badbluesplayer Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 So I got this Fender Blues Junior with the thought of converting it to 6V6 power tubes, upgrading the speaker, putting it in a Deluxe sized tweed cabinet and hot rodding it some. It was a basic Blues Junior with a stock speaker. It had some crackling issues and the owner had it back in the shop a couple of times under warranty and it never was fixed. So I decided do some of the "BillM" mods, like putting in an adjustable bias pot, upgrading and tweaking some capacitors, new/stiffer power caps. There was an intermittent crackling issue that I think I solved by removing the ribbon cables that go to the tube board and rewiring them with individual wires. One of the sockets that had been changed under warranty had a pulled trace and I had to struggle with it to get it finally stop breaking loose at high temperatures. Here's some pics: Upgraded & upsized filter caps at upper left: Bright switch On/Low: New caps for tone stack: Bias adjustment pot - blue pot in center of pic. Stock Blues Juniors run really hot and eat tubes fast: New wiring for tube board replacing ribbon cables and bypassing all those connections and crappy traces: I have a Weber greenback style speaker in it now but I'm going to get a Weber 12A125 speaker. I still have to do the conversion to 6V6 tubes and the rest of the stuff. I have a narrow panel Deluxe style cabinet that has to be slightly modified. I might replace the reverb tank. I'll keep you all posted. So far, so good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bender 4 Life Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 I had Steve @ The Vintage Sound build MY Blues Jr. 2x12 cab before he shut his doors.... his last e-letter pointed ppl to MojoTone for custom cabs. mine's still stock & issue free....added a Jensen Vintage Ceramic spkr to the Fender Lightning......sounds great! let us know/see how it goes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted January 31, 2013 Author Share Posted January 31, 2013 Still crackling... Tried everything so far except the right thing.... Chassis mount sockets on order... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twang Gang Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 Wish I knew how to do that stuff - or had time to learn. Fortunately over the years never had too many amp problems other than blown speakers occasionally which are easy enough to swap out. Good luck finding the crackle cause. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 Crackling solved. Sounds great!! The tweed arrived. I can't wait to try to cover the cab. Tweed has got to be more difficult than regular tolex. We'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrorod Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 Sounds like a great winter project! Iv'e been doing amp repairs and rebuilds for 20 years. The BillM mods are definitely an upgrade. I absolutely love working on the old Fender amps with the fiber boards and point to point wiring. I'm not a big fan of the newer pcb-type Fenders except that they do provide me with most of my repair work and xtra money[ .! (I know....extra money)....whats that...Ha! BTW.....I like your pick 'washer' on the input jack idea.... ...I may have to steal that one[sneaky] ....Ha! Good luck with the project, Rod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 Crackling solved. Sounds great!! The tweed arrived. I can't wait to try to cover the cab. Tweed has got to be more difficult than regular tolex. We'll see. So what was causing the crackling? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 Very cool. That little crap will drive you nuts. When I was in the studio in '98 doing the Double Aught cd, this Marshall was in a closet sized room cranked pretty good. We had a close mic, and another about 3 feet away. During a playback I could hear a buzzing noise, and it turned out a screw (or 2) was loose on the back, but it took a few hours to sort it out and re-track at about $50.00 per hour back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krock Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 sounds like a cool project. whats involved in the 6v6 conversion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 So what was causing the crackling? Bad cap in the tone stack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 sounds like a cool project. whats involved in the 6v6 conversion? I've ordered the BillM kit for it. He takes forever to ship. Anyway, from what I understand, you have to install octal sockets and rewire to the correct pins on the new sockets. You also have to get the bias voltage higher for the 6V6's. I think you clip out or replace one of the resistors in the C+ supply area to get the voltage up and maybe put in a cap. Then you might have to rework the wiring on the bias pot somehow. I'm also installing a little stiffer ouput transformer. Hopefully BillM will ship the freaking order so I don't end up doing everything before the kit ar-freakin-rives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 I forgot to say, the input jack was rattling at one point really bad. There was a little piece of something rattling around inside the plastic thing. It rattled as loud as any rattle I've ever heard. Weird. I replaced the jack with an isolated regular old Switchcraft job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 I have a Weber greenback style speaker in it now but I'm going to get a Weber 12A125 speaker. Have you bought or ordered this speaker yet? What model speaker is the "Greenback" speaker you are referring to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 Have you bought or ordered this speaker yet? What model speaker is the "Greenback" speaker you are referring to? I have ordered the 12a125a. It's an 25w alnico. One of their "Vintage" series. The "Greenback" style speaker is the one that's in there in the photo. It is a British Series Ceramic 1225, light dope, 25w. Really nice sounding speaker. I had a Weber Vintage Ceramic 12f150, an "American" style speaker. My buddy bought it and put it in his Blues Junior. It won the "Speaker Roundtable" contest that we had between all the speakers we had, including Weber DT12, Weber 12f150, the Weber British 1225, a stock Greenback, the stock BJR speaker (Eminence Legend), and maybe another - I can't exactly remember. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 Blue jewel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 My Boogie Blue Angel has a blue jewel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 I have ordered the 12a125a. It's an 25w alnico. One of their "Vintage" series. The "Greenback" style speaker is the one that's in there in the photo. It is a British Series Ceramic 1225, light dope, 25w. Really nice sounding speaker. I had a Weber Vintage Ceramic 12f150, an "American" style speaker. My buddy bought it and put it in his Blues Junior. It won the "Speaker Roundtable" contest that we had between all the speakers we had, including Weber DT12, Weber 12f150, the Weber British 1225, a stock Greenback, the stock BJR speaker (Eminence Legend), and maybe another - I can't exactly remember. Ah, I get it now. I was mistaken. The speaker you are referring to is the "P12Q" I take it. For a second I thought you were ordering the Weber version of the C12N. Webers are my favorite aftermarket. I don't think their version of the C12N sounds genuine like a real one, but they are really experts on the P12Q and R's and such, the "tweed" Fender/Jensen types. Anyway, the choice of speaker you have picked is an EXCELLENT choice. As it is, I wanted a C12N type for my Deluxe Reverb, and the Weber "C12N" type didn't do well for that, where a genuine C12N would have. But what I did discover and settle on was a Weber version of a Celestian- I forget the model name, but it was silver, ceramic, and supposedly a copy of the Celestian they put in the bass cabs of marshalls. Had doping, too. THAT speaker reacted and sounded closer to me what the Jensen C12N's had, even though still different in construction and sound. It really was THE speaker to get that sound from the Deluxe, after trying many. I lost it when they took my storage unit....never got a chance to hook it up (it was a replacement because the first one I bought had an issue). As it is, I put a genuine '68 Jensen in it temporary, which is a C12R. (even more interesting that it is almost the same year as the amp, and while 'Blackfaced' Ones would be more desireable with Jensens and would have come with a C12R, the '67 'Silverfaced' that is the same circuit would have not come with a Jensen...so it's basically the same but not.) But really, I much preferred the Weber I had spent so much time and money finding for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonzoboy Posted February 4, 2013 Share Posted February 4, 2013 There is a tube adapter available that plugs into an EL-34 or EL-84 socket to allow the installation of 6V6 or 6L6 tubes or vice versa I believe.I think that these adapters are called Yellow Jackets.Adapters like these would be a great thing to have to change the sonic footprint of your amp without having to do alterations to the circuit board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted February 4, 2013 Author Share Posted February 4, 2013 There is a tube adapter available that plugs into an EL-34 or EL-84 socket to allow the installation of 6V6 or 6L6 tubes or vice versa I believe.I think that these adapters are called Yellow Jackets.Adapters like these would be a great thing to have to change the sonic footprint of your amp without having to do alterations to the circuit board. Yellow Jackets let you use el84's in a 6V6 socket. That's the opposite of what I'm doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted February 4, 2013 Author Share Posted February 4, 2013 My Boogie Blue Angel has a blue jewel. Blue is for cool guys!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted February 10, 2013 Author Share Posted February 10, 2013 I got the Weber alnico speaker, a 12A125A. Sounds great. I had to remove the bell cover so it would clear the chassis. Sheesh. Could they make it any tighter in there? I'm gonna start putting the tweed on the Deluxe sized cab and making my new baffle. The 'new' cab is 2" wider, 1/2" taller but 1/2" thinner front to back, so it's still going to be a tight squeeze in there. BillM FINALLY shipped the new output tranny and the stuff for the conversion to 6V6's. So I should be running 6V6's by this coming week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted February 10, 2013 Author Share Posted February 10, 2013 New speaker: Cab cleaned up and ready for tweed: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 I'm actually a little excited, even though I have nothing to do with it. I think an amp is defined by the quality of the output tubes, output tranny, and speaker, more than anything. It's a little close to home for me...my two favorite amps (and as it is, the only two I have left) is: a Victorilux, which I have running half power with 2 el-84's into a '61 Jensen P12Q, and a '67 Deluxe Reverb that is obviously 2 6V6's that I have running into a '68 Jensen C12R. I'm spoiled. Last summer, I scored at a garage sale an old radio that has 2 origonal RCA 6V6's. I plugged em in, but haven't played it much or biased them. That's a whole different subject...but 6V6 tubes would be a worthy conversation I think. In my collection that I lost, I had a Blues Deluxe, kinda a special one. It was tan tolex, made in the USA. Compared to other ones, sounded a bit better than most. It SEEMED the perfect amp, was really nice to look at, perfect size, not vintage, etc. But try as I would, could not get that "great" sound out of it. Tried all kinds of tubes and speakers, but never reached a point where I felt it was close-or close enough to mod or tweak. The only solution seemed to gut it, but by then, what's the point? Reading with great interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glennc Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 Most interesting topic. I have a old American made blues Jr. Put new tubes, had originals and an Eminence Canabis Rex speaker. Sounds much better. Have considered the other BillM mods, don't want to up the power per se. Looking forward to more info! Glenn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 Most interesting topic. I have a old American made blues Jr. Put new tubes, had originals and an Eminence Canabis Rex speaker. Sounds much better. Have considered the other BillM mods, don't want to up the power per se. Looking forward to more info! Glenn I didn't know they made any Blues Jr's in the US. Truth be told, I personally don't know if it makes a difference. I do know that at one point, there was a change in spec for the Blues Deluxes, and it continues. Different circuit boards, as an example of one. Same thing is true of the "reissues" such as the Bassman and Deluxe Reverb. That is to say, I would guess that such differences may mean more than where it was made. One thing I can say for sure, regardless of the circuitbaord reissues or the Blues series, the Eminence speakers they used were much better than the Italian Jensens they switched to. The new Jensens just are NOT a good match for these amps, the whole lot of them. Personally, I am not really imporessed with any of the series, be it the circuitbaord reissues or the Blues and Hot rod series. But for the price? The reissues are too much I think, but the Blues and hot rod series are seriously good bargains, as I don't know what one could get for the money spent as good. Tlking cheap here. So, a lot of the frustration is that one would think there must be SOME way to spend a little money to put into initially cheap amps to up the quality and the sound. They just seem so close. Where IS that line that keeps them from being a good affordable amp to being a great amp? It can't be that far off, can it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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