The Fender Blues Junior is a 15 watt el84 driven gem of an amp. The tone is very crisp with a pop. The Blues Junior also has great bass response for an amp of it’s site. It is light weight and easy to transport making it a great amp for practice at home. Don’t let the size fool you though. These amps can crank.
While these amps rarely make center stage with the big worship acts such as Bethel, Elevation, or Hillsong they can be found at smaller churches all over the US. The Blues Junior also takes pedals extremely well. Overdrives sound crisp and beefy and delays & reverbs are lush and full. These amps are extremely durable and tubes seem to last years in them, even with consistent weekend and practice play. Other than the clean headroom these amps are near perfect.
TIP: Look for a used USA Made Blues Junior on eBay. You can usually find them for around $375 and they are significantly better than the current production models. The circuit board is different and we have found them to be slightly more dark as well as cleaner. The new ones break up easier and tend to be more tinny and bright.
Pros
- Price: $549 (Other Special Editions can run as high as $1100)
- Weight: At 31 lbs it it is the lightest amp in our Affordable Worship Guitar Amps Test
- Tone: This amp has great tone. Very well balanced.
- Durability: Unless you fry a circuit board these things are nearly indestructible.
Cons
- Tone: While this is a well balanced amp it still falls short of achieving that boutique amp tone that some of the lower end Vox’s can.
- Image: Well playing a blues junior might not make your buddies’ jaws drop hearing it might. In the end it is all way you are using it for anyway.
Should You Buy One?
If you play at a smaller church or need to keep it quiet at home this could be the amp for you. These amps are super light and are not bulky to carry around. If you value clean headroom and want to stick within the same tonal family we recommend going with a Hot Rod Deluxe. If you are a guitarist who likes a brighter amp with a little more jangle stick to a Vox AC30 or Vox AC15.
If you play a Fender Blues Junior let us know your favorite settings as well as what pedals and guitars you use in the comments section below.
3 Comments
I love my blues junior. I just recently purchased it and I got the red wine edition with the eminence speaker that seems to keep super clean even when I push it which I love.
I run my stratocasters through it (Japanese 1986 and 1989) and they seem to compliment each other.
My pedal chain is a Route 66, em drive, TS-9 tube screamer, boss dd-5, neunaber slate and a Dunlop TS-1 tremolo. I also have my tuner and colume pedal chucked in their as well.
Overall I love the way this amp responds and has just the right volume for my church as our amps are on stage as we don’t have an amp room.
Cheers, Jesse.
I always avoided Fender amps…for years. When I went off to college I stopped in a guitar store to get an amp and there was a dude working there who used to play in Hillsong United years back. He insisted I check out the Blues Jr (portable, inexpensive, great sounding). I trusted his lead and man am I glad. I’ve now been playing these amps for 6 years. I have no interest in any other amp under $1000. I push this amp hard with a full pedal rig including 2 boosts and 2 drives and it takes it quite well. True, most people sorta look at me weird when I show up with a little Blues Jr, but when I play I get tons of tone compliments. I had a local amp repair guy do some sweet little mods that made everything just a bit better (added a standby switch, upgraded transformers and capacitors, etc.)
I often tell people until I have a lot more money for a boutique amp I’m more than happy sticking with this Blues Jr. I will say you gotta play them before you buy them…I find they can be great, but the sound is not consistent between amps. Play 3 and pick the best one!
Its a very cool amp and possibly the best option you have in that price range. I’ve always thought that amps with no master volume have something special.