Blues amp choices

[jgcable]

John Norum hasn't been in Dokken since 2002. You mean Jon Levin.

Great amp review, though!

Thanks for the correction Joe.

[VitaminG]

how much crunch you looking for from a pedal? The MI Audio Crunchbox could get you there.

[jgcable]

What I want to do is duplicate as close as possible the amps natural crunch tones with a pedal and just bring the volume down with a pedal.

[Cygnus X1]

EQ as a slight boost maybe?

[Hellbat]

I tried a Blues Jr. with an American standard tele at the local dealer today. If my wife wasn't having a milestone birthday and expecting some kind of expensive gift this year, I would have bought both on the spot. Now I'm gassing hard. Perfect blues tone for my hands. God why do Teles have to be so FUGLY. I've literally never picked one up before because looking at them grosses me out. It was like grabbing the ugliest butterface chick in the world but having the most incredible, mind blowing sex of my life.

[horns666]

Uberschall...Rudy agrees. You can play blues with it...but why?

[Cygnus X1]

I would have no problem with a Cyg combo either. Think about the publicity!! I do 2 to 3 open mic nights a week during the week!!

Wait.
Just noticed this.

I have a Cygnus chassis built, another "bench model" that might fill the bill.
Put an old style Coke glass style 6L6GB in it, and it sounds great for that
clean-to-mild breakup that da blooze rawk chadder calls for.

Although I have my cobbled 1x12 combo I still prefer head/cab.
It needs 2x12 minimum realistically...IMO o' course.

[jgcable]

I tried a Blues Jr. with an American standard tele at the local dealer today. If my wife wasn't having a milestone birthday and expecting some kind of expensive gift this year, I would have bought both on the spot. Now I'm gassing hard. Perfect blues tone for my hands. God why do Teles have to be so FUGLY. I've literally never picked one up before because looking at them grosses me out. It was like grabbing the ugliest butterface chick in the world but having the most incredible, mind blowing sex of my life.

Thats how my Pro Junior is with my Nashville Deluxe Telecaster. A match made in heaven I guess. I am not a Tele person or a Fender person but these 2 go together like pees and carrots.

[jgcable]

Wait.
Just noticed this.

I have a Cygnus chassis built, another "bench model" that might fill the bill.
Put an old style Coke glass style 6L6GB in it, and it sounds great for that
clean-to-mild breakup that da blooze rawk chadder calls for.

Although I have my cobbled 1x12 combo I still prefer head/cab.
It needs 2x12 minimum realistically...IMO o' course.

I really need to get one of your amps. I picked up a really nice 1 x 12 Mesa Boogie cab.

[jgcable]

I have been messing around with the Ibanez TS9DX and I getting there in regards to increasing the gain and retaining the tone. This amp doesn't sound good at low volumes though. The sweet spot is around 5-7 on the volume and 8-9 on the tone. Both controls go to 12.
I have the TS9DX set on Turbo and the gain at around 4, tone at 5 and the level at 5.
Now... I just need to get used to playing with no shmutz (reverb or delay)
Outboard reverb or delay is not an option put in front of this amp because when I do this it causes the reverb mix level to increase as the guitar volume is rolled up. By the time I get to full out scream I have so much reverb you can't even hear the guitar! If I roll the volume down on the guitar to clean you can barely hear the reverb. It really would need to either be built in or go in the loop which this amp doesn't have. For live use it would need to be mic'd and then use outboard effects from the mixer.
I am starting to get used to playing completely dry.

[roodyrocker]

I tried a Blues Jr. with an American standard tele at the local dealer today. If my wife wasn't having a milestone birthday and expecting some kind of expensive gift this year, I would have bought both on the spot. Now I'm gassing hard. Perfect blues tone for my hands. God why do Teles have to be so FUGLY. I've literally never picked one up before because looking at them grosses me out. It was like grabbing the ugliest butterface chick in the world but having the most incredible, mind blowing sex of my life.

FWIW, I think the Tele and its headstock are two of the ugliest things ever put on a guitar. I won't own one because of it The Charvel Promods a couple years ago fixed the headstock issue but they still had that poor ugly Tele body, yuck!

Uberschall...Rudy agrees. You can play blues with it...but why?

You speak the truth brother Bill. The Uber can do a lot more than whats its given credit for. Sure, its a gain machine but by turning the gain down varying degrees I've done 80's rock with it and I'm sure it can do the blues equally as well but as you said, why?

I have been messing around with the Ibanez TS9DX and I getting there in regards to increasing the gain and retaining the tone. This amp doesn't sound good at low volumes though. The sweet spot is around 5-7 on the volume and 8-9 on the tone. Both controls go to 12.
I have the TS9DX set on Turbo and the gain at around 4, tone at 5 and the level at 5.
Now... I just need to get used to playing with no shmutz (reverb or delay)
Outboard reverb or delay is not an option put in front of this amp because when I do this it causes the reverb mix level to increase as the guitar volume is rolled up. By the time I get to full out scream I have so much reverb you can't even hear the guitar! If I roll the volume down on the guitar to clean you can barely hear the reverb. It really would need to either be built in or go in the loop which this amp doesn't have. For live use it would need to be mic'd and then use outboard effects from the mixer.
I am starting to get used to playing completely dry.

You may want to look at a Retro-Sonic Eight Oh Eight overdrive. Its a high end Tubescreamer type pedal and works well for adding that edge and gain yet still cleans up nicely with the volume knob. It also doesn't completely take over your amp's tone to where you no longer recognize it.

[VitaminG]

I was checking out the Analogman KOT online last night. From the description, it could be just the ticket.

[jgcable]

I am digging this little amp more and more. It has real personality. Every guitar sounds completely different through it.
Its also fun experimenting with pedals.

[jgcable]

I was jamming on this little Pro Junior again last night. Decided to try another cab with it. I unplugged the speaker and plugged in a 1 x 12 Mesa cabinet I have. What a difference! The slight boxy tone is gone. Makes the amp sound very good. I wonder why Fender never considered making a 1 x 12 version of this no frills amp.
Its a ton of fun to play through providing the people in your house or your neighbors don't mind REALLY loud guitar.

[hippietim]

John - I have a bunch of distortion and OD pedals you might be interested in checking out. In particular, I have Klon clone that I bet would kill with the Pro Jr. because I used to use a real Klon with my Pro Jr. and I know this clone is spot on because I sold my real Klon after I got it. In fact, I bought two clones for less than I sold my Klon for I can send it to you to check out or you can see if you can score one locally. It's called the Tone Vitamin and it's made by Stigtronics.

I have another Klone made by a small builder that is about 98% there as well - in fact, it's so close I couldn't tell it apart in a band mix.

I bet one of the old original yellow Boss overdrives would sound good with the Pro Jr as well. A Boss Blues Driver would probably be pretty sweet as well.

Boss recently came out with a Feedback/Booster pedal - FB-2. It's got the feedback feature from that distortion pedal they did years ago without the crappy distortion pedal. It also has a clean boost with a tweakable frequency range - you can get a good punchy/clear boost or a clean TS style mid-range boost but without adding distortion from the pedal. You're pushing the input of the amp though so you get some pretty sweet overdrive with it. I snagged one a few weeks ago and so far I like this pedal a lot.

I've got a couple of the Wampler distortions - the red one (forget the name) and the SLO one. I don't think they'd work with the Pro Jr. They hate the 2 EL84 amps I've tried them with but work with a 6v6, EL34, 6L6 amp nicely.

You may also consider getting a good fuzz pedal instead. There are a couple guys making some killer Tonebender clones that sound fantastic and they cleanup really well. This is what all those 60's and early 70's dude were using - it worked for Page, Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, etc.