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Post subject: Info for others about modding a Blues Jr.
Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:43 pm
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Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2011 5:57 pm
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Hello all,

Just wanted to report on the mod I did of my Blues Jr. I had posted here close to a couple months back about hoping to mod/repair my Blues Jr. and during the topic was directed to an excellent resource, http://billmaudio.com/wp/

Bill M has some great mods and since I have a family member who is very handy with a soldering iron I decided to take the plunge. I bought many but not all of the mods that Bill offers and we successfully installed them into my Series II Blues Jr.

Everything works great and the amp sounds very, very good. We also did the tube socket retentioning steps as outlined on the site and replaced the power amp ribbon cables with individual wiring as he advises. I'm very pleased with the difference in the amp and how tight it sounds. Even better the amp appears to be behaving rock solid and isn't blowing tubes and messing up every 2 weeks like it was before. That was the main reason that got me started looking into the mods, I couldn't play the amp more than a few times before it would start crackling and popping very loudly and make at least one of the tubes light up like a X-mas tree. All problems solved now and just wanted to say that I can highly recommend Bill M mods if you are wanting to hot rod your Blues Jr. They are very sensibly priced and are practical, effective improvements. Next when I have some cash... a new speaker!

On thing I would like to mention if you decide to try the mods. The Blues Jr board (at least the cream board version like I have) is pretty thin and flimsy. The guy I had working on it has been repairing and building circuitry most of his life and he commented many times that the board was unreasonably thin. He has lots of experience so it was nothing he couldn't work with, but he said that it would be very easy to break the board and you have to be fairly decent with a soldering iron to avoid damaging any of the leads since there is little varnish to protect them.

For these reasons, although it might be possible for a rookie to make the modifications, I highly recommend getting someone who knows what they're doing. I don't think the modifications would have went so well if he didn't have long years of experience dealing with these kinds of things. In a couple places he had to scratch down to the trace and make a new connection as the heat required to loosen a part weakened the connection to the "doughnut" were the capacitor etc was seated. I would have had no idea even where to begin doing this if I had tried it on my own and would have most likely ruined the board in the process of trying to fix it.

Just a few words for the wary. If you have someone to do the work for you or have the experience though I can highly recommend it. I didn't know this amp could sound that good!


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