Fender Blues Junior Tweed pt.1

The Fender Hot Rod family was everywhere throughout the 2000s, helping to define a huge amount of indie rock and guitar-driven pop. The Blues Junior is the punky little member of the family, 15w, two EL84s, dedicated preamp gain, all in a tiny box, somehow just big enough for a 12-inch speaker. This one is a Tweed Blues Junior III, although these are direct amp captures, so the cabinet and speaker are not included. For Pt. 1, it is just the amp itself at different gain settings, with variations including the Fat switch. My favourite EQ for this amp is 666, baby: TREBLE 6 MIDDLE 6 BASS 6 I like the Master around 6 too. It opens the amp up nicely without pushing the EL84s so hard that they start collapsing into a compressed, ragged, undefined mush. The Fat switch is interesting. With it engaged, a capacitor is removed from the circuit, giving you more of the amp’s natural raw voice, with added perceived gain, volume and upper-mid harshness. With it off, that capacitor is in the circuit, mellowing things out and rendering a sweeter, less gainy-sounding amp. Both are important parts of its character, so I’ve included captures with and without. "F" designates the fat switch on. This particular Blues Junior was rebiased after originally running its EL84s way too hot from the factory. A replacement screen resistor was added, resulting in a cooler fixed bias, which improved the sound, feel and longevity of the amp. You can see that here if you’re interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEzWn70Lyo0 Pair with an IR of your choice. Enjoy ✌️