Help me decide between these two for best Julian Lage type tone with my rig.

It's been a few years since I played a Blues Jr, but, I would set your EQ where you like it, activate the FAT switch, turn up your Master and turn down your volume below breakup and then use an Archer (or other Kaon-type) with the gain at about 9 o'clock. You might have to tweak around a bit, but that would be a good place to start. Good luck. Post your results/settings here in a sound or video clip.

 

If the only example of his music that I've seen is any indication then he uses a Champ 5F1 and some reverb. The Blues Jr is voiced far differently than a Champ, has a lot of midrange.

I'd probably pick up one of those Joyo American Sound pedals and play with the voicing there, or failing that I'd look for a brown overdrive pedal that has a 3-band EQ and pull back the mids on the amp. I hear very little gain from his sound apart from what the Champ gives out on its own.

Add some reverb to the end of that and you're golden. Or at least close enough. I don't know if the Archer is that type of overdrive pedal.

 

if you hadn't have said anything, the Archer is what I would have suggested. I've tried a bunch, so far thats the best of the lot.

 

I would just be worried about Klon-type pedals that push your amp, because it would tend to emphasis the frequencies (mids) that you are trying to get rid of to make your EL84 tubes sound more 6V6ish. If the Archer gives you some warm creamy breakup then it might be great. If nothing else, those are great pedals to own.

 

I use my with the drive at about 9 . It gives a boost with a little bit of grit, it works great into clean or dirty amps

 

Well, you've got a great rig as it is, so don't forget that. Blues Jr amps are ubiquitous not just because they are relatively inexpensive, but they really are very good amps (their speakers are really good, their cab is the weak point). I'm noticing in your thread that I have all the things that you have. I've got a partscaster Tele (which I love) and a Baja (which I love) and a Blues Jr (which I tore apart to rebuild into a more durable turret board version of itself, so I must really love it too).

I've got a Morning Glory and it's awesome, very creamy and I get good breakup at living room volumes. I have a Soul Food, which I guess is a Klon clone, and I struggle with too much volume and with it emphasizing cutting mids even in my 5F1 Champ, which is why I mentioned the Klon thing into a mid-heavy amp.

The Joyo is cheap (I think I got mine for $35 and free shipping) and really very adaptable so if you can afford it, go ahead and get that while you are buying the Archer. People love the Archer, so if you can get it for a good price, I'd get it regardless of whether it gets the tone you are looking for or not.

 

the Archer is on my "jam" board. never know what the backline amps are going to be, so different settings depending. typically something like a Princeton, I would have the Drive at about 1:00-2:00 and adjust Volume and Tone to fit the room. but then sometimes it sounds better with the Volume up and the Drive down. the good thing about it is only 3 knobs... and one of them is Tone. I really like this pedal and it's been my "go to" for about a year.... nothing can bump it off the top of the list. I'm playing P90s mostly

I also have The Dude, and a Plimsoul that are great pedals but require more fiddling around because of the additional functions. I kinda don't use them much any more but can't give them up just yet. theres about 5 or 6 more I've tried that have gone by the wayside

 

I agree. When I still had mine, it was not only boxy sounding, but it developed loose glue joint somewhere and there was an irritating vibration sound whenever I played through it. I eventually replaced the cabinet with a slightly larger, solid-pine one...I think from Mojotone...and it made a WORLD of difference, not only in the tone, but in the weight. It was noticeably lighter and more resonant. One of the single best upgrades you can do for a Blues Jr.

 

The Morning Glory is a modified Blues Breaker circuit. The Archer is a Klon klone which has a much different eq emphasis.

 

Yes!! There is nothing wrong with that speaker. Nothing at all. Its the cab. (I put mine in a plywood cab about the size of a Deluxe, amazing).

 

I like solid pine better than plywood. Lighter and seems to resonate more. But YMMV.

 

Just crank your blues junior. That is basically what Julian does to his Champ.

 

Respectfully, (having owned both) a cranked Blues jr will sound quite different from a cranked Champ. Aside from the obvious speaker size/wattage differences (12" vs. 8"; 15 watts vs. 5 watts), the BJ uses EL84 tubes and the Champ uses 6V6's...the latter tube complement much better sounding in my opinion.

Still, have a go. It's been many years since I've owned a Jr. Maybe it'll sound passably close.

 

I'm probably most familiar with the Modern Lore CD. Some of his drive tones are pretty wooly. The last time this subject came up, I tried some different OD pedals and got closest with a Distortion+ and the tele's volume and tone knobs. Runner up was a Red Llama clone, also working the guitar's knobs. It's definitely not your typical blues OD tone.

 

I watched a few YT vids of this guy last night for the heck of it and it appears that he's also, at one time or another, plugged into Vox amps, Fender blackface of some kind (Princeton, maybe?) and another larger tweed that I would swear is actually a Tweed Harvard. I also heard more grit then I remembered previously.

Of course the problem with those videos is that they can be misleading. It's never clear whether the artist lugged his own amps to the gig or had them provide a backline for the occasion.