Fender Blues Jnr (Limited Edition) Brown Tolex

Well it arrived safe and sound from Anderton's Music on Friday. This fabulous little amp packs a huge punch, it may only be 15w but it is a little powerhouse. Fender have produced a masterpiece here, rich warm tones that break up progressively in an easily controlled with the simple but very effective controls. I've heard others complain about the reverb, maybe I've just been lucky but the reverb on the little amp is responsive and sounds fabulous.
I have struggled for years to get the sound in my head out of an amp. I've compensated for the lack of tone with lots of different effects pedals but its never really made up for that little something that was missing. Well the Blues Jnr just filled the void, I have finally got the all the sounds I ever wanted, suddenly I am getting that good old blues tone, clean when I want it and gorgeously crunchy when I crank it up.

Excitement!

My new Fender Blues jnr arrives today. Pure valve amp sounds are only a couple of hours away!!!!

Pictures and a full review once I've had a chance to use it!

DMR Trailstar

DMR Trailstar

I've been riding this bike for a few months now and have got a good feel for it.

The Trailstar from DMR (made by Kinesis)is an agressive cross country bike that just begs you to point it downhill and give it some beans. It has a great ground clearance whilst maintaining good stability. Mine pictured above has a pair of Marzzochi Z150's up front, a bit on the big side according to the fact sheet but they work well and give a really good feel to the bike.
I have thrown this thing down steep fast rocky decents with absolute confidence. At the same time it's happy on an all day trek, I completed the Dartmoor Challenge (50 off road) on this bike.
Unlike previous DMR's the paint is still on this one (it usually falls off at the first sign of mud).
I ride this bike every day on the commute to and from work and it happily makes the transition across all types of riding (though it might not look so good on the track at your local veladrome!).

Keeping it together is a massive set of STEEL tubing, yep steal is still around and doing the business! The ride is strong solid but still supprisingly comfortable. 20-30 mile rides are easily taken in without enduring fatigue from the usual hard ride of a hardcore hardtail.

In summary this bike is a great all rounder that really comes good when you treat it roughly.

get yourself one, take up a good sized hill and throw yourself down it full tilt. It will suprise you in a very nice way.

check it out:

Fender Blues Jnr

Ok, where do I start.. .. .

Oh yeah I got me a very nice Gibson SG Menace a couple of years ago. I bought a little Marshall MG15MS practice amp to play it through. Initialled I liked the sound I got (much nicer than the Park amp I had before). Then as I really got heavily into playing I started to find a lot of shortfalls in the tone I was getting.

After visiting my best friend in Bristol (Joffan!)and playing my Gibson through his velvety smooth Fender valve amp I immediately knew where I was going wrong. I had to get a valve amp! But which one. Traditionalists out there would say “hey you got a Gibson, so you need a Marshall to play it through” but I’ve never been traditional or conformist for that matter. So I listened a lot (no I mean a real lot!!) to all kinds of amps (Vox, Orange, Messa Boogie and Fender) now I find myself looking at the Fender Blues Jnr (the tweed version with the Jenson speaker).

I play mostly blues but can’t help flowing into big rock riffs!!

Now I’m counting the days and the pennies till I have enough cash to go get one.
Thanks to the wonder of www.youtube.com/metalheadsgman I now know exactly what I want!

Roll on payday!

Ride Lite

Well here we are racing through the middle of January, the ground has finally thawed and is now so sodden the trails are starting to look like they have been ploughed!
Many years ago Chuck Bodfish enlightened me into the ways of riding lite in these conditions, it takes time and practice but the results can be amazing.

It is all about feeling whats going on with the bike and the ground you are travelling over. Try riding down a soggy trail in your normal way, then go back and look at the marks your left on the ground, those tyre marks will fill with water next time it rains, they then form channels as the rain water flows away, pretty soon deep gullies will form as the soil is eroded.

go back and ride it again, feel whats going on underneath the wheels, get yourself out of the saddle a little, let the bike sit loose and relax your grip on the bars. bring your body back slightly so there is just a little more wieght over the back wheel than there is over the front.
This way when you hit a soft piece of ground the front wheel does not dig in so much, you carry more speed and as long as you keep everything gentle and fluid you will find when you go back and look at your tyre marks this time they will be slightly shallower than before. There you just saved that trail for another day. Another day of riding without having to perform back breaking trail maintenance just to keep the errosion at bay.

Now try to ride everywhere in this style. you use less energy, can ride for longer, suffer less fatigue in your hands, wrists, knees and feel better and more relaxed at the end of the ride.

Ride Lite