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Post subject: Mod Kits for Blues Jr.
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:44 am
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I recently picked up a Blues Jr. NOS on a trade. Everyone has been telling me I need to go to BillM's website and get the stuff to modify the amp. Supposedly his mod's turn a good amp into a great amp. But if this is in fact true, why hasn't Fender looked into his modifications and adapted any of those ideas into their production models? I cannot believe Fender would be oblivious to these modifications if they are as popular as I'm told. For less than $100, the modifications seem rather quick and easy. I cannot see why Fender wouldn't do something similar on their own unless they feel it isn't worthwhile.

Any thoughts? Anyone from Fender able to speak about this?

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Post subject: Re: Mod Kits for Blues Jr.
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 7:00 am
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Fender did add a "sparkle" mod to the new version III. But the amps are great for many people as-is, and no point in changing an already wildly successful amp design. The BJr amps are selling like hot-cakes and it might be foolish for Fender to change horses in mid stream.

The only mod that I see as "necessary" is to add the adjustable bias, the rest are mostly just about changing the tone, or adding line out, etc. That is still just my opinion, many like the hot bias. As popular as the Billm mods are, I think that the stock Bjr is even more popular. I would bet that more than half of the BJr owners leave the amp stock. And of those that do make changes, the majority of them will change speaker and/or tubes and that's it.

There are mods for nearly every Fender amp made, but I don't see that dictating any changes to any of Fender products.

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Post subject: Re: Mod Kits for Blues Jr.
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 9:38 am
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+1 shim,
I ordered a blues jr nos a couple of days ago. I had been
looking for a small amp for a while to compliment my egnater
tweaker 40. so I decided on a easy to carry great looking
great sounding amp I can take to practice and or gig small
venues.
The blues jr wasn't even in my thoughts, I strolled in to guitar
center tested a whole bunch of amps, and fell in love with
the rebel 20, tweaker 15 and jr nos.
Only reason why I didnt get the rebel (not combo).
Tweaker 15, kind of redundant
I opted for the simplicity of the blues jr. I A/Bd both blues
jrs nos and III. IMHO the nos sounds way better.
I would really research the benefit of the mods.
I know the guy from steaviesnacks did mods on his
Bjrs nos

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Post subject: Re: Mod Kits for Blues Jr.
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 1:13 pm
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I bought a couple things from his website. I purschased the basic kit, presence control, and the output transformer.

I did this for a good reason.

Last night I did a comparison of my newly acquired NOS Blues Jr to my stock Peavey DeltaBlues. Both amps are EL84 amps based upon earlier Fender designs. There are a few differences such as a different gain stage and tone stack. However the basic tone for the amps should be similar. I found the Blues Jr. OD tone was not as usuable as the Peavey, it seemed to be a little harsh. The tone controls on the BJ were not noticable once they were past 3 or 4. Finally, when the master volume was up, the amp sounded a little flat. The Peavey is not a perfect amp either, but its clean channel is really usable and its overdrive channel is decent for low to mid gain blues. I'm hoping by adding the presence control, doing a twinstack mod, and changing the bias as well as the output transformer will turn this into the best little amp I've ever used.

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Post subject: Re: Mod Kits for Blues Jr.
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 3:18 pm
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Well, there you go. Not everyone wants their BJr to sound like a Peavey, which is actually quite a different amp, not meant to sound the same at all IMO. The Peavey has four output tubes, the BJr has two. The Peavey is twice the power of a BJr. Other than both amps using EL84 for output tubes, they are quite different. To me, the Peavey can get a much cleaner sound than what comes from a stock BJr. I disagree that they should sound similar. By that reasoning, the BJr should also sound like a Vox....and actually the BJr is closer in sound to a Vox than a Peavey.

That's the beauty of the mods though, they're there if you like them. I thought that the adjustable bias gave the amp more sound versatility than the stock bias. You will probably really enjoy the Billm mods. Let us know your thoughts on the mods when you get them done. :D

Could you imagine how much the BJr would cost if Fender added those mods for you? :shock:

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

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Post subject: Re: Mod Kits for Blues Jr.
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:41 pm
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I picked up a BJR NOS last year ($300!) and did the following:

1. Metal input jack
2. On/Standby/Off switch
3. Billm "Basic" kit

I had heard other people's reviews of the Basic mod adding some more bass response, and that's the only audible improvement that I wanted out of the stock amp. The Basic kit worked just as described. It's now possible to turn the Bass control up all the way and have too much bass. I now leave the control about half-way, and adjust as necessary. This versatility wasn't possible before the mod.


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Post subject: Re: Mod Kits for Blues Jr.
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:34 pm
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I have done almost all of his mods (except octal conversion) over the past year. Each one did improve the amp. I say go for it if you can do them yourself.
The only thing that never improved much its overdriven sound. I have played the delta blues as well and its dirty ton IS better for some reason.
With just a bit of grit it sounds really good, but it's too raspy with the gain all the way up.
This amp loves a Swamp Thang although the stock speaker on the VOS is pretty good.


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