So many of the comments seem to be people reading the title without watching the video. Of course tubes amps should be fine left on overnight. Or for longer periods of time. Nowhere in the video do I say "it failed because it was left on overnight." It was oscillating, which might have been exacerbated by being left on. It's the title because that was the owner's problem description. Given how hot Blues Juniors can run, it was not an unreasonable concern. But I am not saying that leaving an amp on overnight should be any worry. I routinely test amps for 12 hours.
Regardless of how the owner mislabeled the problem deciding to use those words as your title certainly suggests that leaving your tube amp on overnight will cause problems. And nowhere in your video do you ever address that leaving your amp on all night should not cause problems. By neglecting to do so the comments are entirely reasonable and should come as no surprise. The comments came from viewers who watched the video and were left scratching their heads.
But for those skeptical about "amp was left on" as issue, have a look at Stuart's UK Amps *non-repair* of a Bassbreaker left on for a few weeks (yes, weeks). th-cam.com/video/cX6vtCLoiP4/w-d-xo.html Ouch.
I got a blues jnr IV my first tube amp, should I keep it out of sunlight? I have it near the window and the sun beams on the back should I move it? Also just wanted to know if a sans amp pedal would sound good on one of these?
That makes it tough. I accidentally left an old 50watt vintage Fender bass amp on in my music room for a week. The room got about 95 degrees. Still works…
i went to chicago for a week and left my 1954 tweed champ on...got so hot the tubes fell out...put em back in ...still using it.....btw...that was 1987 !!!!
Same tubes all these years later? If so, you may want to at least order some backups while the technology still exists;) I’ve heard talk lately of people gutting amps just to sell the tubes!
No shit,man. I have a tendency to have a whiskey or five when I play. I have left every fucking amp I ever owned on overnight,if the amp can’t handle that shit ,sell it and get a good amp.
The only downside to leaving your amp on is the life hours on the tubes and perhaps your hydro bill. But considering I’ve done this countless times on my 60’s fender with original tubes, after 50 years I’d say 24 hours of burn in is negligible 😅. My uneducated guess here might be that it got warm enough, long enough that those ribbon cables plastic might have softened and shifted position from the wire’s ‘memory’
So many times with so many different amplifiers yeah I leave them on all the time. That’s happened with a couple that I built and when I came back I was all the more happier-plug-in and play maybe give it a couple light kicks to see if anything makes noise and keep on playing. My little home studio stuff stays on all day sometimes, even my computer-then when I shut it down it’s sort of bad because it does all the stuff that it was supposed to do when It was supposed to be shut off because I don’t have it programmed right…Can’t get back into it for a couple hours ha ha
Back in the day all audio equipment was tube powered and some of that stuff ran 24/7. Shouldn't be a problem but with how cheaply things are made today...
the issue is, and always has been that the tubes lie under the chassis rather than on top pointing to the sky...heat rises and degrades the other components
By accident you started a conversation , no many conversations about leaving amps on ., that’s ok though Let them squak ., Thanks I learned a lot and enjoyed your sharing your knowledge with us
I played one of these one day, and i really liked it, kinda dissapointed to see the pcb and the ribbon cables. Thats awesome how you eliminated all the noise by tightening stuff up and moving stuff around....awesome!
@@joeltunnah It only makes it more difficult if your retarded, It doesn't really cause any issues, and they are more reliable that a point to point amp. the use of a pcb as a medium instead of coated wires doesn't make it a computer,. It means that its going to be consistent,
Exactly why I got one last month....love it. The Roland Blues Cube is supposed to be a tip-top solid state amp...and mine is great by any standard...but my Jr sounds a bit more 'real' to me if that's even a thing.
The chassis screws were not even finger tight when I bought my Blues Deluxe second hand. It was so new that it still smelled like glue. I’m sure someone bought it and traded it in immediately afterwards. It’s a great amp after a speaker change and 10 mins with a screwdriver
Yeah to be fair the stock eminence speaker is a bit harsh I found. And the volume pot is a bit touchy but used an attenuator in mine and put in a celestion alnico cream and it turned into a full blooded blues machine, such sweet tones I haven't been able to replicate even with an EC twinolux
Yeah, with the cap removed it sort of sounds muffled and midrangy in comparison. But everyone's got different tastes. Generally I prefer darker sounding amps, but agree that especially with the clean stuff he was playing, the bright sounded OK.
An IC rep assured me before we bought a new batch of electrolytics that the new CDE-Era blue caps were free of the issues plaguing the old gray ones that caused them to leak. I haven’t built amps for quite a number of years, and this conversation took place in 2016, so I guess we’ll see how the blue IC caps are holding up…
As nice as these amps look/sound. The Poor PCB and layout always stirs me away from them and made me save up for a nice handwired amp that will be easy to service if/when something fails. Had a blues deluxe have terrible PCB burn marks. Got rid of it and got a 57 twin with 0 issues since I’ve gotten it.
Ive had 3 BJs and 2 Pro Jrs. Great concept but cheaply made. I now own a Yerasov GTA15. The Rusdian answer to the BJ/Pro. So much more headroom. BJs start to compress after 4/5 on volume. The Rusky just gets angry and starts sonding more like my JTM 45. This makes me happy.
This is fascinating to watch especially your reflection in the chrome. And your playing is excellent and tasteful. Track some music for ambience during your videos.
Thanks Mark! Sometimes I use previously recorded bits from other videos in the background, but I don't have time to make essentially an album's worth of BG music for the videos. I looked into the free backing tracks available, and they suck hard. Tried to use a friend's music and his publisher struck the video, even though my friend gave me permission.
My hearing isn't very good. I can do without the background ambience, and prefer clear annunciation during informative vids like this one. Nice job, great audio and video. Excellent troubleshooting approach!
you would be right, i have seen a lot of them break, not in amps because i don't work on those much. i service automation equipment and believe me i have had to hand wire with individual wires so many devices because these dogshits break where the insulation stops and it creates a stressing point there, disconecting from the pcb. imagine the grid wire to fail, RIP tube, worse yet if you have a NOS in there.
Bright cap - C3 - too bad you couldn't have drilled a hole somewhere for a mini toggle to put it in/out of circuit. On your Guitar playing - I'm a bass player and I've become pretty proficient at it over the last 50 years. I own a six string Fender Mustang that my parents bought for me used in 1967. To this day all I can play on it are simple chords, and finger picking is out of the question for me. Your playing is very nice. 🙂
paul.....i would love an original mustang -or any instrument from the 60s ....just cos its part of that era ......if you ever want to sell it -let me know !
I had a Tweed Blues Junior years ago. Great sounding amp but it had some component failures. I had to get it fixed twice. After the 2nd time I sold it. I guess I just got a bad one. I'd probably buy another one as it's a great amp.
Wait, how did the ribbon cable move from being left on over night? I just bought one yesterday and now I think I may need to hire security or ghost busters.
The tone controls on my Blues Jr. III work, but they’re…..subtle. Is that common with these amps? I'd recently installed a Fromel 'Supreme' kit, and I didn't really take notice of how effective the tone controls were beforehand..... Thanks!
This is useful and helpful for the tube amp modiers like me. If I increase the value of the C3 capacitor, would it brighten up the amp, as oppose to what you did?
As the value of C3 increases it won't be a bright cap so much as an upper mids cap and then as you go larger a partial bypass where you'll have crazy gain. Experiment - won't hurt a thing.
Overnight = three or four playing jobs = shouldn't be an issue. Amps in venues, that get used by everyone, get a major hammering and most in my experience are Fender.
I would have liked to see you move the ribbons back closer to the blue wire to confirm your suspicion and rule out an intermittent connection at the ends of the ribbon cables.
Overnight? Big deal. My brother accidentally left his Blackstar club 20 combo on for 5 days straight. That was a year and a half ago. Still works, still original tubes. I think the B's Jr will survive.
My father was a nuclear weapon Specialist in the air force with 33 Years service after WW2 who Supervised and oversaw the Maintenance and repair on Weapons carried by B-52 Bombers. Whenever possible Electronic testing and analytic Devices in the shop were left On. And yes, in the early days Of nuclear weapons both the Weapons and planes relied on Tube technology. Always on Was preferable to on and off.
@1:38, it is evident that some manual soldering happened. There is a pool of flux between two very shiny joints. Shiny solder joints with flux pool-manual soldering (probably purple and red wire [maybe white wire instead of red?]) Wave solder joints are cloudier (but still effective) and are not cold-solder joints. You skipped over that observation, but it tells me that something else was swapped out, either at the factory, or by a user. I only thought this was significant because later, you moved the ribbon cable away from the purple wire and the hum went away. I’d research that purple wire mod a little more closely.
I’m fairly new to your channel. Great and informative videos. When replacing the 3 large filter caps would it be beneficial to add some smaller high quality film bypass capacitors Just curious on what your thoughts are? Thanks
curious if you've ever done a bias mod on one of these and cooled it down a tad? If so, what are your thoughts? I tinker on amps, and have a friend that has 2 blues juniors. He's had me do all sorts of mods to one, and left the other stock. Some people don't care for it, but I think cooling down the bias a tad helps get a bit more of that signature fender spank. I think I also did some sort of tone mod that really "opened up" the sound. Been in and out of it quite a bit over the years, hard to remember what all I've done to it now, lol... Edit, just got to the point of the video you talk about the bias and tone mod.... it really does make them "feel" like a bigger amp. I always called those "bright" caps, "thin" caps instead, heh. Also another thing I've found. Never push the little "fat" "drive" "whatever" buttons these series of amps had.
The "Fat" engages a cathode bypass cap for the second triode stage. It can make the amp have less hum if you engage it and keep the volume pot lower. But run it any way you like the sound. I have a video on an easy way to cool the bias. Look in the Hot Rods and Blues playlist.
Awesome video. How do you think these amps sit in a mix with the bright cap off? It's definitely more pleasant for playing at home with that bright cap off.
Where are you located? I may want you to look at my Stageright 15 watt, see if there is a tube bias that can be done or anything to improvement it that little bit more like you did here in the blues jr.
I almost always use a brightcap, because thenI can turn down the treble a bit which gives a thicker sound on Fenders. But........very low value mostly, about 47pF-80pF and old 50's mica caps. And weather I use one or not will be very independent of what speaker is in there. For instance my 68Custom DeluxeReverb I just bought lacks the brightcap and I need to one because of the Celestion speaker that is not as bright as a Jensen, and not bright enough for my taste(I am used to old Fenders)
I have a question. I have an old Ampeg Reverberocket and if shine a flashlight in the back, it excites one tube and it makes a clear tone (a D note). Only one tube and only one led flashlight. Weird.
New sub, excellent video! When taming the bias down on a Blues Junior, do you recommend somewhere around 75% in order to sweeten the sound a little bit?
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So many of the comments seem to be people reading the title without watching the video.
Of course tubes amps should be fine left on overnight. Or for longer periods of time.
Nowhere in the video do I say "it failed because it was left on overnight." It was oscillating, which might have been exacerbated by being left on.
It's the title because that was the owner's problem description.
Given how hot Blues Juniors can run, it was not an unreasonable concern.
But I am not saying that leaving an amp on overnight should be any worry. I routinely test amps for 12 hours.
Regardless of how the owner mislabeled the problem deciding to use those words as your title certainly suggests that leaving your tube amp on overnight will cause problems. And nowhere in your video do you ever address that leaving your amp on all night should not cause problems. By neglecting to do so the comments are entirely reasonable and should come as no surprise. The comments came from viewers who watched the video and were left scratching their heads.
A lot of people on the internet are not interested in watching a video, they just want to hear themselves talk.
But for those skeptical about "amp was left on" as issue, have a look at Stuart's UK Amps *non-repair* of a Bassbreaker left on for a few weeks (yes, weeks). th-cam.com/video/cX6vtCLoiP4/w-d-xo.html Ouch.
It’s not a political click bait title… people need to chill.
I once accidentally left my vintage V4B on for a week (in standby) in my rehearsal space... no problems...
I use mine as a space heater in the winter.
😁
I feel you man. If I know I'm gunna be playing for a while, I turn my heat down like 10 degrees lmao
Lol thats funny and probably tru
When I wash my jeans I lay them on the floor, put the amp on them overnight. Drys them and puts a good crease in them as well.
I got a blues jnr IV my first tube amp, should I keep it out of sunlight? I have it near the window and the sun beams on the back should I move it? Also just wanted to know if a sans amp pedal would sound good on one of these?
People like you should be treasured.
That makes it tough. I accidentally left an old 50watt vintage Fender bass amp on in my music room for a week. The room got about 95 degrees. Still works…
I had an old Fender PA, I left it on for about two years just for the beauty of the sound it put out.
Good to hear your room still works.
i went to chicago for a week and left my 1954 tweed champ on...got so hot the tubes fell out...put em back in ...still using it.....btw...that was 1987 !!!!
Your story is another confirmation of the old adage that “they sure don’t make ‘em like they used to!”
Same tubes all these years later? If so, you may want to at least order some backups while the technology still exists;)
I’ve heard talk lately of people gutting amps just to sell the tubes!
The old tubes last like this unlike the current offerings generally, and usually sound better as well
I have an ARIA digital delay I turned on in 1985 and it's still on and working perfect.
I’ve left mine on overnight so many times I can’t count still sounds awesome
I have a deluxe. Same same lol.
No shit,man. I have a tendency to have a whiskey or five when I play. I have left every fucking amp I ever owned on overnight,if the amp can’t handle that shit ,sell it and get a good amp.
The only downside to leaving your amp on is the life hours on the tubes and perhaps your hydro bill. But considering I’ve done this countless times on my 60’s fender with original tubes, after 50 years I’d say 24 hours of burn in is negligible 😅.
My uneducated guess here might be that it got warm enough, long enough that those ribbon cables plastic might have softened and shifted position from the wire’s ‘memory’
@@kyzor-sosay6087 this guy gets me. 😂
So many times with so many different amplifiers yeah I leave them on all the time.
That’s happened with a couple that I built and when I came back I was all the more happier-plug-in and play maybe give it a couple light kicks to see if anything makes noise and keep on playing.
My little home studio stuff stays on all day sometimes, even my computer-then when I shut it down it’s sort of bad because it does all the stuff that it was supposed to do when It was supposed to be shut off because I don’t have it programmed right…Can’t get back into it for a couple hours ha ha
Back in the day all audio equipment was tube powered and some of that stuff ran 24/7. Shouldn't be a problem but with how cheaply things are made today...
the issue is, and always has been that the tubes lie under the chassis rather than on top pointing to the sky...heat rises and degrades the other components
@@vincentl.9469 bingo. You never see this in tube hi-fi or radio equipment.
As long as the house didn't burn down... It's all good 👍
What a voice man you should be a singer!
Tube Televisions were left on all the time . The screen was even a giant tube. They lasted for years left on.
By accident you started a conversation , no many conversations about leaving amps on ., that’s ok though
Let them squak .,
Thanks I learned a lot and enjoyed your sharing your knowledge with us
This is 100% the reason I bought a Timed Extension Chord.
Are you safe Ms. Gradenko, Ms. Gradenko are you safe? Nice!
Well done. Another satisfied guitar amp owner🎸🎶🎵🎼👍
Absolutely brilliant
I love this electronic stuff that you do and you explain it so well... you should be paid for this instruction.
I really enjoyed this.
I played one of these one day, and i really liked it, kinda dissapointed to see the pcb and the ribbon cables.
Thats awesome how you eliminated all the noise by tightening stuff up and moving stuff around....awesome!
Copper is copper, the pcb and the ribbon cables don't do anything other than make it more consistent from amp to amp and more reliable.
@@blaness13 lol, it's like plugging into a computer. They cause many issues, as you saw in this video, and make repair more difficult.
@@joeltunnah It only makes it more difficult if your retarded,
It doesn't really cause any issues, and they are more reliable that a point to point amp.
the use of a pcb as a medium instead of coated wires doesn't make it a computer,.
It means that its going to be consistent,
I turn my tube amps on in the morning and off at night. Usually over 12 hours, no issues.
I've left my JCM 800 on for a month!
The Blues Jr is my amp…..I just love them. Perfect for me at lower volumes.
Exactly why I got one last month....love it. The Roland Blues Cube is supposed to be a tip-top solid state amp...and mine is great by any standard...but my Jr sounds a bit more 'real' to me if that's even a thing.
And it works for a small club setting too
@@lazvt8469 oh its a thing, i gotta admitt i liked the one i played thru too
The chassis screws were not even finger tight when I bought my Blues Deluxe second hand. It was so new that it still smelled like glue. I’m sure someone bought it and traded it in immediately afterwards. It’s a great amp after a speaker change and 10 mins with a screwdriver
Yeah to be fair the stock eminence speaker is a bit harsh I found. And the volume pot is a bit touchy but used an attenuator in mine and put in a celestion alnico cream and it turned into a full blooded blues machine, such sweet tones I haven't been able to replicate even with an EC twinolux
@@mathewdavies6472 The speaker read Jensen on the back, and it looks like a C12.
Great video I really like how it sounds now that you clipped the bright cap. Now I really want to buy a tweed blues jr 😩 cheers !!
Bright cap removal- very much agreed 👍 Nice job
I play 3-6 hour gigs on a regular basis and have no issues. Tubes loosen up on occasion but no component problems.
Nice detective work! BTW I absolutely love the sound with the bright cap on. I am totally addicted to presence. Have been for 50 years.
Yeah, with the cap removed it sort of sounds muffled and midrangy in comparison. But everyone's got different tastes. Generally I prefer darker sounding amps, but agree that especially with the clean stuff he was playing, the bright sounded OK.
I think it sounded fine with the bright cap removed, but in a band context you will need it.
Sounds excellent. Another inspirational service done. Thanks 🤙
An IC rep assured me before we bought a new batch of electrolytics that the new CDE-Era blue caps were free of the issues plaguing the old gray ones that caused them to leak. I haven’t built amps for quite a number of years, and this conversation took place in 2016, so I guess we’ll see how the blue IC caps are holding up…
I’ve seen leaking blue ICs in relatively new amps.
You got something quite special from 5:58-6:13, the picking, the breakup, the room reverb. Yes, yes, & yes.
Sounds like a slide/pedal steel
Shit I woke up Sunday with my BJr on, electric stove on, a few busted dishes in the hallway. Good night. Amp on in the morning means good night.
As nice as these amps look/sound. The Poor PCB and layout always stirs me away from them and made me save up for a nice handwired amp that will be easy to service if/when something fails. Had a blues deluxe have terrible PCB burn marks. Got rid of it and got a 57 twin with 0 issues since I’ve gotten it.
Ive had 3 BJs and 2 Pro Jrs. Great concept but cheaply made. I now own a Yerasov GTA15. The Rusdian answer to the BJ/Pro. So much more headroom. BJs start to compress after 4/5 on volume. The Rusky just gets angry and starts sonding more like my JTM 45. This makes me happy.
Some nice playing while working on this amp. Kudos
Very informative. Such nice playing too.
Wanting to see all your Blues Jr. stuff.
I have a few really nice amps. The cheapest by far is the blues jr tweed with jenson. I love that little amp.
This is fascinating to watch especially your reflection in the chrome. And your playing is excellent and tasteful. Track some music for ambience during your videos.
Thanks Mark!
Sometimes I use previously recorded bits from other videos in the background, but I don't have time to make essentially an album's worth of BG music for the videos.
I looked into the free backing tracks available, and they suck hard.
Tried to use a friend's music and his publisher struck the video, even though my friend gave me permission.
My hearing isn't very good. I can do without the background ambience, and prefer clear annunciation during informative vids like this one. Nice job, great audio and video. Excellent troubleshooting approach!
Amazing...to me anyways😎👍
Thanks for teaching me a thing or two😎👍
You sir have my 👍and sub😉😎👍
Thanks Richard!
MISS GRADENKO! Thanks for another great video. You’ve informed me about what to watch for in my beloved Fender amps. Big respect 🙏
I’d be more concerned with the effects of continually bending the ribbon cable than with the effects of the blue cable.
you would be right, i have seen a lot of them break, not in amps because i don't work on those much. i service automation equipment and believe me i have had to hand wire with individual wires so many devices because these dogshits break where the insulation stops and it creates a stressing point there, disconecting from the pcb. imagine the grid wire to fail, RIP tube, worse yet if you have a NOS in there.
Your demo picking is intriguing. Thanks!
Great tips and insights on this repair video! Thanks as always!!
One of the most underrated small tube combos best bang for buck. I have one and will probably get another...
I got the Blues Deluxe, and it is sound really great, I am thinking about switching the speaker for a Celestion.
Underrated? I've seen them everywhere and heard endless praise heaped upon them. They really aren't Underrated
I left my 70s peavey on overnight once. Luckily it never had any issues
Its amazing the things you can get away with...
That bright cap - turns the amp from a fairly nice amp into an Ice Picky piece of nasty! The difference is night and day. Great tip
That second coffee can't come soon enough 😩
Bright cap - C3 - too bad you couldn't have drilled a hole somewhere for a mini toggle to put it in/out of circuit. On your Guitar playing - I'm a bass player and I've become pretty proficient at it over the last 50 years. I own a six string Fender Mustang that my parents bought for me used in 1967. To this day all I can play on it are simple chords, and finger picking is out of the question for me. Your playing is very nice. 🙂
paul.....i would love an original mustang -or any instrument from the 60s ....just cos its part of that era ......if you ever want to sell it -let me know !
I have a Blackface '64 Champ (stock) that I once inadvertently left on for over 16 hours. No problems at all. Leo knew how to build 'em.
Leo wasn't building them in '64, he had already been gone for quite some time.
@@ToneFreak Leo sold the company to CBS in 1965.
@@jltrem My bad, your right! For some reason I thought he left in '56. Thanks for cluing me in!
Leo was still with fender until 1971 even though it was sold in 64-65
Man alive! What a huge improvement just removing the bright cap. Makes one wonder? Why Fender put it in there
I think they have a mid switch. The. There is tone roll
I left my ‘59 bassman on once for a whole week. I rehearsed and did not turn it off when i left, found out next week.
6:06(isj) Those licks and that tone! Wow!
Little too bright for my tastes.
Wont the moved ribbon cables melt ftom the backside of the tube socket heat?
Ive had two amps with el84s and both had arcing at the power tubes after a year or two
One fender one vox
I left one of my twin reverbs on for several days one time… didn’t seem to hurt it surprisingly.
Ive done this multiple times with my Super. Never hurt a thing
I had a Tweed Blues Junior years ago. Great sounding amp but it had some component failures. I had to get it fixed twice. After the 2nd time I sold it. I guess I just got a bad one. I'd probably buy another one as it's a great amp.
Wait, how did the ribbon cable move from being left on over night? I just bought one yesterday and now I think I may need to hire security or ghost busters.
Interesting vid, I’ll be back.
I’ve left amps on for days. Never had a problem in 30 years.
thanks for sharing...and YES, its very bright (maybe with a purpose?) but sounds much better after removing C3 RES .
I like a little extra sparkle but with that bright cap, it wasn't sparkle. More like glare. Sounds much better without.
I should have hooked up the real mic. It's just such a pain with combos on the bench. In the room the difference is dramatic. In a very good way.
What a hell of a difference I'm listening to it in stereo
But it is recorded in mono 🙂
Sounds good on this end really good
The tone controls on my Blues Jr. III work, but they’re…..subtle.
Is that common with these amps?
I'd recently installed a Fromel 'Supreme' kit, and I didn't really take notice of how effective the tone controls were beforehand.....
Thanks!
Is there enough room in there to remove the board mounted pots and replace them with standard thru-hole pots?
I like bright caps myself.
Moving the ribbon cable, while it’s plugged in is something we all can try; It went from this is the sound of half the output bad to it sounds OK…
This is the kind of expertise you don’t mind paying for and no diagnostic computer can replicate.
Thanks Mark!
This is useful and helpful for the tube amp modiers like me.
If I increase the value of the C3 capacitor, would it brighten up the amp, as oppose to what you did?
As the value of C3 increases it won't be a bright cap so much as an upper mids cap and then as you go larger a partial bypass where you'll have crazy gain. Experiment - won't hurt a thing.
Sounded like he was playing some Radiohead, there. Lovely!
Police/Andy Summers, but thanks!
Radiohead in this one:
th-cam.com/video/gnWCL1jMQk8/w-d-xo.html
i actually liked the bright cap tone
nice
How does it crap out over night when guys play these all night every night no problem
Overnight = three or four playing jobs = shouldn't be an issue. Amps in venues, that get used by everyone, get a major hammering and most in my experience are Fender.
I would have liked to see you move the ribbons back closer to the blue wire to confirm your suspicion and rule out an intermittent connection at the ends of the ribbon cables.
See the previous Blues Junior videos. It's proximity not a poor connection.
Overnight? Big deal. My brother accidentally left his Blackstar club 20 combo on for 5 days straight. That was a year and a half ago. Still works, still original tubes. I think the B's Jr will survive.
Why comment on a video you didn't watch?
I did that with my BJ didn't notice any damages but my power tubes went out a couple weeks later
My father was a nuclear weapon
Specialist in the air force with 33
Years service after WW2 who
Supervised and oversaw the
Maintenance and repair on
Weapons carried by B-52
Bombers. Whenever possible
Electronic testing and analytic
Devices in the shop were left
On. And yes, in the early days
Of nuclear weapons both the
Weapons and planes relied on
Tube technology. Always on
Was preferable to on and off.
@1:38, it is evident that some manual soldering happened. There is a pool of flux between two very shiny joints. Shiny solder joints with flux pool-manual soldering (probably purple and red wire [maybe white wire instead of red?])
Wave solder joints are cloudier (but still effective) and are not cold-solder joints.
You skipped over that observation, but it tells me that something else was swapped out, either at the factory, or by a user.
I only thought this was significant because later, you moved the ribbon cable away from the purple wire and the hum went away. I’d research that purple wire mod a little more closely.
Nope, it was the blue OT primary just like on other BJs.
glorious sound .....is that a strat you are using ? Whatever it is....great combo
Thanks! Yes, one of my two Strats.
Yup. Sounds better.
I’m fairly new to your channel. Great and informative videos. When replacing the 3 large filter caps would it be beneficial to add some smaller high quality film bypass capacitors Just curious on what your thoughts are? Thanks
Not really. They filter high freq stuff but the amp already has smoothing caps in the rectifier.
@@PsionicAudio Cool. Thanks.
Is the bright capacitor all that differentiates the tweed from black blues junior?
No, the tolex and sometimes the speaker. Same amp otherwise.
Would the Ribbon be affected by the blue wire? The blue wire is dissecting the ribbon at 90 degrees, should have no effect, i think.
It very much does. But I don't have time to explain. Very apparent in the video.
curious if you've ever done a bias mod on one of these and cooled it down a tad? If so, what are your thoughts? I tinker on amps, and have a friend that has 2 blues juniors. He's had me do all sorts of mods to one, and left the other stock. Some people don't care for it, but I think cooling down the bias a tad helps get a bit more of that signature fender spank. I think I also did some sort of tone mod that really "opened up" the sound. Been in and out of it quite a bit over the years, hard to remember what all I've done to it now, lol...
Edit, just got to the point of the video you talk about the bias and tone mod.... it really does make them "feel" like a bigger amp. I always called those "bright" caps, "thin" caps instead, heh. Also another thing I've found. Never push the little "fat" "drive" "whatever" buttons these series of amps had.
The "Fat" engages a cathode bypass cap for the second triode stage. It can make the amp have less hum if you engage it and keep the volume pot lower.
But run it any way you like the sound.
I have a video on an easy way to cool the bias. Look in the Hot Rods and Blues playlist.
Nothing could change my mind on a blues junior it’s splatty and caves in way to fast. Just never bonded with mine
Overnight? Hell I've left an amp on for a week before lol
Awesome video. How do you think these amps sit in a mix with the bright cap off? It's definitely more pleasant for playing at home with that bright cap off.
Thanks. And just fine. You aren't losing any frequencies, just that icepick. It will take overdrive pedals much better too.
@@PsionicAudio - that sounds great, thanks for your reply!
Is the bright cap on Pro jr also ?
Where are you located? I may want you to look at my Stageright 15 watt, see if there is a tube bias that can be done or anything to improvement it that little bit more like you did here in the blues jr.
I almost always use a brightcap, because thenI can turn down the treble a bit which gives a thicker sound on Fenders. But........very low value mostly, about 47pF-80pF and old 50's mica caps. And weather I use one or not will be very independent of what speaker is in there. For instance my 68Custom DeluxeReverb I just bought lacks the brightcap and I need to one because of the Celestion speaker that is not as bright as a Jensen, and not bright enough for my taste(I am used to old Fenders)
I have a question. I have an old Ampeg Reverberocket and if shine a flashlight in the back, it excites one tube and it makes a clear tone (a D note). Only one tube and only one led flashlight. Weird.
I would love that process done to my amp. Are you anywhere near SoCal?
That reminds me of a Police riff!
Crank it and hit an open position E chord, Should be at its best tonally.
Shit, I left mine on for a week one time! Lol... I think it probably sounded better after!
Limited Edition? I’ve owned two over the last 12 years. And that’s sarcastic, I know they badge them as such.
So, sound issue before overnight leave on manifest's only with anxiety
I left my AC30 on for a few weeks without realizing it and it was fine... maybe I got lucky...
Jrs are known for running their power tubes on the hot side, necessitating replacement sooner than normal.
Miss Gradenko?
Allegedly.
@@PsionicAudio It's a creditable effort. You're braver than I, covering Andy Summers on the interwebz. He's a monster of a player.
My fingers still don't want to alternate between imt imt im and tim tim im and then later mti m t m.
Real rub head pat belly thing.
New sub, excellent video! When taming the bias down on a Blues Junior, do you recommend somewhere around 75% in order to sweeten the sound a little bit?
Thanks!
No, around 55%. 75% will still roast the tubes.