These amps are a great match in a dual-amp setup. More thick grittiness from the Vox, and nice top end clarity from the Fender. That's a killer vintage combo.
I recently discovered that amazing truth! Both are now my never-sell combos! I run wet-dry or stereo. For even more fun, I put my little 5W Champ clone in between and go wet-dry-wet! Such great stuff! Cheers :)
Vox early breakup is fizzy/raspy and muffles the character of the pickups, while the fender is a fuller, clearer tone and more organic sounding. They're both good amps depending on the application, vox maybe if you want more rhythm grind, fender if you want more lead articulation, but for overall sound I'd have to give it to the bjr in this demo
I considered myself a strictly “Fender Amp Person” until this video, this Vox is raw and some Delta Blues or SRV going through that thing would be right up my alley! Well done!
The fender is preferable hands down according to my personal taste. The vox, especially on neck pickup, as with most vox amps, I've noticed, sound very muddy and muffled and bassey. Thr fender has that wonderful crystal clear clarity and vintage like tongue that fits perfect forlow working bluestoneswhich I cover. it's a no brainer
Yep! You can make a clean amp sound dirty but you can't make a dirty amp sound clean. Besides being more usable as far as tone is concerned, just because the BJr is super pedal friendly, it is also easier to lug around with its smaller footprint. IMHO, to choose the BJr over the AC-15, even though I also appreciate the VOX, is a no brainer.
The Vox is a rock and roll amp. It likes to get down and dirty. I still heard more space and dimension with the Vox. The Fender would be frustrating for anyone not interested in playing the blues. Even at full crank, its kind of shy. The two probably shouldn't be compared.
Dang it!! Every time you switch, I like THAT ONE better lol I have neither of these amps but want both and I think the Vox to my ears and my playing would be my favorite.
I have a BJii and a newer AC 15 with the greenback speaker courtesy of craigslist, they're both nice in my opinion, the vox has a MOD reverb and the BJ has a accutronics tank, nice thing about the BJ is being much lighter, the low end sounds a little fuller on the Vox, though I could build a pine cabinet quite cheaply and quickly and maker a slightly larger cab to improve the low end, they both have their points
A lot of these reiviews say "I used to have a vox or I used t have a blues junior" I want to know why you still don't have it. Did you find something better? Did they crap out? were they stolen? did you loose them in divorse? house fire? AAAHHHHH I need to know dude!!!!!
The fender vlues jr. And hot rod series the cleans are fuxking amazing. BUT. They built them so damn cheap itll be in a shop every 6 months. If u buy one go to a good tech. Have them change caps. Lift the reverb resistors and apply acrylic under them so it doesnt burn the board and replace the ribbon cables with braided wire and you shoulr be good for years
@@patrickrosington1174 On the AC15s the tubes die about a year into good usage, if you play regular gigs or tour. After that it'll be fine with replacements for a while. They hold up pretty well otherwise.
Jake - Mixing Engineer I can contest to AC15 tubes going out. I play for my church and with practices/services/extras I play almost 5 times a week for 2-3 hours at a time. Two sets of tubes in a year. It just eats them.
10 years ago i would have take the vox at any price ... man , now i'm so much more into the blues junior sound, it's so much more alive to me ! the vox sound to much scoop for my taste
To me the Fender sound seemed pigeon holed into retro blues tones specifically while the Vox was able to play any genre including blues. Was also a warmer round tone. Thanks 🤘🏻
The AC15 is a great amp, especially with the Celestian Blue, and I have to say the speaker in the tweed Jr sounds much better than the one in the tolex version. I could seeing getting a tweed Junior. Didn't ever warm up much to the tolex one I had for a while. And I always thought the tone controls in the tolex version did very little. The guy from Texas Blues Alley did a demo when he had his tweed Junior gone over by Bill M when he was still around and that amp sounded incredible.
I just ordered the VOX AC15. I liked my Blues Jr. but it has been in for repairs 3 times. With repairs, I have a $800.00 paper weight. No more good money after bad. Of course, it quit while playing in a jam session. Good review-Thanks!
I bought my Blues Junior two years ago because of your video. I continue to be happy with my decision after that time. Great amp . Of course both amps are great, but to me the Fender sounds more bluesy and 60s.
Luke no I left the Jensen Speaker in . It works Great. We are talking about a 15 Watt Amp for Garage use . More than enough , and good sound. Maybe if you playing in a wider place ... but than you don’t use a 15 Watt Amp.
The vox is loud af and in your face and the blues jr is a little more modest but still maintains an aggressive tone. Each of them have their own purpose and sound great!
That Vox sounded sweet, made me smile every time you played through it. I wanted a Tweed but your vid and playing convinced me I still love that Vox tone. I own a Pathfinder 10 and that sounds good too.
Both are great amps. Each one offers something different. If you want clean with brightness, Fender is the way to go. If you want deep break up cruchiness with some jingle, Vox is perfect.
Great comparison. Difficult choice. Both are excellent. Depends on taste and with playing style. As a Fender lover, I'm tempted by Vox. However an AC10, closer to my budget. But the AC 15 is more of a classic
This is exactly the sort of video I've been searching for all afternoon... I'm seriously considering buying a Blues Junior, but hearing it came with EL84s, I thought it might sound too Voxy for my liking (I've played through an AC15 and couldn't get along with it). I'm glad to hear that the Blues Junior sounds nice and Fendery, just what I'm looking for.
@Howardsend88 I should mention that I did end up buying a Blues Junior and I didn't like it at all... I ended up selling it within a year. It had a lot less bass than I had been led to believe, and certainly didn't have that big, glassy Fender sound I was after. I went back to using a Hot Rod Deluxe and now use a Blues Deluxe Reissue.
i like this demo. These two amps certainly sing with different voices. I think the Vox sounded better to my ears in the cleaner settings but after that it became a matter of personality. The Blues Jr. has an American twang to its voice all the way around, which is certainly called for with a lot of American music. Both amps are very nice.
Did you get the AC10? You ever pair it with a Tube Screamer? I got to play one at GC and loved it but hear a lot of comments about how it’s not a good pedal platform. I’m not a huge pedal person but wild like ability to run some delay and tremolo on occasion along with the TS for dirt on lower volume practicing.
A a lifelong Beatles fan, I can hear the lineage and heritage coming through the Vox and it is absolutely superb but as a blues head and a Blues jr owner, I'm thoroughly happy with my choice.
Just picked up a Vox AC15. It's been one of those amps that I've always wanted caught one when it was on sale and just had to. Compliments my Tele perfectly! Between the guitar and amp I can honestly tell that I'm just going to have to work on practicing to get my sound better. There's nothing that's going to hide my flaws or lack of skill. But done right (as we've all seen countless time and as demonstrated here) that combination can sing. Cheers!
@@immutablecantrip last month guitar center had them and a bunch of other amps on sale. I went in to get some picks and walked by the sign showing the price.
The problem with the blues Junior IMHO is the smaller cab which makes it sound boxy, if both were AB'd using the same cab i believe the blues jr would have a better chance at sounding good because in this demo the AC15 steals it's lunch lol
It's open back, so it's dimensions should not have much if any affect on the tone. In this video, the SM57 is placed right near the cone edge, seems the Jensen speaker sounds crap at the edge. A single room mic would have been better.
I love how your face changed when you kicked in the gain on the Vox. You can see you are feeling it. Love to see it! Getting lost in playing, awesome!!!
The Vox sounded much, MUCH fuller! Plus that gain, oh god that gain!! When it was clean, you sounded like BB, when it was distorted, I could hear Albert!
The Vox makes the Telecaster sound more Les Paul like. After all, Jimmy Page used a Vox AC30 turned up full, on the solo on "Stairway to Heaven" with a Telecaster when they recorded the song.
Man, I love Fender amps, & they always sound great, but in this comparison, I like the Vox sound better. It's got something extra going on sound wise...
BJ with an EQ pedal all day long' the ac-15 is too heavy to lug around' that's why I sold mine and bought the ac-10 and run it in stereo along with my BJ or Princeton reverb.
The Vox AC15C1 "Tone Cut" is all the way up. Turn it down a bit you could get a similar tone the Blues Junior. When purchasing a small combo, it came down to these two amps. The "Tone Cut" was the difference. That's a tone shaping features that's over looked. These two amps were above all the other amps for my needs.
The Blues Jr. all the way. I looked at both and bought the Blues Jr. Have considered changing the speaker, but really have grown to love the Lightning Bolt. Good demo.
I grew up in a family where my Grand father, Father and a uncle played in working country bands, so no pedals or overdrive to be heard. Being born in 65 the British invasion was like aliens had landed. I had to have that sound. Then the big hair 80`s came OMG what a time for a young guitar player to live! Now that I'm older though, I'm moving back to those tone machines. The tweed deluxe, a simple one channel Princeton. But my favorite is the Peavey Classic series. I have them all. 50-4/10, 30-1/12 and the 20 mh, which is a masterful tone machine through a vintage 30 omg what a sound! Here, these are both great amps, one having more overdrive, the vox, but again they both are super sweet with great tones and can be used for different situations. You want that overdriven sound, get the Vox, if your after clean, get the BJ. I'm lucky, I have them both! Great video!
Have owned both. The Blues Jr. Sounded to "Boxy". Needs a bigger cabinet. Had a Vox AC15C1 and it sounded okay but was lacking a little in the treble. Traded both off. Just bought another Vox AC15C1X with the Celestian Alnico Blue speaker and am now in Heaven. This amp has "It". Great Chimey cleans and some kick-ass overdrive tone. It will bury a Blues Jr. and the standard AC15 for that matter.
No doubt both great amps. I'm lucky to have an original '97 MIA green-board BJ and have installed a Jensen C12N speaker. Nice smooth clean and OD , and with a good pedal up front (Barber Direct Drive for me) it's a very nice rig for small to medium venues (mic'd, of course)
I do like the fact the BJ does not break up as fast... It has more clean headroom... But the VOX has a great, great color when pushed... That is only my opinion... I do have Fender and love them...
I had a Vox AC15 CC1, Vox AC 15 Handwired w/ alnico blue, Fender Blues Junior III.... Vox AC15 cc1 had a wharfedale speaker....very brittle high end, very rough sounding and bright, horrible reverb. Vox AC15 handwired sounded the best, shimmering Voxy highs but did not have much headroom at all. Also the amp gave me countless problems...tube problems, farting sounds..something was up with that amp, wasnt cheap at the time either.... Then arrived the humble Fender Blues Junior III. Got it used but in decent condition. It is not as great sounding as the Vox AC15 HW but also was about half the price....its not bad at all. Sounds very good, nice reverb. All stock..built like a tank. I'm not afraid to take it out. Overall the Blues Junior wins. Its the only one I still own apart from some older amps. Its just a great workhorse.
These are my two main amps! But my AC-15 is UK vintage from the 1990s. My Blues Junior has the BillMods, which improved the tone pretty radically. And I've upgraded the speaker on each. My Blues Junior is smaller and MUCH lighter than my AC-15 but it's also louder. I want to prefer the Vox but honestly I don't. Unless I'm playing my Rickenbacker!
both great amps. it's up to the player which he prefers. the fender snaps and pops the strings more which I prefer. it's a more bluesy tone. I love the vox also, don't get me wrong.
both amps sound great. I think playing with some single coils in addition to the humbuckers in your Tele would help to show the difference of the two amps as well. Great video!
The Blues Jr. sounds like a guitar, while the AC15 sounds like an AC15. This is a preference and application decision. For sitting in my house and wanting to hear my guitars, I'm going to plug into the Blues Jr. If I want to get a big rock sound in a larger environment I'd probably take the AC15.
Fender sounds great,wouldn’t mind having that one! But the Vox gets creamier the more you turn it up, the Fender still sounds trebley, the louder you get, if you’re running pedals then it doesn’t matter, but if you have no pedals,the Vox is much more bang for your money,
I've owned both of these amps. The Blues Jr. is a decent amp but it can't do overdrive very well. Not only that the stock speaker is weak whereas the stock Greenback in the Vox is really good. Good to the point where it doesn't need to be replaced with an alnico speaker.
Its been a week and i got the fender.....ultra clean, loud and awesome tube compression. It takes pedals like magic. The breakup is too muddy 😦. Gonna give it to my son as an early right of passage gift lol. Guess ill try the vox in store before i buy it, if i buy it.
The Vox is more of a gigging amp it needs volume to sound good and doesn’t sound good at low volume. Also it’s a heavy amp so you’ll need to be fit if you’re out and about with it. I’ve traded mine in for a Roland blues Cube it’s more practical for me..
I think that the clarity of the B.J that cuts through, makes it a better amp to use in studio and and club gigs. The tone is just much more beefy and beautiful in my ears. The VOX is just a bit more foggy. That should also make it the better choice to build on the sound of the B.J with pedals.. But then again, sound is a personal preference.
I personally prefer the blues junior because it accents the upper mids and doesn't have the muddy low end of the vox. In a mix of a band, the blues junior would probably cut through better. Depends on what stuff you are playing, of course. I liked the clean tone of the fender. Vox distorts earlier and seems to compress a bit more at full up.
Both are great. these are the two amps I was deciding between. ultimately decided the Vox was more versatile and running through both channels at the same time creates the ultimate tone!
To me the Fender is one trick pony, Way too clean for most styles. You could argue that the Vox went into overdrive a bit early but it did give that Tele balls.
+John Anderson Keep in mind the tele has rails, and it's always harder to get into the compression on higher headroom (american 6L6, etc) type tube amps, so it makes sense that the rails drove the vox earlier.
+John Anderson the way people talk about the Blues Jr is as if no one uses drive pedals with it.. it's just a brilliant clean channel to get exceptional drive tones out of pedals.
Vincecouk Depends on the pedal. Mid boost pedals will be great, like Boss DS-2 or Klon, but Tube Screamer will be harsh and shrill, TS sounds good into a marshall (lower headroom easier compression style amp). So you have to match pedals to amps. This is especially important with fuzz pedals. A big muff sounds AWFUL into a fender/mesa, but again, into a marshal (or vox) that rounds the edges of those square waves coming out of a fuzz, it sounds great. If you ever get a chance, plug a TS9 or Big Muff into a Fender Twin and see what it sounds like.
Jamie Depends on "how" you use the dirt pedals as well. Funny you mention the Ts in front of a Fender, because Stevie Ray made the pedal famous for doing just that. He used it as a clean boost, and avoided the distortion. Also, I have used a Muff in front of a HRD, and I found plenty of useful sweet spots. Honestly, comparing a Vox, and Fender is like comparing Clapton, and Hendrix. Both achieve the same goal, just a different approach.
John Anderson I think that sums up the differences - the Vox started breaking up pretty quick and didn’t afford a lot of clean space and the Blues Jr even maxing out overdrive still sounded pretty clean
Love me some Fender amps, particularly the blues jr. but I fell in love with my AC-15 the day I plugged into it and I can't imagine playing with anything else.
I worked with a 25w Mini Rectifier and a 2x12 last week and it's flexibility to work well even at low volumes really surprised me. Not quite what you are using but based on the Mini Rectifier I think the Mesa amps can give an overdriven sound at much lower volumes than an AC15 or AC30 Vox can.
I have a UK-made AC15 from the 1990s and a Blues Junior with the billmods, which were an enormous improvement. So without bias (little tube joke there) I think the Fender in this clip wins, hands down. Slightly "boxy" yes, but the Vox here sounds harsh and buzzy to my ears, not pleasant at all. I paid about $US 375 for my Blues Jr and almost three times more for the AC15, both of them used. I've upgraded both speakers. But I always gig with the Fender because it's easier to carry and more reliable too.
That look on your face at the very end playing the Tele neck pickup through the VOX, that's the way I feel with the same rig every time I play!!!!!!! Yeah Cool Man
Vox for the weekends, Fender for m-f. It's a question that can't be answered to me. I can never choose between my JTM45 and my Deluxe Reverb. They're like a sports car/family car. Each has their place.
The best route is to use both. Choose the dirt you prefer and the clean you prefer, and mix together. I've had an AC15TBX for about 20 years now, and it's been a common factor in my rig, always paired with another amp, sometimes Fender, sometimes a JC-120, sometimes a Marshall. The Vox with just a bit of grit, and dirt from whatever it's paired with is always a glorious tone.
Its easier to make a amp dirty than it is it be cleaner. Thats why there are 427,314 od and fuzz pedals on the market. Get you a ts9 and a eq pedal and with either amp you can do most anything.
I own the the same model blue's Jr and I use it with all sorts of pedals.(Tube Screamers and other drivers as well) It needs more credit, the vox sounds to "flubby" with little head room imo. the Fender with the right settings sounds pretty darn good.
For me the Vox sounds less than great until it's cranked up, and then wow. Fender impressed me all the way up the dial. Not gonna say which I prefer because it aint even a contest. Different amps are going to be great at different things on different nights. But if pushed to make a decision I definitely wouldn't buy a vox unless I was going to be able to crank it. I'd buy the fender as a good all rounder, it seemed toneful no matter what volume.
For overdrive and chime, the Vox wins. For pure clean, the Blues JR wins. The Vox clean isn't exactly clean...and that's what I like about it. I like that distinctive dirty clean tone in Vox. I have a Fender DRRI and I think I want the Vox.
Everyone loves Fender amps, but this Vox wins, hands down. Only thing we didn't hear is how loud the cleans can go, but hey, you can always get an AC30 for that ;)
Do you find yourself wanting to play different styles of music through each of those amps? Vox seems to want to chunk while the Fender wants to chime. Great demo man!
+Nick in the States Thanks mate. Yeah they both have their own unique sound which is a good thing considering they are very similar in terms of their tube configuration. I'm not sure how much they both make me want to play differently but the vox with the alnico blue speaker is pretty inspiring and fun to play. :-)
BJR hands down due to it's more vintage sound , The Vox might sound fuller, The BJR more boxxy, but I really don't like the typical Vox top end chime at all. But I wouldn't mind have 'em both..
Well that was no help! I love both of these amps for different reasons and can't choose one. I wish either Vox or Fender would screw up and release a crappy version to help me decide. 😂
Too much variation in mic placement. The point of tube break-up is different in amps of different power ratings. Both amps on 3, 5 and 10. Place a mic on each amp measuring position from the cone and rim, That would make a more meaningful test. Also, no reverb. clouds the real sound. Good fun to hear any tests and comparisons!
