Fender Pro Junior

... 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...

d one below..

this is jus an update for pro junior..i had this amp for one week only and it starts to rattle..i went to the store and askd em to repair it but unfortuntely dey dont know how..so wat dey did dey gave a new one still in d box..if it rattles again il try to change the tubes as eveyrone is suggesting to do..im kina disapointed but dats wat u shud expct if the amp is not dat expsnive..sound still amazes me excpt wen it comes to reliablty

the amp is made in mexico,2004.for my own opinion the only knobs i need are the ones in pro junior..simple but it gives u d best sound ever..make sure u av good guitar leads..as i notcie dat it produces not good sound if u use cheap ones...it only av 1 chanel..volme and tone..i jus bought this amp but i tink it can be gig

well i tried the first pro junior in allans..and it prodcs dis sound even if its still..den i tried it on a differnt store and its really quiet..and when i checkd d back its differnt frm d one in d city..i really love d sound dis amp producs

i dont know i jus bought it last monday

never dealt with em

iv been playing for 5 years..dis is my first tube amp..and im staistfied wth it..if it got stolen i will buy one..its my amp!!!!i chose dis amp cos of its simplicity..like wen on d stage u jus wana play and do ur ting..d best amp ever..i dont hate anyting bout dis skool..totally love it

Little to add to the comments of the others besides:
The amps starts to sound great with volume at 3.5 and that is definitily too loud when you practice in a thin-walled neigbourhood. So I use a (selfmade) powersoak with controllable line-level output instead of the the speakers.
Then i feed the lineout into a fender twin-reverb with volume at 2.5 which is a lot less than the cranked pro.
Practically i use the pro as a distortion unit - I swear the best you ever played if you love to control the amount of distortion with your fingers or your guitar volume!

the build quality is poor. the internal board starts to rattle on all pros i heard.

Tip: open the cabinet and remove the screwes that hold the board. fix the board with tie wrap and sit it on a foammat.

If your are not sure what I?m talking about leave it to a experienced guitar tech

I?m playing for 30 years now, mostly blues rock.

I would buy the amp definitly again

Bought new in 2005. 15 class A watts, 4 tubes, 2 knobs and 1 10 inch speaker. Tubes and speaker were immediately swapped out for JJ's EL84s and ECC803s and for a Celestion Tube 10. $90 of upgrades that double the amps value in my mind. I chose this amp because it is simple and replicates your guitar's tone with great transparency. Don't buy this amp and down it for a lack of features; that's not the point. Versatility, here, comes from the ability to swap tubes.

I plug my Fender Highway 1 Strat directly into this amp w/Monster rock cables. I achieve a raw, beautiful tone that sings whether you're playing rhythm or lead. The sound is full and perfectly balanced. I know that I'm not using the most expensive pieces of equipment here, but they are quality pieces. And that's the sound I'm getting... quality. I play w/the volume relatively low; set at 4 (remember this is a class A tube amp; very loud), and the tone set at 7. I keep the tone on my strat rather low because I find that raising the tone on the amp causes it to break up faster and at lower volumes. Now that I've found a quality clean sound I'm simply going to put a good distortion pedal in front of it. This is an excellent rock amp... it's very raw and edgy.

Prior to the tube and speaker changes the sound was not as articulate or balanced. I'd say it was muffled and bassy. Stock, I'd give this amp a 7.

I have also driven a friends cheap Marshall 4x12 MG cabinet w/this amp. I can't really tell much about this, however, because the speakers in that cab are so cheap. From what I could tell, the amp should have no problem pushing that number of speakers though.

Original speaker popped w/the volume at 8 and up when using a thick sounding SG. No problems with my Strat.

I've been playing for 8 years and have owned many cheap guitars and amps. I sold everything, lost thousands, and bought my current gear. The Pro Junior, Highway 1 Strat and a Martin D-1 acoustic. If stolen, I'd definetly buy another. I love simplicity and tone.

Not too many features on this amp. Volume and Tone. That is what you expect for an amp this size. All tube powered by dual EL84's give a full sound. 10" speaker sounds so full. Unlike other small solid state amps, this one has some bight and fills the room with sound. I give it an 8 becuase you cannot adjust the EQ. Seems to be missing a lot of mid frequencies but when the tone is cranked all the way, the amp breaks up nicely and more highs come out making it sound quite nice.

I primarily use a fender tele and a gibson les paul through some small effects such as tube screamer and some delay. Amp may be a little noisy but mine may need some new preamp tubes to fix that.

I kind of question the reliability on this thing. Just like any other newer Fender input jack, it is plastic and will break in the future. Also, since this amp is on a small scale, the pot's have plastic shafts and are mounted to the circuit board. They aren't screwed to the chassis first and then wire to the board or whatever. So the shafts could break easily if stressed too much. Everything else seams to be quite sturdy such as cabintet, blonde tolex, leather handle, etc.

Never dealt with them

For its use as a little practice amp and an amp to play at home, (my class A TopHat is a little loud for home) I must say I am really pleased with it. Sounds nice a clean but can get dirty. I don't move it around too much so i don't worrying about the pot's and input jack too much which really give me comfort.

My PRO JUNIOR is black tolex 2002 made in Corona Calif.
The versatility of the amp is limited, but don't get me wrong.
It's a one trick pony in that it gets a great Classic Rock Blues tone. It's so simple, and the tone is so pure, which is the best thing about this amp. To get the most out of the Pro Jr. you have to be a player that uses their volume knob to regulate the amount of gain in your tone and play with dynamic in your hands not in your boxes or rely on channel switching. There's a place for channel switching amps.. I own a 1999 Tweed HOtRod Deluxe, which is technically more versatile than the Pro Jr. but I would take the Pro tone over the Hot Rod Deluxe any day.
Only Volume and tone, but in this case, less is, Indeed, more!
I always thought you HAD to have treble, middle bass, reverb to get tone. This amp showed me I was wrong. One volume, one tone is all you need. It's the first amp that showed me you do not need reverb.
The Pro JR is in different league than the Blues JR., which to me is over designed. Amazing power for 15 watts.
I play full throttle, open E slide guitar, so I always want a classic, throaty, glassy, distorted tone, and look for in an amp that responds to my dynamics with a touch of my volume knob. The Pro does this job so well.
I read alot of people complaining about the stock speaker and tubes but all I heard was TONE, TONE, TONE right out of the store.
I did replace the power tubes with JJ's but only after three years of playing. As far as the speakers: I A/B'd with various 10" & 12" Eminence & Celestions,including greenback and Red Fang in combination with different cabinets and always came back to the stock 10"Eminence.
I kid you not! Yeah you might not get the full bottom bass, but if you want a great sounding overdrive amp in small clubs & portability, or for recording the Pro is one of the best out there.

I play Blues rock slide guitar. I strive for Duane, Dicky Fillmore East Tone in my over Drive and sparkly, classic fender Jangle in my clean tone. The Pro Junior has both but you have to crank the amp and use your guitar volume knob to go from clean to distorted. I set the Pro Volume at 6-7 and tone full up to 12.
This amp is a chameleon in that if you turn your guitar volume down, it sounds like classic black face fender all jangly and sweet, but turn up your volume and it's like a small Marshall JTM 45. Much more pronouced mids than say when cranking a fender black face deluxe.
It works great both with my 1999 Gibson Les Paul DC and my custom made telecaster. I can get a nice controlled feedback with the Les Paul in the right room and at the right angle of amp
Been playing the amp for 3 years now in many different places:
At house jams with drummer and bass player (too loud sometimes
and onstage at open jams and with my band in various size venues.
I play out in bars and various small to mid size stages with my band and the Pro produces all the volume I need. However, at open mic jams where I have to complete with 2-4 other guitarists onstage, only then is Pro sa little too underpowered: Switching to my 12" greenback and speaker cabinet help get a bit more volume, but better yet, I use my Fulltone OCD pedal (which adds 30db to my volume) with my ProJR ,..then I can play anywhere..Seriously.

I have only had one problem with the Pro Junior:
The input jack is cheap, made out of plastic and the plastic rim wore away making a bad jack connection that would crackle when I plugged it it..
I brought to the store I bought at in Vermont, and since it was under warranty they said they would fix it or they could order a new input jack and I could put it in.
I ended up doing it myself which wasn't to hard for me..(I'm handy with a soldering iron.) When I got the new jack, I opened up the amp and soldered jack into place. It was a little tricky holding the pc board back, but the amp went right back together. One exception,.. only the nut fit back on..it was too tight for the washer & nut to fit back together.
Amps been working like new since. Too bad Fender couldn;t spend a bit more money for quality aon such a great sounding amp.
I usually bring my back up Pro Junior to gigs just in case
(I own a limited addition Woody Pro.)

5 Year warranty. I hope nothing more goes wrong.
My store is an authorized Fender Dealer and they always are ready to help me.

I've been playing over 27 years and owned and played many types of amps.
I own everything from a '51 Gibson Sky Lark to a 1962 Fender Princeton and 68 Bassman amps, Hot Rodded by Trey "Phish" Anastasio' amp tech extrodinaire Bill Carruth, over haulled with Mecury Magnetics and Allen input and power transformers, NOS Tubes National Union 6v6 tubes,Black and silver RCA, 12ay7, tubes, JJ El34 bla, bla bla...and I'm the first to addmit that the Pro Junior gave me a tone whip lash!!
I'm an addmitted tube amp snob and the Pro Junior is the first cheap, mass produced amp that made me get off my high horse and admit that
it doesn't have to cost thousand of dollars to be amazing.
I have been on a quest to find a great sounding portable amp for over 15 years. It had to be light compact and sound great. Somthing I could
take to gigs without a car. Something I could just run up onstage with
if I was sitting in quick with the band.
Well, the Pro Junior is it. In my opinion, there is a lot of snobbery out there. I know, I was one of them. If people would just listen with their ears instead of their eyes you might find some great gems out there. I would buy the ProJR. again in a heart beat. In Fact, I own two Black tolex and the Woody and I'm now looking to find all
styles, white and tweed. Can't wait to run all 4 together onstage!!!
See you all on eBay!!!

This is a very simple amp. It has one tone control, a volume control and an on/off switch. Also, the internal speaker is hooked up to a 1/4" plug, so you can use it with another 8 ohm cabinet. I hate amps that have too many knobs, so I liked the simplicity of this one.

Don't fear the stock speaker. Mine has a brown label ceramic Eminence "v1030." It is a bright, "chimey" speaker and sounds good in this combo.

I use the amp with a p-90 equipped hollow body. I think it would sound great with any single coil guitar. I play jazz and blues, so the amp suits me well. It sounds like a vintage tweed amp. Also, the sound is very loud and distorts above about half way on the volume knob.

I tried swapping tubes, but that turned out to be a mistake. My amp hums like crazy with any pre-amp tube except the stock Chinese made 12ax7's.

The amp seems well made, except the tubes are mounted to a circuit board, and I hate when manufacturers do that. If Peavey can build a nice litte tweed amp with the tubes mounted to the chassis, fender should be able to do the same. Having said that, the tubes are at least above the chassis (not sunk down through it), and the board they are attached to is a separate board that is securely mounted. So the construction is still better than what you would find in a Marshall combo, based on my experience.

I've never tried contacting Fender, and I have no idea how one would go about doing that. If you need help, I'd try where you are looking now (harmonyj-central) and the "Fender Forum." There is a lot of good information in both places.

I like this amp a lot. It sounds great, seems fairly well made, and is light weight to carry. If you want to go play over a friend's house, or practice in the bedroom, then this type of amp is perfect. I'm not sure I would go on the road and gig with it, but I'm not planning to do that anytime soon. I also think the Fender vintage series amps are better (i.e. the Deluxe Reverb, Bassman, Twin, etc.), but the Pro is a heck of a lot less expensive and much more portable. So its a keeper.

VERY IMPORTANT!!!
This is just a follow up to a review I did on 5/3/05, I left out a very important tip to those who would own a Pro Jr. new or old. Two out of three of these amps will sound EXTREMELY NOISY! This is not normal for this amp, but rather a flaw in the design of the back panel attached to the chasis. The middle screw is to long and actually touches one the the pots causing a short. Simply take the top middle cabnet screw out and the noise GOES AWAY!

Volume and tone controls. THAT'S ALL YOU NEED!

It sounds brilliant with my strat, sg, and les paul.
It produces superb bell like clean tones.
Crank it up to 4 and you get a beefy powerchord crunch.
Crank up to 7 and you get even more crunch (very marshall like). Wack it up to 12 and you get a compressed warm fuzz.
You can get jazz, funk, blues rock etc. out of this amazing amp.

Had it 2 months and I've cranked it up 10 million times, it sounds as good as new, still the same valves/tubes.

This amp doesn't need one, its too simple and reliable.

Get one if you want an amp for under #300.

After a well known "boutique" and very expensive amplifier with all kinds of circuitry started smoking then literally blew up on stage on me (still under warranty, luckily) I set out to find a simple club amp with great tone and found one, a slighty used tweed pro jr. with one excellent feature, "NO FEATURES"! I Iike the fact that it just has a volume and tone control, this is it's greatest feature!

I use Strats and Teles exclusively and this amp sounds great with both, I did however, add a jensen neo-100 10 in. speaker for MAJOR headroom. Makes a big diffrence! Works great for all styles and sounds really Marshally when cranked, Excellent!

I have not owned it long enough to submit an opinion, but i've done 12 grueling 4 hr. party gigs with no problems.

Probably not a big suprise, but i've owned a lot of Fender amps over the years and still have yet to deal with their customer support.

I've been a party band musician for going on 25 years now, and it's a relief to own an amp thats easy to carry, plenty loud, and simple enough to trust it. For reverb, I just plug in my Electro Harmonix Holy Grail and I'm set. If it was stolen, I could buy another used one with pocket change and THATS WAY COOL!

Just bought new in box, so probably built in 2003 in Mexico. Features have been covered a few hundreds time below. But one feature that I really like and use with the Pro Junior is that its own speaker is connected into a standard speaker jack. This is very hidden -- you have to turn it upside down in the back. But once you see it, you can easily enough pull it out to plug in another cab. This little feature convinced me this was the was to go, since I just wanted a very clean low-watt 'head' amp to go into my speaker cab for home playing.

I'm only giving this a seven, since the features are so spare. But I really wanted a pure and simple amp.

I only play at home, and this is my clean amp, and should be a really nice complement to my 'dirty' amp - the Zvex Nano Head. (Best amp I've heard for overdriven sounds.)

The cleans sound great. Not as great, IMO, as Deluxe Reverb or the Dr. Z amps I've heard. Probably better than the Peavey Delta Blues I had. The cleans sounds very good with the combo speaker, and great with my 2x12 cab, which has Celestion V30 and G12H30 speakers.

The other thing I'm very pleased with is how the Pro Junior makes my digital MagicStomp modulation settings sound warmer and more musical. I am VERY HAPPY with how my metal monster Warp Factor sounds with this guy!

I imagine I'd like a little more bass thump with the Pro Junior, but I haven't tried using my pedal EQs to compensate yet.

I cranked the Pro Junior into a cab at Guitar Center, and it sounded wonderful, but very loud. Haven't tried that at home yet, gotta' wait till everyone else is out of the house :)

Made in Mexico, huh? So far, nothing feels substandard about it. I haven't heard the bad hiss problems reported elsewhere here. It looks, feels, and sounds solid so far.

Don't know. Hope I don't have to know.

Ideally, I would have preferred the same package with a 6L6 tube. There IS something about Fender cleans that can't be beat for this price range.

My amp is a 1994 Tweed covered PJ bought in Hong Kong with the ceramic speaker. The amp itself has a ply cabinet, single ten inch speaker, two 12AX7 valves, two EL84 valves, volume, tone, solid state rectifier, 8 ohm speaker output, light and a power switch.

The power amp is a class A/B design that kicks out about 15 watts. The preamp has two gain stages using the first 12AX7. The second 12AX7 acts as a phase inverter for the power amp. The circuit itself is a pretty simple design and is very tweed Fender like.

As you can tell this amp has few features to speak of.

I guess that a lot of peoples disappointment with this amp is that it doesn't have a typical Fender clean sound. By that I mean a very clean full blackface sound typical of the 1960s amplifiers. This is down to the circuit and valves. What sound this amp does offer is more of a 1950's Fender sound. The amp isn't super clean at lower gain settings and quickly starts to break up a third of the way up. Past half way and all the tubes are clipping a great deal and it only gets dirtier.

This amp is primarily suited to blues or rock'n'roll. It doesn't have the kind of gain needed for metal and isn't clean enough for Jazz at anything but the lowest volumes.

The sound does have a great deal of dynamic range with very little compression coming from the valves or the speakers. So the dynamics of your picking do vary the volume and break up a lot. It is easy to sound quite brash and sloppy with this amp if you don't have control over your dynamics. Certain notes jump out when other uncleanly picked notes keep quiet. I'm not sure if replacing the solid state rectifier would give the amp some compression and sag as this type of mod isn't easily achieved. Replacing the rectifier with a valve based unit requires replacement of the power transformer.

The small size of this open backed combo directly influences the sound making it boxy in nature. Small combo's just cannot sound big like a large cabinet. There is plenty of power coming from the amp to power a larger set of speakers. I myself am waiting for a Tweed Twin type pine cabinet to hold the power amp, I'll post the difference in tone as and when I can.

The circuit can be quite noisy. Particular problems are with AC hum. Having a decent set of preamp tubes can make some difference. My amp is loaded with Electro Harmonix 12AX7's and JJ EL84's. It is still quite noisey though by modern standards. A newer model PJ I tried out in my local guitar shop had a lower noise level. I suspect that aging capacitors are causing the extra noise in my amp.

In my humble opinion the amp sounds good. It has bags of real power amp distortion on tap if your ears can stand the volume levels. To achieve a nice level of overdrive within an apartment or terraced house you won't make many friends.

The construction isn't the best. Nowadays we have a plethora of well built point to point low watt valve amps to choose from. The PJ is a mass produced amp with PCB electronics. The valves are mounted on a PCB board too.

I have had to re solder the input jack once thanks to a dry joint and today I have experienced a horrid crackling staticy sound when the amp was turned right up. After reseating the power amp valves the problem went.

Doesn't sound too rosey but that's all the problems I have had in ten years of ownership.

No idea

I bought this amp because back in 1994 there just any other small valve amps available. Since then I have grown very found of it but realistically I would not buy one again. I would choose from the numerous small class a boutique amps that exist. This would no doubt cost me much more though than I paid for the PJ.

It's cheap, loud, bluesy and reasnobly reliable. If you have the extra cash buy something better.

This is a bare-bones two-knob (vol, tone) number w/ 2 EL84s (very un-Fender-y) for power. 1 x 10" speaker; printed circuit; light and easy to handle. If you need channel-switching, etc., get osmething else or use effects.

It's a total surprise of an amp -- this thing sounds great! It can be run clean and chime-y or overdriven to an impressive roar. Its performance is in utter contrast to expectations... a true little giant. AS many reviewers have noted, you need to ditch the complete crap tubes that come stock, as they are microphonic, noisy, and harsh, and since the lousy stock speaker (Eminence, I'm told, though I don't know for sure) will blow (literally and figuratively) you should definitely go for one of the vintage reissue Jensen's (bell cover won't fit; leave it off) and the result will be incredible! I have a whole bunch of boutique amps, including Champ-types (Top Hat)and though I am tempted to ditch the Pro-J to show off something spiffier, the little guy just cannot be put down. I have some good tubes in mine -- JJ EL84s (the best new tubes) -- and the sucker rules. At 15 watts, it's surprisingly loud and I've used in in mid-sized venues just fine. Really cuts. And the 10" has surprising bottom -- not tons of bass, but the Jensen does not get floppy (it's tight) and there seems to be plenty of power to drive the low end without letting the treble get shrill. Gotta love the junior. As other have noted, it sounds much better than its tempting "next size up" brethren. Leave your ego aside and let the little guy rock.

Gotta say that the original tubes and speaker suck. My speaker blew early on, despite never being really pushed, and the original tubes were utterly horrible -- sounded bad to begin with, lots of extra noise, etc. I assune Fender just threw in ultra-cheapies, unfortunately detracting from a great amp in order to pinch a few pennies. But heck -- the amp is a bargain, and even with the upgrades it's still a great, great deal. Once the tubes and speaker were swapped, the thing has run perfectly.

Fender? They'll honor their warranty; it's a huge corporation, so your treatment depends on your dealer. I didn't get any of my work done under warranty because I didn't want to replace the blown crap speaker with a new crap speaker.

This amp's a keeper, period. As I say, there's a lot of fancier stuff out there, but this guy's a versatile workhorse. It is a deal and a half. Also, there have been some cute options produced, like my white tolex version, that have visual appeal definitely lacking in the cheap-looking black version or fakey-vionatge tweed, if you can fine 'em.

Tweed blue frame speaker v/t control class A amp no buzzing as in other reviews.

Sounds good with S or H Pickups and has a nice chime in clean 1-5 starts to distort after that.Can use for any style . If it dosn't have enough highs in distort mode use a treble boost.(this is like a small AC30 if you need an edge to your sound a slight boost wiil make a huge difference.) This amp wasn't made for brutal distortion or a ton of bass it's only 1 10" speaker. Sounds great for what it is.

IT's one of the first one made from what I can tell and has the original tubes so it couldn't have been use that much. It works great for me but being that it's Class A it probably burns through power tubes a lot quicker than Class AB amps.(EL84 aren't a big money item)

I've ben playing for 30+ yrs.I've got 3 marshall (69 100 trem 2 77 JMP 50 ) 4 fender ( showmen ,pro ,bassman, princeton reverb) a kittyhawk M5 misc Vox ect. One of the best value I've ever seen even at new prices ,most Class A 15 watt amps will cost you at least twice as much.

1994 Tweed MIA Pro Junior. It came with the brown Eminence speaker. This is a single channel, EL84, 15 Watt amp with just a volume and tone knob. Lots of folks tend to go with the Blues Jr. because all the extra features(MV, reverb), but this is just perfect. There is too much power for a bedroom/apartment amp and more than enough for gigs. The simplicity of this thing is beautiful.
The real reason I picked this up is that I gig often enough in NYC where lugging a big amp around is a problem. The weight and size of this thing is very nice for those of us with bad backs. I can go jam and throw this thing in the car or hop on the bus or subway with no real problems.

First thing I did was get rid of those noisy crap tubes it came with. It hummed and rattled like crazy. Had some balanced JJ EL84s and tried a pair of JJ's ECC83s tubes. Bob at Eurotubes recommended a balanced tube for the phase inverter slot. These knocked away the hum and some of the rattle. Took it apart and hand tightened every screw and it help quite a bit. Eventually I put an NOS tube in the V! slot and it absolutely crushes.
The Eminince speaker was not bad, but I felt like it got a little flakey at higher volumes. I found a Weber 10A125 for a song on ebay, took off the magnet cover in order to make it fit and have never looked back. I found the ten inch speaker,in general, a little boxy initially, but my ears adjusted to it and I found it to sound quite nice with my Holy Grail in front of it.
I basically play rock, roots rock in the style of Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, Wilco and fool around with jazz from time to time. My main guitars are a 2000 G&L ASAT Special, an Ibanez AS180, and a 1991 MIM Strat. I usually run a fair amount of effects through my amps, but I've just been running a London Fuzz (Ge) and Holy Grail. I can coasx any type of rock sound I need out of this. At about halfway on both the volume and tone, this thing is too loud for my house. I can get Neil Young craziness out of it.
Here's the kicker. Try this thing through an extension cab. I have a 2x12 loaded with Reverend Alltones and its unbelieveable how loud it feels. I have used this for small clubs and will use it again. It will cut....just need to raise it off the ground.

The guitar input has been a little dodgey, but its given me no major problems. I've used it without a backup live and haven't had a problem. I will probably do so in the future for more NYC gigs.

I bought this used and wouldn't contact them anyway.

Been playing about 20 years. I've owned a fair amount of amps in my life. Basically, I got rid of a RI AC15 and replaced it with this. Frankly, I like this better. Shoot me. My other amp is a Reverend Hellhound 40/60 cmbo and I am getting a SF Deluxe Reverb.
If you are looking for a small portable affordable tube amp, give this amp a shot. The Blues Jr. is a nice amp and there are a ton of mods available for that, but with the PJ, just change the stock tubes and you have a very good sounding amp.

The Pro Junior is a very simple valve amplifier ala Fender vintage Tweed Champs. I purcharsed it exactly one month ago and it was made in Mexico eariler this year (2004).

Very basic layout - single channel 1x10" combo with tone and volume controls. Features 2 EL-84 and 2 12AX7 valves, line out (just unplug the speaker in the combo's cabinet), vintage cabinet / interface design.

I appreciate the simplicity of this amp - that's its beauty! Raw, powerful, beautiful tone. However, an effects loop would have been nice for time and modulation effects. I like to use reverb and octave pedals and while they sound good through the input, I know from my other, effects loop-equipped Fender amp (1987 Fender Deluxe 85 solid state) that they sound better through the loop.

Amp has plenty of power - clean tones don't require as much volume as overdriven tones to cut through. This amp really shines with clean tones, but the overdriven tones are brilliant. Just turn it up (like my old Squier Champ 15G dodgy practice amp!!! Not a flattering comparison, I know... I was merely referring to the controls, not the tonal quality...). Ahh... simplicity!!!

I play a variety of music - grunge and stoner rock, blues, classic rock, some fusion and some 80s metal. I use two Strats - one is a 2003 American Standard Strat and the other is a Squier Strat that I have rewired with custom pickup switching and tone controls (see Fender's Mr. Gearhead website for some great schematics on how to trick up your Strat - but don't wreck your 'Number One' guitar!!!).

I thought I had a pretty good tone with my old Deluxe 85. My friends loved it and are now clamouring to get a hold of it - no way! The Pro Junior does the clean thing just as well, but differently. Whereas the 85 has a very modern, but toneful sound, the Pro Junior sounds like a little Bassman or Vibroverb... has that lovely warm Fender valve amp tone.

Overdriven, the amp is brilliant - SRV, AC/DC, Zeppelin, Hendrix (with FZ-3 and wah) like tones are accessible depending on how you use the tone and volume controls on the amp and the tone and volume controls on your guitar. It's a marked change from the Deluxe 85 - it has so many knobs... but most setting are useles and only one or two are good. Fender seems to have captured the one or two good ones in this amp and so the lack of knobs is not really a pitfall at all, but a blessing! The two advantages the Deluxe 85 has over the Pro Junior are that it offers far more gain (well, it was made in the 80s) and so for tapping and legato licks it's great; the other advantage being the effects loop (see above).

Some have complained that the Pro Junior hasn't a reverb unit. Buy the Blues Junior if you want that - I tried the Blues and didn't like it. The reverb was nowhere near as natural or lush as my Deluxe 85's. I plan to get myself an RV-5 or Holy Grail.

Seems dependable. I bought it in a city 1820km from my remote location and it survived the air trip (packed effectively within a tough case and in the fragile compartment of the aircraft). One valve had half-worked it's way out of the socket, but it just pushed it back in.

Fender dealers have been great with support in the past for my two other amps and three guitars so I can't imagine that will change anytime soon.

Fender has authorised dealers everywhere in Queensland except my town. No problems, however - I know that when I go into the city I can always take my gear into the guitar store I frequent and know that Rob, the manager / technician will either be able to fix it himself or know someone adequately qualified to do the job.

I have been playing for 9 years now. I own three amplifiers and three guitars - my pride and joy being my American Standard Strat with my Pro Junior. Effects-wise, I use mainly Boss pedals - FZ-3, NS-2, OC-2, MT-2 (although the MT rarely gets used these days). I also have a Crybaby wah and plan shortly to buy an EHX Holy Grail reverb or Boss RV-5.

If my amp got stolen I'd be shattered and would seek vengeance if / when I found out who stole it. I would purchase this amp if I had my time again. It's a lovely sounding amp at a reasonable price.

Extremely simple (on the surface): one knob for tone, one knob for volume...there are Boss pedals that have more knobs than this amp! It is still very versatile, because of 2 factors that really determine your tone: 1) hand attack/dynamics, and 2)the type of electric guitar you are using. The little amp just growls, too...really lush tube tone for a little amp. If you want clarity at a high volume, do not get this amp. If you want super-saturation at high volumes, play a humbucker through this amp at a high volume. A single-coil guitar at high volume, yields a nice blustery blues tone that still defines high-end chords well, like an E9, for instance...

II have played a Tele, Les Paul, and Danelectro through this amp with assorted pedals. Great rock and roll and blues sounds. from "0" to about the half-way point of volume, good country and jazz tone is available, as well. Also, the speaker jack is removable, making this a great talkbox amp. I sometimes drive a 1X12" speaker cabinet, and that is where this amp REALLY shines, when it drives something larger...more clean headroom. Great for the studio and small gigs!

I have taken my PJ to a wide variety of situations, and the little thing is strong, yet easy to cart around.

no dealings

I the need arose, I would certainly replace it. For my needs, this amp rules!

Limited features, but thats just what I like. Volume and tone knob. Simple and perfect!

Beautiful clean, beautiful with pedals. Just a wonderful tone from this little amp.

This is my 3rd PJ in 1 month. I took all back because of the very loud hum. They switched out the pre amp tubes and boom...the hum was gone. The pre amp stock tubes are worthless. Change them out with Electro Harmonix and it is so quiet.

Just change out the pre amp tubes and you will have a little tone monster on your hands. I love this little amp!

Just simply a volume and tone control. I love those features! Me, being an obsessive compulsive, can't stand amps with lots of knobs. That leaves me constantly tweaking this and that. I love the simplicity of this amp. A single 10" Eminence speaker and single input jack. No line out or reverb, which is fine by me. Very light-weight and portable due to its size. Like the champs of old. Rating the features here is purely subjective to user tastes, but I will give it high marks because the simplicity is what I really love about this amp. And 10 being very versitile because it's clean first and there's no annoying high-gain you have to deal with like on other smaller combo amps.....

The sound is what I love about this amp. I know I said I love the portablility too, but when compaired to the bigger Blues Jr. (which is also a great amp) I prefer the sound of the Pro Jr. I've always wanted one of these amps ever since my Uncle had one several years ago. Why I fought off getting one in favor of something else, I'll never know. However, after finally coming to my senses and trying to clean up a Crate amp with lower output tubes, I just decided to say "the hell with it" and sold the crate and bought the pro. I truly love the sound of this amp. I also have an admiration of Weber speakers and while the stock Eminence speaker sounds good, I replaced it with a Weber Alnico. With this amps propensity to break up at half-way, I knew the Alnico would only add to the great tones of this amp. Could I get an even better sound re-tubing it? Well, maybe, but I love the sound as it is now. For low volume grit, I bought a Guyatone OD-2 and couldn't be happier. I now have the ultimate low-volume amp for me. For gigs and more punch, I have a Twin with it's own aresenal of pedals that can handle any volume I desire. The only problem with that dude is it's heavy and hard to get in and out of a car. Now I can tug along my Pro. for easy jamming at a buddies house without worry of a failing back being re-aggrivated by my sonic giant in my music room. I also have a Vibrolux on the way for situations that involve more power than the Pro Jr. but less power and more portability than the Twin. As you can see, I'm a bit of a Fender amp fan, but after having many different brands, I've always been unsatisfied with the other amps clean channels. I've found going clean first and then adding different pedals makes more sense to me. Not for everyone, but to my ear I am happy.

The Pro Jr. is a great sounding amp. I don't experience that buzz others talk about. Perhaps they fixed the problem. With the stock tubes and speaker, you can rest assured this amp sounds great. With the alnico, I get a bit more of the tweedish nature of these amps in full form. With it's ability to break up early, the speaker adds a more touch-sensitive dimension to my playing. My teles, SG, Semi-hollow and strats love this amp. And as I mentioned above, I could care less about not having reverb. On most smaller amps I've owned, the stupid reverb didn't work anyway. On top of that, I never used it much. The pure tone from this amp sounds too good to ruin it with annoying chimey echo. In addition, the surf is not up in Nashville. I don't use the reverb much on my Twin either. I'd rather run a subtle delay instead.

I can't express how happy I am with the sound of the Pro Jr.

Seems reliable enough. It's not an expensive amp, and it's made in Mexico, but from my understanding, the Mexican made stuff is fairly decent these days. Fender finally figured out how to get a bunch of mexicans to show up for work by buying them all alarm clocks, so that would explain the consistency. A simple circuit board layout and not much else to it leads me to believe as long as I don't abuse this amp, it should last for as long as I want to keep it.

Never really had to use Fender support. I've heard complaints, but until they do me wrong, I won't complain. I won't make false claims either, so for now, it's a no opinion.

I sounded off in the sound rating category. I will reiterate this is a fine sounding small amp. For low volume level playing, this amp produces a lovely warm clean tone. Stock speakers, tubes and all. I do kind of wish the housing was a bit bigger to allow the natural warmth of this amp to resonate even more, but it's not a big complaint. I also had to remove the magnet cover of the alnico speaker just so it would barely fit. But it fits now and all is well. For higher volume, you will get a natural tube distortion that really sounds great. I find this amp to break up a bit earlier than the Blues Jr. despite it's identical output rating of 15 watts. But, the circuitry is different, and the smaller speaker probably has a lot to do with that being the culprit to its early break-up. Again, that's fine with me. I really no longer care for master volume amps. No, I'm not a vintage purist. I just hate having to fool with extra knobs. In addition, I've never had a master volume amp I've been completely happy with. I've had a couple of Rivera's that were nice, but their cleans still didn't meet the cleans of my Fenders.

The Pro. is a versatile, portable and great sounding amplifier that anyone can be happy with. If you like lots of gain, then the Peavy Classics and the Crate Vintage Clubs are not bad choices. If you need lots of headroom, then I wouldn't be looking at a low wattage amp in the first place. If you need portability, enough volume to do small sized gigs and a quick practice amp, the Pro is a great choice. The Blues Jr. is a bit more versatile and offers reverb and more headroom, but to my ears, I prefer the sound of the Pro Jr.

You'll also notice while these now sell for close to $300.00, they hold their value fairly well. You will see them on ebay for around $210-$250.00 which is pretty cool. If you look at the Peaveys and Crates, you will automatically seem them selling used for $200.00 less then they were purchased new for. Even the Blues Jr. doesn't seem to hold it's value quite as well.

1 jack, 2 knobs. This amp is better for not being infinitely configurable - it is what it is and does what it is meant to do, well.

I use this amp with a Schecter c1+ and a Line6 variax. It sounds good with everything except for the acoustic models on the variax - even the sitar sounds good. Note - this is a small tube amp, and it is all about power tube overdrive at volumes that do not violate city noise ordinances. You don't need a pedal - the tone starts straight up on both knobs and goes from there. And the tone is nice indeed. There is no bottom, so you won't get grungy nu-metal, but you do get amazing lead tone. This is a good thing in a traditional blues rock combo, as the parts of the frequency band that get amplified are in exactly the right place and you cut through a lot better than you think you would. The amp colors, but leaves the essence of your guitar behind. I generally use the guitar models on the Variax and the pickup switch on the schecter to get different sounds. Overdrive is, as you would expect, extremely dynamic and responsive to pick attack and the guitar's volume knob.

I am on my fourth Pro Junior. Number 1 buzzed sometimes. I eventually sold it because I thought I needed a bigger amp. Number two was horrid - it buzzed and hissed all of the time. Since I bought it new, I returned it to the store for warranty service, which took nearly two months. The tech never got it fixed, and obviously doesn't read this list. The third one was a loaner from the store, and sucked - it produced about 1/2 the volume of most juniors I've played and sounded flangy/out of phase-y. The fourth one was the new one fender shipped after utterly failing to fix number 2. It is perfect in every way - no hiss, no buzz, awesome tone and has been a consistent, durable amp that gets played out 2-3 times a week without incident for the past 6 months, give or take.

Fender warranty service is a black hole. The amp goes in, but no information about repair status comes out without considerable prodding and cajoling. The shop that did the service work apparently doesn't stock the basics, like caps and tubes. Every diagnostic step had a 3-5 day wait whilst parts were shipped from somewhere in the Fender universe to the dealer. Frustrating.

a bargain for the price. If its not loud enough, get another. I'd really like to have a second one to mod with a 2x12 celestion vintage 30 loaded cab, or just to play in series with number 4, but I'm not sure I'm up to the struggle involved in getting a good one. If it was stolen, I'd shop, but I'd probably end up buying another. Nothing close to the price does what this does as well as this does it.