# Fender Blues Junior Mod?



## FooHead (Aug 28, 2008)

Hiya,

I picked up a nice used Blues Junior a while ago. While I was day dreaming at work today I came up with a mod idea and was wondering if anyone has done this.

Yank the amplifier section out of the combo and build an enclosure for it so it becomes a blues junior head. I could then get a separate 12" or even 15" cabinet.

Will this even work? Anyone done this before?

Just curious,

Foo!:food-smiley-004:


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

That's not so much a mod as a rehousing, and yes, it could be done. Lots of people have either rehoused the amp section into a new custom-built enclosure, and I've also seen other who have simply cut the combo enclosure down to "head-size" and kept most of the original materials. It's not a bad idea actually, since the Blues Jr. requires defeating the internal speaker in order to be used with an extension cabinet, which is a feature I find annoying, but whatever. I suppose you could use two 16 ohm speakers, one in the cabinet and one in a separate cabinet, but then you wouldn't be able to use the amp as a combo only. On the plus side, this feature makes turning the Blues Jr. into a head easy-peasy.


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

yep...why not..but that's not a mod realy..it's just cosmetics..


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

I think that you will find that retaining the reverb/reverb pan could be a challenge if you are considering making a head style amp from the BJ. 

Apparently, the reverb can interfere with the amp (or vice versa...I'm not sure) and this needs to be taken into account when designing the enclosure, etc.

The good news is that it can be done.

Others can explain this in a more technical manner.

Cheers

Dave


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## peter benn (Mar 29, 2007)

The head alone will drive an 8-ohm bass cab loud enough for apartment practice--and sound (to my ears) fairly close to a Bassman.

Heat and airspace-wise, though, I'd be afraid to make the cut-down cab too small.

Oh, yes:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze6roy2/zotemansbluesjuniorsettingsforthefdp/

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


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

I actually looked into this and it's not as easy as I thought. The orientation of the tubes makes it tricky. Here's a page from BillM (*THE* Blues Jr Mod guy) about rehousing the BJ as a head.


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## FooHead (Aug 28, 2008)

You know, stoopid me just noticed today that I can easily unplug the speaker and just plug it into another. DOH! Very cool though I must say. Although building a "head only" version would still be a cool winter project.

I don't think I'm going to cut the original BJ cab. I'm going to try and brain child some sort of head design, should be a fun project if nothing else. Good points about the heat build up and reverb tank....I never thought of either of those. The Bill M mod's look interesting too, and since I'm taking the head out...why not!

Funny thing is, I happen to have a selection of 8ohm bass cabs lying around. (I'm really a bass guy but picked up the BJ and an Ibanez Artcore for fun). I've got a 15" BagEnd and 2 single 12" Eden cab's to experiment with at 1st.

Fun stuff! Thanks for the input!
lofu


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