After my last review of the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, you might wonder why I’d do a review of another Fender Tube amp. After all, my last review did tell you readers to stay away from pricey amps that lack versatility and I did say that the Fender amps are not known for their versatility. More for their good cleans and disappointing distortion. But there’s something about the Fender Pro Jr. that I really like and I think it is one of the more underrated amps out there.
The Fender Pro Jr. is a little 15W tube amp with 10” speakers. Compared to the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, it’s a much smaller amp. One of the things I like most about this amp is that it’s small enough to be a good practice amp but it can get loud enough where you can jam with a band or other people. It’s a very simple amp-it’s got just one channel, a volume knob, and a tone knob. I do wish it had reverb, but what I like about this amp is it sounds good on it’s one single clean channel-and when you run pedals through it you can get some big powerful sounds.
Even though it’s only got one channel, you can get distorted tones from it by turning the volume up. When you turn the volume past 6, the sound begins to break up and you get more distortion. To clear that up, you can turn the volume down on your guitar and it’ll be a much cleaner sound. By itself, this amp is great for clean tones and you can get some really great blues and classic rock tones out of it.
To get more distorted sounds out of the amp, I’ve run several pedals through it. I’ve used two boss pedals-the DS-1 and the Blues Driver to great effect. I’ve also used my favorite pedal, the Big Muff (a must have, in my opinion-a review will be up shortly), and it creates great tones. The Hot Rod Deluxe really had me turned off of Fender’s tube amps for a while because of it’s total lack of versatility-the Pro Jr. has shown me that you can get a Fender amp that can give you a wide variety of different tones and sounds. I’ve been very impressed with mine. The only thing I’d doubt this amp can really do well is heavily distorted and overdriven metal.
Aside from the versatility in sounds, I really love this amp because of the different situations you can use this amp in. It’s a small and simple amp and it makes quite a good bedroom amp for practicing by yourself without causing too much irritation to those around you. But as I said, it can still get pretty loud and you can have good jam sessions or band practices with it despite its small size.
I’ve always been impressed with the quality of build of any Fender product that I can get my hands on, whether it’s a bass, a guitar, or an amplifier. The Pro Jr. is no exception to this rule. It is a very solidly made amp-though I would be careful with how rough you treat it as it does have glass tubes (tube amps are always more fragile than solid state amps because of this). It’s also got very little that can go wrong with it because it’s got such a simple design.
One negative point I have with this amplifier is the price. For $400 there are a lot of amps that are a lot bigger, have more options, and have the versatility this has without the need for pedals. But I’m willing to look past the price on this amp because of all of the small and simple tube amp’s that I’ve played, this is the one I’ve enjoyed the most. As I mentioned earlier, I do wish it had spring reverb, but the amp is total quality and if anything ever happened to it, I would immediately replace it because it has found it’s way into my heart.
So in summation, the Fender Pro Jr. is a small tube amp that is versatile in tonal capability-especially when you utilize pedals-and in usage, because it can be used for practicing by yourself, jamming, small band practices, and even gigs in small venues. It is a little on the expensive side for an amp this small, but the qualities it has make it well worth the price.
