Fender Blues Jr 15W combo - Thoughts?

Skylark

I played a Fender Blues Jr 15W combo - really smooth & transparent clean sound and awesome overdriven sound
It's a tube amp that's easy carry, which is a huge bonus.
Great sounding and plenty loud/soft for the bedroom/practise/small gig.
Anyone used these amps for extended times , any draw backs or things to watch out for?

I'm pretty sold on it - sounds excellent with single pups or humbuckers , really nice amp!
:goodtimes:

IceCreamMan

Quite possibly this is the model amp with more internet pages for it than any other amp in the history of mankind ?

Also has a list of mds longer than my arm which can be done to it....loved by some loathed by others ... best is to play it extensively and make up yr ow mind. They are expensive in ZA though.

Keira-WitherKay

I know them well, they great amps but everyone that owns em usually mods them by replacing the stock speaker same day as buying em, and if you google it theres a whole site dedicated to mods to these babys , general feeling is they fab if you prepared to change speaker and a few simple mods , the only negative comments are the reverb is not good and the cab can sound a bit boxy due to small size if you used to a more open sound,

if you could find a princeton reverb reissue and again upgrade speaker it would be a step up and still compact and portable but more open sounding but then the price is a step up too ,

and if you offered this blues jr at great price jump on it , i would at the right price

MikeM

The BillM mods shouldn't cost you much, and it'll save you having to buy a new speaker.

Lots of opportunity there, I think they even have a spare triode!

AlanRatcliffe

Not bad amps at all - sure, I'd take a Princeton Reverb RI over the BJ any day, but it's a different price point. A few small mods can make the BJ a very sweet little amp indeed - especially for the price.

The newer series III BJRs have a better speaker than the old ones (especially if you give them a chance to break in a bit before swapping in a Swamp Thing).

Skylark

Ja the reverb is pretty junk but I got my Holy Grail plugged in the line so that's not really a prob.

I though the stock speaker sounds pretty decent?
Its a Celestion G12 Vintage 30 , which is not a totally crap speaker

What does the BillM mod involve?
I found this site : http://billmaudio.com/wp/

Which are the best mods in terms of return on investment and ease of implementing?
There are so many it appears...

MikeM

Which version of the Jr will you be getting?

I'd personally do the cathode follower and bias mods (I thought there were tonestack mods too?) and possibly the presence mod if it can be added subtly.

Here's the tonestack mod

http://home.comcast.net/~machrone/bjr/bjtone.htm

Skylark

MikeM wrote: Which version of the Jr will you be getting?

I'd personally do the cathode follower and bias mods (I thought there were tonestack mods too?) and possibly the presence mod if it can be added subtly.

Here's the tonestack mod

http://home.comcast.net/~machrone/bjr/bjtone.htm

I'm getting the Blues Jr 15W combo

AlanRatcliffe

Bias, tonestack and presence mods.

AFAIK, the Vintage 30 was not a stock speaker (but should be a good one, a bit rockier than most - tighter lows and powerful, cutting mids).

Keira-WitherKay

Yes that celestion is definitely not stock , and a celestion is a more british sounding speaker , so you will lose some typical fender tone using it , replacements of a better american sounding speaker like the eminence patriot series, or a weber voiced for fender tone is more typical as replacement, but hey if the celestion works for you don't fix what ain't broke

korn101

I played a Blues Junior Tweed edition the other day in the shop. Keep in mind the tweed edition has an upgraded speaker.

The cleans were sweet, the overdrive was pretty good aswell. I played my CV50's strat through it. I was considering it, and still am. But I'm sort of leaning towards the Peavey Classic 30.

Skylark

korn101 wrote: I played a Blues Junior Tweed edition the other day in the shop. Keep in mind the tweed edition has an upgraded speaker.

The cleans were sweet, the overdrive was pretty good aswell. I played my CV50's strat through it. I was considering it, and still am. But I'm sort of leaning towards the Peavey Classic 30.

Big big bonus about the Blue junior for me is how light it is.... after a long jam/gig , carrying a heavier tube amp with a guitarists warped back is not great