FENDER BLUES JUNIOR
1995-PRESENT
Configuration: Combo
Power: 15 Watts
Effects: Reverb
SCHEMATICS
- Blues Junior
- Blues Junior III
- Blues Junior IV
LAYOUT
- Top Panel: In, Volume, Fat Switch, Treble, Bass, Middle, Master, Reverb, Pilot Light, Power Switch
CABINET
- Dimensions: 6" x 18" x 9 3/16"
- Tolex/Tweed: Tweed Olive Stripe, Black, or Black Western (30th Anniversary)
- Grill Cloth: Oxblood, Black / White / Silver, or Oxblood w/ Gold Stripe (30th Anniversary)
- Logo: Cabinet Mounted, Script, Rectangle Tag
- Handle: Black Strap or Flat Black Leather (30th Anniversary)
- Feet: Chrome Glides
- Knobs: Black Chicken Head
SPEAKER
- Size: 1 x 12
- Impedance: 8 ohms
- Model: Eminence, Jensen C12N, Celestion A-Type, Celestion G12M-65 (30th Anniversary)
10 comments
poorly engineered. The attached pots to the board is the worst I’ve seen. Forces the tubes to be inverted and then the heat rises into the base and into the board. I’ve owned this amp for about 14 years and admittedly did not use it much. (didn’t care for it once I had it home) Tubes went bad from just sitting around so I decided to replace all of them. Was taken back by the lousy set up. I will change it a tad.
You are certainly justified in your concerns regarding the way the pots and input jack are mounted in the Blues Junior. They are prone to breakaged at the first opportunity. On the other hand and as I mentioned above, the pots are cheap to purchase. Also, a decent Switchcraft input jack is $2 or less. If you can run a soldering iron and a de-soldering tool, installing a jack (and some short jumpers to the board) or the pots is not a difficult task. Bill M has mastered the art of modding the Blues Junior and you can’t hardly go wrong with his kits. But his workload is such that, if you wish to have him do the minor surgery, his waiting list is a year long. I mentioned above that I don’t play anywhere near as much electric as I do acoustic guitar, but I’ve gigged this amp at a few pretty decent size places and it’s plenty loud. The biggest problem I have in those instances is dispersion of sound. My solution is micking the little amp to the PA. (Then again a friend of mine, Denver Collins, has struggled with toting two Twin Reverbs to gigs for 30 years and isn’t going to change until they kill him).
Not a bad amp for what it is, although after peeking inside I was a little shocked at some of the electronic layou/construction. My main concern are the hard wired pots to the PCB board, a possible recipe for disaster and the junky plastic input jacks. Planning on having some mods done by the youtube famous Bill M (aprox $ 100.00 s worth) to sweeten the sound and get past the presently “boxy” sound; this will open up the amp and beef up the tone. In closing’ it s ok for a bedroom amp & practicing around the house, some jams here and there but I wouldn t gig w this amp on a regular basis; will stick to my 2 SF Deluxe Reverbs for real playing out.