This video made me buy a Vox AC15 C1, thanks.

Thanks Lyle - your explanation of how best to remove that resistor without damaging the PCB hole or trace was great.

Love this format!

Outstanding!

The more I watch the more I’m enjoying your videos. Thank you!

Beautiful guitar playing at 3 min!!!! I could listen to that all day!

I love spending time with you Lyle! its almost like being an apprentice in your shop!

Learn some great stuff Cheers !

Lyle, your videos are incredible. You are creating smart and aware artists. Please keep sharing great information!

Lyle your work is so clean man you know your stuff always a pleasure to see you fix these amps the right way great video.

One of, If not your best video on what to do to improve the Blues Junior amplifier. I have done all of these modifications to my Blues Junior III, and i can say that it has made a big improvement to the overall sound quality if the amp. These mods can be done by anyone with good soldering technique and patience. Thank you Lyle for all that you do and for demonstrating what you do, why you do, and how to do it properly and safely. Well done.

Great tech video, your process for resistor removal is so informative..Great job as usual..Ed..uk..😀

Just ELAGANT background music...

I begun the slow journey towards being able to service amplifiers a couple of years ago (after having tinkered with electronics here and there including working assembling pedals for many years). These videos are incredibly valuable, and I think it's a great thing you are doing by sharing your knowledge. I've checked out a lot of stuff where people are working on vintage style point to point gear, and while that is naturally more appealing both from a servicing perspective, and aesthetically, the fact is that where I am in New Zealand there simply aren't that many of them around. These modern Fenders make up a large portion of the work the techs (of which there are frustratingly few, by the way) get here. Lovely feel you have on the guitar, too - I'm pretty sure that's you playing, yeah? AjC

Lyle, Your subscribers count has been getting a nice ground swell since I started watching your content ages ago. It's a testament to your decades of knowledge, skills and your tell-it-like-it-is candor. I haven't sniffed a whiff of fan-boy favoritism that you show any amp vendor or individual amp. Very refreshing. You should start to sell some T-Shirts, merch or do a Patreon account at some point to pull in some "side hustle" money as they say ;-)

Really enjoy the time lapse (and the spacy guitar licks). Thanks for the tips.I always learn something.

I'm one of 683,455,673 folks who own this amp (manufacture date of mine March, 2021 - which makes it a "IV"). Of note is that the amp (at least my example) is extraordinarily quiet at idle with both the master and volume knobs cranked. So I guess they managed to get _something_ right. I didn't think the sucker was on when I first fired it up. Hummingbirds flying around outside were annoying me - but not this amp's self-noise. I hope that continues to be the case for maybe another month or two. But I don't gig this amp and slam it down on concrete - only set it down on carpeted surfaces. I haven't popped the hood yet (filter caps?), but mine contains the Eminence Red, White, and Blue speaker that they've gone to. Great idea (the tweed is awesome of course), but totally agree - they should fire their MBA's and spring for an extra nickel here or there on this amp.

You speaketh the truth.

Great stuff . I'll be doing the screen grids and diodes in future . I haven't had any 1N4006 failures yet in the two dozen B.Juniors I've seen , but I can appreciate that they must be working pretty close to their PIV . Thank you .

I sure wish you were in my city, so I could get in line to request a look at my Blues Junior. I got one (used) a few months ago and did not know before the purchase that it had been modded with a line out. Also it hums, quietly though. But your videos help me understand problems, which I can communicate to a local tech. I've never worked with a tech before, but I'm game to improve the health of my gear.

A few years ago a installed a Mercury OT and choke in a Bj and the was a noticeable improvement in tone. When I plugged it into a pine 5E3 cab with a Weber Alnico Blue Dog the difference was incredible. I don't remember if I changed the diodes or not, but I did install F&T caps.

Shots fired! 2:30 Don't ever change...

I’m naming that guitar song “The Blues Junior Blues.”

That's a lot of bending the ribbon cables back and forth. I usually take the tube board and the main board out together but I am not rushed for time or trying to keep the cost down for a customer. Great info. Thanks for the great video

I do wish I knew someone like you who works in the UK….

The lead free solder I have worked with has a *higher* melting point than leaded solder ---- unless Fender is using some special lead free formulation, chosen for ease of wave soldering perhaps. Note that its usually much easier to remove leadfree solder (with solderwick, or a desoldering pump) if you add fresh lead solder to the connection first, because it lowers the melting point of the original leadfree solder (the fresh flux helps as well, but still I crank up the heat on the desoldering gun a little bit if I'm desoldering the lead free stuff). Although I'm no metallurgist, it's my understanding that tin, and tin alloys without lead, tend to crystallize and degrade the connection, sometimes forming dendrites or tin whiskers that can even cause short circuits, especially under temperature extremes, including not just heat but intense cold, as NASA and satellite communications companies discovered the hard way. "Tin pest" even derailed an Antarctic expedition when the seals on their canned food degraded! Lead free solder leads to premature failure of electronic devices. Even under the best of circumstances, with quality solder, excellent soldering technique, automated wave-soldering equipment properly adjusted and working just right, the stuff just doesn't wet and flow to the connections the way that lead solder does. It also eats soldering iron tips due to the higher soldering temperatures and acidic flux,, and can corrode the circuit board if all traces of flux aren't removed. Organic acids are used in leadfree flux; it's nasty stuff, far more noxious than the rosin flux used in leaded solder ---- avoid breathing it. Rosin Flux is only mildly irritating ( to me, anyway) and the soldering temps are far below the boiling point of lead, so it's not gonna give you lead poisoning. Just wash your hands after using it!

I found those same blue Ic caps in a vintage bassman that someone had already worked on. I replaced them but was wondering if I had been wasteful... I guess not if they're shit. Also very interesting with that noise, I would have been chasing my tail lookong for a bad valve or plate resistor etc

Fender LOVES biting the hand that feeds them, as their manufacturing decisions show this time and time again.

I love my Hot Rod Blues jr 4. It was made with a black pc board & seems to be crafted much better than regular blues Jr's

I had a bunch of these and a champ in recently, all circa 2017 vintage. No issues with the caps (yet), but all needed one or more replacement pre or output valve. Absolute shit considering they're 4 years old and have probably been in storage for the past year or so.

THere is a reverb mod that is just clipping one thing and it made my Blues Jrs reverb a lot better. Same with the Hot Rod Deluxe series amps.

HI Lyle, mine built in August 21 has dark brown, almost black, main circuit board. Fender tech here in Australia said it's a series 2, now running class A mode. Of course it's fried a power tube and needs resisters changing to run cooler, thankfully being done under warranty as the amp is only 5 weeks old!!!!. I'm paying to change the input jack, we are hoping that the caps will need replacing before the warranty runs out so Fender can bloody pay for that as well.

Usual suspects is about right.

Sir, you are very informative and l take all your comments on board. So will hang fire on this purchase. However could you suggest an alternative? I live in Scotland so there may not be the same range as the USA. Kind regards. Hmzy.

Great work. But you have convinced me never to buy a Blues Junior.

Would luv to see what you to install standard jack in the oversized hole.

Any chance you could post a parts list? Thanks.

This version is a bit better I’m a sucker for the blues.

Why not make that blue wire longer to and wire it away from the cables that make the humming noise and how much for this great fix total price to do this.

You are right about Lead-free solder. I hated that "lead-free" solder. Can you still even buy a 60/40 solder anymore? I see you use solder braid and not a "Solder Vac" pump for solder removal. Personal preference?

If your Wi-Fi router is on the same circuit as the amp you can get that noise.

Hum fixed by new filter caps?

Why does Fender still have one resistor 24k and the other 33 do they want it to run hot for better sound in around 70 rather than 50. Why and once you change it will it sound the same I realize it will last years now but does it effect the sound just asking I didn't care I like your fixes longevity is better than sound.

Love the content. Question: If upgrading the tube sockets is less preferable to buying a different amp. Which Amp would you recommend? Thanks!

...no, that's obviously the built in John Deere tractor functioning at normal idle (maybe a little rich?)

With all the Blues Jr. amps that I see on your bench, I’m sort of relieved that don’t have one. Are they that bad?

what city are you located in?

Can you explain how change the wiring of the mid spot ? Thanks.

I own a new Blues Jr (well from about 4 or 5 years ago) I have had a lot of trouble with the amp. I had it serviced because it would cook the tubes (The JJ writing went from red to a brown color). Well 5 months later its doing the same thing. I want to buy the ultimate mod kit for it, because when these amps work and have the twin mod they are very nice. Sad Fender puts such crappy stuff in their amps.

Hi Lyle, are those just the IC filter caps you're changing out or are you doing all the red/orange (103k, 250vSA34, etc...)as well?

Why is it so hard for Fender to do this right? The product line should be so simple. A line of reissues done exactly right, a digital line of those amps, and a cheap digital version. It’s simple.

Ugh. Plastic shaft pots. WHY!! I guess the tradition of Fender using not the “best” components. But whatever they can get for cheap:efficient continues.

Dear Fender, stop using IC caps. I won't buy any of your amps until you switch to F&T caps.