Fender Blues Junior IV 1 x 12-inch 15-watt Tube Combo Amp - Black Reviews

Absolutely legendary clean tone with a nice reverb to boot! Can't recommend this amp enough!

Every amp and guitar I've owned came from SweetWater. My sales rep sold me my 1st guitar and everything in between . Fender Princeton , Supra blues master and a few others. But I lost them all thanks to my ugly addiction. But I've been doing good and my sweet wife of 40yrs rewarded me with a new amp. After days of reading feedback and reviews I called my man Dave Merkosky
Once again his advice was spot on. This amp is perfect for me . I don't even think I'll need a pedal. I can get to break up at low volume or I can drive my neighbors crazy . It's got soul! Thanks Dave

It's a perfect amp to go with the big boys. Handles pedals well. The typical Clean Fender sound is great and the Fat channel has the right amount of grit if you want it. I'm extremely happy with the purchase and recommend it for a great practice or gigging amp.

this will be a small review, great with any pedals, clean sounds sound blissful, can handle any genre. my go 2 amp for giging, and when i meant great with pedals i have a total of 10 in my pedal board and they all work nicely

Downsized from a fender twin. This was the perfect downsize. Perfect speaker size and perfect sound. I actually now prefer the overall tone this produces over a twin's tone. Very very impressed.

Completely blown away. A true amplifier. Takes your guitar to the next level, each note has so much weight behind it. You can make it sound small in your room, you can make it sound booming and full. The reverb helps to accentuate your note out in space. The Fat button is very useful, especially at low volumes it can push the amp just enough. My first personally owned tube amp and I couldn't be happier! I just want to play my fender Stratocaster

This is a great compact amp. The amp sounds great playing a Strat,
Lp, or my other guitars. I love this little amp. A stage performer (with a mic going to the PA.) I've been playing a great deal of years and recommend this amp. If on the fence, don't over think it get it.

I bought my new Fender Blues Jr v4 about 2 months ago from a guy who decided he was more of a "Marshall Guy After All" so I got a bargain, but that was just the beginning. I wanted to spend some time and several sessions playing with this thing before I rushed into a review, but it turns out my first impressions have been even more reinforced since playing this thing for several hours, and the big word here is WOW.

I have been playing for over 62 years (that's right, got my first guitar at 7) and bought my first Strat in high school. I've played and owned a LOT of different amps, and even now I have a few pieces for which I have some sentiment, but now it seems I will have to seriously reconsider. Good thing there is no "Amp Limit Law", but if there was I could finally happily liquidate all the others if I could have just my new Blues Jr.

I have read voraciously for years about concepts such as "touch sensitive", "controlling breakup with the guitar volume", "takes pedals well", etc. Turns out these have only been myths to me all this time until now. Everything good and superlative that's been written about this amp is absolutely true. The preamp section is like pure magic in shaping the tone and delivering it to my favorite—EL84 power amp section. I have never been a fan of the usual Fender tube lineup, and when I heard this runs EL84s I was already excited. I am still a Strat guy to this day and love everything about it. But I have never even dreamed it could sound so good. I have an Egnater Rebel 20, a vintage Crate 15 watt blonde with a Dr Z speaker, and my prior favorite—a 5 watt Epiphone Valve Jr into a 12" Eminence Lady Luck. I have some others, but nothing I own or have owned can even come close to this thing. And what has been said about the Celestion speaker choice is again, absolutely right on. The sound from this amp would be as if you had an old Deluxe Reverb, did a cap job, retube, and maybe speaker upgrade. I guess I'm trying to say that it sounds and behaves vintage and a coveted vintage at that, but it's brand new! Go figure. I don't know how they did it, but they did it, and if you are a fan of low watt amps in general with plenty of punch but bedroom safe, this is the one. This is my Desert Island Amp that I thought I'd never find. And if you're on a desert island you surely don't need a Marshall stack or a Hiwatt—nice as they are, you just need this little Fender. Seriously.

I purchased two of these amps to run a stereo guitar effects processor thru.
The clarity of this amp is amazing. The sound is crystal clear before I turn on any effects.
What has truly impressed me is the volume I can get from such a small amp. I mean loud.
The tone controls add more than enough thump. I showed a friend of mine and he ordered a tweed one
the next day. That wouldn't be saying much but he plays thru a Twin Reverb and a Mesa Filmore with an extension cab. Fender makes excellent products. Thanks Sweetwater!

This is a great little Amp. 15 Watts is just enough power for both practice in my home and small venues. Controls are easy to access and the amp is easy to move around as it is not very heavy. All in all I would highly recommend this amp and for most people will handle all your needs.

I bought this amp for my home office. It sounds fantastic!

After playing the Blues Junior for several weeks now, I know I made the right decision in purchasing it. I play predominantly clean guitar, and this amp gives my Les Paul and Fender Ultra Strat the exact true natural sound I was looking for. This is my first tube amp, and the superior quality in sound vs. my Fender Mustang solid state LT25 is quite obvious.

Wanted a smaller tube amp. I picked the right one. Sounds great takes pedals well and nice and light. No complaints

This is my first tube amp, and boy am I impressed. What a clean, deep, natural guitar sound it produces, even at low volume, as I use this at home. I have no need for pedals with this thing, it gives me every tone and sound that I need all on its own. I use it with a Fender American Ultra Strat and a Gibson Les Paul.....both sound great through this amp. Money well spent.

Clean Fender sound, which is what I was going for.
Takes pedals really well.
Best for home and a small venue.
I have it on A channel from an Orange Amp Detonator with the B channel with a Mustang V2 for stereo playing and its great!

And I have a lot of amps but this one at only 31 lb it's so easy to move And Pax a nice punch. I prefer Marshall but this little amp has a nice little distortion sound with the master on max. I still need a tiny bit of overdrive to complete the sound but for 15 watts this could handle any small gig. I like the celestion speaker.

One of the most widely owned amps ever manufactured and with good reason. Performing in a small venue or practicing at home this amp consistently delivers a great sound.

My Twin Reverb died after spending 30 plus years on the road playing gigs in every continent on the planet. I was torn as to what I wanted to reach it with because the world of guitar amps has changed significantly. I decided I needed to maintain my signature tone but needed something small for studio work. The Blues Jr is exactly that. It is my Twin in a smaller frame. The tone is sweet and the punch is clear and decisive. My brother recommended this to me and he is very aware of my selective and unrelenting need for that sweet tone that is my music. Thanks Fender for yet another job well done.

I love this amp it has a great clean tone making it a good pedal platform the built in reverb and eq makes it worth the extra 100 dollars from pro junior to blues junior
I use this amp with a fender performer and a boss job-2 angry driver, this gets me all the tones I want and need
Would highly recommend this amp
It's is very loud in order to practice I have to keep the master volume and volume very low

I recently built a couple solid-body electric dulcimers, standard and bass, and needed a good amp without spending huge bucks. Knowing my taste for vibey, old-school, real-deal tone, my sales rep Robbie R. turned me on to a great deal on this great little amp. It sounds awesome with both instruments, and experience tells me it'll sound great with most guitars. The bass dulcimer is in the same range as a baritone guitar and it seems to have a love affair with this amp, giving all kinds of wonderful beefy, throaty, and mellow voices, as well as a great jangle with the lipstick pickup. I use a pedalboard, so no need for more than one channel. I don't ever right reviews, but I love this amp at home and can't wait to get it in the studio. I'm sure it will gig well too! Small on size, but huge on tone, especially for the money! Thank you Robby... you never steer me wrong!

Such a great sounding amp, makes me like playing clean again. Very full and bouncy, also a great start for overdrives and distortions. Nick Huskins is the man to talk to! Never had better customer service. I'm now a customer for life.

A lot of fun experimenting with the different knobs to listen to the various sounds.

This amp is the best amp I have purchased. I got tired of the modeling amps. For 15 watts it's extremely loud, and simple to use. I just use a chorus, delay and a blues driver pedal and that's all I need.

This is a awesome amp great tone and a perfect match for my musical style.

At first i didn't like it at all , it was loud couldn't get a good clean low volume sound , the loud sound was great but too loud for most of what i was trying to do .
I worked with it watching reviews by the pro sellers and watching closely to how they set the master volume in relation to the volume. I have learned how to use it and now it's absolutely a great amp at most volumes. if I want a nice overdrive
i turn the master volume on about 2 and crank the volume up to about 10 the bass up to about 8 treble up to 7 and the mid range up to about 11 and its sweet for lead or grungy rhythm.
for clean I put the master on 8.5 and the volume on 4.5 the mid on 6 and I get a lower volume clean sound with the highs that you expect from a tube amp .
keep in mind you'll not be able use the reverb on the Jr. III past 3 or it effects all of the above.
the amp can get really loud if you don't know how to set it. you don't need to change the speaker to get plenty of head room as they call it. don't be afraid to crank the bass up if it seems a little high pitched . it dose work better with good pickups i use saymore one on guitar and it loves them.
but can get a decent sound from cheaper pickups but the better the pick up the better the sound from this amp.
I almost sold this amp several times before I learned how to use it.
Hope this helps someone .

At first i didn't like it at all , it was loud couldn't get a good clean low volume sound , the loud sound was great but too loud for most of what i was trying to do .
I worked with it watching reviews by the pro sellers and watching closely to how they set the master volume in relation to the volume. I have learned how to use it and now it's absolutely a great amp at most volumes. if I want a nice overdrive
i turn the master volume on about 2 and crank the volume up to about 10 the bass up to about 8 treble up to 7 and the mid range up to about 11 and its sweet for lead or grungy rhythm.
for clean I put the master on 8.5 and the volume on 4.5 the mid on 6 and I get a lower volume clean sound with the highs that you expect from a tube amp .
keep in mind you'll not be able use the reverb on the Jr. III past 3 or it effects all of the above.
the amp can get really loud if you don't know how to set it. you don't need to change the speaker to get plenty of head room as they call it. don't be afraid to crank the bass up if it seems a little high pitched . it dose work better with good pickups i use saymore one on guitar and it loves them.
but can get a decent sound from cheaper pickups but the better the pick up the better the sound from this amp.
I almost sold this amp several times before I learned how to use it.
Hope this helps someone .

I honestly spent a month researching what amp was best suited for me. Being a blues guitarist amp effects were not as important as a good clean sound with some bite when needed. Couple in a desire for some authentic reverb and my search led me to the Blues Junior. Now that have put it through it's paces, I know I made the right decision. And do not let the size fool you.....this amp holds it own on a gig. For the bigger venues, mike it and off to the races. I could not be happier. Throw in great follow-up by Chris ( sale engineer) with a phone call and I have to say I am a customer for life. But as far as the amp goes....it's a winner!

Wow! The Fender Blues Junior IV Amp is out of this world paired with my Fender Professional Stratocaster. Don't let the size fool you this amp cranks up LOUD. You can't buy a better tubbed Amp for the money that gives you that old school classic Fender sound. I just love it and the "Fat Switch" pumps it up to a whole other level.

Can"t beat the Blues jr IV for the money.

Great bang for your buck tube amp. Tone is awesome and has great headroom volume. Not to heavy either.

Really like the tones on this amp. The cleans are excellent and while you're not going to get great distortion without some pedal help, it does really well with the few pedals I've tried with it. It is also really loud for 15W! I was looking primarily for a quality practice and small gig amp, but I think you could mic this thing and play some pretty big spaces no problem.

This was my first purchase from Sweetwater, and I was super impressed by the service. The rep who helped me, Patrick Weaver, clearly really knew his stuff and spent a significant amount of time over several different phone calls going over different options, specs, etc. I would definitely recommend Patrick. The service more than lived up to what I had heard about Sweetwater.

Love love love this amp. I"ve always been interested, but this version takes it to another level. Sounds super full with great high end that is now rounded off a bit better. I got it mostly for convenience but it"s now the amp I play on a daily basis.

And thanks to Khaleed and Sweetwater for helping me sort it all out!! The best.

I've always been a fan of the Blues Junior and have owned several. For whatever reason, I've ended up selling them to get something else but when I saw the changes in the one, I had to try it. I didn't like the boxiness quality of the sound in some I've had but I don't find that in this one. I also didn't like that often the stock ones in the past were better with this mod or that one. The Blues Junior IV is good to go just like it is!
The speaker is a great match and I find that the EQ is responsive and very good at dialing up a variety of sounds. Some of the other model's cosmetics are great but this one looks really good in person and it suits the simple but very cool vibe and sounds. All in all, this is the best Blues Junior yet in my opinion.

First amp was damaged in shipping and Sweetwater replaced it no problems. Really a great amp. warm pure sound. I have 4 amps and this is the best sounding for what I do.
Thanks again Sweatwater for coming through!

Love it sounds great

I've had this jewel for 3 weeks now.
Quick back-story: I've owned numerous smaller Fender amps in the past.
An early version of the Fender Pro, Jr. was a tried & true friend on the road for 10 years enabling me to coax Neil Young-ish guitar tones perfectly every night.

I also owned the ver 3 of the Blues, Jr. Solid, rich and punchy with 15watts that sounded like way more.
My only observation (not a complaint) of the Blues, Jr/ver 3 was that the top tended to be a bit "ice picky," here and there. Still a superb amp.

Enter the new & improved Fender Blues Junior IV 15-watt 1x12" Tube Combo Amp.
A game changer. An absolute triumph.
EVERYTHING the good folks at Fender have said about this amp is true:
The pre-amp stage boasts a subtle-ness and fullness that is absolutely inspiring.
The reverb circuitry's "declarations" are honey-sweet..
...and the new Celestion 12" A-type speaker just sings.
(And the ivory chicken-head knobs against the black background is a snappy retro vibe extra.)

If you're a ver Blues, Jr owner and this is an upgrade? I don't think you'll be remotely disappointed.
And if this is a first plunge for you? You can't go wrong. In fact? Prepare to be amazed.
The Fender Blues, Jr. IV is affordable and full of those rich Fender tube tones. A triumph.

Sweetwater rep, Aaron Regenold, steered me towards this amp I am glad he did.
The man is a walking encyclopedia of guitar and amp knowledge.

This little amp is iconic and Fender in the past two years are making sure for what you get is worth the money and even beyond that. Sure there's no fx loop and no switchable wattage options, but who needs that for this tiny guy? Fender keeps this simple by refining a few flaws the Blues Junior III had, for example, cosmetic issues and a bright shrillness for the trained ear. However, playing through this amp for 100+ hours, I can safely say that you can be happy with the tone regardless if you like a brighter sound than a warmer sound because this amp has a great balance between both. I play my Roadhouse Strat through this w/ Noiseless pickups, and man! this thing can really just make you smile.
It takes pedals great, I use my HD500x with this and you can get the sweetest sounds with it. (Keep in mind the hd500x is all digital so think about how great it would sound with analog pedals.) The whole Fender tone is just a clean guitar slate then adding your pedals in the chain therefore, you can easily play Jazz to Metal with an overdrive pedal.

That being said, this little guy isn't perfect. Personally, the fat switch isn't my cup of tea but that's just MY OPINION. It's more of a little grit switch because the dirt increases, say about 15% when activated so if you think you can play death metal with this little switch on, you get a nice fat bluesy tone at best. Another gripe would be the volume control linear pot for you bedroom players. With the master under 4, you aren't using it at its full potential. I play in both maxed out settings and bedroom levels, so I got good news, you aren't missing anything. You can get excellent tones with this guy even at a low master volume setting but exceptional tone when you crank this guy up. Though it's still annoying that this was a big issue for a lot of people.

Sorry for all my rambling, but to sum this up, if you want the most versatile tone under $800, invest in a few good analog pedals, you can make this guy already go from a mini twin reverb to an all-out Marshall Plexi from just a few clicks on your pedalboard. I rate this guy is a solid 5/5. I'll update my review when I reach to 500+ hours.

The new Celestion A-Type speaker gives better clarity and bigger lows. It's capable of extremely loud and clean. Also has a nice warm tube breakup tone when needed. It's a jazz and blues monster. The Reverb has been tapered back so it's not over the top. I always had problems with reverb live but not with this one. The highs are less harsh than the previous BJ 3 model which sound wilder, less focused. Recommended.

I am a big fan of small tube amps that sound good and deliver great tone.The Fender Blues Junior IV does just that.This amp takes all my pedals real well and the Celestion speaker is a big plus.I own five Fender tube amps but this one is my favorite.Many thanks to Sweetwater and my sales engineer Chris for making this purchase so easy.Highly recommended.

Fender really did something special here. The tone is much tighter and delivers some shine and growl compared to the older versions. A top notch low wattage amp for the money.

Exactly what I wanted! Go for it.

First of all, Sweetwater has awesome service! Nick, one of the sales engineers, was very helpful to me when choosing to buy this amp. It arrived in 3 days, well packed too.
Second, the amp. Unreal tone and great control. Sounds much better than III's I have played. And for 15 watts this amp is loud!
Just what I wanted. Highly recommended!

Unfortunately my review of this amp has to start with it"s delivery. Sweetwater defaults to FedEx. But we have not had great success with them so I switched it to UPS, thinking it would surely get here in time. Long, agonizing story short...truck delayed by bad weather. Lost a whole weekend of playing with my new amp. Not Sweetwater"s fault and really not UPS"s. Frustrating all the same.
Now the good part! The amp arrived in perfect shape and I ran all my guitars through for several hours tweaking and fine tuning. I originally bought a new Fender Twin Reverb back in the 70"s when I bought my Les Paul. Both guitar and amp have been refurbished a couple of times but the Twin just became too unreliable (not to mention heavy). So I eventually replaced it with a Fender Mustang III for my rock stuff and a Hendrickson Jazz Amp for my jazz boxes. I was hoping the Blues Junior could replace both. Fast forward to yesterday. Played my first gig with it and it shined. The first set was with my D"Angelico and it sounded sweet and warm with a little more woody bite than I get with the Hendricksen. My tele came out for the second set and the clarity plus reverb makes it sound, well like a tele should sound plugged into a fender. So, there you go...I can now sell my other two amps and have the tube sound I have been missing for all those years!

First off I have no experience with a Blues Jr before so I can"t compare this to the III at all. I wanted a Blues Jr for awhile but when this came out recently I decided to go for this IV model instead. Right out of the gate I absolutely loved it. I used to have a Blackstar tube amp that was good but required a lot of tweaking to get to a sweet spot or tone I desired. I used no pedals at first just plugged a standard start into the blues junior IV and wow! Clean tone was amazing right away. Very smooth, and had a certain harmonic quality to it that I loved. Next step was to crank it up which I did and then wow.. no tweaking at all just guitar into amp at a louder volume and it was screaming. It just has this fat midrange sound that makes my strat sing and when you dial it back you get a nice lush clean tone. I heard a lot of complaints about how the III was boxy sounding but I have not experienced that with the IV at all. It"s small, light and still sounds super open and big. All in all love it. Small portable and easy to find a sweet tone with.

This tube amp seems to do it's job well. I am a classical guitarist and only flirt with or fool around with the electric guitar. The sound reminds me of the old tube amps from the 60's and 70's from our garage and basement music playing teenage years.
I cannot say anything bad about this amp. Possible exception is that you have to be a contortionist to connect the fat switch that comes with the amp. The jack for the fat switch cable is stated to be on the back control panel. There isn't a back control panel. The jack outlet is inside the amp and you essentially have to reach up blindly from the back of the amp to plug the cable for the fat switch in. I just leave it plugged-in since the amp stays in my home studio and does not travel. It would be difficult to travel with it plugged-in all the time and frustrating to unplug and plug back in if traveling.
Otherwise, the amp seems like a good deal for the price. I like it so far.

The Blues Jr is a great sounding tube amp with a good speaker and a nice breakup. I probably should have done more research into the level of distortion you can get before I bought it, because I'm more of a hard rock player. Now, if you can crank the pre-amp, engage the Fat boost and also crank the power amp into clipping (which I've done), the overdrive is pretty sweet. Not a dual recto by any means, but a delicious grind. But who can run at that volume most of the time? I can't. So then came my search. An Xotic SL Drive was ok, but not great (with this amp). After some online research I took a shot at just adding a Boss SD-1 in front of it. BINGO! Set the pre volume to around 7 (edge of breakup) and master volume to taste. The SD-1 and the Blues Jr are made for each other. You can get just about any degree of distortion you'd want. Now I love this amp and I hope this review gives some info to others.

I'm not sure why I name it this but it sure is a sweet amp. I've had few tube amps over the years: 100w Ampeg V-4 head with mismatched homemade (15" jbls and piezo tweeter each with a sunburst Rickenbacher) cabs, Art attack amp also 100 watts (from the 90's), recently: AC10c Vox kind of muddy sound.
Well conclusively speaking, this Blues Jr IV has a lot of personality. The main volume is really the "GAIN". So crank that up to 8 and master 2, push the fat switch and there's all kinds of sensitivity and sustain with my Tele affinity. Just a Behringer delay pedal and the amps own reverb. Look forward to warming this baby up in my dinky apt; I get no complaints and I got no complaints: thanks fender and Sweetwater!
(Except the input for the fat switch pedal buried in the back hole too
near sensitive speaker wires.)
Prefer the switch (fat) on the amp anyway. Notified Fender in Scottsdale they thought it was " interesting". Also can use given pedal for Mustang modelling amp to switch between 2 different presets, oh yeah! Big Momma! She's gonna get ya, she's gonna get you good!

Hot mids on this amp! My P-90 loves it!

Love the Fender tone, but I had to send the first one back as the factory assembler gooched up one of the screws that holds the speaker to the face plate board. It was laying on the floor of the amp when I unpacked it from the original box and I couldn't get it to screw into the board. Aaron and the support staff at Sweetwater were great and immediately sent a replacement amp with a shipping return label. This is why I continue to go back to Sweetwater. As for the amp, it sounds great for the blues/country/rock sound that I grew up with in the 60's. It's too bad the quality control at Fender isn't what it used to be.

Only play with it for a week or so, but as great sound and plenty of volume

I have been playing Fender Strats and Teles plugged into Fender Amps for 40+ years. Twin Reverb- Super Reverb- 59 Bassman - Vibrolux Reverb - Deluxe Reverb - Bassman Heads. This Generation of Blues Junior is excellent and I was surprised at the great tone and Big Amp Sound. The Celestion "A" Speaker works well in this amp. This amp has more clean headroom than the previous models and gets very loud.With new modern Fender Amps the first thing I do is speaker replacement which allows the player to get the voice you want. Fender puts the CHEAPEST 10 " Celestions... in the 68 Custom Vibrolux Reverb in what is otherwise a great amp.Horrible idea and someone at Fender needs to reign in the bean counters. This Celestion A is a much better quality sounding speaker and works with this amp. The reverb gets the job done but its still not the long tank tube driven reverb from the classic Fender Amps. I still like this amp very much and recommend this amp from Sweetwater who has much better customer service than the other online dealers..

To my ears I prefer EL84 tubes of which this amp has. Great sound. I compared the Blues Jr III with the IV. The reverb on the III was way over the edge-insane(meaning with the reverb dial on 3 it sounded like it was on 10), while the reverb on the IV is far more subtle and manageable. This amp is LOUD. Don't shy away from this amp because of it's 15 watt rating...this amp screams for its size. I gave this amp 4.5 stars because when the volume and master volume are increased up to around 6 and beyond, the reverb tends to increase as well...not sure why. Engage the Fat switch and this amps really has a nice full sound. Overall, a great amp in a small package. I would recommend this amp to anybody wanting a smaller, lighter amp or downsizing their rig.

I rate this almost a 5 star amp. Personally, I like the 12" Celestion A-type speaker as compared to the Jensens. I think the tones and range from the BJ IV are on par with, or maybe a little better than, the older Hotrod Deluxe I used previously. I like the black panel with ivory chicken head knobs and the 3-band EQ. The reverb is typical excellent Fender stuff. Compact and light enough to move easily but a big sound. My only complaint is that the cover is a separate purchase item. Overall, I'm very happy with the Blues Junior IV and would definitely buy this again.

I had a Blues Jr 3 Tweed NOS about 3 years ago that I sold pretty quickly. To me, it had a weak sound with very little bass and rumble in the tone.

After that I upgraded to a Dr Z Cure. Great amp but pricey. To save some money I decided to give the Blues Jr 4 a shot to see if it's worthy of replacing my boutique amp. Well, after tweeking the EQD a bit and finding a sweet spot on the volume knob, it sounds every bit as good in my opinion. I A/B tested the Dr Z and BJ4 for over an hour trying to get the fender as close to the Dr Z tone I've been used to the last 3 years. And yeah - it comes very very close and IMO, the clean tone sounded better at times.

All in all, the Blues Jr 4 is a great upgrade from the 3 on terms of a more rounded, full tone. I totally recommend it.

Have had the amp about a year(BJ Black Tolex). Enjoy every feature, especially the Type A speaker and the Fat switch. Tonally it can conjure up any thing you want. I play a CV 50's Squire telecaster and an Epiphone Dot Studio with Seymour Duncan P-90 Phat Cat pickups. Being 1 yr old I decided on a re-tube job. Replaced the GT's with JJ pre-amp tubes, but stayed with GT el84's. Amp sounds better with more chime and bottom. I did find the stock reverb tank somewhat anamic, so I'm replacing it with a MOD dropin. Have not gotten it yet but from all reviews, it is a great improvement. Don't hesitate, this is a great amp. Did I mention it can get LOUD.

This Blues Jr. 1V. is perfect for being a rock,blues,or country star in my own home.

I got this little amp to compliment my new Fender American Professional Telecaster and it sounds really nice. It is very loud though, I was surprised. Turning the Main Volume down and raising the Volume does not make for natural distortion as advertised but keeping volume down and raising Main as high as possible does a decent job. The reverb is awesome and the overall tone is really nice.
This is however not a good amp for my overdrive and/or distortion pedals, I am getting a much better sound out of my Blackheart when using overdrive/distortion pedals. when miking a Royer 101 gives this baby a beautiful sound, better than a sm57. Blending the two is quite nice though.
Overall a great amp

Very clean with plenty of power. For larger gigs you could definetly mic the amp. Very light easy to dial in. Will probably go with a tube upgrade.

I chose this amp from 3 that I got to try out in there private listening room. This new improvements in the Blues Junior IV really tightened it up. It"s a big improvement. I only gave it 4 because they still don"t have standby or an effects loop but in all, it"s a great amp that sounds like one costing 3 times the money! Very good deal and buying from Sweetwater is always the right thing!

I purchased this amp for practice at home. Sound quality was good but there always seemed to be some sort of annoying overtone when playing multiple strings. The guitars I use did not have this overtone when plugged into my old Behringer (solid state) amp. Not sure if this is a Fender-specific issue or not, but my old Peavey tube amp never had this noise. After 16 months of light use (amp left in same spot the entire time and plugged into a high quality surge protector), the amp went haywire with uncontrolled and unpredictable static and the guitar sound connection going in and out. I had to drag out my old Behringer amp - still going strong after 20 years of abuse -- to continue playing.

Thank goodness I purchased this equipment from Sweetwater because of their extended warranty policy. They honored their 2-year warranty and are having me ship the amp back at their expense so they can troubleshoot, repair, or replace. If I had purchased elsewhere, this $750 amp would be out of warranty and I would be left with a big repair bill. I find it unacceptable that this expensive piece of gear would fail so quickly. It's possible I just got a lemon, but I will think twice before purchasing Fender gear in the future. I've never had this happen to a name brand amp before.

If it wasn't for Sweetwater's support, I would give this amp 1 star based on quality.

Like the sound, had a few of them and n the past but the price to value ratio isn't good at all so many other better choices out there for less cash still sounds boxy and thin!

Like the sound, had a few of them and n the past but the price to value ratio isn't good at all so many other better choices out there for less cash still sounds boxy and thin!

Don't like this amp simply because the cabinet is made of particle board. Though it has good components and sounds good. Its a shame Fender has to cut conners and wrap it such cheap material that want last.