2019 Fender Blues Junior Tube (Valve) Amplifier in Lacquered Tweed

Fender, in my opinion, continues to be the Gold Standard when it come to what is often describes as “Clean Tone” amplification. Nothing else sounds like a Fender.

The Blues Junior line does have its detractors and often gets described as “boxy sounding”. I have made a serious attempt to hear what this specifically means, but the two Juniors that I have personally owned, did not sound restricted in any way.

This particular model falls into the “Hot Rod” line from Fender. In addition to the upgraded lacquered tweed cover, it has a Jensen C12N speaker instead of the “Fender Designed” one. I love Jensen speakers in Fender amps. There is a real spring reverb tank.

The 15 watts are plenty loud for my purposes and suitable for bedroom practice as well as studio recording applications.

I picked it up in Okeechobee for $325, an excellent value.

2024 Fender Champion 100 Solid State Amplifier

It’s not fancy but, it’s loud.

This is overkill for my needs. I had a wonderful Fender Princeton Stereo Chorus amplifier that I picked up for around $180. It was one of those “never should have sold” things that I regret to this day.

I wanted a basic, solid state, non-modeling amplifier. This fits two of those criteria. While it is considered a “modeling” amp, the clean channel produces outstanding Fender “Twang” and (so I am told) is very good with pedals.

Light weight (compared to its valve cousins) and extremely well-built, this will last for years and sounds great at lower volumes while providing more than enough power to keep up with an acoustic drum kit.

I slowly traded up to this starting with a BOSS Katana 50 Generation 3 Modeling amplifier which I did not like at all. The sound was “thin” and “digital” so I returned it to Guitar Center, gave them another $20 or so and got a Fender Mustang GTX50.

The GTX50 was a major improvement over the BOSS, but still did not have the “thick” sound I was craving. So, back to Guitar Center again where there was my Champion.

Now, about four years ago, I was in Guitar Center and played a Telecaster through one of these First Generation 100s. The sound stuck with me. And spending another $20 was a small price to pay for the sound I was looking for all of these years.

So, ultimately, it was $310. Not a great deal, but a deal nonetheless.

The 2017 Ampeg PF-20T Rig (with PF-115HE Cabinet)

I picked this up in Jacksonville, Florida while visiting with my Father who was down from North Carolina.

It is an all-tube amplifier head with two 6v6s for power and two 12AX7s in the preamp positions. This is the sound that I associate with classic bass tone.

If one was to buy this setup new, it would set you back over $1400. I snapped this one up for $400!

I am chasing down a buzz that is produced when the low E string is played. I have ordered new JJ tubes for the head and will update this page after I have installed them.