NEW AMP DAY on Saturday

[jrfreed]

So I've been in the process of updating my Classic 30...but stumbled across an amp I had to have!

 

I was on a mission for new strings. I had a jazz combo gig later that night and figured I'd give my 530 a good cleaning and string change beforehand. I went to GC and no luck with my brand (suprise suprise) so on a whim I decided to pull into Texas Music Emporium knowing it was a long shot. No luck on the strings, but sitting there was a Limited Edition Blues Jr sitting there. Ive seen the tweed, the relic'd tweed and the Texas Red...but here was a new animal I didnt even know existed.

 

British Green tolex, Celestion V30 in the box, white chicken head knobs, silver grille cloth and 15 watts of killer tone.

 

I grabbed a Godin 5th Ave so I could give it a p90 run thru, and this amp had the tone I've been hoping I can get from my c30. I haggled and walked after dropping 500 out the door.

 

Took it to the gig and my 530 never sounded better...warm, full, and plenty of headroom with the v30 and a JAN-Philips 5751 in v1 (first thing I did when I got home) Awesome amp for the $ and perfect for the groups I'm playing with right now.

[conorb]

Nice find. Those are really killer.

 

Congrats!!

 

conorb

[smurph1]

Nice find..Congrats!! Sometimes it pays to go off the beaten path..

[Spectrum13]

JR,

 

Good find! Your 530 must sound not too different than my floating block P90 Prospect. Hard to match with an amp for anything other than jazz. Odd that a cathiod bias EL84 and V30 become mellow with a new V30. They take a while to breakin.

[jrfreed]

100% agree. The sound of the v30 will richen after a good 6 mos of use, but here's my current settings with the hollowbody 530 and lollar p90's

 

I find the v30 to be very "mid-voiced" so I set the EQ to T=8 M=1.5 B=8 and reverb around 3....Volume 3, and master at 2. Guitar volume at 7/8 for comping chords (depending on the drummer using brushes or sticks) and up to 10 for solos....tone stays on 7. With the big band Tuesday I plan on just rolling up the volume to 4-5 and master to 3 on the amp and at home it stayed clean to that and beyond.

 

Swapping out the GT 12ax7 red also sweetened up the tone. The 5751 is a very vintage sounding tube (about 70% the gain of a 12ax7) so adds a bit of compression to my ears and takes a bit of the edge off. Not using this beyond breakup at this time so the GT EL84's (i.e sovtek's) arent a concern....but will eventually swap them for el84m's

 

One observation though...I see you also play an Eastman. I wasnt wild about the Kent pups + Blues Jr setup. It was WAAAY too dark. I plan on using my modded Classic 30 (which is too bright with the p90's) when playing my Eastman

[Gitfiddler]

Thanks for the review of your Ltd. Ed. BJ Vintage 30. That is a more unusual pairing for that amp and I've wanted to hear about others who tried the V30 speaker in one.

 

I had a new Celestion V30 in mine for a while and just pulled it out last week. Man, I tried to like it, but it only sounded good over driven. Yes, it was clean clean, but the heavy handed mids just got to me after a while. Maybe it needed more break in. I played a bass (gently) through the amp to try to break it in at low volumes for a while. That helped a little, but not enought to keep it in the amp. Stuck the OEM speaker back in and it's much better. Now there's a bit more useable range from the Bass/Treble/Mid pots as originally intended.

 

Now I have a darn near new V30 back in the box. I'll probably sell it.

 

One thing that improved the tone was to crank the T/B pots all the way and adjust the Mids to taste.

 

Glad you were able to find decent settings for yours.

 

Tim

[Spectrum13]

100% agree. The sound of the v30 will richen after a good 6 mos of use, but here's my current settings with the hollowbody 530 and lollar p90's

 

 

One observation though...I see you also play an Eastman. I wasnt wild about the Kent pups + Blues Jr setup. It was WAAAY too dark. I plan on using my modded Classic 30 (which is too bright with the p90's) when playing my Eastman

 

 

The Eastman 905's stock Kent was junk, replaced with handwound. Night & day. I'm still waiting for my V30 to breakin and I only like it with a Fender or overdriven and been thinking about pulling it for a greenback. It's in a closed back cab made for my Goodsell which is a head. I ordered my Heyseed with the same tweed covering so I plan to just drop the Goodsell head on that and use the Alnico or mix the boxed V30 and open backed Blue.

[Steiner]

Thanks for the review. Happy NADs!

[jrfreed]

I definatley have a new set of Lollar Imperials on the radar for my Eastman...that guitar deserves a much better pickup than those Kents.

 

As for the v30 I'm also suprised its working so well for jazz. I always thought the greenback would be much more suitable, but roll the mids off hard + Lollar p90's + hollowbody = instant Grant Green jazz tone.

 

Lucked out huge as I never would have put this together on my own! HAHAHA!

[Hfan]

So I've been in the process of updating my Classic 30...but stumbled across an amp I had to have!

 

I was on a mission for new strings. I had a jazz combo gig later that night and figured I'd give my 530 a good cleaning and string change beforehand. I went to GC and no luck with my brand (suprise suprise) so on a whim I decided to pull into Texas Music Emporium knowing it was a long shot. No luck on the strings, but sitting there was a Limited Edition Blues Jr sitting there. Ive seen the tweed, the relic'd tweed and the Texas Red...but here was a new animal I didnt even know existed.

 

British Green tolex, Celestion V30 in the box, white chicken head knobs, silver grille cloth and 15 watts of killer tone.

 

I grabbed a Godin 5th Ave so I could give it a p90 run thru, and this amp had the tone I've been hoping I can get from my c30. I haggled and walked after dropping 500 out the door.

 

Took it to the gig and my 530 never sounded better...warm, full, and plenty of headroom with the v30 and a JAN-Philips 5751 in v1 (first thing I did when I got home) Awesome amp for the $ and perfect for the groups I'm playing with right now.

 

Congrats on the new amp and good luck. I have a Blues Jr as well, good amp. Check out this site devoted to the Blues Jr: www.billmaudio.com/