Blues JR users...

[WhoFan]

the Blues Jr amp has had my eye for years now... the latest HR version i guess... was there tweed one in the 90's? anyways i have a thing for small tube amps and that little guy has had me interested... but when i try one out in a store it's not really clean, and it's not really dirty... it ends up confusing me as to what to expect from it...

mind you i have not been able to open it up loud enough...

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Blues JR users...

I can't get along with them, and I have been test-driving them at every opportunity for about 3 years now.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Blues JR users...

I can't get along with them, and I have been test-driving them at every opportunity for about 3 years now.

thanks... they seem to have a mid honk to them don't they


i may just have to buy one to give it a real life test drive

 

[tone4days]

Re: Blues JR users...

i like mine quite a bit .... i set it up for max clean headroom and let the pedals (twintube classic and zendrive) do the dirt ... having the power tubes on full really gives nice tone ... mine has just about all the billm mods to it ... if i ever needed to mess with it, i'd do a speaker upgrade and new(bett?) tubes ... gotta love the light weight, grab-n-go nature of it for not alot of cabbage

 

[DrownInk]

Re: Blues JR users...

I haven't tried cranking a hotrodded blues jr yet, but I use to own a regular BJ for about a year. I really miss the thing too. You can get amazing clean tones, but you have to keep the volume down and CRANK the master while using some nice single coils. Humbuckers will add a bit more umph and break up the chimeyness a bit.

 

[Hoss]

Re: Blues JR users...

funny how reviews are all over on these...haha

imho...they only sound good with the power tubes absolutely COOKIN!

and yeah they have some midrange honk and all that...so i never really cared for it at home playing by myself...but in a band...cranked with a really good OD in front as well...WATCH OUT...SMOKIN HOT TONES MAN!!!

:headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

really wish i would have been able to keep mine!!!!

 

[B Bent]

Re: Blues JR users...

I used to play one of the Relic Tweed versions on the BJ and it was a great amp!

 

[jeremy]

Re: Blues JR users...

i had one of the old green board ones for years and i really liked it. woulda kept it but i had too many small 1x12 fender tube amps under 25w. i did literally hundreds of gigs with it and it never let me down.

a new speaker works wonders as do new tubes. a goos 12ax7 or 5751 in v1 with jj el84's and a strong 12ax7 in v3 leads to a little amp with a nice tone. only half of v2 is used so its less important. for clean headroom crank the master and keep the volume lower. the 5751 in v1 also helps keep things alittle cleaner on the front end.

they are a little boxy sounding but its in a small box

 

[scottish]

Re: Blues JR users...

i too love my blues jnr. and yeah, the best sounds def come with the power tubes cooking. I did a few of the billm mods and replaced the speaker with the weber blue dog. As far as the bill m mods go...dont change the bias. I thought that killed the dynamic of the amp. The guy from eurotubes has a bit on his web page about how the bias in the blues jnr needs to run hot to get the best out of the amp.

but yeah, as far as im concerned its one of the best amps to crank as clean as you can then let pedals do the dirty.

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Blues JR users...

thanks... they seem to have a mid honk to them don't they


i may just have to buy one to give it a real life test drive

I felt like it was too boxy on my last test drive. Very middy and boxy. This was a limited edition red one, but I am fairly certain it was stock stock stock except for the red tolex.

I am not going to buy a $500 amp that needs a $200 speaker, $100 worth of tubes and $100 worth of mods to make it "a great little amp."

No thanks

Then again, amps are like guns are like underwear --- every man's got his own favorite and it's none of your **** business!

 

[tone4days]

Re: Blues JR users...

I am not going to buy a $500 amp that needs a $200 speaker, $100 worth of tubes and $100 worth of mods to make it "a great little amp."

the mods are less than $10 ... a tube kit is $ 50 and a speaker can be easily under $100 .. if you buy the amp used, you can be out the door and good to go for under $500

i get and respect your point, its just that your exaggeration strained a valid comparison

 

[Hoss]

Re: Blues JR users...

mine was $300 or less used and all i did was a retube kit from Eurotubes...it was a bit "boxy" and it has mids...but you don't notice it all when it's cranked and cookin...sitting around the house noodling is not this amps forte at all...but it shines in a full band setting!

the only reason i sold mine was that i needed something with more clean headroom and i was no longer in a band that "cranked" anything and the only place i'd be able to really open anything up was at home...totally not the BJR's niche!

 

[ES350]

Re: Blues JR users...

They're OK for piddlin around, but I have no luck with new Fender PCB stuff. Ditto on all the mods to a low-end amp; I don't see the point when I can buy 60's Ampegs all day long for half the money (with Jensen P12P's in 'em to boot).

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Blues JR users...

i almost never mod an amp... use it as is or buy something better is my thinking....

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Blues JR users...

Good amp. Better as jeremy said with a better speaker. I tried a celestion g12t and a jensen c12N. The jensen really suits it. The stock speaker is pretty average .
The amp is loud enough for gigs, but it doesnt have much headroom. That said - the power tube saturation made a sweet sound, so for old school charle christian tones it is great as well as for some 50s rock sounds.
I tried some well known mods on the amp circuit - and went back to stock....
Excellent for recording too.
It may sound even better with a finger jointed cabinet, but then it will no longer be a cheap amp!

 

[Gunny47]

Re: Blues JR users...

I had the Tweed NOS one for about a week and then I returned it. It never accepted pedals too well like I wish it did. The drive tones seemed kinda fuzzy and there was always this honky midrangey thing that I never cared for on clean sounds. Then my friend picked one up and just going straight in with the 335, I got some gnarly lead and clean tones. Like I was blown away and I wound up doing a week-long pit band gig for the school with it. They're cool amps no doubt, I guess my experience owning them was never too good, I'm picky.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Blues JR users...

mostly i'm looking at amps like the Blues JR as a substitute for my Classic 30 from time to time... just small tube amps to take to friends houses and get a somewhat good sound thru

 

[scottish]

Re: Blues JR users...

mostly i'm looking at amps like the Blues JR as a substitute for my Classic 30 from time to time... just small tube amps to take to friends houses and get a somewhat good sound thru

i havent used a lot of amps at all so im not sure exactly what to recommend you. I would say this about the BJ though if you want it for the above described:

if you are playing at fairly low, ie house, levels then it will sound ok as long as you plug into the amp and use the master volume/volume for any OD. I always found it very difficult to get great sounds out of the BJ using pedals at lower volumes. When it is cranked however, it seems to love pedals. Thats the way i use it, cranked as clean as i can get it with a decent pedal set up.

 

[skyking]

Re: Blues JR users...

I've had one of the tweed NOS BJs for 3 years now, bought it brand new and have liked it ever since getting it. I bought one of the deluxe reverb RI and right now i would keep the BJ over it. Both amps are stock but for some reason the deluxe doesnt like all of my OD pedals. It absolutely hates my twin tube in front of it but the BJ seems to take anything i put in front of it. I just turn the master volume all the way up on the BJ and just adjust the volume to taste. I play a tele through it and i really like it and have had no issues out of it unlike the deluxe. Only thing ive had to do was replace the preamp tubes in it.

 

[bungalowbill]

Re: Blues JR users...

Master pegged, volume at about 10-11:00.....Bass treble mid....season to taste... reverb off, along with an OD pedal or two and you have a gigworthy transportable rig.