Fender Blues Junior Lacquered Tweed Special Edition

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.

Features have already been previously described for amp. I like things simple and this amp does just that. In addition I was looking for something light weight, portable with good sound. I own a fender Twin 65 reissue and a Hot Rod Deluxe, both pretty heavy to transport. I rated it a "9" because a standby switch would have made the simple features of this amp perfect.

There is a big diffence in the NOS tweed version with the Jensen vs. the Emenence speaker in the standard black tolex BJ. I was originally considering the black tolex version, but just was not impressed by the sound. It was just OK. Then one day when I was in Guitar Center, and was listening to one of the sales guys playing a Les Paul which sounded great (warm clean). I was surprised to see it was a tweed Blues Junior. I asked the guy to play through both amps and comfirmed the big difference in sound between the two amps. I must admit that I originally thought while the tweed was pretty cool looking, the difference bewteen the two amps was just in appearance. Boy was I wrong and I bought it on the spot for $500! I did re-tube it with a set of JJ tubes which for $53 made a noteable improvement to the already warm clean sound with additional head room as I play primarily "clean". By the way, the Eddie at Eurotubes was just great speaking with me via e-mail as well as on the phone to put together a JJ tube set combination designed for the sound I wanted. I play blues, rock, jazz and Christian contemporary music. I own a Hertiage H555, Les Paul, Strat, '59 Gibson ES 125, D'Aspiranta New Yorker and all sound great through this amp. In fact, I rarely use the Hot Rod Deluxe any more since I have this amp. My twin is too heavy to move and stays at my church where I use it to play with a contemporary choir.

After a day or so I discoved one of the original pre amp tubes was microphonic and Guitar Center immediately replaced the tube. Since then, I have had no other problems.

No support from Fender required. I only received customer support from Guitar Center replacing thhe bad tube without question.

Best production line small small amp out there for the money. Great sound (warm clean Fender tone), cool looking, light weight and plenty loud for a 15 watt amp. This amp could easily be miced if played in a larger venue.

all features have been previously described. i don't know how to operate a real tricky amp so it's plenty good for my purposes.

mostly blues with strats and dual humbucker solid bodies. this amp is easy to dial in. much more responsive than the two bj's i owned a few years ago. just twist a few knobs and you get a great warm clean or a dirty and dirtier grind tone. nice grit to it, maybe not the best of all time but it is a very useable amp right out of the box.

my first one started making hawaiian noises and the 12ax7 in V1 was going major microphonic. guitar center gave me a new tube and it was less microphonic. trusted it enough to gig with it, however it died in the second set. luckily i had a back-up. GC exchanged it for a new one and so far so good. i'm gonna try it at our next few shows. hope it works.

fender customer support? ok i guess.

i'm a retired guy, kinda new to gigging, been screwing around with the blues for about 7 years now. been through stacks of amps, built and rebuilt a few. i kinda know what sounds ok. this one is my current fave. portable and sounds bueno, clean or grind. i'm gonna knock off a point for the reliability factor. for the money (not a knock, it's priced fairly for a mass produced amp) it sounds far better than most.

I have the 60 anniversary tweed cream board.
I had heard about it and when I turned it on the first time I understood the rage. None of this applies to metal...Jazz very wide variety in this 24 year band.
We cover 60,70 80's dance wedding band..not many bars after 40 years of playing
R&B Classic rock..Clean is drop dead and I own Budda, mesa, ada Mp2 150 comb0, '65 twin ' original 53 fender ..many others.
In a small gig it smokes with a very natural organic natural 'sit in the mix and cut' sound clean. Clapton tone is stunning!
Simple set and forget! No boogie 'tweakness don't move a single knob paranoia"..too complicated and will certainly distract / interfere with your playing a Boogie and tone wimps out! Junior is S I M P L E thank God after rack midi nightmare days!

'53 teal my dad bought new..real deal,,,Lindy Fralin rewound original. Absolutely nails tele clean and overdrive. I use PRS '87 bought new and PRS HB2 which feedsback to soft harmonic beautifully..strat. Single coil or 'buckers both well!! Very quiet..so organic natutral !! Drop dead Stones tones...Locked and slaved to the Budda 18 watter it is absolutely the best sound I have gotten all these years..Bigger gigs get both..small gig Fender only by demand of killer players in the band far more talented than me. With 2 Keeley pedals and fulltone OCD (Marshall in a stomp box..Santana Gary Moore)..and
L O U D in a hot room. I will never sell this amp as it also is the perfect bedroom amp.
The Budda if mid size large gig..there is a" badger" amp for you from clean to Brutal..11 for blues junior IMUO> I L O V E this little 31 pound monster. I have played some fairly large rooms..no mike...BUY ONE!! ...huge on stage sound that just wails!!! Junior best value for $ anywhere!!!!!!

It;s a fender and getting the tubes breathing very hard with low wattage is key for me personally. Just super warm tube saturation and I love the el84's. Suits vintage well. Mertal players do something else..whatever that is!
Has seen some very hard gigs and loud plaing..not one single problem. Again you will never find this sound at this price with any amp!! Do Not let 15 watts fool you..it's loud on it's own
and through a 4x12 Marshal or 2x12 it's blastin!!

mmm no clue..NOT BOOGIE or BUDDA for sure from what I'ver heard...Budda is unreal as in they call or email back in minutes or hours same day with tube questions...great bunch of guys at Budda...(Sorry just can't shut up about my precious Budda 18..all Boogies for sale!

Playing 40 years..drums for 10.5 in college. Would buy another the same week. Very articulate and immediate pick response..funk licks are slammin'
Look guysat the end of the day its about a simple great sounding amp so we can play and woodshed..not tweak for days! This amp and the Budda are set and forget...very responsive to volume and tone clean up. Ok I do Love it so much I hate I waited to buy. So fast load in and out...small 4 pedal board. I would have paid twice as much...very close to many Victorias I have played. It's funny in that I am blessed to not have to worry about money but I go for this $520 amp anyday!
Higher cost is BUDDA 18 hands down. play one and you will probably buy it in a vintage cover band. EXTREMELY LOUD 18 watts..never above 5 in huge clubs and convention centers.

2005 Blues Jr amp. 15 Watts of El-84 tube power, Single Channel, 1X12 Jensen speeker. I like the fact that it has a gain knob as well as a master volume knob. I wish it had a stand-by switch but I have found a way arround that by using a tuner pedal that mutes the signal when engaged. The light weight is really nice. It is designed to be a straight forward single channel amp with great tone and that's exactly what it is. However, I gave it a 7 because when you get right down to it it's elegently simple.

I play Strats and LP's through this amp. Both sound great! I play blues, classic rock and alt rock. It excells at blues and classic rock and get by as a alt rock amp. It takes pedal real well (you might want to get a reverb pedal because the reverb leaves a little to be desired.) I also usa TS-808 Tube Screamer modded by Robert Keeley that sounds awsome through this amp.

It took me a little bit of time to dial this amp in and it definitaly seemed to improve sonically as the Jensen speaker broke in. When I first brought it home it has serious ice pick goning on but it has since warmed up VERY nicley. Some say it is too warm but I love it's tone, especially when it is played loud in a band! However when you are playing loud in a band you cannot expect this little beauty to be sparkley clean. It will always be a little "hairy". I gave it an 8 only because when compared to legendary amps like Deluxe Reverb or a Bassman or compared to great boutique amps it is still falls a little short. It's still a great amp though and I love it.

Never a problem, owned for one year and transported it to an from rehersals the whole time. It's never let me down.

I have never had to call Fender for anything.

I have been playing for over 20 years and have owned a Boogie Mark 4 and a Fender Twin. In my opinion the little beauty sounds better than the Boogie and the Twin. This is a great little amp. The only reason I would consider replacing it is if I needed more power. Until, and if, that moment ever comes I will continue to play the snot of this little jewl.

I believe this amp is made in m along with the other Hot Rod Series amps.A single channel reduces flexibility but the treble, mid and bass knobs really allows you to sculpt whatever sound you are looking for and the master volume allows many varities of cruch at virtually any volume-great for practice or small gigs. The reverb is fine, and the fat switch does give you some control as you can purcase a foot control for this.

I originally bought the black tolex version of the blues jr from a small local music shop. I was upset at myself when i realized several weeks later that there was a tweed version available at Guitar Center that looked alot cooler and also featured a Jensen C12N speaker. When I compare the two amps directly at a Guitar Center store I realized immediately that I bought the wrong amp! The Jensen speaker took away the harshness that I was hearing in the stock speaker and added depth, warmth and richness. I purchased the NOS version and sold my old blues jr on Craig's list within 24 hours!I am ecstatic with this amp, as it has a beautiful clean sound and a creamy distortion that is reflected by the sweet EL-84 output tubes. I know everybody likes to talk mod, but this amp does not need a single thing done to it.

it seems very well built.

i have been playing for 35 years and own several PRS guitars and currently playing a fender deluxe strat alot.I love the way this amp looks and sounds and I think it is a killer value.

This amp has been reviewed so much that I'll only add here that I replaced the EL84 Groove output Tubes with NOS RCA Black Plates ($100 matched pair), put in a GE 5751 ($12) in V-1, and 12AY7 in V-3 ($15), left the Fender V-2 12AX7 alone. I also put a Boss FDR-1 (Fender Deluxe Reverb pedal, reverb/tremolo/gain) in front of it.

The amp now produces the closest thing to the classic Chicago Blues tone of a Fender Deluxe Reverb that I could ever get (think Mike Bloomfield, Albert King, etc.) in a 30 lb amp. The Jensen speaker really helps. To get that sound one has to dime the Master (pushing the output tubes), and put the volume on 6 or better (which controls the pre-amp tubes), mids about 6, bass 6-9, treble 4-5. It's very loud even in a smaller bar at that point, but I have a Dr Z Airbrake attenuator that will reduce volume in smaller locations or at home and leave tube saturation alone. I use the reverb/vibrato mix from FDR-1 pedal, add a little gain, and presto! The NOS Blues Jr. just sings!

I also have a Fuchs BJ 21 6V6 tubes very clean amp that with the FDR-1 pedal won't make that sound like the BJ does. It takes a Fender circuit wired for reverb to get it. I couldn't get it with a Fender Deluxe clone (5E3 circuit) either.

I only had one Fender (new Champ) that had a bad circuit board in 50 years. I trust Fender products, and know their centers repair them.

Never needed any in last 50 years.

Playing since '55. I now play Gibson ES-345 and Heritage H-157 (original LP factory in Kalamazoo), both with PAF '57 humbuckers. Only other pedal I ever use is Boss Blues Driver with heritage, but seldom need it with ES-345 as I have Varitone switch and wiring (like BB King), and moving switch from 2 back to 1 gives big volume increase, and moving pickup switch from Neck to both pickups is all the boost I ever need.

Past BJ's I have owned sucked, were too too muddy, not clean enough, most probably due to Sovtek tubes and bad speakers. I tried, but never kept one. Tweed Pro Jr.'s (USA) were better and cleaner at lighter weight. Fender has hit a home run with this NOS model!

The old full time guitar tech (old friend) at GC turned me on to it, and I couldn't believe it. I had the chance to A/B it with the FDR-1 pedal and a Deluxe Reverb while there, and was stunned at the tone!

I made this review simply in the hopes that it may help another player who likes the Deluxe Reverb sound to have it in a 30 lb. rig, that costs much less even after buying FDR-1 and new NOS tubes ($800 vs $1200). Also, the NOS BJ has a multitude of other great tones for R&B, classic rock, surf, anything other than heavy distortion and metal. My new 30 lb Blackface Fender!

You know the details.
You know what, this amp is simple, perfect. I use it for it's clean tones primarily. it's overdriven tones are good too. The reverb is decent. the fat switch does fatten it up a little and the eq section does what you would expect. For the money, it has nice features and sounds good. I wish it had a standby switch but it doesn't and that doesn't ruin my day. I use this amp with a small pedal board. I use it for blues and classic rock and it works perfect. it sounds good with a harmonica/mic too. I don't gig out with it and if I did I would mic it and run it that way. It's actually pretty loud for it's size. It's nice and light so if your drummer isn't a lumberjacker, your golden. I really like the laquered tweed. Once you go tweed, you never go back!

I love the way it sounds. I could rate this against a twin but this isn't a twin. this is a good sounding, inexpensive response to what alot of amatuer musicians were asking for. I run some pedals through it and it sounds good. I overload it for fun and it has never broken up or given me any lip. It just does what it does and nothing more. If I wasn't married, I'd have another and run them stereo bacause I could. But I am so that dream is smothered. It's not any more noisy than any other amp. The amp goes from sparkly clear to light overdrive. You can mod this to your liking though. Lots of mod sites. Lots of Bj cults. Check them out. Good info. For blues and classic rock tones, it's awesome. If you want to play slipknot or L.O.G., go get a Rivera or Mesa. But if your loaded you probably went straight to the twin anyway. Whatever. For 5 bills it sounds excellent and is fun to play.

I have heard that they run hot and you can mod them so you don't burn your tubes up and ruin the board and plastic sockets. But I don't really know so I'll probably just play it to death and them think about that stuff when i need to revive it. It has never quit on me so far. If I was worried and so inclined, I might get some nicer tubes and all that but I'm not. I'm lazy. I think its fine. two years and no problems. And i do some stupid stuff to it. It's not made for metal but I wouldn't know.

It's a fender, need I say more?? yes, they are probably just as big a pain in the butt to get ahold of as anyone else these automated days. But I have never had a problem and I have been abusing it for two years now. I'm not going to drag a rating down because I don't know.

I like it. I like these low wattage, tube amps. I like the way it sounds. it's light and portable. the tweed is cool. I use it for harmonica also. if anything is going to blow it up, I'd think that would be it but it's not a problem. I have run some pretty long strings of effects through it and it's cool. It's not top of the line but it's far from bottom. For what it is it is perfect for the money you pay and the sounds you get from it. If you're a tube person. I have been playing for 13 years. I'm not going to tell you I know good tone. I know what I like and it's more than likely not the same as your tastes. But from a versatility standpoint, very. It's going to appeal more to blues, classic rock, etc. If it were stolen I'd be pissed. these tweeds are hard to find and I like it. I didn't compare it to other products because there weren't any in that price range. If I wish it had one thing it would be a standby switch and/or better reverb. It's usefull up until 3 and then it's just too damn much. But i'm sure someone will love it and find a use for those tones. So I would just say the standby switch. that's it. But it's not a big deal. I paid 5 bills and not 10.