Convince me of not selling my Fender Pro Junior.

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Tube amps can be such a nasty, insane hassle. But when you get a good one and keep it working in good order it can be mind blowing.

I own about 15 vintage tube amps. A bunch made by lesser known companies but I have my share of Fender, Gibson, and Vox also. The fender amps were such hassles. I bought almost all of them at pawn shops for under 2 or 300 dollars. Then I had to put money into getting them revamped. Old caps had to be replaced. Tubes had to be changed. Things had to be tweaked. Luckily the speakers were in good working order. Some of these amps are now worth over 2000 dollars individually.

I went through this long process of not just trying to find any old working tubes but trying to find the RIGHT working tubes for them. It is a huge trial and error hassle. But when you hit on the magic combination... the amps really do shine.

I have played vintage fenders in the Guitar Center that they wanted 1,500 dollars for and that sounded like ASSS SHITTTTT. When old fenders aren't working right... or have bad tubes... they can sound so thin and lame. The whole time I was just thinking, will people really buy any vintage tube amp at the guitar center for 2 thousand dollars just because it is blackface and pre CBS? Even if it is all fucked up? I think the answer is yes.

Consider the transformation that my vintage Tremolux went through. When I bought it, I had been chasing it around the city. I knew it was in my city but I had to get my hands on it. When I finally did... it was biased incorrectly. The plate was glowing and you could smell smoke coming off of the back. It sounded like ass but I payed 300 dollars for it. Many repairs and tweaks later and now the thing sounds like gold.

You have to ask yourself, do you want to go through all of this? If not, get the freaking solid state and forget it. Particularly if you are using effects...

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