New Amp Day

[elessar820]

I've been looking for a Blackheart Handsome Devil amp for about two months now with no luck. I've tried out the Little Giant and thought it was a nice little amp, but I wanted something a little bigger, so I decided to try out something else. I picked up a Fender Blues Jr. last night, it's a sweet little amp and on sale at Guitar Center for $450. Great clean tones, nice drive at low volume and the full EQ definitely helps getting the right tone. I picked up the standard black one, I was going to go with the NOS Tweed version or the Texas Red. but neither were available at the time, I tried the NOS and it was great, but the difference in tones from a speaker upgrade didn't warrant a $100 price difference to me and I didn't get to try out the Texas Red model. For now, it's perfect, but this is probably going to be my last major gear purchase for a while, but I'm going to probably be getting a few pedals (overdrive, distortion, delay, chorus and maybe a new wah) to go along with it with a few gift cards I'm expecting. The name is misleading, this baby can pump out some pretty decent rock tones too.

[RichCI]

If you buy any kind of distortion or overdrive pedal to use with your Blues Jr, make sure you buy it from somewhere you can return it. I've tried a variety of those types of pedals with my Blues Jr but none of them sounded better than just using the gain control on the amp.

 

Yeah, speaker upgrades for that amp are pretty popular but I agree with you - $100 is a bit much to upgrade that amp when you paid $450 for it. I bought mine used a couple of years ago for $300 so I spent the difference that I saved on a Weber speaker. In retrospect, I probably should have gone for a Celestion or one of those Eminence speakers that has a cone made from hemp since they're a bit darker sounding and the Blues Jr. is a bit too bright for my tastes. The Weber sounds good, but not my preference for a big rock tone.

[Bluemoon]

It is a great amp. I sometimes use a Fulltone OCD pedal with it, which sounds great. But I love the natural crunch of the amp much better. Seems way more natural. If you don't have the opportunity to crank the amp to get to those great tones, then you may want to buy a Weber attenuator.

 

Either way, great choice.

 

By the way, if you really want the NOS version then call Woodwind and Brasswind. They sold it to me over the phone for $495. You won't have to pay taxes or shipping.

 

You could order it today and then return the other one to guitar center when it arrives in a few days.

[elessar820]

Thanks for the tip Bluemoon, but I'm going to stick with what I have. I'm probably going to leave it stock for now and go with a few different pedals. I never really used effects until I got the Super Champ. I'm going to pick up a distortion or overdrive pedal today when I go back. I need to get a gift card for my fiancees cousin and a push/pull pot for the ProTrack I'm going to be dropping into my Melody Maker. I'm probably going to pick up a TS9 Tubescreamer or try out a few different distortion pedals. Christmas bonuses are sweet.

[RichCI]

What is a bonus?