The Ultimate Fender Blues Jr Tone Guide

A Six String Studios ebook

The History of the Fender Blues Jr

If you signed up to receive The Ultimate Fender Blues Jr Tone Guide, I am going to assume you
are familiar with the amp. However there may be some interesting facts that you didn’t know
about this sonic gem.

If you’re not one for fun facts and history, feel free to skip to the next section.

The Blues Junior is a fantastic tube guitar amplifier that Fender introduced in 1995.

Fender wanted to create a great sounding amp that gives that warm, tube-driven tone at an
affordable price.

Fender frequently releases limited editions of the Blues Junior. All have for the most part, the
same electronic components and specifications but have cosmetic changes and often a different
speaker, at varying prices.
General Specs of the Blues Jr

 single-channel 15-watt all-tube amplifier

 one 12-inch, 50-watt, 8-ohm driver (connected with 1/4-inch phone jack for external
speaker option); model varies with edition:
o standard edition Blues Juniors ship with an Eminence Speaker closely resembling
the Legend 125 model, designed for Fender
o NOS Lacquer Tweed Limited Edition Blues Juniors ship with the Jensen model
C12N
o Tweed Relic Edition Blues Juniors ship with Jensen model P12R
o (other speaker models may be in use)
 Fender spring reverb
 Bass, Middle and Treble tone controls
 "Fat" switch boosts gain and midrange frequencies in preamp stage
 independent preamp and master gain controls
 "chicken head" vintage styled control knobs
 three matched Groove Tubes 12AX7 preamp tubes
 two matched Groove Tubes EL84 power tubes

Measurements for the Blues Jr are:

 Depth 9.81”
 Height 16”
 Width 18”
 Weight 31 lbs

The Blues Jr retails for right around $500, which is a steal for a great sounding tube amplifier

Check them out at Guitar Center- Fender Blues Jr Amp

Upgrading the Speaker

Changing out the speaker is an easy way to make tonal changes to an amp. Depending on the
speaker, you can make very drastic changes. Sometimes not for the better.

At Six String Studios, we spent a lot of time with various speakers, testing them in a wide range
of situations and styles of music to see how they interacted with the Blues Jr. Here is what we
came up with.

Fender Special Design (stock speaker)

The stock speaker is made by Eminence and it’s roughly equivalent to the Legend 125/1258.
This speaker has been a staple in Fender amps, including the Deluxe Reverb, Hot Rod Deluxe,
Twin Reverb, Blues Deluxe, and many others.
It’s a decent, all-around speaker but nothing special. It doesn’t have the deepest bass, and the
highs can sound kind of fizzy, but it’s well balanced.

But because we want to make the Blues Jr the best amp that it can be, we tried out several other
speakers to see how they stacked up.

Eminence Texas Heat

The Texas Heat is one of the most popular speakers Eminence has to offer. It has great tone,
strong bass, slightly smoky mids, and a smooth top end.

It’s more efficient than most other aftermarket speakers, so you get your 15 watts’ worth out of
it.

Eminence Cannabis Rex

The Cannabis Rex gets its name from its hemp cone. Hemp fibers strengthen the cone and impart
a different flavor than typical paper cones.

This is the warm/clean jazz speaker! It’s a great clean speaker, but the cleans have a soft edge to
them.

It handles overdrive and distortion very well when you push it. It’s very efficient, one of the
loudest speakers you can put in an amp, and it pushes out pretty, round bass notes really well.

The top end is very sweet, even forgiving. This speaker couldn’t make a harsh note if it tried and
is beautifully balanced bottom to top. Super for creamy lead work.

Celestion Vintage 30
The V30 was one of the most used speakers in the last 40 years: huge, powerful mids and early
breakup. Four of these in a half stack and you were on your way to rock god status.

The V30 has less bass and less treble than the stock Special Design speaker and you can hear the
difference right away. It’s a standout for lead guitar and for rhythm guitar that stays out of the
way of the bass player. If you like thumpy bass or need clean headroom, look elsewhere.

Celestion Greenback
The Greenback (G12M) has always been a good choice for the Blues Junior. It’s a bit quieter
than some of the other speakers recommended here but the Greenback defines that classic, warm
British tone we all know and love. This is the speaker that oozes “smoky,” midrange tones
sought after by blues and blues rock guitar players. A very classic sound.

Jensen Speakers

We tried several Jensen speakers including the C12N, C12K and the P12R all of which made the
Blues Jr sound worse. We suggest staying away from the Jensen speaker line.
WGS Speakers

Warehouse Guitar Speakers are an awesome alternative to the big 2- Celestion and Eminence.
Priced much lower and built just as well if not better, WGS is the hidden gem when it comes to
guitar speakers. At Six String Studios, we use a number of different WGS speakers in our amps
and absolutely love them.

The WGS Veteran 30 is a virtual clone of the Celestion V30 at a fraction of the price. An
amazing speaker that won’t break the bank.

Similarly the WGS Green Beret is a copy of the Celestion Greenback. Great speaker tone
without having to pay for the name.

Specifically for the Blues Jr, we really like the WGS Reaper or the Reaper HP. The reaper is the
perfect clone for a Celestion G12H30 Anniversary Edition, which is another great choice for
your Blues Jr. It’s almost like a souped up Celestion Greenback without the early cone breakup.

The Reaper HP is the big brother to the Reaper. If you want a good clean tone with just the right
amount of breakup at medium-high volume, then this is your speaker. This 50 watt version is
both warmer and more powerful than the 30 watt version.

Links

Eminence Texas Heat

Eminence Cannabis Rex

Celestion V30

Celestion Greenback

WGS Veteran 30

WGS Green Beret

WGS Reaper

WGS Reaper HP

Eminence Company Website

Celestion Company Website

WGS Company Website

 Tubes
Some Blues Jr players swear by tube upgrades. At Six String Studios, we suggest saving your
money. The minimal difference you hear in tone from a tube upgrade could easily be obtained
by a little better eq adjustment.

Of course, a new tube will always sound better than an old, worn-out one. As tubes age, they lose
some of their brightness. Similar to guitar strings.

Your Blues Junior has five tubes, V1 through V5, numbered right to left as you look at the back
of the amp.

 V1 is the preamplifier. It has the most effect on tone.

 V2 re-amplifies or recovers the signal lost in the tone stack. It has a relatively minor
effect on tone.
 V3 is the phase inverter. It makes mirror images of the signal and drives the output tubes,
V4 and V5. It too is an amplification stage, and has a minor effect on tone.
 V4 and V5 are the output tubes. They’re EL84s and they should be purchased as a
matched pair.

Your Blues Junior probably came with Sovtek tubes branded “Fender” or “Groove Tubes.”
These are decent, hardworking tubes, but everyone loves to hate what comes stock.

Generally we recommend Groove Tubes 12AX7s and JJ EL84s, but we decided to some
extensive testing with different brands and here is what we came up with.

12AX7-compatible tubes
The 12AX7 is designed for high gain–lots of amplification. That’s why it’s used in so many
guitar amps. It’s easy to generate distortion.

The 5751 is virtually identical to the 12AX7, but it only has 80 percent of the gain. If your Blues
Junior breaks up too easily and you need a bit more clean headroom, the 5751 is a good choice
for V1. Many 5751s sound warmer or rounder than equivalent 12AX7s.

The 12AY7 is also very similar to the 12AX7, but has less than half the gain. It’s the preamp
tube that Fender used in classic amplifiers such as the Tweed Deluxe, many Champs, and the 57
Twin. A Blues Junior with a 12AY7 in V1 will produce just as loud a clean tone as one with a
12AX7, but at 7 on the volume knob, while the 12AX7 will produce maximum clean at about 4.
After that, the 12AX7 starts producing serious amounts of distortion.

The 5751 or 12AY7 don’t give you any more clean headroom. They only delay the onset of
distortion and limit the total amount of distortion.

Putting a lower-gain tube into V2 is pretty much the same thing as turning down your master
volume. So keep a 12AX7 in there and don’t worry about it.

Both the 12AY7 and 12AT7 can be used in the phase inverter (V3) position if you want less
drive to your output tubes. The 12AT7 typically has a somewhat darker tone than the 12AY7, but
the effect is subtle. Both tubes are darker than the stock 12AX7.
With all of that said, there are several tube companies that sell sets of tubes for your Blues Jr
based on different tones and such that you may be going for.

Again, based on our experience, the change in tone is very slight and we recommend you stick
with something similar to what was originally installed.

If you’re the type of person that likes to mess around with this stuff, here are a few links where
you can find “special voiced” tube sets

The Tube Store- they carry 3 different sets- Value, Premium and Vintage

EuroTubes- They have several different sets including Max Headroom, SRV, Standard and High
Gain

Guitar Center- They have a wide array of tubes that you can try out.

Cabinets
The Blues Jr is a fantastic amp at a very affordable price which means that corners had to be cut
somewhere. Fender certainly chose to cut corners on the cabinet. The cabinet that houses the
amp is quite small and made of MDF. There is a very focused, almost boxy tone to it.
Upgrading the cabinet will make a significant difference.

There are a couple of options-

An extension cabinet can be used with the Blues Jr. This will obviously broaden the sound and
eliminate the boxy tone. Another side benefit is that you can mix and match speakers to find a
pair that complements each other. See the Speaker section for some recommendations.

We highly recommend Carl’s Custom Guitars. Carl hand builds Dovetailed Pine oversized
replacement cabs for the Blues Jr that look and sound fantastic. The cabinet is built of solid pine
and has the same dimensions of the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe but cutout so that the Fender Blues
Jr chassis, speaker, reverb tank etc etc will all easily mount to this cab: all holes are drilled, its all
here, just swap your chassis, speaker and reverb tank over to this cab and you are in for a whole
new world of amazing tone!

Mojo Tone also makes a nice drop in replacement for the Blues Jr that improves the tone over
the stock cabinet. You can get extension cabs there as well if you wanted to mix the first option
with this one

Pedals

One thing about the Blues Jr is how well it takes pedals. The staff at Six String Studios has
thrown dozens of different pedals at this great amp and they have all sounded great. Everything
from overdrives, distortion, reverbs, delays, chorus effects etc etc

Looking for some pedal suggestions to pair with your Blues Jr?
The Ibanez Tubescreamer is a very popular choice for an overdrive. Countless guitar players
have used a Tubescreamer throughout their career. Pick a guitar player and one has been on their
pedal board at one time or another.

Another great option is the OCD Overdrive. Different sounding than the Tubescreamer, the
OCD gives you those gorgeous overtones you want when you're cranking it. When you back off
your guitar's volume, you'll find that the Obsessive Compulsive Overdrive still hangs onto a
range of other tonal possibilities. The OCD gives a thicker overdrive than the Tubescreamer
with less midrange hump.

These are just a couple of suggestions for overdrive pedals that many guitar players use with
their Blues Jrs. The Blues Jr is such a pedal friendly amp that virtually any pedal will work well
with it.

Tone Settings

The section you have been waiting for. This is the most fun way to coax good tone from your
Blues Jr and the cheapest! The staff here at Six String Studios have spent countless hours
spinning dials to come up with some fantastic tones. Below are 31 different tones we developed.

Set your amp up with the settings as noted and then tweak as desired. Everyone hears a bit
different and everyone’s total signal chain varies. The settings we have listed are just a starting
point for you to give you a foundation in which to draw from. Experiment and have fun with
these!

Added Bonus

We have included an editable file so that you can tweak and save the settings we provided along
with adding your own. This file is on the same download page that you got this ebook from. Be
sure to download it and record the great settings that you come up with!
Description Reverb Master Middle Bass Treble FAT Vol.
Texas Blues 4 2 5 10 11 In 3
Blues 2 4 5 5 7 6 In 3
Roadhouse
4 7 5 7 10 Out 3
Clean
Am. Standard
3.5 12 1 6 10 Out 3
Strat
Vintage Rock
3 12 4.5 8 12 Out 3
Clean
Squeaky Clean 10 4 1 10 12 Out 4
Robben Ford
6 6 10 6 8 In 4
Elite
Minor Blues 3 12 6 5 9 In 4
The Byrds 6 12 9 4 11 Out 4
SRV (Pride 7
1.5 5 7 4 11 In 4.5
Joy)
Turn, Turn,
9 12 4 3 12 Out 4.5
Turn
Deep & Clean 10 2 4 7 10 Out 5
Vintage Growl 3 3 6 4 7 In 5
Fender Flavor 10 3 4 8 11 Out 5
Minor Blues 2 2 12 1 3 8 In 5.5
Blues Am Strat 4 5 1 6 10 In 6
Slow Down &
4 8 7 6 8 Out 6
Dirty
Wonderful
7 3 12 11 7 In 7
Tonight
Strat Heart of
9 3 2 4 11 In 7
Gold
Sweet Solo 5 6 5 5 4 In 7
Smooth and
8 2.5 3.5 10 1 In 7.5
Mellow
Late Night
4 2 10 1 12 In 8
Blues
Blues 1 4 3 10 4 10 In 8
SRV 3 3 10 4 10 In 8
Favorite Blues 10 2 9 1 12 In 9
Hard Edge
10 2 9 6 12 In 10
Blues
10
Layla 6.5 2 2 1 12 In
SRV
10 4 12 10.5 8.5 In 10
(VooDooChile)
Blues Power 4 10 10 8 12 In 10
SRV w/TS9
4 7 4 5 6 In 11
Mod to 808
SRV Sound 4 3 2 7 7 In 12