leslie effect does not match my Dawner Prince Pulse Rotary device, one has to consider that I could buy four FMMAs for the price of the Pulse and in fact the program that simulates a legit Fender Vibratone Rotary system is really quite nice.

Again, I am pasting the chart from the online manual, because it is helpful and accurate.

As with amp sims, effects sims are highly subjective. I really liked the Red ‘65 Spring Reverb as I could get deep swamp with the Gretsch and this option. The Raspberry slapback is nice early ‘60s style and the Spring Green tape delay is really quite good, nearly as good as my old Wampler Tape Echo pedal. It’s not UA Starlight level, but it also comes in a complete unit about 1/5 the cost of a UA pedal. Awesome for practice or jamming with a backing track.

The effects are adjustable to some extent and the following table documents how the modify buttons work with each effect.

As noted earlier, the unit has a self contained Lithium battery that is charged via USB. Mine arrived charged, but to ensure that charging works, I plugged it into a USB powered hub and all worked as expected. Kudos again to Fender for including the USB cable. The following table shows the charging information.

In Conclusion

I have to thank Fender Musical Instruments Corp for publishing the charts used in their online manual for the device. While finding the manual is something on the order of a Dungeons and Dragons quest (Fender’s website needs a LOT of work) the manual is simple and easy to follow. Owners should download a copy and keep it on their smartphone. I did.

The Fender Mustang Micro Amplifier is not a replacement for classic tube amps, or classic effects pedals. For my use cases, it’s not suitable as an audio interface. My world.

For lots of other people this is a no-brainer. It’s an incredibly powerful and easy to use tool that is remarkably inexpensive that sounds really darn good. I cannot think of what kind of electric guitar player would not find use for one. As much a purist as I am, and perhaps a snob at that, I bought it and intend to keep it and use it regularly where it fits for me. You might want to consider one for yourself.