Fender Blues Junior

Amp made in Mexico, year 2005. Its features, quite essential and minimalized are just the best to suit my taste (the less you have, the less will break!): 15 Watts of pure all tube power, single clean channel, bass mid and treble controls, volume (pre) and master (power amp), Accutronic spring reverb and -the feature I like the best- a really useful boost named "fat" controllable via footswitch (not included)that adds some juice to the tone for lead sound, making it cut through the mix as a blade through butter! As I wrote, it just have 1 channel and doesn't have any effect-loop; it's anyway really pedal-friendly and putting a really good overdrive in front of it will make it just sing. Its 15 Watts are more than enough to gig in small clubs and if you have to play in a theatre or a Stadium, I suppose you'll have to mike it. I won't give it a 10 here just because for the buck I'm convinced they SHOULD supply the footswitch.

The sound is clean and deep, very responsive to EQ settings and can make any guitar you plug in the way it's meant to play... I mostly use it with a Strat and a Tele (both loaded with Kinman pick-ups)and I can nail everything between Chicago and Rio Grande in the Blues territory (which must obviously be the perfect habitat for this amp): SRV, Johhny Winter, early ZZ Top, Allman Bros. and Lynyrd Skynyrd. It just brings the best out of my rig: the sound is clear, but never brittle, with tight bass response and always 3-dimensional.
It even seem to like some jazzy phrasing when I plug my full-hollow Ibanez semi-acoustic guitar.
I had tons of other amps in the past (Marshall JCM600 and 800, Fender Super Reverb, Hot Rod Deluxe, Mesa Caliber 22, Peavey Classic 50). This is by far the best I've own: after wandering for decades looking for an amp providing good sounds both clean and distorted, I realised that all I needed was a clean tone perfect to my ear and my taste, then a good overdrive that wouln't snaturate that sound...
The Blues Jr gave me THAT clean sound, but don't forget that THE sound is totally subjective: the same sound may be Heaven for me and Hell for somebody else...

It seems well built, despite some reviews I read here... It never let me down so far, though I often mistreat it a bit by gigging around in Clubs where I have to "squeeze" it a little ;-).
I always gig without a back up, even if I just got another one trading off my Hot Rod... Sofar, so good.

I never dealt with them.

I've been playing for 30+ years, a decade as a pro across late 80's and 90's with more Blues and Southern Rock bands than I can remember.
I'm really in love with this amp; I think it gives its best with the Strat, but let's remember that the amp is 25% of your sound, as 25% is in your guitar and the last 50% is in your hands and heart!
I wouldn't buy any other amp and I guess you hardly could find another in this price-range that sounds better! Oh, by the way... It weighs in under 18 Kg, so you won't have to rent a lifter to bring it out for gigs!

Mine was made in 2006. There are plenty of reviews here so I will focus only on this amp's usefulness in playing surf music.

I play surf music through this amp with an assortment of Fender and Danelectro guitars, generally preferring neck+bridge. You can get a good surf sound out of this amp. Needless to say, you will want to turn the reverb all the way up to 12 and leave it there all the time. You can get a good deal more reverb out of it by turning down the EQ's. I find that a setting of between 1-2 for middle and bass, and between 2-3 for treble yields a nice tone. It would be nice, of course, if the reverb could be turned up past 12, perhaps to 20 or 400 or so. But then again, the sky is the limit.

I found the Sovtek 12AX7's to be lacking in dirt and snot, so I pulled one and replaced it with a 1953 GE 12AX7 that trashes up the sound a bit more (I believe it runs a bit hotter as well). If you have a box of 12A?7 tubes around, try out a few others.

The Blues Jr pretty much has all the features you can expect from a small tube amp - single channel, 3 band eq, master volume and Reverb and 12 inch speaker.

One unique feature the act has is what they call a "FAT" switch, which is a fixed gain and low-end booster that's footswitchable. A good substitute if you don't have a Tubescreamer. It thickens up the signal and makes it more powerful - I'd leave it on all the time but I run a rather noisy flanger before the amp so can't have any gain boost after it, so leave it off. This is where an effects loop would have been great.

I've had this amp for a few years now so am pretty well versed with what it likes and does not.

First this is a Fender, not a Marshall 18w so don't expect a lot of overdrive. The name of the amp is Blues Jr, not Rock Jr or Metal Jr. What this means is it's designed to produce a Blues sound - as you turn up the volume the tone gets increasingly woolly and middy, losing high end detail. Personally I'm not a Bluesman (I play Indie rock) so I swapped out the 12AX7 in V1 with a vintage RCA 12AT7, which increases the clean headroom of the amp and suppresses the middy, woolly gain sound for further along the turn of the volume knob. You still have to be careful boosting the amp with pedal - a large volume boost from a pedal will of course push the amp into the woolly middy drive, so I tend to be fairly conservative with pedal volume, although some bright dirt pedals mix quite well with the amp's own overdrive.

The general dark, middy, woolly tone of this amp means it's probably best suited to single coils (not surprising again - it's a Fender). I play HBs (HSH) and think you can get the most out of this amp with lighter gague strings - I use flatwound 10s. Previously I'd used flatwound 12s (I'm no shredder) but the tone was really much too thick for this amp. I had to run the treble control on full and the Bass on 2 and it was still too difficult to balance between the neck and bridge. Now I run each EQ at around noon - if the tone of the instrument is good then there's little need to compensate at the amplification stage. I leave the volume at 5 and alter the master depending on whether I need to keep things quite. It's quite loud with the master maxed.

The spring reverb is ok, but nothing to write home about. Of course it's not tube driven, and it's a very small spring tank, so isn't that deep and has that small tank twang. Some guy on ebay used to offer a bigger spring tank that he'd file down so it would fit into the cab. I'd always intended to pick one up but never got around to it and I've not seen them listed for a few years now.

I also swapped out the stock speaker with a Jensen C12N reissue several years ago. From memory it improved the tone slightly, maybe by 10-15%.

Well I'm not a gigging musician so can't comment on how it stands up to being moved from place to place, but I've never had an issue with the amp. I was disappointed to read that Fender Australia would only honour the 5 year warranty if the amp was serviced by an authorised repairer annually.

I also noticed that the knob labels were very easily rubbed off (the ON under the power switch has completely rubbed off my amp).

One thing it is prone to is tube rattle, though this is more an issue of the tubes than the amp, and a risk with most combos. The stock grovetube preamp tubes in V2 and V3 rattle on the neck pickup with the volume is high enough. I'd probably worry about it more if I had an audience.

I've had a love-hate relationship with this amp. I'd fallen for a little Pro Jr, yet when I went back to the store the next day for the sale they'd discounted the Blues Jr, which I hadn't bothered to try, into my price range. The store was far to packed to try the amp out and I just assumed it was the same as the Pro, only with more features. I think the two amps have different purposes - the Blues Jr is obviously meant for the Bluesman and the Pro is better voiced for classic rock. In any event I've learned to live with the Blues and can appreciate that it's a pretty good amp for the money. It's never had an issue and is still running strong on 4 of the 5 stock tubes 4 years later. Ultimately I think I will eventually sell it in 6 months to help fund a holiday, and would probably look at something else to replace it when I return, perhaps a Deluxe Reverb reissue or possibly an old Princeton Reverb if I can find one. I think the Blues Jr is better than old Champs and Vibrochamps - they sound tiny next to one.

Anywho, they're available everywhere so try one out and let your own ears decide. Best to ignore criticisms from gear snobs because it doesn't measure up to their Matchless - it's an entry level mass-produced amp for God's sake. For what it is, it's pretty good. value. There's not a lot available in the alternative.

This amp has no frills, except for a "Fat" button, which gives it an overdrive effect. This is different than the Fender Blues Deluxe set up. The other pots are just for volume, master, reverb, etc..
I basically use this amp at my home, but may be suitable for a small gig.

This was my first tube amp purchase after having several solid state types. I play a Fender Telecaster, usually tuned in open E to play bottleneck with. I am very happy with the sustain I get with the amp fairly cranked up. The tone is powerful, but dampening the strings helps omit any clutter. So it works well for this application. I also just purchased an Epiphone Dot, which is generally rigged in standard tuning, and it's a blast to play throught this amp. It has a nice warm tone, and depending on how high the volume and master are set, I can rely on only amp distortion for good rockin effects. I also use a wah wah with the Dot at times, and I feel no need to add any other effects device to the set up to achieve any better tone. It's powerful for it's size, and it's got some versitility depending on styles and guitars

I had to have a tube replaced recently, but it's held up nicely.

I have found many players who are fond of this amp for different reasons. For the price it's a great investment for a smaller tube amp that packs a little punch.

The amp was made in 2006. 15 watt amp, EL84 Groove Tubes inside. Sovtek 12AX7 preamp tubes as well.

I play rock, but mainly a singer, so fine for me. For practice, home, small gigs...can't go wrong. It's not some wonder amp; simple is best.

VERY HAPPY with the sound. I have a Les Paul 58 VOS, and I have been playing everyday now! The amp is small so it starts breaking up at about 5. The FAT switch adds warmth to it, but don't expect "shred-head" tones. I have a LINE 6 Uber Metal for that. The reverb is tasty! For the size, a great sounding tube amp!

Just got it so can't tell you that....

Fender?

No comment.

Great value, will use this live. I hope I can advise people like this: I was a GAS maniac who went through axes and amps like wildfire. I slimmed down to just a Gibson J-45 acoustic, and the 58 LP VOS. I had a Mesa Boogie Lonestar 50/100W. I felt bad for the amp, because its chance to shine was being taken away by my living in a condo in hyper-sensitive Japan! Many friends came to my aid and so I got this. I admit the Lonestar's reverb and clean is not to be beat, but realistically, how could I play that amp? You know the answer to that.
This amp play beautifully, it's all tube, and your neighbors won't try to kill you. This can be used in smaller venues, so worth the dough. Been playing about 20 years. If it got stolen I'd buy another, but here in Japan, they're SOLD OUT along with the PRO junior. I was lucky to get one. Check one out.

We all know these by now!! but i gave this i high rating because i dont use effects loops, or any fancy channel switching, so it has enough features for me!!

This is not a fizzy ultra gain distortion amplifier so dont buy it if thats what you want!! a few reveiws on here have complained about the lack of drive on this amp but...ok...sorry..Its a BLUES JUNIOR!!! and the idea of a classic blues sound is to drive the power stage as far as you can and not use that nasty fizzy overdrive that you get on a lot of amps!! thats why its only 15w and not 50w so you can crank it!! The sound is very sweet, and is sensitive to pick attack. Hard to get a clean sound when cranked, but if you have a Strat/Tele/Ric or any single coil guitars,it should do the job well. But again it is a BLUES amp!!!It does that BB King SRV modern Clapton sound well!!! also good for Oasis The Beatles, any classic rock really!! But i would recommend using only classic type guitars with this! tried a Jackson through it and it sounded very dull! i use Strat, Les Paul, Rickenbacker 330 and they all shine there unique sounds through this amp! I have it set up driven and just use the volume on the guitar to control gain level, works well for me..but may not for others, so you do need to try before you buy!!!!

no probs yet!!

Been playing for 16 years, 12years live in bands!! I own a Marshall DSL100 head & cab!! and a Marshall 2554 Jubilee combo!! all great amps!! but this little thing is well up there with them!! i use it more than the Marshall Jubilee and those amps are fantastic!! dont listen to the crap!! its got plenty of power for most live places i play pubs & clubs and its fine!! If you use 100w amps, the bass then uses high wattage amps..the drummer then gets louder! the singer then gets a 5000w PA with 6 monitors!! and it gets stupid!!! we all use small combos in my band now, dont use the big stuff anymore! and have a much more dynamic sound then ever!! And for me the BLUES JUNIOR fits the bill well and does a great job!!!

I don't know the year, but I know it's Made in America. It's a single channel amp with a gain boost and reverb.

3 12AX7 preamp tubes feeding into 2 EL84 power tubes, into a Fender Eminence 12" speaker that I find is lacking but does its job.

15W tube

Really, it's all I want from the amp, so no problems, but an effects loop would be a welcome addition, as I would like to put an EQ between the pre and power sections of the amp.

Oh, and a standby switch would be a really good idea.

Here's where things are awesome.

Here's how I'd describe this amplifier: JCM-800 Marshall with tighter low end and much lower power. Oh, and if you're wondering, I do have a JCM-800, and that's my main gig amp. I've had the opportunity to crank this amplifier numerous times, and the sound it produces is very Marshallesque. With humbuckers, just stick an overdrive pedal in front with the level maxed out and the gain at zero, and the tone maxed. Maybe add a little drive from the pedal, and you're in the metal zone (but better sounding). Think Jerry Cantrell.

The sound from this amp is creamy and it really sings.

This amp is capable of playing an unmiced gig if you're okay with not having a good clean sound, though your volume knob will help. Paired with a more efficient speaker, this amp can almost do it all. I've played metal shows, unmiced, with this going into an Avatar 1x12 when my Marshall has gone in for repairs.

This amplifier sounds really great when miked for a recording or through a PA, and it's a convenient, relatively light, and great sounding amplifier. It's my main recording and rehearsal amplifier.

My two qualms are that its reverb no longer works, which I need to fix, and the speaker is pretty dull sounding, not to mention inefficient.

Reverb does not work, and that's half of why you buy a Fender. I bought the amplifier from my teacher, who sold it because he hardly used it, so it really looked brand new. I've used it extensively, so it has its nicks, but the reverb never worked to begin with on this amp.

I've never dealt with Fender. I'd imagine they do their best but given the size of the company, things fall through. But I won't give a rating here.

I've been playing 10 years, gigging for 5. Considering the deal I got on this amp, I think it's an incredible value. I'd replace it in a heartbeat.

My other amp is a JCM-800 4210, which I only use the clean channel on, as that's the real all-tube, JCM-800 channel. My signal chain is as follows:

Guitars:
1987 Fender Stratocaster MIJ
2005 Dean Vendetta 3.0 with DiMarzio Megadrive and Air Norton
Early '90's Charvel Model 3
Frankenstrat with EMG SC's, Kramer neck, Squier Alder body, Schaller Floyd Rose II bridge.

Effects:
Dunlop Crybaby
Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive
Digitech Screaming Blues
1985 ProCo Rat Pedal
Boss CH-1 Super Chorus
DOD Stereo Phaser (the maroon one)
Danelectro Fish & Chips EQ

Amps:
Fender Blues Jr.
1983 Marshall JCM-800 4210
Fender Frontman 15

This is my 2nd blues jr. !st was used and i sold it and just got a 06
model. brand new. You know the features,1 channel, reverb, fat switch,all tube 15w. I will be using it at church miked thru pa. wish it had a stand by switch [ what i do is turn master all the way down] wish it had a effects loop.

Like the label says,blues, awesome clean, lil meat when needed as you dig in, I got a Boss bd-2 also. I have a Prs swamp ash hsh, with a 5 way switch, a american tele deluxe with 2 Barden twin tone p'ups and a awesome strat copy with peavey wolfgang neck and anderson p'ups, got a kelley ts9, v-stack, boss chorus, boss dd-6 delay and a incredible BBE sonic max. stomp box.
Im a blues based player playing comtempoary christian music, very hi-energy.
Fat switch is ok, i like to get as clean as i can and let the pedals do all others

Had manyyy amps, fender has had problems i hear, none here

Ive called fender before for help, total jerks

Im 51, been playing since i was 8. I do have a 2006 peavey classic 30, upgraded to jj tubes and a weber silver dog.
If you cant get tone outa this thing stock, get guitar lessons, tone is in your fingers also, Ive had 'em all, guitars and amps.
I bought this cause I wanted some fender clean, also ck out the crate 30w class a palamino, got some sweet clean, fender style, also had a 15w palamino, i didnt like it. The peavey classic has a better od/ dist. channel, crate has a sweet fender sound clean, let the pedals do the work on the clean side

small light weight, does have plenty of punch. I use it mainly for a pratice amp but have used it in small clubs.

I`m a blues guitarist and like the tube tone, it does breakup OK but seems to have a hum when the fat button is engauged.

within a week the reverb went out and continued to fail approx. every 3 months just like clock work. in a 3 year period this amp was in the shop for a total of 36 weeks for reverb repairs. I wasn`t happy about that. Fender denied there was a problem but after 6 trips to the repair shop they finally replaced it with a new one. haven`t turned the new one on yet considering selling it and buying a Peavey 112 Valve King.

Fender Lies, numerous phone calls and e-mails between Fender and I along with the point of purchase dealer I bought the amp from. each time it was sent for repairs it was gone from 4 to 6 weeks, repair shop says to many to fix in their shop, humm! a friend of mine has same exact problem with his.

I`ve been playing guitar for 30 years, played most venues, bluegrass, rock, country and now blues. If this amp was lost or stolen I would not replace it, has been a piece of junk ever sience I brought it home. at the time i was looking for a small amp that would be easy to transport, I considered a Peavey and probally should have bought it. I own a 1980 Fender 75 112 combo and it is my main amp but weights in a 80 lbs, difficult to transport but does work fine after 26 years of service.

Features very basic and easy to understand- ideally it could have two channels clean/overdrive but for this price you could buy two amps or buy a volume boost pedal to get the same affect changing between clean /overdrive

Sound quality is the best. Really great sound.Its not and out and metal shredders amp. Think more blues warm sound tube overdrive at its best.

A definite addition to your rig with this amp would be to add a graphic equaliser as one of your pedals.This really refines the sound.

never had to deal with them.Had it 6 months never a problem

dont know

I would replace this amp if stolen.Definately the best.i have two other amps a marshal and a fender twin.The fender blues junior is the one that comes out with me every time

I bought it brand new in September 2006 from a shop in Denmark street (London UK). I have many good amps but I needed an all valve good sounding amp small enough to travel by tube and but to my gigs with my country-blues-pop band. You know all the features already. 15W: it's got plenty of power. With the band (good drummer) I never used it full power - too loud. I even played an outdoor festival once and was OK (obviously miked up). The spring reverb is decent not great, still very useful and usable. Fat channel gives a bit dirtier sound, a bit richer with harmonics and fatter. I had it on all the time. Nothing missing here! Very versatile for all styles. Heavy rock or metal is a no-no. Maybe could be used with distortion pedals as practice amp only. For me its magic was the portability.

I used it only with a G&L telecaster and a Fender Stratocaster and for the money is the best thing out there! For this money. It's got that valve rich and thick sound which can cut its way out through the band on stage. I did extensive researches before buying it and I definitely did the right choice for the budget I had. To my ears the best sound was with the volume as high as possible and the gain low, that way the power valves really breathe and the sound is more dynamic. I liked the mids and bass quite high (8) the treble on 3.
Maybe because my guitar is quite bright. Reverb always on 3. Quite impressive good sound for such a small box especially if you have a chance to really crunch it up to saturate the speaker. I read here that many people changed the speaker and the tubes. I put in some nice J/J valves and to be honest didn't make much difference. I wouldn???t recommend changing anything in this amp. It won't make too much difference. Just crank it up and happily play. It's a cheap amp and will still be a cheap amp. The best cheap amp around indeed.
After saving money I sold it and bought a Cornell Romany Plus but I have to say that the Cornell cost about four times more (and sounds four times better).

In the first out of the box the reverb didn't work. I think is a weak point the reverb in this amp. I unscrewed it out and kept it separate outside the amp in a foam envelope to travel by bus and tube on the trolley and connect it back just to play the gig.

I had to wait few weeks to get a new amp just after I bought it because the reverb didn't work. So check the amp in the shop before you go home.

In my opinion is the best amp out there in this price range if you play anything but metal. I would reccomend this amp but if you are picky about the sound don't think that you can change the speaker and it will sound amazing. Save some more money and buy something in a different price range.

All tube, 12 inch speaker, reverb, master volume (distortion capable). fat switch. bass-treb.-mid. controls.

YES YES YES-WARM BRIGHT BASSY- TRUE TUBE VINTAGE SOUND*THIS AMP IS IT*

tubes amps require maintenance. but this will be my main amp. if I have a problem, I will buy two, or three and have the same amp backing up the same amp.

don't know

This amp sounds good with pedals and by itself, sounds good with my strat and my acoustic. For 15 watts it sounds like 50 watts on other mosfet amps. this amp is a time capsule to back when the sound of music mattered. I'm very impressed, I will keep this amp a long time and will probably buy another one later as a back up.

This amp is extremely basic and so rating it a 10 is not because of the vast amount of different sounds, but more because it is an awsome amp for the money and it is versital enough to play a variety of music. The best feature and it's saving grace is the master volume. This allows you to crank the regular volume and us it as a gain. Other than that it has the typical fender controls, volume, bass, mid, treble, and reverb.

I love tube sound, and this amp is tube sound. If you want an amp with crazy off the wall distorsion built in than this is not your amp. However if you want a sweet sounding Tube amp with enough power to play small indoor gigs and practices, as well as outdoor gigs thru a PA.
I play Classic Rock and Blues, and I have a Telecaster, Les Paul, and a Melody Maker. This amp sounds good with all of them. If you can use floor pedals then you can achieve any sound you want. The clean on this amp is clear enough to facilitate any distortion pedal or overdrive pedal. All I use is a tube screamer and it gives me some beautiful leads.

I played a few with reverb problems. The guitar center guy said fender was having some problems with reverb units, but I think thats probably bullshit. I only gave it an 9 because I played 2 before finding one that was perfect. But hey if you get it new then you get a 5 year fender warranty so you'll be covered.

Fender has a 5 year warranty for anything that breaks. I have never had a problem with any fender I have owned. I have had a Twin, deluxe reissue, blues junior.

Anyone concerned 15 watts is not enough juice should be warned, this is a loud amp. I have played in a band for the last 8 years and I usually play with a twin. Due to weight and it being a pain in the ass to move around I bought this little joy. It keeps up with the drums and the rest of the band and I have pleanty of room to get louder. I should say I play really loud. I love my amps loud and I love to feel the music. This little thing, sound so good I may be using it more often than the twin. We'll have to see. I HIGHLY recomend this amp. Very light, beautiful tone, great value.

Volume, Master Volume, bass, mids, treble, reverb. All you need though.

I have been at music school for a while. Prior to this I had a Roland Cube 30. I liked the solid state sound that amp put out at lower volumes. It soon went to shit cranked. I should note I play jazz/modern jazz. Having had the privelege to play several differnt amps at school I decided that a fender was the way to go. I than had a friend from another country who is quite the heavy weight player. I noticed he was using a blues junior. I thought it sounded good despite the way he was eq'ing it. I couldn't afford the deluxe so I said hey lets try it. I have had it for months not and I love the sound it produces. I generally prefer what some would all a "dark" sound. Not like Wes's or Mehteny's but more like Rosenwinkel's. I can get there with this amp if I crank the treble..put the bass at 1 or 2...and put the mids at 5. I have been experimenting with odd eq's for a while...I find with that setting i can control the rest with my guitar. All the sound is there. I run a line 6 DL4 through it and sometimes an Alesis Nanoverb. I am hoping after the holidays to update it with a celestion since I tried one wth a celestion V30 and thought it sounded much better. Let's face it the stock speaker ain't great but my guitar makes up for it.
I am not a hobbist or at home Blues banger....so I don't find using the amp's distortion much useful. It is nice...but I do find the amp to sound "boxy" when it is used. Ironically I do use a Barber Direct Drive every once in a while...and that thing can not only make the amp rip....it acts as a clean boost aside from the one provided on the amp.

good thus far.

good

I dig the sound for what I do. I mean gigs are small venues so it is fine there. It is light and portible. I run my own effects through it like I said. I am not a fan of the reverb on it. It is fine..I just prefer a darker hall reverb. As far as the comment I read bellow mine about the amp's reverb only being useful at max settings. I find that to be completly ridiculous to be honest. Unless you are playing 80's music. I mean I find it fine at 3. I guess if you use tons of drive and are making up for technique or something that is fine to crank it. Just not a useful tone.
I like Harmony Central reviews...but you have to be careful waht you read. You get every kind here writing reviews; which is fine. You just need to search for the honesty. The truth is that this amp is a decent start to a small rig if you are playing small venues....or it is miced. It is an awsome start to work with. Add nice pedals if that is your bag..etc....and this amp is fine for the money. Infact, I don't think for the money you'd find much better. Although I heard Peavy classic 30's can compare.
If I had the cash I'd go with a Deluxe just becuase you can get a better tone for what I do.
This is fine though.
Don't buy if you play that nu metal shit...or are just looking to make alot of noise.

Reverb, all tube, small and cheap price

Out of the box you get the best for the money, but in all honesty not that great. Has a really ice pick tinny sound to it. Not bad just not great. I did a couple do it yourself mods and put a Weber 12F150 speaker in it. The mods I did were the Bill tone stack mod and lower the bias with a higher resistor value. The two mods alone did help a little, but the speaker made the best change. I looked and looked for a good speaker for this amp and it's hard to finds any good advice. The Weber has a VERY nice warm detailed sound. If you like warm smooth highs and a crapload of bass this is it. In no way could I live without my setup it sounds VERY VERY Good!! I'm giving it a 10 because I can't find a better sound anywhere. Better then my Mesa MKIII clone

Good

Never dealt with...that's good!!!

I know its not the best amp out of the box, but with anouther $120 in mods you can't find a better amp. I have owned a Fender Blues Deluxe, Ampeg VH-140 and a Roland Bolt 60 (police and Jeff beck have used it for recording). The blues jr, beats the deluxe with no mods but the Roland crushed this thing in warmth. After the speaker none of these amps can mess with this thing. Remember it's only 15watts so if you plan on playing a huge show or out side un-mic'd show you would be pretty stupid. For small bars and recording it's the best!

A 2006 Fender Blues Junior, manufactured during this last June in Mexico. All tube. The amp is quite versatile, I play country, blues, rock and jazz and this amp covers those styles with a very nice warm tone.
This amp has only one channel and that's how I like it - keep it simple! Six knobs: Master, Bass, Treble, Mid, Reverb and Volume. One input jack and one ON/OFF switch. One 12" Eminence speaker. That's all but it's just what I need, again, simplicity is the key word here.
I hardly use effects loops, headphone jacks or foot channel switching so I've got exactly the basic good little amp I was looking for.
As a 15 watts amp this is a mean little beast of prey. It has a lot of power and sounds like a much bigger amp regardless to its size and type. I use this amp mainly as my bedroom practice amp but I also gig with it once in a while.

The amp delivers sounds from the "Fender clean" to a classic overdrived tube amp. The amp can get distorted at very low volume settings which are very cool. The distortion isn't really a distortion but more of a warm crunchy overdrive. This amp is not for those who are looking for a head banger Metal sound.
I have a 2005 Les Paul Standard, a '52 Tele reissue and a 1988 American Standard Strat. They all sound great through this amp but to my ears the Strat sounds the best, especially while playing blues.
The amp keeps it quiet, even when I play single coil guitars.

I only have it for two weeks now - so far so good! It looks well built and reliable. As I???ve said before, I already gigged with it (without a backup) with ease.

I've dealt with Fender Consumer Relations once 'cause the "QA" sticker on the back was missing and I wanted to date my amp. They were helpful and got back to me fast with the answer. VERY NICE!

I love that this little amp can produce such a big warm tone. I play guitar for more than 20 years and heard few amps, this little baby is one of the best sounding. If it were stolen or lost I'd surely get another one - I love this amp!
I like it because of its lightweight and size - "Good things come in small packages"...
The amp was bought in Israel for 2800 NIS (650 USD).

2006 fender blues jr. 1 input, reverb, fat switch, all tube 15 watts. A friend of mine owned one of these for approx. 8 years and gigged all the time with it and never had any problems. Easily loud enough for gigs (although I mic it anyway) I play country, rock and blues profesionally and the amps tones were great, I was using a hot rod deluxe but wanted something with less power.

The tonal quality of the amp was great, sometimes a little boxy (really small cabinet) but my eq pedal took care of that, I use a tele, strat and es-175 and it worked well with all of them. I found the amp to be very quiet, it did break up a little at extreme volumes but isn't that why we use tube amps!! this amp loves tube screamers and boss ds-2

My amp must have been a dud because I have owned alot of fender tube amps and never had a problem, until this amp. With in a span of 3-4 months it was sent back and turned out it had a couple of cold solder joints, after that I used the amp at one gig and again started losing power and got really distorted took it in and they said it had some faulty caps in it, played the amp at home doing some recording at low volume and the same thing happened, took it in turned out the output tubes were shot, got it back again played 2 gigs and it happened again, I returned it to thew music store for a full refund, despite this I would still buy another fender tube amp as I have used them for 9 years with out problem and love there tone.

Both fender and the music store where it was purchased were both very professional and dealt with problems very quickly and were eager to help. Very Good service

I've been playing for 10 years, lots of fender tube amps, national tube amps, ampeg tube amps etc.... I have a bunch of guitars but mostly play the tele's, mps-9 pedal board, lots of boss pedals, george L cords

I will still buy fender tube amps, this will not sway my loyalty

Amp is a 04 model, it came with a guitar I bought.

I was not satisified with the sound, it was missing something, Tried every different setting, even with a few different guitars I still was unhappy with the sound. I removed the original tubes and installed some JJ"s. They woke it up some, something still not there but I think this little amp can do it. Time for a heart transplant. After some speaker research I decided to go with the Weber Blue Dog P/N Blue 12-A-15W. Alnico ring, British cone. Very expensive speaker, I did not want to try ten different low dollar speakers so I saved up for the big dollar one. After a few months I got the money together and called Weber 765-452-1249 and ordered the blue dog. I removed the Jensen and installed the blue dog and I will tell you this, you have to remove the bell cover or she will never fit. with the bell cover removed I mean she just fits in there. Pluged her in and have mercy, talk about a totally different amp. I thought about getting some of the mods done but I am going to leave her as is. This is not the same amp anymore and the sound is unbealiveable. I will take it anywhere now.

Reverb never worked when I recieved it. I have only had it about six months so far, no problems.

Never delt with them.

Been playing mostly off for a long time. Now it seems to be on. I am a fender guy and dont use effects to much, just the amp and a Maxon OD 808 to give it a little kick in the butt. This is a great little amp now, with the tubes and speaker change I give her a nine, she is a keeper. If stolen I would be heartbroken, and most likely get another one.

15 watts, All tube, 12" speaker, reverb Cream board version (newer one)

Just the amp alone with no pedals you can get a real nice blues/country sound and chunky break-up on chords. With pedals you can do whatever you want. I use it with a Dillion PRS copy with PRS pickups (HFS vintage lead). I liked the sound at first and then a friend came over with his ampeg SS-70. I thought his amp so SOO much better sounding so I bought an Ampeg VH-140c. I tried selling my blues Jr on Ebay and some dude backed out....just never got around to selling it. Then like two weeks ago I was getting real pissed at the muddiness coming from my Ampeg. I pluged in the Fender and could not believe I almost sold it. I noticed right away how much more sustain you get from a tube amp....I figured I would sell the Ampeg ang mod the Fender a little. I did some free stuff...solding jumpers on mid pot and changing some values with resitors and caps. I love my little amp. I really still suck at guitar and don't play out much but this amp is a sleeper....I have very nice tone. Better than most people who can play. I did a lot of research and bought a Weber 12" speaker (12F150)...I'm still waiting on it, but even without it my tone is great, just thought I would get it even better. The Weber speakers are handmade in USA for each order and you can get one for $100! This amp will go down in history as a Classic. Plus it's small and loud!!

Made very well....just don't drop it down the stairs or somthing

Never dealt with Fender

I been playing for over a year now...had a Fender Hot rod deluxe, Ampeg VH140 combo, Transtube Crate, and have played through a Dr Z, and Fender Champ. I play a SeaGull acoustic, Dillion PRS copy w PRS pickups and locking grovers, Dillion rosewood tele (Wilkison bridge, 59 Tele pickups, locking grovers, grap nut, and use 11's on both my electrics.

I love the sound size and simplicity of this amp...the mods help but only enhance the already good sound. I just like haveing a stock looking "sleeper" that people can't figure out. The only thing that I hate about the amp is that when Fender made these they put the labels for the knobs facing the back of the amp! To read the print you have to stand at the back of the amp!!?

This is a single channel amp with reverb.Includes 3 band eq and a master control with a fat switch.Retro chickenhead knobs.

I play blues and rock and this amp fills the bill quite nicely.I play a srv strat and a texas special fat strat.Amp comes quite close to srv,clapton hendrix territory.Nice clean sounds and can be overdriven easily.It takes pedals easily too.This amp is plenty loud.

I have had this amp since about 2002 and all i have done is replaced the tubes, and I gig with it alot.

Never had to deal with fender.

I have been playing since 94,but onle been playing electric since 2002.If it were stolen I would hunt down the person who stole it.It would be replaced.I love the fact the amp only weighs 31 pounds and sounds so great.I only wish it had a little more thump, but thats only due to its small cabinet size.

I have to qualify this review and say that I just got my Blues Jr. chassis back from the Blues Jr. Guru, Bill Machrone (BillM). I've had the amp for 10 years, but this is a different amp.

Tweed (not lacquered), built in 1995 in the USA. Green board, Rev B. Stock, you already know what features this thing has. With BillM mods I now have a new tone stack, revived reverb, and a presence/bright control which contours the sound in ways the treble/mid/bass controls never could.

The addition of the presence control is what makes this puppy sing. With the control maxed, the muddiness generally associated with these green-board BJrs disappears. Instead your notes leap off the strings with crystal clarity. My MIJ 62RI Strat sounds like a whole new guitar.

Roll back the presence and it sounds more subdued, like the stock BJ; great for Jazz and such. Pull up on the switch and you get a slight bright boost that helps cut through no matter where the presence control is set.

The reverb, which before had pretty much two useful settings--on and off (maxed and rolled all the way back), now has real uses. Before you had to put the reverb on 10-12 to get any useful sustain. Now anything above 4 is really pushing some reverb.

This is where the amp has really started to shine. I liked the warm mellow tone it had before, but now the range of sound has increased dramatically. Bright clean tones, muddy gritty overdrive, smooth jazz, and with the new tone stack, the tone controls actually shape the sound with incredibly versatility.

The amp has more of that bright clean Fender flavor. The new reverb lets you go from subdued to Dick Dale, whereas before it was like a child's "Mr. Microphone" type of reverb.

I was thinking about changing the pickups in my Strat (MIJ 62 RI Foto Flame) but nevermore. Before, I felt like the neck and middle pickup settings were pretty much the same. The neck sounded mellow and was fine for finger picking some chords, but it never cut through. Now, all five pickup settings have a very distinct flavor which are all extremely shapeable.

My Ibanez Artcore AK85 is a warmer hollow body guitar with two Ibanez humbuckers. It doesn't benefit as much from the upgrades, but it still loves the warmth. Great jazz flavors with the presence control pulled back.

Both guitars have the ability to shape the sound much more with the guitar tone and volume controls. Before, I had to use the amp to shape the tone, as the guitars' controls didn't contribute as much. BillM's magical mystery mods have given my guitars their ability to shape their own sound much better. I don't know how he did it but I sure love it.

You're not going to play any Metal out of this amp unless you get some serious outboard processing. But why would you buy an amp named "Blues Jr." to play metal anyway? If you want some serious classic rock and blues sounds though, this is going to make you a happy camper.

The overdrive is just sweet. Fully cranked, you get a nice gritty classic rock sound. Depending on the guitar, the amp is clean from about 4-5 and down on the gain but breaks up every so nicely when you push it just a bit. Very responsive to the guitar and your playing style.

The overall tone with the BillM mods is indescribably improved. This is a tone shaping machine.

This thing has always been the loudest 15 watts I've heard. The first time I took it to a small venue to gig I thought I'd mic it. I had to take the mic off and turn down the master a bit because it was actually almost too loud and was overpowering in a smallish venue. Given, my band was not a loud metal band with Marshall stacks, but this puppy puts out some juice.

The reverb tank crapped out after about 7 years and I replaced it with one from Mojo Tone for about $25.

The cheap plastic input jack broke after about 5 years and the guitar plug would move around and crackle and make bad noises. BillM replaced it with a nice metal shielded jack for $20.

Tubes need to be replaced in this thing every year or so because the bias is set so hot.

The gain pot got dust in it from being stored for a couple of years with little to no use. I couldn't clean it out so had it replaced for $10.

I gigged with this thing reliably for about 2 years every week and practices to boot. The tweed is a little worse for wear as it was never lacquered, but I may have it replaced and lacquered in the next year or so.

Overall, the case is built tough and it's a pretty solid amp. After this many years, there are bound to be a couple little problems. BillM said a couple of solder joints were cracked too. I never noticed that as a player.

No idea. Got it used and out of warranty.

I've been playing for about 12 years and had this amp for 10. With the new life breathed into it by BillM, this thing is a classic in my book. I would cry like a baby if it got ripped off.

I thought about ditching it for a new Vox modeling amp or something in the $300 range (I'm poor). But I figured the $230 I spent on upgrading it gave me a much nicer tube amp at even a better price.

I do sometimes wish it had channel switching, but hey, it's still sweet.

Before the mods I would have rated it an 8. Now it's a 10.

One channel, fat switch, reverb. Basic 15 watt tube amp with a 12" speaker.

My guitar teacher has three Fender Amps, Simular to this Blues Junior, and I alway admired thier sound. I have had four Amps since I began playing and was never satisfide with thier sound. I found this Blues Junior by fluke, and, in my small house, sounds just like the larger Fender Amps - BassMan etc. The clean channel is great, adn the distortion is not super crunchy. It sounds like the distortion AC DC would use. I'm getting a distortion pedal, then it'll be great. I feel like I've searched for the perfect lady and finally found her.

Had it for a month - it's still perfect.

It didn't come with a owners manual, but the Fender web site was very useful for finding it and downloading it.

I've been playing for three years. I play a Fender Squire Strat. Ifthis Amp were stolen I would get the same one again. Awsome!!!!

One channel, fat switch, reverb.. basic 15 watt tube amp with a 12" speaker.

Its simplicity is its beauty. It has a boxy tone that many may find unappealing but ironically makes the character of the Blues Junior. Its gritty blues sound - dirty and simple and boxy is what you get, and for this, the amp has few if any rivals I know of. Its 15 watts are tremendously loud, equal to a 60 watt "sterile state" Crate w/ a 12" Celestion. For $400 USD brand new you won't get better. As far as buying it and swapping out the stock speaker for a vintage 30, forget it, the stock speaker is an excellent match to the amp. And furthermore, don't concern yourself with swapping out the cheap Sovtek EL84's either, they have a warm easily distorted flavor that belongs in the Blues Jr. Fender has hit the target in most respects and the only things I can say to critique/advise as an upgrade would indeed be the "splashy" Sovtek 12ax7's and that it is a fixed bias amp as opposed to adjustable (factory set a bit hotter than it oughta be).
I speak from experience. I popped out the stock speaker for a celestion Vintage 30. "Wow, much better!", I thought. A year later I removed the Vintage 30 to put into a Blues Deluxe and put the stock one back into the Blues Jr. Guess what? The stock speaker is BETTER! So there it stays. I replaced the tubes for JJ's too. JJ 12ax7s improved the tone but only marginally for the power tubes. Point is, stock right out of its $400 box the Blues Jr. sings. If it takes $200 of upgrades to make it sound great, use them for guitar lessons. I've got a Blues Deluxe 1x12, Deville 4x10, Traynor YCV40 and a SS 60watt Crate(I use to beat to death with drum machines, bass guitars, you name it)and I love'm all a lot but my favorite is the Blues Junior.
Oh yeah, its overdrive is a bit unrefined sounding despite my love for it. A Peavy classic 30 seems to get top billing in this area. Fender's gain/od not the greatest.

Hundreds of hours, many at full tilt volume, and I replaced the power tubes once for JJ EL84's ($16 for the pair!)when a stock Sovtek went cherry glowing red on me. Reliability is ridiculously good.

Playing 25 years, LP, MIM and US made Strats. Vox wah and a TS808 is all I'll bother running into it. Guitar, cord, Blues Jr is more than enough if you can play though as long as your target isn't high gain metal. For Black Sabbath type tones I'll mix a dash of TS808, B.Jr gain and a fat measure of Master volume to overdrive the pinky sized power tubes.

My amp is new. Made in 2006. Mexican made. I play rock, blues and some kind like theese and this amp is very versatile and perfect for those music styles. 15 watts all tube Class A and 8 ohms into 12 inch Fender speaker. Tubes are 2x Sovtek EL84 power and 3x Sovtek 12AX7 preamp. It has one channel only. There is no effects loop headphone jack etc... Only 1 input. Although it's 15 watts its too loud for home. 15 watts is enough for live playing with mic. Wery well.

Sound is very very good for me. I love it. I am using Washburn x20 guitar with di marzio steve's special on bridge and seymour duncan cool rails on neck. Guitar is bad but with these magnets amp sings quite well. It can be a bit noisy without regulation on voltage and if grounding wasnt done well.

It is small so it's very easy to carry. You can pick your amp and play with your own settings on concerts...

It's new. (3 months) and havent got a problem since i have bought.

I havnt got an idea. Sorry.

It's a good amp. Small but beautiful tones and loud volume. It can be great amp for a long time.

Made in '05 or '06, this amp brings treble, mid, bass, volume, master volume, reverb, and a "fat" switch. It's got a single channel, 15 watts, 10 inch speaker, and no frills. I pretty much don't use the fat switch at all - it just makes the tone a little hollow, which doesn't fit my taste. I use this amp at home and its more than loud enough. I don't think I've ever had the master switch past halfway, and that's jamming with a drummer and a bassist. The master switch is perfect for me because I can get nice dirty sounds at low volumes. One issue that might be a problem for some people is that, at least on my amp, the reverb, even when rolled all the way off, is still audible. You can hear it if you really pay attention but I rarely ever notice it.

This amp's clean is one of the best I've seen. Obviously it should be better than most for being a Fender, but for the price and size, it's really amazing. With the volume knob at 3 (knobs go all the way to 12) I can get smooth jazz tones; this thing really loves humbuckers. I'm not a big fan of the clean sound with my Tele's single coils but it's also very usable. With the volume past 4 you start to get that breakup that really bites when you tell it to. You can really tell the true sound of the guitar with this thing; the response is really clear and a good player can get practically any sound here. The full out distortion comes on at around 8. It's not brutal by any means, but it's definitely there. With my SG, I could use a little more brightness in the distortion, but it's still completely usable. I like it best with my Tele: pretty much the best distortion sound I get with the gear I currently own (this, a Marshall DSL combo, and a Mesa Tremoverb head w/ 4x12). I usually don't turn the volume knob past 10. The amp sounds good at all volumes between 2 and 7. I've never turned it up past 7 to tell you. Only 1 point taken off because the distortion is not perfect for the type of rhythm stuff I play (lot of palm mutes and such). The reverb is also not a very good one, but I don't really like or use reverb so that doesn't affect me.

I've had the amp for almost 2 months now. It's been good to me. It's been knocked around a bit but no problems yet. I would definitely gig with it, but I don't really have any gigging experience, so that might be a mistake :). I don't expect anything to go wrong with it, and if anything it's covered for 5 years under warranty. I haven't sat down on it like I do with my other amps. I wil only really find out about this when an accident happens, heh.

Never had to deal with them. Pretty hard to get a hold of their customer support phone number though.

I've been playing for 2 years now (taking it seriously). I've owned a few pieces of decent gear (tele, SG, this, Tremoverb, DSL401 combo, and some other cool stuff). This is definitely the most worth-it piece I've ever bought. I don't think I'll find a better amp for this price. If it was lost or stolen I'd be really mad, but due to my being very stingy I don't know if I'd buy it again (probably would though). I love its clean, really like the distortion with the Tele too. The Blues Jr. belongs to that select group of gear that just makes you wanna play all day.

Mine is a 2006 model, made in mexico.
Regarding the features, it has an on/off switch(but no standby), a reverb control, master volume, middle, treble, bass and volume controls. The eq controls are ok, with a fair response, but they only really kick in when the master volume's beyond three.

As for speaker, it has an 8 ohms 50 watts fender speaker.

One channel of 15 watts class A valve power, though there is a FAT swithch(wich i tend to leave on, as it increases gain)

valve setup is: 3 12ax7 and two EL84

This amp isn't the most versitail, but hey it aint a Line 6, and besides when it comes to valveamps, simple is often best.

This amp has some serious nice cleans. When i resently bought a new guitar(an AM Tele, S/S) i tried it with the new oh so fancy fender amp: The Supersonic, and i really expected that it probably wouldn't sound as good through my own little 15 watter...

Guess what? It sounded better! That's still talking the cleans.
It has that nice fender sparkle but can still go to real bluesy cleans(it's afterall not called blues for nothing).

As goes for the distortion on this one, there pretty much aint nothing to come for. But what there is, it's pretty sweet. Still it doesn't really goes past blues tones. Fortunally it goes very well with pedals, so it is possible to get a higher amount of distortion.

As goes for the reverb I pretty much always leave it on at two, though it can be used for more extreme settings.


It suits my music perfect, as i play in a band focused on rock from the british invasion. I.e Cream, Led Zeppelin, Beatles and stones.
But also a bit of newer material, like oasis, raconteurs and arctic monkeys.

It's not very noisy, and if was i probably wouldn't blame i on the amp... Single coils, twisted cables and low end effects are pretty much noise for me, if it aint one it's the other.

To sum up:
Cleans get a solid 9 for real nice but it can be found better if you have the cash.
Chrunch get an 8 for doing what it says it does but can still be found alot better.

9+8/2= 8.5

I wouldn't hesitate to use this baby on the road. It is totally dependable. Though the first one i got had an issue with not being able to play without a statue on the bass control. Got a new one.
Never broken down, though i've only had for a little past half a year.

2 for the first
8 for the secound that's 5

never used them. Only used the store

I've been playing for bout three years. My setup is like this
AM Fender Telecaster-> Crybaby(with a fasel)-> Boss DS-2-> Marshall Blues Breaker-> Blues Jr.
Part from that i have an Epiphone les Paul(worst peice of shite i've ever bought!). If it got stolen i'd buy another in an instant, as i've gotten used to this thing, and it fits me better than any i've ever played, that includes ENGL classics, more expensive fenders, VOX CC AC-15/30 and highend marshalls. The marshalls are the only one i'd chose over this thing, and let's face it: Who the fuck in their right mind wouldn't?
There are no flaws in it, nothing except a marshall gain channel. So to conlude: Perfect for me, but it's not the most versitail so a 9 is in place, as it doesn't really sell it self on being versitail or having a mashall gain channel...

9!

It is a good amp, just tried for a big gig & i was surprised of the power (with & without mic) & versatility
i've played rock of 60 & 70 & 80 & had no problem with it, just changing settings thru' master & volume (power & preamp tubes)
it has just one channel, i don't understand people complaining about this & that, why do you need a boost on it or a dist channel?
just use a good pedal like a TScreamer & it's done, if you're looking for effects buy a cheaper solidstate amp with 1000 effects on it
this amp is what we need to play at home & gigging around without & with mic: it is really amazing sound & power!
the only thing that made me give a 7 is for the case, a little too small, but after a year i really don't consider it as a negative point, & maybe also the knobs, hateful & not clear at all, but this has nothing to do with the sound quality

this amp is really great can reach all kind of melodies except maybe headbangers sound (that i don't really appreciate) so....
a few days ago we performed for about 200 people, & the blues junior amazed the people, many asked how much it costs & how do i get such crazy sound, you can do anything you want with your guitar, make it weep & create a creamy sound..... everything as long you qualities permit
there's is no distortion, i don't need it, just a reverb & a fat channel that looks like a loudness
my music style is pure rock music: eric clapton, jimi hendrix, santana, sonic youth...., great clean sound, crunch & with a pedal a wonderful distortion! & it does the greatest job!!!
now some people may say that a marshall may sound better or a mesa boogie... but this is a blues junior, & you really don't need a formula 1 ferrari to go to school, it is very light, good sounding! & i can do wathever i want with my guitar, lots of feedback, dynamics, finger effects, sensibility..... so why need more??

I've been playing for almost 15 year, owned a few marshall & other fender....
every amp is different (tube amp!), this is & will become one of the greatest amps, it makes me laugh to see people looking for marshal jcm 800 as though they were performing in festivals every month, while they just play at home & sometimes gigging
so why buy a powerful amp, just for the label or the class AB or just because that artist performed with it?
if all the labels stopped making crap amps like valvestate & frontman & valvetronix the choice for people would be much interesting
of course if you can't play guitar every amp is a mess, & off course there are better amp than this ($$$$!!!!), but not as beautiful as this & I mean: you can walk with your blues junior in a hand the guitar in the other & the effect bag on your shoulder, you can play at home, in a band, gig everywhere, the sound it produces is just perfect & satisfies my needs... so why go looking forward??
if you're looking for a great tube amp that really can satisfiy you go on with this
give yorself the time to try it for a while using different settings & you'll notice how sweet the sound can change & how great it is.
friends use marshall jcm, deluxe, valvestate, vox ac30, laney vc.... i tried it all, I'm in love with my blues junior, they made it for me!

I have a made in mexico (corporations business)
this amp is just perfect for practice, little gigs, big gigs with mic.....
in the beginning i was complaining about the lack of standby, headphone jack, line out, but now i really don't care, & i understand that it's not really important
i use this amp with my bands & during little concerts, people often can't beleive such little amp can create such beautiful sound
i think most of the people know how it's made & its components
the only negative aspect are the knobs that are placed on a kind of mirror plate & directed to the back

this amp is perfect for blues rockblues classicrock sound & also some jazz
the versatility depends of the settings so turning up the master you get a clean sound also thru' a pedal distortion or fuzz
if you turn up the volume you get a heavier sound much crunchy
i can make my guitar scream & cry, is really sensible & very good harmonic & dynamic, i really can get out what i want: from clean sound to crunch till the craziest feedback & pure distortion
so from a deep purple sound with high volume till a pink floyd sound high master & a hendrix sound in between
but with my axisfuzz i can reach sounds of any artist (75%)
it is very silent & the tubes don't get really hot after 2 hours jam comparing to others amp
it is a class A, hotrod deluxe is to heavy for 99% of the people who play guitar, so why buy 40 watt if you won't pass thru volume level 3?

till now is perfectly working
i don't believe people talking about solid state amps
they should just try these tube amps before

i've been playing 5 years classical, 5 years latinjazz & 3 years classicrock-blues own style
i use an axis fuzz of roger mayer & a wahwah
i like pure guitar music not really modern, vintage sounds, & this amp do the job perfectly!
don't believe people who say the tubes are not good or the speaker is bad, i changed the speaker but didn't notice a big difference so i left it stock!!!
it depends on your settings & your qualities as guitarist
invest yor money in study: you'll get more satisfaction
i was comparing it with a hotrod deluxe, a peavey delata blues, a peavey classic 30.....
15watt are the best need for a guitar player who will never play in a festival or big concert
at 4 volume & 3 master the hardbeating drummer is reached & bassplayer too
so.....
but try things before you buy!!! & inform yourself about class a, a/b, tubes.....
anyhow great amp!

Basic Fender tube amp. Great simplicity. Single channel amp with master volume and reverb. Fender sound. 15 watts with 12" Special Fender speaker. Nicely finished cabinet. Light carry weigh.

This amplifier makes a wonderful warm tube sound. It rocks. Got to say sound is night and day in comparison to my SS amplifier. And I thought my SS amp rocked. Play a Strat, Ibanez, ES335, and Les Paul. Great sound from all. Can get bluesy crunch. Fender clean. Nice tube tone. One may think 15 watts isn't enough, but this pup can get pump out good sound.

Unknown and no matter. The bias is set way too hot on this amp so a modification is in order. Otherwise the power tubes cook the the circuit board can get burned. Give it a 7 without the mod.

Not applicable. Will never use.

I have been playing awhile now. Alot of research along the way. Wanted a tube amp. But of course which one? Took awhile to decide on criteria for choosing one. New? Used? Wattage? Features? Reviewed alot of amps and talked to other musicians. Finally decided I wanted a simple tube amp for now with master volume and reverb, relatively portable weight, suitable wattage amp for home playing and gigging with drummer. Bought this amplifier used for a super price. USA made. Refreshed with new tubes. Sound is night and day in comparison to my SS amplifier. Awesome... Next step some basic mods to circuitry to rid amp of hum and to fine tune the sound. Couldn't be happier with this purchase.

A lovely bog standard 15watt valve amp with the exception of the FAT switch which boosts top end volume and gain by just that little bit.

Tradional style "stand behind" amp, hence the controls being at the back. (Just to correct people who think the text is facing the wrong way, that is why. Its styled like a stand behind amp which were around before the days of mic-ing up and PA systems)

Coiled reverb. (not for big emotive solo-ing but just to take the boxiness away from the sound you get in a small grotty back street pub.

Lovely!!

I've replaced the Eminence speaker with the standard Fender speaker from a Deville. This officially makes the amp double in volume as the extra 3db in a speakers capacity equates to twice the ear damage!!

Great blues tones and even punky sounds if you're playing anything with a humbucker. Unfortunately doesn't particularly handle my cheap budget Jap tele well because the guitar itself is too bright. Can't get enough bass through and even with the treble down low, I cant seem to relieve my ears of the shrill top end. I know that this is a problem with my guitar, but i thought id just say it to highlight that crap instruments sound even worse through this thing.

With the right amount of knob twiddling you can get this amp to really crack up well even at low volumes but its just as good at getting squeaky clean tones and performance volume too.

As with any valve amp, sometimes the tubes blow. I've had it happen to me once or twice but nothing else otherwise.

For a small amp it does take a surprisingly long time to warm up. I can turn it on a good few hours before a gig for the sound check and come show time its still warming up, ie. the volume slowy increases slightly throughout the night. Its nothing i moan about though as you normally need to turn it up later in a gig to contend with the drummers ever more drunken state and therefoe louder playing.

Never use anyone.

Good little amp with a big sound. Just 15watts can well contend with a large pub or a small club. You dont really need a bigger amp anyway, presuming you play large venues you should have a big enough PA to cope with the little Fender being mic-ed up.

No reliablilty problems so far and ive had it six years, bought second hand at that.

Looks nice too. The tweed limited edotion looks better though!

I bought it new in 2003. Black with silver grill. As stated below it has volume, treble, bass, middle, master, and reverb controls. It also has a ?fat? boost switch that have on pretty much all the time. It has all the basics for a one-channel ?blues? amp. I haven?t modified the amp at all, except to change the tubes, which I replaced with JJ?s (a nice improvement over the stock sovteks). I wish it had an effects loop and that the footswitch for the boost switch and the slipcover were included. Other than that it has everything you need in a small package.

I play various styles, but mostly blues and rock. I use this amp with a Strat, Tele and SG Standard. All of them sound great. I usually keep the treble, bass, middle set between 5-8 and the reverb between 2-4. This amp can go from a really nice clean to a warm overdrive depending on the volume setting (I also use the volume on my guitar to control the level of gain). I can get a great Mark Knoffler clean with my strat and a nice warm overdrive sound with my SG with the volume above 8-10 (it gets a bit fuzzy after that). I also use a TS808 as a boost, which works great. Although all of my guitars sound good through this amp, it seems to love my Tele. I can get a great Tom Petty/CCR sound with just the BJ and my Tele?s bridge pickup!

This amp also has a decent reverb. Obviously it?s not as good as a Twin, but for the price it?s definitely better than its competition, including the Traynor YCV20 and the Peavey Classic 30.

This amp has more than enough volume for home practice, jamming with friends, or playing small gigs. If you need more than that mic it or buy a bigger amp. As others have noted, it does sounds a little ?boxy? at higher levels but I usually play at home or in a studio so this isn?t really a problem for me. I suspect the ?boxy? sound could be treated with a better speaker.

Essentially, this is a great sounding small tube amp. If you can?t get a good sound out of this amp and a decent guitar then you?re better off spending your extra money on more lessons rather than buying a better amp.

I?ve had this amp for almost four years and I?ve never had a problem with it. I have two other amps (a Marshall DSL401 and a Tech 21) and both had problems with volume loss. I wouldn?t trust either of them without a backup, but I?ve never had a reason not to trust the BJ.

I?ve never had to deal with Fender and hopefully never will.

I?ve been playing for about 15 years. Right now I own a Strat, Tele and SG Standard. I also have a Marshall DSL401 and a Tech 21 Trademark 10. I own a bunch of pedals, but usually just use a TS808 and a Vox Wah. If it were stolen or lost I would buy it again, although I?d probably try to get the new tweed version with the jensen speaker (it just looks cool!). When I bought this amp I looked at several other amps, including the Pro Junior, Traynor YCV20 and the Peavey Classic 30. I liked all the amps, but I decided I wanted built-in reverb so that ruled out the Pro Junior. Then I decided that the BJ had a nicer clean tone than the Traynor or Peavey. Even still, it was a difficult choice between these three amps because the Traynor and Peavey have two channels with effects loops. However, in the end I decided that the BJ was cheaper so I bought it and used the extra cash to get a TS808... and just like that I had a two channel amp!

Overall, I?d give this amp an 8. Pros: great price, good tone, nice reverb, flexible controls, portable, and reliable. Cons: a little ?boxy? a higher volumes, no effects loop (although it does take well to pedals), and I think the footswitch and slipcover should be included.

I was a Marshall guy for a long time, but since I bought the Blues Junior I?ve switched over to the Fender camp. Fenders just seem better suited to blues and the style of rock that I like (Neil Young, Tom Petty, Pearl Jam?). I?m actually thinking about trading in my Marshall DSL401 for a Fender Blues Deluxe!

Basic features, volume, tone, reverb, simple

has a great sound, can be muddied up, accepts effects pedals well

unfortunatly, this amp is not reliable, only had it for 1 week when the trouble started, reverb went out right away, Fender repaired it but was in the shop for 3 weeks!! 10 months, reverb goes out again, back to the shop, 4 weeks on return!!within the first year the power tubes went away, back to the shop, 3 weeks!! at 26 months, reverb goes out again, back to the shop, 4 weeks, so you can see I`ve had some problems, this amp has been in the shop for a total of 14 weeks in less than 2 years

I have had extensive contact with Fender Customer support with no resolve. the warranty on this amp is 5 years and you need every bit of it. Fender refuses to replace this lemmon even after extensive documentation on the problems I`ve had with it. They just want me to go away! after the warranty is up I`ll be screwed if it continues to breakdown at the same pace, will probally sell it soon for a huge loss

I`ve been playing for over 30 years, Strat, tele, es-150 main guitars; if it were stolen I would not replace it, as a matter of fact I have esentially replaced it already with a Peavey because of it`s lack of dependability, I do like the size and weight, great for small venues or practice, mics up well for larger shows, and has great sustain

I'm not going to bother listing the features, becasue you can figure that out from other reviews or looking online. But I will say this amp doesn't have a lot of features, but it doesn't need them. If you want lots of cool effects, buy pedals. If you want a great sounding amp thats small, and easy to use, this is it.

First, this amp is can get loud. For it's size, it can get amazingly loud and still sound great. It was a very rich warm sound, and sounds very nice at quiet volumes. If you turn it up a bit, it sounds even better; it adds a bit of natural distortion. Again, a very rich, bluesy sound.

I've owned this amp for about 2 years now and it hasn't failed my yet. I haven't been gigging with it daily or weekly, but the amp gets to venture out of my apartment about once or twice a month. Nothings broken yet. If your cafeful (which you should, because it has 2 tubes and 3 pre-amp tubes...in other words, it's full of glass)you won't have any problems with this amp.

I love this amp. But I don't really play in any huge auditoriums. I've used little amps that sound huge in my practice/bed room and somewhat small in larger rooms, such as music shops. and at the same time I've used big amps that sound like crap in small rooms, becasue if you played them at a volume to where they sound good, you'd go deaf. If you're playing at home, in your garage, or in a small bar, this amp sounds wonderful. If your playing in an auditorium, or larger, get a bigger amp.

This is intended to be a basic amp. It succeeds. Low rating simply because it doesn't have a lot of features.

I play a clean, jazz oriented style. The BJr. seems nice and quiet in my practice space (also known as Dad's chair in the corner of the living room) playing at low volumes. I bought this amp after several months playing with a friend who uses a BJr. as his amp in a 17 pc. big band. He has no problem keeping up with the volume and sounding good in a reasonably sized hall. It does the jazz thing with my modded MIM Strat just fine. No buzzes like my PJr. No hisses like my Cube 60. Does the J thing a little better than my Traynor YVC20 (and a little lighter and a bit more compact too.)

40 years playing music. I've owned and played most of the usual suspects. (LP's, Tele's, Strats, ES-175's) So far, I love this amp. Excellent sound. Simple. Has the features I use. Doesn't have features I don't (ie. effects, extra channels). I've gone through the PJr., Traynor YCV-20 and Roland Cube 60. They're gone. I'm keeping the B.Jr.

Mine are newer models, tolex with the green circuit board. Not incredibly versatile, but I don't require much versatility beyond volume & tone. 1 channel, no effects loop. I wish it came in a bigger box. I use one or 2 with my band, depending on the size of the stage, but one is pretty loud. 3 12AX7 preamp tubes into 2 EL34 power tubes.

I play a LP or a Mustang with vintage-y alnico pickups. Louder indie rock. No noiser than any other tube combo.

Some say this amp sounds 'boxy.' I don't know if that's the right word. Maybe 'muddy.'I swapped out the stock eminence speakers for lighter, green Jensen P12s, which cleans this up. The original tone is nice, too, but the mids can be piercing with the Eminence, & you need to crank the low & mid & kill the treble to get the life into this amp. Sounds somewhere between an AC30 and a Bluesbreaker Jr. More Marshally with the swapped-in speaker.

The distortion is warm & glassy. I usually crank the "master" and just edge up the "volume" to a "Marshall Clean" kind of sound & stack my fuzz & sometimes a clean boost into that. For what I play, it's a good amp. 2 at once sounds phenomenal.

At louder stage volumes, the breakup can be too much & the amp can get lost, but 2 at once solves this, & it's a cheap enough amp. It's quite loud, though, almost too loud for the smallest venues.

Never broken down in the year I've owned 'em. The tubes seem to fit a bit loosely into their sockets, but that hasn't been a problem.

Playing for 23 years. I have several guitars, a pignose Hog 20, several stompboxes (though I really only use one)& a bunch of recording gear.

For the price, I'd buy it again, though my next amp purchase will be replacing a stolen '69 Traynor YBA1 head.

2005 model. Volume, treble, bass, middle, master, and reverb controls. It has a fat boost switch which I leave engaged pretty much all the time. Its got pretty much everything I was looking for out of a single channel amp minus an effects loop.

I use it with a Strat for a good blues and rock tone. It definitely delivers what I was looking for. Sweet, chimey clean all the way up to a nice dirty sound. It's full of harmonic overtones even at low volumes, and it just gets better as you turn it up. It lacks a bit of bass but hey a Strat is a bright guitar anyway. The reverb isn't the greatest Fender has ever offered, but since I only use it for a slight verb to thicken up trhe sound a bit, it gets the job done. For what it costs, its a steal for the tones you get out of it.

Its never let me down. I don't gig but I imagine it could take the punishment easily. I've had it since October of last year and its never even needed any extra attention.

Never dealt with them.

I'm giving it a 10, not because I think its the best out there, but because it has delivered everything I had hoped to get out of it. I wanted a low-wattage, plug and play type of amp. Some earlier reviews stated that a speaker/tube swap was neccesary. I'm not going to argue that those could bring subtle improvements here and there, but it's really not neccesay unless you're very picky. About the only thing I wish it had is an effects loop to put my memory man in, but it works fine without it. If it got stolen, I would defintely buy another one if I still had the same budget as when I bought it. For any blues or rock guitarist out there looking to break into the tube amp game, I would definitely recommend this amp as a good starting point.

Built in the last year or so I think. Bought it as new from a shipment they'd just had in. I've had it for about 10 months and was quite disappointed with it until yesterday.

Single channel amp, no frills as already outlined here. Twin channel version would be a nice addition for this category of amp. Not versatile, but it did what I wanted it to to.

It's plenty powerfull - forget the advertised power of 15watts - and will hold it's own in an unamplified drum band set up.

I play a form of modified blues + classic pop/rock, with a couple of Strats (one with Seymour duncan pick ups) and a humbucker loaded Fender Toronado.

It's quiet when the valves are warmed up and remains very well behaved at close to max power. When set for clean, the amp is noticeably quiet.

My initial disappointment came with the overall tonality of the thing - prone to harshness and a real thick mess at over half power. A real bark that was noticeably sharp, even with a compressor after the guitar. Generally quite muffled too, with little improvement afforded by the EQ section which had suprisingly little range over it's 3 frequencies. I put up with it and just used it for a clean tone. I acquired an Ashdown Peacemaker 40watt tube combo for my o/drive requirements, and this beat the Junior hands down for clarity. I probably would have sold the Fender, were it not for some suggestions here.

Suitably inspired - and after a lot of research - I took the Junior apart yesterday and fitted a brand new Celestion Vintage 30 speaker. Oh my God, the difference is remarkable. At a stroke the sound was dramatically cleaner, but still retained the warmth the amp always suggested. The gain was a little higher (the Junior is NOT a high gain amp) and the EQ controls are now much more effective. Even run flat out with volume and masters up full, I couldn't make it bark or sound harsh. Pure sweet bluesy tone with just the right amount of aggression. Just how it always should have been.. I've left the stock tubes in (Sovtek - power amp and Groove Tubes - pre amp)though I understand that further minor improvements can be effected by upgrading these. For now at least, it sounds absolutely beautiful.

Needless to say, my rating is post driver modification.

The amp is solid and so far completely reliable. It is of course only 10months old however. Even for a tube amp novice like me, stripping it down was a breeze and with no special tools required, or even a soldering iron - my upgrade took only 20mins. Servicing Tech heads may be disappointed or stressed by the circuit board arrangement, but it's a lovely clean job.

Never dealt with Fender - hope not to have to. For the sake of 2 months my warranty is now invalid I guess, but that's hardly an issue.

Gear used as already specified. Also use the brilliant TC Electronics Vintage Overdrive & the ridiculous great (for the money) Digitech Bad Monkey Overdrive.

Post modification, I'd recommend the Junior to anyone after a traditional tube amp in this category. My nearest comparison point of reference is my Ashdown Peacemaker 40watt combo. I'd buy the Junior again tomorrow, if I had to, knowing I could upgrade it in such a simple and effective manner. Why Fender ship it out the door with such a crap stock Fender/Emminence speaker is beyond me..

Let me start by saying I am a total tone freak. Can't stand a crappy sounding amp. I've played through Marshall's and owned Mesa Boogie. Pure crap! Now back to the Blues Junior. Not sure what year this Junior was made. Versatility? Not really unless you have a variety of pedals. Straight into the amp, this baby is made for blues and some classic rock. with some good pedals you can add some great country and harder rock. Metal? probably not. One Channel with a Fat switch. Fat just boosts the volume a little and maybe adds a little grit. Wish it had a standby knob instead of just the on and off but it's no big deal. I use this amp mostly for practice. I do gig with it but only for a few songs. I play in a mostly country band. I'm actually the bass player but switch to this amp with Fender Custom Special HH Gold top guitar to do rock songs such as by ZZ Top, Black Crowes, Georgia Satellites and the Stones. It works very well for these. I used to play in a rock band and know good rock tone. This baby sounds great. We play for dances, weddings, clubs from 100 to 800 people. I just mic this amp with a sm57 and she does exceptionally well. I give it an 8 because it works well with pedals although can't use my Rocktron Chameleon effects processor for some reason it sounds like crap through this amp but regular ol' stompboxes sound great! Don't need a lot of features. I have had amps with shit loads of features, they just bring on shit loads of headaches. The simpler the better.

Through this amp I mostly play a Fender Custom Special HH equipped with Dimarzio Tone Zone and Air Norton humbuckers that can be split into single coils. I also use a Fender Lite Ash Telecaster and an Ibanez JS 100. They all sound great through this amp. I play everything, country, classic rock, hard rock, funk, blues, western swing / jazz, metal, grunge. To me this amp lacks the bottom end I like for country but it still works fine with the use of an EQ pedal. I'm not the lead country picker in the band so don't need that tone right now. For country I'd prefer the big brother to the junior, the Hot Rod Deville. For blues and classic rock, early hard rock, this amp kicks ass. on it's own it's good but throw in a Boss SD-1 distortion pedal and a Ibanez, ts-808 or ts-9 and this lil thing becomes a wicked little bitch. It was a little noisy when I got it. It was used and don't know how old. Still had the stock Fender GT tubes in it. Replaced them with some Svetlana's and took care of the noise. I keep the gain down between 3 and 6. The amp is not real loud but loud enough to get the job done. In smaller settings it's fine in a larger setting, just mic it and she sounds purdy! Some other people's reviews say it sounds "boxy". Yeah it does. There's a lot of people spending money on mods for it. New tubes sure, If you want to clean it up and get rid of the boxiness I just use a boss EQ pedal. A person can do all kinds of tone modifications with just an EQ pedal. I'm a huge EQ pedal believer. thing about mods is what if you don't like it? EQ pedal, just need to move a few sliders. I take 2 points off just because It lacks the low end I like on the clean sounds. Not that it's bad it's just I like the clean on a Deville better. I'm sure it's the just the amp cabinet with one twelve versus 4 tens in the deville. I probably like more low end in my clean than most people.

So far so good. Haven't had any problems but then again I treat my gear with a lot of care. I do keep extra tubes handy but haven't needed them since I replaced the originals. Tubes on this amp are a snap to replace.

Never needed them

I've been playing for about 20 years. I have owned a peavey special 212, peavey 5150 combo, Dr Z maz 18 jr 2x12 with alnico blues, Mesa Boogie Nomad 2x12, and a Crate GlX 2x12 that I run a Rocktron Chameleon 2000 through. Sounds great for country and hard ass rock and metal! I've had some expensive stuff but but sold it to buy PA equipment and a nice Bass Rig as I have turned into more of a bass player in the last 3 years. Sold all my expensive gear and bought a used Crate and the Rocktron just to have something to play through at home. Love the Rocktron by the way. The crate is nice and clean but lacks the tube warmth I prefer. I owned the Dr Z (friggin sweet!) prior to it. I wanted a tube amp again and bought the Blues Junior because I didn't want my wife to divorce me. Like I said earlier the Rocktron doesn't sound well with it but the pedals I have sound awesome.

FOR $300 YOU CANNOT BEAT THIS AMP! Your not out a lot of money and you'll have a very usable little amp. You have to let the tubes warm up a little. At first she's very thin sounding. It doesn't have a lot of low end but mid range is what is crucial and this is where she shines. Does it compare to my Dr Z. Not even close! but then again I didn't spend $1950 on this one and I can still get great warm sounds out of it and don't have to lug around a 65 pound back breaker. I turn the bass to twelve the mid range to about 5 and the treble to three and she is very clean and responsive to pedals. If someone stole it I'd definitely buy another one. Even If I still had the Dr Z I would still want to have one of these just because it's a lot of fun to play through. For the money you can't go wrong. If you want to do hardcore metal then look elsewhere. Blues and Classic rock this baby is all you need. Throw in a nice distortion pedal and total bliss! EQ pedal and even more bliss if that's possible. After I bought mine our rhythm guitar player fell in love with it and bought him one also. He plays a Gretsch through it and absolutely loves it. Nails ZZtop and CCR tones perfectly. He's been playing for 30 years. Met Marty Stuarts lead guitar player and he owns one as well. Uses it for just jammin with friends and warm up back stage. Perfect example of tone is in your fingers. He makes his Junior sound like a million bucks.

Got the amp off Ebay and it's a 2005 model. I mostly use my MIM Strat with Fat 50's installed and it sounds beautiful. Much better than my old Crate GFX-15.
No real effects other than the fat switch. One thing I miss is the headphone jack. Mostly because I like to record myself on my PC and used to hook my old amp up to it via the headphone jack. Has nice breakup when you turn up the gain, but I mostly use my Tubescreamer anyway. You can get an optional footswitch for the fat switch, but in my case that's unnecessary.

As stated, my MIM Strat with Fat 50's sounds beautiful and I finally have the tone I was looking for. My Epi LP with stock pups sounds kind of muddy, but I attribute that to the crappy pups. Sounds great for bluesey stuff. I play Phish, Dead, Floyd, Stones, etc. As others have said, the reverb can get noisey at higher levels. I don't really use the gain on the amp as I prefer the Tubescreamer.

So far no problems.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing for 6 years and I'm strictly a basement wanker. My previous amp was a Crate GFX-15 and this is a major step up. Goes nice and loud as others have said, but it also sounds surprisingly good at low levels. A footswitch for the reverb would be nice, but for me it's not a deal killer. If you want a bluesey sound, put a Tubescreamer in front of this baby and have fun! Sure, I'd love to have a Deluxe Reverb, but for the price this amp is perfect. I love it!

Standard 2006 MIM model. No upgrades as of yet. The only thing it's lacking is a line out, which I doubt I would use, but it would still be nice to have. The lack of an OD channel doesn't bother me. I like the tube break up more, and if I need more drive, then I just turn on my pedal.

I play a MIJ 83' squire strat and an Agile ad 2200 (lp junior copy). I play everything from jazz to hard rock.

Don't let the 15W fool you. This thing is loud! I only use it to practice in my bedroom and jam with a friend, but in both situations I only use about half of its potential volume. At first when I bought the amp, I found it to be too bright and trebley, but after a day or two, it warmed up, and now its full tube tone. It starts to break up at around 7 (out of 12) on the channel volume, which is plenty of headroom for me, but those interested in gigging might need more.

I plan on doing the Billm mods to this amp. It doesn't NEED them, but considering how cheap and easy the mods are to do, who could pass up the opportunity?

This amp covers all my musical tastes. It can't do metal, but if I want to, I could just throw a pedal in front of it and call it a day.

Also, this amp does not need a new speaker or tubes. It's all preference.

Haven't had a problem.

n/a

Overall, this amp is amazing. It's accurately priced, unlike many tube amps nowadays. It's good stock, and can become amazing with a few mods or changes. Could be cheaper, but so could everything. I'm happy with it for the money I spent.

Its a very simple tube amp with an input only.

Out of the box its a great tube amp for the money. This lil tubey has a lot of potential if you want to drop a few duckys to rid it of its "made in mexico" sound. Like a few people have done is replace the speaker, I put in a celestion vintage 30 that in my opinion is very mid based in its sound but has an advantage over the stock speaker when teamed up with the right power tubes. I went with a another post that reccomended Ei tubes and I purchased the Ei Elites. This amp shines when driving the power tubes as opposed to the preamp tubes just the way Leo would have wanted it. I play only strats through this and they sound great. I have yet to replace the pre tubes.

So far so good.

Never dealt with this corporate giant Leo Fender started. My hats off to Fender for keeping the spirit alive with there commitment to tube affordable amps and great guitars. I forgive you all for the CBS period ya scum sucking accountant driven back stabbers.

This is great tube amp. It is simple in design and that is a good thing, and it has room for improvement that makes for the fun factor. Tube amps will always sound the best period.

Mine is a new 2006 made in mehico model. It has all the standard features that everyone has mentioned already. I upgraded mine a bit to make it even better than the stock version. I recommend these EASY mods to anyone who wants to spend very little money, and get lots and lots of tone. First i swapped out the stock speaker for a vintage 30. Fender obviosly uses some cheap parts to keep costs down, but a cheap speaker is not something i can put up with. A speaker change is the best way to change your tone. Their are tons of great companies out there now adays to find the perfect speaker for your style. The second and final upgrade I did was to replace the tubes. The boneheads at guitar center swear up and down that all tubes are exactly the same. Well they are wrong! Some are made in China, some are made in Russia, and others in Yugoslavia! Some are even still made hear in the good old USA just to name a few. I traded out my El-84's for a pair of EI elites. These happen to be a company operating out of Yugoslavia. I find these to be a little clearer and tighter soundind than the stock groove tubes, which are bottom of the barrel groove tubes. I also swapped the 12ax7's for Electro Harmonix. These are Russian tubes, and I feel that they are slightly creamier than the stock Chinese groove tubes. With the upgrades the amp is really a killer killer amp, and I own to much boutique stuff to mention. Guess which amp gets the most use, and is the most fun to play?

I use this amp for small to medium gigs, and recording. It is extremely versitile. My style encompasses country bluesy material, to pop and harder rock. The amp was slightly noisy when i got it but with the upgrades i mentioned its much queiter. I believe that has to do with those EI tubes. I really like them in this amp! The amp has a great clean sound with the master about 8 or so and the volume around 3 or 4. With this setting its clean, but barks a little when you hit it hard. Thats my personal favorite setting, especially with a good OD pedal infront to push up to the next level. I actually love this amps distortion as well. It gets nice and saturated without getting muddy. Very smooth, not fizzy, and it is never harsh. Once again, my upgrades really really add to this factor. But even without the upgrades, still a killin amp. Basically the V30 speaker makes the overall sound tighter, smoother, and adds some volume and bottom end. The tubes clean up the sound, and give it that finishing refining touch.

These amps are built like tanks and can really take a beating. Im lazy so i never carry a back up amp, but i don't know many people that do. I know these amps don't run too hot, so the tubes should last for a while. Almost all of the more expensive stuff I have runs very hot, and burns tubes out rather quickly if you play the amp a lot. I can't stand that, and I am a player, not an amp tech. Give me somethin I can depend on night after night, and I'll change tubes every 6 or 7 months.

I never dealt with fender and I hope I never have to.

After my little mods I performed....Speaker $110, and tubes about $40, the amp ended up costing me around $550. Compare that to other 1x12 low wattage combos out there, and you realize what a deal it is even after you throw some extra loot in there. For such a versitile amp that covers so much ground, its quite a deal. By far one of my favorite amps I own, and definitely one of the best all time amps ever made. Believe me.....I'm a gear junkie, and I've researched and played tons and tons of stuff. The boutique stuff is awesome, but very expensive, and if you don'y know exactly what you are looking for, you will end up with a very expensive decoration. This amp is classic guitar tone, fun to play, easy to gig, and I forgot to mention, it eats up all my pedals very well. Not too many amps out there are as good as this guy......Try one out, and try my simple upgrades.....I promise, you won't be dissapointed!!!

I have 2 of these amps. One blonde & one black. Both are 2004. I wish it had a standby switch. But simple is good.

OK...I play ALL Strats. From the guitar, I run to an inline tuner, then a Vox wha-wha, to a TS-9 to a TS-8 then to the Blues Junior. I had these amp around as back-up amp. I gig a LOT. SRV, Clapton, Hendrix, ZZ Top, Skynard... I Used to use a Red-Knob Twin - WAY too loud...then down to a 4X10 Bluess Deville...then down to a 1978 Deluxe reverb (SWEET amp by the way !)...but the other day at rehearsal (yes - real working musicians DO rehearse !) I decided I was going to get to know my "back-up" amp a little better in case I ever really needed it. I was never "real" happy with it's tone...seemed "box" sounding...BUT THEN I DID WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE FROM THE BEGINNING - I turned OFFt fat switch, turned DOWN the Volume - and turned UP the "Master". In other words - I set the amp real CLEAN. Oh....My.....GAWD ! NEW amp. I get PLENTY of gain from the tub screamers...I run one set low for a little punch and the other for full on lead work. Truly - try running this amp set clean and a TS-8 for boost !

So I gigged with it (Brought the deluxe as my "back-up" !!!) medimum room...maybe 100 people...we're a 3 piece guitar, bass & drums...this amp was PLENTY loud enough. I don't play football feilds...I'm a "working" musician - that means BARS !!!! And this amp is plenty for that...

It's a Fender - tough as nails. "What happens when a Strat falls over ? It breaks the Les Paul it landed on" !!!!! LOL !!! No - really - if you're at all careful - Fender makes good, tough equipment. Anybody can be unlucky and get a bad one...but for the most part - there's a good reason Fender has the good name it does.

Never needed it. Gave it a 5 but really have no idea...

It's a simple little amp. Good for small gigs - which is 99% of what we all play. Need more ? MIC it ! A SM-57 is all you need. Understand this too - MOST OF YOUR "TONE" IS IN YOUR HANDS AND "HOW" YOU ATTACK THE INSTRUMENT. I'm sorry ? What was that I heard you say ? MOST OF YOUR "TONE" IS IN YOUR HANDS AND "HOW" YOU ATTACK THE INSTRUMENT. Really - Clapton will sound like clapton thru a Line-6 or a 100 watt Twin. You equepment won't make you Stevie Ray Vaughan. Buy this amp - it is a great sounding amp - BUT SPEND YOUR TIME LEARNING TO PLAY. I do a dead on VooDoo Child - and it ain't because of what amp I bought...get it ? Yes - THis is a WONDERFUL amp in my opinion...set it clean - crank it up - and PUSH the little monster !

First of all, people, when you're writing reviews of an item, don't just say: "you know all the features, so I don't have to write it", if you're gonna do something do it properly or don't do it.

Now, This 15 watts tube-amp was made in Korea(i guess)2006, so i guess it's fairly up to date. Black cover, typical fender grey tolex, six chicken head knobs(on the top of course), which are: Reverb, Master Volume(overall volume), Middle, Bass, Treble and last a volume knob. For those of you who are new to tube amps, this knob doesn't only control the volume level but also how fried you want your tubes, thus how much gain you want. And last an On/Off switch. Theres no channel switching(though there is a FAT switch), headphone jack or effect loop. The lack of these three things doesn't really consern me, i bought it for it's clean sounds, not a million different ones. If you want an amp of thousand sounds go for Line-6 or some other modulation thing!

With this fella i'm using my standard les paul(which has humbuckers in it). I mostly play classic pop/classic Rock and britpop, let me tell ya it's perfect. Someone has even told me that Noel Gallagher of Oasis uses a couple of these, so it can be just me.
The sound is incredible even at low volumes and it just gets better, and better as you crank it up. The distortion isn't much, but what there is, let me tell ya it's sweeeeeeet, though not much.
What I really bought this baby for, is the clean sounds, Treble at three o'clock, Middle all the way up and Bass around noon and reverb at 8 o'clock. VOX GO F***ING HOME! It has a lot of headroom this thing and can play loud as hell, so if youve got a 50 watt transistor and thinking, nahh 15 watt is not enough, think again.
Clean: 10, Distorion:9 Average 9,5

This is a bit of a problem, when I first took mine home, there were this little thing about the bass knob, you couldn't play it without having anything standing on it... hmm must have been a bad apple, 'cause the next day i went back to the store, got a new one and it has been playing beautifully ever since. Ill say a five cause if only half is good then whats the point right?
Never gotten to gig with it.

Never really dealt with them.. But theres a life time warranty so thats something..

Well i've been playing for about 2 years maybe a bit more, though i have a fair bit of knowlegde 'bout things you know?
In addition i own a les paul standard(epi) a boss ds-2 and a marshall Blues Breaker. Though these things all pretty much suck(!) the Fender makes them all come alive.
I love the fact that theres only one channel as it makes the circuit more simple and thus the sound more alive. I wouldn't say i hate anything about it, but the EQ section could be just a little more responsive.
When i tried this thing, i compared it to a vox ac30cc(utter shite!), another vox this time ac15 real deal(too expensive for almost the same sound), Peavey Classic 30(great amp by the way, but the tubes tend to get very hot), a marshall AVT150(too heavey, too dead), Laney VC30(also a great amp, but also a little heavey).
In the end I decided that the Blues Junior was the way to go, because of the typical great fender cleans, the great reverb, the fact that it doesn't get very hot, it's not heavey at all (28ibs.), and it's pretty darn loud.
A ten based on the load of things i said, but one point down for the bad apple thing

Made in Mexico '05 model, All tube. (Mexico models apparently have more head room)

Fat Switch, Volume, Treble, Bass, Mid, Master, and Reverb. But no Stand-by switch, which would be nice to have.

I bought this amp for home/bedroom practice since my Traynor YCV40T (40watts) is usually kept at band memebers house. The 15watts of power is more then enough (a lot louder then I expected)

Very versatile, gets any kind of Blues sound your looking for. If you don't play blues don't buy this amp. Duurrr...It's called "Blues Junior"

Gave it a 9 for the lack of a stand-by switch.

I try to keep my set-up fairly simple, and I rarely buy new gear, but when I do I usually find no more use for the stuff I currently have. I play an 80's Fender Japanese '62 re-issue Strat with texas special pickups, and an Epiphone vintage G400 with Bareknuckle Stormy Monday pickups. My pedals right now include an Electro Harmonix Big Muff (selling pretty soon), MXR 6 band EQ (selling aswell) and an Electro Harmonix The Wiggler (vibrato/tremolo pedal) Soon to come is an Electro Harnonix Graphic Fuzz, that's why I'm selling the Big Muff and EQ since the Graphic Fuzz has an eq built in.

I play a lot of blues (Clapton, B.B. King, SRV, Hendrix, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker etc..) 60's psychedelic/classic rock (Yardbirds, Cream, The Doors, Zeppelin, The Who, Beatles etc..), and a little more "modern" rock (White Stripes, Soledad Brothers, Blind Melon, Velvet Underground, Flashing Lights, QOTSA (though it's not really that great at getting that higher dist. sound from QOTSA, but sounds good none the less). It suits all these styles wonderfully.

There is a little bit of hum but it doesn't bother me since I can't hear it when I'm playing. But I will be sending it in to Bill Machrone soon for some mods to improve the sound/tone and completely rid it of the hum since this year or next year I plan on using it for home recording when I get a studio set-up in my basement.

The clean channel is great, crystal clear and bright. But you really have to crank the volume and master switch high to get some nice tube break-up, and that's due to the fact that I have the Mexican model. Regardless, it sounds amazing when I get it cranked like that.

10 because I didn't expect it to do anything other then Blues, but it's an all around great sounding amp, except of course if you play metal.

Had it for about a month now, so I can't really say how reliable it is right now. Seems like it's built pretty solid. Though I'll mainly be playing it at home, maybe I'll gig with it after the mods, for some nice blues tunes.

Not putting a rating since I have no idea how it will hold up in the future.

Never dealt with them, hopefully will never have to deal with them. So no rating aswell.

I've been playing for about 7-8 yrs now. The gear I own barely ever changes, and this amp will stay in my hands t'ill I find something better, but considering the price of this little monster I don't think it will be going anywhere for a long long time.

If it were stolen I would buy another one without even thinking about it, but I would probably buy the tweed version instead for a classier/vintage look.

When buying it I didn't have many amps in the same category to compare it to. I did try out a Traynor YCV20WR (brown leather model) but it was way to expensive ($630 plus tax), and I really liked the way the Blues Junior sounded over the Traynor. But I still prefer my Traynor YCV40T over my Blues junior. Maybe that'll change after the mods.

Once again it would be really nice to have a stand-by switch, but it's still a great sounding amp that does exactly what it's meant to do.

Last thing I'd like to share !WON PMA SIHT YUB

Bought new in 2006. Fairly versatile with reverb and fat tone footswitch. Very lightweight and reliable. One channel, but cleans up good in mix when you roll volume off guitar, and fat boost on footswitch gives some more good options in that grind area. I would be in heaven if there was tremolo and reverb was footswitchable and a more like a vintage deluxe sound, but good features. EL84 vox style breakup mixed with fender tone. Best feature is master volme. Preamp distortion very good. Quite loud at 15 watts AB, 12" speaker in small, light box.

Play with a strat. Playing in my room, my totally tricked out, point to point, merc magnetics OT Deluxe sounds better. Used to have a tweed deluxe that had the tone all the way. This one is good though. It is way better the hot rod deluxe in my opinion. The reverb has the same tone as hot rod deluxe, but the amps tone is better, must be the el84's, somehow it is warmer and more satisfying than hot rod deluxe, more like my vintage amps, only with faster breakup, and preamp overdrive when desired. It grinds pretty good too, even with the master in the low area (4 for master, 12 for volume) It is very loud. The hot rod deluxe is too loud. This is very loud, and if you are wailing full volume, your drummer would have to be a maniac to play the master much over 5. It is so clear in the mix. I was skeptical and kept trying to find fault with it in my home, but when I got it to practice, it has power to spare, and I did not need a fuzz box which is a great relief. I will not lug my deluxe to practice, maybe not even gigs.

It seems so reliable. My deluxe gets 60 cycle hum so easily and the reverb is noisy, but this blues deluxe works really good.

They probably suck. I never keep my receipts, warranties don't work well with me unless I am dealing with a one-,man shop.

Unbelieveable little amp. It is light, can grind at re volumes. If it were stolen I would buy another. It makes me wonder about the 40 watt blues deluxe. It is good for me, and it has more in common with a tweed tone than it does with the hot rod deluxe. I wish it had tremolo, but it is good.ght weight and the breakup is really good. I play grindy rock and mix in some clean country chicken pickin. You get more grind than old stones, but sort of that type of grind.

As said in other reviews, single channel, 3 band eq, etc.

Stock: good (8)
Modified: amazing!! (10+)

Here is a quick soundclip: http://www.indyguitarist.com/soundclips2/blues_junior_compare.mp3

That is a comparison between the stock amp and the amp after the modification. This is an amazing little amp after the tweaking...beautiful shimmery clean tone, awesome breakup and even more distortion now if I want it.

I also tailored the reverb so it wasn't so 'surfy' sounding. I'm really not into the dick dale stuff which is what the stock reverb sounded like. Modified to be warmer and no brittleness. My attempt at making it sound more like a tube tank ;)

PCB based, but don't throw it around and you should be fine.

very helpful, they were quick to send schematics when requested with no hassle.

Great amp, my next amp will be a hot rod deluxe most likely - if my results were *this* great with the little blues jr, I have to try the next size up. ;)

Feel free to email me with questions, email info at http://www.indyguitarist.com/contact.htm

1 channel,all tube, 15 watt, 3-band eq, "fat" switch, blah, blah, blah.....

American Lonestar Srat, Carvin custom dual hum + piezzo, Vox Bulldog OD/Dist, Seymour-Duncan Pick-up booster.

Look, Ive read all the other Blues Jr. reviews on this site, and they vary in what is said, however if you read this one then you don't have to read anymore. I'm not saying I'm the biggest expert, but I'm very picky about sound, I've got a good ear, and I can separate oblectiviy from subjectivity to allow a reader a fair and simple review in order for them to make a good decision.

I've read a lot of differnt mods with different opinions about the outcome. Right out of the box, the BJ is a good sounding tube amp with better than expected volume at a good price. If you want a low priced tube amp this is definately for you. This is where your pickiness becomes a factor.

Some people think that the Emminence speaker is fine; they are not very picky. The highs are muddy and the lows are loose with decent mids. For $100 I replaced it with a Celestion Vintage 30 with suprising ease. Some say there is not much difference in sound with this mod; They are wrong. There is a total difference in sound quality and, believe it or not, volume. Maybe the volume just seems higher though, because the lows are tight, the highs absolutely sing with clarity and even the mids are much improved. The treble is no londer ear piercing. If you can't hear the difference, you weren't paying attention beforehand.

The stock groove tubes are decent and sound good. Some say that changing them to JJ's or some sort of Mullard or = N.O.S. tube gives only a subtle change in sound; they areright, sort-of. I replaced the EL-84s to JJ's and later the 12ax7s to mullards. Although the change was subtle, it was noticeable and exactly what I was going for; warmer tone ballsier tube attack. I could have definitely lived with the stock tubes but am happy with the change.

Also heard of a reverb change. The reverb isn't the best for obvious reasons, but this ain't the 80's anymore and there's no reason to have the reverb higher than 2 ever, so I personally would not waste my money.

As far as a rating goes I'm going to have to base the rating on a for-the-money scale so as not to compare it to Mesas and AC30s. Keep in mind this thing is called a blues Jr, so you know it's strengths. Before the mods this thing gets a strong 7.7 considering what a great value it is but keeping in mind it's weaknesses. After the mods this thing is totally different and somewhat more versatile. Top of the line as far as practice amps go and even suitable for small gigs and house parties.It gets a 9.5 because of the minimal expense and ease of the mods, and for the overall sound quality acheived.

Look, I see people's points about upgrading this amp as opposed to just buying a better amp, but here's my point. I paid about a total of $500 for this amp (310+100 for speaker+90 for tubes) and it sounds fabulous for it. The next best thing Fender makes, a Hot-Rod deluxe is still $600 and still has the same crappy speaker and tubes that I had to replace in order to be totally happy. Find me a better tube amp for $500 than mine and you win. I've heard people say this amp can only do one thing, but I disagree. It is great for recording and I've even recorded some more heavily distorted type stuff through it and gotten compliments on the sound. I personally play all kinds of music and it can do all of them pretty well, great for the money. That's the key, it's no $1,500 amp but I'll take it over a Hot-Rod all day and still pocket a couple hundred bucks.

P.S. To you guys who think you are funny mocking people who upgrade inexpensive stuff and people who read reviews to make the most of their money and write them trying to help somebody out, not everyone has enough money to sit on their computers all day and write clever little parody reviews so they can feel better about not having a life. We have jobs and have to work for our money, thus wanting to make the most of it. Plus in order to create your parody, you had to have read a lot of the reviews and write one to, so who's the
Morr Onn now?

The Fender Blues Jr. is one of the best little tube amps availible. Right out of the box it's got a good sound without a lot of tweaking. I play blues but I also 'mic' it for contempory church music. For versitility I've added a few stomp boxes. De'ja Vibe, wah, delay the usual. The amp provides a stable quiet sound even at 50% volumn. Although it's a single channel amp the "Fat" switch can add a real big overall boost. I rarely use this because sometimes I can't tell whether it's on or off.(you get used to it and tend to leave it on) An L.E.D. on the pedal would solve this problem.

I use a deluxe custom strat w/lace sensors. Red,Silver,Blue. It works well with most styles that require a little edge. It is a very quiet amp even with a few stomp boxes. Of course I don't use any cheap pedals. The variety comes mostly with how the guitarist plays. The amp does provide a good starting sound for most kinds of music.

No major problems. Never broke down. I have been using it on an average of 3 times a week since 2000. I used to have a back up amp, but sold that in favor of another piece of gear. Just never got another amp after that!

Never had to deal with Fender. But there are tons of authorized Fender dealers around.

Been playing for about 30 years. Own lots of gear' too much to list. If I had to replace this amp. I'd get another. Ya see before I bought the Blues Jr. I compared it with most of the other tube amps in the 15 to 30 watt range by playing them side by side. In almost every catagory the fender was best for me. I had to fiddle with the others too much to get that "on the edge tone". It has long been known that the Blues Jr. is truely a great little amp.

HOW DO YOU TELL THE YEAR? BOUGHT NEW AT G C 1 YEAR AGO. MIM. VERY VERSATILE AMP. I LOVE THIS AMP.WHAT FEATURES? OH REVERB.MASTER VOL. AND VOL.(DRIVE). LOUD AS $%^&, MASTER WIDE OPEN, VOL. AT 2 ADDING A BOSS METAL ZONE AND YOUR IN BUSINESS. FOR WHAT IT IS AND DOES FEATURES ARE A 10. ALL TUBE, NICE. CAN BE USED FOR ALL TYPES OF MUSIC. VERY EASY TO DIAL IN AND CONTROL ON STAGE.

MAINLY HARD ROCK, PUNK. I LIKE VINTAGE AMP SOUND WITH MODERN MUSIC FOR SOME REASON. VERY VINTAGE VIBE.SO MANY SONGS ON THE RADIO ARE RECORDED WITH THIS AMP AND THEN PERFORMED AT A STADIUM WITH MARSHALLS STACKED UP HIGH. NO KIDDING, STOCK TOO, MOSTLY JUST SPEAKER AND TUBE CHANGES THATS IT. MINE IS ALL STOCK AND SOUNDS GREAT. IVE GIGGED MANY TIMES WITH THIS AMP AND VERY SUCCESSFUL USING A $%^& LOAD OF BOSS STUFF AND A GOOD OL SM57 + 2000 WATTS OF POWER, OH AND AN AMP STAND. THIS AMP SOUNDS GREAT LEFT ON THE FLOOR BUT FOR NOISEY VENUES AN AMP STAND WORKS GREAT. MIGHT SOUND ALITTLE THIN OR BOX LIKE BUT WILL STILL SOUND STELLAR ONCE THE BAND GETS GOING I PROMISE AND OUT FRONT WITH THE 57 THE CROWDS EARS WILL SMILE FROM THE TONE, IVE SEEN IT AND DONE IT MANY TIMES IN ONE YEAR OF USE. GREAT FOR STUDIO VERY QUIET. IVE RECORDED THIS AMP AT BOTH VOLS.AT 2 USING PEDALS AND SOUNDS AWESOME. DONT WASTE MONEY ON MODS. LET YOUR AMP BREAK IN COMPLETELY. MAY TAKE A MONTH OF STEADY USE BUT YOULL KNOW WHEN ITS DONE. REMEMBER THIS AMP IS MADE FOR RECORDING, PRACTISE,BACK STAGE WARM UP, OR BACK UP RIG LIKE ME. I USE A LP STANDARD AND STRATS.MY MAIN SET UP IS A 65 TWIN REVERB OR 59 BASSMAN LTD. ONE OR THE OTHER AND THE BLUES JR AS BACK UP.REVERB HISS GOES AWAY AFTER BREAK IN TOO.

1 YEAR THIS MONTH NO PROBLEMS YET.

MY GRANDMOTHER NEEDS SUPPORT, THE WONDER BRA DOESNT CUT IT.

BEEN PLAYING 30 YEARS , COUNTRY TO METAL. TO MUCH GEAR TO MENTION. BUY IT AGAIN,AGAIN AND AGAIN. I WANT THE TWEED MODEL NEXT. LOVE THIS AMP MAYBE YOU WILL TOO. IM TELLING YOU A 57 IN FRONT OF THIS AND KNOB TWEEKING ON YOUR BOARD AND YOU ARE IN PARTYING IN TONE CITY TONITE!!

made in the 90's (green board version)
versatile?- does muted jazz, heavy rock, blues- pretty versatile
FAT switch is nice- foot-switch-able too
reverb is OK- I have heard they are noisy but mine is pretty quiet- tank is pretty short

Tube driven - put new power and preamp tubes (JJ's)- sounds like a tube amp should

I put a Celestion Blue (barely fits- had to remove the bell but it does fit)_major league difference- shimmers, wails, growls

I use a Fulltone OCD- really adds all kinds of sound options- check it out really worth the cost

Telecaster thinline 69 reissue

I did the "Bill's Blues Junior Mods" to this amp- changed the resistors to cool down the bias, tone stack mod to mimic a Princeton BF---- big difference----

Distortion is smooth and progressively harsher as you increase gain- not metal, definitely hard rock - the amp handles warm jazzy to classic rock
-----with a pedal in the chain you can get most any sound

Input jack is cheezzzzzzzeeeeyyyyy- plastic???? It sucks. Eventually I will swap it out with a switchcraft- the only beef I have with this amp is the input jack- it totally makes this amp risky for gigs

who cares?
since it was modded it is not covered

playing 35 years
own 66 Deluxe Reverb, 72 Twin, Vox AC15, Ampeg Reverb Rocket- fender teles and strats, gibson SG

I bought this amp with no tubes in it- $100.00 took a chance- put tubes in it, it worked fine- saw the mods and figured what the heck, I have always wanted to do surgery on an amp but didn't want to mess with a Stock Fender DR or Twin or Vox. The blues Jr sounds good without the mods- sounds different with them (mine sounds a bit cleaner at hi gain, a bit browner (tonestack mod has darkened the tone a bit) I'm thinking about trying a Celestion Vintage 30 in it to see what that will do to the sound- kind of fun at the 100 dollar price point.

this amp is a really sweet unit- handles all kinds of music- the mods are cheap ( I spent $4.00 on caps and resistors )- basic stuff- if you can use a soldering iron you can do the mods. All I got left to do is replace that crappy input jack.

You can get a good features list elsewhere, so I won't waste space for that. The amp has a decent amount of features. It only has a single channel, but the fat switch works REALLY well to get natural tube distortion. The reverb kinda sucks, but I'm not a big fan of reverb anyway (btw, its the exact same reverb tank that the older deluxe 90 had).

I'm using this with a MIM Telecaster, and it sounds amazing. I got this after my Deluxe 90 broke (and out of warranty), and I was worried it wouldn't have enough power, but boy was i wrong. It's 15 watts, but its just as loud as my deluxe 90 was (which was 90 solid state watts)... and the sound quality is just perfect. I did change the tubes to JJ EL84, and it made a difference, but nothing huge. I recommend doing it just for the reason I did: so you can use the stock tubes as backups. I play a wide range of music (blues, jazz, rock, punk, country, metal, anything really), and this amp has suited me perfect for anything. I cannot believe anyone would ever buy solid state after owning this thing. I only give this thing a 9, because the Hot Rod Deluxe/DeVille sounds noticably better.

I've only owned this thing for a couple months, but I would say its very durable. It's made very well, and I'm not worried anything will break, as long as I continue to take care of it like its my only child.

From my Deluxe 90 woes, I can say that Fender Customer Support is pretty much non-existant.... don't depend on them for anything.

Overall, I couldn't be happier with this purchase. This thing is definitely loud enough for a band, and it has just the right amount of features, and its small, and most importantly, its the best sounding $400 amp on the planet.

This is a pretty basic amp as far as features go, but the power boost and master volume features are terrific for such a small Class-A Tube Amp. The reverb tank in these little amps is superb as well. Though, including a foot switch for the boost with the amp would have been a nice touch, however I did purchase one for it at a very reasonable cost on eBay.

Originally I thought I might be able to use this amp to perform in small clubs, which I do accompanied by a bass player. However I found that even when using two Blues Junior?s in tandem, they didn?t give me enough power to cut through in noisy crowded bars. So I traded one of them in towards a Peavey Delta Blues 210 that does that seems to be doing the job quite well so far, but will save that for another review.

Now I use my remaining Blues Jr. as a practice amp, and on rare occasions in small venues. Now as a practice amp, which is how I will rate this amp, it?s the greatest. Like a 60?s Princeton Reverb Amp to the 10th Power! I play rockabilly, blues and a smattering of older 50?s/60?s R&B and for this purpose it?s unbeatable, in my humble opinion.

I play music of the 50?s & early 60?s, and for this the Blues Jr. is perfect. I play clean, distortion free and even on the boost this amp sounds crystal clear. For my taste in music this amp couldn?t possibly sound any better.

I have owned this amp for less than a year, but know others who have owned theirs for years and haven?t had any serious problems with theirs. Eventually tubes will need to be replaced, but that?s the nature of the beast so to speak. Right?

I bought this amp used from Daddy's Junky Music Stores with a two year warranty. These guys are very reputable, so I trust they will get the job done if the need for repair arises during that time.

I have been playing guitar since the mid 60?s. along with the Blues Jr. I own an Austin Sessions Master (ES 335 Clone), an Epiphone Alley Cat, an 83? Yari DY 47 acoustic and a Peavey Delta Blues 210 Class-A Tube Amp.

If my Blues Jr. were lost or stolen I would go out and buy another as soon as possible.

I recently bought a brand new Blues Jr Custom Lacquered Tweed Special edition amp.

I love the way this amp looks and wanted a small easy to carry around but good sounding small amp.

After living with the Blues Jr for a few months, the following things bothered me about the amp:

-It was a bit too noisy for my taste. I play jazz, some blues and rock. The Blues Jr just had too much hum and noise.

-It was not warm enough or clean enough for me overall. After buying the Blues Jr I listened to other higher end small amps (like the Carr and Dr Z). The Carr Rambler in particular was more of the sound I wanted. Of course I didn?t expect a $500 amp to sound like a $2200 amp but I wanted the sound to be a little closer than the stock Blues Jr.

That?s when I found Bill Machrone on the internet. Bill specializes in modifying amps like the Fender Blues Jr. After many e mails between us, Bill suggested and I agreed to do the following modifications:

- Replace the standard transformer with a Trace Elliott transfer

- Tube upgrades

- Cream board basic Bill Machrone mods

- Addition of a presence control

- Addition of an aux output jack

- Shielding on the wiring to reduce hum and noise

I was interested in also changing speakers. Bill suggested the Eminence Canabis Rex which I ordered from a dealer Bill suggested.

To make a long story short, my Blues Jr sounds unbelievable. It may not blow the doors off a Carr Rambler but it now can run with it and stay close. It?s that good.

Bill is great guy. I learned more about amps during my brief purchase than I ever knew before. He was patient, great at communication and did an outstanding job on my amp. On top of all that, he charges very little money for his services. I?m not going to tell you how much he charged me because one of these days he?ll probably decide to start charging what he?s worth!

If you want to modify your Fender amp, this is the guy you need to call or e mail.

Great after making the above Blues Jr mods!

So far dead reliable. No problems at all.

Not required yet from Fender but Bill has been unbelievable with his support.

I've been playing for over 20 years. I own a Kinal custom bass, SWR Super Red Head bass amp, PRS Custom 24, Custom hand made electric guitar, Fender Strat and Blues Jr amp.

Found it in a used gear shop about 5 years ago. Traded a Peavey Hybrid (Artist)and a few extra bucks for it. Serial number indicates one of the 1st 1000 which means it was probably made in Mexico before they moved the line to China. Was completely stock when I got it. 15 watts, 2xEL34, 3x12AX7 tubes, ss rectifier, Special design Eminence 12" speaker. 2 channel FAT overdrive, spring reverb, no effects loop, hidden foot pedal and speaker jacks. Volume, master volume, bass, mid, treble, reverb controls on top.

I am a harp player. Been at it almost 20 years now. Mainly classic rock. Have used this amp for every gig since the day I got it. Dropped in various lower gain preamp tubes (12AT/12AU) to mitigate the howlin feedback monster. Have had no issues other than the dreaded squeal associated with all guitar amps when you place a mic in front of them. After extensive research, sent the chassis to Ron Holmes (Holmeseng.com..highly recommended!) for some harp modifications. He dropped the gain, changed the caps, checked and sold me some new tubes and put in a balanced line-out jack from the preamp. I also swapped the "special design" Eminence speaker with a Jensen P12R Alnico which breaks up much sooner than the ceramic magnet stocker. I now have excellent volume on stage via the amp, run a standard 1/4" cord from the amp to the PA and project some serious tone with out ANY feedback and more headroom than I need. My bandmates are now telling me to turn DOWN! HA! 15 Class A watts outta this thing equates to some serious volume!

I can go from super clean Stevie Wonder to nasty crunch Little Walter/Junior Wells by adjusting the volume and master volume knobs. I dont use the cheesy reverb as it just adds noise. Added a Dan Echo pedal(also harp modded by Ron) to my pedal board to handle all delay/reverb applications as well as a Rocktron Hush feedback/noise killer if I need it. Also have a Harp Commander (yes, another Ron Holmes product!) preamp on my pedal board. This combination gives me EVERYTHING I have ever needed as far as harp sounds. Big, FAT and powerful sounds, ZERO feedback and versatility in exploring different sounds. I suppose one day I will pull the trigger and get the Bassman 4x12 but I cant really see haulin the thing around when I have all the tones I want with 1/4 of the weight and bulk.. Lent it to my guitar slinger who loved the tone with his Gibson SG so much (This is AFTER the gain mofications)....He went out and bought the Blues Deluxe Reissue..he is now in Full Fender Tube Tone mode. Again...He actually just needed a bit of reminding as he has an original Super Reverb thats sits in the closet! Nothing comes close to Fender tube tone!

As mentioned, have never had problem with this other than the stock reverb which I don't use. If stolen, I would have to hurt somebody and then go get another one. If you couldnt tell, this is my choice. Yes it's modded for me and I would do it all over again as I have found my sound...Only took me 20 years! Have attempted to find it with tranny amps, emulators, emulators thru tranny amps into the PA..other tube amps, (Peavey, Crate, Epiphone.....) Nothing comes close to a Fender Tube Amp!

Have never had to deal with Fender and they would probably just scratch thier heads when they saw the internal modifications made to this bad boy! I added some corner protectors as the tolex on bottom was starting to rip and tear...Only makes it look mo bettah! Overall a sleeper of amp. Tame looks....killer Tones/lightweight/inexpensive ready to go right outta the box. Add a few mods and this things is the shiznit!!!!

Normal options for a single channel amp

Stock amp...is decent for the price. Nothing ground breaking. The real magic came after I tweaked it some. Since I modify effects, preamps, and a few amps, I pulled mine apart and tweaked it quite a bit. I was very suprised! What was a huge improvement! I experimented with several different modifications that I designed, and modified the amp to be much fuller, warmer, and more responsive. After studying the schematic some more, I came up with my personal favorite modification for it - a mod to make it sound and react like a Vox ac-15 with a top boost.

Some soundclips:
Stock/modified amp comparison: http://www.indyguitarist.com/soundclips2/blues_junior_compare.mp3

Now, changing the speakers makes a huge difference. Here is a soundclip running the modified blues junior into an open back 2x12 cabinet with Eminence speakers (modeled after celestion vintage 30's):
http://www.indyguitarist.com/soundclips2/blues_jr-2x12cab.mp3

After modification for Vox ac-15 type tones:
(stock speaker): http://www.indyguitarist.com/soundclips2/fbj-voxmod-stock_spkr.mp3

(with 2x12 cabinet):
http://www.indyguitarist.com/soundclips2/fbj-voxmod-212_open.mp3


rank: 7 before mods, 10 after mods, I'll average it at '9'.

All PCB, fairly reliable if you don't throw the amp around. If it does need repaired, it should be fairly simple for any knowledgable tech.

n/a

As you can see, with some modifications ( I usually charge $150 to do these for my customers), and nicer speakers, MUCH nicer tones are available. Plenty loud enough for gigs too. Definately not for metal, but AWESOME for rock/blues/country/jazz type stuff.

rank: 7 before mods, 10 after mods, I'll average it at '9'. I bought this amp at Guitar Center for $350. So for $350 for the amp, $150 for a mod, and $60 for a new speaker, you can get tones very close to Dr. Z territory!

email me if you have any questions or need more soundclips: http://www.indyguitarist.com/contact.htm

It was made in the mid-90's

It does clean and slightly overdriven pretty well

one channel, plain jane

i LOVE it just the way it is

i use it for home practice guitar lessons

i use a fender fat strat or a esp semi-hollow-body with it usually

It does tube tones on a small scale...just what i needed

It's not noisy

It does clean....and slightly not clean

It distorts pretty quickly but nothing bad....just warmer

Brutal????? Not really

It doesn't break down apparently ever

Um.....i haven't dealt with them.....and i want to keep it that way

I've been playing about 6 years

Guitars:
1.Ibanez Talman Acoustic Electric
2.Martin DXME Dreadnought
3.Taylor Big Baby
4.Squier Affinity Strat (First Guitar)
5.Fender Fat Strat w/Floyd Rose Trem
6.Fender MIJ Blue Flower Tele
7.ESP EC-300AT
8.Ernie Ball Music Man John Petrucci

Amps:
Fender Blues Jr
Fender Hot Rod Deville 2x12
Line 6 Pod XT Live

Effects:
Keeley Modded Boss SD-1
Keeley Modded Boss DS-1
Visual Sound Route 66
MXR Phase 90
Boss RC-20 Loop Pedal
Star Touch A/B Switch
Jim Dunlop Cry Baby Wah
Boss DD-6 Delay


I would get it again...for that price...other wise....i really don't need it

I love how light it is

I didn't compare it to anything

It's great just the way it is

Try it for yourself!

Is a usado Blues Junior amplificador.

I buy usado frun my amigo, Jorge.

Souna mucho good.

Wenh I toca el Telecastero estring, el sound jump out
of de amplificador como J Lo's thong in Miami calor.

My las amplificador u to be a Marshall estack.

Mucho heavy. Too bad for Ramon when it went plah! on he's foot. Ai!

I buy de Blues Junior and it working berry too good.

Espect it to be working good.

My hacienda nex to de Fender Mexico factoria.

No ai problemo to get ayudo. Many amigo.

I like to be liking este amplificador foreber.

Souna many good with Telecastero.

Compera otro if este got stole.

You hear it an you will say:
"Blues Junior - Me too tam bien!"

2005 blues jr basic small tube amp with 12" speaker and reverb

i bought this because i wanted something lightweight but with a good tone.I was tired of lugging my 1966 fender blackface bassman around.sounded thin not as organic as the older vintage fender amps i own.but certainally had a nice sound for what it is.

well this is were the problem comes in bought one took it home and cranked her up only to her rattling comming from the cab this made the amp unusable to me.so i returned it and bought another one only to have the reverb go out on it.took it back!It's a shame that fender has gone down on there sound and quality-maybe they should make them like they did in the 60's.love my old vintage fender amps but this is pure junk!won't be buying any new fender amps again.

when it worked properly it had an ok sound.nothing like the older fender or vox amps of the 60's.I was very disapointed in this amp.guess i'll look for an old 60's vox ac15 or fender champ.i's a shame that the best amps ever built came out of the 50's and 60's.I feel for the young people who can't aford a classic vintage amp because there left with pure junk!

very basic

one sound to go

never had problems with it. it looked like a cheapy made amp. The amp got really hot in the back. When I played it, it had to work. Volume open. I don't know if the speaker holts up when playing this thing on 10, or even the chassis, light wood. I only took it to rehersals sometimes, never giged with it.

never dealt with them

If you accept that'there is only one sound, besides rolling back your potis on the guitar, and you like a really cutting through distorted sound than try one. I bought one several years back, second hand. I suppose it was made in the u.s. Never had problems with it, except... with the other guitarist in the band. I took this little amp sometimes to rehersals. Vol. on 10. My friend had a little marshall stack with several fx. He complined about my volume!!!, I was playing to loud! Hey, this thing cuts through. No bass at all...beautifull mits. It does sing, i played it with a strat. cap with p90, rock!
Unfortunately I sold it because I wanted some other stuff. I owned many amps, this is a reminder! Nowadays i play a marshall 2554, and some fx stuff. You cannot compare this amp with its big brothers and sisters -> the price, the watts. Nevertheless when miked you can...THink about as a special effect, nice to have in a guitar rig. I'm looking for this little animal again. If everything is miked in your band, this will stand it absolutely!
Versality it gets a 1, accepting one sound it get's a 9.

2004 Blues Jr. Stock w/Eminence Speaker. I'm sorry, but I don't look inside nor do I care to know what color the board is...gets a 7 for features, becuase, let's face it, there's not a lot of features to talk about...not that this is a bad thing, mind you.

Using a Am.Std Strat w/Lace Sensors, a Samick AV-3 (LP copy) w/Seymour Duncans ('59 and JB), and an Ibanez Artcore AS-73 (ES-335-type thing). Sounds good with all, but you will need to tweak the EQ to your taste..)

I play primarily rock, blues punk and some jazz. No Heavy Metal. No Country. Works great for this stuff. Nice, rich clean sound, breaks up nicely into a warm, thick vintage distortion.

I've only had it for about six months, but no problems so far. First few months were at home practice, but I have recently begun using it in a band setting and it is plenty loud enough, beleive me. (We have a couple of Marshall half-stacks and a Mesa .50 caliber at our rehearsal space. After my first practice with the BJ (now that sounds weird!), our drummer was surprised to see me unplugging from the BJ at the end of the night. He thought I was playing through one of the Marshalls! (yes, he IS a drummer, but I think you get my point: plenty loud!)

No dealings with Fender. If something broke, I would take it to my local guy and pay to have it fixed. (Sorry, but I am not going to be without this amp for the weeks (months?) it would take to ship it to Fender and get it fixed under warranty just to save a few bucks.

I've been playing bass for many, many, years, and I just got into guitar a few years ago, so I may not be the best guitar player, but I've heard everything over the years, from divine and sublime to the worst crap you could ever imagine, and I think I know what I like...

Now here's why I am writing this review: To those of you who complain about build quality, cutting corners, the "amp not being worth what they charge for it, etc.", I have one thing to say to you: what do you want for this price? I, for one, am very happy that I can get this TUBE amp for this paltry price. Is it a MESA or a Dumble or whatever? Of course not! Those amps costs thousands of dollars! Ever wonder why? So am I going to bust on Fender for using cheaper components? Are they not entitled to pay their workers, invest in capital equipment and, oh, yeah, make a little profit on top? PLEASE! Why don't you all wait until the peach fuzz on your chin thickens, you move out of your parent's house and into the real world before you complain that your $399 amp does not sound like a MESA! (and if you're still not happy with it, by all means, send it to me! I'm looking for another to run in stereo!)

2004 OR O5. VERY VERSITILE ROCK COUNTRY BLUES AMP.I PLAY HARD ROCK. 1 CHANNEL. PLENTY OF POWER TO GIG WITH A MIC. SMALL VENUES JUST CRANK THE MASTER TO ABOUT 6 OR MORE OR LESS AND VOL.@ 2.5 .

I LOVE THE TONE. THIS IS TONE HEAVEN EVEN STOCK. MUST BE PLAYED AT HIGHER VOLUMES TO THE TONE IM SPEAKING OF. THIS AMP TAKES A WHILE TO BREAK IN. THE REVERB MAY HISS ALITTLE AND MUDDY UP YOUR SOUND AT FIRST AND ALSO SOUND TO BRIGHT FOR SOME. JUST WAIT IT OUT.IT ALL COMES TOGETHER LATER ON. I LOVE THIS AMP THROUGH A 1960 CAB SET @ 8 OMS( YOU ONLY GET 2 12'S AT 8 OHMS WITH THIS CAB BUT SOUNDS GREAT. EVEN 4OMS MONO JUST RUNS HOTTER. BUY A SMALL FAN AT WALLY WORLD OR SOMETHING IF YOU WISH. IVE NEVER USED A FAN THOUGH ALOT OF GUYS DO I HEAR.

HAD ALL MOST A YEAR SO FAR SO GOOD

DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU LIVE. FENDER WARRANTY CENTER 40 MILES FROM MY HOUSE. THEY ARE GOOD. HAD WARRANTY SERVICE DONE ON MY DEVILLE 410. PROMPT AND FRIENDLY BACK IN 2 DAYS.

30 YRS. OWN ALL KINDS OF STUFF. IF STOLEN ID BUY A NEW ONE FOR SURE NO DOUBT. IVE PLAYED LARGE CLUBS WITH THIS AMP AND A SM57 IN FRONT AND SOUNDS GREAT NO MORE 100LB TWIN REVERB TO LIFT INTO THE CAR. SO SAVE YOUR MONEY AND YOUR BACK. BUY A BLUES JR , SM57 MIC AND SOME STOMP BOXES AND WATCH YOUR EARS AND MOUTH SMILE.

15w valve amp with 12 inch fender speaker. Treble, middle, bass, volume, master, fat switch and reverb controls. Three 12ax7 preamp valves and two el84 power amp valves. Great for blues, rock, country, jazz but not metal, well what do you expect from an amp named Blues Junior.

The clean tones available are quality and are great for rhythm amd lead, as for the dirty tones they are also. It sounds great for rock. The reverb is a bonus to the already great sounds and makes this amp complete. Brilliant sounds.

Works fine after many years.

One of the best 15w amps available and a bargain too. I have a Pro junior and this is more versitile but has a different sound. Great amp.

Well documented already.
Ive wanted one of these for years and finally got round to getting one, i read all the reviews here first but tried to approach the amp with an open mind, not wanting to buy an amp and then mod the heck out of it! So here goes.....
Its plenty powerful enough to play small venues, and my band is a seven piece inc.loud drummer and two horns (soul band).
The reverb is not very good. I dont use it at all.
YES The stock speaker DOES need upgrading.
I think its an amp you can really get to like and keep for a long time. Most people probably do that as they dont come up much secondhand here, considering how many are sold.

Im using a USA tele plus and a highway1 strat.
I tried playing with the dials on the amp and settings on my guitars for a month because i didnt want to believe the hype. Eventually i caved in and got a celestion vintage 30. This does make a whole lot of difference, the amp is not as fuzzy and i can now get those nice valve overtones i was searching for, and some nice bite from the treble.
Listen to the intro on sweet home alabama. That tone is pretty easy to dial in with the new speaker, but not the old.
SRV (listen to lenny) sounds are easily obtained with a strat, just set the volume to 9 and the master to 4, middle/neck pickup and away you go.
Thats seems to be the perfect setting for my blues junior, i may turn the volume down to 8 when using the hotter pickups in my tele, the amp sounds harsh to me after breakup point. Maybe the valve swap helps that but i havent tried changing them yet.
I leave the fat switch out, not sure what it actually does, if it boosts the tone controls or overdrives the valves, im not that technical, but either way i prefer to get a nice valvey clean sound like the one above, then use a decent pedal if overdrive is required.

If you put the fat switch in and volume on full its an acceptable overdrive sound, but not my cup of tea.

ok so far.

Unknown.

Didnt know it had a socket for a footswitch hidden in the back until i took it apart to put the speaker in. The speaker swap was pretty straightforward. The holes lined up too.
The way the valves are held in seems a little delicate, and when you take the amp apart to do the swap you then realise you are not actually getting much for your money. If you swap the valves too you are basically laying out for a wooden case and a circuit board with a plug attached. Forget about the reverb. Having slated it a little ive got to say im pretty pleased ive got one, and will prob keep it. but if you are thinking of buying one factor in the price of a speaker and set of valves and see what else is in the price range. Laney make some nice valve amps now, some with celestions as standard. I just sold the big 2x12 VC30 and it blew away any fender ive ever heard, but i needed something smaller. Pity the VC15 only has a ten inch speaker.
I dont think its great value for money, but then nor are harleys and i want one of those too.

My Blues Jr is the American made (green circuit board) model not sure of the year, bought it on ebay. Very simple and straight forward single channel with an additional "fat switch" to beef it up for leads. I retubed it with Phillips EL84's and Marshall 12AX7's, also swapped out the stock speaker for a Celestion Vintage 30, I would recommend the speaker mod to anyone who is not satisfied with this amp in its original form, tubes are an ongoing quest, always good to have extra's when gigging. As reviewed, reverb is the only on board effect and is mediocore. I use no effects running from guitar to the amp with no pedals, great fender tube sound and a great value. This amp is used for all club venue's and the 15 watts of tube power is plenty for most any stage appplication. If you need more volume, mic it. 1 point off for cheesie reverb.

I pack several guitars when I play out, in order of preference, Gibson LP 1960 reissue Gold Top, Fender USA Strat, and Gibson ES-135, also have a Fender Nashville Power Tele that makes it out once in a while when the mood strikes me. This amp and guitars can cover any classic rock sound you desire from clean David Gilmore Strat chimes to ZZTop full tilt growl. It needs to be said that you can attain most any clean or distorted sound at any volume level by working your tone and volume knobs on your guitar. The most brutal distortion cleans up quickly by dialing in your guitar volumes.

Very reliable, but once again, I suggest always travel with extra tubes, a few moments of popping a bad tube out and replacing with a good one takes no longer than switching out to another amp. This amp is preferred because its light weight, and easy to set up with great tone.

No opinion here, this is out of warranty and I usually do my own work.

I've been at it for 35 yrs plus, love the old classic rock stuff Stones, Zep, ZZTop, Savoy Brown, Cream, and younger bands that emulate the sounds of these old classics just to name a few influences, you get the idea, and can't get enough guitar time. I have a three piece classic rock band and this and other amps I own are great fun for our couple times a month gigs. I also own and play out a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (USA model), another great amp, and Marshall JCM 600 w/4X10 bottom, also a great amp. Guitars as mentioned above with the addition of a few more Strats-EC custom shop, pink paisley for fun, Gibson Explorer 2. As I said earlier, I have stopped using pedals and prefer the pure tone and satisfaction of dialing my sound in using just the guitar volume/tone controls straight to the amp. If this amp came up missing, I would replace it and do the same mods I described above. Very versital and portable amp. Two thumbs up for the American made version. If you haven't played through this amp, take the time to check it out, you won't regret it.

Just the basic feature set here. It does have onboard reverb. Need to take a couple of points off for no effects loop and the reverb that is included is pretty weak.

I took some time before writing this review. I received this as a gift two years ago. It is a Made in Mexico version. I play this with a variety of guitars (American late Seventies Stratocaster, Ibanez with ceramic humbuckers, Gretsch 6120 (friend's), and even an acoustic with a Fishman electronics package). All guitars produced pleasing results. Make no mistake: THIS AMP IS LOUD. All guitars required some tinkering to coax out their own individual sounds. I was fairly pleased for the near 2 years of playing.

Earlier this year I got a chance to hear a friends Blues Junior that was modified with some NOS tubes. I was very impressed with the sound, a sound that I was not able to pull off with my stock Blues Junior. Off I was on a search for tone.

Long story short . . . changing the Fender Special Design Eminence 12? 8 Ohm to a Celestion Vintage 30 made a HUGE difference. The Blues Junior always had a good clean sound but started to get muddy (loss of tone definition) when it was overdriven. I was able to fix this with the use of stomp boxes but it was never a complete solution. Adding the Celestion solved the problem.

I could immediately tell the difference in construction between the two speakers. The mass of the Celestion has to be 3 to 4 pounds heavier than the stock Eminence.

I will perform the modifications in stages. For now the speaker is just fine. When the tubes need it I will replace them with JJ?s or perhaps go on a journey for some NOS replacements.

Note: The speaker mod was a simple. It took no more that 10 minutes to pull the old speaker and install the new one. No mods to the wiring position or screws placement was required.

No problems with virtually daily use for the last 2 years. That bing said, never gig without a backup.

I never had a need to call.

I have played guitar and bass for 27 years. I wish my skill reflected those 27 years.

As far as equipment goes, I have a 70?s USA Fender Stratocaster, an early 80?s G&L Fretless L2000e bass, an Ibanez Artcore AS83VLS, a 70?s Yamaha Spanish Classical and an Alvarez acoustic. My current amps are a Gallien Krueger 200MB bass amp with onboard chorus and the Blues Junior. I have also owned an old Ampeg tube amp for bass, a very large Peavey Bass rig (briefly) and a mid seventies Fender Twin Reverb. I continue to experiment with different pedals for the guitar and the bass. I have a 70?s Electro Harmonix USA Big Muff, an EH Small Clone analog chorus, an old Boss DS-1 Distortion Pedal, a 70?s Vox Wah and a Ibanez TS9 DX Turbo I use with the bass. I also have an old (86 I think) Scholtz Research & Development Rockman. I love that thing!

The Blues Junior is a wonderful amp. If it were lost I would buy another and quickly upgrade the speaker. The sounds are great but I would like an effects loop to be included and a more powerful reverb. The stock reverb is a short tank that does not provide enough depth. In comparison to other Amps in this class (Peavey, Crate, Line 6) I much prefer the Fender.

Given an unlimited budget for a small portable combo, I would still choose the Blues Junior.

There is a Fender dealer in our town, and I realized at some
point they almost always had a Blues Junior in stock.
For the sake of consistency I wanted to use it as a test platform
for A/B-ing different guitars in that shop.
Problem: I was having a hard time getting a good sound out of it.
There were several guys on the same guitar newsgroup that had them,
so I asked them for their settings.
Two guys suggested similar setting which I tried, and they worked great. I can't remember them exactly, but both bass and treble were
above 10, and midrange was about 4. After that, I got some
<very> useable tones out of it, in fact, <everything> sounded
at least good through it. I eventually got a Pro Jr, which has some
similarities, but I got it for $250 used, which I couldn't pass up
at the time. I still like the Blues Jr. though, and have used
it so much in stores that I almost feel like I've owned one.
For my taste the reverb was fine, as I never set it above 2.
The midrange control, which my Pro Jr. does not had
allowed the Blues Jr. to do well with humbuckers, where the Pro Jr.
in the store sometimes got muddy, and there was no way to clean it up.
(Note: I often abbreviate Blues Jr. to BJ, and Pro Junior to PJ)

I have mostly played Fender Strats and Teles through the Blues Jr,
mostly single coils, but a few humbucker guitars as well.
I never got a <bad> sound out of the Blues Jr., but some excelled
more than others... MIM Telecasters were my favorite on the neck
pickup for Blues tone.
I wasn't particular fond of the high gain sound, but that's not
the setting I normally use anyway, I like it either clean, or just
on the verge of breakup. I consider the Blues Jr. to have a somewhat
more refined sound than the Pro Jr., at least when both are stock.
The Pro Junior seems to have a somewhat rawer sound.
If that's what you're trying to get out of the Blues Junior,
maybe you got the wrong Junior!

Okay, someone was talking down the necessity of speaker and tube
swaps on the Blues Jr, and that's what motivated me to make this review. I do own a Pro Jr, and they use the same Sovtek EL84 power
tubes and the stock speakers are from the same bottom of the line
series of Eminence speakers. Fender obviously has had to meet a price
point to get the Blues Jr. out at $400 and the Pro Jr. at $300 for
your rock bottom new retail price. And corners have been cut,
especially with the speakers and the tubes.
I got my Pro Jr. used. It had a tube rattle. Finally traced it
to the EL84 power tubes. I liked the sound, so I got some new
ones. SAME RATTLE! And the last time I tried a guitar through
a brand new Pro Jr. it had the same characteristic tube rattle!
BRAND NEW! I don't know if a Blues Jr. shakes up the tubes quite
as bad as a Pro Jr., the BJ has a <little> more space...
but frankly, loose plates in something that gets that hot???
I don't think that's a good idea.
I got a pair of JJ EL84s, and not only do they sound significantly
better (although I liked the Sovtek's tone)but they <don't>
rattle. I have since noticed that JJ power tubes, and especially
the EL84s are becoming a defacto standard. You can get a pair
for $20, they sound good, and are reliable. And if you get them
from Eurotubes (Bob Pletka) or Lord Valve, you can get them
even more thoroughly tested. If power tubes fail, they can
take out your power supply and other expensive circuitry,
so $20 or so for a pair of JJ EL84s seems like cheap insurance to me.
You could spend big bucks on NOS tubes, but that's not necessary.
Preamp tubes are less mission critical, change 'em if you don't like
the stock sound. I use an Electroharmonix 12AX7 in v1, and a JJ ECC82 in v2, but the preamps are quite different, so obviously YMMV!

If your a novice, or not picky, or not gigging,
or just practicing at low volumes, the
stock speaker may do fine for a while.
My PJ's stock Eminence speaker overall was reliable, but running
my two humbucker guitar through it at volume, it made some <nasty>
noises, which stopped when I went back to single coil guitars.
I don't think I would want to play a loud gig with either
the BJ's stock 12 or the PJ's stock 10 inch speaker.
I have a Behringer Vintager with a 10" Italian made Jensen reissue.
I decided to swap speakers. My Pro Jr. was good before,
now it is excellent! I cannot believe somebody in these reviews
was minimizing the effect a speaker swap can make.
Three different speakers, and with each one, it sounds like a different amp. It's the <last> step in the signal chain,
the speaker is <crucial> to the tone.
I also have a Celestion 10" in an external speaker cabinet. Totally different flavor. If Celestions are not your cup of tea, or too expensive,
Eminence has a higher priced speaker line that's getting good
reviews, the Patriot series for an American sound, and the Redcoat
for a British sound (of course) Currently a Redcoat Tonker
is $89, and a Patriot Swamp Thang is $75 at Music123.
The reissue Jensen's can be gotten quite reasonably-
the 12" one that comes in the Behringer Vintager AC112 can be bought
new for $40! Yeah, you could spend a couple hundred bucks
on a speaker, but you could also spend something under $100
and <still> get a much, much better speaker than the stock one.
(or you could get the Behringer AC112 Vintager, swap speakers,
and use the AC112 as a backup, or sell it.)
So it's not a must do thing like the power tubes, but it'll
make a <huge> difference in the tone. I would try these
two things <before> modding the electronics and thus voiding the warranty. When choosing speakers, remember, the Blues Jr. already
has plenty of midrange!

N/A

If my Pro Jr. were stolen or lost, I might also consider a Blues Junior as a replacement.

I have heard that the reverb hum in the older models can be fixed
just by moving the reverb tank. I have also heard a vertically
mounted reverb tank is even better, because gravity has less of
an effect on the springs.

either 04 or 05 I just got it yesterday brandnew from GC. I play blues, jazz, and all kinds of rock. It suits it prefectly.. now that i have customized it =D
I like the features, it came with the Reverb its ok..
I use it for home, recording, and church.
The power is fine for me and what i do..
Well Im going to express my Blues Jr the way it is now..(Pair of JJ El84's Tubes and a Ceramic Weber 12F125 Speaker) With this done WOW it sounds like a vintage 60's amp.

I have a Gibson Les Paul Studio with BB pickups (come on the Standard models) The amp sounds PERFECT now..(Pair of JJ El84's Tubes and a Ceramic Weber 12F125 Speaker)

Prior to doing these modifications... It sounded ok just i felt like the amp was holding back. It sounded Muggy at high and to thin at low..(now it sounds rich and pure and very very clean)
When the amp was set at clean it was kinda muggy.
Distortion sounded the same.

The amp is durable and i really think i can depend on it. Ive been using the amp for many gigs with no back up and have no problems what so ever.

The amp was modified 3 days after i got it new. It has ot broken down on me at all.

I think modifiying the amp has messed with my warrenty.. but i dont mind if i have any problems i can get it fixed. If its worse than that ill just get a new amp

Ive been playing for 10 years now..
I had a epiphone LP for a while got rid of it and got a real LP now =D and i also have a Fender American Strat.
If it were lost or stolen id be really upset.. but i would just find a better tube amp..
I really recommend using this setup: (Pair of JJ El84's Tubes and a Ceramic Weber 12F125 Speaker) you really dont have to chage the speaker to get the sound but it will help alot more if you did.. it sounds like a vintage fender amp from the 60's. AMAZING thats all i can say..
but prior to the mods.. the amp is good bang for the buck..(i can just see its potential!)

Pre-amp volume, Bass, Midrange, Treble, Master Volume, Reverb.

The stock amp is a very good amp to begin with, and most users would probably be perfectly happy with the amp "as is". I decided to replace the EL84 output tubes with Ei Gold tubes and the overdrive sound is a little more defined now. Since buying replacement EL84 tubes is going to happen sooner or later, you may as well try another brand of tube just to hear the difference. I think the Ei Gold tube is a good alternative to the JJ tube.

I also replaced the stock Eminence speaker with a Jensen C12N reissue speaker.

Both of these changes result in a subtle improvement in the sound.

I was disappointed that the reverb didn't work, but considering this was a "blem" purchased from Musician's Friend, I wasn't too surprised, either. I'm contemplating replacing the reverb tank with something larger.

Since I'm using a Fender 63 Reverb unit between the guitar and amp(upgraded with Mercury Magnetics transformers and a Tung Sol NOS 6K6GT tube), the lack of reverb is not a problem. And the amp sounds great even without any reverb at all.

I can heartily recommended running a Fulltone OCD pedal between your guitar and the Blue Junior. Do that and the overdrive sound is superb.

So ... how much does all this cost?

Used amp $357
EL84 tubes $29
Jensen C12N speaker $61
Fulltone OCD $170

Still way less than a boutique EL84 based amp.

I'm considering getting the Bill M mods.

Last, but not least, I've played a number of Les Pauls and Strats through this amp, and my favorite is a custom "Super Strat" with a Pearly Gates pickup in the neck, and JB pickup in the bridge. The Blues Junior and the Pearly Gates make an excellent combination.

It's good to know an amp that only weighs 31 pounds can deliver a big sound.

Reliable so far.

Haven't deal with Fender.

Upgrading the tubes and speaker is optional. Try playing a Blues Junior using a Fulltone OCD for overdrive, and you won't be disappointed. The "tweed" version of the amp is no longer produced, but it already has the Jensen C12N speaker installed. Get that one if you can.

I don't know what year it was made but it has the green board.
I play mostly classic rock, and blues, and the amp seems well suited for this type of music. A one channel amp is all I need. If I need a different sound, I have pedals for that. I was disappointed with the way the stock amp sounded after I had played thru it for several weeks. I couldn't get over the boxy tone it had. So I made solid pine cabinet for it. I made the cabinet same height, and length but I increased the depth of the cabinet to 11 inches. (stock cab's are around 9.25 inches). Then I installed a EVM 12L speaker in the new cabinet. I now have a Blues jr. amp that will keep up with any gig I want to do. Large or small. The EV speaker added 3db of gain to the amp. Which is like doubling the wattage. I'm still thinking about the Bill M mod for the tone stack but I can do that myself. I also have plans for a extension 1-12 speaker cabinet in the works. It should sound awsome when I'm done.

I use Gibson guitars humbuckers, and P90's. This amp suits my stlye of music style well. It does get noisy when I'm playing with the P90's but you get that with single coil pick-up's. My modded amp has a great bluesy clean sound, and clipps nice when sent into overdrive.
I still haven't swapped out the stock tubes yet but I'm sure it's going to sound even better with a matched set of JJ's

Never needed service yet. I wouldn't use anything on a gig without having a backup. Murphy's law, you know!

Never dealt with Fender.

I been playing for over 30 years. If were stolen I'd just build another cab, and find another EV speaker to put in it.

This is an up date on my '99 Greenboard USA model.
One input jack. Volume and 3 tone controls, Master Volume and Reverb,on off switch, Fat switch/ foot control optional,15 watts, 12" speaker, thats all you need, thats all you get.

I've used this amp with several guitars over the last 5 years. My '62 Strat can get good twang for "Chicken Picken'" and "Surf's Up" with the Reverb about 4-5, I like that. I really like it best with my '56 Epi Goldtop with P-90's, it gives it a sweet but not to twangy edge, I like for Jazz. Also does well with slight overdrive for Blues/Rock and I can get a mellow clean Jazz tone (Joe Pass) with my Ibanez Archtop with humbuckers. This amp is very loud for it's size, I never turn it up past, 4 even jamming with a Drummer.

I have compaired this amp with some of the new Mexician cream board BJ's and I think they screwed up by changing the tone, they sound too bright for my ears and the Reverb is too hot. I also compaired this amp with some expensive Boutique amps, one, the Working Dog Boxer is a good little amp but I couldn't get a better sound out of it than my BJ could provide. I also compaired it with a Peavey Classic 30, and it can hold it's own against it, but the C-30 is twice the power, and is a very good amp, well built for about the same price, and the tone is very similar. In some ways I like the C-30 better. I think for the money the BJ is a good amp choice, you want to pay $1200 then get the Working Dog.

P.S. I did switch the driver tube to a 12AT7 for a little better and cleaner tone, with a little less gain, try it, I think its the best mod for this amp, if you like clean.

Okay, I had some problems with the reverb, the tank died, had to get another one (After Market). I recommend you consider putting the Tank into a Reverb bag, to help protect it, their cheap about $10 and worth it. Some people will tell you the bias is set to hot and your tubes will burn out too fast, maybe but I haven't had any tube problems at all, 5 years on my tubes and no problems and they still test good. I own a tube tester and test my tubes once a year on all my amps.

My main complaint is the EL Cheap-o componets, the input jack and pots are all plastic, and wll break if bumped too hard, if they do, then your infor some repairs. See Customer Support. So far so good, be careful.

I have never dealt with Fender for repairs and yet I know they suck at it. I've heard too many complaints, good luck.

Fender needs to work harder on this.

I've been playing guitar since about 1960 and have owned several real Fenders, and some other amps I liked better. Now that I've had it for a while and know it inside and out, I still like my BJ but think they cut too many corners to build it; I don't think they could build it with cheaper parts and make it work. I can jam and even do some small Bar size gigs with it, that's about it's limit. I would not buy another one nor a newer Mexican one. I'll keep this amp and use it a long time (I hope). If it breaks down I'll look for a Classic 30 or Delta Blues to replace it, I think for the most part Peavey is building better quality amps today than Fender is and their still made in the USA. Don't get me wrong this is still a good choice for a small amp, but not the best for the money.

This is a very simple, light, small amp with big sound for the money. I am currently using two - one for each of the stereo signal from my GNX4 Guitar Workstation and they sound phenomenal (to me). I had to get a stereo EQ to boost the midrange and cut some of the high end (even after adjusting the eq on the frequently used models on my GNX4). I am currently playing a Fender Showmaster HH FMT (two Seymore Duncans). I intentionally bought two of these instead of one larger amp.

This amp pretty much has a single sound alone. With my GNX4, I mostly wanted something that I could make very clean to accept the signal input uncolored. This amp works great.

I've only had it for a while, but I have had no trouble so far.

I have had no cause to interact with Fender. I bought these amps used and have no warranty (but haven't needed one).

I've been playing for about 25 years with church groups. This rig is the most versatile I have owned.

I believe this particular amp was made in '03 or '04. For what it is, an inexpensive small genuine Fender tube amp, I feel that it is more than adequate. I wish it had a standby switch. For a 15 watt amp, with a little overdrive, like a Danelectro Daddy-o, it is LOUD!

The guy I bought it from used his Ibanez AFS75T, his Fernandes Strat, his '50's vintage Kay, my '58 Les Paul reissue, my Telecaster, my Fender American Standard Strat, my Epiphone Les Paul Special with P-90s, and various other guitars for playing rockabilly, country and blues, and they all sounded like the amp, instead of the amp sounding like the various guitars. If you like the sound of this particular amp with your particular guitar, great! Otherwise, it is a little limited in its tonal diversity.

Very dependable, great for a gigging amp.

I've never had any trouble with a Fender product yet, but there is a Fender authorized repair facility here in town, so I would expect no trouble with repair or service.

For a beginner who wants a real tube amp or for the veteran player who needs a compact, loud little amp that is easy to carry,and easy on the wallet, this is a good little amp. I would recommend this amp to others who are willing to deal with its minor shortcomings.

The features are well documented below. It's a basic single channel 15 watt tube amp with reverb.

It's decent for Blues and Rock that doesn't require a huge amount of overdrive. I bought it for rehearsals and small clubs.

This is basically a one-trick pony. It can do a flemmy Fendery blues tone very well. Not very good for clean. The reverb is anemic.

I used a Fender Strat and G&L ASAT Classic with it. I bought it to play blues in small clubs and for rehearsal.

I had it for about one month, plugged it in one night and it started smoking. That was the end of it, and I never got another.

Thank goodness I bought it from a local dealer who let me trade it in toward a Tech 21 Trademark 60, who has tremendous support. I never had to deal with Fender.

If all you need is an amp that can do a overdriven blues tone, then this is the amp for you (but bring a back up). The reverb is so weak and is barely usable. For more cash the Tech 21 was a much better amp and has been reliable. I love Fender amps, and I own two others, but the Blues Jr. just didn't do it for me. Love the size and weight, but the reliability and the lack of versatility (especially clean sounds) is a turn off. I've been playing for more than 30 years, and have owned and experience with many amps. The Blues Jr. was a big disappointment. When I bought it, I thought I could get by with its one or two usable sounds, but was thankful when it died.

Made in USA around 2000-2001.

We'll----Hmmm---I play a lot of styles, I get bored playing the same thing over and over again, so that being said I needed a amp that could provide me with a large amount of sounds and I wanted a light weight amp. Here?s how I accomplished this with a blues jr. after I purchased the Jr I replaced all the tubes with tubes that would provide me with as much clean headroom as possible...very clean...I also replaced the stock Fender 12" speaker with a Weber high power California Classic...this speaker is the King of clean.....Here's The setup: Vintage Electra Guitar with Hummbuckers....Blues Jr......New Tubes.....New Speaker and a Vox Toneworks SE multi EFX Pedal..For those of you who live in a box and don't know about this pedal, the pedal uses a 12AX7 tube to produce the most realistic amp modeling ever (I also retubed the Vox Toneworks) I gig with this setup...all you need is a good mic on this little amp and you will be blown away. I get every sound off this setup; from Rect metal to crisp clean boutique...It's amazing.....AND LIGHTWEIGHT?.Now let?s sum this up?.Technology has finally caught up with the extremly heavy - high wattage tube amp?..you don?t need a giant HEAVY tube amp anymore?.Just a great multi efx pedal with a tube in it, a super clean small tube amp, a mic and your done??.hokus pokus? ?..Trust me??This will be the setup of the future, and you say why? Because it?s ?LIGHTWEIGHT and sounds outrageous. It?s all about the Toneworks pedal, you can do this with any small CLEAN tube amp. The tube in the Vox pedal makes it all possible?let?s give a big Thank You to VOX?.while everybody is still trying to duplicate the tube sound with digital, Vox combined the future with the past??..

no problems yet

Just a phone call away

I've been playing guitar for around 35 yrs.....I've been through every kind of setup possible....I've finaly found my setup. I was playing this setup with my band in a practice studio a few weeks ago, the band from the next room came over and asked me if I could help their guitar player get his tone right....He was playing out of a 100w tube setup...when they saw my little Jr they were dumbfounded...like..huh?... The change over coast me $50 in tubes and $95 for the speaker. Total coast was $300 for the amp + $145 for the change over...total = $445.00

2002 cream-board Blues Junior, with Billm mods, including Clean Boost module. Black, stock Eminence speaker. Single channel, MBT tone stack, Fat switch, master volume. I use it for clubs, praise worship, small fusion group--from smoky jazz to bluesy stuff.

I didn't think this amp had enough for me, and was going to trade it in on a Blues Deluxe Reissue, or just keep it for practice. But I heard a friend's Blues Junior with the Billm mods, and it made mine sound lame by comparison. So I sent it off to Bill and he convinced me to try the new clean boost module.

I play a Strat, Fat Strat, Tele and an old 335 clone, in a variety of styles, from power-chord rock to laid-back fingerstyle. The amp has always sounded good, but never great. Other reviews talk about the "boxy" sound, and mine had it too. The Billm mods cured that, and reduced the hum, too. Depending on the volume knob setting, it was either clean or distorted. Hard to keep on the edge of bluesy breakup or that thick, slightly dirty clean tone (does that make sense?) But the new presence control changes that and gives me a much bigger range of tones to chose from.

It was just barely loud enough to stay with a drummer for clean tones, but no problem with distortion. The boost mod changed all that. Now it's as loud as I want it to be without getting dirty.

But better than that, it now sounds ballsy! Big, round tone, much more like the Blues Deluxe, and surprisingly loud.

It's been very reliable so far. I keep a Behringer solid state amp in the trunk, just in case, but have never needed it.

It used to have a 5-year warranty, but the mods voided that. I'm not worried.

Been playing for 20-some years. Have had various Fender tube amps, that have been getting progressively smaller over the years. I'm just tired of making 2 or 3 trips or needing a van or busting my back lifting a Bassman out of the trunk.

I liked the Junior's size and weight, and thought the tone had potential. An effects loop or second channel would be nice, but I'm finding that less is more these days.

The tone with the mods still amazes me. It makes me want to sit down and play for the pleasure of hearing it. The clean boost makes it a whole new amp--better than my friend's Junior.

I've had this amp for quite for a few years now (bought new). It's a non-lacquered tweed covered model (green board). You know the features by now. It's pretty much the same as the newer models in this regard.

I play mostly an American Standard Strat through this amp. I play blues and classic rock mostly (which sounds like the case for many of the reviewers for this amp). This was my first tube amp. It sounds and feels much better than any solid state amp I've tried. Having said that I've never fallen 100% (or even 90%) in love with the sound. The tone's never sounded quite right to me. Without pedals, I can't say I'd give this amp more than a 6 (I'd give the very best solid state amp I've ever tried a "4"). Still, I've liked the amp enough to keep all these years.
However (and this is why I'm writing this review), I just tried a pedal set up on this amp that gave me the tone I had wanted from this amp. I plugged my Fulltone OCD into a Toadworks Mr. Squishy compressor and into the Blues Jr. I had the knobs on the Fulltone set 9 o'clock for output, 9 o'clock for drive and at noon for tone; Mr. Squishy was set to 4 o'clock for gain, 4 o'clock for squish, and about noon for output. With this setting and the amp tone about neutral (slight cut in mids), volume at about 40% and master at about halfway, I had this great clanging Texas blues (yes, the coveted SRV tone) I had always wanted from this amp! I spent about two hours playing with this set-up and it was fantastic. If you've got these pedals and this amp already, give it a try. Fantastic!
This pedal does not accept all pedals well. With the OCD (a stellar pedal which sounds great through my other amps), the tone is not quite right. Likewise with other pedals I own. However, the above set-up was perfect in my book, and makes this amp sound like a "9". See "reliability" as to why it misses the "10"
Overall rating for this amp is a compromise of "7", since I think it actually needs a good pedal to sound good for blues.

I've gigged with this amp, etc., but I've always babied it. Still I've had a few problems. The handle on top of the amp is about to go and needs to be replaced before it gives way. The cabinet has always rattled now and again at band volume (yes, it can hang in a band setting). I've tightened up all screws, but need to do it again periodically. The chassis itself vibrates now and again on certain notes, and now the metal plaque on back of the cab (with my serial number) has started a high-frequency buzz. It's riveted to the back, so I can't really tighten it. I'll have to figure something out, because this buzz is loud enough to be annoying. These errant noises is why I couldn't give this amp a higher rating in sound, despite the stellar Texas blues sound it can give you with the right pedal(s).
Also, a tiny spring in the reverb tank (from which the reverb springs suspend) gave way. I haven't found the replacement spring yet, so I've just removed the reverb tank and am using an Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail for reverb when I really need it.

No idea.

I've been playing for over 20 years and have lots of gear. I've also played in NYC studios through boutique amps as well as vintage gear. I have a pretty good ear for good tone.
This amp has always been tough for me to moan about because it was so cheap. Still, it's never quite grabbed me as a blues amp until now. However, the tone with the setup outlined above was dead on SRV. This one sound alone will be enough for me to happily keep this amp and use it for blues jams (since I have the pedals already). The two pedals together cost nearly as much as this amp did when new, so it's kind of silly to have to use them to get the tone. Still, my Blues Jr. is all grown up now. It's finally giving me a sound I can use to cut heads.
If you've never owned a tube amp and like classic rock and blues in particular, this amp is worth picking up (especially used). It's better than any solid state amp I've played. It's loud enough for a modest rock band, is light enough to carry easily, compact, and with the right pedals, can sound killer. I probably wouldn't buy this amp again (would probably get the Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb reissue instead), but not definitely.

you know

i am using it with both a gretsch hollowbody and a strat. sounds great with both - more bite w the gretsch, of course. i think it sounds great at this low price. if you expect this amp to be loud, have marshall distortion, tube reverb-delight, and the sophisticated clean sounds of a 30-year old deluxe reverb... then you have misunderstood a few thing in this world. it it horrible to read som of these reviews!
you get an amp with mellow sound, somewhat deep sound in it, a rather weak and noisy reverb-unit, and you get a little and light amp, with a tad of fender-sound.
i think a lot of reviews are to exstatic and some are too critical.
this a good amp, it is ok for blues (as the name indicates!), country and jazz. it is not meant to be a metal-amp!

have had one for 5 years and it works just fine.

i have been playing for 15 years, and have owned a lot of gear. this is great for rehersal, and it also works fine when recording. it is a little small, but i use it often when gigging in small pubs (up to 100 people). i guess on larger venues everybody goes thorugh the PA anyway.
so, please, stop wining - buy a better, bigger, more metal-ish or whatever. make your own desicion in life and dont blame fender or anyone but yourself if you bought it and was not pleased!

i'm a singer/songwriter playing kind of grungey folky stuff that sometimes mellows and sometimes kicks ass. this amp doesn't have many colours but i love what it does to my sound. i've been eternally trying to find 'authentic' tone with dist/overdrive pedals that are never going to quite cut it by themselves. a more experienced hand steered me down the low wattage tube path and i'm very glad he did

i use it mostly for home recording - traded my hotrod deluxe 40w in for it which didn't have a proper gain control so i would have to play it (the hotrod)at stupid volumes to get the tubes driving

now i'm happy and so are my neighbours. miked up with the gain at about 6.5 and the master out at 1.5 this thing sounds like a massive hot stack coming off tape but you can barely hear it outside.

my only observation is that i'll need a tube marshall (prob a 1974x) to team up with this and then i'll be set for recording and gigs. i love the fact that it's so small and light and i'll probably just mike it for that Shea Stadium gig *ahem*

i use a Dean Electro Jazz Stylist, a strange choice for my music i know, but it's a fat bodied semi w/humbuckers that really suits a dirty blues thing (even though i'm not a very good player). Single coils are next on my hitlist for more sonic versatility. i don't want a million so-so sounds - just a handful of awesome ones, and this amp feels like a keeper.

i'm going to get my **** together and swap out the eminence speaker for a vintage 30 and change the tubes as suggested by the master toneheads below. i mike for tape through an AKG D112 (another odd choice but it smooths off some of that eminence nastiness in the tops and generally rounds out the sound - big!)

noise isn't a problem for me at all. with the tape machine on standby i can barely tell that the amp is on. very impressive.

distortion gets over-muddy with the gain racked to 10 up but i imagine this is partially the guitar. it does great clean and great overdrive, both lovely and organic sounding. no one ever said this was going to be a shred monster so no surprises here.

whatever, i have my 'authentic' tone and it helps me realise my ideas a lot better.

<i>Why did you choose this one?</i>

i did a lot of hunting around on the internet for a 15w tube amp that was going to be what i wanted it to be.

a lot of my decision came from reading reviews on this thread - thankyou reviewers below and thankyou Harmony Central for providing this resource - i don't have a lot of ###'s and i can't afford expensive mistakes - no one's steered me wrong here

2003 tweed blues jr. The amp is versatile enough for any style. I play mostly blues and blues oriented jazz, nut I also play rock. It has one channel, all the channels you should ever need. I use the amp for gigs, practise, recording.

I have a 60 relic Strat, a pair of r-8 les pauls, a 61 les paul custom, a 52 tele, a Gretsch 6120, and a modified Epi Joe Pass. The amp is very loud for 15 watts and I always keep it cranked and use playing technique to control distortion or produce cleean tones. The amp is dynamic enough to go from all out distortion to crytal clear using picking technique. The distortion is very sweet and complex with a nice sparkle. I usually don't have much nice to say about production amps because the cost cutting techniques really eat the tone. I've been building "boutique amps" since the 1960's so I'm pretty particular about construction quality and tone, but this amp really delivers.

I don't know. So far no problems. If it needs repair, I'll probably rip out the pc board and build a new tag board for it. I got rid of the cheasy factory tubes when I first brought the amp home. It has Mullards in it now. Should last 20 years.

Fender is part of corporate america....need I say more?

I own a black panel twin reverrb, a Gibson Les Paul Jr., several amps of my own design and a black panel vibrolux reverb. If it were lost I would build a replica. It sounds awsome but I don't much care for the solid state reverb, however at this price it was obviously a necessary cost cutting measure. I've compared it to all commercially available 12-20 watt amps and several boutique amps it holds up against amps costing 5 times as much including the ones I build myself. I only wish it had a tube reverb circuit.

2005
Fender "tweed" Blues Junior
15 watts into 8ohms, 12" 8ohm Jensen Special
2/EL-84 groove tunes
3/12AX7 preamp tubes
6-vintage pointer knobs-1/reverb, 2/master volume,3/middle, 4/bass, 5/treble, 6/volume
fat switch..................very cool
16"Hx18"Wx9.2D 31 lbs.

.... I play a 2001 Gibson Les Paul Custom '57 reissue Historic edition w/Bigsby and a 2004 Carvin CT6T....both give the amp its own unique sound....I also used to own an American Series Stratocaster but sold it because I was never playing it....its sound was dead in comparison to my other two....

....for amps I also own a Fender 65 reissue Reverb Deluxe and recently punted a Marshall MG50DFX....

....there are 5 reasons I wanted
another amp....#1 I like having 2 amps so when friends come over who also play they don't have to always lug there amp over....#2 its size and weight makes it convenient to move to other rooms....#3 I fell in love with it the minute I saw it....the tweed is like that on the 59 Bassman....so cool.... #4 Theres something special about its tone and at only 15 watts it sounds incredible at low volumes....and finally #5 the ability to use two amps with a delay in between....

....the clean sound of course is outstanding....and when I want distortion I have plenty of pedals to shape its sound....even when I add any of my 7 pedals or Boss ME-50 its still retains its own unique tone....

....no Fan! ....extremely quiet....fans suck!

....Its definitely not built to be casually tossed around or bumped into much....so I wouldn't rate it high as road worthy unless you handle it with extreme care....it feels fragile....I only play as a hobby so I'm not concerned about a back up....time will tell on its dependability....I've been extremely lucky with my Fender Deluxe Reverb....never had a problem with it....I play 5 or 6 times a week....maybe 15 hours a week....

Never dealt with Fender....I don't abuse any of my musical equipment and treat them all as though there an investment.... so I hope I never have to contact them....

....I've been playing my entire life....though I still suck....my Dad always let me play his 1950 Gibson accoustic....now its mine....If only I would have realized what it could someday have been worth I wouldn't have tried to imitate Jimmy Page with a steel beam from my erector set when I was around 10 years old....

....other amps I considered....Ampeg J12T....a little more expensive but very cool looking and sounding....Marshall AVT20....at 280 dollars the price of the Marshall was very tempting and it had the crunch I like....but after my last experience with Marshall I was concerned about its realiability....all three sounded great in there own way....

....my 15 watt Blues Junior is all any one needs for the Basement or Bedroom....it will rock and scream for a tiny amp....and at 400 dollars the price isn't too bad....for small rooms and venues I prefer Fender....if I was playing stadiums and arenas I would favor Marshalls....

This is a 2003 Fender Blues Jr. Staock tubes, stock speaker. Many descriptions of the features below, so I won't repeat them.

I use a variety of guitars, but mainly a Fender American Tele and a Gibson Les Paul Faded. This amp just does not cut it as far as what I am looking for in amp tone. The clean tones does not sparkle, and the distortion is too muddy for my tastes. Volume wise it is great, but the tone controls are not the greatest.

Reverb broke in less than a year - otherwise it has been solid.

Never used....

The Blues Jr is not a bad amp, it's just not tonally what I personally am looking for. I would rather sell the amp and buy something else than mod the heck out of it to get my sound. My old '76 Fender Champ is twice the amp at half the price, but it's a bit small for some applications. I'm selling this one and the search will go on for a small tube amp I can be happy with.

Very simple 15 watt tube amp. Not many features but thats not what it was presented as. I love classic rock/blues bands like led zeppelin, earlier clapton,hendrix,etc. Not really a great amp for the modern guitarist or one that plays large venues.

I had owned and always played through a mesa boogie triple rectifier untill i got this amp. Initially purchased as a small practice amp,i soon realized it was far too loud for bedroom practice and put it in my basement along side my boogie. Well, it wasnt before long that i stopped using my mesa entirely in favor of this tiny amp. At the time i used a stock american series strat with ts9 tubescreamer,boss ds-1 distortion and crybaby along with other modulation effects. It has an amazing clean tone with just enough breakup to play some gritty blues. The distinct midrange voicing while using distortion reminds me alot of a british amp probably due to the el84 output tubes which are not typical of fender. With some reverb, a little delay and saturated distortion the singing tones the strat produced were very impressive. Its definetly more of a lead amp though. and wont churn out any chunky palm mutes or heavy metal tones anytime soon.While using my big muff nyc the pedal no longer sounds thin and feeble but instead has a great thick fuzz tone that i had in mind when i bought the pedal. I love classic rock and blues music, being very into bands like derek and the dominoes at the time im very pleased with this amp. I recently purchased a gibson les paul 1958 standard reissue and am only expecting good things. I would really be impressed if i could get a nice bluesbreaker/zeppelin tone out of this.

No choice but to depend on it, ive taken it a few places with no problems so far

Even though my boogie was 4 times as expensive i sold it in favor of this little screamer.However I must admit that my musical taste has completly changed from when i bought the boogie until now. Instead of searching for the heaviest possible distortion and highest output pickup i realized alot of the best tones can be found when you back off on the gain, stop trying to squeeze as many notes into a measure as possible, and just play what you feel. Although it doesnt impress your friends or look as cool as a 4x12 stack this amp has really delivered as a great practice and small gig amp.

1 channel '04 MIM model cream board stock
Jazz, blues, rock
enuf power for small gig, practice will keep up and over Hard hit drummer ... Suppose you could mike the little bugger but go for a 212 or 412 cab for clear tone ... can scream purty good with the right setup.

I run a BK Butler Tube Driver for most lead work, but can get a nice edge with Master vol 10-12 and Pre 3(clean) - 6-8 (edge) or Master 3-6 Pre up around 8.

Fat switch (pedal if you want) that gives a nice gain boost with ext 212 cab. Not real great with the 112 ... shake up dem dar tubes pretty good and gets mushy (JJ EL 84 tubes help a bit running this way ... but you will need to replace em oft I suppose).

This is a players amp ... loud enuf to get the job done if you want a good tone and like that stuff. I mike or di box out to my little mixer and add effects there (like you'd do when recording) Get everything that way ... dry monitor (touch of verb) and wet signal from powered monitors - main board send.

If ya want to buy this and spend a zillion denaros to mod it up, give Robben Ford a call is see if he still has the Dumble he's not using and spend the cash on that to fix it up ... then you could sell it and perhaps get your money back out of it?

Parker fly
quiet
warm fender tone
mild blues clip distortion -

Tone comes alive with ext Randall 212 cab - the fat switch gives a gain and mid boost that is quiet noticable with the ext cab ...

the stock speaker is alright if you just need to practice at lower vols ... too muddy at a band clip much cleaner with the 212 cab.

I suppose if you run the little bugger at higher vols, you will need to retube often. I keep getting microphonic tube noise from the tubes when run 112. The power tubes run real hot in this unbiased amp) Have put in JJ Tesla EL 84's and that helps the 112 (Emminence spk) tone a bit but still got dat microphonic noise when keeping up to a fender twin. Sounded like a vibra pedal was on my High E and B Strings and did I mention mushy?

dono

If ya mod it, you are on your own don't think they will like that much ...

42 years.
Best Hendrix/SRV/Jimi Page/Jazz type tones. Warm and sweet like only a little tube amp can give (not hard, clinical shedder, noisy, lifeless digital, colored, messed up, flat, lifeless tone like the solid state junk out there). It is inspiring to play this little fella.


rate this little bugger a 9 with the ext 212 Randall cab, perhaps a 6 running with the 112 setup.

What could I add to the 400+ other reviews?... Eeeeerrrr!... Oh yeah : it has metal feet, not rubber :)

Reading through the posts here and certainly on the very instructive Blues Junior mafia thread at the Fender Discussion Page, one could get the impression that unless you invest 1/2 the price of this amp extra into speakers and tubes and thouroughly modify it's circuit, this amp sounds lousy.
The only purpose of my post (who needs yet another review of the Blues Junior) is to reassure readers not aquainted to tube or speaker swapping and first time potential amp buyiers : this amp sounds VERY GOOD out of the box and considering it's price it's a killer.
Will it 'beats a Bogner Shiva hands down' or 'smoke a Blackface Princeton' c'mon, be realistic!
It stands proudly next to my Mesa Nomad, no it doesn't nail the Mesa tone (why would I need that, I have a Mesa!), it's not a Marshall, it's not a Twin, it's not even a scaled down HotRod Deluxe, it's a Blues Junior : one channel going from Fender bright clean to light warm blues growl, that's it. But at this, it's pretty good.
Need more gain? add your favorite overdrive/distortion up front and wail/scream/shred along.
Boxy tone? Well the cabinet is hardly big enough to contain a 12" speaker, who would expect it to sound like a 2x12 or 4x12 closed cab. Yes when I connect it to my Carvin Legacy 2x12 cab the 'boxy' tone (as far as it has one) is gone... along with the sparkle thanks to Celestion V30. But a Blues Junior in a 2x12 cab won't weigth 14Kg anymore!
Well my point is : You want an affordable, portable amp with great clean and growl tube tone, the Blues Junior stock fills the bill perfectly. And 15 tube watts is plenty loud to make the dog howl along with the neabours and their neabours, but also to play live with a drummer and a couple of horns (they can generate noise too!)

Try to touch the cab while playing, even at medium volume the whole cab vibrates heavily. I would give a push on the tubes frome time to time to make sure they stay in their sockets

Late 1990's Fender Blues Deluxe, 12" speaker, 15 watts. EL-84's. One channel amp with master volume. Footswitch for fat selection (whatever that is). No external speaker jack.

I use a modded 1950s reissue Stratocaster & 1970 Gibson ES-335TD. I bought this amp from a friend five years ago as a practice amp & portable one for jams/open mikes. I primarily play blues, so the 15 watt suited my style. Is a loud combo for sitting in at jam sessions, etc. Never used it in a band situation so not familiar with that.
Originally, I liked the tone when I first heard it. However, something seemed to be missing after I bought it. I've read some reviews that it seemed to be "boxey" and I concur. The reverb seems weak compared to a Hot Rod or blues deluxe. The tone seems to be more of a bassy/midrange type tone. There isn't a lot of distortion. I like to have an amp to carry around and not use effects pedals, etc. When I turn up the drive for a distorted sound, it comes out sounding like a weakly executed fart. So, I've settled to using a tube screamer for more of a dirty sound. Still sounds midrangey, even with the tone on the Tube Screamer all the way up.

In the five years that I've owned & used it, I've never had a functional problem or had it break down on me.

Never used

I've been playing for 19+ years. I've owned a Music Man 210/65, a silverface Fender Pro Reverb & Super Reverb and the Blues Jr. If it were stolen or lost, I would not buy another. I've heard other LE-84 amps (Peavey Classic 30 & Delta Blues) that blow the Blues Jr. out of the water. I'm looking to buy a used Hot Rod or Blues Deluxe, since I'm looking for a more portable amp. For me, the Blues Jr. just doesn't cut it. It might work for some people & that's fine. Maybe I like the tone of 6L6's better than EL-84s.

see below

YOU HAVE GOT TO CHECK IT OUT FOR YOURSELF. SEE IF IT FITS YOUR STYLE AND YOUR EXPECTATIONS!

to me, this is a great amp of great value. dont expect "boutique" for 300 bucks! remember, what many wise guys have written about this amp: speaker and valve change do not make miracles! the improvements are subtle.
i have made mods myself, making the amp sound better TO ME. i got a little tighter bass, which made me feel more comfy playing it. if you?re after the bigger better deal, go for it. Otherwise: STOP WHINING!

been playing for 15 years.
this amp is practical for gigging, sounds good, looks good, costs nothing. a no-brainer.

i hope you try it before you buy it. don?t believe me or anybody. you must see for yourself.

First of all I like to thank all who take up the trouble to write a review for their BJ. I read most of the reviews before I tested one of these beautifull small amps in pratice, which is very helpfull because in a certain extend you know what your are getting.

I am writing this review for people, who like me, were very excited about this amp by reading all the reviews. If you are interested in this amp, do yourself a favour, read a good part of the reviews and test this baby against your ears!! They will judge the BJ for you and not the ratings in the reviews.

You know the features by now, I will try to give a honest rating based on what the features of a small single channel tube amp should be:

The size and weight are a definte plus, although the small size comes with a disadvantage (more on that later)
Controls on top and up side down, not good, this could have been fixed with the later models, but somehow Fender refuses to take this remark serious. IMHO controls should be on the front for easy tweaking during playing standing (amp on a stand).
Input, there are humbucker guitars and single coils guitars, each having their own characterics. There should either be 2 inputs or only one but with a bright shift function.
Fat switch (foot switchable), this is a very helpful feature (on paper) for a single channell approach. Boogie style of channeling the signal through an extra gain stage when the fat switch is active. I like this since I am a guitar to amp kind of guy and the effects via the loop.
Master volume is a must-be for tube amp of today, so good. This one works fine. Master all the way up and controlling the volume with Volume (which is actually a gain controll) works fine with the BJ. Delivers a nice blues growl, but this approach is way to loud to use at home.
15W ? I can not understand people complaing about its power, these are 15 very, very load watts. The Eminence speaker is quite good in delivering the loudness of the amp. Would be more than enough for most your playing situations, even in small clubs, where I don?t see the need to mic it.
Reverb ? positive is that it has a reverb and seems to work o.k. for me since I like only a bit of reverb to my sound. It is however not a tube driven one and once you are used to the sound of tube driven reverbs, you know what I am talking about. This reverb sounds O.K. but cold to my ears. Don?t expect here reverbs like the ones on Twins or Deluxes.
I am not missing speaker outputs, head phones, etc. but a effects loop would be welcomed to hook up a good reverb or analog delay pedal.
Construction seems quite O.K. The model I tested had a protection for the tubes not to fall out. Since it was a used model I don?t know if that is original.

I will give it an 7. If it had an effect loop, a dual input and tube reverb, it would be a 10 for a single channel according to my feature wish list.

Now where it is all about.
I don?t buy new amps, but always search for a reasonable priced used tubes amps. The BJ came across and the on I played was from 2001. 100% original according to the seller. Tubes were Sovteks and were never replaced. For testing I used my main guitar, which is a tele with Seymour Duncan Alnico?s (nice vintage tone by the way). My main amp is a upgraded JCM800 1x12 combo (2 ch + rev) and I was looking for a small portabale tube amp for practice at home and to have a better/other clean sound next to the Marshall roar for my band. I will not compare the Marshall overdrive sound with the BJ?s because that was not the goal, mainly played clean and slight overdriven/break up . I played about one half hour through the BJ and after fiddling with controlls all the time I came to the conclusion that the BJ would not be a supplement to my sound. Is it a bad amp? no definetly not, for the price you pay for a used BJ probably very good. But it didn?t move me. For example there is hardly any bass response, which is I think is related to the cabinete construction and the speaker. The reason why people are changing the speaker is to have a speaker which is more capable to produce a bassier sound. The stock speaker is, to describe it in my words, too mid ranged and boxy. This and my tele and you know the sound I am talking about. The mid controll doesn?t help much to change this. I asked the seller to adjust the controlls to his favourite settings and as I was surprised to see that the mid controll was on 0. The clean channel was O.K. but not better than my JCM800, which was in the end the main reason I decided not to purchase this amp. I expected that a Fender clean would be better than that of Marshall, again it is probably caused by the cabinete size and speaker. The JCM800 is upgraded with an EV speaker and has a very good bass response, which has improved the OD channel sound, but it?s clean channel is compared to the BJ also surprisingly good.
For some reason the Fat switch didn?t work as I expected. This is probably a matter of taste, but gain/mid boost is only little and I noticed that I kept it on all the time in order to have the better blues orientated sounds.
I will not rate it. My reason of review is that I hope you remember my comments when playing one.

If you, like me, are/were excited about the BJ based on all the review below, just do yourself a favour and read the not so positive reviews once more before you test the BJ. There is a reason why many people have decided to change the speaker and tubes. Then skipp the reviews from people of which the BJ was their first tube amp, sure this is good amp against transistor amps. But the bottom line is that the amp is quite good but didn?t cut it for me. My search will continue, because that is what we will always be doing, trying to find your ultimate tone. In the near future I will compare the BJ against the new Koch Studiotone, of which I have heard a lot of positive reactions, is price and feature wise a complete other story, but having the same cabinete size and output.
I?ve been playing on and off for about 20 years, because work didn?t allow it. Have picked the guitar up about three years ago and am now playing in a rehearsal-only band. Gear consists of the aformentioned tele and JCM 800. Other guitars worth mentioning are a Wolfgang and a Charvel strat.

I purchased this amp used from a harmony-central ad. It was (I just traded it...see below) a tweed, late 90's made in USA, green board revision B model. Usual features. Had the gold label eminence designed by fender speaker.

This amp was really nice. I went through about 7 or 8 amps over the past 3 years:

Tech21 Trademark 10 (excellent amp for what it is - non-tube)

Music Man RD112 (best clean tone I've ever heard, but the transistor-based preamp made it so you couldn't use an overdrive pedal into it, and the "limiter" mode (overdrive) sounded horrible).

Fender Blues Junior cream board/new one - picked this up as a "rental" from guitar center for a band practice. Sounded *terrible* - ice-pick city. I would never buy a new fender blues junior after hearing that one.

Traynor YGM3 Guitar Mate Reverb - excellent amp but way too loud, closed-back, and way too heavy.

Mesa F30 - awesome heavy distortion, sterile cleans.

Mesa DC2 - sterile cleans, sterile distortions, useless overdrive. Terrible amp.

POD 1.0 - terrible and useless

Behriner Vamp2 - excellent for the price, particularly for recording to PC.

As for the tweed blues junior - it had great tone that went from fairly clean to slightly overdriven. Awesome for blues. Too much gain for jazz except for very low-volume situations (no drummer). Plenty loud. Somewhat boxy sounding, and the Billm mod does help with that, but the tone suffered so it wasn't worth keeping. The stock speaker sounded good to me. My blues junior went through tubes pretty quickly. They got *real* hot. Also, the reverb, although a short-tank, was surprisingly not bad. I demand a good reverb and I was concerned when picking this amp up that the reverb would be really useless, but it turned out to be pretty good. Not great, but fine. Much better than the Mesa I had before this amp. Problem though is, and it's a problem with most blues juniors - the reverb is way HISSY - very noisy, and it is bothersome in a practice/low volume situation. For what it is, this amp is excellent. If you want a blues amp, this is the amp for you. I only tried one effects pedal/unit through this amp in the time I had it - a Behringer Vamp2. At low volumes it sounded very good through the Blues Jr. I did not try it in a band/loud situation so I can't comment on whether the Blues Jr is versatile (so long as you have effects to use with it). I suspect that this older tweed green board model would have sounded great with some good pedals. The newer version blues junior I can confirm sounds like garbage both with and without effects (at least the 3 I've tried both in stores and the one I bought and then took back the next day). I give it a 9 instead of a 10 because this amp doesn't like high-output pickups (active EMG's) and the reverb noise is terrible.

I had some problems with mine but they were fixed. Tubes got noisy in mine fairly quickly (3 months of 2 - 3 hours a day usage).

never bothered.

I bought this because I wanted a practice amp and I found this one for sale for the excellent price of $200 via a harmony-central ad. I enjoyed the amp very much. I did use it for a high-volume audition and it cut through easily volume-wise, but it was a little boxy sounding. But I think with some tweaking it would work live easily and sound great. I highly recommend the green board blues junior. The cream board ones are garbage to my ears. Just my opinion. I know that most online reviews/websites seem to like the newer version better, but to me they sound like ice-pick city. If you like the fender sound, and you want a blues amp for relatively cheap, this is it. That said, even though I got lucky and found this one for $200 - most folks pay much more for the tweed ones since they are no longer made. In fact, I traded mine for an amp that goes for about $450 used, otherwise I would have kept the blues jr. I'm glad I bought it, and like the old MusicMan amp, I have a feeling that I may regret selling it. I've not regretted selling any of the other amps (including the more expensive Mesa stuff) that I've owned.

I think the BJ?s features have been described and discussed at length in this section. It?s a compact one channel all tube combo with 15 watts, a three way tone control, spring reverb, and a so-called ?Fat Switch? which basically pushes he volume by some degrees and thickens the sound. I originally bought mine to practice and do gigs in smaller venues because my Mesa/Boogie Mark IIB needs way to much volume to provide its then excellent sound. Furthermore, the Boogie definitely did no good to my 38-year-old back. So finally i decided to travel light.

To me the sound of the BJ as it came from the shelf was quite OK. Nice clean sound, nice overdrive both of which could use a little more bottom. As it?s a very small amp it tends to sound a little ?boxy? and the reverb is if not lousy so at least under the Fender average. You may have read a thousand comments on how to mod the BJ in order to give it more headroom, more bottom etc. I am sceptical if this really pays off. In my humble opinion, the improvements you will reach by replacing the original speaker by a Jensen or Greenback or even fool around with the electronics shouldn?t be overrated but considered as the kind of improvement you yourself might notice, but neither will your bandmates nor will your audience. If you really want to push the BJ?s sound you might better buy an external speaker cabinet for your gigs and live with the more than reasonable sound of the internal speaker for practice, jams etc. With my BJ, I changed the original tubes to JJ?s fort he power amp and JJ?s and GE in the preamp section. The GE was intended to give me the possibility of a reasonably loud clean sound ? which it did perfectly. All in all I?d say it sounds better with the new tubes, but it?s only a subtle effect.
I have been playing Guitar for 22 years now and use the amp with a Cry Baby Wah, a Mesa/Boogie V-Twin and Maxon Overdrive Pro for distortion, an old Boss Stereo Chorus and a small Boss Delay. Guitars I use mostly are a PRS Standard from the early nineties and an ancient Japanese no-name Strat with a neck on-through and Duesenberg P90s. I play Rock, Funk and Soul covers from AC/DC and Led Zeppelin to Doobie Bros. and The Commodores, and the BJ does a fine job with all of that. While it?s no exactly a metal machine (huge surprise, isn?t it?) it works well for all that Top 40 stuff and excellent when it comes to Blues Rock and ist affiliates. Nice little amp, far from being boutique, but nice ? haven?t used my Boogie for more than two years now.

No problems so far. The power tubes get pretty hot and have to be changed a little to often (approximately between 400-500 hours))

As I said before, to me the BJs a very nice little amp, far from being boutique but doing a good job. I picked it over Ampeg, Peavey and Engl amps with similar features. Only thing that bugs me ist that Fender did not provide a plug-in for an external speaker and a reasonable reverb.

I give the features a 9. Not because it has a lot of knobs and buttons, but because for me, it has almost everything i want. the fat switch makes the amp. all the fat switch does is boost your mids, and i love. its a single channel amp, so the tone sounds so pure. i've read a lot of people wanting a second channel. that's ridiculous. if you want two channels, get the hot rod deluxe. but be warned, the hot rod deluxe doesnt sound nearly as good. i owned both. i know. not even the same league.

i knocked a point just because the speaker output jack. i dont like how it is mandatory to bypass the internal speaker if i want to use an extention cab. also, i believe its only 4 ohms. I'd like a 4 and 8 ohm option. Fender, you're dirty people for doing that.

i'm not that hard to please with sound. i like a lot of mids and a fair share of overdrive. with this amp's mids maxed out, the fat switch on, and the preamp volume up, it sounds killer. i've spent upwords of nearly $2000 on single amplifiers, but was never satisfied until i got this thing. I'm not saying that this amp is for everyone, because it certainly isnt. but it IS for me.

i've read about changing the tubes. i will when one blows. i'm a gigging musician. that means i dont have money. i've had this thing for a couple years and the tubes are still going and i'm in no hurry. i'll also ditch the stock speaker when i feel the need to get an extension cab. again, i'm in no hurry.

i dont use clean tones. never been a huge fan of clean tones. if i want my guitar clean, i'll pickup one of my acoustics. to me, clean tones are like an orange car. orange cars are cool, but i dont want one, ya know? i always keep this as dirty as it gets, which isnt very dirty, its just right for me. if i use my les paul, i get a nice crunch and a lot of sustain. very ballsy tone. if i use my 335, its very similar but a bit smoother with a little less balls, but a little less compressed. the tele really brightens up this amp (as you can imagine).

my music is inspired by a lot of british bands and my tone somewhat reflects that. not as high and chimey, but you can tell the influence is there.

i thought about saving for a Koch or a Budda or a Vox AC30. Then I realized that I'm friggin' poor and wouldnt be able to get one for awhile and since i love my blues jr, why fix what aint broken?

gigged with it. practice with it. run vocals through it sometimes. run a synth through it sometimes too. never a problem.

i've dealt with fender a few times. sometimes theyre great. sometimes theyre not so great.

i bought this thing back before the price of steel skyrocketed, so it was a bit cheaper. within a month, the local shop is having a huge sale and a blues junior will cost me $342 (before tax) and i'm gonna pickup another for backup and/or running two on stage at the same time (expecting bigger gigs). Also, i think it might sound really good to have one really dirty and one kinda clean with some breakage. like i said, i love this amp. owned boutiques and other high end amps and this one really got to me. i'm not trying to say that this amp is the greatest ever. i'm just saying that its my favorite. it does what i need it to do. which is: 1) Not be heavy 2) Sound good 3) Leave me enough money in my wallet so I can get a McChicken on the way home.

The single channel architecture is the limiting factor.

I play old rock and blues. I picked this amp over the 30 watt Peavey because another guy in the band has a Peavey and I wanted my own sound. I think the sound is a little darker than the Peavey. She's moderately noisey when the preamp gain is high but I usually run it set around 9-10, (goes to 12). It makes a very good clean sound and has a nice creamy sustain when over-driven with plenty of detail. You can get little crunch on the bottom end with the FAT switch on. I play standard Strat most of the time and a Washburn HB35, (copy of Gibson 335). The humbuckers on the Washburn have a lot more gain than the pickups in the Strat and have a way of making this amp talk. I use an equalizer to boost the Strat to get a decent sounding overdrive. I don't like the reverb. My ears hear a clanking noise on the attack that sounds like two Coke bottles crashing together when it's turned up above 2. Nobody else seems to hear it. I think it's plenty loud and when I'm on stage I point it toward me and put a mike in front of it and run it through the PA.

I've never had a problem with it. I bought a full complement of backup tubes just in case and haven't used one yet.

Don't know.

I've been playing, (poorly), for 35 years. I use a DanElectro equalizer, (which crapped out), a Russian Big Muff Pi for higher levels of distortion, a Super Chorus and in-line tuner on my pedal board. I would buy another one if I lost this amp. The amp I used previously is a solid-state 80 Watt Crate. The BJ has it all over my old Crate as far as sound. I wish it had two foot-switchable channels, (one with a little more over-drive), and a nicer sounding reverb. For the money I think it's a good value.

So I just scored this new Blond Blues Junior for $399. It sounded okay, but I thought I could get it to sound better by doing some mods on it, as most people on this site have said.

First thing I did is replace the horrible stock Eminence speaker with a Celestion Alinco Blue for $310. Wow, what an improvement. But I still think it could have sounded better, and a lot of people here said to replace the tubes.

So then I bought a complete set of NOS Mullards (3 12AX7s and 2 6BQ5s) for around $300. It put them in the amp and I couldn't believe how good this thing sounded.

Then someone told me that you could improve the tone by putting in a genuine 5Y tube rectifier in this thing. (Nothing like adding some loose-fart tones to this amp). So I bought a quality tube rectifier for another $150. Wow, the sound's really turned to mush since I ditched that lame tranny rectifier. Awesome.

But then I started to think that the stock reverb unit sounded lame. So I bought a full sized spring unit for $100. It doesn't fit in the cab, so it's currently outside, but now it sounds AWESOME!

So I decided to have someone build me a solid birch ply cab for another $200. I couldn't figure out how to transfer the amp chassis to it, though, so I paid the carpenter another $100 labor to put it in the new cab.

Oh my GOD! This freakin' thing now sounds AMAZING.

Now I have a $399 Fender tube combo that sounds just as good as any new boutique amp on the market..... wait.... uh oh...

woops.... I just spent $1560 for this amp, not including tax!!!!

But it's still the best $1560 "$399 Tube Combo" that money can buy. Don't know what I'm gonna do about the PCB issue, though. hmm...

Last night I saw this awesome guitar player at my local blues club playing though a Blues Junior. He sounded "slammin'." Best tone I've ever heard. When I asked him what mods he'd done to his amp, he told me it was a stock $399 Blues Junior. Then he said something about "talent." "TAL-ENT?," I asked, "which mod is that?" He told me that "talent" wasn't a mod and I should look the word up in the dictionary.

I was gonna look the word up this morning, but I'm too busy modding my new Blues Junior right now.

The only feature I wish it had is a CD input so I can practice along with my Kenny Wayne Shepard CDs. I've never played out, but once I get those burnin' KWS/SRV licks together I may go to my local blues jam to try out my new amp.

For some reason, everytime I play with other musicians, they laugh at me. Not sure why.

When my therapist told me that I'm not really a musician, more like a wannabe amp-tech/internet geek, I threw a fit and ran out of his office. To make myself feel better, I ran home to do some more mods on my new Blues Junior.

In closing, don't overlook this amp. With a few mods and $2,000, you can get it to sound as good as any $2,000 amp on the market.

Now if I can just get the guts to leave my bedroom.....

I bought this amp about two-and-a-half years ago, and it was new at the time so I suppose it must have been made around 2001/2002... Before owning this amp I had a Trace Elliott Trident which is a totally different amp; it had three switchable channels including various other controls (half-power/full-power setting, serial/parallel effect loop), where the BJ has just one channel and no other features except the 'fat' switch. I wanted a portable change from the 40 kg. monster I had. So I went looking and the moment I plugged my telecaster (tele plus) into the BJ I knew that this was it: a beautifully simple smooth sounding bluesy amp. I didn't know that this was what I was looking for until I heard this little amp!!

My guitar is a telecaster plus equipped with a blue lace sensor neck pickup and two red lace sensor pickups at the bridge. The guitars' output is significantly higher than most single-coil pickup setups I know of. The amp does not produce the same clean sounds that I liked on my Trace Elliott. I suppose this is because of my 'hot' pickups. The sounds it does produce are, fortunately, exactly those sounds that I was looking for - so no problems there, merely an adjustment in the range of 'producable' sounds. The BJ is not the most versatile amp around, so its likely you'll either like it or hate it. I bought it because I love it! Having said that, there is room for improvement: the reverb is noisy when turned up beyond three. It is also very sensitive to changes in volume ie. responds differently at varying volumes.
The amp suits my needs perfectly: clean with a bit of an edge, or fuzzy smooth overdrive. No real tight metal or hard-rock gain response from this amp though...

No problems. I play it regularly without any hassle whatsoever.

Never dealt with Fender.

I've been playing electric for about 8 years now. Since owning this amp I sold all my effects pedals (except my vox wah pedal), as it sounded best on its own. I did buy a roger mayer voodoo vibe which I use regularly. This is in my opinion not an amp to use effects with. It's either hate the sound or love it, and play your heart out. That's what it's done for me. It got me focusing on playing guitar instead of worrying about all this gear... ...which is after all what playing an instument is all about - the BJ IS an instrument in itself

I had to write a review to try to dispell the tons of misinformation in some of the reviews of this amp. From reading most of the reviews of the Blues Junior, you get the impression that this is some kind of Holy Grail of small tube combos or else just complete garbage.

First of all, the "JJ Tube/Speaker" swap myth:

I really think that a lot of what gets repeated on this site is because someone writes something and then a whole bunch of other people just copy it without thinking. Yes you will get an improvement in tone if you replace the stock speaker and put in some good tubes. But the improvement will be **subtle** at best. The audience won't notice it and your bandmates might not even notice it. If it makes you feel better, cool. The stock speaker isn't a piece of junk. It's also not the best in the world. It's ADEQUATE for this amp. If you put in another speaker, you might get some tighter bass, more articluation, sweeter mids etc (depending on the model of speaker, duh). Replacing with JJ tubes will also give you a **TAD** more articluation, smoothness and slightly tighter bottom end. Don't believe the hype that buying $60 worth of tubes will turn this thing into "better than a $2,000 boutique amp" or some such nonsense.

It's also funny when someone says: I replaced the lame stock Sovtek tubes with Groove Tubes and now it sounds so much better. The poor soul who did this probably replaced his crappy Sovteks with..... crappy Sovteks. Groove Tubes doesn't manufacture tubes. They take regluar tubes (Sovteks and others) and put their brand name on it and charge more. You'd be better off by buying a matched set of quality tubes with the original brand name from an honest online broker that tests each tube. It will cost less and you will know exactly what you're getting. That said, I don't know why anyone would put NOS Mullards that cost more than twice what this amp costs into a Blues Junior. Just keep the stock tubes until they're finished, and then buy some quality replacement tubes. But don't expect it to turn your amp into anything much different than it already is. Subtle is the key word here, folks. (I seriously doubt a lot of the bedroom players here have the "golden ears" they make themselves out to have, just based on some of the uninformed claims they keep spouting).

Also, don't trust a review by anyone who says: "this amp sucks.... I bought it b/c I play Metallica, Slayer etc... and this thing sounds even lamer than my solid state Crate amp with my Boss Metal Zone." Anyone dumb enough to buy an amp called a "BLUES" Junior and expect it to play the above style of metal deserves whatever he gets.

I think that with this amp, as with everything else, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. IMO, it is worth the money, b/c you will get a good sound out of it stock and you can come by these cheap on ebay. Like I said, if you replace the speakers and tubes, you will get a subtle qualitative improvement. Nothing huge, but it may be worth it. I replaced my stock speaker with a Jensen C12N and some Ei preamp tubes with some JJ power tubes. Yes there is an improvement, but not NEARLY as much as most people are saying on this site. Try to talk to a professional musician who gigs regularly with this amp before you buy it.... and DO NOT trust some of these reviews without a HUGE grain of salt. Not knocking HC. It's not their fault. They specifically state that they don't want any "glowing," unrealistic reviews. It does a disservice to all the people who are putting down their hard earned money to buy this and other amps.

Buy this if you want a decent small tube combo that will give you fat Fender clean tone and throaty overdrive. Simple as that.

2004 model 15W with a 12" speaker. Volume, Master Volume, bass, treble, mid and reverb knobs. Fat switch for boost. That's about it.

Sounds great! I play everything from funk to blues to heavy rock. The cleans are real nice, although there's not a tremendous amount of purely clean headroom. The overdrive is VERY nice...obviously not real high gain (nu-metal players should buy a pedal or a different amp) but a true tube overdrive similar to what you'd get out of a tubescreamer only more natural.
Some have complained that it sounds a little boxy but playing with the EQ knobs I managed to clean that up.
As far as overall volume...this is a LOUD amp. Those who have said it's not loud enough....that's ridiculous...how loud does your band play????
The only possible weak link is the reverb which, while not terrible, is nothing to write home about. Don't set it past about 2 and it will sound ok.

Haven't had any problems but I've only had it for 4 months. I DID recently gig with it without a backup.

Never dealt with them. Hope it stays that way!

For small inexpensive tube amps I'd say this has the most bang for your buck. I've been playing for 18 years and I'm very picky about my tone and my gear, and I love this little amp. I also have a blackface Twin Reverb, and believe it or not I actually left that home and played the Blues Jr. at my last gig.
It was in a decent sized barroom and it was unmiked. I only had the master set at around 6 and the volume set around 8, so there was plenty of power left if I needed it. We're a pretty loud rock band to...
I'm giving this a 9. Will it ever sound as sweet as my blackface...no. But it is what it is and what it is is a very nice little amp.

Adequate. It's the Ford Taurus of the amp world. Never flashy but it will get you there most of the time.

It's an OK amp. I wish I had paid a bit more and gotten that Traynor YCV-20 instead.

I would like to have a better built amp, but this will do for now. For a bit more I could have had a Traynor YCV-20 with a Baltic birch plywood cabinet and Celestion Seventy-80 speaker.

Hasn't broken anything that I couldn't fix in a jiffy.

It is what it is.....an OK amp at an OK price. The problem is that it's so damn mediocre. There is nothing big to fault at the price I paid. It's easy to upgrade with better tubes and speakers, but for the additional price I could have had a Traynor YCV-20 that's better in so many ways. I screwed myself for trying to save a bit over $100. My vote is to pay $100-$300 more and move up to a much better class of amp. A friend of mine got a used Traynor YCV-40 in great shape for the same as I paid for this, and it walks all over this amp in every way. I broke my rule of only buying good used gear. It was a reflex buying decision when I had too much money to spend. Buy it used and don't spend a penny over $300 no matter if it's mint condition.

i play a gibson les paul standard with burstbucker 2 in the bridge and burstbucker 1 in the neck. 70's hard rock i.e. zep,aerosmith,zz top,kiss etc. is the type of music i play. after reading the reviews here at harmony central i was really exited about buying this amp. i usually play through a 1969 marshall plexi 100 watt head with a marshall 4x12 cab with 25 watt greenbacks, no effects just straight into the amp.i was looking for a similiar sound at lower volumes or at least something close. this amp is mediocre sounding at best. the sound is thin and tonally it ain't happenin'. while i am not a real gear freak i know good tone when i hear it and i think some of the people on this site need to have their hearing checked if this is their idea of good tone. needless to say i was very disappointed. what can you expect for 400 bucks. by the way i also own a fender prosonic which kicks ass and i cant believe these amps are made by the same company.

i've been playing for 27 years and if somebody stole this amp i would thank them and ask them to please not bring it back after they heard what it sounds like.

I play everything from Johnny Cash to Jimmy, SRV to Santana,Blue Grass to Blues. Does this ampdo it all? No. Almost though. I use a 69 Epiphone single pickup, and a 72 stock Strat, both bought used. Have too many effects to name. Single Channel with reverb and optional fat switch. This is the second BJ I have had, after an exhaustive search I came back and bought another one. Since most guitarists use effects these days, on board effects on an all tube amp are not needed. Plug in an overdrive, echo, and flange/phase (or whatever) set the reverb at 2.5 and go. In addition with all the custom mods and extension cabs out there you can grow with this amp up or down. Just mike it for most applications. Beyond that get a larger amp! I have been playing for 133 years now (-100) and should know. Also these sound great when you use 2 of them with stereo effects.

If you accept it for what it is and the price, this is a 10. The tonal palate is there to paint on with a solid great sounding base with or without mods. Of course better tubes and speakers will make any amp sound better. Out of the box, plug straight in, (for the investment)this amp nails a great sound.This replaced a modded Fender Bassman head, which was just too loud, set on 3 and everyone hated me.
Sounds best hands down with a Strat, best suited for Blues and Country, although with effects Hendrix covers and SRV are right there too. The BJ fits in with a band very musically, cutting through and blending in rich tones when needed. A lot of that comes from playing skills and not just the amp. Using a stock 72 Strat the BJ can be made to shimmer or distort in a clean or dark mode at low or high volumes, consider it a tonal mixing palate. It took 233 years to figure this out!
I use it with a 2X12 Ext cab, when playing live and set the volume on 7, up against drums, keyboard, bass and vocals have had no problem. It is miced with a SM58 thru a JBL sound system and we have a sound man
(Yea Brad!) which makes a huge difference.

Since it is the nature of man made things to break, I recommend having a backup. Don't forget extra strings, batteries, and a spare tire too!

My local dealer is great, helps out with warranties on items not purchased from him, which in turn sends as much business his way as I can. Perry@Express Music in Seminole Florida.

With 133 years of playing behind me it seems like I am returning to equipment I started with, (stone tablets and chisels)lol! I started with a Sears Silvertone 212 and an Epiphone guitar. I got the guitar for my birthday and my mom thought it plugged into the wall! She keeled over when I told her it needed an amp! So for Christmas I got a crappy (I thought) Sears tube amp. Now that it has been years of trying to get that sound back, the BJ fills a nice spot for me. IMHO.

This is a basic 15 watt eL-84 powered single channel 1x12 combo amp with master volume. All details at Fender.com. The amp is simplicity itself, and it's great for practice and small gigs. I wouldn't add a thing. (Yes, 15 watts is ample for playing with a basic rock band in a live setting. I never have this amp close to cranked live and often have to turn it down.) Master volume is essential to get overdrive tones at a reasonable practice volume. The amp's low weight makes it very portable and practical. There is very little not to like here.

I play in an amateur band, and we cover rock/blues tunes from the 1950s through today. For just about anything you can think of short of metal, this is just a cool little amp. After working my way out of solid state amps and through several other tube amps, I tried playing A/B through a Blues Jr. and a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4x10. After a while, I found myself coming back and playing through the BJ only, so the DeVille is history. My guitars include a 1989 Fender Strat Plus Deluxe with Blues Van Zandt pickups (excellent!) and a stock 2003 Highway One Strat. I have a pedal board as follows: Boss TU-2 > Fulltone Fulldrive 2 > Barber Direct Drive > Boss MT-2 Metal Zone > Digitech RP-50 > BJ. Also, I run the BJ through an Avatar G212H cabinet loaded with a Celestion Vintage 30 and a Celestion G12H30 (although it sounds very good as a combo as well). This is a great sounding setup. Set at master on 12 and volume on 4 with the fat switch in, I get a great clean rhythm sound -- it lets pure guitar tone come straight through with lots of chime, warmth, and vibe. The sound is very different when set for dirty (volume toward 9-12 and master set for level). You can also get very different sounds when running overdrive/distortion pedals through the amp when set for dirty vs. clean. Use a quality analog overdrive pedal into the BJ with the volume set to 10 and you get a big, thick, classic overdrive sound that is very Marshall-like (especially through a cabinet). Rather than twisting knobs, I am considering A/Bing two blues juniors set for clean and dirty respectively and using my pedals to add on from there -- two great base tones, two independent EQs, two independent amps (built-in backup!). My BJ is a bit noisy, but it isn't a factor at all playing live. I have also put a set of JJ tubes in it. To my ear, it does sound a bit better than the stock set, but it isn't night & day. (I did it more to have a backup set of tubes than anything.)

I've had it for about 16 months and put several hundred hours on it. No problems whatsoever.

No basis for rating.

I've been playing for 17 years. Honestly, this is the amp that got me back on track with electric guitar. It -- along with a stock stratocaster -- really got me in tune for the first time with what good basic electric guitar tone sounds and feels like to play, and it really was a revelation. I had struggled through solid state amps (Fender Ultimate Chorus), digital multi-effects units (Digitech RP-1 & RP-5), high-gain pickups (SD Hotrails), and other tube amps (Carvin Nomad, Fender Blues DeVille, Marshall DSL401, Crate V15), but the first time I played through this amp with a basic strat in a band setting, I was hooked. After all those years and all that stuff, this simple little amp cranks out THE TONE? And you get it for $400? Do yourself a favor and give this one a try.