Fender Blues Junior Lacquered Tweed Special Edition

This amp, made in Ensenada, Mexico, in 2008, has 15 watts from a single channel tube head, a Jensen 12" speaker and an attractive tweed covering. It has reverb, three-band EQ, volume and master controls, a "fat" switch, and a single input jack. It weighs 31 lb, and has a leather strap handle centered on the top. Power comes from a pair of EL84s; the pre-amp is composed of three 12AX7s and a solid state reverb driver, and the rectifier is solid state. It is constructed around an integrated circuit board.

It is retro-Fender in appearance, with the controls mounted at the top back edge, and has a brown and chrome "Fender" plate above the speaker baffle. It most resembles a '55-'59 Deluxe or Pro, and I find it attractive.

I use mine for coffee house gigs, church (the "Baptist Blues Band") and general jams.

For a basic guitar combo, it has plenty of features. Some may prefer an amp with switchable channels (I have a couple of them, myself) but they would be ought of place on this one.

I bought this to play my Gibson ES-335 through. I wanted a rounder, chimier tone than I was getting from my Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight, and it delivers. It's not crunchy (although you can get a creamy distortion by turning the volume -- pre-amp gain -- up) but those who want such sounds would not like the modest size on stage. I use mine on a tilt-back stand.

I play my 335 with a glass slide (getting old and arthritic in the fingers) and this amp sings: toneful and rich, and it will bite when I dig in with the pick.The responsiveness is one of the things I really like. By adjusting pick attack, I can easily go from mellow to stinging or anywhere in between.

It's an amp that works better to dialing in than to trying for a wide variety of sounds, which suits the way I play. If I want to be more aggressive, I have other amps for that, but for now I'm happy with this one.

If you're looking for the focused sound of the Deluxe Reverb reissue, this one may not be the one for you. On the other hand, I find the Blues Junior's chime more musically useful than what I hear from the DRRI.

I have not noticed any noise, and I have played reasonably large venues without micing it.

The reverb is Fenderish, but I improved mine by swapping out the stock reverb pan for a Ruby Reverb. It has a bit more shimmer, to my ear. Neither one could be used about about 3 on the knob, however, without becoming overpowering.

It's not an amp for all seasons, but it sounds the way I like to hear myself.

I haven't had it very long, but I note that there are many used ones around, and they work fine. A friend just acquired one several years old: he plugged a guitar in and it sounded almost as good as mine.

No worries for now.

No experience

Fender is increasingly finding sweet spots of size, sound and price. I hear people gripe about the circuit board wiring and "they don't make 'em like they used to" and all the rest, but this is an inexpensive gem. Try pricing an original Pro or Deluxe from the '50s and you'll find that you'll pay a lot more. The Hot Rod Blues Junior NOS (to give it the full title) is an excellent sounding, lightweight and attractive amp that looks at home everywhere I take it -- especially coupled with my natural blonde 335.

I own several Fender amps (Band-Master VM, the Blues Jr, and the Jazzmaster Ultralight), and each one works with one or another of my Gibson electrics (the 335, a Les Paul, and an SG).

I've been playing since '70, and bought my first tube amp in '74. Over the last couple of years I've been downsizing (no more 150 lb stacks!) and I was delighted to find this. It's great that Fender is building modern amps with warranties that sound this good.

If it walked, I'd definitely get another. It has gotten me away from my long-time love (the Les Paul) and made me play the 335. That's not a bad thing.

My comments are regarding the Fender Hot Rod Series Blues Jr. NOS, 15 watt, 12" Jensen speaker, Tweed finish. Purchased the amp new through MF a few weeks ago, approx $650 or so. Basic features, nothing special. I read a lot of praise on the various internet sites regarding this amp so I bought it. Had so many problems I sent it back and am now looking for something else. Going through many of the comments about the amp again, some sites are stuck on comments from two years ago!

Most often play my PRS Semi Hollowbody II and Fender VG. I generally play classic rock and blues. I delve into some alternative rock and metal w/ my son. I'll have to say, playing clean, the Blues Jr. NOS sounded OK. I tried the amp w/o added effects, altered the settings as much as I could....really, was NOT impressed. It is possible the poor sound was related to the problems written about below.

Fender, if you're listening, address your quality control. I've read other comments about new amps arriving w/ tubes rolling around the cabinet. I've read about malfunctioning reverbs. I think I experienced every problem w/ this one experience. The amp arrived w/ external packaging in great condition. Still, when opened, all the tubes were rolling around in the cab. There was also a loose spring and a metal bracket free in the cab. Replaced all the tubes, couldn't tell where the spring or the bracket were supposed to go. Plugged in and turned on. Reverb didn't work, it just let out a loud hum. Gain switch was crooked, didn't add much to the sound anyway. I got clean sounds out of the amp, not much else. Oh, there was an annoying vibration when every I played my 6th string!

I didn't call customer support. The amp sounded bland, reverb didn't work, couldn't coax much distortion, there were still the two loose parts, and the vibration occured every time I played the 6th string. Too many problems to try to fix. Sounded too bad to try to fix.

I've been playing guitar for 30 years, 10 years electric. I expect quality out of my gear and this Fender was a dog. I won't give Fender another chance, there are too many other choices out there. I purchased this amp because of all of the positive reviews out there, although, in retrospect, there were some red lights. Trayner has their "No matter what" warranty, perhaps I'll try the Custom Valve 40WR YCV40WR instead. Funny, I wrote a similar review for Musicians Friend where I purchased the amp but the review never appeared on the Blues Jr. NOS page. Hmmmm? Shop carefully. Too many people lately have been voicing concerns about Fender quality issues, I'm a prime example.

I have an 08 Tweed Blues Jr. It has pretty basic controls which is perfect. Volume, Reverb, Treble, Middle, Bass, Master and little guy called a fat switch. I think the basic Blues jr needs that fat switch but the tweed version with the Jensen speaker is nicw without it. You may have read that it does not have a standby...IT DOESN'T NEED ONE!! This is a 15 watt amp and has no need for one and it will not affect its performance at all.

For some silly reason I went a bought a Bad Monkey overdrive pedal before my amp arrived so I can play this amp at bedroom volumes but still get that creamy overdrive. No need for it, you can turn the volume up to 12 o'clock and the master as low as you want and it just oozes tone. Add the fat switch and you just faint. Well okay it does sound good and I am basing this on a 15 watt newly made amp, my bed has a 69 50 watt Marshall rectifier with original cab that looks like Hendricks dragged it around for years that sounds better but.....IT'S 15 WATTS AND ONLY WEIGHS 36 POUNDS!

This amp is not for someone who wants high headroom, it does break up easy, I have a guitar with P-90's and I can hardly get it clean but thats okay for me, I bought it for its overdriven sound.

Okay here's a story about this little guy's toughness. I bought a blem model from Guitar Center. Hey I figured they were selling the exact model with beer stains and a torn grill for a $100 more and calling it a special edition so how bad could a blem look. Well mine looks perfect so not sure what the blem was. Anyways when it arrived they had stuck it in a box that was too big for the amp and put a little paper in there to keep it from sliding around and that was it, no styrofoam or bubble wrap just the amp in a flimsy cardboard box. I mean when it arrived I could feel it sliding around and hear things rolling around inside (not a good sign). When I opened it I found three of the five tubes rolling around loose in the amp so I put them all back in and tightend up the others and turned it on and much to my surprise they were all glowing. The amp came through that horrible shipping without a scratch and it is working great.

I have never had to deal with a problem yet so can't say but the amp has a 5 year warrenty.

I have been playing for 8 years and am just a hacker but I am a tone whore and have been since I was 11 and hung around the stereo shops and that has been a looong time. I play a PRS with P-90's, A Washburn 335 copy modded that was way to chimey on my SS amp but is a blues machine on the Jr. I don't use effects much but have the Bad Monkey and a Zoom G.2 that I use for various effects when needed. I would get another if stolen for sure but may choose to not have it shipped!

On/Off Switch, Reverb, Master, Middle, Bass, Treble, Volume, and a Fat Switch. Those are the only controls on this amp. Nice and simple. Those are also the only controls you need on a good amp. To me that is better than having a bunch of built in modeling and effects. Those amps have a ton of features and do everything, but they don't do any of it good. This amp has all the controls you need to go from the cleanest of cleans to a gritty rock sound. I wouldn't advise getting this amp if you're into playing metal though. Kind of like you wouldn't buy a Mesa for its' cleans. It also handles the pedals I've used on it very well. They all sound great through this little amp. Add to that the Jensen speaker and the tweed casing and this amp has all the features you could want.

I use a Fender Am Deluxe, a Fender J5 Telecaster and some Ibanez guitars. I mainly use the strat and tele though so the others don't matter for this amp. I use this amp for blues, rock, classic rock, funk, etc. Can get a nice SRV to a RHCP Frusciante to a grittier rock sound with it. The amp is not at all noisy. I use a Dimebag wah, Boss DS1 and a Big Muff Pi. All 3 pedals sound great through this amp. Even with these pedals there's very little noise (obviously there's some when you're using a distortion/fuzz pedal though). That's good though cause I like playing with feedback.
This amp has the best clean tones I've ever heard. I love them. The first 2 nights I owned this amp I was up until 330am playing my guitar because of it. Eventually I became worn out and had to get a decent nights' sleep though. That's how good it sounds.

I haven't had this amp very long, but I have had no problems with it. I researched it pretty thoroughly before buying it and I didn't come across any complaints of people that had problems with it.

I have never had to deal with Fender's customer support. I think this is mainly because they make quality products that can take quite a beating.

I've been playing for 11 years. My other amps are a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier and a Vox Valvetronix AD30VT. The Mesa is amazing for high gain distortion and has a decent clean sound. I don't like the vox as I don't care for built in effects, modeling, etc.
The Blues Jr cleans blows anything I've heard away. I actually prefer the distortion I can get from the Blues Jr with the Big Muff Pi and the DS1 to the 2nd channel on my Mesa. Obviously though the Blues Jr can't compete with the Mesa when you switch the Mesa's distortion to Channel 3, but it's not made for that. Just like the Mesa's clean channel can't compete with the Blues Jr's cleans.
The only products you can compare this to are other Fender amps because no other amp can get that Fender clean sound. There's nothing I wish this amp had. I knew what it could do when I bought it and it does it all great.

This review is for the BJ Lacquered Tweed Limited Edition "Relic" version. The stock speaker is a Jensen P12R AlNiCo. I believe there were only 120 made, and it was made around 2005. I wasn't really looking for an amp with a relic job, I bought it for the oh-so-sweet sound. This amp also has the billm mods, which might also explain the smooooothe tone of this amp. I don't know if all the relic tweed ltd.ed. BJ's had the billm mods but mine did. Other features same as all other BJ's

With the billm mods, cream board and Jensen P12R AlNiCo speaker, this is the BEST Blues Jr. that I have ever heard. Virtually no amp hum or buz, can get anything from nice clean sparkly highs to fat crunchy overdrive without any pedals - Just by adjusting guitar volume, EQ, reverb, amp volume and amp master volume. I play the Blues & rock using Tele's & Strat's. I use this in my home and have played clubs with a band for up to 75 people with no problem. Compared to all the other BJ versions out there, I would have to rate the sound of this particular Fender BJ version a solid 10.

I have 4 fender tube amps, and 5 Fender electric guitars and I have never had one break. I just keep my equipment in good service and it has never let me down. Credit to Fender for good solid products!

I have asked a few product questions via email and have always gotten a timely response. I had some warranty work on a pickup height adjustment on a new Strat once, and they got right on it and got her fixed.

I've been playing over 40 years. I got the BJ because it is an excellent sounding amp for the size and price (easy to carry around) Like I said above, with the billm mods (tone stack, adjustable bias and power stiffening), and the Jensen P12R AlNiCo speaker, & the fender shop relic job, this combo has all the amp tone & mojo I need.

It has all the features I need. It would be good to have a standby switch and tremolo, but I can live without them. It also gets a point for NOT having any lame built-in digital effects.

I play it with a G&L Legacy and and Ibanez ES-335 clone. I usually put the gain on 9, the 'fat' button on, and the tone controls all the way up. It sounds great on this setting, with an edge-of-breakup sound that I can overdrive with a boost pedal or clean up with less volume on the guitar.

I owned a standard Blues Junior for about two weeks and hated the spiky treble and stiff response. I got this amp a year later and the difference is incredible! I really find it hard to believe it is the same electronics as the black version, they sound and respond a lot differently.

I have used this amp for straight-ahead jazz, funky Scofield-type stuff, SRV blues, and classic rock. It really lets the guitar and pickup sound come through and it's less finicky about pedals than my boutique amp. There is a little hum noticable at bedroom levels, but not at louder settings, and I don't notice any hiss.

It's good so far and I'm hoping it will continue to be reliable. I have a feeling the circuit-board-mounted tubes will cook the circuit board eventually but at least it is a common enough amp that an amp tech will probably know it pretty well already.

I doubt I would ever try to contact Fender if there was a problem because I don't expect that they would respond.

I also own a handmade Allen Encore blackface Fender Vibrolux/Super clone. The tone of the Blues Jr isn't as lush and responsive compared to the Allen, but that is to be expected. This amp is more portable than the Allen, which is a 4-10 combo, so it actually gets a lot more use. I would compare this amp to a Peavey Classic 30 or a Traynor YCV20, both of which I used to have, but I like this one better than either of those two and it is way above the standard Blues Jr.

If it went missing I would either look for another one of these or for a PTP Princeton or Deluxe Reverb type amp, depending on cash available. I really like how I can leave it on one setting and the overall sound comes from my guitars. It's very versatile in that way. It's not going to replace nicer boutique or PTP amps but it does a great job for the price and I like it the best of any circuit board mounted amp this size in current production.

The features have been covered countless times. I have everything I need on the control panel except a stand-by switch, which is a common complaint. The 50's style lacquered tweed and brown/gold grill cloth are lovely and the leather handle is a nice touch. The light weight is also a great advantage as I have to carry my own gear around. Roadies can get expensive.

Since I am throwing my opinion in here, this seems to be the most popular and reviewed amp on this site, I can only echo what other Classic Rock/Blues players say. This is a great amp for such musical styles. Beautiful clean to dirty tones and a nice Fender reverb. Surf sounds and 50's & 60's pop are also in this amp. I use Strats, a 335 and a new Tele and the amp allows the sonic character of each guitar to come through, whether you are playing clean or with the wonderful tube distortion that the Blues Junior produces. The controls are very interactive so dialing in the right mix is not an issue. Pedals are no problem either as it will take any pedal you can think of. One more thing, it has VOLUME and can get quite loud, especially considering it's size.

I have only had it for 3 months, but it seems very solid and well built.

Have never needed it.

I would rate this a 9.5 as 10 is considered perfect and no electronic device is perfect, yet. I demoed this with a standard Blues Junior, an Orange Tiny Terror combo and a VOX AC15. The Orange is good but a little more aggressive than I was looking for, while the standard Blues junior was not as full sounding as the Lacquered Tweed version. This is probably due to the Jensen speaker up-grade which is in the amp I bought. I already have a VOX AC30 and since I wanted something with a different sound, I passed on the AC15 even though it sounded very good. I still think the Blues Junior is a better amp for this size and price range (400.00 to 600.00) and I love the 50's look. This is a wonderful value for a Fender amp and I highly recommend it to players who are looking for a low to mid-powered amp and are into good musical tone and not massive metal noise pollution.

It would be great if this amp had a tremelo. Not really a problem though-reverb is good and has the basic controls you need.

The sound of this amp is wonderful! It has very nice glassy clean tones and has a good dirty blues tone when turned up. I usually use a 57 strat and a Les Paul w/50's neck through the Blues Jr and they both sound great. This amp is great for getting that Stevie Ray Vaughan tone. It is not an amp for metal players, but would suit any blues/rock player perfectly. The amp sounds the best if it's projected by a stand or is at ear level.

So far so good-haven't had any problems. It is a tube amp though, so be careful when carrying it around!

I got this amp at a very good price-only $400. I have been very pleased with it. It has that classic fender tone in an affordable, lightweight box. As good as any fender amp-check it out!!

All you need, really. No standby switch or effects loop, but good reverb, and tone controls that make a difference. 15 watts is a perfect output for everyday use. You would need to mic it if playing with a drummer.

Excellent. As good a fender amp as i have ever used. There not many amps that can conjure up a clean or overdriven tone at everyday levels any better, no matter how much you spend.
Its quiet, and handles effects fine.
The upgrade speaker from the standard is worth every cent.

Been rock solid and it had to put up with being stored in a garage and then played in varying temperatures. Not a problem.

this amp is best value I have come across. I have owned many, and also use a Matchless and a boogie mark one. this holds its own, which is amazing.
It does not feel as robust as those amps, and the covering feels a bit flimsy, but these are the most minor of quibbles. I would recommend this without hesitation. It is well worth paying the extra 80 bucks or so over the standard for the Jenson speaker. Put aside any sniffiness about it being made in Mexico and enjoy.

I have had very mixed feelings about how to rate this amp. Read on because I eventually wound up with a terrific sounding amp that I am very happy with. Nice features include spring reverb and a footswitchable gain boost and midrange control. Kudos for Master volume which is a crucial feature for me, not necessarily just for getting overdrive. It also allows me to dial in just the right charactor of clean tone too.
Basically this amp is a jack of several trades, master of none but is low priced compared to any boutique equivolent. I would not say this amp is generous for the price however. Overall build quality is POS: cheap particle board cabinet, flimsy pc board with super thin traces, cheapo plastic pots mounted directly to a pc board and with NO threaded nuts securing them, and feeble power supply. Push a little on any pot and you flex the entire board!

The fixed resistor value it comes with runs the bias WAY WAY too hot which cooks the power tubes so hot the paint burnt within the first day! It sounds raspy, weak and edgy until the bias is fixed. The reverb is op amp driven, something I didn't even think was possible and the boost uses a JFET or some type of transistor. The other glaring problem is thanks to poorly laid out board: It is highly prone to oscillation. This accounts for the low level squeals with cranked gain and also the unstable "swimming" sort of response that kept irking me. Go find BillM's site on the internet for help.

This amp is for all practical purposes, really not a Fender amp. It is better thought of as a low budget hotrodded Vox AC-15. Before buying it I constantly read complaints of a "boxy sound". At first I didn't know what they were talking about until I stepped away from the speaker. For some reason this amp has very, very poor off axis response. Consequently it does not project sound well at all which was immediately obvious when I tried playing along with a friends fender deluxe and vibrolux reverbs. I highly recommend a good amp stand which went a long way to correcting this issue.

I bought this amp knowing full well it needed aftermarket work. I also own a Marshall plexi 50w reissue that I completely rebuilt with ptp board etc. I bought this little amp because I have been enjoying getting back to my roots with old zeppelin, more jazzy blues rock etc. And I DO love a tinkering project if gets me somewhere. I am mostly playing a Fender Custom shop strat with Dimarzio HS-3 PUS. I DO manage to get a great old fashioned strat tone with these pu's believe it or not.

If you do nothing else, at least jump the midrange pot and Kudos to BillM for coming up with this trick! That extends the range of the mid pot such that you can pull down mids more and get much more of a traditional fender tone. Out of the box, the distortion was ok but raspy and not inspiring. Clean sounds were ok but bland, thin and also not inspiring. I constantly had the sensation of a nice tube tone being somehow suffocating in a closet. The response of the amp was also jumpy and erratic.

Here is everything I did which finally got the old fashioned vintage tone I was seeking: A tech friend installed adjustable bias and got the power tubes running in the proper range. Then we converted power section to triode mode. This drops power to about 10 watts but gained much needed density and richness to the tone. Doubling the power supply cap gave it a bit more punch. I have seen preamps with a more robust power supply than this amp! Jump the mid pot as I discussed above. Then I replaced coupling caps with high voltage film-foil orange drop types. Icing on the cake was replacing the high voltage plate resistors with funky old fashioned carbon compositions which generate a lot of low harmonics when under stress and also gives you a richer sound. The final step was caving in and putting a Dunlop 10 band eq in front of the amp. Try this before you go mucking around revoicing the tone stack. I put in a mild midrange bump with the modded midpot down to 3 and notch out 125hz about 6 db. You might question why hit the amp with a midboost and suck it out again but trust me its not the same and works like magic. Notching out 125hz might be simulating a 10 inch speaker which perhaps might be more appropriate for this amp and a mod I contemplated. After all this, I have a really vivid, authentic old electric-chimey yet purring warm clean tone, very much like Zeppelin's "since I've been loving you" off led zep 3. Although the amp's distortion is now quite good, I like to use an analoge delay which requires distortion BEFORE it. So I use a fantastic non-op amp based pedal by zvex call the "box of rock" which I will review seperately. With the eq in front of it, I get a very dumble-ish distortion texture that really inspires me. So, out of the box, this amp gets a 6. I list the score AFTER modding it to include my eq pedal trick which didn't at all impart a cheap transistor tone I would have expected. Also despite being allergic to op amps I did finally start using the reverb and frankly I admit it manages to sound good, not the "boing" you get with tube driven springs but still decent and usefull.

I have not had a problem but surely would have without fixing the bias. You would only get one chance to drop anything on the amp's pots. This is not a rugged amp, treat it like a newborn baby.

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If you are making the transition from a cheap solid state practise amp you will most likely be delighted. If you've have owned and played the best like original vintage tweed amps, boutique stuff etc you will either accept it for what it is or make a rewarding project out of fixing its flaws and wind up with a terrific sounding little amp cutie of an amp. The oscillation problems and totally idiotic bias out of the factory are inexcusable however.

Also forgot to mention tubes. I used to roll my eyes over exclaimations of joy from swapping preamp tubes. My tech friend has a tube tester and we are astounded at how rare a sovtech 12ax7 ever ever measures beyond "reject". 9 times out of 10 at least one half the tube is practically dead. Yes, we compare other tubes, any generic chinese tube usually has strong emissions. Sure enough all three stock sovtech preamp tubes were practically dead on the tester. Replacing them to include a pricey NOS vintage 12ax7 for the first stage was indeed a miraculous improvement though not initially enough to overcome all my complaints until the rest of the amp was tuned up.