Blues Jr.

[antichef]

There's a Fender Blues Jr (not the tweed variety that I've heard of but not seen) at a nearby pawn shop up for $350 - not sure if they'll come down or not, but is this in the neighborhood of a good price? It's visually in good condition, but I haven't tried playing through it. I think it said it was made in Mexico.

My son and I stopped at GC and played through one - sounded pretty good! They wanted $480 for a new one.

I *still* don't have power at my house since Hurricane Ike (using a battery powered laptop bluetooth-tethered through my treo smartphone right now), so it's not like I can snag it, run home, and plug it in (well, I can plug it in, I guess), but I wonder how long it'll be there.

 

[eyema_believer]

There's a Fender Blues Jr (not the tweed variety that I've heard of but not seen) at a nearby pawn shop up for $350 - not sure if they'll come down or not, but is this in the neighborhood of a good price? It's visually in good condition, but I haven't tried playing through it. I think it said it was made in Mexico.

My son and I stopped at GC and played through one - sounded pretty good! They wanted $480 for a new one.

I *still* don't have power at my house since Hurricane Ike (using a battery powered laptop bluetooth-tethered through my treo smartphone right now), so it's not like I can snag it, run home, and plug it in (well, I can plug it in, I guess), but I wonder how long it'll be there.

Chef,

I played through a Blues Jr for 2 years. I was at GC about to pay for an upgrade, a Hotrod Dlx, when the salesman suggested I try the Crate V-Series amp before I did. Not only was it cheaper, it sounded like twice the amp as the Fender. You can get the 15 watt on blowout from MF for $149 right now. http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/...112-18W-1x12-Tube-Guitar-Combo-Amp?sku=487051
And in case you missed the clip of my Crate on the "Crate" thread, here it is: http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?id=14679

Peace!

~Shawn

 

[MattNZ]

I played through a Blues Jr for 2 years. I was at GC about to pay for an upgrade, a Hotrod Dlx, when the salesman suggested I try the Crate V-Series amp before I did. Not only was it cheaper, it sounded like twice the amp as the Fender. You can get the 15 watt on blowout from MF for $149 right now. http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/p...Amp?sku=487051
And in case you missed the clip of my Crate on the "Crate" thread, here it is: http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?id=14679

That's a ridiculous price for a tube amp!

If I was in the States I'd buy one!

Nice playing too.

 

[darrin_h2000]

I agree there...I picked the crate up for 50 bucks at a pawn broker....and I use it in an isolation cabinet...with a sansamp GT2 ...it is designed for Harp though...but it reminds me of the sound of those old supro amps that Jimmy page used on the first 5 Zeppelin records.

 

[lpdeluxe]

I like the Blues Jr, and I'll bet it will hold its value pretty well, being a Fender. There are also some easier and relatively inexpensive mods for the Jr that make it an excellent sounding amp (the $18 Weber Beam Blocker and the $32 Ruby Reverb).

I have the Hot Rod BJ NOS with the tweed covering. Mine has the Ruby Reverb mod but not the Weber piece...haven't gotten around to it yet. This model comes with a Jensen speaker, which everyone seems to agree sounds better than the Fender, but online reviews of the Beam Blocker (specifically naming the BJ) say it improves the sound to point where there's no need to change out the speaker.

It's a great amp, and, with 15 watts, crankable.

 

[WhiteStrat]

I'm not dissin' the Crate mentioned above (in fact, I'm gonna check it out now! ) But I recently got a Blues Jr. used (about 4-5 yrs old) for right at $350. And the reverb is broken. Not a biggie, since I've heard that the reverb on the Blues Jr. isn't up to par with a classic Fender 'verb--and I've got a Holy Grail reverb pedal that I love.

But I love the amp. I had nothing in the way of a simple Fender style tube amp, so maybe I was easily impressed, but this thing brings my Strat with vintage overwoud pups to life. I'm thrilled with the purchase...

 

[antichef]

thanks -- I'll check out the Crate, too. I do have a number of small tube amps (including a couple of early sixties Gibson Skylarks, and a mid-sixties Epiphone EL-84 based one), and the Blues Jr. sounded different enough from those to warrant consideration. I'll probably have to try hard to stay away from that shop

 

[daav]

As a cronic craigslist-scanner $350 is a pretty typical for a blues junior used. $300 is a good bargain, and under $300 is rare but a great deal .

Daav

 

[antichef]

I broke down and went for it - $300 even (cash), which works out to about $277 + tax (edit: or $300 on craigslist, I guess)

I couldn't do too much with it in the shop - tested it with a couple crappy guitars. Everything seemed to work as expected. Looks pretty stock, with an unmarked reverb tank, fender speaker, and Sovtek 12AX7s and EL84s. Can't wait to put it through its paces!!!!

 

[elenore19]

I broke down and went for it - $300 even (cash), which works out to about $277 + tax.

I couldn't do too much with it in the shop - tested it with a couple crappy guitars. Everything seemed to work as expected. Looks pretty stock, with an unmarked reverb tank, fender speaker, and Sovtek 12AX7s and EL84s. Can't wait to put it through its paces!!!!

Nice buy!
Wish I had money to consider another amp.
I might even want to get one of those crates...Too bad I don't have the dough.

 

[eyema_believer]

I broke down and went for it - $300 even (cash), which works out to about $277 + tax (edit: or $300 on craigslist, I guess)

I couldn't do too much with it in the shop - tested it with a couple crappy guitars. Everything seemed to work as expected. Looks pretty stock, with an unmarked reverb tank, fender speaker, and Sovtek 12AX7s and EL84s. Can't wait to put it through its paces!!!!

Yay!!!!
I can't wait til you and your girls make a sweet recording featuring the Jr!!

 

[rayc]

We get none of those deals downunder. The little Epi that's been about lately is around $450 and the stuff you folk are talking about is WAY beyond fair & reasonable.
A good example - when I bought my Epi Sheraton 2 guitar after a theft the asking price was $2100.oo (that's when our dollar bought about US$0.87). The knock down for the insurance company brought it to $1100 (such cons insurance companies manage with suppliers). These prices were from a bulk sales store so the prices elsewhere were much higher. Import taxes duties and GST certainly up the price - with a lttle gouging as well.
To put it mildly we're poorly served in the antipodes.

 

[antichef]

rayc - sounds like an opportunity to start an aussie amp company!

The Blues Jr. is one of the later "tan circuit board" units, as opposed to the earlier green board ones -- you can see the PCB color on the tube sockets. After dusting and wiping, it's in near-pristine physical shape. My son and I got a chance to plug in with one guitar at home, but so far not with our "primary" axes (with the pickups that we like). School night, you know.

I *love* the clean and slightly dirty sound -- to my ears right now, it's the the fender amp sound that has always been out of reach for me. At this point, I'm not so enthusiastic about the preamp saturation -- when the "volume" (as opposed to the master) is turned up past 3 or 4, that is. I have not yet been able to crank the master and push the power tubes (I've had generally bad luck soaking new Sovtek EL84s anyway - most go farty sounding in my experience). I do not identify any ice-pick-in-the-ear problems.

I've never been a fan of reverb on amps, but I'm trying to get over that. This means I don't have much of an opinion about the reverb on the amp -- at low levels, it sounds kind of cool to me. I'm already reading about the Ruby reverb tank upgrade, but more out of curiosity that identified need.

I dug through our tube repository and found two old RCA EL84s that may be in serviceable shape -- I'll try those. I found only one spare JJ EL84, but I can pull another one from one of my other amps. I found two (but not three!) of the new Tung-Sol 12AX7s - I can probably cannibalize another amp for the third. Or, perhaps I can do some research and discover that all three don't directly affect the sound.

I have a hard time getting nice old 12AX7s around here - they all get bought up. I've got a bunch of old 12AT7s and a couple 12AU7s that I might try.

Since I've got POWER BACK ON AT MY HOUSE (!!woohooo!!after 2.5 weeks of darkness), I may be able to do some A/B/C clips with different tubes this weekend.

 

[WhiteStrat]

rayc - sounds like an opportunity to start an aussie amp company!

The Blues Jr. is one of the later "tan circuit board" units, as opposed to the earlier green board ones -- you can see the PCB color on the tube sockets. After dusting and wiping, it's in near-pristine physical shape. My son and I got a chance to plug in with one guitar at home, but so far not with our "primary" axes (with the pickups that we like). School night, you know.

I *love* the clean and slightly dirty sound -- to my ears right now, it's the the fender amp sound that has always been out of reach for me. At this point, I'm not so enthusiastic about the preamp saturation -- when the "volume" (as opposed to the master) is turned up past 3 or 4, that is. I have not yet been able to crank the master and push the power tubes (I've had generally bad luck soaking new Sovtek EL84s anyway - most go farty sounding in my experience). I do not identify any ice-pick-in-the-ear problems.

I've never been a fan of reverb on amps, but I'm trying to get over that. This means I don't have much of an opinion about the reverb on the amp -- at low levels, it sounds kind of cool to me. I'm already reading about the Ruby reverb tank upgrade, but more out of curiosity that identified need.

I dug through our tube repository and found two old RCA EL84s that may be in serviceable shape -- I'll try those. I found only one spare JJ EL84, but I can pull another one from one of my other amps. I found two (but not three!) of the new Tung-Sol 12AX7s - I can probably cannibalize another amp for the third. Or, perhaps I can do some research and discover that all three don't directly affect the sound.

I have a hard time getting nice old 12AX7s around here - they all get bought up. I've got a bunch of old 12AT7s and a couple 12AU7s that I might try.

Since I've got POWER BACK ON AT MY HOUSE (!!woohooo!!after 2.5 weeks of darkness), I may be able to do some A/B/C clips with different tubes this weekend.

Congrats antichef! I was just playing through my new (used, but new to me) Blues Jr. last night. I realized that since I bought it I hadn't tried any other guitars with it--just the Strat. So I tried a couple. Found I liked my semi-hollow pretty much, but the Strat still feels like a match made in heaven for the Blues Jr.

One thought on the reverb upgrade: my reverb circuit was dead when I got it, and I needed a reverb pedal for another amp, so instead of fixing or upgrading the 'verb on the Blues Jr., I got a Holy Grail pedal--there's three: a basic, a middle and a top end. I got the one in the middle (supposed to be quieter than the original, basic model). And I just love it. It's got more options than a built in reverb and sounds great. And I can use it with other amps. So depending on the cost of the upgrade you're considering, you might want to look at that pedal.

Enjoy!

 

[lpdeluxe]

Since I've got POWER BACK ON AT MY HOUSE (!!woohooo!!after 2.5 weeks of darkness), I may be able to do some A/B/C clips with different tubes this weekend.

Man! I lost power for 5 days and it was a major difficulty. The last time it happened (Rita) I discovered I could go volunteer at the local evacuee center, serve food for an hour, then eat myself -- without having to scrounge food that I could cook with gas or finding ice.

Glad you're back up.

I finally installed the Weber Beam Blocker on the Jr, and it improved things, although not as dramatically as the Pignose G40V I put one on.

 

[zazz]

i love my blues junior ...it has a good basic tone which i consider a perfect canvas for additional effects such as outboard reverb.

 

[antichef]

I put some Tung Sols 12AX7s in it, and now it sounds better when I turn up the preamp. I went to put my old RCA EL-84s in it, but when I pulled out the Groove Tube Sovteks, I noticed they the labeling was scorched on both of them! I had read about the amps being biased really hot, and I don't want to fry my old RCAs, so I stopped.

Has anyone here put in bias trimpots or merely changed the resistor that sets the bias in order to cool things down? I'm leaning toward just switching the resistor at first.

 

[lpdeluxe]

I put some Tung Sols 12AX7s in it, and now it sounds better when I turn up the preamp. I went to put my old RCA EL-84s in it, but when I pulled out the Groove Tube Sovteks, I noticed they the labeling was scorched on both of them! I had read about the amps being biased really hot, and I don't want to fry my old RCAs, so I stopped.

Has anyone here put in bias trimpots or merely changed the resistor that sets the bias in order to cool things down? I'm leaning toward just switching the resistor at first.

BillM's website offers some suggestions for lowering the bias on the BJ.

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

 

[antichef]

BillM's website offers some suggestions for lowering the bias on the BJ.

Yes! I'm going to start by just changing that one resistor, although I did pick up some trim pots. I think I'm going to try some of the other mods, too. Just now I recorded a test track with three different guitars, so I can reamp and record through each change. Hope to do that tomorrow, and I'll post with sound files.

 

[antichef]

Alright, I suck - I had such hum problems trying to run the amp when it was taken apart that I realized I'd have to completely reassemble it in order to get each progressive sound sample, so I just went wild with the soldering iron.

I drained the power filter capacitors -- I think I did it right, and I'm still here to post . Then I did the fixed bias mod (using a 30k metal film resistor to replace the 22k one in R52), the "twin stack" mod (jumpering part of the mids pot on the back), and the "tone stack" mod (replacing two capacitors with higher values). It was a lot easier than working on my ART Tube MP. I put some JJ EL-84s in it, and completed the set of Tung-Sol 12AX7s (even though I read that only V1 and V2 affect the sound, and that V3 is just a phase inverter -- but I can't tell which ones are which!)

I also earned my custom user title of "I'm an idiot." -- I tried firing the thing up without plugging back in the output transformer completely (too many interruptions around here ) - the green cable was plugged in, the red cable was in the air, and the brown cable was (gulp) touching the chassis -- spark, and then nothing - blew the 2 amp fuse. I got another 2 amp fuse at Autozone down the street (actually a whole box, since I might need'em ).

Anyway, new fuse and I'm luckily back in action - the amp sounded very good before (and might have been perfect for someone who didn't have a JCM-800 half stack sitting next to it), but now it seems louder, it is cleaner and crisper, and to my ears, more Fender-y, which is awesome!

I've still got the mics set up, but the wife and kids are home, so I can't really record -- if I can trick them into leaving, I'll make a track or two and post.