to blues jr or not to blues jr - that is the question

ICBM

guitartango said:

I still have my BJ and yes it can be a little boxy and fizzy, but still a good little amp. I tend to place mine on a chair and with a good pedal can sound really good. If the amp is so crap then why does this man use one ?  http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/22310-noel-gallagher-high-flying-birdman?page=2

Because it's harder to get a crap sound out of an Orange or a Hiwatt?

johnhe said:

But the Blues Jnr is a really great sounding amp in the right hands. I personally don't like the stock speaker, and I think the amp would definitely sound get in a slightly large enclosure. But for what it is, I think it's a great sounding foundation amp for use with pedals.

i much preferred my old Blues Jnr(with a Celection G12H speaker) over an AC15 or thePeavey Classic 30 or Blues Deluxe I owned.

To be fair, The Edge also has one, although his is fitted with a Celestion Blue - as far as I've read he uses it exclusively for his slide sound. Sometimes, particular sounds which aren't good in isolation work well in a mix or when everything is mic'ed and going through a big PA.

I'm not a big fan of the AC15 (which I've owned one of) or the Peavey C30 (which I've worked on a lot of) either. I do like the Blues Deluxe though, to me it's everything the BJ should be but isn't. As you say, horses for courses.

Voxman

Hate them, sorry.  I've no idea as to why they seem to be so popular, but IMO they are just awful.  Boxy, fizzy, horrid distortion, lack-lustre lifeless cleans - yuk.  I can think of nothing nice to say about them.  Sorry to sit on the fence! 

scovell001

My friend has a black BJ MKIII tried it with my LP, what a boxy POS even with the bright switch.

Got a Bassbreaker 15 as a 'get me by' amp whilst I have a boutique built. The Bassbreaker 15 is everything the BJ should be, it really is an astonishing little amp for the money.

I recently learnt the fender amp 'trick'  bright switch off, mids on 6, treble on 6 bass on 3 - eq sorted !

Corvus

I'm not sold on them at all but a local band gigs with a pair of them and sound good, in a non-trad-Fendery way. Certainly no fizz or boxiness. I've no idea if modded or what. My boy gets some good sounds out of his with his lipstick Strat, nice cleans, filth with a Rat, I think he rolls the mids right out, makes it less 'congested'.
But I'd have an HRD or a BDRI (which I do), instead.

octatonic

Voxman said:

Hate them, sorry.  I've no idea as to why they seem to be so popular, but IMO they are just awful.  Boxy, fizzy, horrid distortion, lack-lustre lifeless cleans - yuk.  I can think of nothing nice to say about them.  Sorry to sit on the fence! 

IMHO because people don't often A/B them against better amps.
They fit into a price point quite nicely and they look the part.

I've had a few of them over the years, end up modding them and they did the job- wouldn't have one now, mind.

skaguitar

Are the modded ones any better..?...I'm thinking about the RAT mod in particular..?

matone

Plugged into mine after reading this thread ( which I hadn`t done for a couple of month) and it sounded good to me !
Ltd Ed Vintage 30 model . Sounds nice at house volume anyway.

EricTheWeary

octatonic said:

Voxman said:

Hate them, sorry.  I've no idea as to why they seem to be so popular, but IMO they are just awful.  Boxy, fizzy, horrid distortion, lack-lustre lifeless cleans - yuk.  I can think of nothing nice to say about them.  Sorry to sit on the fence! 

IMHO because people don't often A/B them against better amps.
They fit into a price point quite nicely and they look the part.

I think a lot of it is that they do tick a lot of boxes: look like a 'proper' Fender amp, hit the £500 price point ( if a bit over now), are valve, are small enough and light enough to carry about but loud enough to cope with some drummers ( and I don't think anyone is buying a Jr for heavy metal). Wether by accident or design someone at Fender hit upon the right formula to shift some boxes. 

ICBM

EricTheWeary said:

hit the £500 price point ( if a bit over now)

This is exactly what I don't understand - it's *not* that cheap an amp. Over £500 for a single-channel amp with at best a basic boost switch, no FX loop, average build quality and a sound most people seem to not really like even if they don't actively hate it, is no bargain.

But you can get a Blues or Hotrod Deluxe for under £700 - which is a vastly more capable 40W, two or nearly three-channel amp with an FX loop, better build quality, and better tone at any volume, and is really quite a bargain. OK it's another £150 or so, and is near enough twice the size and weight.

But you can also buy a second hand Blues or Hotrod in great condition for £400 or less, maybe up to £500 from a shop - still less than a new BJ. Unless you just can't physically lift a HRD or fit it into your room/car or whatever, why wouldn't you just buy the much better amp?

If the BJ was half the price of the Hotrod, I could maybe understand it...

cbilly22

ICBM said:

EricTheWeary said:

hit the £500 price point ( if a bit over now)

This is exactly what I don't understand - it's *not* that cheap an amp. Over £500 for a single-channel amp with at best a basic boost switch, no FX loop, average build quality and a sound most people seem to not really like even if they don't actively hate it, is no bargain.

But you can get a Blues or Hotrod Deluxe for under £700 - which is a vastly more capable 40W, two or nearly three-channel amp with an FX loop, better build quality, and better tone at any volume, and is really quite a bargain. OK it's another £150 or so, and is near enough twice the size and weight.

But you can also buy a second hand Blues or Hotrod in great condition for £400 or less, maybe up to £500 from a shop - still less than a new BJ. Unless you just can't physically lift a BJ or fit it into your room/car or whatever, why wouldn't you just buy the much better amp?

If the BJ was half the price of the Hotrod, I could maybe understand it...

Again, totally agree. If size and cost are the defining factors, with the plethora of quality drive pedals on the market a Pro Junior and your pedal of choice makes a far better option, providing of course you simple have to have a Fender.

You made me think about the HRDX again too, it really is a fantastic amp for all manner of applications, and certainly is quite a bargain all things considered.

colourofsound

Get yourself an old Laney LC15. I'm looking for one too; great amps.

cbilly22

colourofsound said:

Get yourself an old Laney LC15. I'm looking for one too; great amps.

I had the VC15 for ages and that was a belting little amp too.

Teetonetal

Voxman said:

Hate them, sorry.  I've no idea as to why they seem to be so popular, but IMO they are just awful.  Boxy, fizzy, horrid distortion, lack-lustre lifeless cleans - yuk.  I can think of nothing nice to say about them.  Sorry to sit on the fence! 

Couldn't agree more. Horrible little amps. 

EricTheWeary

cbilly22 said:

ICBM said:

EricTheWeary said:

hit the £500 price point ( if a bit over now)

This is exactly what I don't understand - it's *not* that cheap an amp. Over £500 for a single-channel amp with at best a basic boost switch, no FX loop, average build quality and a sound most people seem to not really like even if they don't actively hate it, is no bargain.

But you can get a Blues or Hotrod Deluxe for under £700 - which is a vastly more capable 40W, two or nearly three-channel amp with an FX loop, better build quality, and better tone at any volume, and is really quite a bargain. OK it's another £150 or so, and is near enough twice the size and weight.

But you can also buy a second hand Blues or Hotrod in great condition for £400 or less, maybe up to £500 from a shop - still less than a new BJ. Unless you just can't physically lift a BJ or fit it into your room/car or whatever, why wouldn't you just buy the much better amp?

If the BJ was half the price of the Hotrod, I could maybe understand it...

Again, totally agree. If size and cost are the defining factors, with the plethora of quality drive pedals on the market a Pro Junior and your pedal of choice makes a far better option, providing of course you simple have to have a Fender.

You made me think about the HRDX again too, it really is a fantastic amp for all manner of applications, and certainly is quite a bargain all things considered.

I think £500 is going to be a magic price point for a lot of people looking for a first 'serious' amp. Significantly less then it won't be seen as good enough, significantly more then it's seen as silly money.
 And the guitar mags/ fora/facebook all say a small valve amp driven into distortion is one of the holy grails of guitar sounds and it has a 12" speaker, the 10" in the Pro Jr just isn't seen as 'serious' enough ( for gigging; it's got to be able to gig with; even if it never makes it out off the bedroom).
And valve amps are notoriously unreliable aren't they  ( despite being so desirable)so it's safer to use all your money and buy a new one than scour the classifieds for a used one.  How it sounds is close to irrelevant ( it's a Blues Jr so you know it's not doing the heavy metal Marshall thing innit?). If you ignore how it actually sounds then it's the perfect purchase. 

skaguitar

skaguitar said:

Are the modded ones any better..?...I'm thinking about the RAT mod in particular..?

hello....?...anyone tried one of these...?

DannyP

Are the 15w Laney Cubs any good? They seem to go for peanuts on eBay...

ChrisCox1994

2nd hand bassbreaker, vox ac15, older marshall dsl401c - all better than the blues junior I feel.

ChrisCox1994

oh and peavey classic 30!

Laneys vc/lc 15/30 are good but i have heard horror stories of reliability - from laney endorsers even!

ChrisCox1994

skaguitar said:

skaguitar said:

Are the modded ones any better..?...I'm thinking about the RAT mod in particular..?

hello....?...anyone tried one of these...?

Yes: I am sitting next to it right now, had it on loan from a friend who I play with.

Its a noticeable improvement over the normal blues jr certainly, but still cant do clean like a deluxe or drive like a marshall, its a weird in-between amp. Fine for blues noodling but I didnt feel it was as versatile as a good clean amp with some choice pedals.

The footswichable boost and reverb are good though and the EQ is vastly improved, didnt notice too much change between the valve and solid state rectifier but i suppose its a nice feature to play with. 

Doesnt take drive pedals well, takes boosts/ts types ok - its probably more suited to a player who likes simplicity and likes to run a crunch tone then boost it for leads. 

The power reduction feature works well but sounds "starved" at high gain / low volume (home use volume) so i couldnt really see the point over a good master volume.

For £700 its getting dangerously close to 2nd hand Deluxe Reverb money which, after having both, I reckon is a superior amp. 

olafgarten

The problem with modding amps is that mods can make a decent amp into a good one but can never make it into an exceptional one, also by the time you've spent money on all the mods most of the time it costs as much as or even more than a better amp.