My Blues Jr. is coming tomorrow hopefully!

Looking forward to it. This'll be my third amp in like 6 months. Had a Crate Vintage Club 20, and I loved it (will probably get another one). Sold it, because I needed money. But damn, was pretty and sounded pretty (the one in my profile pic - it was classy). Then I got a Peavey "The Classic." It was older than dirt and looked it, but it was a fun little amp (well, it was a fun little 60 pound amp). Had no distortion though and blown speakers, so it had to go. And now we move on to the Blues Jr.! I'm hoping to be absolutely blown away, but we'll see. I don't have any experience with them, but if it's anything like the Hot Rod Deluxe, I'll like it. It's the black tolex, not the cream, which sucks.

So wish me luck! I'll post my opinions whenever it comes (hopefully tomorrow, maybe Wed. though).

Some interesting trivia for the 3 people that care: This amp was used to record many songs on Left Alone's new(ish) CD that came out last year. Elvis uses Marshall JCMs exclusively on stage, but uses small amps like this to record with. I think the CD has sold about 15,000 copies by now, which isn't too bad (certainly not Rancid numbers - but not terrible either for a little outfit from LA). Regardless, I got a good price from Elvis, and he isn't gonna be recording for another 18 months or so.
 
Re: My Blues Jr. is coming tomorrow hopefully!

Don't loan it to Bungalobill, unless you want it reliced with no tolex.

The Blues Jr. is a sweet little amp. I owned one for a while, very solid and toneful. If you thought the Hotrod Deluxe was good ( I owned one and could never get what I wanted out of it), you'll drool over the Jr. One of the coolest things is you can crank it to get that juicy tube distortion and not make your eardrums bleed.

I used to love to set it just at the point of breakup, where if you dug into the strings in started to growl nicely, or roll off the volume and have it clean up.....then goose it with a SD-1. Fun times.

I miss it every now and then.
 
Re: My Blues Jr. is coming tomorrow hopefully!

I think those little guys sound great cranked. You can get some of those great tones from Aerosmith's first album with it. Pretty tasty. Enjoy...and post some clips!

- Keith
 
Re: My Blues Jr. is coming tomorrow hopefully!

I wish you luck! haha. the Blues Jr. is an amazing amp. i LOVE mine, and I'm sure you will enjoy yours as well.

Rock on ~ Kac
 
Re: My Blues Jr. is coming tomorrow hopefully!

You didn't say, but I'm assuming this is a new one, i.e. a "whiteboard" version, in which case you should be happy. The older greenboards had some problems, primarily due to an idiotic reverb circuit that Fender eventually redesigned after being publicly hassled by enough people, me included. :grumble:

Bill Machrone is the real Blues Jr. guru and a good guy.
 
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Re: My Blues Jr. is coming tomorrow hopefully!

I LOVE MY BLUES Jr. too . . .


When you get it, max the vol. and put a Boss BD-2 infront of it, and turn the gain to 3 o'clock . . . oh the sweet sweet music !!!
 
Re: My Blues Jr. is coming tomorrow hopefully!

Thanks a lot guys! Looking forward to it. They deliver the mail usually around 3 (so in like 45 minutes), so we'll see. It was mailed last Friday 2 day priority, from only 300 miles away (from home down in LA). So I'm assuming it'd be here today.

I can't wait to hear it. I REALLY want to crank it, but I have 5 people under me, and 5 people next door (although we don't share a wall). I might be able to turn it up high for like 5 minutes max.

I'm also stoked, because this will be the first time my Gibby is put through a decent amp. It's been running through a very bad SS practice amp (which isn't even mine) because I was ampless for the last few months. I would rather have a CC or 59 or soething like that in the bridge rather than a Super Distortion, but what can you do?

Lastly, there's no way I can post clips! I don't own a mic. Sorry guys. I also suck big ones when I try to record anything.

Anyways, later! Thanks.
 
Re: My Blues Jr. is coming tomorrow hopefully!

Yeah I saw that topic about bill's Blues Jr. Bill, I would let you borrow it if I was gonna keep it, some aging might be nice. But considering I need to sell it, it should probably be in near mint.

And technically it did come today, but the post office guy didn't try to deliver it. We live in a complex, and he put a slip in my box (instead of trying to bring it to my apartment). Sucks. So I gotta go to the post office tomorrow.
 
Re: My Blues Jr. is coming tomorrow hopefully!

So it came today! Got lots of pros, and a few cons. Mostly though, I really like this amp. It will be gone in about a month (I've made that decision) but I will enjoy it very much in that time. It is barely ahead of the Vintage Club 20 for my favorite amp I've ever owned.

Some Cons:
  • Even at relatively low volumes, the speaker rattles when you apply bass (a very tiny rattle, but noticeable nonetheless). It really is a tiny rattle, just bothersome.
  • If you apply a fair amount of low end, the amp gets slightly muddy. I attribute some of this to using a Les Paul, and some to using a DMZ, but in general it could be slightly chimy-er. I don't have any single coils here, so I can't A-B it.
  • No FX loop.

Pros:
  • The tone is pretty fantastic (for the money of course). The cleans are very nice, and the dirty sounds a ot better than most 'clean/blues' amps.
  • Fat Switch works a LOT better than I'd anticipated. I figured it would sound cheap and tacked on, but it sounds like you really could use it.
  • Reverb is really very very good.
  • Amp is a LOUD 15 watts. Louder than the Crate V1215. MUCH louder than my old Vintage Club 20. Also much louder than my 20 watt 'The Classic.'
  • When you get the tubes just barely breaking up (like jeff said), the amp sound sweet! I'm loving that. I would LOVE to have a Guv'nor right now, but no $$$.
  • Tone Controls are very responsive, and work as they should.
 
Re: My Blues Jr. is coming tomorrow hopefully!

I tend to use that amp a lot. It sounds good (I have the greenboard version) though I like it with a 12AY7 in V1. It takes pedals great. It is pretty light, and the reverb is not bad.

Just watch out for the input jack though. It is plastic and breaks with a bit of a bump. I had mine replaced once so far, as has a friend of mine with his. We are pretty careful and it still happened.
 
Re: My Blues Jr. is coming tomorrow hopefully!

Thanks for the tips dude!

Just a bit of coolness: I was messing around with it today, and I absolutely nailed the Dramarama sound (which is probably no big achievement, but regardless it made my day). You know the song Anything Anything? Identical sound!

Anyways, I know that's kindof lame, but regardless it made me happy.
 
Re: My Blues Jr. is coming tomorrow hopefully!

That amp should just be pimp-slapped like a cheap ho by that SuperD. Are you feelin' the SuperD through that? Should really be able to set it so you get a great push from the pup into OD...
 
Re: My Blues Jr. is coming tomorrow hopefully!

I know all about pushin' BJr's into overdrive with high output... :)
 
Re: My Blues Jr. is coming tomorrow hopefully!

That amp should just be pimp-slapped like a cheap ho by that SuperD. Are you feelin' the SuperD through that? Should really be able to set it so you get a great push from the pup into OD...

I'm really not digging the PAF at all, but the Super D is really good. I would love a great OD pedal right now, it'd probably sound phenomenal. The Blues Jr. itself doesn't have too much crunch, but I bet you could OD these tubes like crazy (moreso if they weren't EL84s - not my favorite tubes).

But yeah, I do like the Super D. Very articulate.
 
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