amp advice for a tele

[Joshi]

I'm tossing up between a fender blues jr (tweed edition) and a Egnater tweaker combo for a tele?

Looking to run it clean mainly, and having pedals for the OD. Currently have a vox ac4tvh+cab but need something with a lil more oompf especially for cleaner sounds. what are your opinions?

also whats the difference between 6v6 and el8X???

[JStotes]

Both good choices, depends on the type of music. Tweaker has more flexibility.
Although, nothing sounds better than a tele straight into a tweed deluxe! You might want to check on a 5e3 type of amp.

[solitaire]

6V6s are a bit glassier and fuller sounding and don't compress quite as much. Compare the difference between 6L6 and EL34 and you're in the ball park.

[Joshi]

i guess music would be indie rock and also for ambient stuff...
I really like the guitar sound of Arctic monkeys and the wombats. both amps do the job?

[Joshi]

bump

[Ramblin Hymns]

Try the new 65amps ventura. Sounds great with teles.

hymns

[fjblair]

Cannot go wrong with the Egnater.

[crunchman]

Aguy has a Traynor wcv20 in the emporium, their nice, great clean channel,loop,boost,etc.Its been there awhile, he'll prolly give a good deal !

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1043593

I had one, nice little amps

[voxworld]

Stangray

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9McodoUTNeQ

[Yaktens]

:munch

[Miles]

Egnater. Way more range on tap.

[Joshi]

well still havnt tried the egnater, but got to try the blues junior and was very impressed. real smooth... but how much difference is there between the black and tweed version?

[MRscratch]

gonna up the $$$ , but the victoria 20112 is THE BOMB with this guitar

[Powertwang]

Every time I plug into my Blues Jr. I'm always blown away by how well it hangs with the rest of my amps that cost 3-8 times as much. It's got its limitations - the 'verb is anemic, its headroom is a bit limited - but I don't think it can be beat for the money. That said, I've never played an Egnater and the word "tweaker" makes me think of someone with a Meth problem, but it sounds like some think highly of them, as well. I'm not so good with the internets and don't seem to be able to find a way to link to this file other than to spend $.99 on an iTunes download, but I'm an avowed Tele-holic and my guitar track in this tune: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/all-the-landlords-children/id128964894 is my '66 Tele (made the day I was born and routed for a middle Strat pickup, which is evident in the track) played through my older tweed Blues Jr. with a bit of slap and probably some compression. I don't say this to get you to pay $.99 of which I'll never see a penny, but because, if I do say so myself, it's a pretty happenin' Tele tone from that amp and it's the best way I can think of to illustrate the point.

Alternatively, if you'd like to email me offline, I'll be happy to email the tune directly to you (assuming I can figure that out!). Or, for that matter, is there any place on TGP to upload a sizeable file for people to hear it?

[jota]

Powertwang, the best way is to creat an account at soundcloud.com and upload the file. Then, share it here.

[Powertwang]

Cool. Thanks, jota. Sounds kinda like Photobucket for music (another account I had to open so I could post more effectively to TGP, ironically enough). I'll check it out.

[Powertwang]

Powertwang, the best way is to creat an account at soundcloud.com and upload the file. Then, share it here.

Well, it took me a couple of days to get the upload approved because it's copyrighted material, but they finally allowed it.

A couple of disclaimers: the lyrics in the opening verse are juvenile, regrettable, completely NSFW and, most important, NOT MINE! This band, Chevy Downs, is a Christmastime side project with a bunch of my old buddies from around the country who convene at ye olde Indianapolis homestead during the holidays to play sloppy-but-spirited country music, most of it, um, "original." One of the two lead singers, Tim Jones, is in a really cool band called Truth & Salvage Company that's on a label owned by Chris Robinson (Black Crowes) and the other bit of semi-interesting trivia is that when I joined up about ten years ago I was replacing Carl Brammel, the "guitar hero" of My Morning Jacket. Ah, Indy boys done good...

Anyway, without further adieu, is a not particularly good song that I think does a fairly good job of showing what kind of Tele tone a Blues Jr. can get when turned up almost too loud: http://soundcloud.com/powertwang/04-dance-it-off

But remember - please - I had NOTHING to do with the writing of this song!

jb

[loudboy]

I'd look at a SF Deluxe or Princeton. Both god-like w/a Tele.

[jota]

Powertwang, sounds good.
i always liked the sound of the BJr but it always sound so small.
But it's a nice amp and very portable.

[Powertwang]

Thanks, Jota! What are you going to do for an amp?

[Joshi]

well im starting to convince myself that the blues junior is the amp for me, atleast for now. Its portable, has nice cleans, decent price. Im still trying to make my mind up if whether the extra cash is worth the tweed edition.

quick question though, how loud can it get without breaking up. really love having my amps clean and using the tim for OD.

and loudboy, will def try the SF and princeton before i decide to buy. why is the blues junior not liked here on TGP?

[Powertwang]

I'm sticking by the theory I put forth earlier in the thread that most of the guys on this forum are what I would call "advanced gear hounds," and they/we tend to pretty consumed with the pursuit of hyper-nuanced, highly refined specialty gear and perfectly utilitarian pieces of gear like the Blues Jr., Blues Deluxe, plenty of Mexican Fenders, ugly Japanese Ibanez guitars, etc. don't really fit into that category. I mean, seriously, how could you justify spending $2,500 (or lots more) on a Bad Cat, Tone King, Carr, /13, etc. if you're also posting about how amazing a value a $250 Blues Jr. is, right? (Actually, I do both (obviously) and I think most amp hounds here would tend to agree that the Blues Jr. is a tremendous value, but it's also very true that each of the aforementioned amps is way more amp in any number of ways - as they should be at those prices - but as a go-to standby that's great to have in the house for small gigs, recording sessions, loaning to friends, using for unexpected jams, etc., they're really hard to beat.

Despite what you think, though, I've seen loads and loads of positive posts about the Blues Jr. around here and if you do some web searching about this, you'll see that there are lots of threads and even a whole website or two dedicated to love of the amp and an assortment of mods that are available for and that most Blues Jr. aficionados advocate (fixing the reverb circuit, upgrading transformers, speakers, etc.). I recently had my tech do some of them to mine and it's never sounded better.

The main site is http://billmaudio.com/wp/.

Oh, and one other thing to look into in the same echelon of amps is the Ampeg Jet 20. I bought mine around the same time I bought my Blues Jr. (and for a really similar price - somewhere between $250 and $300) and find it to be a super-useful, great-sounding amp. The stock 12" speaker is absolute crap, the stock tubes are often a bit lame, but after putting in a cheapo, no-name speaker and some better tubes, mine came to life and it's actually a bit louder than the Blues Jr. In fact, some of my better gigging tones I've gotten on really Tele and Strat-intensive gigs were achieved by running both of those amps in stereo and I actually got asked to turn down because the two together were pretty damned loud.

Anyway, sorry to cloud the issue, but you might want to scope one out if you can.

Best,

jb

[Joshi]

Thanks for the reply powertwang, wise words :) I'm def thinking th jr is the way to go. Small gigs and practice is what I need and the jr seems to fit it.

[jota]

Thanks, Jota! What are you going to do for an amp?

Don't know if I understand your question but, as I said the BJr always sounded great to me. I first tried one out when I went shopping for a tele and I loved it.
The problem is, I have a DRRI and a 5E3 that are bigger amps and sound... bigger!
I believe the size of the cab plays a high role on the overall sound of an amp.
I believe the BJr plugged into a bigger cab would sound as good as any of my amps but, I like mine better.
I have a little Vox Pathfinder that I love but I got it into a Tech 21 combo cab with a 1x12" and I love it even better!

So, nothing wrong with it. I like it a lot but, I'm done with my other amps ;)

[straightblues]

IMHO there are a lot better amps than the Blues Junior for the same price on the used market.

Other amps to consider buying used in the same price range..

The Peavey Classic 20, Classic 30 and Peavey Delta Blues
Ampeg Jet II
Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Fender Blues Deluxe
Fender Pro Jr.
Any vintage BF or SF that you could score cheap, like a Bassman, Bandmaster, etc.
Fender 5E3 clone
Smaller Musicman combo
Crate Vintage Club Series

[smolder]

I'm mostly a LP player, but when I grab the tele I usually look to the Carmen ghia or Z28. The old ampeg jet is also a good option. Not so much with the fenders or marshall's.

[riff1006]

IMHO there are a lot better amps than the Blues Junior for the same price on the used market.

Other amps to consider buying used in the same price range..

The Peavey Classic 20 and Peavey Delta Blues
Ampeg Jet II
Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Fender Blues Deluxe
Fender Pro Jr.
Any vintage BF or SF that you could score cheap, like a Bassman, Bandmaster, etc.
Fender 5E3 clone
Smaller Musicman combo
Crate Vintage Club Series

A big +1. I'd prefer any of these to a Blues Jr.

[marvelboy_04]

maybe just move up to an ac15/30?