Fender Blues Junior

Made in 2006, this is a 15W 1x12 tube amp combo with reverb. Has "fat" switch, selectable with footswitch (costs extra -- I don't have this).

Being a tube amp, 15W is more powerful than you would think. In fact, it is very very loud. The main reason why you wouldn't use this in small or medium gigs is more that it would get too saturated at an acceptable volume; not that it couldn't REACH that volume!

For a small amp, has reasonable number of features, yet is also reassuringly simple.

I play rock and blues. The BJ makes a *perfect* practice amp, or perhaps solo busking! It sounds great at volumes appropriate for your living room, and also can get nice and loud if you are jamming with the band -- however at the latter volume, you won't be able to achieve nice cleans any more. The tube tone is rich and mellow, and starts breaking up nicely if you set the volume control(s) right. The lack of clean head-room at band volume is the main reason why this is only a practice amp for me.

Amp has separate Volume and Master Volume controls, which means it takes a little bit of dial-twisting to get various combinations of clean-loud(ish), dirty-loud, clean-soft and dirty-soft -- but a nice tone is achievable in all of those categories.

Also takes to my ME-50 pedalboard nicely. Basically, this is my day-in, day-out practice amp and I love it. I actually find it more useful than my Hot Rod Deluxe (BJ's 40W "big brother"), because the HRD is too loud for home use, yet also starts over-saturating at band volumes in spite of its high wattage -- therefore has no real 'home'.

The BJ seems expensive considering that an HRD is not *that* much more (yet has much higher wattage) - but don't be fooled: the BJ is an amp that you will love for what it does, whereas the HRD will frustrate you because you won't know where it 'fits' in your gear lineup.

So far so good. Would be nice if it had a Standby switch to help preserve the tubes.

For rock (not metal) and blues players, this is a good, solid Fender tube amp that will make a great companion to your daily playing. It's 'tube tone' is as good as you could ask for in a small combo.

At first glance, it seems a bit expensive for a small 15W, but having had one I now know how versatile it is and so can say that it is worth it. I would buy another.

Everyone else has done a stellar job listing features, so I will just say great tone! I give it a 9 for not having an effects loop. The stock speaker wasn't my style, so I replaced it with a vintage 30. I replaced the stock tubes with 2 JJ's EL 84's and a mulard in the preamp.

I love this amp do to the complex harmonics my pedals bring out in it. I am a metal player, but I also play the blues. I play through a LTD Eclipse 500s with an EMG 81 bridge and a 60 neck. I run it into a Fulltone OCD into a MXR 6-band EQ, into the amp. I have a slight boost on the EQ pedal in the lows highs and upper mids. I run amp mids at 4 with bass 7 and treble at 8 and a 1\2. I run a Dr. Z Airbrake between my amp and speaker so I can crank it and still stay married. When I need to go beyond that, I use a Z-Vex Box of Metal and it lights my amp up like a roman candle, AWESOME. The sound is wicked and it is my sound, not somebody else's. Over the years I have had more amps than most shops ever see in a lifetime. I have been searching for a good crunch that keeps it's clarity and for me this is it. Too much gain and it is just noise, even for metal. With the right set up any amp can be a metal amp. I love this amps ability with the right pedals to authentically sound great clean, dirty and everywhere in between. If you know how to build tone you will love this amp. On it's own it is a blues amp. With a couple of pedals and an airbrake it is a very versital little tone monster.

It's a tube amp treat it right and it will treat you right. I do however I dislike the input jacks on this unit and have replaced them all. Now I see no reason this would ever let me down. I give it a 7 due to the input jacks.

I called the company and talked to tech support. I asked about biasing the amp and he told me to read my 4 page manual. I was not impressed by the tech nor the manual that tells you in eight different languages what master, treble, Mid and Bass do, plus it never even covered the amp's bias BOOOOOOOOOOO!

I have been playing for 15 years now. I know more about amplifiers than most guitar store salesmen. I love my tone and I wouldn't trade it for all the Rectifier's or Marshall's in the world. The fender sound is fantastic and very accepting of good effects.

The best feature is obviously the great tone! As a stock amp it holds its own very well. Compared to more complex amps with loads of features, it pales...but when it comes to sweet class A tone it's a 10 so I'll give it a 10, considering its price point. I bought it used-in good condition-for only $200 bucks. A steal. I replaced the original Fender (Eminence) speaker with a Roland V75, which is a Greenback clone made by Eminence for Roland. It does very well in the BJ, tightening the low end and adding a bit of cone breakup. Other than that, it's stock.

After some experimentation I finally settled on a "best method" for obtaining the tone I wanted using an old (1988) BOSS ME 5 floor pedal. I play Les Pauls with the following pickups: Gibson Les Paul Studio with 490R and 498T; Jay Turser LP Goldtop with LACE Hemis and another Jay Turser (Serpant) with GFS Dream 180 pups. I have a strat, Tele and a 335 too but I mainly use the Les Pauls. ALL my guitars sound good through this amp.
For me the key to great tone using moderate-to-hotter humbuckers is a compressor set to a slow attack for clean and a fast attack for overdrive. The BOSS ME 5 has a good, transparent compressor that enables me to set a consistant "sweet spot" for the amp's preamp, which is very sensitive. Past the compressor I use the lowest possible setting for the overdrive on the ME 5 (OD #1, set to 1.) The combination of these ME 5 settings and the BJ conspire to deliver a fantastic, dynamic, rich clean tone. I highly recommend a combination of compression with boost pedals for this amp. (By the way, another great pedal to put after the compressor is a BOSS GE 7 EQ pedal. It has a built in boost along with the 7 bands of eq boost/cut.) The main thing is to set a consistent signal level going into the first stage preamp of the BJ. Very easy to do with a compressor / boost combination up front. Finally, I add a slight bump at 500Hz using the ME 5 EQ section to give the signal more richness. Works like a charm, folks.
For overdrive I use the BOSS ME 5 with the same settings for compression and overdrive except that I change the attack to the fastest setting and dial up the overdrive to level 2 (out of 7.) The EQ is set up the same as it is in the clean patch.
Clean is to die for in my opinion. It borders on the best sounding clean tone I have ever obtained using a LANEY LC 15 that died on me a few years ago. Not quite as luscious but close. Maybe a new set of tubes will get me there? At any rate, goosing the sensitive front end properly allows me to run the volume at 4-5 and the Master at 12 for a clean, luscious tone that breaks up as I dig in and sustains into harmonic feedback at will. PERFECT!
Overdrive is very tight with fantastic sustain and no feedback problems. Very bluesy sounding. Classic Rock and Blues tone...to a "T."
I have the mid and bass controls set to 3 o'clock and the treble set at 12 o'clock, always. No boost. Reverb on 2-4. That's it.
I'm very, very impressed with the BJ in conjuction with the ME 5. I highly recommend compression to smooth out the sensitive preamp and get the most from the power section's tube duet. With this setup I'm totally satisfied.

In the 15-20 watt tube amp under 500 bucks category this amp is a serious contender for tone champ. Lightweight and loud enough to backline at smaller venues. Mikes up well with the Shure SM 57 for larger places. A real winner for those who know how to operate a simple tube amp. Perfect for blues and rock players and would work for jazz players too. A little tone monster!

basic features, single channel, 3 shelving eq's, nice fender reverb (which i love), master volume, volume, fat switch (which i dont use). pretty basic. the only thing i wish it had was a standby switch and an effects loop.

this amp sounds amazing. this is a tone nuts dream, and guess what, im a tone nut. the only amps i prefer are fender and vox, but fender has an edge over vox i think. the cleans are amazing and it breaks up very nicely with volume at 4. i always run the master at 12. tubes like to run hot. i use this amp with my samick era sheraton which sounds amazing. beautiful and very pleasing to the ear. the fat switch only tends to make it muddy and not a good muddy. best bet for overdrive is to go by a tubscreamer. best peddle you will buy, want be disappointed. it fits together very well with this amp. WARNING!!!!!! if you are someone that plays metal and doesn't care about tone just loud nasty ugly horrible distortion this is not your amp, so dont complain about if it doesnt give you that, cause it want. go by a marshall or a mesa you retard. this amp in my opinion is best for americana style music. folk rock, country, jazz, and pop rock will sound amazing on this little tone hog. great buy and plenty loud. PEOPLE, they have this amazing thing called PA that will bring up your amp good in a mix. if you have an amp with over 40 watts of tube power you must be deaf. this amp has 15 and is great cause it breaks up at reasonable volumes.

pretty rugged but i dont tour that much so i cant tell you for certain.

go get this amp if you are into to tone. awesome amp for recording and club gigging.

1995 Tweed made in USA. Very versatile from smokey blues to jazz, country, pop. Sounds great even with my acoustic plugged.

Warm Warm Waaaarm. It beats most of the boutique amps I've played, and I've tried a lot.

No issues yet, seems trustworthy

No need to deal with Fender.

Been playing about fifteen years. Perfect companion for my LP, Tele, ES-335 and other guitars. Great little tubey. Beats overhyped amps like Deluxe Reverb and co

It has a speaker and a cabinet and a cord for plugging it in. Just a treasure trove of options, buttons, amp models, cabinets, tone knobs, effects, pedals, Roth IRA deposits, foriegn car parts and optional options for optioning your options. It pushes 100 watts of power through a 1.2" speaker. 250 channels plus Direct TV and cable. Many deep menus for scrolling through the other menus and menus explaining the menu structure. Incredible depth and presence of the incredible depth. It can cover any style except most styles you would cover if you went undercover to cover a cover tune. Full coverage.
The 40 button footswitch switches the switching to the floor pedal for four by 10 pushbuttoning for switching. I switched to this floor pedal pedal and boy I'm glad I did! The grillecloth is chocolate, frosted with chocolate grillcloth. Try it. Has a killer bit of bite better than a bitter, buttery tone! Mine is the tolex version revision with the vision plan and medicare plus output jack. Two inputs putting in the power to the dynamic diecast moling motor with a factory installed fan module for the tubes. Nice chrome covering on the valve input putters. Weighs in at 340 thousand tons-light as father's feathers. Very versatile but varies very much.

Has a sound sounding sound. I tend to leave the amp in the on position when playing and the grillcloth on, too. By cranking the crank and the master volume you can get the sound yo want or don't want. And it's a full electric sound. Then it sounds better with a guitar too. It oscillates lately but is as stable as a three legged table with a toothpick jar underwater outside of Berlin or Japan in a dishpan by Don Van Vleeeeeterburg. That's why I bought it anyway. No worries. I was drowning out the other guys in the bathtub. Total action of supressing the press when pressed to express it. Hope to add the Billm mods to mod it. My guitarz are 1928 Mercedes Benze and a 1947 Jaguar S-type.

I tossed it from a Sukov T 381r9i fighter over the Ukraine at 300,000 feet. It fell for 7 hours and landed on a solid granite rock. Plugged it into a squirrel's anus and it fired up like a dustpan on the griddle. No worries. Buried it out in Nevada at a Nuke Weapons test site. After detonating a 500 megaton bomb strapped to the speaker, I found it worked just fine. Not bad. About as rugged as a jelly donut. Runs on batteries, house current or squirrel **** excretions.

I called Chuck at Fender. He sent me a million dollars and a free amp. What more could you ask for?

Too heavy. Way too loud. Doesn't even work unless you plug it in and turn it on. Unaware of the social dynamics of most Cuban-American churches or black liberation theology. Disconnected capacitors for a better overall sound. Government action subdivides the teaching repudiated by Dr. James Comb. Comes around to a situation between Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X. Promoted to a framework of nationalism.

Features listed below, a thousand times over.

I wish this amp had a Standby Switch, otherwise, I wish only that I had 17 more of these little things. I play everything from rock to blues to jazzy style stuff to country style stuff to whatever. This thing does it all.

Like most any food worth eating, this amp just gives the most incredible palate of hot and tasty. First, let me say that I haven't had this amp up past 4 in practice OR gigging. 15 tube watts is JUST THAT LOUD. Now, for the tone.

I'm playing 2 main guitars through this thing:

Epiphone Les Paul Classic - hot, hot, hot, hot tone. Loud and hot. Serves for the rockier side of our sets. Hot. Beautiful, crunchy overdrives from this amp with humbuckers. I've found that clean is not so easy with HB's, as the amp breaks up early (volume around 4, master volume isn't a factor). Comes out even hotter with the Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive pedal.

Whoa.

Fender Standard Strat - crystal glassy sound, you can dial in SRV tones or whatever sound you want for that matter. Not quite as loud or as hot as the Les Paul, but talk about tasty. Doesn't break up quite as early, so louder clean is easier with the Strat. Sounds really nice with the Danelectro Fab Flange pedal.

*drool*

That being said, the amp has a FAT Switch which I use as a boost for the Strat to even out the volumes from each guitar, and serves to give a nice break up to the Strat while not completely breaking up the Les Paul.

It's small, compact, and *relatively* light. Not too keen on the tubes exposed from the back, but with care, this seems like a solid little unit. I MAY look into getting a fan set up to cool the tubes, as well, as I use an amp stand which tips the amp backwards, keeping more heat inside the unit.

5 year limited warranty.

No idea about service.

Amps I Have Owned:
Fender
Vox
Laney
Crate
Traynor
Peavey
Yamaha

The Blues Junior beats the worthless crap out of all of them.

If I lost this amp, for whatever reason, I would have to replace it with 2 more. I am also looking at building an extension cabinet for it (sweet one like on the billm mods website). I looked at a lot of low wattage amps, because I wanted to be able to turn it up and get that tube overdrive, without deafening the neighbours. And in this amp, I've got that. I've also got an amp that's loud enough to use for practice and gigs.

all the features I need, but nothing special.

I play an archtop guitar in a jazz-trio setting so I am after a clean sound. Normally I use a polytone, but I borrow this from my bass player now for any other gig and use it in our rehearsal room. the amp has only 15 watt, so at a certain volume it tends to break up and it does that smooth and gentle and it shows a nice reaction to my picking dynamics, just a hint of compression to make me feel good. it is easy to get vintage jazz tones like burrell and grant green with this amp.
there is some noise, but thats always the tradeoff for an "open" tube sound.

so far it didn't let us down.

never dealt with them.

I play like 30 years, owned fender, marshall, boogie and some other brands. this is a nice amp to play in jazzclubs if you want a bit of tube compression and a hint of overdrive. sounds pretty warm and real. If I need more clean headroom I use my polytone.

Make this quick, there are over 500 reviews on this ampy--what else can I add???? Here's is my review. This SOB is awesome! Everything else is too heavy, too obnoxious, too loud, too much. I take this baby to the studio while other dudes take their stacks, and I rip their balls off, yeah, they leave a girlyman. Sure they get LoWD, but blah blah blah quiet is the new loud. Clean is the new distort. This 15megaWatt torch sinks the roof. Okay, that's my review.

The simple features are well documented. The beauty of this amp is what it's not. This is the amp for someone who has had enough of solid state and onboard effects. This is the amp for someone who cares about tone.

I'm using this amp with a Les Paul Custom and Godin SD. I play Christian radio rock/pop, so I don't use heavy crunch or distortion, so the bluesy tone of this amp is works very well for me. All tubes amps have a little noise, especially if other electrical equipment is nearby or the tubes are aging. I've been able to modify from clean to a little crunchy with the master volume. Just work with it, and be patient enough to realize the tube tone is so worth it over solid state.

I just purchased this new, so I can't say. I hope it's reliable; however, this is my second tube amp (first was a Peavey Classic 30) that was problematic. As with all tube amps, plan on replacing the tubes at some point. Buy them in advance. If you want maintenance free, go solid state, but know that you're sacrificing tone for toys.

Have not had to call them, and hope I don't have to.

I've been playing for 8 years, mostly acoustic. I have a Roland Cube 30 that I don't use, a Behringer ACX1000 acoustic amp. I have a Martin HD28 that's a gem, and several other lesser expensive guitars, a couple basses, and a mandolin.
If it were stolen, at this point, I would replace it (depends on reliability).
I love tube tone so much that it's worth any maintenance issues. I also love the simplicity (great, great tone without all the crap). To meet the needs of a few songs we do, I will have to add a couple pedals.