Time for a new (small but giggable) amp.

Yup. it's looking up for the Jet City, and I'm going to look at some other Marshall alternatives. Mayeb I'll try a Fender just for contrast to remind my ear what I'm doing

I'm not too impressed with any fender in your price range, although the ubiquitous bles and pro jr cna be modded to sound better. Its like they were drunk when they were dialing her in.

I really like the booze Jr but maybe that's just me. Crank the volume, control it with the master, and let that fucker sing.... mmmm!

I'm debating between a blues junior and an AC15 right now. I just want something I can mostly play at bedroom levels that has enough headroom to be a good pedal platform. What mods would you recommend to the Blues Jr?

what do you counsider to be ebdroom elvel? any dual el84 amp is loud as fuck by msot neighborhood's standards unless it has a amster volume that sounds good at like 1

Probably < 80 or 90 db. I saw an episode of that pedal show where they made it sound decent by putting an OCD and compressor in front of it at low levels. Also, on those occassions where I can crank it, I'd love to know it's capable of it.

I really like the booze Jr but maybe that's just me. Crank the volume, control it with the master, and let that fucker sing.... mmmm!

its okay, part of tis problem is the small cab size and mediocre speaker selection. I've heard stock ones rehouses in a large 1x12 or 2x10 cab from mojotone and they sound substantially nicer. I think the output tranformer is pretty shitty and its the expensive aprt you msot often see burned up when they need to be prepaired... i also think the circuit would benefit from some minor component changes throughout the preamp. Also, when one coems in for routine maintenance I typically offer to cathode bias it, because el84s lvoe cathode bias and unlike the jet city, there's nothing gained by fixed bias. If the owner likes the stock bias setup I tend to put new tubes in, I like the TAD special EL84s or the russian military EL84s because both those variants have a roudner, more american tone and they will do well with a hotter bias which will sound juicier. The bias from teh factory on pretty much all fender amps these days is pretty cold. It means that a bad set of power tubes are unlikely to fail in the store, but it makes the pwoer amp pretty stiff and lifeless... I personally don't care for the way the fitlers are centered in this particularly tonestack and think the amp would have more balls with soem different values. The way tis implemented is neitehr tweed nor blackface so if I owned one I would rethink some of those cap and resistor values.

anyay, nothing wrong with it, but it can sound a lot better without actually moddifying it, and then if you wanna mod the preamp tube bias points in a few spots and change a few toenstack component values it could probably be a scorcher. I would also not gig one unless I removed the poer tubes from teh PCB and ripped the pots off and put in higher quality ones attached via flying leads. probably the jacks too. But I'm paranoid about that stuff.

Probably < 80 or 90 db. I saw an episode of that pedal show where they made it sound decent by putting an OCD and compressor in front of it at low levels. Also, on those occassions where I can crank it, I'd love to know it's capable of it.

those guys say a lot of things LOL if tis info on gear do NOT believe them, ut they do manage to extract some tones... keep in mind those recorded tones will either be inferior or superior to whatw as herd in the room. I have yet to hear an honest guitar amp recording LOL

anyway, the blues junior is surprisingly loud. Even set dead clean to hit with a pedal you will be getting 90db in no time

that said, the ac15 and ac10 are damned loud too and while they have less headroom they also get quite a bit louder evne when distorting pretty noticably…

the jr is fixed bias and the ac is cathode bias.... cathode bais amps, particularly without neg feedback like the vox? they tend to have more magical low volume tone. Fixed bais amps want to be hit reasonably hard to really open up. A blues Jr can be converted to cathode bias with ease by any qualified tech though and I think it sounds really good that way. Puts it into the marshall 18 watt camp. Also, the otter the bias on the fixed bias amp (within reason fo course) the juicier your low volume tone, however the hotter biasing tends to give you more headroom and a few more watts. If you start turning it up the wimpy BJ output transformer could melt down if you have the thing baised up too hot. Its unlikely but Iv've seen a lot of blown fender transformers in thee modern amps.

the blues junior tends to have a less efficient speaker than a vox stock (although there have been special version with highe fficiency celestions) which will cut some db level, but the stock speakers sound kidna shitty and restrict the amp's voice. If I were in your boat I would buy a used one and replace the speaker with a high quality low efficiency speaker like weber's derek trucks signature speakers. That'll help you keep it down at night and improve the tone at the same time.... if you want earlier breakup and a somewhat lwoer wattage from either amp you can replace the tubes with JJs low power el84s, althoug for the blues jr I think JJs sound wrong, the amp likes the more robust 84 varieties. Again i suggest the amp will sound its most fendery with TAD special EL84s or the russian military variety, both available from tube store. These tubes have really long life as 84s go too. If you go vox, either JJ is a good fit tonally. The tubes that work in the blues jjr are a it strident ina vox although I've had good results mixing a pair of TADs with a pair of JJs in a 30 watt.

regardless of what you choose ina blues jr tubewise you should have it rebiased since its one of a handul of fixed bias el84 amps and make sure the tech knows to bias it warmer. The factory bias is cold. Stiff clean tone and early, assymetrical clipping. cold bais ona preamp tube makes for cool dirt, cold bias on a push pull power amp is not a pleasant distortion because the sides sum to make it symmetrical, bringing up odd harmonics and its also rather abrupt onset too.

YMMV, I'm really fussy about tube tone and feel.