Surprise in the pawnshop

[tjcurtin1]

Passing the local pawnshop, saw a Danelectro U3 in the window. Having always been interested in these guitars, I went in to check it out. Low and behold, there was also a Fender Blues Junior there, which I've also been interested in as a 'most likely' all-tube amp for me. The Danelectro had some interesting sounds but nothing especially great, so I wanted to hear the amp with a guitar I'm more familiar with. So I plugged in a strat on hand - a Jimmy Vaughan - and...Ugh! Both guitar and amp sounded lousy. Just flabby and weak - I was kind of shocked. Tried a MIM strat next, which sounded better, but I couldn't really get a tone or sound that I liked out of the amp - I was so surprised! I had even gone to the bank first to get cash at least for the amp, I was so sure I was going to love it. So, to my surprise, I left empty handed. Maybe it's just that I am so familiar with the sound that I like from my Vox ad30 (which sounds much bigger and fuller to me than what I heard from the Blues Junior) it's hard to judge something different - but I have to say that I WAY prefer the sound of my Squier CV 50's strat to either of those that I played. I was especially surprised by the sound of the Jimmy Vaughan strat.

[Schundog]

Well, THAT stinks! I have had the Vox you have, also an AD50, and they are great sounding amps; I just don't know how reliable they will be in the long haul. I DO have a Jimmie Vaughan Strat, and actually sold several much more expensive Strats because, to ME, the Tex-Mex pickups sounded the most "Stratty" to me. I have a Blues Junior that I felt sounded pretty "boxy" until I had most of the BillM mods done, including the expensive Transformer replaced. I also replaced the speaker with a Texas Heat. Not exactly stock anymore, eh?! While I really liked how it sounded after that, you could STILL get some bad sounds out of it if you didn't EQ it properly, IMHO. I'll never get my investment out of the Junior, but then again, now, I don't ever want to sell it....

[tjcurtin1]

I got to wondering if maybe the pickups were really poorly positioned or something on the J Vaughan strat - they were anything but hot, which I imagine those Tex-Mex pups SHOULD be. The guitar just had no oomph or character. The standard MIM was much hotter and louder (though with less clarity). Boxy is a good description for how I found the sound of the Blues Junior, with no low-end character or body. I sure have heard some vids of it sounding good on youtube, I just couldn't seem to adjust it to get anything like that.

[Tig]

I wouldn't want a Blues Jr without several BillM mod's. Those enter the overall price equation.


I got to wondering if maybe the pickups were really poorly positioned or something on the J Vaughan strat - they were anything but hot, which I imagine those Tex-Mex pups SHOULD be. The guitar just had no oomph or character. The standard MIM was much hotter and louder (though with less clarity). Boxy is a good description for how I found the sound of the Blues Junior, with no low-end character or body. I sure have heard some vids of it sounding good on youtube, I just couldn't seem to adjust it to get anything like that.

There's also a chance that the previous owner kept the Tex-Mex pickups before pawning it and put in some cheap replacements.

[tjcurtin1]

I wouldn't want a Blues Jr without several BillM mod's. Those enter the overall price equation.
There's also a chance that the previous owner kept the Tex-Mex pickups before pawning it and put in some cheap replacements.

Ohhh.... I hadn't considered that possibility, but now that you say it, that makes sense. If you could have seen the stunned look on my face as I played that guitar...

[DetroitBlues]

The Blues Junior is a good amp, but you need to spend some money on a kit from BillM to get it to become a great amp. The Jimmy Vaughan Strat has a nice neck, but Tex-Mex pickups aren't the best. I agree with the Classic Vibe Strat being a great guitar. Good feel and sound to them. I can see Fender shutting down their Mexican factory and produce Fenders overseas.

[guitartango]

The Blues Junior is a good amp, but you need to spend some money on a kit from BillM to get it to become a great amp. The Jimmy Vaughan Strat has a nice neck, but Tex-Mex pickups aren't the best. I agree with the Classic Vibe Strat being a great guitar. Good feel and sound to them. I can see Fender shutting down their Mexican factory and produce Fenders overseas.

Another way is to put the amp on a chair or amp stand and keep it away from the floor. If it's good enough for Noel Gallagher , its good enough for me ! :)

http://guitarplayer.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/44qbntf.jpg

[Monkus]

I also wasn't satisfied with the tone from my Silver Noir BJ III. Swapped out the Eminence Wizard for a Cannabis Rex. It sounds amazing. Wanted the BillM Mod kit for it, especially the transformer, but BillM is currently not taking any orders. :nope

[Jipes]

Strange I play a Strat through a Blues Junior for several years on stage and never got disappointed with that combination. As mentionned earlier maybe it has to do with bad pickups !

[RickinFlorida]

You can get the output and/or the power transformer from the designer at Allen Amplification, http://allenamps.com. If you order the output transformer, Allen includes a capacitor for the "Phase Inverter Oscillation Mod." And he also has other parts available for BJ mods. Allen and Bill Machrone are friends/associates.

You can also get some similar "Basic Upgrade" kits from Fromel Electronics, http://www.fromelelectronics.com

[RickinFlorida]

I've never been a fan of the Tex-Mex pickups, either. I installed them on one of the prettiest Strats I ever had (MIM Agave Blue with tortoice shell and "rosewood" fretboard - just beautiful). While all pups are sensitive to distance from the strings, I found the T-Ms were especially so. Reducing that distance made the pups "hotter" but also bolloxed-up the tone soooo badly that they were almost unusable ("bolloxed-up" being the correct technical term for this phenomenon and is used in place of the most often used, but somewhat crude, expletive).