Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Fender Blues Junior Combo Amp

GuitarCenter.com



$399.99
MSRP: $569.99 Save: $170.00

Big bluesy tone in a small package! The Fender Blues Junior Combo Amp is a great practice or studio amp. Its all-tube preamp and power amp circuitry create fat tone at moderate volumes. Delivers 15W through a single 12" speaker. Features a Fat switch, spring reverb, black covering, chicken head knobs, and footswitch jack for Fat on/off.


I have owned a number of amps from a Twin to Peavey Delta Blues. I need a lightweight tube amp and this one has lived up to all my expectations. I play a Strat and Les Paul and the amp sounds very good with both although the Strat seems to be better paired with the Junior than the LP sound which seems to sound a little harsh with this amp.


I bought this amp after hearing numerous reviews from local players, and reviews on the internet and such...and this is definitely a great buy! Definitely has the vintage tube sounds. I play a lot of classics like Hendrix and SRV and Clapton and such, and it was very easy to imitate the different guitar sounds from those particular artists. I have two strats, a cheap Squier and a Mexican fender (soon to have a highway one hehe) and they both sounded outstanding. The clean is beautiful and the overdrive is awesome! If you ever get a chance to crank this bad boy please be sure you do haha. I don't really recommend this for anything other than blues, jazz, or rock styles but I suppose you could try if you play metal or something...I don't make the rules. Definitely doesn't have the versatility of a solid-state amp, but it does what its meant to do. The only problem I had is that it has very trebley sound, which is partly from the tubes which give it that distinct vintage tone, but I personally just prefer not so much high end. Overall a great buy....definitely get yourself one!


I've been playing for 10 years, but only now did I decide on a whim to buy an amp. This is definitely the best $400 I have ever spent on any piece of gear. Incredible value.

I'm basically 66% SRV clone in my playing style by preference, but I incorporate more melodic soloing and jazz chords. I play a vintage Gibson '65 ES-330, which sounds excellent through this amp.

This amp is not versatile, per se, but it nails the blues tone as advertised. The EL-84's really cook nicely when cranked, cleaning up fairly well with the guitar's volume knob. It doesn't have a lot of clean headroom, but this could possibly be rectified by relatively inexpensive mods found online, a new speaker, and/or new tubes if that's what you really want (and at 15 watts you can only expect so much headroom). I personally really like the sound; it responds very well to playing dynamics. There is some annoying hum when cranked, but I understand this is very difficult to eradicate. The reverb is more than adequate for my needs -- anything over 6 o'clock on the dial is overkill.

This amp is perfect for blues players and non-death-metal rock players. Jazz players can mod this very cheaply to suit their needs as well, although it's not a Twin.

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