# Bill M. Blues Jr Mods



## Voxguy76 (Aug 23, 2006)

Just curious if anyone here has tried or had the Bill M. Mods done to their Blues Jr's. Was there a drastic improvement?


----------



## Duane (May 11, 2010)

*Mod your Blues JR*

I have a couple mods done on my Blues JR. First the origianl speaker is long gone and I put in a Jensen Alnico and it made a huge differenct. Increased and improved breakup. I also had the tone stack mod done resulting in more of a tone palet. I have a Blonde USA green board amp and had the reverb mod done to remove the buzz when you added reverb. What I want to do next is had the ext cab mod done so I can plug in an ext cab too. Yesterday I plugged it into a 2x12 with Celestion G12T-75 speakers and WOW!!!! Would love to have the Jensen in the mix too.


----------



## Fader (Mar 10, 2009)

I did a bunch of Billm mods. Some have more pronounced effects than others. Swapping out the speaker makes a huge difference. I used an Eminence Private Jack.

I did the Tone stack mod, Adjustable bias, Power supply stiffening, and Adjustable presence control. I would recommend all three.

I sold it to finance another amp. I miss my BJ sometimes. You can get a lot of tone out of that little puppy. 

I was running an extension cab with a pair of Greenbacks and it sounded huge!


----------



## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

I picked up a Blues Jr a while back, laquered tweed edition and it had all the Bill M mods done to it , the speaker was changed to a Texas Heat, reverb tanked changed out and I replaced all the tube sockets with good sockets. Don't know what a stock Jr sounds like but this one is pretty sweet...


----------



## Gretsch6120 (Sep 20, 2006)

I bought a bone stock Mexican made Blues Jr. it sounded ok. First I changed the speaker to a G12H30 and the tubes messed around with the preamp tube selection. It improved it then I bought a kit from Fromel Electronics his Blues Jr. kit and it was a big improvement. For one it was alot louder made the bass and mids a lot more useable, you could actually notice a difference when you adjusted it. And the price was great I think it was 60 bucks, it really made an ok amp a great amp but thats my 2 cents


----------



## nonreverb (Sep 19, 2006)

I've done many BJ's...even the output tranny upgrade. They're great mods and seem to make a noticeable improvement based on the feedback I've got.


----------



## RonA (Sep 21, 2009)

Hi: I would descibe the difference as more than drastic! The only mods that I haven't done is the cathode follower and the line out. There is no comparison side by side with a stock amp. Some people might say that you bought the wrong amp if you have to mod it. I'm no electronics guy and it was scary doing this the first time but I had fun and learned a bit. To me it sounds more like a $1500 amp than a $500. I love mine now.


----------



## copperhead (May 24, 2006)

I love my stock blues jr but when i get around to it its gonna get the bill m mods did you ever hear of stevie snacks 
Bill M. Blues Jr. Mods
he uses bj's now with the bill m mod check it out


----------



## Rahlstin (Jan 4, 2011)

I have a black USA made, bought new in 2001 , cream board, did the bias resistor, tone stack, fixed the blown cap issues, did the light, isolated the reverb tank, threw away the jensen and have been running a mounted G12M, along with a V30 in a seperate cab, have been part of the fender forum on these things for 10 years. This amp sounds good with a strat. I havent ever been able to get a great tone out of it with humbuckers though. Its now going up for sale and has been replaced with a DH15 and cab which is more basic than the Bj, isnt quite as loud, but has a much superior tone for my ears.


----------



## Adicted to Tubes (Mar 5, 2006)

I recently did some BillM mods to a blues jr and was kind of dissapointed in the results.Don't get me wrong,the mods do as they adverstise to do,it's just it turned the amp into a Fendery amp and it lost all the magic of a two EL84 amp.The grit of the EL84's gives way to what a Deluxe Reverb might sound like.
Not for me that's for sure.The biggest differences came from the output transformer and speaker.
I would rather convert it into an 18 watt marshall or Vox circuit and use the EL84's to get some sweet gainy tone.
I did convert one Blues Jr into a Princeton Reverb and it sounded way better than the Bill M modded amp by leaps and bounds.


----------



## sscups (Aug 21, 2010)

I had all the mods done to mine a few months ago and it sounds fantastic. 
Had the mods done in London by Mike at vintage tonewheels home page came out really nice, all work looked great.

Took a good 2 weeks to receive items from Billm, but all parts came and the documentation was very clear.


----------

