Some MAJOR work planned for my Blues Junior....

[Matt]

DVM, have all these mods made the amp get over its boxy nature at louder volumes? I still havn't got round to doing the BillM mods yet and now after buying my Blackstar I'm having a hard time justifying it and not just getting rid of the Blues Jr. But at the same time, it would be cool to run them in stereo...

[tunghaichuan***]

Looking good.

Can't wait to hear clips.

[duhvoodooman***]

To answer the "So how does it sound?" questions--

Very, VERY good! The tone stack modifications I made a couple of years ago, shortly after acquiring the amp, made a significant difference and got rid of much of that "boxy" sound. Bill Machrone explains how that change works on THIS PAGE on his old web site.

These mods have taken the amp's tone to a new level, though. The octal tube conversion together with the Heyboer TO22 OT upgrade have had the biggest impact. I bought the Blues Junior because I wanted that classic Fender amp tone in a small amplifier at a reasonable price. But the BJr is unusual among Fender amps in that it uses a pair of EL84s for output tubes, and part of that quintessential Fender tone comes from the 6V6/6L6 family of output tubes used in the majority of their models.

The octal tube conversion enables me to use that type of output tube now, and the tonal impact is quite noticeable. Together with the Heyboer OT, these tubes push out a tauter, fuller bass tone and give a very open, glassy & articulate top end. As you might expect, the impact is most evident with single-coil guitars played with a clean tone setup. Very, very nice, and not boxy sounding to my ear at all. The amp is now much closer to that classic Fender Blackface tone that I hear in my head.

Without a doubt, the small cabinet is going be limiting to some degree. The Eminence Cannabis Rex speaker I installed recently has been a noticeable improvement, but it's never going to sound like the 2x12 cab of a Twin Reverb or the 4x10 of a Super. But that's the main reason I also added an auxiliary speaker jack, so that I can run my 1x12 or 2x12 cabs in tandem with the onboard speaker. Nothing boxy about that configuration, lemme tell ya!

BTW, just for reference sake, I've got a grand total of under $600 invested in my Blues Junior, including the amp itself (used, from eBay), the speaker upgrade (used, Craigslist), the BillM mod kits, and all associated shipping costs. For the great sounding amp it is now, that seems very reasonable to me....

[guitarhack]

Still a lot less than most booteek amps and it sounds like you want it to sound. Congrats!

[ZMAN]

BTW, just for reference sake, I've got a grand total of under $600 invested in my Blues Junior, including the amp itself (used, from eBay), the speaker upgrade (used, Craigslist), the BillM mod kits, and all associated shipping costs. For the great sounding amp it is now, that seems very reasonable to me....

That is quite reasonable. I paid 475 C. a couple of years ago for my BJ Special edition. It was the same as the tweed but came in Brown Tolex with a wheat front, and beige knobs. I occasionally run mine through my 2/12 avatar cab, and it would be very advantageous to have an extra speaker jack. I have to unplug the Jensen speaker and use that jack for the cab. The standby is something that all amps should have, anyway.
In your pictures I noticed a switch by the new jacks. Is that the standby?
I think a lot of people would be very surprised if they took, even their stock Blues Junior and ran it through a 2/12 cab.

[duhvoodooman***]

In your pictures I noticed a switch by the new jacks. Is that the standby?

Nope, that's the Heyboer OT impedance switch to go between 8 ohms for the onboard speaker and 4 ohms, if you plug in a second 8 ohm cab.

I think a lot of people would be very surprised if they took, even their stock Blues Junior and ran it through a 2/12 cab.

True dat. Opens up the sound substantially and adds more bottom end.

[IK Multimedia]

True dat. Opens up the sound substantially and adds more bottom end.

I mainly run mine through an Avatar 2x12 cab with V30s and it sounds exceptional. I would still like to do some BillM mods too, though, and I have a nice pine cab and replacement reverb tank for the amp too but I have yet to move over to that yet.