Robert Delahunt
Showmasterologist
All,
I have been using my Fender Pro Junior here at Kunsan air base, and with great results. Good cleans, and a punchy attitude. I love it.
However, the only problem I'm running into is that it's (ironically) too loud. Sounds impossible, I know, but somehow it's true. I play in a chapel that could seat maybe 200-300 people, and the "stage" or "platform" area is small. I close mic my Pro Junior and have to use the -15dB setting on the Shure KSM57. My volume rarely if ever gets past 1.5 (1 being off). I never get it high enough for the amp to distort (which is fine because I have a Boss ME-50). I'm just surprised at how loud and ballsy it is.
My friend (see a recent thread I made) bought an Epiphone Valve Junior. I didn't like these, personally, because the distortion was so fuzzy. However, he uses his at clean volumes and actually gets good sound from it. I'm not envious of the tone, but I am a bit envious of how he can get more lower volume headroom than I can. On my amp, I turn up the volume until the tubes have room to breathe, and that's at 1.5, and that's almost too loud. On his, he can get the tubes to breathe at lower volumes. The problem mainly is that at above 1.5, the singers are going deaf.
I have read of mods to Fender Pro Juniors that remove hiss and/or hum. That's not the issue here, but it's the overall volume level. I can't afford to do the "clean mod" on mine, nor are there competent amp technicians around here in South Korea (language barrier). What I want is a "half amp" mod. I tried selectively removing tubes and moving them around but I could not get the amp to run on "half" of its power that way (it was a rumor I heard, and I wanted to try it to see if it was true).
Does anyone know of a good, non-destructive, non-permanent way to make the amp lower power? I love it for all out rock, but in the setting I am normally playing in, it's (ironically) too loud at times. The other things I have tried like running the ME-50 output at lower levels, volume knob adjustments on guitar, etc, have all seemed to help some, but the resulting tone isn't as good.
I'm not rich so the mod will have to be affordable. I can rewire military aircraft so I can do most fabrication and/or temporary mods. I just don't want to do anything permanent to the amp. Please let me know if you guys happen to know of a way to do this. Thanks!
I have been using my Fender Pro Junior here at Kunsan air base, and with great results. Good cleans, and a punchy attitude. I love it.
However, the only problem I'm running into is that it's (ironically) too loud. Sounds impossible, I know, but somehow it's true. I play in a chapel that could seat maybe 200-300 people, and the "stage" or "platform" area is small. I close mic my Pro Junior and have to use the -15dB setting on the Shure KSM57. My volume rarely if ever gets past 1.5 (1 being off). I never get it high enough for the amp to distort (which is fine because I have a Boss ME-50). I'm just surprised at how loud and ballsy it is.
My friend (see a recent thread I made) bought an Epiphone Valve Junior. I didn't like these, personally, because the distortion was so fuzzy. However, he uses his at clean volumes and actually gets good sound from it. I'm not envious of the tone, but I am a bit envious of how he can get more lower volume headroom than I can. On my amp, I turn up the volume until the tubes have room to breathe, and that's at 1.5, and that's almost too loud. On his, he can get the tubes to breathe at lower volumes. The problem mainly is that at above 1.5, the singers are going deaf.
I have read of mods to Fender Pro Juniors that remove hiss and/or hum. That's not the issue here, but it's the overall volume level. I can't afford to do the "clean mod" on mine, nor are there competent amp technicians around here in South Korea (language barrier). What I want is a "half amp" mod. I tried selectively removing tubes and moving them around but I could not get the amp to run on "half" of its power that way (it was a rumor I heard, and I wanted to try it to see if it was true).
Does anyone know of a good, non-destructive, non-permanent way to make the amp lower power? I love it for all out rock, but in the setting I am normally playing in, it's (ironically) too loud at times. The other things I have tried like running the ME-50 output at lower levels, volume knob adjustments on guitar, etc, have all seemed to help some, but the resulting tone isn't as good.
I'm not rich so the mod will have to be affordable. I can rewire military aircraft so I can do most fabrication and/or temporary mods. I just don't want to do anything permanent to the amp. Please let me know if you guys happen to know of a way to do this. Thanks!
