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Post subject: New Cab Day for my Blues Junior III
Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 6:46 pm
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Got a new oversized cabinet for my Blues Junior III it's the same size as a Hot Rod Deluxe, man it makes such a difference. Plenty of low end punch and added depth and the projected sound is much better than the original cab, cab is all Pine and believe the baffle is Birch. The amp has a few Billm mods in it plus a larger MOD Reverb Tank, the Friedman BE-OD sounds killer with the new cab its sound huge for 15 watts!

Bought this from http://carlscustomguitars.com/Dovetailed-Pine-Cabinets_c4.htm and had it in less than 2 weeks!

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Last edited by J.LaGrassa on Wed Oct 05, 2016 4:31 am, edited 6 times in total.

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Post subject: Re: New Cab Day for my Blues Junior III
Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 8:50 pm
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looks great!


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Post subject: Re: New Cab Day for my Blues Junior III
Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 9:58 pm
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Rawk on!

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Post subject: Re: New Cab Day for my Blues Junior III
Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 1:55 am
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+1!

That's pretty quick service as well.

8)

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: New Cab Day for my Blues Junior III
Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 4:22 am
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Looks great. A bigger cab really does help the BJr open up, with the Billm mods and that bigger cab you'd be tapping into a lot of potential from the amp that Fender left sitting on the table.


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Post subject: Re: New Cab Day for my Blues Junior III
Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 12:21 pm
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No457 Snowy wrote:
Looks great. A bigger cab really does help the BJr open up, with the Billm mods and that bigger cab you'd be tapping into a lot of potential from the amp that Fender left sitting on the table.


+1

I don't understand how FMIC missed that.

:shock:

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Post subject: Re: New Cab Day for my Blues Junior III
Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 7:43 pm
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Retroverbial wrote:
No457 Snowy wrote:
Looks great. A bigger cab really does help the BJr open up, with the Billm mods and that bigger cab you'd be tapping into a lot of potential from the amp that Fender left sitting on the table.


+1

I don't understand how FMIC missed that.

:shock:

Arjay


They missed it because they are more worried about marketing than producing great products and then letting them be marketed on their greatness!

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Post subject: Re: New Cab Day for my Blues Junior III
Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2016 10:10 pm
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T2Stratman wrote:
They missed it because they are more worried about marketing than producing great products and then letting them be marketed on their greatness!


I'm sure marketing and the customer niche it was aimed at played a major role in the amp's design. Likely some Gen-Xer mandated that it had to be small enough to fit into the back seat of a Yugo while leaving sufficient room for a cased guitar and a pedal board.

:mrgreen:

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: New Cab Day for my Blues Junior III
Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 6:08 am
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Nice looking amp you got there!


Personally .....
I've never thought the Blues Jr sounded Boxy ... I think this is a misnomer. Due to the size of the cab the sound gets beamed and has a narrow focus. Even at low volumes, just sit across the room facing a Blues Jr and tell me again if it sounds boxy.. (It doesn't) Standing/sitting on top of it.. yes. And people get confused as to what the amp is supposed to do... Being part of the Hot Rod series.. its a working man's amp (Which means it really sounds best at a working volume) People buy this amp thinking its a practice amp.. Not. I have a heavily Moded Blues JR (Billm's & after market PT, Reverb tank CRex speaker) Love it.. Yet IMO it still doesn't sound that far off from a standard Blues JR. (Tone stack is what it is.... and El84's are what they are.....

Even Stock at a working volume the BJr sounds darn good! (IMO......)

Mass producing finger joined birch or pine cabs is "Extremely" hard to do while staying consistent with the sound and quality. Which is why Fender uses either MDF or Birch plywood.. In a mass producing context : both mediums actually are very consistent, stable and durable "Mediums" (i.e. materials) that are seriously rated favourably in the speaker world (outside of the amp making world) Some of your most expensive sound systems out there employ MDF or some form of plywood as their medium.

So MDF or Birch Plywood construction actually shouldn't be viewed in a Negative light. (Not by any means!)

Is Finger joined cabs better? Yes... for guitar amps. But by how much? That question is hard to answer because it depends on the amp, size of cab and speaker (A whole lot of variables are in play) The finger joints have nothing to do with the sound and are for cosmetics only, the soft woods like birch or pine are what effects the sound resulting in a warmer and more lively sound. (not always though.. some of the hazards in trying to mass produce finger joined cabs out of soft woods: a lot of time these woods produce dead tones. (picture a whole batch of cabs that sound flat..) or Finger joints like to expand/swell if not done correctly... Talk about a possible return policy nightmare...

Cab makers have done serious test and found a lot of positives in using MDF and plywood : they are very consistent sound wise, deliver a quality sound, joints don't swell or float, and are very durable (not being of a soft wood like birch or pine)

A lot of people have gotten it wrong on MDF and plywood cabs.


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Post subject: Re: New Cab Day for my Blues Junior III
Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 11:58 am
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Back when I had a Blues Junior, it sounded boxy to me regardless of where I was listening from.
I bought it primarily for it's small size and relatively light weight.
Mine was a cream board model. I did all the tone-pertinent Bill M mods that were available at the time, which only about a fifth of what he has available today. He had other mods at that time but none of them seemed to be of any use to me personally. I did the bias trim pots, O/T swap and the tone stack. I swapped out the speaker to a few different choices and tried various combinations of tube complement, both power and preamp. It helped but it still wasn't enough. If Carl had been building his over-sized cabs back then I would have tried it. In the end I ended up getting something else.

As with all things in life, what is great to me might be shyte to you and vise-versa.

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Post subject: Re: New Cab Day for my Blues Junior III
Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 2:11 pm
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BMW-KTM wrote:
Back when I had a Blues Junior, it sounded boxy to me regardless of where I was listening from.


The larger (and more resonant) pine cab puts far more "fat" into the BJr's tone than the control panel's so-called fat switch. With the bigger box, a better speaker, and a few of BillM's tastier mods, it almost sounds Fender-y.

:wink:

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: New Cab Day for my Blues Junior III
Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 8:44 pm
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+1 Arjay.
I've done similar to my old Bjr, (converted to Head format) and running it into a bigger cab opens the tone up big time. Also, a tip for users, cranking the Master to 12 and leaving it there and then using the "Volume" knob just like a traditional old non-master fender, running it clean and using pedals for OD duty allows the amp to breathe instead of sounding choked and nasally, cleans up and opens up the tone (like a Fender).


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Post subject: Re: New Cab Day for my Blues Junior III
Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 10:16 pm
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No457 Snowy wrote:
+1 Arjay.
I've done similar to my old Bjr, (converted to Head format) and running it into a bigger cab opens the tone up big time. Also, a tip for users, cranking the Master to 12 and leaving it there and then using the "Volume" knob just like a traditional old non-master fender, running it clean and using pedals for OD duty allows the amp to breathe instead of sounding choked and nasally, cleans up and opens up the tone (like a Fender).


+1

Used in that manner I've heard some pretty convincing Vox tones from the amp, especially with a Rick 330 or a Gretsch. I believe it's the inherent nature of the EL84 output stage.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: New Cab Day for my Blues Junior III
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 4:50 am
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No457 Snowy wrote:
+1 Arjay.
I've done similar to my old Bjr, (converted to Head format) and running it into a bigger cab opens the tone up big time. Also, a tip for users, cranking the Master to 12 and leaving it there and then using the "Volume" knob just like a traditional old non-master fender, running it clean and using pedals for OD duty allows the amp to breathe instead of sounding choked and nasally, cleans up and opens up the tone (like a Fender).



Agree, I set the amp anywhere from 12:00 to 2:00 on the Master volume and 10-12:00 on the preamp volume and its stays very clean and punchy. All my OD/Dist is from my Friedman BE-OD pedal and I still have enough headroom to use a clean boost for leads. The larger cabinet adds dimension and girth to the BJ which I find is more important in a band context.


Last edited by J.LaGrassa on Mon Sep 12, 2016 9:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: New Cab Day for my Blues Junior III
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 5:18 am
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Hope it's OK to post in this thread, I've posted this pic before, the BJr Head that Fender never made, the Texas Heat loaded cab actually belongs to one of my other amps, so I can mix-n-match.
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