I find myself being tempted by the cosmetics of this amp, even though I disliked my older, green PCB Blues Jr enough that I ended up selling it on eBay, even after multiple high-quality mods. Any reason to think I'd like a new tweed one any better, except as a piece of furniture?

Cosmetics won't ultimately make this amp satisfying. It'd be like, you had this girlfriend you didn't really care for much. And then she magically developed the most awesome set of casabas ever seen west of the Mississippi. Would that make you like her more? OK, bad example.

I wouldn't like her any better, but I might be willing to put up with more of her shit. Assuming I was a casaba man, that is. So maybe it's a good example after all--I might be more inclined to put up with the boxy-ness of the tweed BJr, since I like the looks of it so much; it's something to ponder.

Well last year I picked up that amp for the same reason. I figured I could mod the crap out of it and make it a great-sounding amp in a small and extremely good-looking package. To an extent I succeeded, I even added a real red jewel pilot light for added looks. I went and did most of the BillM mods to it and used a Texas Heat (a vintage Jensen actually sounded worse). New tubes (even tried NOS), Ruby tank and what not. The tone never really got better than a good production amp. By that I mean it never got the level of real impressive (boutique?) sound. The mods helped 300% but some boxiness always remained (small cab) and the tone never got 3-D enough for me. It was very usable tone, but I know there is better tone out there so I let her go. Sure looked amazing though...

I thought it was the EL84's that couldn't deliver big sounds since I've never been impressed with a EL84 amp until I tried a Carmen Ghia. The problem is most EL84 amps (besides Vox) are budget amps which cut corners. Anywho, the green vs cream board won't make for much of a difference. I played a friend's un-modded Blues Jr and it simply didn't compare to my modded NOS tweed. So if you're willing to invest in the mods, new speaker (or extension cab), reverb tank you could have a very decent amp. But stock, it really won't do more for you than your previous BJ. The only real difference is the Jensen RI C12N and it rather sucks. Not as bad as the stock Eminence the regular BJ's get mind you, but it doesn't bring the amp alive or stop the boxiness.