Anyone out there play a blues jr with bill m mods? Opinions, reviews?

I had a green-board Blues Jr and sent the chassis off to Bill to mod; he turned it around quick and did exactly what he said he'd do. There was noticeable--if not great--improvement in the sound of the amp, to my ear, anyway. I also re-tubed it w/ JJs and put in a Vintage 30 to try to beef up the bottom end a bit. Ultimately, though, it remained a fairly muddy, boxy little amp and I ended up selling it on eBay.

I'll give it a whole-hearted YES! do the mods, all of them unless something looks really unimportant to you. The best thing is to do the mods one at a time to hear the improvement. Now if you already have a Blues Jr and are happy with it, you will benefit. If you don't even know if the Blues Jr is for you and if you can afford something better, it might eb best to skip the BJ altogether.

Here's what I did:
I was searching for the smallest, best-sounding little amp that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg. It had to cost very little and sound like a raing boutique monster with great clean tone. In all honesty, I wanted a Deluxe Reverb but couldn't afford one. Anyawy, a like-new used BJ in lacquered tweed came up so I bought it. I had a vintage Jensen ready for it, and proceeded to do the BillM mods and each was moving me closer to great tone. Then I realized the Jensen wasn't a great choice for this amp. So in went a Texas Heat. Perfect. BUT the amp still had boxiness which most people attribute to the small cabinet. I even installed a real red jewel light to stuff the LED inside. This was a truly great-looking amp and sounded very decent. It just wasn;t the huge success I was looking for. In other words, it didn't sound like a $2000 boutique combo. BUT the improvements due to the BillM mods were fabulous and it sounded like a souped-up, tricked-out production amp (which it was). I made my money back selling it on ebay and I enjoyed the experience of tweaking it, learned quite alot actually.

Sounds very close to my experience. Apparently the later, cream PCB Blues Jrs give you more to work with as far as mods go. I did end up buying a like-new Deluxe on eBay for about $100 more than the cost of a new Blues Jr. and I love it--very portable, big-sounding small amp. The only downside to the deluxe is that it really doesn't open up until you turn it up to 4 or so, and even at that level it's pretty freakin' loud for basement playing. But as a moderately priced, more-or-less indestructable amp for smallish gigs, you can't beat it.

Man I had the cream board and doing the mods from Bill's website is a snap. You can even buy the mods from him where he supplies all the parts with instructions. I got the Ruby reverb tank and had JJ's in it. I don't even remember all the mods I did, definitely all but 1 or 2 of them. It was night and day with a stock BJ though, so Coldwater: Do The Mods if you want to hear what you can turn the BJ into! Definitely get a new speaker too.

That bent piece of sheet metal on the transformer actually did help reduce hum. And FWIW, aligned grains means rolled steel, and that's how they make sheets. As long as you use steel which a magnet sticks to, you're good.

Last but not least I think the power stiffening mod is not on his website, but do it! You just add a cap to the filter bank. It firms up the bass and makes the amp more authoritative.

I actually have a modded tweed blues Jr. The mod I got for that one was through voodoo Amps. The things sounds great. More of a marshallesque voicing. Threw a webber 12f150 in for a speaker and it sounds great. The reason I am asking about the BillM mods is that I need another as a second or a backup. Last week mine took a big tumble. It was fine but you never know. i gig weekly don't want to be stuck without it. I have another 50 watt amp but it is just too loud for most of my gigs. I'd rather open up the 15 watts, mic it, and really let it sing than turn down the 50 watt.

I ask about the billm mods because I figure if I'm going to get a second one why not get different mods. His twin stack and tone stack mods peaked my interest as they bring the jr more toward a BF tone. So I'm just curious about what your opinions were. What did you think of the vintage 30 in the blues jr? Does it add significant bottom end?

I hear good things about Omega Mods. But, I haven't heard any of the BillM stuff.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Nathan:
... it might eb best to skip the BJ altogether.


...that is something that I have NEVER said...

I have. But I worked as a bouncer at a biker bar for awhile. You'd be amazed at the number of biker chicks you'd get offering to blow you for the $5 cover charge.

Me too, but I was in a rock band during the cocaine craze of the 80's. Ah yes, toothless biker chicks......