Pro Junior Club

[dada]

I'm in.... dumped my Super Champ XD which I never bonded with and spent $15 more and got a mint PJ with new JJ tubes and cover. Put in an Eminence RC I had in the SCXD and the PJ just screams.

[colchar]

I am considering swapping out the stock tubes on my PJ in order to get rid of any noise from the amp and am thinking about trying the JJ EL844, which is a low power version of the EL84. It is designed to reduce the headroom by about 25%, which would be awesome for playing at home, but am wondering if it might alter the tone much. Has anyone here tried these tubes in their PJ and, if so, what did you think of them?

[tlimbert65]

Originally Posted by birv2

I tried something new the other night at the jam - turned both volume and tone all the way up.

I controlled both from the guitar and was told that the tone and volume were great. Anybody else experimented with this?

I think that is absolutely the proper way to run a PJ.

[birv2]

@colchar -- I have not tried those tubes, but I'm wondering why you would want to reduce the headroom by 25%. There's not that much to start with! Unless, as you suggest, you're looking for overdrive at bedroom levels. Couldn't you do that with a pedal?

@tlimbert65 -- Thanks for the confirmation. I did it again last night with similar results. The week before I used an Ibanez SD-9 pedal, partly because I just acquired it and wanted to try it out. This week, no pedals needed. Great tube overdrive!

[colchar]

Originally Posted by birv2

@colchar -- I have not tried those tubes, but I'm wondering why you would want to reduce the headroom by 25%. There's not that much to start with! Unless, as you suggest, you're looking for overdrive at bedroom levels. Couldn't you do that with a pedal?

That's exactly it - I'm looking for overdrive at bedroom levels.

I have a pedal that I am using right now but don't like it as much as I thought I would (Hardwire SC-2 Valve Distortion...someone on another forum gave it to me for only the $10 shipping cost so I hadn't tried it before I got it) and I am trading it in towards one of the new MXR Custom Badass '78 Distortion pedals (on order, just waiting for it to arrive). That will work at bedroom levels but I was also thinking that I might want to experiment with those tubes to see what they were like.

[colchar]

I think one of the preamp tubes is a bit on the funky side so I am going to replace them (since it is new, the store will just give me new tubes). What do people recommend for replacements? I was thinking about JJs but have never swapped tubes before so I don't know squat about them. And can I leave the power tubes in there and just swap the preamp tubes or should they all be done at the same time?

[Janitor Julius]

Originally Posted by therecordfable

Did you contact Fender asking if it was a refurb? That's a bummer I hope they remedy the situation.

Mine, a 2000 had the original Fender branded GT tubes in it when I got it a couple months ago. They didn't sound terrible, but I swapped them for JJ's cause who knows when the originals will go? I saved them for backups.

[Big Steve]

I tried a lot of EL84's in mine including NOS Mullards, RCA and Amperex. I think the JJ's sound the best in this particular amp. (I don't like JJ's in other amps, but in this one, they are great.)

These amps are really tough on tube noise. You need to go out and get some of those rubber tube dampers or you will continue to have issues with micro-phonic tubes.

I really like the Emenince Copperhead speaker with this amp. I put my amp in a Tweed Bassman cabinet and I am running 4 10" speakers. I have the Copperhead mixed with three of the Blue Fender Alnico speakers and it really added a lot.

I like the idea of trying the EL844. I play a lot of low volume gigs and I go for a dirty blues tone. That might be the trick for me since I don't use much clean.

[colchar]

I swapped the stock tubes in mine last night. We were going to put in JJs but they didn't have them in stock (they had them but a couple of the boxes contained other tubes like Sovteks rather than the JJs that were supposed to be in them) so we put in Mesa tunes as my sales guy uses them in his amps and recommended them.

The problem is that the new tubes didn't get rid of the excessive hum that I am getting from the amp. This isn't just when idle, I can easily hear it when playing quietly. Since I often play late at night and at low volumes, this is a big issue for me.

Can anyone here suggest ways to get rid of the excessive hum from this amp? Even the sales guy remarked that it was really loud. If there is no way to resolve this I might have to reconsider and grab a different amp which I really do not want to do as I love the tones from the PJ.

I'm really hoping someone here can help.

[Tee1]

I thought Fender had supposedly sorted out the hum problems on the new model. I'm guessing not really.

[colchar]

From my experience, they definitely haven't. I was also told by a couple of sales guys that they are seeing a lot of problems with Blues Jrs. and various guitars lately so maybe there is a QC issue at the factory.

[tooncaster]

Took home my first PJr yesterday. They don't lie when they call it a "tone machine."

[birv2]

Originally Posted by tooncaster

Took home my first PJr yesterday. They don't lie when they call it a "tone machine."

You got that right.

[richey88]

I'm in; picked up a March '94 tweed yesterday. BITCHIN, and am surprised at how loud (and a nice quality loud tone) this 'lil bugger is. Gigged with it and my pedalboard. YEAH!

[birv2]

Originally Posted by richey88

I'm in; picked up a March '94 tweed yesterday. BITCHIN, and am surprised at how loud (and a nice quality loud tone) this 'lil bugger is. Gigged with it and my pedalboard. YEAH!

Welcome to the club! What kind of music do you play? How large was the room where you gigged it? Oh, and what's on the pedalboard?

So many questions. I used to live in the Philly burbs myself (Wayne).

[richey88]

Hey Wayne, thanks for asking. I have 2 bands - last night was a cover gig in Wildwood. Older crowd, gotta keep it down (but the stage is like a big natural woofer, not an easy task) you know, Brown Eyed Girl to Motown and Jet with stops at all points in between. I have an original group too - look for Run to Sandy on FB. Can't wait to try the PJ with them. Also can't wait to push my 2x12 cab with 'er!

My gigging board has a JH2S (Dunlop) fuzz, Boss Power Stack, and EH Memory Toy for delay and seasick warbles, boosted with a EH LPB-1. Pedals sounded awesome through this amp and I never got past 4. Got it right before we drove down, the DRRI stayed unplugged. Took a Strat and SG, pretty much the PJ covered all the bases beautifully. What a little powerhouse!

I looked, looks like all Sovtek tubes, I like JJ's and can't wait to get some in there. It is a single ended amp yes? Tube swaps with no bias issues?

[birv2]

[QUOTE=richey88;3573017]
I looked, looks like all Sovtek tubes, I like JJ's and can't wait to get some in there. It is a single ended amp yes? Tube swaps with no bias issues?[/QUOTE

I got JJ's in mine and also put in a Ragin Cajun. Very awesome! No need to bias.

My dad and his wife live in Yardley.

[richey88]

[QUOTE=birv2;3573094]

Originally Posted by richey88

I looked, looks like all Sovtek tubes, I like JJ's and can't wait to get some in there. It is a single ended amp yes? Tube swaps with no bias issues?[/QUOTE

I got JJ's in mine and also put in a Ragin Cajun. Very awesome! No need to bias.

My dad and his wife live in Yardley.

Nice, hope they didn't sustain too much water damage lately. The Delaware was a monster! Ragin Cajun huh? Got a sound clip?

[birv2]

[QUOTE=richey88;3573323]

Originally Posted by birv2

Nice, hope they didn't sustain too much water damage lately. The Delaware was a monster! Ragin Cajun huh? Got a sound clip?

No water damage, but they got evacuated twice in the last 2 weeks, since they live in River Road.

I don't have a clip myself of the RC, but the Eminence website is a good source. They've got some clips here, but no mention of what the rig is: http://www.eminence.com/speakers/spe...el=Ragin_Cajun

Lots of PJ players that swapped the speaker use the RC.

[richey88]

Just got through playing the PJ in "stereo" with my Pathfinder, then SCXD. YUM!! SCXD down lower just for the delay, wow. That would be awesome at a low-volume gig, or the Pro into my 2x12 and the SCXD for FX. Hmmm....