[Harp-L] Fender Blues Jr tube swap ?

["John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>]

Ron,

FWIW, when I had a Blues Jr., i got the tube substitution kit by  
Eurotubes.  (harp depot carries it, but i ordered direct;y from  
Eurotubes.)  ECC81 (12AT7) in V1, ECC83S (12AX7) in V2, and ECC232  
(12D/W7) in V3.  i thought it sounded pretty good, but I don't use a  
bullet mic.  Putting a lower gain tube in V2 can alter the tone of  
the amp considerably and not necessarily in a positive way.  Before i  
did the tube swap the amp was unusable because of feedback. The BJ is  
a relatively high gain amp.

I sold my BJ and got a Princeton Reverb RI when they came out.  But  
the BJ is a very versatile little amp.  I liked it, but I like my  
PRRI better.

The AD/W7 gives you an unbalanced phase inverter tube  which is  
supposed to fatten the tone for harp.  There are quite a few posts in  
the archives discussing/debating this.  It depends on the amp, but i  
thought it sounded pretty good in the BJ.

Btw, Ruby Tubes makes a replacement reverb tank that fits in the BJ.   
This came out after i old mine, but a friend of mine has one.  Sounds  
vastly better than the stock reverb tank.  I had the reverb circuit  
modified on my BJ because the reverb sounded so tinny.  The  RT tank  
is a cheaper and better solution.

Hope this helps.

JP