Fender Pro Junior

Many others have covered this. In my review I will attempt to offer info not provided already. Mine is a tweed example with blue alnico speaker.

I use it primarily with my Peavey Predator strat, two singles and a humbucker at the bridge. As everyone else said, the Pro Jr. gets a nice crunchy, (but not death-metal-like), distortion when cranked a bit, (past 6 or so on up to 12). Think early Angus Young sound with the humbucker, (though obviously it doesn't sound as good as Angus's Marshall), with a well defined and punchy attack, and very little "mud" except on low notes where the little 10" just can't cut it. I can easily see how people could gig with this amp and no effects or anything for many styles which call for this type of sound, (though reverb would be nice, maybe added at the board when miked up). With the single coils and slightly lower volumes, it gets a nice bluesy breakup. It would work well with nothing plugged in but a guitar and cable for anything from oldies rock to alternative.

Now that's the good news, the bad (maybe, for some) news is that this amp WILL NOT get the classic clean Fender tone. Period. I may get shot for this, but I believe I'm qualified to judge, (having spent hours comparing it to my other amps). I happen to be fortunate enough to own a tweed Deluxe and a blackface Princeton Reverb. The Pro Jr. is nowhere near the same league in the clean department. Period. Not even close even at low volumes, (below five on the knob). It sounds all right, but lacks both the chimey sparkling highs and the big bottom (due to the small cab?) of the other amps. I don't blame the 10" speaker, as my Princeton also has a 10". I haven't tried it with an external cab, but this might help a bit. The bottom line is that you could never get a gig-level clean tone out of this amp, as it starts to break up too easily (in a gig situation, not at home as covered later). If you don't need a sparkly clean sound or overkill distortion (without effects), this amp might be your man.

Others have mentioned that it's not noisy, when in truth it hums and hisses like a bastard. If you've nothing to compare it to, its background noise is not too loud, but compare it to any good blackface and it'll really stand out. This might be a problem when recording at lower levels, but then again, that's not what this amp's about.

Additionally, the amp is WAY loud. You will probably be disappointed if you buy this amp thinking you can get cool natural tube distortion in your apartment without disturbing your neighbors. Not so. By the time you get it cranked up to breakup levels, it's WAY too loud to keep peace in the household/apartment building. I tried pulling out one of the power tubes, and it was still too loud when it finally started distorting). That said, it sounds great for distortion practice at low levels with my Boss GL-100 preamp providing distortion, but this is kind of missing the point.

Seems to work OK now, but one of the power tubes was not glowing when I got it, (though it worked after a bit of wiggling). I've had this amp apart, and I must say it's made pretty cheaply. The cabinet isn't too bad, but the chassis is not what they used to be. Then again, this is why it's less than $200! I wouldn't hesitate to gig with it, but I'd probably bring a backup, though it's never kicked out on me since I got it about eight months ago.

I've been playing guitar for 20 years, owned a variety of guitars and amps. This amp has a purpose, it's really cool, and really small/portable, just don't buy for what it doesn't do well, (it does NOT have the classic Fender clean tone).

read all the other reviews for their lack of knobs...no really, i think jusy just two knobs volume and tone, a light indicating power is "on", and an on off switch. oh and an input jack (1/4in.) :)

it sounds really good until you hit that stupid wall of blah distortion...i mean, the overdrive is really sweet but then you go past halfway (like 1-o-clock) and then it all goes to hell. not good distortion hell either, but bad horrible fuzz crap that sounds sooooo unappealing. remember...key word is bad fuzz...like playing through a wayyyyyyyy to distorted home stereo...horrible...everything is a big hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm distortion...and you cant even roll off the tone controls on your guitar because then its jusy just mid range hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm distortion...sucks royally there. the clean is great, the overdrive sweet and loud...anything past that is shit.
i use a fender electric XII, and a harmony meteor. theyre both fairly stock, and sound good until....that horrible distortion! i like the elec12 better because i can use that slightly overdriven sound to get a chunka chunka sound, and i can also get that 60's brit 12 string twang, AND some bluesy soul bass string phrasing. all for cheap dollars...why would you not want to have one? i mean for basement practices, garages, home, bedrooms, open mics whatever...it is small enough, light enough, loud enough, good enough, and dog gonnit, people like them! and especially since i only paid like what...2 honeys and some change???on sale???at guitar center for god sakes??? what more do you need? i mean thats like 2 weeks at mc donalds,bk, wendys, white castle, busters, checkers, kfc....you CAN afford it. its cheaper than some dates! vegas! a concert youve been dying to see! taxes! you CAN always scrunch up 200 honeys for a well made little rocker, trust me.

no problems...yet....well see if i dont get irrate w/ the sound @ "10"

how is fender anyway???ive never had to deal w/ them so i dont know...also i dont have a phone.

yeah, i really like the way it looks too. it sounds good, plays good. its nice to tote. ive kicked it a few times out of frustration, but it hasnt damaged it, and its loud enough to "feel"it. now if i could hook it up to a bigger setup, or maybe have a wall of juniors hehehe

This amp is completely a one-trick pony. It has an unremarkable clean sound, and an unusable distorted sound. What it does exceedingly well is that warm, in-between thing.

I use this amp with a Strat, and I put a Boss DS-1 in front of it to get a little preamp sustain and boost for solos. The amp is not at all kind to my Les Paul, so it never gets played. This amp was definitely made to complement Fender guitars, as it has a very midrangey sound. However, having gotten the negatives out of the way, I will say that the one trick that this pony does is very, very nice. I don't think you could find a better amp for blues. When you play a Strat's neck pickup through this thing, and you've got the volume set at about 6, you get a delicious, fat tone that will cut through full-volume drums, bass and rhythm guitar. Definitely the loudest 15 watts I've ever heard.

Can't say just yet. Have only had it a couple of weeks.

N/A. Bought it used.

The funny story I have with this amp -- I brought it to band practice and everybody laughed. The bass player was very angry; he called it a lunchbox and chastised me for buying it. I just plugged it in and played a couple of licks. Smiles all around. The bass player sheepishly asked me to turn it down. "That thing cuts," he said. I'd like to try it through a bigger cabinet, but I think it might really kill that snarky vibe you get from the little 10" speaker and tiny cabinet. I don't think you'll find a better watt-for-dollar value in a tube amp. Everybody should own one of these.

volume and tone knobs, pure tube circutry, 10" speaker. the setup of this amp is very simple, but that's one of the things i like about it. also, don't let only one tone knob fool you; you can get lots of different tones off of this one knob. the features are simple and easy to use. however, i think that this amp should have a line out.

ahhh. . .a short, sweet glimpse of heaven! this amp can get sounds from a nice muted bluesey tone to a great overdrive distortion with the twist of the volume knob! it is a great amp. i got it for the purpose of having a practice amp, and it turns out that i got more than i bargianed for. this amp has got to be the loudest 15 watts i've ever heard and the speaker can handle every bit of it at any volume level. the amp also has a lot of low end, and that's one of the things i like about it. i was really suprized when i played a seven-string on it recently. i didn't expect the amp to handle it as well as it did. it acted normal, and the sound quality stayed the same even with all the extra low-end. i love this little amp, and if i didn't already have one, i'd sell my soul for it. most definitely worth the purchase

so far, i've had no problems.
very reliable, and i haven't even considered carrying a backup amp.
i sold my other amp as soon as i heard this one.

never had to call.

great amp. .i suggest it to anyone who wants a small amp that packs a great sound and a big punch. i've been playing for 3 years, but have only been into advanced sound for about a year, and this amp has everything i want. i mostly like to play blues, but every once in a while i like to play some sludge metal. the amp sounds good with both, but i do use a distortion when i play heavy stuff. when going for a good blues tone, i just use the amp itself. one of the only things i don't like about the amp is that it has no line out. every amp should have a line out! other than that, it's my dream amp: small, great sound, affordable price, louder than you could ever think this little monster could be. the amp also has a lot of sensitivity, where you can crank the amp and still get a really quiet sound by just barely striking the strings. it's great. if it were lost or stolen, i'd probably not know what to do with my life. that would be worse than losing my truck. . . let's not think about that.
as a matter of fact, i'm gonna go lock it up right now!

Spartan controls, but that was what attracted me to the amp in the first place.

I own a several Mesa/Boogies (a Studio .22+ and a Rect-O-Verb) which I love, but I wanted something smaller and lighter to grab on the way to last-minute jam sessions. I thought that the Pro Junior, with its tube design and minimal controls, would be perfect; however, I was most disappointed when I put the amp through its paces in a real-world setting. I have quite an assortment of guitars, ranging from a PRS through a number of Fender American Standard Strats and Teles down to a Danelectro U2-56. I prefer a chimey, slightly broken-up sound (think of Chrissie Hynde's sound). The odd thing about this amp was that it sounded horrible with the Fenders (very flat, almost solid-state) and slightly better with the PRS. The amp only was only enjoyable when partnered with the Dano and cranked up full, producing a sick, Link Wray-type sound perfect for playing Rumble. I initially attributed the amp's substandard sound to its lack of reverb; I hooked up to my Fender '63 reverb in the hopes that it would breathe a little bit, but I was still mightily underwhelmed.

The Pro Junior is so simple that I can't imagine that much could go wrong with it.

I disliked it so immensely that I sold it for half of what I paid for it, and I was glad to see it go. I have owned lots of great Fender amps over the years and have always been happy with them, but my experience with the Pro Junior really shook my faith in the company.

Blonde.
10".
Small and perfectly formed.
Limited specification.
All the appeal of the Sixties.

While the above could be written about Barbie, the same also applies to the Pro Junior. Valves. On/off. Volume. Tone. 10" speaker. Lasting construction.

The features of this little amp lie in it's basic specification.

With a JT30-VC through a DD3 some delicious blues harmonica can be played. That blues can be hokum and Missisippi or it can be hard Chicago and West Coast groove.

The Pro Junior is clean and uncluttered, and it can also be a dirty bastard bursting the ears of those around it.

I use the JT30-VC at about 66% to 75%. The DD3 controls are all around 12 to 1-o-clock with the M 200ms delay setting. The volume and tone are set to 4 and 9 respectively.

If the solos suit it the mic volume is whacked up to 90% to 100% and played into the amp. The feedback is beautifully harmonic. Its great to cane it so much when the band's really jumping.

It feels solid enough.

I do depend on it.

I treat it (and all my harps) with respect.

Again, there's been no need to find out.

I'd had this amp for a couple of years before I started using it properly. Up until then I wished I'd bought a valve stomp box, an analogue delay, and a vocal mic: providing portability to plug into PAs with few problems.

Since I've been using it properly I've fallen in love with its warm sounds, its clean tones, and its in-your-face-monkey-boy distortion and feedback.

If I needed to buy another amp I'd buy this one. I had also looked at the Laney LC-15 before buying this one.

It needs a LINE-OUT.

Extremely easy of use. Only tone and volume knobs, but do not be fooled by this, you can get high, medium and low equalization from this amp. All valve and 15W. This amp is not versatile but versatility is not the intention from this amp. For me the major task from an amp is to be able to amplify the guitar signal, different sounds and fxs must come from devices like good multi fxs units and good distortions from good pre amps. This amp does not have reverb. In my opinion if you like reverbs that comes in the amp, they must be tube driven ones. Other type of reverbs may suck your amp tone and make some extra noise! Comes with a brief manual but you really do not need it. My amp is black tolex covered with a 10" brown label speaker. ( there is another Pro-Jr with tweed cover and a different speaker model also, but I do not know the difference in tone ! ) To know about other technical features go to the Fender URL and see by yourself.

The setup I'm using is : Ibanez Talman guitar with a Dimarzio Paf-Pro humbucker in the briedge position, HS-2 in the middle and an original mini humbucker from Ibanez in the neck position and a Tech 21 Tri-OD that I use for the distortion. The amp is not noisy but in the area where I live it is . There are tv and radio stations near by and sometimes I can hear radio through it. If I set the volume at 1 I get the radio frequency, upper than 1 there is no problem. I use at 2 or 3 so it's fine. The amp clean sound is flat, not too trebly and not too bassy. It's perfect if you like to use external devices to make your clean and distorted sounds. If you set the volume at high settings you can get nice and fat blues overdrive sounds. The truth is that the final sound from this amp or any other amp will depend on your entire set up and of course, your grip and feeling when playing. Before using this amp I had a Fender Blues Jr, that is not as good as the Pro Jr amp and it fails in some important topics like : I guess that the Blues Jr was made thinking on the Pro Jr but with the intention of making a better version with a 12" speaker, bass, middle, treble eq, master and reverb. The idea is but the results aren't : the 12" speaker does not sound tight, the natural overdrive is very trebly, the reverb is noisy and is not tube driven. The Pro Jr does what it's suposed to do.

It's a new amp so I can not tell you about this topic. My blues Jr never gave me any problem and I had it for a year and half

I will not have support here in Brazil

I have been playing for about 3 years. Before this amp I had a Fender 70W Rock Pro that really sucks, a Marshal VS100R that also sucks, a small Crate GX 15R that was for practice but does not come close to the Pro Jr, A Laney GC 80 that was a shame and the Blues Jr that is a good one, but after I tryed the Pro Jr I imediately sold it and bought the Pro Jr. I hope it'll never get broken or stolen so I'll have to buy another one

this was from the first year of production i bought it new around '91 or '92.as far as the features go you all know the story.reverb would of been nice but what can you do...this amp was a floor model,at the time they were hard to get...what i didn't realize at the time is this amp probably took a bit of a beating in the store with everyone pluging in turning it up,you know on and off a hundred times a day...anyway i bought this amp cause i have a penchant for small amps this one being tweed,blue frame speaker just seemed delicious... i played it here and there but mainly around the house as it wasn't my main amp (also a fender).i was never that impressed it rattled a bit i thought it was the tube retainers i disconnected them, it still rattled so i gave up and just used at rehearsal and one or two gigs... one day at rehersal it started rattling like crazy so i figured that was it...i'm playing guitar about 38 years so i should of known better two months i woke up finally and thought about changing the tubes...then it dawned on me that the tubes were probably bad from day one as i said it wasn't my main amp so i was never too concerned.i changed the power tubes at a cost of fourteen dollars (el-84's)and replaced the two preamp tubes and now i can't put it down i'm actually trying to figure a way to use it on the larger gigs.they call this a blues amp and thats kind of a misnomer it's designed like an old fender amp so at one time they were all blues amps so i give it a 10 in this category,and as for reliability a 10 also because out of my own stupidity i played this amp for about nine or so years with bad power tubes and it never blew out...

i use a few strats one with texas specials and one with tex mex pickups a gibson 335 all going through a standard boss pedalboard but i enjoy the amp straight i can't get enough of the tone but bear in mind i am 50 years old so my perception of a good tone is going to be differant than that of someone much younger on the average...

i think its very reliable as i said before it lasted for nine or so years at rehearsal with bad tubes...i wouldn't gig with it without a backup for fear of mainly blowing the speaker not the circutry.cause playing loud and clean with an amp of 15 watts through a 10 inch speaker is a little ambitious...

i've delt fender on the web and found them to be very congenial

i would by it again but i think they no longer come with the blue frame speaker...

1998 Black Tolex - 2 white GT EL84's - 2 Chinese 12AX7's - Fender Special Design maroon label speaker - 15 watts - Tone and Volume pots - On/Off switch - jack for speaker. A bare bones special purpose low/medium power amp. Low on features by design.

Guitars: '94 '52 RI Tele, '98 60's RI CIJ Strat, '94 PRS Custom 22, '81 Gibson L5-S - all stock - and a hardtail mongrel walnut Strat with tan EMG's and an 8/58 maple neck. All guitars plugged directly into the amp with no effects. My current method of operation is to crank up the amp and control it from the guitar volume and tone controls.
This amp has a boxy clean sound, and stiff overdriven sound and feel. I attribute those problems to the small size of the cabinet and the ceramic magnet speaker. Maybe if I beat on it for a while, it'll loosen up. Humbuckers smooth it out somewhat.
Its noisy at low volumes. The speaker fights the urge to scream freely at high volumes, it tends to splatter the guitar sound in a manner that's more ugly than musical. I've ordered a Fender blue alnico (like the ones in the Bassman RI, the Vibro King and the original tweed Pro Jr.) from my local dealer, Downtown Sounds in Northampton, MA and a Jensen alnico from Weber VST, hoping that one or the other improves the sound. I've read that alnico is the musical magnet, compressing more and singing more sweetly than ceramic. We'll see. I've also put in new Mesa Boogie EL84's that seem to beef it up a bit.
This amp is not meant to be versatile. It can be connected to an external speaker cabinet, which may solve a lot of its problems.
I'm going to try it with a Cab-Tone, running the output to its internal speaker and to the PA.
I play many styles except for the ones that call for extreme distortion. This Pro Jr. has no clean, sparkling sound. I think this amp, in its current condition, is best suited for funky, sloppy blues where you want that ripped-speaker-cone/worn-out-and-never-replaced-tube sound.

Used it once on the job with both the EMG equipped Strat and the '60's CIJ Strat at full throttle for an entire four hour gig, about 10 times at home practicing at low volume and at one moderate volume band practice. Hasn't broken yet. The inside top of the driver 12AX7 turned from silver to black after the full-throttle gig, but it still seems to work.

No experience with Fender customer support. The information they provide on their website is improving, but it doesn't appear to be a high priority for them. I'm very biased toward the capabilities of the internet, since that's my day job. It concerns me when a company of Fender's stature doesn't take full advantage of the opportunity the internet has to offer. (I will entertain job offers.)

I had high hopes for it, judging from so many positive reviews, but I found this amp to be a reluctant one trick pony. Its clean sounds are thumpy, kind of like a cardboard box (there's a new one for ya) and its cranked sounds don't give my guitar that forgiving feel in my hands when I'm soloing that makes my mouth water. Like the Blues Jr., it uses two EL84's in the power section, which seem to lack sparkle and complexity. I'm hoping the Jensen alnico will brighten it up, let it breathe more and give it more character. It's not strong enough alone for a bar gig and it's too noisy to be a recording amp. It's very unforgiving, but you could get used to it.

1996 tweed tolex, 15 watt, 1X10 gold label Fender Speaker. Very simple...Volume and tone control...1 channel...that's it. If you want more just add an FX unit of some kind. A nice fender reverb tank would have been nice.

Awesome! I play mostly bluesy type rock on a Les Paul and occasionally a Blues Hawk, and this little amp really has the sound, especially with the LP. I'd relate it to an early Fender Vibrolux tone..very similar. Unbelievably warm tones when turned up over 5...clear and articulate notes even when cranked to 12..and it's loud..15 of the biggest watts I've ever heard. From 4 down it's crystal clear. Has absolutely no noise..would be great for recording. If you could overcome the size stigma..I have no doubt that this little amp could be gigged in your average size club..unmiked.

Only had it for a short time..but it's a fender..and they've never let me down.

Never had to deal with them in the 30 years I've been playing fender amps

I've been playing guitar for over 30 years..also have a blackface Bassman..a Crate TD-50c..and have owned Gibson,Ampeg,Marshall,Traynor,Vox,Fender Twin..Vibroverb..and a Deluxe. This little amp has all the tonal quality of the best of them. Undoubedly the best small amp I've ever played. Only things I wish it had is an onboard reverb and an out jack to plug it into a 2X10 cabinet. I understand that when another cab is added the volume goes even higher. I can't imagine ever needing anything more..if I ever go back out to play..I'll mike it if necessary..let them laugh when I set it up..they won't laugh for long. If I ever lost it..I'd buy another..might just buy another anyway. Best $200 I ever spent.