Blues Junior Tone: The Big Picture
As cool as the Blues Junior is, there are many ways to improve the tone. Here's a key to what does what.
| Problem | Solution | Kit | Mod |
| Boxy tone (cup your hands around your mouth and speak. That's boxy tone.) | Tone stack mod | ■ | ■ |
| Mushy, inarticulate sound, early breakup | Adjustable bias | ■ | ■ |
| Runs out of steam on bass notes, weakness, lack of clarity | Power supply stiffening | ■ | ■ |
| Bass distortion, "farting" sounds, low string harmonics affecting upper strings | Upgraded output transformer (includes 4/8 ohm switch) | ■ | |
| Honky midrange, early breakup, blurry distortion | TwinStack mod | ■ | |
| No control over incisiveness or upper midrange tone | Adjustable presence control | ■ | ■ |
| Not enough loudness at desired tone | Clean Boost module | ■ | ■ |
| Lack of headroom, dark tone, early breakup | Preamp Boost | ■ | ■ |
| Loudness hard to control at bedroom/home levels | Audio-taper master volume | ■ | ■ |
The Blues Junior can be enhanced in other ways. Here are other mods and kits to improve performance and flexibility
| Solution | Kit | Mod |
| Switchcraft auxiliary speaker jack | ■ | |
| Switchcraft line-out jack | ■ | |
| Switchcraft all-metal input jack (includes isolation washers) | ■ | ■ |
| Footswitch jack mod to control Fat switch and Clean Boost | ■ | |
The kits come with all of the parts assembled, wires trimmed to length, ends tinned, and ready for installation. I don't offer kits where there's a decent chance of screwing up your Blues Junior. I perform all of the mods listed. Although other mods can be found here and elsewhere on the Internet, I have found many of them to be of limited use or detrimental to tone or bad electronic practice. The Billm mods retain your Blues Junior's personality, but greatly enhance flexibility and quality of tone.
The kits can be installed if you have reasonable desoldering/soldering skills on printed circuit boards. Fender circuit boards are not of the highest quality, and care is required. Some mechanical aptitude is needed, too. If you have doubts, let me do it!
Email me for prices for the kits or mod services.
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Questions? Comments? Email me.