Fender Blues Junior

Face it ... this amp is pretty feature-free. Preamp gain, master vol, bass, treble, mid, "fat" switch to boost the preamp gain, footswitch jack for the fat switch, and NO DAMN STANDBY SWITCH! So if yer lookin' for features, buy a Boogie. I'm a simple kinda guy who kinda likes simplicity, so this amp's lack of features suits me just fine, thanks. As you probably know, it's got 3 12AX7's for preamp/inverter and 2 EL84's for a smokin' 15 watts of tubal tonularity. Oops, I forgot to mention reverb (solid state driven) and solid state rectifier.

I adore small tube amps 'cause you can crank 'em and spank 'em. This baby's a dream come true. You can go from sweeeeet sweeeeet Fender clean to warm, rich bluesy overdrive. IMHO the clean is not QUITE as nice as the Hot Rod series, but awfully damn close. As noted in previous reviews, this is NOT a shred amp. I love the way I can play that Ronnie Earl middle ground, where I'm clean with the soft touch but a little spank on the attack makes 'er growl! I also love the fact that I can choose preamp or poweramp distortion (the latter with preamp gain on 3 or 4 and master volume cranked). The reverb is nice (3 spring, short tank) and not overdone, but there's a little hum at high settings. Not too objectionable, though. Overall, the tone is exquisite ... the kind that inspires you to just keep playin' ...

Only had it for a couple of weeks. You can't beat the 5 year warranty, though.

Never tried to deal with them, and from what I've been reading, probably never will.

It's so cheap, and so damn cute, and sounds soooo good, I'd recommend it to anyone that needs a small amp. It's loud, but not enough for a big gig - PERFECT for home practice or jamming, though. I find I never use the "fat" switch. I wish they'd left it off and given me a standby switch instead! I'm predicting that in about 25 years there will be a huge vintage market for these babies. Buy one. NOW!!!

The amp has a single channel input, a single jack, 3 stages of 12AX7A pre-amp, pre-volume, master volume controls, separate bass, mid, and treble controls "fat" switch on panel (foot switchable ) spring reverb (not tube driven), two 6V6/EL84 output tubes, one external speaker jack, a 12" Eminence speaker, only one power supply on/off switch, but no standby (I intend to add this), I bought the 'new' Blues Junior with black tolex - finish. The nominal wattage rating is 15 watts but it's plenty loud for clubs or jam sessions as well! The only poor thing is that the amp has no FX - loop, it could be very useful. I also would like a second channel to switch easily to the fantastic crunch - sound !

I'm really satisfied with the sound ! The clean tone is very clear and sweet - it's a real Fender. If you roll the gain knob up you get a warm, creamy overdrive I like most. I bought the Blues Junior in addition to my Fender Hot-Rod Deluxe because the Hot Rod is simply way too powerful and for my kind to heavy for quick gigs. The Blues Junior is a perfect supplement. The sound is very similar to the Hot Rod's clean sound, with less of headroom - especially the bass - frequencies sounds weaker, but the Blues Junior has a warmer - mellow overdrive sound I really like. The FAT switch further boosts the overdrive and gives you a astonishing full sound for this little package, for that the 12" speaker helps a lot. The amp's speaker provides tons of low-end punch which is surprising given this amps fairly small size. What I really like is the fact that you can drive the power-amp tubes harder without playing louder. Fender designed this amp right. It's made to be driven to get a real classic blues flavor, so if you mostly play blues-rock and want to be flexible, this amp is a dream come true! Small, versatile, and controllable. But I'm sorry, also the Blues Junior has one week point - it's the reverb. It's "hiss" gets pretty noticeable above about half way up. The reverb also don't sounds very intensive. If you know the Hot Rod reverb and like his very full sound and long reverb-time you will be disappointed like I. O.K., the Blues Junior is a much smaller amp with a smaller reverb-pan, but must it produce such allot hiss ?! Overall I would give the amp a 9, but in his price- and build-range it's still a 10.

This amp hasn't given me any problems yet. It seems to be built very solid. I've found the amp to be very reliable so with 5 years warranty I'll rate this a 10.

Haven't had to deal with 'em yet, hope it still remains so.

I really love this amp and I'd buy it again. For it's 15 Watts It's really powerful and can easily be used for a club gig as well as for practice. The amps I compared it to were all Mesa/ Boogies I'd played for years, but I'm sorry - the Fender won hands down. The search is over, I'd found my amps: The Blues Junior for small and quick gigs and the Hod Rod Deluxe for bigger things! The clean sound is very good, but also the crunch sounds are, much better than a Boogie or anything else in this price-range. Why could this thing not has a FX-loop and a second channel?!

This reveiw is an update/amendment to my previously submitted review on the Fender Blues Junior. My BJ finally arrived via UPS, in perfect condition I might add having been shipped to Florida from New England (thanks for the TLC, UPS !) Anyway, I plugged it in, fired it up, and played it, and played it, and played it, and.......(my poor Marshall JCM900 combo feels SO neglected since the BJ arrived). To say the least, I am VERY impressed and satisfied with it. It is just what the Tone Doctor prescribed !!

... the amp is voiced on the dark side, which you would expect from a blues oriented amp. It has a wonderful clean tone, much better than that of my Marshall JCM900 combo, and it dirty's up when the pre-amp is overdriven and the Master is cranked, although not like the infamous Marshall grind. This is a blues amp, remember, not a grunge amp. Country/Blues/Southern-rock sounds are its forte. The FAT switch works well to slightly beef up the sound, and also causes the volume to increase slightly. There is a jack, next to the speaker output jack, for a FAT-control footswitch (not included with amp). The reverb is good; you get a little hiss when it is cranked up high, but since I just add a tad, it compliments my playing style well. For 15 watts, this amp is LOUD. The Eminence 12 inch speaker seems of good quality and construction, projects well, and adds that depth and bottom end necessary for a full, rich tone (i.e, it's got BALLS !!)

Too new to tell.

5-year transferable warranty. No need for repair or support yet.

Yes, I would buy it again, and may in fact buy a second one. I like everything about this amp; size, looks, tone, volume. It's only shortcoming seems to be the lack of a power stand-by switch; it's either ON or OFF. The Operation Manual which comes with it is simple; there is nothing complicated about this amp at all. If you can't figure this amp out in 5 minutes, you should be playing a kazoo ! Just plug in, dial in your tone, and then play on, and on, and on, and on......

It doews just what it is designed for: quality, low power practice/studio work or small venue gigging (larger venue if mic'd through PA. I's a single channel, all-tube 15 Watt (EL84 Class AB bias) amp w/12" speaker. Pre-amp Vol, Master Vol, Bass, Middle Treble, and Reverb Controls. Single "Power" Switch.
I would prefer it having a Stand-by power Switch and a foot-switchable Reverb, but for the money it's great. I'll put in my own STBY switch to ease the stress on the tubes, and live with the manual reverb. fix THAT !"

Great tube sounds from country clean to mild blues overdrive. The Master Vol control allowed great volume versatility and I liked the 3-segment tone section in an amp this small. Just stick a Rat or Tube Screamer pedal in front of it and you'll have a mini-monster on your hands. I may buy another so as to run my ZOOM 3030 in stereo.

To new to tell, but Fenders typically are very reliable (then again, maybe Fender owners just treat there amps better). EL84 power ubes are held firmly in place by a metal bracket. Pre amp tubes are not. All tubes are well protected by the cabinet back panel, although extend down VERY close to the speaker magnet.

I never deal with the factory for any amp repair (who does ?). Any amp shop can fix a Fender, and should have the schematics. It's just the warranty period that counts and this is a 5-year transferrable warranty.

I played the Fender BJ, and immediately placed one on mail-order (via Music Tools) for $270 plus $20 s/h. I can't wait to have mine arrive, cause it sounds so GOOD. I went and tried an Ampeg Jet re-issue (J-12T) later in the day and, although it sounded very nice as well, decided to stay with the Blues Jr (see my review of the Ampeg.

Your basic setup here. Three tone controls gain and master volume as well as reverb. Class A so there is only one channel. It would have been nice with a FX loop. No headphone jack. Fat switch which increases the gain a little.

Very, Very nice sounding amp. Clean sounds are beautiful, clear and warm. Such a huge difference from my old amp (Fender Champion 110). Believe me when I say that this is one of the most smoothest sounding amps out there. It gives a very full sound at low and medium volumes.
The reverb is kind of noisy. I don't use the reverb at all because I have reverb on my Korg AX30G which is very quiet and gives a more versitile reverb.
I hardly use the fat switch. All it does is boost the gain a little, nothing special.
I use this amp with a mesa boogie V-twin so I could get a really fat distorted tone. I don't think over the top distortion can be achieved with the amp alone. Don't get this amp if you like heavy, heavy distortion. If you have a really good distortion pedal it will sound great, if not go buy a V-twin or something.
I use this amp with a fender standard strat with texas special pickups, this combined with the V-twin and the Korg AX30G for effects gives me so much more versitility with the tone of this amp. This amp really is a tone machine alone but when combined with a good axe and a good distortion pedal you really have a side variety of sounds.

Comes with a five year transferrable warranty. The tolex seems like it can be easily ripped off. No corner protectors either. The tubes in the back seems like they are protected nice. I'll be playing this amp in my bedroom so I don't expect the amp to break down.

The salesman told me that if I ever have problems all I have to do is take the amp to a service center with the reciept.

I would definitely buy this again.
I love the clean tone. This amp adds so much to the way my whole setup sounds. A really good tube amp can really improve a lot of things. I have used it for three days so far and I am very impressed.
The only thing I don't like is the reverb, because it is noisy. I don't use it anyway because I use it with my Korg AX30G. Very quiet when not using the reverb on the amp. You won't even know its on it's so quiet.
I didn't compare it with other amps in this category. But when compared to a cheap solid state amp like the Fender Champion 110, the Blues Junior is 20X better. So, everyone out there with a cheap solid-state, BUY THIS AMP! You will sound so much better.
I wish it had an FX loop but you can't have everything.

Very simple amp to use, only one clean channel. A very loud 15 watt, sounds more like 30 watts. All tube amp, two EL84's and three 12AX7's, and tweed covering. Your basic controls, Volume, Master Volume, Treble, bass, mid, and reverb. Also has FAT switch to increase preamp gain, also has footswitch for this. One 12" Fender Gold Label re-issue speaker. Only problem is I wish it a gain channel and a effects loop would be nice. Great amp for its price. Altough I've never tried it I'd like to hear what is sounds like when driving an external speaker cabinet.

Great amp. I play mostly alternative music and I can definatly get the tone I'm after with amp. Just like the name says I sound terrific when playing blues. Pretty good variety of tones, even though it doesn't have a gain channel you can get a natural tube distortion when cranking it. If you can't get this amp to sound good then you just can't play.

I'd use it without a backup, but then again it's the only amp I have and it's never let me down. I'd carry extra tubes around though.

Never dealt with them. Comes with a 5 year warranty and 90 day warranty one tubes.

I'd definatly buy this amp again. I'll probably never get rid of it. Simple to use with terrific sound and just about the loud 15 watt amp you can find. 12" speaker allows good bass response. Better then any other amp in it's price range. I just wish it had two channels and an effects loop.

When I firt bought this amp, I bought it for the sound. I didn't think of it as too feature-rich. However, being fairly basic might be this amp's greatest feature. Pure simplicity. You dial in the tone you want on the eq, and play. This amp will faithfully reproduce the sound you're looking for with minimal interaction between you and the amp. It's controls are Gain, FAT switch, MID/LOW/HIGH eq, master volume, and reverb.

First, let me say that each amp sounds different to each individual player. I don't care if it's a 10watt Peavey Rage. If you like it, and you can make music with it, then buy it. That said, I personally LOVE the sound of this amp. I mainly play blues and this amp is made specifically for blues - and it accels at blues. The clean tone is sweet, sweet, sweet. Roll the gain knob up and you get a warm, creamy overdrive. Press the FAT switch and you get a little more boost for some dirty blues. When I first got this amp, I thought the reverb was a little weak, but now I like the sound. Sometimes less is more. This amp is VERY good at making one nice, sweet, and really tight sound.

This amp appears to be built well. Since it hasn't broken yet, I'll rate it a 10.

When I got this amp, it was the last one in the store. I called Fender and they sent me a manual within a couple days. The guy on the phone was kind of a jerk, but he did what he said he'd do. That's unique in the music industry.

I would buy this amp again. I like the features, the sound and the power. Even though it's so small, it seems to have tons of volume and punch. The amp doesn't really break up at high-volume like some other small amps. I like the 12" speaker because it really adds to the bass-end of the sound. This amp sounds surprisingly good given the smaller cabinet size. The bass response is one of it's best features. Some other amp makers could learn from Fender. There's nothing I really hate about this amp. When shopping, I compared it to the Peavey Classic 20, The Fender Pro-Junior, The Crate VC2110R, and the Ampeg SJ-12r. The Fender easily wins given its features, sound, and price. For the money, you simply can't get a better sounding blues amp. Please don't let the size fool you. Take it for a spin before you rule it out because of it's size. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at this amp. I sure was.

I like this amp a lot. It is very simple and easy to use. Controls are Reverb, Master Volume, High, Mid, Low, FAT switch and Master Volume. This amp has a 12" speaker and offers 15 watts of power. Don't let it fool you - It sounds like 30watts. There is one footswitch jack, but the footswitch is not included. My only gripe is that there is no standby switch.

I LOVE THIS AMP! I bought it in addition to my Fender Hot-Rod Deluxe because the Hot Rod is simply way too powerful. If I put the Hot Rod on level 2, I run the risk of getting evicted from my apartment. The Blues Junior is a perfect supplement. The sound is very similar to the Hot Rod's clean sound, but the Blues Junior has better reverb and a warmer - mellow overdrive sound. The FAT switch further boosts the overdrive and gives you some good fuzzy overdrive when you push it. I really like the fact that you can drive the power-amp tubes harder without playing louder. This amp gives an incredibly WARM sound without being loud. The amp's 12" speaker provides tons of low-end punch which is surprising given this amps fairly small size. Fender designed this amp right. I couldn't ask for a better sound. Further, this amp is powerful enough to use on a small gig. Overall, I'm very impressed. Since I mostly play blues-rock, this amp is a dream come true! Small, versatile, and controllable.

This amp is built rock-solid right here in the USA. The tubes are protected in the back, and the power tubes even have their own "cage" to keep them safe and in place. This is the first time I've seen this design on an amp, and this adds tohe reliability. The only thing I'm skeptacle about is the fact that there is no standby switch. I am worried about this amp blowing tubes prematurely. I hope Fender designed aand implemented a circuit to protect the tubes on power-on. I'm pretty sure they did.

I got a really good deal on this amp and I think it is well worth the money. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat. This amp is just what I wanted. I love the sound and features, and I LOVE the reverb. The reverb isn't overkill on this amp like my Hot Rod Deluxe. The overdrive is warm, smooth, and creamy. This amp really cooks when cranked. I recommend it to ANY blues or blues-rock player. I'm sure it would also sound good with a decent overdrive stomp-box, also. Therefore it would make a good amp for any playing style. The only thing I wish it had is a standby switch. Ohwell... can't have it all. I'd give this amp a rating of 11 if I could.

Gain, Treb, Bass, Mid, Reverb, Master and a FAT switch that increases the input gain. All tube amplification, though it has solid state reverb drivers on a spring pan, solid state rectifier, and uses a transistor to increase the gain with the FAT switch.

Very warm sounding, maybe due to the Eminence speaker (standard). Not as trebley as my Super Reverb, neither does it have the very deep solid bottom of that amp. As the name suggests, its a blues amp. Also, don't let the 15 watt size fool you, it sounds very big (12 inch speaker helps I suppose) and seems made to be driven to get a real classic blues flavor.

It's new... so far so good.

I'd use this for any small to medium venue, its that good.

I previously owned a Fender Blues Deluxe and found that it was impossible to overdrive except at extremely high volumes. The Blues Junior has a beautiful sound, from clear and clean to fat overdriven. I rented it and played with my loud drummer friend and it was easily loud enough, even though it's only a 15W amp.
I don't understand it but the Blues Junior is everything I wanted: small (1x12), loud enough for jamming, compact for carrying, full tube sound (100% tube circuitry).

I play pop blues (a la Chris Rea's Road to Hell) and pop alternative (a la Stone Temple Pilots). This amp can sound clean and full or heavy and sustained. I used to hook up a Real Tube Driver to my Blues Deluxe and don't bother with this. The FAT switch takes the place of the effect pedal. The only thing is that the clean channel will overdrive slightly if you turn it up, oh well, can't have it all.

Just bought so don't know how reliable, but it has a 5 year warranty which is good enough for me. It seems very solidly built, compared to the other amps I have had: Roland and Marshall.

5 year warrantly, have never contacted Fender

I love it being cute and small and so powerful. I love the creamy sound and the portablity.
I have the black finish, also availble in classic tweed...

well everyones pretty much covered everything, so I'll pretty much ditto everything said. This amp is not versatile, it does one thing and one thing very well. It gives you one sweet guitar tone, You can do what ever with it after that.

This is an amp that you can really crank (it goes to 12). I usually come in from work at about 2:00 in the morning. Put my volume on my strat about 2 or 3 and the sound comming out of that very nice clean. You just want to keep playing on and on. As a little bit of icing, I sometime run my Real Tube to get a smokier sound.

I've had it for about a year, I try to keep things just as they were when I bought it .i.e. no problem

n/a

I had heard quite a bit about this amp through the grapevine, And it all pretty much turned out to be true. The idea of being able to crank 15 watt without bleeding any ears (mine for one) sounded very appealling. Once the the tubes get nice and hot, your pretty much cooking. I do believe the longer its on the warmer the sound gets. No regrest, would buy it again at the same price of course.

This is a "meat and potatos" amp. I wish it had an effects loop as Fenders web page implies, but as someone else said before, this is one of the best kept secrets for bargain amps now!!! This is an INCREDIBLY loud amp for only 15 watts. Plenty loud for most gigs.

This amp is FANTASTIC!!!! I have owned many amps from Ampeg to Vox and been tweaking and modifying them for 20 years and this amp blew me away!!! I believe the thing that makes it so good is that it has been designed to be a clean sounding loud tube amp so since it only is a 15 watter, by putting an overdrive box between your guitar and it, you have the correct volume/tube drive/SRV creamy type sound that most of us Blues/Rock guys strive our whole delinquent life in search of!!!! If you are a Marshall player, don't consider this amp, it is too clean for you, but if you use a smooth OD pedal like a Tube Screamer or a regular RAT pedal and like the classic overdriven "Fender on 10" sounds look no further,,,this is all you'll need.... I can't believe the sounds out of such an inexpensive amp!!!! I use a couple of Strats with different humbuckers and single coils and they all agree with this amp. I've owned many Les Pauls before so my bet is those would sound great too but havn't tried one yet. It is definitely geared more twords the Strat sound though.

Have only owned it for 3 days so who knows....

In the past for me Fender has been very helpfull in getting info out of so I guess I'll find out if they still are when I request the schematic for this little puppy!!!!

As I said, I can't say enough about this amp!!! It sounds soooo good!! I wish it had an effects loop but can't have everything. I compared it to several but the Pro Junior, Peavey Classic 30 and the Marshall JTM-30 were the finalist and this blew them away with its tone and loudness!!!! I would buy this amp for twice the price today to get this great a sound without tweaking till the cows come home!!!!

I use this amp at home only. I was looking for a pure low-power tube amp sound, not features (I found my Marshall stack a bit oversized for private practise). But when comparing it with Pro Junior, I realized that more versatile tone control, 2 volume knobs, reverb and specially the "Fat" switch make Blues Junior much more desireable.

I'm keen to find blues/R&B/rock type of tube distortion sounds from my amps. this amp is killer for that purpose. Sometimes I experiment with heavy distortion, but then I plug in my Ibanez PUE5 Tube pedal. I'm using a modified American Standard Strat (Seymour Duncan littl' Screamin' Demon humbucker in bridge position, coil split, floating bridge). However, this setup is not perfect. The sound is slightly damped and dull. Not to blame the amp, though - a -62 Reissue Strat created killer sounds (I think I'm gonna by one...). was

I bought it yesterday so I really don't know. The tweed cover etc. makes it look nice, but it's not a roadworthy solution. Again, I'll never use this amp outside my home so I don't care.

Very nice treatment when making the purchase. It was a trade-off - I came with a Marshall 1960TV cabinet and left with the Blues Junior.
A 6 month warranty.

I would definitely buy one again. Being a Marshall lover, I'm suprised how much I really love the tone of this amp. I compared the amp with Pro Junior, and the difference is incredible. This amp does not need any extra device to beef up the tone. My main amp is a vintage Marshall 50W bass head. I love that too, but it's way too loud when "entering the tube distortion zone".

This little amp is one of the best kept secrets, and sounds great for every type of music that I play - from clean to blues to rock and roll. It even sounds good with my Takamine acoustic. I was looking for a low-powered that would suit mainly playing at home, but also for practicing and small gigs. This is it. Don't let the fact that it only has 15 watts fool you -- this thing can cook. I almost bought the Pro Junior, which is also an amazing little amp (15W, 8" spkr), but when I tried the Blues Junior right after, the difference was astounding. While it doesn't have channel switching, it does have a 12" spkr, reverb and bass, mid, treble, and two volume knobs (master and volume), along with a "FAT" button, the tone coming out of this little unit sounds like it's coming out of a much larger and more expensive amp. It can go from clean to creamy, and even creamier on its one channel, although I wish it had channel switching.

My last amp was a Blues DeVille which I liked a whole lot, but because I used it mainly in the house, I was totally impractical (on "2", I was on the verge of being evicted. I had a chance to compare them side-by-side for a couple of weeks, and what amazed me was how the Blues Junior could sound so close the the DeVille's quality and creaminess. My Humbucker-equipped 1979 Ibanez Artist sounds like it was built for this type of amp. I don't get any distortion at the clean setting's high volume, and while the distorted is easily adjustable (from creamy to enormously overdriven). Matched up with my Boss ME-8, I'm ready to roll.

I bought the amp a month ago while on holidays in Myrtle Beach (I'm from Canada), so I can't comment about its reliability. But I can say that it survived the long trip back (almost 2,000 mi) in the trunk, and the bumps and hot sun didn't affect it one bit.

Fender's warranty is 3 for years

I would buy it again - in fact, because the ME-8 is a stereo unit, I may buy another one. The fellow who sold it to me said his buddy had two of them working in stereo and that he was in amp la-la-land. As I mentioned earlier, I just wish it had channel swithing, or at least , some way of going from clean to creamy without fiddling with the knobs. Other than that, this is the best bang-for-the-buck going. If and when you get one, try the blindfold test on your friends - they won't believe that the sounds they are hearing came from such a small small amp.

One input, 15W, tube, reverb, treble, middle, bass, master and volume control with a 'fat' switch to od the pre-amp tubes I suppose. Tweed covering, leather handle. Has internal footswitching capabilities.

Using a std strat for blues, this has a lovely warm sound, with reasonable reverb and enough volume to blow you out of the room at home. Have not tried yet but am confident it would work well at rehearsals, jams, and could be miked easily for larger venues. Not a thrash amp, but has warm overdrive capability if pushed.
Noisy at loud vols and the reverb can be noisy at times but re-seating the tubes seems to settle that for my amp anyway. I have a TS5 pedal for more overdirve but have given up using it as I like the straigh thru sound best.

The build quality is questionable. There's a lot of amp crammed into a small box and the rear cross support is very weak - would expect damage to be done if the amp fell on its back. Don't lug it around so can't vouch for its roadworthiness.

Standard Fender warranty - 5 years except for tubes (3 months) etc.

Can be obtained cheaper it seems, even if the MRP is over $440 - but the local dealer let me demo it for ages and agreed to haggle for cash deal so I was happy to give him the money - would buy again without a doubt.Better than any Peavey I played, or Marshall, but this is a blues/jazz amp, not a metal machine.

For a practice amp this one has just what you need. It would be crazy to wish for more features in a little tube amp this cheap. Remember this is a practice amp! The only thing I would wish for is a cover. Otherwise its just what the tone doctor ordered.

God this guitar is a Jazz players dream. If you have a great sounding guitar and don't need to play with the sound that you already have this is the clean amplifier for you. Plug in turn it on and play. If you're not that good a guitarist this amp will let you know. There are not a lot of gimmicks to hide a hack. The sound from this little honey is as honest as a boner in a speedo. Blues, Jazz or Rock sound great thru this. Straight forward tone, silence when your not playing and decent volume level, Ive used it miked and unmiked on several gigs.

Its a Fender, Ive never had a Fender die on me. Its fairly ruggedly designed, not designed for the road but it'll do fine. This amp will not fail on its own, you'll have to do something stupid.

Never had to deal with anyone but the dealer, Twin City Music. They were knowledgeable and they can repair anything.

It does what it says it does, it sounds great, its cheap and it works like a politician soliciting a campaign contribution. Id buy one for every room in my house if I could afford it. I could not find any amp from any company at this price with this great a sound and this great a product

single channel input, single jack 3 stages of 12AX7A pre-amp (Sovtek) pre-volume, master volume controls no effects loop separate bass, mid, and treble controls "fat" switch on panel (foot switchable) spring reverb (not tube driven) 12AX7A splitter tube driving two 6BQ5/EL84 output tubes in push/pull (Sovtek) Single output jack, no headphone jack 1-12 inch, 8 ohm Eminence spkr solid state power supply on/off switch, but no standby (I intend to add this) tweed covered open back cabinet (it's ugly, but I've sort of warmed up to it)

I play a strat through this amp while figuring out songs with the stereo blaring, and it's plenty loud enough. Fills a living room nicely, but probably not a blimp hangar for example. It's not super squeaky clean at higher volumes (master vol all the way up, pre-vol 1/4- 1/3 up) but has only a slight hint of breakup. I like this amp for it's tone at moderate volume (my gal-pal calls it loud). That's the main reason I bought it, but features, price, newness (didn't have time for another amp project), and size also were factors. It is capable of a very distorted sound (master vol down, pre-vol up) but I don't much care for it (too harsh). I tend to find the "fat" switch on more often than off after I'm done twiddling- probably to help compensate for the open back cab's lack of bottom end.
Noise- IMHO noise is this amp's weakest point. There are two notable sources; 1. My amp has a mechanical vibration (resonance) at higher volume levels that I'm not happy with. I didn't notice it while demoing the amp- should have tried it out in an empty room. The sources seem to be the reverb pan housing/springs or the output tubes which (unfortunately) are all in very close proximity to the speaker due to the compact design. Have only had the amp for two months, and I'm still looking into fixes. Took it back to the Fender dealer's amp tech who tightened the reverb pan screws, deemed it fixed, and then tried to convince me that the vibration (which remained unchanged) was part of a tube amp's "character". Yeah right. Adding some acoustic damping material (high density foam rubber) to the top and sides of the reverb pan may help. Also may need a different set of output tubes (the internal spacers may be vibrating against the glass envelope). Some experimenting is in order here (oh boy, a project...just what I was trying to avoid), but I'm pretty confidant that this noise can be controlled. 2. Reverb "hiss" gets pretty noticeable above about half way up. I usually keep it about 1/4 to 1/3 up so this is not a big issue for me.

The cabinet seems sturdy enough except for the back panel which is 1/4 inch ply. The open back design leaves the unsupported edge sort of hanging in the breeze (another possible source of vibration). Maybe someday I'll be inspired to attach a stiffening channel to the inside of this panel.
Nits; The white letters/numbers do not adhere well to the chromed panel. I'm already missing a few after dusting once with a soft cloth.
Amp is only 2 mos old so the jury is still out on reliability.

I was not impressed with the local dealer Rhodies Music, Savannah, GA as described above. Warranty is something like two years parts/labor, 90 days on tubes, (less time for speaker if I remember correctly). Fender includes a legible schmatic, chassis layout, and a useless owners manual.

Well, it seems that I have outdone myself on the criticism of this amp. It does have a few shortcomings, but hey, what do you want from a $300 cookie-cutter practice amp, perfection? Get real. Would I buy it again? Yes- it fills my personal amp requirements pretty well and it's problems I can either fix of live with. Love the sound, and the small size. Hate the fact that I have to fix my brand new amp (vibration) but some things just have to be done yourself before they are to your satisfaction.
Compared it to a Peavey Classic something or other which had more features, and was cheaper, but I just couldn't face owning another Peavey (personal bias pure and simple- my second amp was a Peavey Pacer and it played a part in stunting my musical growth).