I keep sending my friend these videos and warning him that he should let me do some preventative maintenance on his Blues Jr before it goes ip in smoke.
I remember a gig years ago, the front man had a Blues Junior and it blew during sound check. Fortunately someone had one of those portable amp heads that are small enough to throw in the gig bag for just such emergencies and the show went on. Too bad these amps aren't more rock-solid because when they work, they are a great little lightweight amp that is still light enough to fit behind the front seat of the car. It fills a niche.
This is what I think about the blues junior, hot rod deluxe, blues deluxe reissue series: I own the fender blues deluxe reissue, I bought it used and fortunately the amp had not been used much because it is in near mint condition and no burns yet on the insides. I would love to own a premium tube amp but as an intermediate guitarist/singer songwriter just starting out this amp serves my needs and budget at the time when I got it and I like the sound of the amp too. This series is used a lot by players who are just starting out getting their first gigs. It's too bad that there significant are known quality issues, I want to have the preventative maintenance done to my blues deluxe reissue. Thanks for the videos!
Hi Lyle, thank you for the tip about the ET 65, best thing to happen to my deluxe reverb ever! Hey, careful with those probes, I don’t trust those things over 200 V; they leak. You the best!
I have a Carvin Vintage 16 with two EL84's and is also fixed biased. I think it is a similar design as the Blues Jr. Per their specs, the amp should be biased with about 20 milliamps per output tube. I used the output transformer resistance method to determine the bias is around 60% idle plate dissipation at about 22 milliamps. So far so good, and it sounds great thru an external speaker cabinet with larger dimensions and a Jensen speaker, not the Celestion Vintage 30 that came with it.
hi. as a tube rolling artist the blues jr used to be my nemesis as well , ive tried lowering the gain or the midrange by swapping tubes to try and tame it but it turned out even worst... my solution: to bump the lower mids and tame the highs by using a vintage mullard i63 at v1 and pressing the fat switch at all times. i know it's an overkill but it's not as expensive as you might think. a used tested strong tube is under 100$ on ebay these days it will last thousands of hours and you will be able to use the bridge pickup on your strat without fatigue, the amp will also work with drive pedals way better and never get fizzy. all that without losing clarity that's the magic of old mullards.
Those chinese tubes are branded "shuguan" and a lot of amps come with them (VOX, marshall, some laney, almost all chinese amps). Great video, thank you very much for sharing.
I’ve got a Blues Jr IV about 2 yrs old. Only use it for at home practice. Had to replace the EL84s after about 1 year. Recently was experiencing significant buzzing, hum and crackling. I suspected a bad speaker plug and/or jack, so I connected an IronMan II mini using a quality adapter and speaker cables. Buzz/hum and crackling disappeared. So a successful workaround fix, but not really a solution. I’m not a tech - tightening jacks and changing tubes is the limit of what I’ll do. I live in northeast WI, between Green Bay (the body of water) and Lake Michigan. The closest tech I would trust going to is 200 miles away in Milwaukee. In remote areas such as where I live it’s really hard to locate qualified technicians. Lyle, if there is someone in this part of the world (within 100 miles of Green Bay(the city)) that you recommend I would greatly appreciate it.
Lyle, I have one of these on my bench right now for this exact issue. The blown tube and fuse didn't seem to take out the screen grid resistors though, nothing else seems to be affected. Would just cooling the bias be enough on this, or would you still change out those screen grid resistors for the 1ks? Trying to give levels of options, but also give a base level of protection.
Up the screen grids to 2W 1Ks mounted with an air gap, cool the bias to 55-60%, and make sure the blue primary wire is distant from the ribbon cable so there isn’t oscillation.
I was a Fender service center for 34 years and I've worked on many dozens of the Blues Jr's. Yes they have odd problems at times, and a number of pcb variations, but are very "repairable" and useable. A client recently, who is in a (I won't mention names) group, that has been around for 35+ years has 2 Blues Jr.'s and takes them out on tours often. I repaired them both some months ago before a tour. I have certain "mods" that make them reliable and sound great. So I respectfully disagree with your attitude towards them. I retired 2 years ago but still have a clientele of many Fender owners.
Hello Lyle, I have watched many of your amp repair videos on your TH-cam channel. One I viewed, you showed how you had a guitar plugged into an amp, I believe it was a fender model amp. You turn on the power switch and than shortly after you took the amp off of standby and let the amp warm up to full power. Once that happen, you removed the power source while strumming the guitar and leaving both the power and standby switches in the on position. You strummed the guitar until there was no more amplified sound coming from the amp. This effectively dissipates the stored voltage from the capacitors, which you verified with your multimeter that no voltage was present at that point on all capacitors. Since you’re not going to work on fender blue jr anymore. I’ve got a question for you. Does the same procedure work on a blues Junior that does not have a standby switch? If not. What is the safest and best way that you used on a blues junior to actually dissipate the storage voltage on the capacitors so it’s safe for you to work on?? Thank you for your time lyle.
When you said, "I might be changing out the IC's" I thought, "I didn;t know those were digital amps". Figured it out right away LOL. So much value in your videos. Thanks again!
I warned my brother in law not to buy one. But he's a knob, so he bought it. Actually, he's too cheap so my sister bought it.. hilariously, when it fries itself, he will bring it to a long and mquade and get soaked, and they will not correct anything.. He will continually ask me if I like it, and put me in a spot where I either have to lie or tell him it's garbage, and fender is laughing at him. 😅
The ones that come with are quite good. This expands your options: www.amazon.com/BOCEUC-Multimeter-Alligator-Electronic-Accessories/dp/B0BGJ93P33?pd_rd_w=kmVhp&content-id=amzn1.sym.e3825789-e6f0-4fb1-a407-ff4674fea50d&pf_rd_p=e3825789-e6f0-4fb1-a407-ff4674fea50d&pf_rd_r=WP8EECQ3KJ2RN6MFCYCW&pd_rd_wg=eMEKR&pd_rd_r=a4afbe56-556a-4bb9-ac95-ca0356dc8c4e&pd_rd_i=B0BGJ93P33&psc=1&ref_=pd_basp_m_rpt_ba_s_1_cp_sc
For less more money I can get 10,000 hour 105C rated radial caps. For more money I can sometimes find 20,000 hour 105C radial caps. Non polar electrolytic caps are by design limited to 2000 hours @ 85C or 105C. I just had to get one for a Marshall amp. And yes the bipolar/nonpolar caps actually are just two electrolytic caps wired back to back - to - and then they get aged that way, so don't try making one yourself.
Tubes are a wear item, mannnnnn. Big Amp Tech just doesn’t want you to know that, mannnnnnnnnn I’m surprised the tube PCB isn’t burnt up by the looks of that JJ.
Blues Deluxe, Hot Rod Deluxe, Red Knob Twins, or in other words any Fender PCB populated with barely adequate to inadequate cheapest components are POS. A working daily gigging musician in a club is lucky if these amps last beyond five years if that Fender claims Made in USA but how do we know the IC Brand Caps aren’t made in China, we’re there is an Illinois Capacitor factory? I’ve seen the use of 60% made in the USA in some advertising, but for even the US Fender hand wired amps with a Jensen Speaker (Jensen when I last checked is owned by an Italian company) no states made in The USA…Tubes aren’t of course, but where are the cabinets made? Are the components in the circuits US? For a $3k+ amp. Here’s the FTC What is the standard for a product to be called Made in USA without qualification? For a product to be called Made in USA, or claimed to be of domestic origin without qualifications or limits on the claim, the product must be “all or virtually all” made in the U.S. The term “United States,” as referred to in the Enforcement Policy Statement, includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories and possessions. What does “all or virtually all” mean? “All or virtually all” means that all significant parts and processing that go into the product must be of U.S. origin. That is, the product should contain no - or negligible - foreign content.,
Sad that the Pcb was designed by an unschooled person . Mistakes done in the 60's should not still happen in the 2020's . Learning can be so slow but must keep happening to move forward. Totally understand why no more juniors.
I suspect that the pcb was "designed" by someone who was schooled, they just either: a. weren't paying attention, b. didn't care, or c. were told to keep the parts and build prices(i.e. mount all the parts identically, ignoring heat issues) as low as possible. Cheers, Alan Tomlinson
@@PsionicAudio The real "thanks" is to YOU for all you do to help us who are learning so much from your videos. BTW I recently acquired a Blues Jr. in a trade, and am enjoying it, though after seeing this video I realize that it needs a checkout by a qualified tech, to see if there are issues now or coming soon. Again, thank you for all your hard work.
POS ! The way these amps sound the best is when it's turned off . Just because it says Fender on it , and has tubes in it don't mean 💩 anymore ! 😮 Tried to gig once with one of these turds . Had to drive home to get backup amp from gig 4 songs in . Dumped the amp on Monday after the weekend. 😅
Really learning from you, one day I’ll try. Been an electrician for 30 years nice to see craftsmanship isn’t totally dead ‼️🇺🇸
I gigged with a Blues Jnr for a while (circa 2010/2011) and really enjoyed it. Fascinating look under the hood!
That resistor has seen things 😂
" . . . attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion . . . "
Cheers,
Alan Tomlinson
"I've seen fire, and I've felt pain....."
"I'm tired boss..."
I keep sending my friend these videos and warning him that he should let me do some preventative maintenance on his Blues Jr before it goes ip in smoke.
I remember a gig years ago, the front man had a Blues Junior and it blew during sound check. Fortunately someone had one of those portable amp heads that are small enough to throw in the gig bag for just such emergencies and the show went on. Too bad these amps aren't more rock-solid because when they work, they are a great little lightweight amp that is still light enough to fit behind the front seat of the car. It fills a niche.
Not just yours, but the nemesis of all who own/have owned one.
So glad I got rid of mine after only a couple months.
Never had a problem with mine over 10 years regular gigs and practice.
This is what I think about the blues junior, hot rod deluxe, blues deluxe reissue series: I own the fender blues deluxe reissue, I bought it used and fortunately the amp had not been used much because it is in near mint condition and no burns yet on the insides. I would love to own a premium tube amp but as an intermediate guitarist/singer songwriter just starting out this amp serves my needs and budget at the time when I got it and I like the sound of the amp too. This series is used a lot by players who are just starting out getting their first gigs. It's too bad that there significant are known quality issues, I want to have the preventative maintenance done to my blues deluxe reissue. Thanks for the videos!
Thanks for posting
Hi Lyle, thank you for the tip about the ET 65, best thing to happen to my deluxe reverb ever! Hey, careful with those probes, I don’t trust those things over 200 V; they leak. You the best!
Glad to hear it. I’ve not had any issues with these probes but I’ll keep an eye out. Thanks.
Another video of learning something new and once known.
Deja blues
but...but...but....it's finished and tested!!! It says so right on the board. What could go wrong...
I have a Carvin Vintage 16 with two EL84's and is also fixed biased. I think it is a similar design as the Blues Jr. Per their specs, the amp should be biased with about 20 milliamps per output tube. I used the output transformer resistance method to determine the bias is around 60% idle plate dissipation at about 22 milliamps. So far so good, and it sounds great thru an external speaker cabinet with larger dimensions and a Jensen speaker, not the Celestion Vintage 30 that came with it.
hi. as a tube rolling artist the blues jr used to be my nemesis as well , ive tried lowering the gain or the midrange by swapping tubes to try and tame it but it turned out even worst... my solution: to bump the lower mids and tame the highs by using a vintage mullard i63 at v1 and pressing the fat switch at all times. i know it's an overkill but it's not as expensive as you might think. a used tested strong tube is under 100$ on ebay these days it will last thousands of hours and you will be able to use the bridge pickup on your strat without fatigue, the amp will also work with drive pedals way better and never get fizzy. all that without losing clarity that's the magic of old mullards.
Those chinese tubes are branded "shuguan" and a lot of amps come with them (VOX, marshall, some laney, almost all chinese amps). Great video, thank you very much for sharing.
Thank you.
I’ve got a Blues Jr IV about 2 yrs old. Only use it for at home practice. Had to replace the EL84s after about 1 year. Recently was experiencing significant buzzing, hum and crackling. I suspected a bad speaker plug and/or jack, so I connected an IronMan II mini using a quality adapter and speaker cables. Buzz/hum and crackling disappeared. So a successful workaround fix, but not really a solution. I’m not a tech - tightening jacks and changing tubes is the limit of what I’ll do. I live in northeast WI, between Green Bay (the body of water) and Lake Michigan. The closest tech I would trust going to is 200 miles away in Milwaukee. In remote areas such as where I live it’s really hard to locate qualified technicians. Lyle, if there is someone in this part of the world (within 100 miles of Green Bay(the city)) that you recommend I would greatly appreciate it.
Lyle, I have one of these on my bench right now for this exact issue. The blown tube and fuse didn't seem to take out the screen grid resistors though, nothing else seems to be affected. Would just cooling the bias be enough on this, or would you still change out those screen grid resistors for the 1ks? Trying to give levels of options, but also give a base level of protection.
Up the screen grids to 2W 1Ks mounted with an air gap, cool the bias to 55-60%, and make sure the blue primary wire is distant from the ribbon cable so there isn’t oscillation.
@@PsionicAudio Got it, thanks.
😎👍👍
Should be called the Blues Lightening...!😉👍
I’m gonna send you my pro junior…
Hello, I was just wondering if the Bias mod kit from RSD Sound is worth installing in the Blues Jr? If so what value should I put the bais at?
I was a Fender service center for 34 years and I've worked on many dozens of the Blues Jr's. Yes they have odd problems at times, and a number of pcb variations, but are very "repairable" and useable. A client recently, who is in a (I won't mention names) group, that has been around for 35+ years has 2 Blues Jr.'s and takes them out on tours often. I repaired them both some months ago before a tour. I have certain "mods" that make them reliable and sound great. So I respectfully disagree with your attitude towards them. I retired 2 years ago but still have a clientele of many Fender owners.
Hello Lyle, I have watched many of your amp repair videos on your TH-cam channel.
One I viewed, you showed how you had a guitar plugged into an amp, I believe it was a fender model amp. You turn on the power switch and than shortly after you took the amp off of standby and let the amp warm up to full power.
Once that happen, you removed the power source while strumming the guitar and leaving both the power and standby switches in the on position.
You strummed the guitar until there was no more amplified sound coming from the amp.
This effectively dissipates the stored voltage from the capacitors, which you verified with your multimeter that no voltage was present at that point on all capacitors.
Since you’re not going to work on fender blue jr anymore. I’ve got a question for you.
Does the same procedure work on a blues Junior that does not have a standby switch?
If not.
What is the safest and best way that you used on a blues junior to actually dissipate the storage voltage on the capacitors so it’s safe for you to work on??
Thank you for your time lyle.
Yes, it does. Just make sure you confirm with a meter afterwards.
When you said, "I might be changing out the IC's" I thought, "I didn;t know those were digital amps". Figured it out right away LOL.
So much value in your videos. Thanks again!
I warned my brother in law not to buy one. But he's a knob, so he bought it. Actually, he's too cheap so my sister bought it.. hilariously, when it fries itself, he will bring it to a long and mquade and get soaked, and they will not correct anything..
He will continually ask me if I like it, and put me in a spot where I either have to lie or tell him it's garbage, and fender is laughing at him.
😅
Have Fender ever called you up and asked if you could show them how to design a PCB amp??
I have one of the thsinde multimeters on your recommendation, what probes do you use as an upgrade to the ones that come stock?
what meter is that?
The ones that come with are quite good. This expands your options:
www.amazon.com/BOCEUC-Multimeter-Alligator-Electronic-Accessories/dp/B0BGJ93P33?pd_rd_w=kmVhp&content-id=amzn1.sym.e3825789-e6f0-4fb1-a407-ff4674fea50d&pf_rd_p=e3825789-e6f0-4fb1-a407-ff4674fea50d&pf_rd_r=WP8EECQ3KJ2RN6MFCYCW&pd_rd_wg=eMEKR&pd_rd_r=a4afbe56-556a-4bb9-ac95-ca0356dc8c4e&pd_rd_i=B0BGJ93P33&psc=1&ref_=pd_basp_m_rpt_ba_s_1_cp_sc
Ted:
www.amazon.com/Ranging-Digital-Multimeter-Battery-Alligator/dp/B07R39SQWH?pd_rd_w=kmVhp&content-id=amzn1.sym.e3825789-e6f0-4fb1-a407-ff4674fea50d&pf_rd_p=e3825789-e6f0-4fb1-a407-ff4674fea50d&pf_rd_r=WP8EECQ3KJ2RN6MFCYCW&pd_rd_wg=eMEKR&pd_rd_r=a4afbe56-556a-4bb9-ac95-ca0356dc8c4e&pd_rd_i=B07R39SQWH&psc=1&ref_=pd_basp_m_rpt_ba_s_2_sc
@@PsionicAudio Thanks!
Does anyone make a blues junior, but good?
For less more money I can get 10,000 hour 105C rated radial caps. For more money I can sometimes find 20,000 hour 105C radial caps. Non polar electrolytic caps are by design limited to 2000 hours @ 85C or 105C. I just had to get one for a Marshall amp. And yes the bipolar/nonpolar caps actually are just two electrolytic caps wired back to back - to - and then they get aged that way, so don't try making one yourself.
Tubes are a wear item, mannnnnn.
Big Amp Tech just doesn’t want you to know that, mannnnnnnnnn
I’m surprised the tube PCB isn’t burnt up by the looks of that JJ.
I don't know... that sounds like something that Big Standby Switch would say.... super sus 🤣
@@GetTheLedOut8585 The one thing that's right with the Blues Jr! No standby switch!
Blues Deluxe, Hot Rod Deluxe, Red Knob Twins, or in other words any Fender PCB populated with barely adequate to inadequate cheapest components are POS. A working daily gigging musician in a club is lucky if these amps last beyond five years if that
Fender claims Made in USA but how do we know the IC Brand Caps aren’t made in China, we’re there is an Illinois Capacitor factory?
I’ve seen the use of 60% made in the USA in some advertising, but for even the US Fender hand wired amps with a Jensen Speaker (Jensen when I last checked is owned by an Italian company) no states made in The USA…Tubes aren’t of course, but where are the cabinets made? Are the components in the circuits US? For a $3k+ amp.
Here’s the FTC
What is the standard for a product to be called Made in USA without qualification?
For a product to be called Made in USA, or claimed to be of domestic origin without qualifications or limits on the claim, the product must be “all or virtually all” made in the U.S. The term “United States,” as referred to in the Enforcement Policy Statement, includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories and possessions.
What does “all or virtually all” mean?
“All or virtually all” means that all significant parts and processing that go into the product must be of U.S. origin. That is, the product should contain no - or negligible - foreign content.,
yeah man
Ridiculous 😂
Sad that the Pcb was designed by an unschooled person . Mistakes done in the 60's should not still happen in the 2020's . Learning can be so slow but must keep happening to move forward. Totally understand why no more juniors.
I suspect that the pcb was "designed" by someone who was schooled, they just either: a. weren't paying attention, b. didn't care, or c. were told to keep the parts and build prices(i.e. mount all the parts identically, ignoring heat issues) as low as possible.
Cheers,
Alan Tomlinson
@@diegorhoenisch62 Since high voltage and high current was not well covered one can only think the "schooling" was not enough.
We know what Deja vu means. You don't need to say "all over again". Ffs!
It’s a Yogi Berra quote, FFS. You can un-twist your panties.
"He woulda had him at second, but he slud...."
@@PsionicAudio Berra, not Barra, FFS 😀. And the title of a John Fogerty song.
Phone “corrected” me again. Grr. Thanks.
@@PsionicAudio The real "thanks" is to YOU for all you do to help us who are learning so much from your videos. BTW I recently acquired a Blues Jr. in a trade, and am enjoying it, though after seeing this video I realize that it needs a checkout by a qualified tech, to see if there are issues now or coming soon. Again, thank you for all your hard work.
The tech who worked on my vintage Fenders told me, he'll only work on point to point amps.
Because he doesn't have the skill to work on modern PCB's? Or maybe his eyesight is failing.
@@Nic1963D no, he said he's old and doesn't have the time left for bullshit.
@@jeffsquires6620 Because he doesn't have the skill to work on modern PCB's and learning is apparently BS.
@Nic1963D said he's too old for bullshit and doesn't want to charge me alot of money. I'm a valuable customer.
POS ! The way these amps sound the best is when it's turned off . Just because it says Fender on it , and has tubes in it don't mean 💩 anymore ! 😮 Tried to gig once with one of these turds . Had to drive home to get backup amp from gig 4 songs in . Dumped the amp on Monday after the weekend. 😅