Re: Pro Junior

["Bob Maglinte" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "M. N." <mnessmith@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 4:35 PM
Subject: Re: Pro Junior


>
> BBQ Bob wrote:
> "I have a friend who has this same amp where the PC board actually fell
out
> and got fried by the heat of the tubes."
>
> ============================
>
> Sounds familiar. I have a guitar player friend who has a Pro Junior and a
> Blues Junior. He bought the Pro Junior in '94 and the Blues Junior about a
> year later. Both amps have seen a lot of gigging (in fact the PJ was MINE
> for a period of about a year). Both have had extensive problems over the
> past year and a half with the heat from the tubes screwing up the PC board
> (or as he puts it in his very technical terms: sh****g the bed.). I love
the
> Pro Junior but I really doubt that Fender's building these for the long
hau
> like they did back in the day. YMMV.
> MN

Hi,
And that's a huge problem, and here's where either using a standby switch
(if available) or turning the amp off after you finish a set out becomes
important, and where point to point hand wiring has a clear advantage, but
for Fender, the PC board is cheaper and quicker for mass production and if
they did the point to point thing, it would be much more expensive. I can
tell you that these amps, like the first Bassman reissues aren't using
finger jointed pine cabinets, which are more resonant and road worthy (the
custom shop and the '59 Bassman limited is, tho), and when these amps using
cheapo plywood cabinets aren't ffinger jointed, when pushed enough, they
rattle like hell, causing feedback problems at times, and have been known
for shaking tubes out of their sockets and loosening up the PC boards. In
the Pro Junior and the Blues Junior, the one thing they didn't put in it
that would've prevented that from happening was that they didn't bother
putting in a standby switch, so when not in use, it allows the tubes to cool
down some, until it is turned back on.

Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
MP3's: http://music.mp3lizard.com/barbequebob/