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Post subject: Blues Jr. Confusion
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:03 am
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I bought a blues jr (black, but I really wanted the blonde) this past Friday. It's sitting in my truck to be returned tonight after work. I can hear the tone and fullness is better then my GDEC30 watt, but how much is where I'm not sure. I got it for 20% off, but my $$ is not unlimited and I'm not sure if my money could be spent elsewhere for better things. I can get my GDEC to sound very close to the BJ and the BJ cannot get a very good clean. IMHO

What am I missing with this amp, I just looked at reveiws again and all you read is praise on the tone. Do I need pedals? Is this the problem with tube amps at lower volumes, does it need to be cranked more to get that creamy sound?

I would really like to hear some advice, I'm not completely ready to return it, but it's close.

Thanks

CJL


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:07 am
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Location: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA
Hello CJL,

Blues jrs. aren't for everybody but I suppose no single
amp is, thats why there are so many models out there.
For me the jr is where it's at, when I want more sterile
clean I use a frontman 25r. Neither of these amps is a
end all, sometime down the line I may see something
else I like. I'd return the amp if I were experiencing
your feelings, no real point in keeping it in hopes you
may like it better someday.

Cheers.


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Post subject: Re: Blues Jr. Confusion
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:38 am
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CJL wrote:

What am I missing with this amp, I just looked at reveiws again and all you read is praise on the tone....


You're not missing a thing: you're just one of the few that decided to judge the BJrs on its actual sound and not the way it looks or the Internet echo chamber.

Truth is, the Blues Jr. is a pretty unimpressive amp. designed to sell for an attractive price (no, I won't say "price point" because I actually know what they phrase means, and it isn't a smarter way of saying "price") to a given segment of the market, and that's about it. It doesn't sign, it's not responsive to playing style, and all the mods in the world aren't worth the trouble.

I know, I owned one, and after changing the speaker and the tubes I came to my senses (thankfully before I started spending more time and money trying to turn it into something) and realized the amp just didn't sound good.

The reason you read all that praise is that the Blues Jr. is often one's first tube amp, purchased online by a relatively inexperienced player (no, that's not an insult, I just mean a player who does not have stage and studio experience with a wide range of tube amps). These players tend to listen with their eyes.


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Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:57 am
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Do you have any suggestions on another amp? Perhaps an external cabinet for my GDEC?

No insult to me, and your right, if I had more time on the guitar I would probably not have to ask the questions in the first place.

I did an A/B comparison with my family where they could not see which amp I was playing. Most of the time they picked the correct amp, either the DEC or the jr. But if I adjusted the GDEC to simulate a BJr. by cranking the GDEC reverb and increasing the Bass, I would stump them, they would really need to pay attention to pick the correct amp. One thing they did say, is they could feel the BJ as if the sound was pushing the air much better, mor full sound.

Maybe I need a tube screamer.

CJL


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Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:03 am
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Nope. You need a tweed circuit. A tweed Champ, Princeton or Deluxe (5E3) stype amp will give you what you're looking for... an amp that repsonds to picking attack, that gets thick and dirty when you turn up your guitar and cleans up when you roll the volume back. These amps do naturally what a Tube Screamer is emulating.

That's if you're looking for blues-y tones. If you want sparkling, complicated cleans and classic rock grind at higher volumes, the '65 Reissue Deluxe Reverb (DRRI) is the amp. At 22 watts, a DRRI isn't much louder than a Blues Jr. but it's 10 times the tone.

IMO, of course.


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Post subject: Re: Blues Jr. Confusion
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:08 pm
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CJL wrote:
I bought a blues jr (black, but I really wanted the blonde) this past Friday. It's sitting in my truck to be returned tonight after work. I can hear the tone and fullness is better then my GDEC30 watt, but how much is where I'm not sure. I got it for 20% off, but my $$ is not unlimited and I'm not sure if my money could be spent elsewhere for better things. I can get my GDEC to sound very close to the BJ and the BJ cannot get a very good clean. IMHO

What am I missing with this amp, I just looked at reveiws again and all you read is praise on the tone. Do I need pedals? Is this the problem with tube amps at lower volumes, does it need to be cranked more to get that creamy sound?

I would really like to hear some advice, I'm not completely ready to return it, but it's close.

Thanks

CJL



Try this. For crunchy OD, dime the Volume. For Fender cleans, adjust the Volume up from 0 until you can start to hear it. In either scenario, adjust the Master to what you can bear. Alot of guys get screwed up by amps with Volume and Master knobs because they don't understand how they work.

The BJr can get a nice variety of tones and cover most anything from Blues -> Classic Rock, but if Metal or Shred is your thing, then you'll need a Bad Monkey or some other stompbox in front of the amp to get the distortion that you want.

I'll be the first to admit that the BJr platform is not the best design. It certainly has its weak points, but it can produce some very nice tube tones.

Good luck!


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:22 pm
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The Blues Jr. has a lot of potential. I have $800 worth of upgrades (custom 2x12 cabinet, speakers, and tubes) done to my $400 Blues Jr.
Was it worth it? I think so. I am extremely happy with the results and everybody that plays/hears it is amazed at how good it sounds.

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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:49 pm
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I'm going to hold onto it for a couple more days to understand what I want before returning it. The only pedals I have was a BOSS HEavy Metal and a DOD metal, so they both sounded like distortion with the BJ. Maybe I need to invest in better pedal such as the new Fender Boss ones.


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 3:53 pm
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CJL wrote:
I'm going to hold onto it for a couple more days to understand what I want before returning it. The only pedals I have was a BOSS HEavy Metal and a DOD metal, so they both sounded like distortion with the BJ. Maybe I need to invest in better pedal such as the new Fender Boss ones.


Great idea! Experiment and see what it can do before you take it back. For a small, pure tuber, the BJr is a nice pickup.

Spending more $$$ DOES NOT mean you're going to get a better pedal. A lot of folks would put the $50 Bad Monkey up against other pedals costing more than twice that amount!

I don't know what kind of music you like to play, but if it's shred or metal, then I honestly think that you'd be wasting your time (and money) with a BJr. In that case, you'd probably be better off with a hybrid or a solid state with serious wattage, like a Frontman 212R (under $300 when on sale).

Let us know where you go with this...


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 3:55 pm
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CAFeathers wrote:
The Blues Jr. has a lot of potential. I have $800 worth of upgrades (custom 2x12 cabinet, speakers, and tubes) done to my $400 Blues Jr.
Was it worth it? I think so. I am extremely happy with the results and everybody that plays/hears it is amazed at how good it sounds.


Jeez, it better... you know what you could have had for $1,200? A Fuchs Lucky Seven, any number of great 5E3 based amps...

$1,200 is bo-teek money, dude... that amp isn't a BLues Jr. anymore. It would have been easier to just spend the 12 bills on a great amp.


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 4:02 pm
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Gravity Jim wrote:
CAFeathers wrote:
The Blues Jr. has a lot of potential. I have $800 worth of upgrades (custom 2x12 cabinet, speakers, and tubes) done to my $400 Blues Jr.
Was it worth it? I think so. I am extremely happy with the results and everybody that plays/hears it is amazed at how good it sounds.


Jeez, it better... you know what you could have had for $1,200? A Fuchs Lucky Seven, any number of great 5E3 based amps...

$1,200 is bo-teek money, dude... that amp isn't a BLues Jr. anymore. It would have been easier to just spend the 12 bills on a great amp.


It was a project. I wanted to see what I could do with it. It turned out great.

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:09 pm
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Well, okay, fine, your project turned out great. But telling people a Blues Jr. "has potential" because you dropped 12 thousand bucks on something in a Blues Jr. cab is wrong.

I guess that most people would not consider modifications costing more than twice the original price of the amp a case of "potential."


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:20 pm
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Gravity Jim wrote:
Well, okay, fine, your project turned out great. But telling people a Blues Jr. "has potential" because you dropped 12 thousand bucks on something in a Blues Jr. cab is wrong.

I guess that most people would not consider modifications costing more than twice the original price of the amp a case of "potential."


It was my choice to drop $800 into it changing out the cabinet, speakers and tubes, but did you notice I didn't say anything about changing anything in the chassis? No BillM mods are anything like that?
The actual working part of the Blues Jr. has potential. Whether or not you do anything with that potential is up to the individual. I am just giving my own personal experience.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:10 pm
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CAFeathers wrote:
Whether or not you do anything with that potential is up to the individual. I am just giving my own personal experience.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.


Dude... you can build a great sounding 15-watt single 12" combo amp - the amplifier that the Blues Jr. is pretending to be - from scratch for $600.

I'm just sayin'.


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:41 pm
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Oh uh - Did I say I was going to hold onto the BJ a little longer, :roll:

I went back to the store, I tried a (not Fender) 4x10 cabinet with a GDEC 30 and a Champion 600 :P .

I then left the store, drove down the highway turned around and returned the BJ and got the 4x10 Marshall cabinet and the Champion 600 with the same discount, so I did an even trade. Same price for both vs the BJr.

LOL - sorry for the drama, it worked out, I love how the champ 600 sounds with the cabinet, and the GDEC is sweet with the cabinet, backing tracks sound very good from the GDEC. Now all I need is a good pedal (which I needed with the BJ anyways). Probably going with a holy grail and the BAssman pedal.

Who says you can't have your cake and eat it. LOL

Thanks all, go ahead and laugh at me, I am .

CJL


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