Blues junior

[telemust]

hi
recently I've acquired a blonde BJ ... i don't have any intention for toying with it but i think because of the back cover it has some boxy sound...i thought if i put a half size back cover just to cover the electronics part the sound will change
also the tubes will get some more air!
do you have any experience for this!
Peace in touch

[mambosun]

hi
recently I've acquired a blonde BJ ... i don't have any intention for toying with it but i think because of the back cover it has some boxy sound...i thought if i put a half size back cover just to cover the electronics part the sound will change
also the tubes will get some more air!
do you have any experience for this!
Peace in touch

In my experience, the stock BJ being a 3/4 closed back (bass reflex system and tube cooling purpose?) doesn't sound boxy.
On another hand, some full closed back combos I tried sounded boxy (tech 21 TM30), other not (H&K 25th anniversary, well to be honest not 100% closed cabinet and it is big).
What matters is the designer intention in terms of sound reproduction, all concepts are valid, depending how they have been built, the speaker spec, cabinet size, power rating etc.....
Regarding your question easy to fix: just remove the back cover to check if it sounds different and better for you.
I guess that if your after a significant sound improvment you 'll have to try out other speaker making and replace the stock one.

[pingu]

hi
recently I've acquired a blonde BJ ... i don't have any intention for toying with it but i think because of the back cover it has some boxy sound...i thought if i put a half size back cover just to cover the electronics part the sound will change
also the tubes will get some more air!
do you have any experience for this!
Peace in touch

I know what you mean but it's kinda good boxy to my ears
a mate borrowed it (for rock music gigs)
and said it's a nice 'tubby' little amp

oooo boxy lady

never taken the back off mine
its a really old green board tweed (not shiney) one

Generally they're great amps I reckon

[FatJeff]

From Billm Audio Why mod your Blues Junior?

"The biggest issue with the Blues Junior is that it sounds small and boxy. Cup your hands around your mouth and speak or sing. That’s “boxy.” Some think that this undesirable tone is due to such a large speaker in a small cabinet. But most of it is due to the components selected by the original designer for the tone stack and the lame coupling cap values. In my opinion, the original designer (long gone) sandbagged the Blues Junior so that I wouldn’t compete too much with the Blues Deluxe."

[mr. beaumont]

I've only noticed the "boxiness" on a Blues Junior when it's cranked and distorting.

It's a pretty decent amp for cleans--a little bright for a jazz tone with most single coils IMHO, just fine with humbuckers (however if they're too hot you might find yourself getting "dirty" with a harder hitting drummer... )

Overall, a good amp, and used, a very good value.

[FatJeff]

I've got one (stock) and the only complaint I have had so far is that I can't seem to get quite enough clean headroom out of it. At gig volume levels (small gig...perhaps 100 seats), I can't quite seem to get the volume I want without getting a little dirty. I've temporarily solved that problem by shotgunning my BJr with a ZT Lunchbox.

I'm considering doing some of the BillM mods to improve my clean headroom.

[AlohaJoe]

I loved mine after I swapped out the speaker. With the upgraded speaker, better tubes and the treble rolled off it had a great sound for jazz IMO. One of the few gear changes I've made that I regret is selling it to fund a hand-wired that cost twice as much but only sounds about 10% better.

[mambosun]

From Billm Audio Why mod your Blues Junior?

"The biggest issue with the Blues Junior is that it sounds small and boxy. Cup your hands around your mouth and speak or sing. That’s “boxy.” Some think that this undesirable tone is due to such a large speaker in a small cabinet. But most of it is due to the components selected by the original designer for the tone stack and the lame coupling cap values. In my opinion, the original designer (long gone) sandbagged the Blues Junior so that I wouldn’t compete too much with the Blues Deluxe."

I often feel a bit atheist when confronted to strong statements as these made by people selling pricey components, upgrades and modifications.
There are plenty of them selling mods which are supposed to improve to a large extent the sound of a given device, for instance stomp-box; some mods are even more expensive than the stock device alone.
I still see the speaker swap as the only worthy upgrade.

[telemust]

Thanks for all comments guys,
the first thing i ll do is to take the back cover and see what it is ! actually i am very happy with the amp ! after purchase i spent some time in web for updates and mods but i gave up...many options and costly plus i want to keep it as original as possible! it serves well - learning to live together! i have one eminence speaker at home i can try that one as well...cheers

[mambosun]

I know what you mean but it's kinda good boxy to my ears
a mate borrowed it (for rock music gigs)
and said it's a nice 'tubby' little amp

oooo boxy lady

never taken the back off mine
its a really old green board tweed (not shiney) one

Generally they're great amps I reckon

I've read some criticism about the cream pcb board version vs the green ones , the later being far superior to the former, but never had the opportunity to compare both side by side.
Is it another urban legend?

[telemust]

i don't know may be likely or not! I felt a little bit irritated after reading hell of articles about mods etc...fortune...pay 400 and pay another 200 for mods / may be the key point is just a little bit turning the knobs...who knows?

[jorgemg1984]

I have made some Bill M mods and some other mods I wanted and they improve the amp BUT

1) its still a small 15w amp and thats never going to change

2) he sells things very expensive.. I have made some of the mods on my own much much cheaper! If you have a good tech buy the parts directly

3) His tone stack values are not be best IMO, I will try others soon.

If you just want to mess with tone stack values (less treble or more bass or something like that), you can do a 5€ mod that will improve the amp a lot.

For me the best part of modding the blues junior was actually the learning process which was GREAT! I will probably sell it because I have four amps and for me the B Jr its not usable on gigs - at least with modern drummers

[Melodic Dreamer]

You need a speaker change for sure. Plus the amp is biased way to hot. They're not a bad grab and go amp and can be used for a lot of things. I have one that I actually rarely ever use despite the size and weight. I ended up getting a Goodsell Super17 that I prefer much more and usually go to when needing that type of amp.

Try a speaker change and see what you think. The amp might not be able to deliver the sounds your wanting.

[FatJeff]

That Goodsell sounds great, but it's also 4x the price of a BJr!

[DArmstrong]

I had a BJr for years, modded it like crazy. My advice is try these things first. Then if you're not digging the tone or it's not loud enough, you can swap it for something else.

For the "boxy" sound:
1. Turn up the bass (a lot). Maybe turn down the mids too, if you like a more traditional Fender sound. (The amp is still going to sound sort of Voxy (with a "V") when the gain is way up.) You can change the tone cap values too, but if you're looking for one good tone you might find it's already available.

2. Swap the speaker if you like. The stock Fender is pretty efficient I think, but lacks bass.

If you also want the amp to play cleaner:

1. Put a 12AY7 in the first preamp socket. It will help you stay clean if you play with a strong signal from the guitar.

2. Cool the bias. Don't get fancy like I did, just throw a different resistor in there. My BJr never really sounded 100% clean until I did this. Note that getting to the circuit board is a giant pain in the rear.

All the other stuff, output transformers, presence controls, fancy new power tubes, balanced phase inverter tubes... only worth doing if you *already* love the amp and just want a little tweak (or like messing with amps).

(I don't think that BillM is overpriced. He's done the R&D, he gets the right parts and and sends them with detailed instructions. Isn't that worth something? If all you need is parts, and you know exactly what they are called, and need no other help, there's Mouser.)

[telemust]

i found something interesting. volume 5, master 10, reverb 7, treble 10, bass 5, mid 8 nice clean sound plus compressor even better not boxy at all..plus zen drive coolest OD sound...i get it..still i can feel the capacity of speaker but not now later i'll try eminence red white and blues i did like it on web samples...cheers

[mambosun]

i found something interesting. volume 5, master 10, reverb 7, treble 10, bass 5, mid 8 nice clean sound plus compressor even better not boxy at all..plus zen drive coolest OD sound...i get it..still i can feel the capacity of speaker but not now later i'll try eminence red white and blues i did like it on web samples...cheers

Do you experiment with the "fat" button? Did you get better/ worse tone with it when activated?

[Melodic Dreamer]

That Goodsell sounds great, but it's also 4x the price of a BJr!

Yea, it's a little pricey, but worth every penny if you can afford one.

Have you tried or thought about the Egnater Tweeker combo? There not bad amps. How much clean headroom do you need at what volume?

[telemust]

Do you experiment with the "fat" button? Did you get better/ worse tone with it when activated?

Fat button gives some thick sound without compressor a kinda airy but with compressor its ok if you make some settings against..generally i use it when playing jazz...