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Epiphone Valve Junior head review

By  Bob Glastetter | Published  07/25/2006 | Guitar Amps
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Epiphone Valve Junior head review

?Let's review this amp and see what the buzz is about. First off?the specs, well it ain't much and that's perfect.?5 watts- 2 tubes one El84 output and one12AX7 for the pre amp tube. One knob and that's volume. Coolest feature is that the head?has 4,8, and 16 ohm speaker outputs. Killer you can hook it up to any speaker cab!

? The amp is made in China but very well made and it's VERY quiet even with the gain maxed out, perfect for recording. So how's she sound? Well at low volumes there is a nice clean sound?really close to the tone of the early Fender tweed amps. Nice, but that's not what this amp does best. As you turn up the volume the overdrive just gets thicker and hotter with tons of incredible harmonic overtones. This amp is great for the blues guys or classic rock type tones. At the highest gain setting it's very compressed with a hint of Big muff type overdrive, a little on the "Nasty" side and a little "Rude" but outstanding in every way. The amp really is close to capturing the Tweed Champ distortion tone at this point. There are NO bad sounds in this amp at all! What about?no tone control? Well it really doesn't need it. This amp is?very tone neutral so the sound of YOUR guitar really shines through.?Again EXCELLENT?for recording. I add a little Boss Eq. to fatten it up a bit?and to give it a bit of low end thunk.

? I was surprised buy the volume this puppy?has, louder than you might think and you could easily rehearse and do gigs with this amp as long as your not?trying to compete with a Rectifier or play at huge volumes.

?So what's the verdict? Well I'll have to say without a doubt the BEST $99.00 amp ever made PERIOD. It sounds like a great "boutique" amp and I' know lot's of folks won't like that but it's true, ?so save some money and buy one of these. I would say pretty much essential for a killer studio amp. A really cheap way to get into the thrill of TRUE tube overdrive!

? Mod Tips: Well really only one, I am a fan of the JJ brand EL 84 tubes.They just sound better than the Sovtech tube supplied with the amp. I would recommend swapping that tube out and that's a really cheap and easy upgrade for even better tone. It really will wake this amp up. Find one of these and try it out, Valve Jr. simply ROCKS. Yep I bought one too.

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Comments
  • Comment #1 (Posted by Scott Mitchell)
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    I have a Valve Junior and love it as my bedroom/recording amp. The Guitar Guru is right on the money-- most thorough, best written review of this head I have found. But the Mod Tip-- potentially very useful-- needs to include SOME indication of what a JJ tube will do for this amp. "They just sound better", "Even better tone", and "it will really wake this amp up" are meaningless subjective phrases ringing of advertiser puffing. Does a JJ EL84 improve highs or lows or both? Does it increase volume? Does it affect breakup or headroom? with single coils or hums? The first part of the review implied the Valve Jr. Head has virtually perfect tonal response out of the box. The unspecified improvement with the JJ tube may be totally subjective, based on the reviewer's needs, or so miniscule that the reviewer can't even identify how it affects the sound. So, why replace the Sovtech?
     
  • Comment #2 (Posted by Brock Miller)
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    I spent a couple hours yesterday plugged into the valve junior head going to a boogie 1x12 cab. So far as I could tell, the amp really liked single coils in the maxed out capacity. I ran a stock american strat into it, and got lots of variation out of the tone by making use of the pickup selector switch and the volume knob. I also ran a dual hum tele guitar and a reissue 56 LP gold top into it. It reacted accordingly to pickup output and so forth. It was loud enough to get peoples attention. It was harmonically rich into saturation ultimately getting a bit muddy with the hotter pickups. If you wanted to calm it down a bit, I would run a lower output preamp tube, like a 5751 or 12ay7 or something like that. The sovteck tubes tend to be a lil harsh on the treble side, and tend to go into breakup a lil more harshly than the JJ Teslas. Idealy, you may want something that acts like an old Mullard tube in that section. Think classic brit. Seeing as both tubes are cathode biased, you can slap replacements in willy nilly.. personally, I may go with a lil more headroom out of a softer preamp tube to allow me to run eq and overdrives out front with less of a severe impact.

    My assesment, run a strat into it, turn the amp all the way up.. and see what happens.. I was grinning the whole time. To explore a different level, see what some P-90s do for you.
     
  • Comment #3 (Posted by Jason Hopper)
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    I've got a rediculous boutique amp (Palette Stack) and the penultimate vintage amp (blackface Deluxe Reverb) but I couldn't pass this up. I agree with the advertising buzzwords being pretty useless, but there certainly is a distict difference... how to describe that is a bit beyond my vocabulary's grasp though... I've been playing it through one of the Palette's cabinets (1x15 with a prototype Jensen ceramic) and it's really loud with lots of balls. I don't know that I'd necessarily say that it competes with either of the other two in terms of clean tone(the Palette has the best, most responsive tone ever), but it's probably better than all of my distortion pedals if I A/B it. I would have to say that for the price no one should be without it.
     
  • Comment #4 (Posted by smoke pot)
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    wow, a 99 Chineese made amp, with new stock tubes....forget about a Tung Sol, those JJs sound sweet...Hey, can you get this amp at Wal-Mart?
    Rock On!
     
  • Comment #5 (Posted by Buck)
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    I got this amp today and it is pretty amazing right out of the box... 5 Watts??? sounds more like 20 or 30 to me. Through a fender 1x12 cab. I have ordered some tubes jj el84 (#36) and high gain jj ecc83s from eurotubes.com nice bunch of folks. Whatever your style of music is email them and they will help you decide. If you are debating on whether to purchase this amp or not it is really a no brainer get it 99 dollars, how can you go wrong. The only reason that I am changing tubes is that it sounded just a little harsh on the distortion but not overly so but I figure for 22 bucks and swap tubes why not. I am thinking that I will probably order another one, because the quality is too good for that price and epiphone will undoubtedly add some upgrades and probably kill the tone, charge twice as much, and discontinue the amp as it is now. It is not a replacement for a marshall, boogie, laney, or matchless as far as tone goes but for bang for the buck it is the best equiptment purchase I ever made on new gear.
     
  • Comment #6 (Posted by steve)
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    A link to this review was posted at the 18watt.com forum.

    I have to disagree with the review, the amp only sounds so-so out of the box. While it doesn't sound bad, with a few parts changes in the preamp, the amp can be made to sound much better.

    Where this amp really shines is as a learning tool and a modding platform. The way I see it, for 99 you get a nice chassis, an adequate power transformer, and a well built, attractive cabinet.

    The amp sounds much better with a few modifications:

    The preamp has rather strange parts values. Several of the values need to be changed to get rid of the stock fizziness.

    The output transformer is marked 7.5k for the primary impedence; this is too high for an SE EL84 circuit. A much better match is 5K. I've tried the Hammond 125ESE and 125CSE in my amp. My amp was kind of thin and shrill sounding. With a Hammond 125ESE installed, the bass is more defined, the amp is less bright and harsh, and the frequency repsonse has evened out. When pushed into overdrive, the amp has a nice bark. The OD is smoother and not raspy.

    The power transformer is made to operate on 115v coming out of the wall. My house never has below 124v. This raises all the voltages in the amp. While the newest VJs have addressed this problem, some of the older Revision 2 amps need to have a resistor replaced.

    At this point, the bias should be checked to make sure that the EL84 tube is not dissipating too much wattage.

    I have about 150 in my VJ total; it rivals some of the expensive boutique amps I've played.

    Although working on vacuum tube equipment is fairly risky, it can be done safely. The VJ is a great tool for learing how to work on vacuum tube amps. It is also a great modding platform: making various changes in the circuitry can teach a newbie much about how tube amps work. And with a few parts changes, the amp can be tailored to individual tastes.

    Finally, for the more experienced person, high quality eyelet and turret boards are available to replace the relatively low-quality stock PCB.

    steve
     
  • Comment #7 (Posted by Kyle Smith)
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    He's right on! I bought a Weber " Fender Champ" 8in. reissue and put it in a gutted Danelectro Nifty. Great retro sound and looks, Bottle neck is killer!
     
  • Comment #8 (Posted by mark stricklin)
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    very nice
     
  • Comment #9 (Posted by Matt)
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    I think this is a great amp. I've played it and the clean is awesome. Match this will a nice over drive or a cool tube distortion box. And in reponse to the previous comment... this guy wrote a good review and if this was a website you paid for or that required a prestigous membership then i could understand your frustration. But this is a free review and your comment was extremely rude and disrespectful. Thanks for the review!!! Keep on rocking recordingreview.com
     
  • Comment #10 (Posted by ross blaisdell)
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    simple amp. almost didn't buy it because it's chinese but it had such a great tone. this thing is great if you throw one of those boss deluxe reverb pedals on it. i also use a vox wah, a rat distortion and a digidelay. great for recording in an apartment. on stage though I go to the hot rod deville 4x10.
     
  • Comment #11 (Posted by ross Blaisdell)
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    wanted to rate it a 5
     
  • Comment #12 (Posted by Vinny)
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    Sounds as good as a high end boutique... Not hardly... But it's worth $99 dollars. I use it with a NOS GE 5751 for a practice amp to save life on my Dr.Z and Orange amp... It's awesome for $100
     
  • Comment #13 (Posted by brickhead)
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    what i found out...
    i played 4 or five of these things... all were different. dark, brittle, constipated...nice
    to ok. found one that was magic... pure magic!
     
  • Comment #14 (Posted by Jamie)
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    thanks for the funny tone descriptions, that made my day. I just bought a V J head with a bitmo spanky mod on ebay and I can't wait to get it in the mail. my VJ combo has served me well for a couple of years but the static and lack of clean power has me looking to play through both the VJ combo and head with a speaker. I have a 12 inch peaker from a wurlitzer organ, anyone know if that will work with the VJ head?
     
  • Comment #15 (Posted by Don )
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    All I can say is this. Its a screaming meany! It has one sound, but it depends what pickup and speaker you use. The overtones are real nice, so I think there's just a lot of possibilities. WOW!
     
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