I'd Like Your Feedback On This Amp

[badbluesplayer]

Me and a buddy of mine are making these amps and we're trying to figure out whether they will sell and what our target price point should be. So I thought I'd see what feedback I could get here.

 

If y'all would take a quick look at the description and pic and give your impression of whether there's a market for this amp and what you'd think they'd be worth (in your market) I'd appreciate it. No need to be shy.

 

If y'all have any questions, that's fine, but I'm just trying to get your first impression. I checked with ksdaddy and he said it was o.k. to get feedback, but not o.k. to do a sales pitch. So that's what I'm asking for.

 

TENNESSEE AMP CO.

BLUES JONNY FEATURES

 

20W Fender based 6V6 powered amplifier with master volume and spring reverb. Stock new Blues Junior chassis rebuilt using the best components into a completely different amp. Converted to 6V6 power tubes. Installed into the best cab and speaker you can find, period.

Power section – Upsized F&T power caps and Mojo choke installed. Reworked as needed for 6V6’s.

Adjustable bias, all new top quality cap upgrades in tone path.

Presence knob/sparkle switch installed.

Cheap PCB tube sockets removed and rewired with all hard wired chassis mount sockets.

Upgraded Heyboer output transformer installed.

Custom made pine cabinet 20% larger by volume than a Deluxe 5E3 cabinet and 40% larger than the Blues Junior cabinet. Tweed covered with oxblood grillcloth. Tweed style appointments.

MOD Accutronics long three spring reverb pan installed.

Weber 12” speaker. Model 12A125A for Tweed tone, model 12F150 for Blackface tone.

Many options available.

 

Thanks, Jon Waldo

[surfpup]

Similar custom jobs pull $1500-$2000 at shows all the time.

[Kennis]

...must resist terrible amp feedback pun...

[ZenKen]

What are your costs?

 

1. Blues Junior

2. Materials used in your mods including the cab

3. How many man-hours to complete

 

Add the profit per unit necessary for you to make a go of it (you will have to estimate the number of units you think you can move initially)

 

These should tell you your price point.

[pippy]

What are your costs?

 

1. Blues Junior

2. Materials used in your mods including the cab

3. How many man-hours to complete

 

Add the profit per unit necessary for you to make a go of it (you will have to estimate the number of units you think you can move initially)

 

These should tell you your price point.

This is an excellent bit of advice to start with.

 

I'm guessing you won't be able to broker a deal with Fender to get a bunch of chassis at some sort of trade discount to lower cost-per-item?

 

What percentage of the original amp do you estimate has been kept in the upgraded unit?

If the answer is les than, say, 33% would it not be possible for yourselves to buy and assemble ALL the components from scratch and sell it as your own brand / product?

Or is enough left so that you still wish sell it as a modified Fender unit?

 

If there is no financial advantage to you buying the donor amps yourselves would you be prepared to offer a scheme whereby the customer provides his/her own amp and you do all the upgrades?

The advantage of this would be that it should initially allow you to keep your 'outgoings' down to a minimum whilst maximising income.

 

P.

[btoth76]

...What percentage of the original amp do you estimate has been kept in the upgraded unit?

If the answer is les than, say, 33% would it not be possible for yourselves to buy and assemble ALL the components from scratch and sell it as your own brand / product?

Or is enough left so that you still wish sell it as a modified Fender unit?

 

...P.

 

Hello!

 

That's what my first thought was too. Can You manage to manufacture/purchase all the parts? Do You insist on modifying an existing amp?

 

Cheers... Bence

[Dub-T-123]

It would be much more attractive for you to build it from scratch.

 

This amp looks great and I understand that it probably sounds incredible, but I don't think a lot of people will be willing to shell out big for a modded blues junior (however heavily and tastefully modified it is). If you offered it as a service to people that'd be one thing, but this isn't something that would sell very well at a realistic price point IMO

[charlie brown]

Isn't that what the "Victoria" amps (@ 2-3 Grand a pop) are all about. High grade components, in "tweed" Fender circuits?

 

As to where you should "Market" them...to the Rich, the Rock Stars, and all the other "ususal suspects,"

that love "boutique" amps. The rest of us less fortunate, finacially challenged "hacks," will have to stick with plain old "vanilla" made Fenders, Peavey's, Vox, and Marshalls.

 

Maybe you should concentrate on offering "upgrading" services, on existing amps, with high grade component changes, if you think there's enough of a market?

 

Whatever you do, Good Luck...I (sincerely) hope it all works out!

 

CB

[Twang Gang]

There are about 5 models of Fender Blues Jrs available with MSRPs of between $729 and $839. Figure you can buy them on the street for a couple hundred less so the base is $529 to $640. You are talking about packing a lot of features in there - upgraded tubes, speaker, and cabinet so I would think all that should be worth $400 to $500 more. That puts your retail at about $1000 to compete with the big boys. If they all sound as good as the one you modded and put up on this board not too long ago you should be able to get $1000 in just about any market. Whether that leaves any profit or not I don't know.

 

I think the key would be in how you market them. Hand built boutique amps garner some pretty lofty prices as long as they are reliable and perform well. Not sure I would market as a Blues Junior rebuild. Since the cab, speaker, and tubes will all be different anyway nobody really needs to know you started with that chassis.

[Dub-T-123]

I doubt $1,000 would be worth it for badbluesplayer but I could be wrong.

 

Thing is I don't think hardly anyone is willing to shell that out for a modded blues junior (again maybe I'm wrong), though people would certainly shell out much more for a "boutique" high quality tweed style amp.

[charlie brown]

It's interesting...I've always wondered what a "stock" Blues Jr. would sound like,

in a larger cabinet...say, the width of a Deluxe Reverb, or similar. My only real

complaint, about the stock BJ's, is the "boxy" sound, that the small cabinet produces.

Ultimate components would be welcomed, of course. I just don't know if that alone

would make that much difference?? It might! But, a bit bigger cabinet would, I should

think. Does anyone make a somewhat larger (tweed or otherwise) cabinet, that a stock

BJ amp, could be put into with no modification? That might be another "industry,"

as well.

 

CB

[surfpup]

Thing is I don't think hardly anyone is willing to shell that out for a modded blues junior (again maybe I'm wrong), though people would certainly shell out much more for a "boutique" high quality tweed style amp.

 

Back to the "better off starting off from scratch" angle. And I agree. With the money and work you are sinking into these, I'd start with a chassis from Mojotone or Triode Electronics or somewhere.The Blues Jr. comparison is only going to lower the value of the amp you are creating.

[Greybeard]

Norm Sundholm of the Kingsmen had great success building amps based on a Dynaco amp kit back in the late 60s that turned into the Sunn Amp company. I'd have to say that not many people realized what the amps were based on and were only interested in the sound they had. They were expensive for the time but still grew into something that a lot of guitarists wanted.

 

Now with that being said, your idea for a high quality custom amp will probably be quite acceptable if you can get a distinctive sound out of it. The next challenge will be to get enough of them heard by the masses to create the market for it.

 

If you want to be a competitor to the Fender Blues Junior you'll have to sound better and have some way of getting it heard. I'd also suggest trying to find the history of the Sunn Amp company and see what problems they had in actually producing enough of the amps to be a competitive business. Some of the old Sunn Amps are now selling at twice what they were originally priced at. Rarity is one thing but the distinctive sound is still in demand.

[badbluesplayer]

Thanks.

 

We're not really looking for advice about exactly what to build or whether it's a good idea to build it a certain way. Just wondering about this particular amp as described. It would be priced based on what it's worth. That's what I'm asking. Does it have any appeal and what do you think people would be willing to pay?

 

Several guys mentioned the fact that using a Fender Blues Junior chassis is a negative. I agree. That's part of what I'm trying to get a handle on.

 

This is a 6V6 amp. So people who don't want 6V6's don't want this amp. We understand that.

 

My partner thinks you really need to install all chassis mount pots - not just the jacks - to make it really "roadable". That's another consideration. How about that?

 

Keep the comments coming!!

[surfpup]

My partner thinks you really need to install all chassis mount pots - not just the jacks - to make it really "roadable". That's another consideration. How about that?

 

Keep the comments coming!!

 

It has PC board mounted pots now?

[charlie brown]

Well, isn't the old rule of thumb, to charge (at least) 3 times what it costs, to build?!

Maybe that will give you a starting point, at least?

 

CB

[badbluesplayer]

It has PC board mounted pots now?

Yes - It has board mounted pots. Chassis mounted pots would be nice.

[surfpup]

Yes - It has board mounted pots. Chassis mounted pots would be nice.

 

Yeah, for the money you guys have in this thing you can build one hand-wired on turret - get rid of the pc board altogether. The chassis and turret boards are readily available. Use the same high quality parts that you are using as replacement parts already, and you have a real winner.

[badbluesplayer]

Noodling demo -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ziyyig8yzI

 

Two prototypes in action -

[Murph]

 

This is a 6V6 amp. So people who don't want 6V6's don't want this amp. We understand that.

 

 

I LOVE my Blue Angel in the 6V6 mode, cranked. Great for small clubs.

 

Best of luck.

[badbluesplayer]

Cabinet size comparisons:

 

- 5E3 Deluxe, Stock BJR, New Jonny cab at right -

 

- 5E3 Deluxe, Stock Blues Deluxe Reissue, BJY cab at right -

[charlie brown]

Cabinet size comparisons:

 

- 5E3 Deluxe, Stock BJR, New Jonny cab at right -

 

- 5E3 Deluxe, Stock Blues Deluxe Reissue, BJY cab at right -

 

 

I LIKE it! Can I buy just the Cabinet?! LOL

 

CB

[badbluesplayer]

I LIKE it! Can I buy just the Cabinet?! LOL

 

CB

Tweeeeeed -

[Dub-T-123]

Yeah, for the money you guys have in this thing you can build one hand-wired on turret - get rid of the pc board altogether. The chassis and turret boards are readily available. Use the same high quality parts that you are using as replacement parts already, and you have a real winner.

Exactly what I'm saying. In the long run it would almost certainly be cheaper to produce than having to buy a bunch of Blues Juniors plus you can sell them at a higher price. Plus let's face it desoldering components blows its much more enjoyable to start from scratch.

 

But I see you're not looking for advice really and are really looking for how we feel about THIS amp.

 

So, I have to say its really appealing! For me, the most appealing parts are the blackface/tweed switch and high quality reverb tank and caps. Those are great selling points to me.

 

I'm conflicted on what I'd be willing to pay for it though. Even though you've clearly turned it into a top knotch amp I can't get that Blues Junior idea out of my head and that's really limiting what I'd be willing to pay for it compared to a Victoria or something. Frankly what I'd be willing to pay for it probably wouldn't cover the cost of parts, let alone all the work you've put into it. This logic doesn't make sense but in case you haven't noticed guitarists rarely make sense when it comes to these things

[jdgm]

Great tone on "Hot 'Lanta"; did you use a pedal also?

It sounds very good to me. Put a 15" speaker in and call it a 'Jazz Jonny'? Seriously.

You may have to give a few away to your favourite guitarists (Betts?) to really get interest!

And with all respect to all the comments, don't worry it sounds just fine.

If what you have is a rebuilt Blues Junior then so be it and there's a market for that.

Many players would buy that model amp and replace the stock speaker and the tubes anyway.

Most of the other combos are Fender-inspired or whatever so you're just joining them.

But what people will also want is for you to mod their Blues Junior.

Mesa Boogie started with a hot-modded Fender. Torres does mod kits for the Rivera-era Champs.

You won't make a lot to start with, or anytime in terms of the work hours, unless you can be the Dumble of clean tone.

My very best wishes. I'd buy one. I'm in the UK though so all high-end hand-wired combo amps like this (and there is a good choice these days) are 4-figure ££££ to buy.