Pro Junior or similar tube combo - weight/price/simplicity

[yegbert]

I tried a Pro Junior a couple of days ago and liked it. I have an SFDR, BF Band-Master and an SF Bassman and appreciate them for what they are. I also have a Champ 15 solid state amp. I'd like to get a better sounding amp than the Champ 15, something tube and with a weight, price and simplicity of features like the Pro Junior. Something I can easily move room to room in the house or for a small outing where the power of a tube Champ, MMB or Pro Junior is enough.

I play Teles with fairly low wound single coils straight into my amps and never even use my verb and tremelo on my tube amps, and I like the tones I hear from BF/SF Fender amps and from the Pro Junior. I like the crisp sound of ceramic magnet based speakers. I have a few old AlNiCos I hook up occasionally and they sound interesting for a change but I prefer my ceramic speakers.

I had a narrow panel tweed Champ and I didn't like the sound of it that much.

The Pro Junior sells at MF for $300, I found one locally in a used gear store for $269 that looks to be in new condition.

I had been toying with the idea of getting an SF Champ or MMB, some of them seem to be going for $200-300 used.

What are some other good tube amps in this same range of weight/price/simplicity?

If you've owned a Pro Junior, tell me what you've found good and bad about them.

Other than the cosmetic differences of the blonde tolex vs. black tolex in MF models and the expensive 60th anniversary woodie thing, are there any variations among PJs to watch for and any to avoid?

[riggergreg]

Can't beat it for simplicity and tone. I use an attenuator at home and it keeps up at most jams.
1 volume and 1 tone

Mines an older(94) USA made blonde and I changed the tubes to JJs and put in a Weber sig10 alnico speaker. Just Killer!!

Oh, and it's only 22 lbs. Your back will love it.

[FMA]

I have an older U.S.-made tweed model and it's a great amp. Perfect for jams and even small gigs...
It's real claim to fame, though, is recording. Excellent recording amp...
Sure, it's a one-trick pony, but it does that trick very well...

[Heather Anne Peel]

I got my Pro Jr. in April 2002 at GC for about $299, if I recall correctly. Wow, what a great little amp! It's capable of warm, clean tones all the way to serious overdrive that's white-hot. All of my guitars sound great through it, and it's surprisingly loud. The Pro Jr. is a little tube monster!
Heather

[nasonm]

I have been wrestling the "what amp should I buy" question and the Pro Jr keeps coming up.

It does the great smoky jazz sound and "Alt Country/Americana sound as well.
If I did get one, I'd play with the pre-amp tubes until I got a slighty cleaner sound (get it to break up later as opposed to sooner).

But you can't beat it for just 3 bills

[Dan R]

+1 on the tweed model. Love it. Yegbert, I have a BF Bandmaster w/2x12 cab, '77 SFPR and an '82 Musicman RD-110. I think you'd enjoy the PJ. They do have a midrangey sort of sound, not at all like a SF Champ, to my ears. I have some good amps already but I couldn't part with my PJ. I think the blonde and black tolex both have ceramic speakers. All of my guitars sound good through PJ, but a tele through a PJ is the ticket.

Dan R

[Johnny Caster]

I was going to get a Pro Junior, but got a Gibson LP Jr instead. Overpriced ($600), but a damn fine amp.

[TexGoneNW]

I'm a helplessly biased PJ fan.

I bought a tweed one new many moons ago; it came with an alnico speaker. That's the one I let my son take to college with him. It has a little more headroom and brightness.

I bought an older tweed one used with the blue-frame alnico speaker in it, and tweaked around with the tubes. It was my main low-volume gig amp for the time I was gigging in Washington.

Since coming back to Texas, I stumbled across ThunderTweak Amps (Ace Pepper, proprietor), and bought a gutted and hand-wired Pro Junior with a Matchless Spitfire preamp circuit and an Eminence Ragin Cajun speaker. The amp's done right - sockets and pots and jacks mounted to the chassis. Oh, and a Deluxe Reverb transformer. It's about 10# heavier than the stock PJ's, but if I was gigging today, I think this would be the one.

[peteb]

something tube and with a weight, price and simplicity of features like the Pro Junior

I read this thread this morning

something tube and with a weight, price and simplicity of features like the Pro Junior

well now it is the night

and

something tube and with a weight, price and simplicity of features like the Pro Junior

is still



a




PRO JUNIOR

[TexGoneNW]

Don't look now, but there's one in the Classifieds for $250...

[Kingtone]

I've got 2 pro juniors that I run together. One is a early tweed model (which I lacqered) It has a Weber alnico and a few other tweeks, this amp breaths fire.
The other one has a custom pine cab, brown tolex with a wheat grill and a Jensen RI P10R. This Pro sounds more like a 50s amp until you turn it to "12" then watch out!
I like the way these amps clean up when you turn the guitar volume down, it seems the tone is there no matter what you do.

The Pro is a great amp but in this case 2 is better than 1....

[Heather Anne Peel]

I had a friend in high school the late '70s/early '80s who was an electronics genius (he later got a Master's from MIT). For some reason, he had a '50s tweed Champ laying around. He wasn't a musician, but he loved music. Anyway, I asked him if I could borrow his old Champ, and he said "sure". Wow, it sounded incredible! From clean and sparkly all the way to lovely singing overdrive. My Les Paul copy sounded amazing through it! I asked him a few days later if he'd sell it. He said "sure". He asked if $20 was too much!!! I told him I thought it was "just right". Even at that time, I knew it was worth far more, and that I was getting a steal of a deal. Anyway, a few days later, he said he wanted the amp back in a few days and that it wasn't for sale. When I asked why, he said he had done some research and found out it was a vintage amp and worth a lot of money. Bummer for me!!! Anyway, years later, when I plugged into the Pro Jr at GC and cranked it up, the tone it produced reminded me of my friend's old tweed Champ. I bought the Pro Jr. right then on the spot. It has that classic Fender tone to it. What an amazing little amp!
Heather

[Rob DiStefano]

I've found the PJr to exhibit some fine tones to my liking, though it's not a friendly amp to work on (PCB), and the EL84 tinkle tone bugs me a bit much, nor is it particularly versatile since it's missing any semblence of clean headroom at decent volumes. But I do like it for bluez, really. I plugged a Dot Special into one a few weeks ago and came away with ordering the guitar and not the amp.

[maestrovert]

if anyone's interested, www.s2amps.com offers a PtP rewiring/conversion for Blues Jr.s & Pro Jr.s, and lately i've been noticing some of the Pro Jr. pcb guts left over from their conversions for sale cheap on E-bay.....

[alotas123]

To me, the Pro Jr. combines convenient portability with decent tone. I am not particularly excited about the tone of mine, but it's certainly usable. I carry it as a backup. It's 'way simple to dial in.

-alotas

[Kingtone]

The Pro Jr. reminds me of the Telecaster, you can tweek them a little here and a little there to suit your taste. Even though they're PCB you can work on them with a little care. Not as user servicable as a point to point but you can work on them....

[TexGoneNW]

Hey, for the price of one of those conversions plus about $50 you can have a ThunderTweak WayCool Junior...and I vouch for that little tone monster!

[Nick Fanis]

my favorite amp at the moment (& almost all I use nowdays ).
I have gone the JJ route too w/ an "extra clean headroom set" & more importantly changed the stock speaker w/ a 250 watt Eminence beta A .The amp now has WONDERFULL cleans w/ tons of headroom.
I don't think I can turn it up past 4!

[stevedenver]

well a bit like tex gone - my pj was re-done by tom seward here on the forum



i have be the oddball here

i have/had an tweed PJ and really didnt care for the stock sound-i believe the cab is just too darn small and boxy- in order to get anything pleasing i had to crank the amp-that gave some tiny bit of fullness to the sound-the amp lends itself IMHO better to single coils, but is still a bit dark

as noted they are a kinda a one trick pony - but what bothered me was the stock version was a bit brittle and dark-using a dealy or verb at lower volume helped a little-the clean sound is not its strong point

mine was re-done ptp in a pseudo 18 w and run into an avatar 2x12 special cab with celestions-its incredible-but is a different amp with a much more bounce from the cab

to answer your question- frankly id think a tweed deluxe or something with a cab large enough to accomodate a 12" speaker would give a more pleasant and musical sound- i think a pj does sound so much better into a larger cab, and decent tubes, such as JJs seemed to have helped as well

[odiemann]

I played a Pro Jr for three years in a band through a 4x10 cabinet, yeap. And it always held it's own. Fantastic little amp. Mine is the blonde tolex from the first issue.

[jed]

Added a Jensen (Recoton) P10Q and swapped for a 12AY7 preamp tube in V1. Sounds wide open and with plenty of head room. Its become my #1

before tolex

[Daddy Elmis]

I love my PJ to death. The only "knock" is that is doesn't do "fender clean" very well (at all) -- but it isn't designed to do that (that's what I have my Goblin for anyway).

[teledude66]

it's acool amp to have around, I have a love/hate relationship with it. Sometimes it is everything I need and other times i can barely stand to hear it...but that may be the player

I'm really diggin the 2X10 conversion Jed ...

[yegbert]

Thanks everyone for all the info on the PJ!

I decided to get this SF Champ instead.

[FMA]

Nice score, yegbert!