Junior Senior

Decked out in tooled western-style livery with a saddle bag's worth of speaker and circuit upgrades, this anniversary edition stands strong in the lineage of the classic benchmark combo

- Words Martin Smith Photography Phil Barker

Since its birth in 1995, the Fender Blues Junior has matured into the small valve combo to judge all others by. It found its niche as a cost-effective, all-valve, spring-reverb-equipped combo with the authentic Fender sound in a throw-and-go, pub-gig-sized format. The amp's inception serendipitously coincided with the winds of change blowing through guitar music at that time, away from the clinical and processed tones of the prior decade towards a looser, more organic flavour as heard in the US grunge movement and the UK's Brit-rock scene. These sounds were well suited to the amp's comfortable range of classic clean to 'edge of breakup' tones.

Judging by its popularity alone, it's clear that the 15-watt 1x12 package found a niche in the amp world by balancing the factors of cost, loudness and portability without forgoing the famous clean tone that made the Fender sound the stuff of legend. Critics over the product's lifespan have occasionally made mention of sonic shortcomings, such as the potential to sound boxy and the ability to display some overly assertive high-end. While it may be harsh to criticise an entry-level combo of this size for indeed being a small amp, this latest version aims to improve the preamp circuit for fullness, and offers a premium Celestion A-type Creamback speaker, improving the performance within the existing cabinet.

This diminutive standard-bearer has enjoyed four revisions and numerous special editions over its 30 years with some circuit improvements, numerous speaker models and a variety of cosmetic flourishes. So this particular celebratory and limited-edition amp is based on the mark IV incarnation (see spec list on page 12), and Fender has clearly built what it believes to be its best-in-class Blues Junior.