I have the same amp. Had the same opinion about it stock when it come to the “harshness”. I found it was really caused by that Jensen speaker that comes in this VOS model. Swapped it out to and Eminence Cannabis Rex and it totally fixed the issue for me. Love it now. Sounds awesome in a mix.

I have multiple Amps and stacks, by far this little guy is my favorite!! Just yesterday the exact tube you took out first looks like fireworks 💥 when I turn it on. Makes a crazy loud hum/buzz. I flip the switch in and off RIGHT AWAY! So now I’m going through my other amps I don’t use hopefully to find a tube to fit 🤷‍♂️ I live in a rual area and it’s 2hrs either way to get to a guitar center. Great amp! Love it dearly 🤘

Just replaced the pre-Amp section tubes with eléctrico harmonics 12AX-7 and sounds absolutely amazing I wish I knew that minor mod would do it!

I heard the difference, instantly, your new tubes are nice, and worth every penny,, smoother, and warmer sound, just my experience with your video, Ps, I've just opened my new tweed Junior Amp 7/03/2022. Sydney Australia 🇦🇺,, lacquered, taking out the V1 valve, replacing with a new AY7, gives a longer clean volume before break up , just personal taste for my playing . Still breaks up nice but more down the track , not between 2 and 3 etc out of the factory on your dial.

Looking back on this now, I'm pretty sure the problems I'm having are acoustic in nature, and have to do with the room I'm playing in (a basement). The changes I made to the speaker and tubes did improve the sound, but it still sounds pretty unmusical in the basement overall. In other rooms, it sounds better or even great. I think I'm just going to have to put up some foam padding on the wall to balance out the frequencies.

I say embrace the harsh with the Blues Jr. I feel like that's it's intended purpose. Max out the master knob, max out all the EQ knobs, and use the preamp volume knob to control volume. Run the guitar through a decent EQ pedal to fine tune your highs and lows. A compression pedal helps with excessive harshness for more aggressive blues/rock styles (SRV, Hendrix, etc.). Once I figured all this out, my Blues Jr. really shines! It's all in the power tubes. I'm going to experiment with attenuating the amp signal to the speaker too because the higher I turn the preamp volume, the better she sounds. TLDR- this thing wants to be loud.

perfect dude...now replace again with your old tubes :)

Dude, the old tubes sound a million times better on this end

I used to have a blues junior, and loved it. I'd get her screamin' really good. I agree with the folks who say you're playing way too clean for a rock tone. I think more than replacing the tubes, you need to play with your settings a bit. I think mine was the first gen Blues Junior (green board, bought it about 98?)... I remember the clean tones being very bright and chimey... why 0 treble?

the old ones sound better

Sweet Emotion 🤘

The BJ3 has a good eq. Try turning the treble up and scooping the mids. Some people will pull the mid all the way down and run the treble at 2 or 3 o'clock to get a Deluxe sound. Also the fat switch makes a big difference.

I did the Bill M mods to my BJ amp. Made a tremendous difference. If you don't know how to solder and unsolder on a board you can destroy your board. Acoustic environment will also make a big difference in what you hear. Mic up your amp and record to get a getter idea of the tone. On Bill M mods I'm not sure if that's still available.

I just bought a black face blues jr 3 after practice go home in the next day the amp won’t turn on I don’t know what causes that

Will a tube amp work if one tube amp is burned? Also, I was cleaning my amp and took off the tubes. Do I have to warm them for 15+ minutes after putting them back? Thanks

It sound is more clear and prazice, like the TAD Tubes I have changed in my 007. It souds pretty good.

I seriously couldn’t tell there was something wrong with the old ones...little treble adjustment would probably help lol

Hello there. What tube types did you use for the preamp? Did you consider the v1 or v2 position s? Thanks

I had troubles with my Bassbreaker15. Took it into the tech, he replaced the stock tubes with JJs and put in a WGS Retro30. He also fixed the crap FX loop which was poorly shielded. More headroom and an overall improvement in headroom, tone, takes pedals better.

What is the master on and the “volume” on? These always sound a bit bright and that’s mostly the Jensen speaker. I saw your post on the room and that might be a factor too but I think the speaker is your culprit. If you had harmonics or crackles and pops I’d say it’s the tubes. You really shouldn’t have to put the treble on zero though. Are you playing a jazzmaster? I’m biased, I love my lil tweed blues Jr, Jensen and all.

I repaired a Blues Junior Pro today and the best sound, after re biasing the output valves and using a matched set, was with a new JBL speaker. A tasty clean, gutsy sound. As all Fenders are when set up correctly. I avoid JJ valves and go for Svetlana Winged C where possible.

JJ valves seem to have rather delicate heaters. This may not matter in the USA, but here in the UK we have 240V mains. Because of the EU, we lie about it and say it's 230V (technically UK mains is within the tolerances for 230V). Pretty much all imported valve guitar amplifiers are set up for 230V mains for the 'European' market and as result we get 7.5V on our valve heaters, which is outside the heater voltage specs for many valve manufacturers. Result - frequently blown heaters. For whatever reason Fender have chosen to voice the Blues Junior with a fairly massive amount of permanent bass cut (probably so this relatively cheap amp wont compete with models further up the range). Applying the BillM mods greatly improves the BJnr.

Doesn't sound like the old ones were bad. Perhaps they just needed to be re-seated. By re-seating them, it cleans the eletrical contacts. Blues On....💙

Excess electricity in the capacitors can also be discharged by a strong chord being strummed as you turn off the amp and listen to the sound die. People have been shocked by amps that have been unplugged sometimes for weeks…so 5 hours is not a safety window I would take to the bank. Finally, always work with only one hand, with the other behind your back if at all possible…that’s how you prevent the current running from one arm to the other while crossing your chest / heart. It’s no joke…a friend got a severe shock from an old digital camera into which he inserted a screwdriver…and touched a small cap inside.

Comes down to the owners preference...people telling you what to like and whatnot...

I thought the old tubes sounded fine. Also, isn't there a little bit of a break in period for tubes? I just recently got a tube amp and am learning myself. Good luck.

The $100 spent on Tad Russian tubes perhaps better spent on a better Speaker for a better sound ! Get some distance from the amp to listen because its a high intensity pro amp and is raw power but distance from amp it changes tone to be much preferred !

The new sound is blurred.

For his sake why waste time showing screw removal

Hard to hear the amp over the string sound

What trouble ??

I heard somewhere there’s only about 3 tube factories in the world like one China and 2 Europe

New tubes made a difference for the better....I always use JJ's,

Never heard if rotating tubes, sounds like you need to read up on tube amps a little more. and by the way 5 hours not long enough, you should discharge capacitors before poking around.

Having repaired a number of Blues Juniors over the year, the main issue with these amps related to the power tubes being biased too high (hot). Not only does this make the amp sound scratchy but also reduces the life of the EL84 tubes. Having listen to your video you seem to have been lucky in fitting new tubes that may be running cooler that the orginals and hence the smother sound. I would realy advise you either take the amp to a tech and have the bias checked.

Fender amps are notorious crappy sounding when you run any particular EQ knob at zero. You really need to at least have it at 1 to get that into the circuitry.

I’m on me third set of power tubes in my Blues Jr. it’s my living room amp so it gets played a lot. It’s a great sounding amp but it eats tubes.

my bl jr gets about 60 hrs of play time before a pre amp tube bites it, they bias them pretty hot, wen they should have made the cabinet a tiny bit bigger..lol

Sounded quieter and clearer.

Put a vintage 30 speaker in the cabinet and the harshness will go away and turn into good tones , its your speaker that is harsh !

Not to be obvious but sometimes tubes just go out for no reason with no normal symptoms..

Most time the problem is capacitors and it need more than a simple tube remplacement.

tun sol are smooth perfect for this amp I wasted my money on jj s for this one steer clear

Shocker! New tubes sound better than old ones :)

Blues jr has a fixed bias

how can you rotate the tubes the pins are positioned one way?

old tubes are way better its clean and clear. I have this amp. But I like my new Fender LM

I thought the old tubes sounded much better.

They should call those new tubes Screw Tubes because you got screwed on them - you lost some top end and punch. What you need is more than anything is a tone stack mod and a presence mod.

ALSO RUN THE MASTER ON 12 AND USE THE OTHER AS YOUR MASTER AMP IS FULL OPEN TO POST PREAMP SECTION

Blues JR's are notorious for loose tube sockets ..tighten them up ..find the late bill M's video or on his site how to do this

How does leaving the power switch drain the caps? Does nothing!

The new tubes sound better better clarity to them.

"Tubes wearing out i 10 years" ??? I have an italian Binson amp from 1961 still running fine on the original tubes.

treble on 0 ....lol well balanced eq ....= sweet spot ? ...lol

No offense I suppose it all depends on exactly what kind of sounded going for but you're trying to play Rock licks with an amplifier that set clean add a few more Heinz to your mix and get yourself a tube screamer I've heard a lot of guys use those amplifiers various versions of the Blues jr. Very nice out I don't own one I don't want one but I usually Tweed Deluxe so I'm good but it's a nice and an amp and yeah it sounds to me like you got the Reverb up or something it antique white recording and if you're going to play rock and roll since your amp up like you're going to play rock and roll on set it up like a jazz or country cuz we all know that's going to sound like shit like I said no offense intended I'm far from an expert but I've owned many amplifiers and many guitars have been playing for many many years and I've never done a KZfaq video and strongly doubt I ever will

Why the clean sound for Aerosmith? Master should be full-on; volume should be up to the point it suits the room. Got some grit!

Sounds better with old tubes! New tubes sound like CRAP!

Take a look at the BILLM Audio webpage and youtube channel. He has some great info and videos on biasing the tubes correctly. Fender does not set the bias correctly from the factory, and the bias may also change as the amp components age. Setting the bias on the original tupes can make a difference. When you replace the two final amp tubes, especially with a different brand, you should always reset the bias for the new tubes. BillM Audio sells a very inexpensive trim potentionmeter that makes adjusting the bias easy. He also provides detailed instructions. PS, his page also has some other great mods that will improve the sound of the Blues Jr amp.

Get some jjs it would be more clear and clean.

The only thing I learned from this video is that you need to get yourself a power drill leave everything alone a blues junior is what it is if you're seeking different tones buy a different amp

Ok - for the slow folks here - Treble was set to zero on the old tubes because they were too bright and harsh at anything above ZERO. He put new tubes in and left the settings the same for an apples to apples comparison. Let me know if you need to know what that means. So the upshot is - the new tubes sound the way they should. Which means he can turn the treble up and get good results. We live in an age of idiots. I thought we would have more time - but we are here. Sadly. Idiots Rule.

If age alone means that the tubes are wearing out ,even with little usage, why do people pay a fortune for vintage tubes? Anyhow, it sounded the same with the new tubes but if people expect and believe that it will sound noticeably better, somehow it always does.

6L6.tubes were never engineered to take vibrations of power amps. 5881 upgrades work without any issues. The smaller tubes as well have 4 number replacements. See Fender Bandmaster. The other 6550 tubes and others have amp replacements. Elderllyinstruments.com has them all. Change the electrolytic caps all of them, they cause a hum and worse. Change the 5u4 or whatever the power tube is as well it rattles and fails. just rebuilt 2 big old Pevey amps and replaced the spring reverb units as well, these are on EBay cheap. The tubes if blue light glow are bad and are microphonic in amps. Note the big Fenders all had metal spring covers on the 12ax7 and 12au7 preamp tubes. Lastly there are silicone high temp rubber rings put on the big power tubes to dampen vibration. wojo@nycap.rr.com Robert

Do new tubes need to be burned in? and I was told never touch Tubes with your bare hands because oil from your hands can damage​ the tubes

sovtecs or JJs

Did you rebias?

Liked the old ones better

What was the point of this video?

Francamente suenan mejor los bulbos viejos .

get the bias cooled down by a tech and the tubes will last longer.

Old sounds MUCH better Don't quit your day job

Replacing power amp tubes without biasing the old ones first to see if biasing has drifted, is a waste. But putting in new ones without biasing them is insanity

I'm not sure if you still have this amp or not. There's really nothing wrong with the TAD tubes. But they are kinda harsh sounding and in my opinion the JJ 12AX7's are even worse!! If you want to smooth out the Pre Amp you need a trio of Mullard Long plate 12AX7's or Gold Lion 12AX7's. They do cost more than JJ's. But the difference is Unbelievable!!! I have 2 amps very similar to your amp and I was gonna sell both of them until a guy turned me onto Long plate Mullard 12AX7's. It's basically a reissue of the Mullard 12AX7 everyone was seeking in the 70's and 80's!! Everyone from Angus Young to Joe Bonamossa use them in they're tube heads. The Mullard 12AX7 long plates can be gotten from Tube depot for about $17.00 each and you will be a happy camper. You'll hear harmonic overtones and sounds your amp never had before!!! Also you can not tell if your old tubes are bad by looking at them! Your Output tubes was probably fine unless you have used this amp like everyday for years. The Pre Amp tubes is what your needing. Also. The speaker in the amp makes as much difference as the Tubes. The Guitar and even the player!!! If you can find it. Get yourself a Celestion Rocket 50. 16 ohms if your amp can run 16 ohms. If not an 8 ohm is almost as good. The Celestion Rocket 50 is a Cheap speaker that sounds Unbelievably good in low wattage Combo amps!!! The last one I bought from Sweetwater I got shipped right to my door for $35 dollars. Don't listen to these guys that say don't buy TAD tubes either. The TAD output EL84's are good sounding and last a couple years with normal playing. If you want really good Output tubes. Nothing sounds like the Sovtek EL84 and Mullard EL84's. They have great power and super smooth breakup when pushed!!!

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Don't think I'll be buying tube amp doctor tubes after hearing that, the old ones far better

The new ones suck compared to the old ones, sounds like someone draped a carpet in front of the spkr

I like the TAD amp tubes. So many wannabe experts here as if, you can only afford JJ or China tubes anyway.

Bias anyone?

This guy is cluless

Flicking your old tubes to diagnose them.. You should read up a bit on electronics and tube amp circuits and terms such as biasing etc.

BJR = Bic lighter=E Waste disguised as a guitar amp

I said for gods sake why wasy

HELLO, BY LOOKING AT THE STICKER ON THE RIGHT SIDE ON THE BACK, YOUR AMP COULD HAVE BEEN MADE IN CHINA OR MEXICO, I HAVE A REAL ONE FROM WHEN THEY CAME OUT, AND MINE DOES NOT HAVE THAT STICKER ON IT, I DONT KNOW DO SOME HOME WORK ON THE OTHER ONES , COUSIN FIGEL

Clueless

JJs suck on this amp don't bother

The problem this guy has is that he knows nothing about amplifiers.

Ummmm….. abrasive ? It’s called driven tubes distortion… but a twin and move on

GET A BASSBREAKER AMP 15....... MUCH BETTER SOUNDING AMP PERIOD.

Not for his sake for God’s sake

Dude, I think you're polishing a turd with that cheaply made printed circuit board amp. I'm not against circuit board amps as long as they're high quality with high quality components like in a Bogner. In any event, your old tubes sound better. Might want to check the bias, if applicable.