Robben Ford Discussion

[LesterB]

Hi,

sorry for bothering you with this, but I've just restarted playing with others after almost 15 years, and I feel I may need some tips..

Thing is, I am a teacher at the uni, and with some colleagues of mine we set up a band (well, that's really an overstatement...) with the aim of playing at an event organised by our students and show them that we are not all relics..
After a couple of rehearsals I found I still enjoy playing and I would like to continue doing it on regular basis.

I have a blues jr (black, green circuit board) and although I like the sound I am getting from this little amp, I'd like to see how I can improve it. Changing the stock tubes to JJs (2 JJ EL84 + 3 ECC83) already helped me to get a much better tone.

The stock speaker is a purpose-made Eminence, which apparently is known for being ok-ish, but not really great.

My guitar is a LP standard double cut and I tend to play a rock-blues southern rock style of music, although occasionally I could play something more zeppelin-like, depending on who I play with.

I had a look around at the celestion vs. tonker threads already, but I was wondering if anyone here had upgraded his Blues jr and was willing to share his thoughts/expertise here..

Thanks a lot in advance!

Beppe

[PaulG]

First of all, congrats on assembling the band and getting something going. Wish I had the chops (or stones) to do the same.

Secondly, I came upon this info a few years ago. I have NOT tried any of these mods, as I felt my old Blues Jr. was as good as I need it to be. However, I did contact the source of this info, and he promptly responded with tons of info. Much of that is here on these sites.

http://billmaudio.com/wp/

http://home.comcast.net./~machrone/bluesjunior.htm

I'm not sure where I found this contact, but perhaps on TGP.
Please provide any updates if you make any changes or mods, as I would be interested in your results.

Good luck.

[LesterB]

[LesterB]

I had the mods done.
I haven't had the chance to play it at very high volume yet. At volumes that won't make my neighbors shouting too much at me I can say that I like the tone I am getting quite a lot.
Someone elsewhere described this as lifting a veil that was covering the amp and I kind of agree with him.

Obviously these are my preliminary impressions, I'll see what happens when I crank it up a bit.

I had the following mods done:

Green Board Basic Kit
Presence control
Audio-taper master volume control
TO20 Heyboer
High-voltage preamp

Spere parts and instructions came at 120USD from Billm.

[PaulG]

Thanks for the update. Glad you found the mods worthwhile.

So, how difficult was it to do these yourself? Would one need to be an experienced electrical engineer to do these yourself?

Thanks and good luck with the blues, junior.

[LesterB]