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fender blues junior

:

6/16/1999 2:55 PM

fender blues junior

I am a novice with tubes so go easy on me. I recently

picked up a Fender blues junior amp 15 watter. Nice, clean

sound , but can I acheive more of a "browner sound "

by swapping out the pre-amp tubes ? If I turn the master

up all the way and kick in the fat-switch it starts in the right

direction, but I want more. It has 3 Sovtek 12ax7wa in the

pre-amp stage . Or should I just add a pedal?

thanks,

(someone that likes to tweak, but not too handy)

6/16/1999 7:32 PM

Few people easier than me, so I'll go first.

First point to make is that there are as many shades of "brown" with players, as there are shades of "red" on the lipstick display stand. A default recommendation about what to get YOUR idea of brown is probably not in the cards.

With 3 12AX7's on board, there are certainly plenty of possibilities for modding, but the most expedient thing to do is to simply goose the input with a pedal. Chances are the pedal will have some tone shaping, so between the tone shaping on the pedal and amp, the odds are you can get what you want. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, even just a straight gain pedal.

Just as important, if you don't like the pedal, you can always sell it. If you screw around with the amp, and you don't like it, then you have to put in the work to get it back the way it was.

Now, ask me how many things I have sitting in my basement in unusable form because I just wanted to mod this one little thing, and never found time to finish it.

6/16/1999 10:43 PM
Steve A.	John: The Sovtek 12AX7WA tubes have less gain than their newer version, the 12AX7WXT+. I like the WXT+ for V1, the Sovtek 12AX7WB for V2, and a GT 12AX7A (= NOS GE 12AX7WA) for V3 for amps like that. Like Mark suggested, you might try to find a stomp box that pushes your amp further into overdrive. Steve Ahola

6/17/1999 4:19 AM
Joe Fuzz	Steve, wasn't there a text file at your site detailing some mods that would make this amp more of an apartment amp? - Joe

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