Even if you aren't a gigging musician, maybe you are just a beginner, maybe you are interested in learning to play guitar, or piano or whatever, or even just looking for some guidance on what you may need to get yourself set up so you can play in a band, hopefully I will be able to help you out also.
I'm also gonna talk about whatever I feel like, hopefully mostly music related, anyway to begin...
You might be wondering why the blog is called blues junior (you may not be too) but if you are here's why, I have a Fender Blues Junior amp and I think it is great, so here is some info on it:
The basics:
Specifications:
15 watts into 8 Ohms
Two EL-84 Groove Tube output tubes
Three 12AX7 preamp tubes
1 x 12” 8 Ohm Fender Special Design Eminence speaker
Master, Preamp Volume, Bass, Middle and Treble
FAT switch - which gives a volume and slight bass boost
Fender Reverb
Footswitch jack for remote FAT on/off
Chrome panel
Vintage pointer knobs
Black textured vinyl with silver grille cloth
16” H x 18” W x 9.18” D
31 lbs.
Here's a photo:
Practicalites
If you are looking for a small, portable and great sounding gigable valve (tube) amp then this may be the answer to your quest. The Blues Junior is small and light enough to be carried in one hand while your guitar is in the other. This is particularly helpful if you don't have a car or you like to have a few drinks when you are out playing. Just throw it in the back of a taxi or hop on the bus and away you go. Some people seem to worry if this wee amp is loud enough to play alongside a whole band and I can tell you from experience it is. I have used this amp on many gigs (or quite often its younger brother the pro junior, but thats a story for another time) both mic'ed up for big venues and unmic'ed for smaller ones. I have never had to crank this amp past half way, in fact I'm lucky if I ever get it past 4, and I play in 6 piece group, but it always sounds great. Now if you play loud hard crazy rock, punk or metal this amp isn't probably what you are looking for. Don't get me wrong, it's a loud wee thing but it is not a high gain amp. If you play more classic rock, blues or country then this will be right up your street. We play a blend of country rock and folk (and we do tend to get a bit rocky on occasion) and this amp hits the nail on the head, if I want a bit of boost the odd time I stick a Marshall Blues Breaker II pedal (on the clean boost setting) in front and this drives the amp a bit harder and gives a nice creamy distortion. If this sounds like your style I can highly reccommend the blues junior.
Sounds
I will hopefully be uploading a few home recorded sounds samples in the near future, but if you can't wait that long then you can head on over to my bands website http://www.jacksoncage.com/ or myspace and listen to the tracks there. Most of the electric rhythm guitar and some of the lead on the tracks was recorded with a 52 Telecaster and a Blues Junior. The majority of the lead was recorded by our other guitarist on Gibson GA15, which is another superb small amp, using telecasters, strats, reverends and more. A good example would be the opening bars of White Line where the Blues Junior can be heard quite distinctly on the rhythm track, or on I Don't Wanna Waste My Time on the sections which just have vocals and rhythm guitar.
Links
Thanks for reading and I hope you have found this info helpful if you are thinking of investing in a Blues Junior, I will hopefully have the site updated with more info and sound samples in the near future so remember to check back. In the mean time here are some other links which you may find helpful:
Bill's Blues Junior Modification Pages - this is a fantastic site which lists lots of modifications for the Blues Junior
Fender product page - details of the Blues Junior at Fender.com
Fender Amp field guide - site with info on loads of Fender amps
If you have got this far, well thanks for reading, catch you back soon...
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