Should I buy the Blues Jr...?

Octahedron

A mate is selling his 15w Fender Blues Junior.

They range in price from $1100 to $1500 RRP here in Australia depending on which variation you opt for... His would be the $1200 end of the spectrum, RRP wise but he's selling for $850.

It has had a service. Valves replaced with new JJs. And it has had the stock Eminence speaker replaced with a new Celestion G12H speaker...  

Currently, I have a Jet City 20w head and cab that I've had for 5 years. It's just too much to lug around... And it's too loud for home use. 

So what should I be aware of?

Given the change in wattage, and possibly speaker size too, am I going to lose a lot of headroom?

ThePrettyDamned

I don't like blues juniors at all, so take this with a pinch of salt... 

They're loud - not in a nice, swampy, fill the room way but like a small dog barking - it's a very shouty amp. The speaker may help a bit... But I've tried a few that people have swapped speakers out and I still don't like them at all. 

The hot rod deluxe is nicer, more capable, sounds better at low volume (you may need a passive volume box in the loop, but that's fine) and is still portable as a grab and go. It also sounds more fendery than the blues junior, which sounds almost like a vox ac15 and a tweed champ had a baby. All mids. 

Of course, if you've decides you like the sound then you can practically ignore what I've said. 

TheMarlin

I had one. Was ok very noisy at volume.

I'd get a 5E3 instead  

Blues Jr''s can sound great, but need some nodding to get there.  There are better stock amps out there for the money.  Some of the low power at Traynors and Laneys sound better, and are much more flexible. 

Just my opinion. BJ lovers will be along shortly. 

ICBM

Yes.

The Blues Junior doesn't have a lot of headroom even for a 15W EL84 amp and is always slightly dirty-sounding. In my opinion also congested and muddy-sounding... but some people seem to like them. The G12H might help a bit, but not that much. The JJs won't, especially not if they're preamp as well.

But… $850 - £500?!!

I know Australian prices are much more expensive, but that's nuts. They're wildly overpriced new and second hand for what they are - when you can get the Hotrod Deluxe which is a far more flexible, capable, better-sounding and better-built amp for only slightly more. (Obviously not what you want since it's a much bigger and heavier amp too.)

You should be able to do *far* better for that sort of money.


(Edit - beaten to most of that while making a cup of coffee .)

TheMarlin

I bought my Blues Jr for £80.  Needed a £5 part changing, otherwise in great condition. 

Gassage

I'd hold out for the similar sized but infinately sweeter pro junior.

p90fool

If carting your 20w Jet City head and cab around is too much of a pain, do what I did. Get an old broken transistor combo and put the Jet City head and a decent speaker in it.
It's an infinitely better amp than a Blues Jr.
Don't get me wrong, some people like the sound of Blues Jrs, avoid them, they need to see a doctor.


http://i67.tinypic.com/opr6nl.jpg

crunchman

p90fool said:

Don't get me wrong, some people like the sound of Blues Jrs, avoid them, they need to see a doctor.

That's one of the better quotes I've seen on here recently.

Jalapeno

Gassage said:

I'd hold out for the similar sized but infinately sweeter pro junior.

This.

Clue's in the name - if ALL you want is a gritty blues sound - it's fine (with a speaker change), but there's next to no clean headroom.

AUS$ not US$ I assume

Nomad

Jalapeno said:
AUS$ not US$ I assume

850AUD to 500 quid is about right. Seems rather expensive, even with the replacement speaker and new valves. I paid well under that for my Blues Deluxe and a 100-quid replacement speaker.

kjdowd

Regardless (almost) of price I just didn't like mine much at all. For me it was a real 'meh' amp. Nothing exciting about it, just relentlessly average.

Octahedron

Gear prices in Australia keep going up and up...

Soon, even basic guitar packages meant for "beginners" will be out of the reaches of most of the average Joe.

Everything gets more expensive here all the time.

Apple's prices suddenly increased too. The same MacBook Pro I bought 3 years ago increased in price by $500... The hardware specs are the same and that technology is out of date by 4 years now. 

jellyroll

I found the BJ not great for home use....hyper sensitive volume control going from too quiet to too loud within a fraction of a degree of rotation. (Of course, too quiet and too loud are entirely subjective....I was aiming for "kids in bed don't wake them" volume).

ICBM

Octahedron said:

Gear prices in Australia keep going up and up...

Soon, even basic guitar packages meant for "beginners" will be out of the reaches of most of the average Joe.

Everything gets more expensive here all the time.

Even so I still can't take $850 as a fairly *low* price for a BJ seriously... that's more than they sell for brand new in the UK - which is still not that cheap compared to the US - and they're still overpriced even at that.

There's got to be a large range of much better amps that are cheaper than that, even in Australia.

ThorpyFX

Octahedron said:

Gear prices in Australia keep going up and up...

Soon, even basic guitar packages meant for "beginners" will be out of the reaches of most of the average Joe.

Everything gets more expensive here all the time.

Apple's prices suddenly increased too. The same MacBook Pro I bought 3 years ago increased in price by $500... The hardware specs are the same and that technology is out of date by 4 years now. 

see this is odd, logisitically Australia is closer than the UK, America et al. It'd make sense for it to be cheaper especially for stuff made in China. are your taxes high?

andyoz

I get the impression that importers just rode the Strong Aussie dollar wave for years without passing much of it onto the consumer.  Now the Aussie dollar has dropped a bit they then blame it for price rises.

stickyfiddle

I assume it's the volume of freight going in/out of Oz compared to Europe. China is already sending a buttload of stuff here every day, so the incremental cost of sending us some amps on top of that is nothing.

Australia's entire population is about the same as the UK, so there's a hell of a lot less demand to push shipping prices down. 

ICBM

stickyfiddle said:

Australia's entire population is about the same as the UK, so there's a hell of a lot less demand to push shipping prices down. 

Not even close to it - less than half, only about 25 million.

Even so I would expect there's still easily enough shipping traffic to gain most of the economies of scale, so I doubt that's it. It would be interesting to compare the prices of, say, cars or washing machines to the UK...

markj

I had one with a cannabis Rex speaker in it, supposed to be one of the better speakers for the junior. I just didn't like the amp at all I thought it sounded crap.

Octahedron

I have to be honest I've just come to accept that the rest of the world is very lucky with their gear prices!

I remember buying a Tubescreamer for $40 USD in Orlando years ago. That's a fraction of what it would be here. The exchange rate at the time was 1:1 so everything I bought there at the time was at least a third of the cost 

Octahedron

OK so here we are a few days later... He's agreed to loan me the Blues Jr so I can see if I like it.

First thing I do like about it is that it fits in the boot of my tiny hatchback and doesn't roll around. So it's nice and compact. So off on the right foot. I put it side by side with my Jet City for a comparison photo to send to those with insider knowledge. It makes the Fender look tiny. But by no means does it sound tiny! 

I really like the tones I'm managing to get out of the amp so far, particularly at lower volumes. It seems to suit the style of playing I gravitate to quite well. 

Next thing I would say is that I definitely do agree with those who have said that the volume control is very, very sensitive and the slightest adjustment causes a sudden and dramatic increase in volume level. 

However, while the amp does definitely have a lot of natural bite and bark to its tone, the Blues Jr III (which this one is) of course has the fat switch. I think that tames it quite nicely. I like that feature. 

Next thing to do will be for me to take it to a mate's house on Thursday for a jam, he's got a Blues Jr with stock speaker and stock tubes. This has JJ tubes, and a Celestion speaker. So. It'll be really interesting to A/B them, and crank them. I can't wait. That'll be the deciding factor.

I'm pretty sold already, but, that'll be the make or break I think. And knowing that I've got a gig coming up at the end of the month and I'll be able to actually put the lid on the iso-cab without having my amp head sitting on top of it and the lid barely closing and being difficult to mic' up the amp... yeah, who am I kidding, I already love it but I just need that one last test to confirm it/tip me over the edge.