Fender Blues Junior

Hey Jerry,

From Harmony Central

Most people that have them seem happy, its going to be my first tube amp I just have to convince the wife I NEED it :D

Features 7.5 (464 responses)
Sound Quality 8.6 (496 responses)
Reliability 8.4 (348 responses)
Customer Support 7.4 (130 responses)
Overall Rating 8.7 (472 responses)

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar+Amp/product/Fender/Blues+Junior/10/1

Keith

I briefly tried one in GC, but that one started feeding back any time I tried to use the reverb. Must have had something wrong with that particular one..

I have an FBJ and I love it. I don't know if you are going to use this amp to gig or for home use, but it can get pretty loud! Mine is used at home through an attenuator so I can push the tubes while maintaining reasonable volume levels. This is not a heavy metal amp by any stretch of the imagination, but if you want good tube tone for a reasonable outlay of cash, this is your baby.

My personal opinion: they are great amps. If you are into blues/classic rock, so mostly use lightly overdriven sounds this amps should do all you need. Throw a booster in front of it, get an attenuator and enjoy all the sounds you want without starting WorldWar3 in your neighbourhood. :)

OT: I love The Black Keys!

You're going to have to crank that thing all the way up to get that tone. Better look at attenuators. :lol:

If you like The Black Keys, go over to http://fatpossum.com/ and check out Junior Kimbrough. Much of The Black Keys' music is inspired by Junior's.

Thanks for all the replies guys! I have a couple of questions though since I really don't know all that much about amps/effects. What is an attenuator? And second is for Arjen when you say throw a booster in front of it are you talking about an overdrive pedal or something else?

Ricochet: Thanks for the link. I can't believe I've never heard any of Kimbrough's music awesome. The Black keys rock seeing them in columbus next month, Should be a great time.

Again thanks to everyone who took a moment to give me some insight.

Attenuators are devices that soak up much of the power output of your amp so you can blast it wide open when you want that sound, without the expected high volume that's not always appropriate.

Mind you, I'm not one of the players who's always got to have "power tube distortion." Most of the time, I just turn the volume down and have fun. But sometimes it's just cool to hear a wide open amp, and for me most of the time, I'm going to get myself in trouble if I crank it.

Booster? Yeah, Arjen means an overdrive.

I understand where you're coming from, SporT ToXin/Neztok, but what I said in that message above is that it'd take playing wide open (and likely using an attenuator) to get a tone like the Black Keys guitarist uses. That's just a plain old wide open amp.

You'll note that below that I also said I usually just turn down the volume and play happily. I haven't changed my views.

I don't own an attenuator and don't need one. I did build a power soak with line-out for a friend a while back, so he could crank his goshawful overpowered 100W Marshall wide open, then run its distorted output through another, less powerful amp. Sounded good, too.
:D

:lol:

Little secret: Sometimes everybody's gone, and I like to just crank it up and let it rip. I do that with the Hammond, too. Neighbors haven't called the cops on me yet.

I like my Epi Valve Standard more than my neighbors pro junior by far. Its a better value, and has a tone I personally prefer over the two.

By booster he may mean the Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster. Its a pedal that boosts your pickups signal without adding any distortion. http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Seymour-Duncan-SFX01-Pickup-Booster-Effects-Pedal?sku=150710