Pro Junior V Blues Junior

Stuart · Post by **Stuart** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 6:44 pm

The title may say it all but I'm going to say some more anyway, just because I can.

I'm going to a guitar shop this week to plug in and play (Doncaster's mighty Electro Music, to start with) but any input or stuff to look out for before then?

It's not the be all and end all for me but I'm totally in love with David Bazan's early Pedro The Lion clean sound. Best heard I guess on songs like Big Trucks and Bad Diary Day. You can get pretty close on any amp by starting clean and rolling off loads of volume and just enough tone on the old single coils. But yeah...I know Pros were used on the later Pedro albums can't find anything about the first one. They seemed to have used various silver face fenders live.

Other bands that I regularly borrow from (i.e. rip off) include Broken Family Band, King Creosote, Herman Dune, Apples in Stereo, Malcolm Middleton, Cursive, The Good Life, Two Gallants, and all those bands on Arts & Crafts that all sound the same but I love anyway

Urrrm what else...Most bands I dig live use either Deluxes or Devilles but they are just to loud and expensive for me. I'n not married to either of these amps if anybody has other suggestions, it can't hurt to try, right?

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 7:05 pm

Personally I'd go for the Blues Junior of the two for additional controls, reverb and the 12" speaker.

kypdurron · Post by **kypdurron** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 12:04 am

the Blues Junior reverb is nothing you would miss if it wasn't there. I don't look back at my BJ, but I want to try a Pro J some time, they are so simple and and small, but still offer plenty of power. Bu tif you can live with the technical downsides (both are not the fine art of amp building) they're both ok.

Stuart · Post by **Stuart** » Wed Sep 01, 2010 1:21 am

Good point about 10" v 12" speaker. I hope the lack of interest in this thread isn't due to those amps being crap, or I'm back to square one

24HRS2MDNT · Post by **24HRS2MDNT** » Wed Sep 01, 2010 2:50 am

I had a Blues Jr and traded it in on a Tiny Terror. Never looked back. The Jr. sold the next day.

I guess I got tired of the sound. The tone controls and fat switch don't hold much over a simple tone knob in my books. The master volume may appeal or do you mainly just use pedals for OD and fuzz?

Anyways, you can always sell a Jr off fast.

Stuart · Post by **Stuart** » Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:19 am

I need a good clean sound more than anything and I like to be able to go from clean to crunch by using the volume on my guitar.

I've mainly been playing acoustics for the last 3 or 4 years and I've never owned a decent amp before, I had a Marshall MG something or other as a youth but grew to hate it over the years. And yes now I'm in a position where I have an ok job and can buy a pedal or two if I want to try something new.

I'm right at the start of a new project, I've been demoing songs on GarageBand using a guitar to USB cable but what I buy is going to determine how we sound to an extent rather than the other way around. I guess it is all about trying and seeing how they sound.

However! I'm temped by a Pro on ebay at Â£250, 18 months old home use only. or a Bstock one for Â£230 on Dv247...Those are good prices and I'd feel like a dick if I walked into a shop and got them to set up 3 or 4 amps for me to test, knowing that I was planning on buying online anyway.

Grrrr

Justyn · Post by **Justyn** » Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:35 am

This thread is relevant to my interests

Although I need more than 15 watts cause I've been playing with drummers lately. The Super Champ XD might not hack it for much longer.

Plus, I just wanna have an excuse to give some pedal makers some bidness

Post by **dots** » Wed Sep 01, 2010 5:54 am

Pro juniors have all you will need, and blue juniors don't have enough you'd miss imho. They both seem to take pedals very well, but I think the pro jr cuts through a live mix better. It will even drive a 4x12 cab decently. My approach in live situations with my pro is to crank the volume, set the tone at half, and use a salt booster with the volume down to low output. Pedal engaged produces pure, sparkly love. Turn it off, and you have mean, class A overdrive. Then in bedroom situations, reverse those settings. I will sacrifice a headphone out for all of that (and more) versatility.

Stuart · Post by **Stuart** » Thu Sep 02, 2010 5:37 pm

dots wrote:Pro juniors have all you will need, and blue juniors don't have enough you'd miss imho. They both seem to take pedals very well, but I think the pro jr cuts through a live mix better. It will even drive a 4x12 cab decently. My approach in live situations with my pro is to crank the volume, set the tone at half, and use a salt booster with the volume down to low output. Pedal engaged produces pure, sparkly love. Turn it off, and you have mean, class A overdrive. Then in bedroom situations, reverse those settings. I will sacrifice a headphone out for all of that (and more) versatility.

This is basically what I thought and was looking for someone to confirm. Pretty sure I'll pickup the Bstock one at some point tonight.

Post by **dots** » Fri Sep 03, 2010 2:04 pm

Funny thing is I stumbled upon mine 10 years ago. I needed a little amp for a home rehearsal session, so played through a pro junior. The prs guy demonstrating their latest creed guitar asked me to turn down like twice, almost got me thrown out, and the damn thing wasn't even at 2! Had to have it!

avj · Post by **avj** » Sat Sep 04, 2010 7:09 am

As a Blues Junior owner, I can confirm that it's a great amp and plenty loud. On rehearsal nights where I don't feel like lugging the million-pound Vibrosonic around, I have kept up with both a five-piece rockish band (two other guitarists, one with a JCM2000 and one with a Twin) and a synth-rock band (one other guitarist with a Boogie Mk IV) with no problem at all. They are even more usable in a stage situation where amps would be mic'ed.

If I had to choose between the two amps in their stock configurations with the benefit of hindsight, I'd definitely choose a Pro -- but if you're even the slightest bit handy with a soldering iron, a world of possibility lies ahead of you with the Blues Junior. A fellow by the name of Bill Machrone (former editor-in-chief of PC Magazine, which is tangential) is widely hailed as the informal king of the Blues Junior, and I'll never understand why Fender chose to ignore his many simple, effective, and cheap modifications to this amp for the latest Hot Rod III series of amps that were just introduced.

The major difference between the Pro and Blues Junior is the lack of a master volume on the Pro. If you're looking to make great use of your guitar's volume knob, you might be able to get away with cranking the Pro and rolling the guitar's knob back -- but that usually isn't the most beautiful-sounding solution. No matter what, one thing that neither of these amps will give you at all is clean headroom.

If you are definitely going to buy, now seems to be the prime time to get your hands on one of the now-discontinued models before the Series III stuff makes them completely disappear. I'm not sure how quickly things will turn over where you're from, but the jaunty Englishman in your avatar seems to be optimistic.

Stuart · Post by **Stuart** » Sat Sep 04, 2010 6:35 pm

avj wrote:A the jaunty Englishman in your avatar seems to be optimistic.

[youtube][/youtube]

Loved me some Mister Benn as a kid.

I order a Pro Â£230 ("factory repaired") which assuming the repair is ok, I think is a pretty good price ( 355.28100 U.S. dollars, so says google).

I hear what you're saying about headroom but I do need it to break up at some point! As look as I can get one nice clean and once nice drive I'll do what i need to with ODs and compressors and my guitar tone/volume. We'll see when it arrives on Monday but like Mr Benn I've got a pretty good feeling about it.

Stuart · Post by **Stuart** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 9:27 pm

This was delivered by the way and I'm loving it. It came the day before I went of to End of the Road festival so haven't messed about with it too much and it hasn't been to the rehearsal room yet, but I've got pretty close to the tones I want, straight out the box.

And it is super loud! Plenty load enough to play with our drummer though like I say we've been playing a lot of acoustics (and banjo and mandolin et cetera) over the past couple of years, so it's not like we start with a punk rock mind set. Justyn I'm guessing it's actually louder than your Super Champ XD but can't say for sure as I've not played one of those.

Boab · Post by **Boab** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:09 pm

Good stuff! If I go for a Fender, it could well be one of these if I can't get a Hot Rod/Blues Deluxe for cheap enough.

That does seem like a great deal too. Some pics perhaps?

Stuart · Post by **Stuart** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 10:28 pm

iphone pictures but I'm loving the valvey goodness, be it fetishism or not, sounds great to me!

Part of me fancies tweeding it up with some of this stuff

And well I am posting pictures, how do it do the "hidden content" thing that people round here like to do??

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 10:42 pm

Stuart wrote:And well I am posting pictures, how do it do the "hidden content" thing that people round here like to do??

► Show Spoiler

Stuart · Post by **Stuart** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 10:56 pm

thank you sir.

avj · Post by **avj** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 11:47 pm

Good stuff! Glad to see it.

You may want to re-seat those 12AX7s there, the tubes on the right in the second photo. They appear to have developed a bit of a lean in transit, and one more more of the pins may not be making great contact.