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Joe Bonamassa Forum → Joe's Guitars, Amps and Gear → fender blues junior
picked up a blues junior today and wow. I cant believe what a great sound comes out of a little amp. I am used to good big combos and head and cabs so im quite impressed so far, good for clean, blues and country tried a few od pedals with it and so far so good,
i dont think it is gonna be a rock monster though unless you gigging users can enlighten me, maybe it does at gig level. Wish i could get a good marshall at that size so i could make a mini jb rig.
Anything is giging size if you mic the amp (IMHO)
I love my Blues Junior, but it's a little skimpy on the low end (even with the fat boost), so you should check out the BillM mods.
picked up a blues junior today and wow. I cant believe what a great sound comes out of a little amp. I am used to good big combos and head and cabs so im quite impressed so far, good for clean, blues and country tried a few od pedals with it and so far so good,
i dont think it is gonna be a rock monster though unless you gigging users can enlighten me, maybe it does at gig level. Wish i could get a good marshall at that size so i could make a mini jb rig.
Have you tried it with a guitar with humbuckers? If so, how'd it sound?
Congrats!
Yeah, they are good little amps... but it wasn't until I did these mods to it that I knew it was a keeper:
http://billmaudio.com/wp/
$200 of mods went a long way, if you're good with a solder sucker and iron, I highly recommend it!
yes, its as good with humbuckers as it is with singlecoils, although i havent spent much time with it as yet.
I will definately check out the mods that you guys recommend.
I like to tinker and hot rod things. I liked my cream board BJ before but having
put in a Weber vintage150, JJ tubes, a bigger output transformer
and the billm tone stack and bias mods. the thing just amazes me.
Oh, I doubled up on the filter caps too.
picked up a blues junior today and wow. I cant believe what a great sound comes out of a little amp. I am used to good big combos and head and cabs so im quite impressed so far, good for clean, blues and country tried a few od pedals with it and so far so good,
i dont think it is gonna be a rock monster though unless you gigging users can enlighten me, maybe it does at gig level. Wish i could get a good marshall at that size so i could make a mini jb rig.
I have a Marshall Guv'nor pedal (the original black one) and it gives you very Marshall-ish tones out of any amp. It sounds great through a Hot Rod Deluxe, which is just slightly bigger than yours, and cost me $75 used. You frequently find them on Ebay for $175-200, but I definitely recommend the black one over the silver. I've owned both, and you can tell a big difference. Good luck!
cheers for that, i will check one out.
Which Blues Junior did you wind up getting? I think there are about 3 different versions floating around - the standard in black, the Tweed with the Jenson speaker, and the Texas Red (only 800 made) with the Celestion 30 speaker. I tried the tweed at GC, but I can never make a fair assessment on anything there because the idiots play the music way too loud in the store and my hearing isn't the best. I can never figure out why they do that in a place where you're supposed to be concentrating on the sound of the gear you're testing. I was definitely able to tell it had good reverb though. I ordered a used Texas Red Junior last week for 475 including shipping. From the reviews and clips I've heard, it sounds a little hotter than the tweed, but I was told the reverb is a little weaker (3 on the tweed = 4.5 on the Texas Red). I can definitely deal with that though. Can't wait to play through it! I wonder what Joe's thoughts on Juniors are.
Congrats!
Yeah, they are good little amps... but it wasn't until I did these mods to it that I knew it was a keeper:
http://billmaudio.com/wp/$200 of mods went a long way, if you're good with a solder sucker and iron, I highly recommend it!
Agree here with the BillM Mods. Definitely worth the $$$. Specifically, I'd have him do the tonestack, add a presence control and the TwinStack mod (so you can dial out the mids completely from the circuit). Great feature since this amp is a little heavy on the mids anyway. Another key mod is a simple speaker replacement. I'd actually start with this mod first (as well as replacing the stock preamp - I really dug a 12AY7 in v1 and 12AT7 in v3/phase inverter) and power amp tubes) since they are relatively easy to perform yourself and pretty cost effective. This amp seems to like Celestion V30, Eminence Governor (similar to a V30), Eminence Cannabis Rex or Eminence Swamp Thang. However, any good speaker upgrade that sounds good to you will work.
One key consideration that all of these mods were never able to overcome for me was the small cabinet size of the Blues Junior. To my ears, this amp always sounded (even after the mods) a little
The one i got is just a standard one, i did put it through my 2x12 cab which is loaded with v30' s but it seemed to be a bit more harsh to my ears, maybe other speakers would work better for me. I do hear that a lot of people think this is boxy cause its small but if you mike it through 15 in Pa speakers i cant see how it can be, not that ive tried it, im just guessing.
I think if your going for speakers that sound less harsh you should look into a 15 watt speaker Webber makes great 15 watt speakers and if you could afford it celestion blue bell speaker are the cream of low powered speakers. Joe would totally say no to this because he hates the speaker coloring the tone but I think if its a harsh tone then the speaker wouldn't hurt. Its what I'm wanting to do with the Blues Jr I'm using right now.
The one i got is just a standard one, i did put it through my 2x12 cab which is loaded with v30' s but it seemed to be a bit more harsh to my ears, maybe other speakers would work better for me. I do hear that a lot of people think this is boxy cause its small but if you mike it through 15 in Pa speakers i cant see how it can be, not that ive tried it, im just guessing.
That's very interesting. What guitar are you playing through it?
I think im gonna gig with it first before i make any changes to it, at least i have plenty of options now if it needs tweaking.As for guitar its a prs custom 24 or prs korina santana.
I have a Marshall Guv'nor pedal (the original black one) and it gives you very Marshall-ish tones out of any amp. I definitely recommend the black one over the silver.
+1 on the pedal.
I use a Fulltone Fulldrive II Mosfet for my BJ, but I've used my bro's original Guv'nor pedal - and they are the real deal.
Joe Bonamassa Forum → Joe's Guitars, Amps and Gear → fender blues junior
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