Fender Pro Junior

This is an update to the review below about the broken pot shaft and knobs. Took it to the dealer (Joe's Music, Eastpointe, Michigan); I assumed the repair would be covered under warranty for defective parts. Rob the amp tech said he seriously doubted Fender would cover it as it came under the "broken" category, but if I wanted he would try to make a case and suggested I call Fender and do the same. Bother. Alternative number one was that he could charge me half the bench rate plus parts for the repair (a good deal), OR.. he could replace the pots and the plastic input jack with metal parts, all nutted to the chassis and hardwired to the PCB. They would guarantee the work, and the Fender warranty would still apply to any other non-related problems. I got the amp back 2 hours and $75 later. Good solid work, I'm a happy guy. This is how the amp should have been built in the first place! Now I'm keeping it. Many thanks to Rob and Joe!

I think mine is a Mexican made one from about 2002.
I've had it about a year and 4 months, and I think I'm the 2nd owner.
I mostly play blues and jangly folk-rock sounding stuff for
singing accompaniment.
And mostly at home. So it has more than enough power,
but I like the fact that if I do want to take it to a jam,
it has the power to keep up.
At first, I missed the extra controls, but now, I like the simplicity.
Less knobs to get bumped off the proper setting.
I wish it had come with better tubes, but if it had more features,
it would be more expensive. It's kind of a Volks-amp!
I see the simplicity as being a feature in itself, so I'll give it
an...

I have 2 MIM Standard Strats. One maplenecker with a DiMarzio Virtual
Vintage DP402 neck pickup(loud!) and a Duncan JB Jr. at the bridge, stock middle at the moment, and Hendrix mod.
The other has a rosewood board and has an older iteration of the 57-62
pickups in the neck and bridge positions, and an HS-3 in the middle.
I also have an early '90s Hamer Slammer superstratoid with a normal
Strat bridge, a DiMarzio VirtuAL 2 middle pup in the neck position,
an old Bill Lawrence (real Bill!) split rail in the middle and a stock
humbucker at the bridge.
All three guitars sound great through the Pro Jr. and it suits my blues lead and jangly folk-rock style very well.

When I got the amp used, it had <both> the dreaded hum, AND the
rattle. The hum was solved by a JJ ECC82 in one of the preamp
positions. I use an Electro Harmonix 12AX7, usually in the first
position. If I put the higher gain Electroharmonix first,
I get a more bluesy tone, if I put the JJ ECC82 first, I get
a crisper more country tone. I have tried 2 JJs in the preamp,
but I found the sound too "hi-fi" for my taste.

The rattle was harder to track down!
I tweaked the power tube retainer bracket and springs,
tried removing them, stuffed aluminum rod from a hobby shop in
the springs, still there!
I bought new Sovtek EL84s, still there!
(ironically, the production date on these was a year older
than the stock Sovtek power tubes)
It wasn't until I changed the power tubes to JJ EL84s that it went
away! (and the tone is better too!)
Later I was reading in a Lord Valve newsletter that Sovtek
EL84s from that era (2001-2002 if I remember correctly)
have an inherent flaw that causes plate rattle!
When I go to the local Fender Dealer, I try guitars through
the (brand new) Pro Junior, of course- AND IT HAS THE SAME RATTLE!
DITCH THE SOVTEK EL84s! AND FENDER SHOULD TOO!
A friend has tried EI (Serbian) EL84 tubes in his PJ and likes them too.

BTW, I checked for the top middle screw phenomenon mentioned elsewhere
in the reviews, but mine already had the top middle screw amputated to prevent it. Just out of curiosity, I put a longer screw in,
and sure enough HUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

I recently tried different speakers, and I have to agree
the stock speaker (Eminence?) is very blah.
So far I have tried a Celestion 10 (relabeled Fender 60w, probably a v10) in an external cabinet, and love the tone, but it is not
that responsive. Really growls nice on power chords or boogie rhythms,
though. It also drops the volume of the amp a bit, so I can turn
up the volume and let the tubes work harder for better tone.
I recently swapped the Jensen reissue from my Behringer
Vintager into the Pro Jr., and it is <very> responsive, but just
a little metallic. I'm thinking of buying an Eminence Ragin Cajun
(Patriot series) since it mentions it being very touch sensitive and
responsive, hopefully w/o the metallic quality.
With the Celestion, I can turn the volume up, and above 7, it
doesn't really raise the volume, but really changes the nature
of the sound... this is really the amps overdrive setting,
which I really don't get to use much, so I tend to use various
OD pedals on clean boost. I have used a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver,
a Boss SD-1, stock and with 2 changed capacitors, and a Johnson
TOD-9, also with 2 changed capacitors.
I also tried a Tubeworks (actually Butler with the funny button)
Tube Driver through it at a store, and it gave it a wonderful
dark bluesy sound.
At least in stock condition, it <did not> like Ibanez Tubescreamers,
maybe because it's pairing a midrangey amp with a midrangey pedal.
Stock, this amp is a bit blah, and probably buzzy due to the Sovteks.
You can get a great variety of sounds with tube and speaker swaps,
though. Since it is not a 10 as it comes from the factory,
I will give it an ....

So far I have never had a problem with it,
EXCEPT the hum and tube rattles.

Oh yeah, before I sold my 2 humbucker guitar,
the stock speaker made a short nasty noise for a little bit.
I wouldn't expect the stock speaker to survive very long with
humbuckers.
Because of the noisy Sovteks, and the cheap speaker,
I give it a...

I bought it used, so I have not dealt with them.
One of the reasons I bought it though is because
it is such a common amp, and so there is quite a bit
of support in that respect from other users, and the
amp is well known to amp techs and tube gurus.

I've been playing guitar since 1966. Most of that was acoustic,
although I did have a Fender Mustang and Pro Reverb amp in high school. I had about a 6 year break from playing guitar due to a
finger injury, then realized I could still play nylon string guitars
and electrics strung with lighter gauge strings. I have
been playing electric blues for about 5 years now.
If it were lost or stolen, I would very likely get another one,
although I might replace it with a silverface Champ, which
gets great overdrive, but at lower volumes than the Pro Junior.
I love the PJ's great bang for the buck, the simplicity, the light weight(I have a bad back).
I have a love/hate relationship with how LOUD IT IS!
Not a good choice for late night practicing, so I have
held onto my Behringer GM-110 Vintager for that.
The Behringer also edged out the PJ for the church praise team
gig I did for 2 years cause I didn't have a suitable mic for the PJ
and the church was so small, and the Behringer has a DI out which
made setup easy.
BTW, the Pro Jr. and the Vintager sound excellent together
in stereo chorus with the Vintager on Tweed setting!
For a gig capable tube amp, in it's $200 to $300 dollar price
range, there is really no competition except it's brother
the Blues Junior(used about $300)... oh yeah, maybe a Pignose, but a used one I tried had some scarey problems! I would also consider
a Tech 21 Trademark 10 or 30 as a supplement to the Pro Junior,
and the Trademark 30 as a backup.
If you like the Pro Jr, but want more features, try a Zinky Blue
Velvet- Bruce Zinky designed both amps!(He worked for Fender a while)
The Blue Velvet also has better low volume overdrive,
but is of course quite a bit more expensive
As some have said, the Pro Jr. is a one-trick pony but oh what a trick! Actually that's not totally true, with tube and speaker swaps,
it can do lots of tricks, just not at the push of a button.
I could see keeping a half dozen small speaker cabinets (1x10,1x12,
or 2x10) loaded with different speakers to give it different flavors.
Or a 2nd Pro Jr. with a totally different set of tubes and a different
speaker, and a pan pedal or A/B box connecting them.
Even though I haven't given it higher than an 8 in any category,
this amp is somehow greater than the sum of it's parts,
and so I will give it a ...

I've had the amp about a year. I have a number of vintage and newer tube amps, I'm happy with the tone, lots of volume. Only play in my music room for my own amusement, don't gig.

This is why I'm writing the review. PLASTIC POTS. I baby all my gear. This amp sits, covered, in it's own little protected nook in my music room. It never moves. Normally I never tweak the tone control; tonight I'm practicing, decide on a little more treble, grab the tone control and it came off in my hand. The pot shaft was broken up inside the knob, and the knob had a split right through the middle. The little plastic skirt on the bottom of the knob was cracked off and broken. I pulled off the volume knob, lo and behold, it had also split down the middle. I used to have a Behringer amp, it too had plastic pots that broke; this amp has been well-protected so that this very thing would not occur. Tomorrow it goes back to the music store for repair (under warranty), then it probably goes away. As much as I like this amp, I've had it with the plastic crap.

We'll see.

Would I buy another one? Nope. This is a quality amp in every respect except in this regard. You want to mount pots to a PCB board, at least use metal pots and design it so the pots are nutted to the control panel. How much extra would it cost? Ridiculous. I'm already looking for a replacement, probably something vintage. I always wanted a Fender amp. Now I know better.

Corona USA built 1-97.10"speaker,1volume,1tone.No reverb.15watts.

When I first tried this amp I was a little disapointed in its overall sound quality.Being a C.E.T.,I wanted to see what could be done.The bass was too flubby sounding with no chunk.To tighten up the bass,I changed r-4 to a 2.7k and bypassed it with a.47mf filter.Also do this with r-11.Youll get more dynamics and clarity.This amp also runs too hot with the bias at -10 volts(my amp measured- 8.5 volts).To get longer output tube life and less hum change r-29(15k)to18.k.The bias will be at around -12v.Also the two green filament wires that go to the tube circuit board should be twisted together.Unsolder just one wire and give them about one twist per inch ,resolder.Hum will be lowered.Also add a standy switch between the bridge and the main filter caps.The tubes will last longer because they wont be shocked every time at turn on.(They should have the 6.3vfilaments on for at least 20 seconds before appling main b+ voltage of around 330v on this amp). I did these changes ,greatly improved little amp!

Ill take this guy anywhere now!I also have a celestion speaker(v10-60)loaded in it.

I got this amp on a trade.So I didnt get to mail in a card.

I also have a 64 fender deluxe(no reverb)A 71 fender pro reverb, fender m-80 and mesa boogie studio preamp.They all have minor tweaks done to them.I like the pro jr because of its tweed style circuit and small size big sound.

i'm not sure what year was my amp made, but definitely made in usa. easy to use, only 1 volume & 1 tone knob, easy to change tubes from the back! if it features a built-in reverb, it would be perfect!

i'm usually using a gibson es-175 (1997) & an ibanez af-120 for hollow body jazz sounds! i do also plugged in my les pauls & steinberger gl4t & gl2t to test it! all i can say is, the sound comes out extremely jazzy & bluesy! it delievers the warmth nicely out from the stock 1x10" speaker.

i don't see there will be any problem as long as the amp is not being abused. one problem that i have is, the stock 12AX7 tubes (2 of them) are extremely noisy! i spent a few bucks to purchase new tubes from eurotubes.com & now it is cool!

i never called for customer support for any product at all...so far!

i'll definitely buy another one (u.s. made) if my current one is stolen or broken down by my dog. i love the sound, the compact size, and the way it looked too! 15W is loud enough at home or pub gigs, easy to crank up for home recording. i don't know when will i have a chance to turn on my other amps now since this amp works great at home for practice & recording...! dollar to dollar, i still rate it 10 points eventhough it's not perfect!

... No features, it's OK for me !

The "Fender" sound...!

I own it for 1 year now, numerous of gigs in bars and small cafes... it works fine and is loud enought for the situations.

Never had to deal with Fender... since my first amp, a Super Reverb, back in 1964.

I'm playing since 1961, ''Live'' since 1964. I own a Fender Performer 1000, a Laney 65 watts electro-acoustic amp & a Jim Reed 28 watts Class A. My guitars are : Cort Earth 100 electro, DeArmond Jazzbox X-135, Fender Strato RI-57, Fender Strato Highway 1, Fender Tele Lite Ash, Jim Reed Tele Thinline, Jim Reed Tele Ash with P-90 pickup on neck position.
If lost of stolen, I'll buy another one !
Only thing I wish it had is a tremolo like on the Vibro Champ.

single channel 15 watt tube amp
10" speaker
1 volume
1 tone
use this amp for gigs,place behind me on and tilt back amp stand,loud enough for most bars,my amp stand has a goose neck attached for a sm57 if needed

i play a strat,tele custom 2,semihollow body Ibanez talman tm71JBT,SG
this amp is perfect,both guitarist in the band play these.I've had musicians come up to after a set and they couldn't believe these are all we are using.excellent tube tone,usually keep it at about 5 or 6.

if you buy this amp replace all the tubes with quality tubes.you will notice an improvement right away.keep the originals as back ups.other than that i have never had a problem.just be careful when you remove the power cord that you dont disturb the tubes

whatever

playing longer than not playing.i will buy another.the only thing it needs is a 12 inch speaker

This is a single channel amp with one volume and one tone control. If the sound is good, features are less necessary. It may be a bit much to ask for such an inexpensive and great sounding amp, but an extension speaker jack would be very cool. Basically this is an anti-feature amp, which is a feature in itself. I can not rate it very highly, though.

I have used this amp with my Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters, and all I can say is that the sound is absolutely spectacular. With the volume set at 8 and the tone at 12, I get this creamy, violin-like sound. I do find that it hums quite a bit. Stage crew and other musicians have asked if something was wrong with the amp. I generally keep the guitar volume down when I am not playing. Okay. The bad news is that although I can get that cool Ron Wood with the Small Faces distortion out of a P-90 equipped Les Paul Special (the hum is still really bad), I cannot turn the amp volume past 6. In fact any P-90 or humbucking equipped guitar I plugged into it sounded like mud at volume levels above 6. I have tried many different 12AX7 tubes to no avail. I get mud. Through the course of my experimenting I discovered that eI el84 power tubes make this amp sound even louder and more amazing with single-coil pickup guitars.
I do not get much treble out of the amp, but it sounds great, anyway. I typically run it with tone cranked to 12. In spite of everything preceeding, I really love this amp. I played a blues gig the first time out with it, and the crew snickered while they were miking it up and sound testing it. We hit the opening shuffle with me using the volume on my Telecaster to manage the volume and distortion. When I opened it up for the solo, this little monster, brought the audience to their feet. It flat out rocked. This amp makes me play better. It has so much soul and muscle that I must overlook its few idoisynchracies. For what it does, this is the perfect amp for me.

I blew the speaker after about 2 years. I was running a Korg multi-effects unit, and cranking the volume way up. It should not have blown, considering the speakers rating and the power output from this amp, but I accepted it and replaced the speaker with a Celestion 10". At max excursion the Celestion compresses and distorts in a more musical way than the stock Fender Eminence speaker did. But this is splitting hairs. Both sound great. While changing tubes, I note that the preamp tubes get loose after a while. Also since there are no retainers for these tubes, some tubes are more loose than others. I am currently using Ruby preamp tubes without any problems. The power tubes are retained by the most hokey setup I have ever encountered. There really are no spring retainers at the chasssis, so Fender just laces the spring into the hole, and I just cross my fingers and hope it stays there. One of the springs slipped out when I was changing power tubes and I had a very difficult time getting it back in. My Pro Junior leads a pretty tough life, but so far nothing else has gone wrong. I have had it nearly 10 years, and the jacks and pots are still in decent shape. But I know I am dancing with the devil on this. An amp with so many potential points of failure has to go wrong eventually. Doesn't it? Not yet. For the money, it has been more reliable that a few Marshals and Peaveys I have contended with.

I called them about the blown speaker only to discover that it was out of warantee. Fender wanted a Bazillion dollars for a hinky Eminence 12" speaker (that I had already blown once). I got on-line and ordered a Celestion 10" about 8 years ago. No a peep since. What can I say? My Tech is Fender authorized, so I rarely need to call anybody else.

I have been playing the Blues for 30 years, and I own all kinds of gear, including a Pre-CBS Deluxe Reverb, A Twin Reverb, A Pro Reverb, A Marshal JMP 50, an Ampeg V4, and so on. The Pro Junior is my favorite amplifier for tone, simplicity, and the fire that it can breath, in the right hands. This amp defines my sound nearly as much as my hands do. This amp is a tone machine tour-de-force. There is none better I have found for the money.

The absolute basics amp. Volume and treble controls only and one input.
It's all the feature I want from amp.
I use it for recording, rehearsals and medium sized gigs. 15 Watts might not sound like much but this amp has plenty of cut through to cope when playing with people using much stronger amps.

I've had many amps of many makers but this one I like the best for it's tone. It's got a great spark and tone is fat (I don't mean bassy).
Cuts through almost anything without having nasty midrangey sound to it. Startrs breaking up at 4 so if you like very clean sound, this amp is not for gigs so get something stronger. Going to 7 or so gives enough nice sustain for leads.
It is very easy to mike up for recording, most mike possitions sound good. It also takes effect pedals very well which makes it good recording amp.

Here is where it has it shortcomings and I'm sure I can also speak for all the people I played who had this amp because for some of them I've been doing repairs on this amp (I'm an el. techician).
I've never seen one of these amp break down completely which is a very good thing and this should deserve rating of 10 however reliablility means more than just having the amp working.
It is cheaply made and there are two main problems because of that.
One is the input socket. It is soldered directly on PCB and often the solder cracks and needs to be resoldered.
The other is noise, hum and rattle and is usually caused by preamp tubes. The chassis is made of rediciously thin sheet metal which vibrates like crazy along with the speaker movement. You got rattle so you put new tubes in, it's ok for day or so and than it starts again. That's because the tubes get loose inside, simple as that.
For few extra Dollars they could have made the chassis stronger and I've never come across amp chassis sheet metal that thin. It is disappointing and not much can be done about it.
I always have to swap preamp tubes for recording so it's quiet and so do other people how ever the tube sockets are also soldered directly on PCB and if you're not carefull these sockets can also come loose from the PCB when swapping tubes too often.
I have to give it low rating because having problems like this even though the amp generaly works is not reliability.
One small thing - the new amp had a loose grill cloth, the toles started to peel of in corners after few months. How sloppy for a Fender product!

Just for curiosity I rang Fender Australia regarding rattles and hiss. They told me they never heard of this problem. I guess they don't read reviews here.

Great sounding amp, internals are extremely cheaply build, cabinet is good and strong. Value for money? Sound 10, build quality 2.

1 Volume, 1 Tone. everywhere says how tis got "clean to drive" volume control but it hoguht i'd acyually explain it for anyone who wants abit more detial. lable 1 to 12, at a 0.5 the voluem level is right for jaming with CDs ect. at 5 its LOUD and the distortion starts to kick in, at 8 onwards the veolume dosnt increase too much but the distortion will. the tone knob may seem silly buit its great, unlike tone knobs on pedals and guitar it dosnt jsut muffle the sound, no m,atter where the tone knob is u get a crisp clear sound, its more for use if ur ears r hurting and u want to cut the trebble. i'm not sure how to rate the features, the amp dosnt have onboard digital effects or an EQ or effects loop, but i dont want or need any of this, its got what it needs... so i guess its almost perfect

i use a gibson invader lespaul with it and it and mainly play blues but also play anything else (metal, funk, country). its to hard to describe a sound, its cristle clear even if u turn ur guitar volume down. what is great is ahving the amp distorted and useing the volume on ur guitar to clean up the signal perfectly. one thing i shoudl mention as others have, i think, is the hum. if u playing quitely (volume at a 0.5) then u'll notice it and maby get annoyed with it but they dont put a range of 12 on a knob so its at 0.5 all the time! aprently changiung the tubes gets rid of the hum, also when i'm playing loudly 3 or 4 onwards something in the amp is reverbirating, not a big deal, nothing a wedge or paper or tightening of a screw wont fix.

i havnt owned it that long but it seems pritty reliable, i'm not impressed with the knobs and input jack though.... plastic!! cheap!!, but to be fare, its one of the cheapest valve a,ps u'll find, plus when they eventaly giv way i'll jus replace them with solid quality replacments.

i havent spoken to fender but i was impressed with the shcematic and PCB diagram included with the amp making it much easyer to self service. (plus replacing the cheap plastic pots)

A good amp, heavyer to carry than i expected 14kg, walking any further than 15 minits with it is something i dont want to expirence again. a quality amp with a little room for improvement... replaced pots and jack (maby Valves) and u've got somehting to last a life time and never want to loose. basicly: if it weighted 5kg less, the pots and jack were metal and there wasnt a hum, the amp would actually be perfect, too good to be true... i just have to work out a way to drop 5kg...