Opinions on amp Carvin tweed vs fender blues jr (UPDATE)

Here's a comment I made in a similar thread a few wks ago.

quote:

---

The Blues Jr is a fine amp, especially if you buy one that has been modded and upgrade the speaker. Ive owned 3 of them, two original and one modded completely and that modded one was smoking. Is it Deluxe sounding, not quite, but it's close to it. Dimensionally, I'd say they are pretty close to each other as far as size and wattage they are very close as well at 15-22.

Edit: honestly, if youll be playing more classic/southern rock, then the Blues Jr is even more versatile than the Deluxe because it has two volumes, one for preamp and one for poweramp (overall volume). You can get a great classic rock rhythm grind without any pedals at all by cranking the preamp up and keeping the poweramp section around 3-4 on voluem, and then get a really overdriven lead tone with a tubescreamer/OCD. It also will give you the way Fenders are traditionally used by cranking poweramp and boosting the front side like you mentioned earlier. Its a very good gigging amp and it still has a very good solid overall tone. 99.5% of the people in a bar wont be able to tell the difference in tone from a Pro Series Deluxe Reverb and a Blues Jr when both are mic'ed through a PA.

---

If you run the blues jr at about 4-5 on master volume and 6 or so on the preamp, with only one pedal like a tubescreamer or Fulltone OCD, you can handle everything from SRV Little Wing to Sabbath tones with just using your volume knob on guitar.

quote:

---

I play a lot of bluesy 70s classic rock style music

---

You cannot find a better amp for the money if this is what youre going for. I dont have any experience with the Carter. Is it the same price point. The only other amp I would suggest would be a Tiny Terror combo used but that will not give you anywhere near the quality of the glassy cleans you can get from the Blues Jr. It will nail classic rock tones and be so-so with clean tones with volume knob roll off.

Blues Jr in a landslide.

search craigslist

used hot rod deluxe $425... could probably get it for 375

The dsl 40's clean tone felt hollow, flat, and empty.

It sounded pretty awesome dirty, though.

The blues jr is capable of nearly every tone you can imagine with a tubescreamer and excels at the classic rock grind. Think Free - "Alright Now", Zep tones, Mary Jane, and absolutely nails stuff like Waitin for the Bus/Jesus Left Chicago. The gain is there in spades if you tweak it right. Using the preamp knob and rolling back on the master volume is the key. You have to find the sweet spot between a light strum giving you acceptabele cleans/semicleans and digging into to strings gives you break up. Once you find that middle ground then volume knob on guitar and tubescreamer on or off can give you essentially four gigging tones ranging from cleans to lead SRV sounds with just one pedal. It wont give you creamy midrange AC/DC tones but it will give you fat raunchy tones all day.

I use a blues Jr for small clubs and a VHT Lead 40 for large gigs. I love my jr, but once your tubes start going bad, change them immediately. I'm still yet to do that in mine, and my clean tones no longer exist in that amp.



It's a great little amp though. All of my musician friends call it the workhorse for a reason. And even with fresh tubes, if you crank the volume on it and leave the master around 4 you can still get some good dirty tones from it, thanks to the fact that it's 15 watts.


Took me longer than I'm willing to admit to learn that tube amp watts have more to do with headroom and not volume.

Find a used Marshall JCM 800 combo.

quote:

---

UPDATE: got the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

---

Nice, arent those like 40 watts or so with 2x12"? The cleans on those amps are fantastic. Huge and full with alot of low/high scooped Fender jangle. I have never been a fan of the overdrive on it however. The rhythm player in a cover band I was in about 8 years ago played through one and boosted the clean channel for his dirt tones. That thing always sounded great. I think I was playing a Mesa Boogie Mark IV at the time so our combo sounded great.

If you want great dirt tones in a pure boost that will give you great leads/high gain rhythm tones, look into the Bogner Ecstasy pedals. They are amazing. You could just run that in the front along with an OCD or tubescreamer and run only the clean channel through your amp.

Pedals off = dedicated clean
Tubescreamer on = light rhythm dirt
Bogner on = high gain tones

Have not played one of those but I would assume it's a tubescreamer clone. The Hardwire series are fantastic though. I have a reverb (RV7?) pedal and it sounds great. It's a quality product, but I would think you wouldnt get enough dirt to do high gain lead. That would prlly be exceptional as clean boost/rhythm dirty/SRV lead type pedal through your particular amp.

Another company to look into is JHS pedals. They will build you a pedal with any configuration/powder coat you want. I had one built that was a tubescreamer clone(808 series)/JCM800 clone (angry charlie)/ross compressor clone (pulp n' peel). Their "Sweet Tea" model would prlly be perfect for you and give you all the flexibility you could ever need.
They are pricey but they are worth it. Check ebay.

JHS Sweet Tea

Drive pedal options -
Bogner Ecstasy blue channel
JHS Sweet Tea
That Hardwire youre looking at would prlly be great
Fulltone Fulldrive Mosfet
Fulltone OCD
Xotic BB Preamp Plus
Suhr Shiba Drive
Way Huge Green Rhino

All different flavors. All high quality drive tones.

I currently run a Analogman Prince of Tone through a Mesa Boogie Mini Rec and can get any tone you can think of with that setup. One pedal (drivewise) and I can cover everything.