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DasBeef
Gold Member
United Kingdom
704 Posts |
 Posted - 01/02/2008 : 17:43:01
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I am picking up an Epiphone Valve Junior 5watt combo on Friday as wee practice / home recording amp. And also to mess around with my ever expanding pedal collection with. Have I made a good choice?
I currently play through a 100w Trace Elliot Super Tramp, which I have had for about 10 years, and fancied some proper valve tones in my life.
Comments please....  |
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jaymzHal
Silver Member
United Kingdom
297 Posts |
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DeFrag
Moderator
USA
3409 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2008 : 20:29:44
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quote:
Originally posted by DasBeef
I am picking up an Epiphone Valve Junior 5watt combo on Friday as wee practice / home recording amp. And also to mess around with my ever expanding pedal collection with. Have I made a good choice?
I currently play through a 100w Trace Elliot Super Tramp, which I have had for about 10 years, and fancied some proper valve tones in my life.
Comments please....
Blackheart man.. Blackheart.
http://www.bossarea.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3640
More features like 3W/5W switch & full 3-band EQ, same or better Class-A quality, $10 difference. I got mine over Christmas & it... is.. GREAT! I can't say enough about it. Good luck. |
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jack
Platinum Member
USA
1418 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2008 : 02:04:38
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| I own 2 Valve Juniors and like them a lot to the point where I want to buy or build a 15-25watt version of a VJ cause the one knob design is my favorite now, because I usually just jack up all the amp EQ to 8 anyways... |
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marqueemoon
Bronze Member
USA
121 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2008 : 05:08:31
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| I've got the head version...it's a lot of fun. Sounds great and gets a lot louder than it lets on. I only wish that I would have held onto my EQ to use with this amp, but for the money it's a great little amp to carry around and crank up. |
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DasBeef
Gold Member
United Kingdom
704 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2008 : 08:19:57
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Thanks for the responses.
jaymzHal - Thanks for the links. I have the amp reserved, brand new at my local guitar shop for £75. Itt's the last one they have, and I think they just want shot of it as they won't be getting any more in.
(PS. Are you Scottish?)
Looks like I've made a good decision. I look forward to cranking it up tomorrow....  |
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Goran
Double Platinum Member
Sweden
2203 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2008 : 09:08:32
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I have a Valve Jr and I don´t like it that much, the sound is very thin and the tone is quite “ugly”. I´ve heard that they can be made to sound very good with some cheap mods (there are lots on this on the net), like substituting a few resistors and capacitors. I will do this in the future. I like the look of this amp a lot, just beautiful!
I also have the Fender Champion 600 RI, this is far better sounding, really good with for example a BD-2 and a RV-3. I like this amp a lot. Not as load as the Epi but enough for bedroom levels.
My third 5W tube amp is the Ibanez Valbee, this is my favourite of them all. But you have to do one mod to make it shine, remove two clipping diodes in the boost channel. When this is done this amp just eat Epi for breakfast, the mod takes 2 seconds to perform but to reach those diodes you have to unscrew the chassis, this will take 10-15 minutes (really stupid construction). With the diodes removed the overall output volume is a little more then the Fender but not as high as the Epi VJr.
I have changed tubes for better ones on all of the above amps, highly recommended.
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jaymzHal
Silver Member
United Kingdom
297 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2008 : 18:12:01
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Dasbeef, that's a really reasonable price I must admit! And no, I'm not from Scotland, what gave you that impression? I'm from Bristol  |
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Erik dP
Silver Member
Sweden
150 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2008 : 18:13:15
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Havn´t tried the Epi. However the supposed better Fender felt a bit thin for my taste. Maybe they do need bigger cabs to shine. With the built in speaker the fender sounded good with single coils, but not too good with humbuckers. The VOX DA5 (5W) sounded much better as a comparison with the built in speakers. At home I use a 4*12 for the DA5 that improves the sound a lot.
5W is loud enough at home. On stage I guess 5W would work fine with a microphone.
I guess a microphoned low watt amp also doesn't need an effect loop as you can add your effects right after the microphone, right? Also, the point of a low watt amp , as I understand it, is to let the power tube distort meaning that there is no real point of having an effect loop.
(On my DA5 which doesnt have tubes I added an effectloop. I also added footpedals (tap + effect on-off) and a speaker out connection. Give the DA5 a try. Works fine everywhere as it also runs on battery.)
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Edited by - Erik dP on 01/03/2008 18:31:34 |
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DasBeef
Gold Member
United Kingdom
704 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2008 : 22:16:56
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quote:
Originally posted by jaymzHal
Dasbeef, that's a really reasonable price I must admit! And no, I'm not from Scotland, what gave you that impression? I'm from Bristol
Not sure, but I thought all the Sound Control stores were in Scotland?
Yeah, thanks alot for the replies. I'm definately picking it up tomorrow now. I shall let you know how it sounds with my current pedal arsenal.... |
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DasBeef
Gold Member
United Kingdom
704 Posts |
Posted - 01/05/2008 : 04:03:36
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Five words....
I fucking love this amp.
Some more words....
Got it home, plugged in my orange USA strat, turned it up, and rocked out! I am almost scared to say this on this forum, as I may be exiled, but I really didn't like the sound of it with many of my pedals. The exceptions being my boss bd-2, and od-1. (Consider my arsenal also includes: DS-1, PQ-4, OD-20, PSM-5, EHX Double Muff EHX Small Stone, EHX Small Clone, Dan Electro Daddy-o and Fab Tone, and a Vox Wah) All my favourite pedals I played through my solid state sounded, well, rubbish on the Epi. On the flip side, I wasn't overly impressed with the sound of my OD-1 through my solid state, so it now has a friend!
The bluesy sound you get when it's cranked up full, and well warmed up is just awesome! (Also note, I play my Start with the Selector UP (neck), and the tone under the volume at zero)
Anyway, best £75 I've spent in ages.... |
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jack
Platinum Member
USA
1418 Posts |
Posted - 01/05/2008 : 05:11:08
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quote:
Originally posted by DasBeef
Five words....
I fucking love this amp.
Some more words....
Got it home, plugged in my orange USA strat, turned it up, and rocked out! I am almost scared to say this on this forum, as I may be exiled, but I really didn't like the sound of it with many of my pedals. The exceptions being my boss bd-2, and od-1. (Consider my arsenal also includes: DS-1, PQ-4, OD-20, PSM-5, EHX Double Muff EHX Small Stone, EHX Small Clone, Dan Electro Daddy-o and Fab Tone, and a Vox Wah) All my favourite pedals I played through my solid state sounded, well, rubbish on the Epi. On the flip side, I wasn't overly impressed with the sound of my OD-1 through my solid state, so it now has a friend!
The bluesy sound you get when it's cranked up full, and well warmed up is just awesome! (Also note, I play my Start with the Selector UP (neck), and the tone under the volume at zero)
Anyway, best £75 I've spent in ages....
I understand your love of the Epi Valve Junior. They started my tube amp jones. As far as some pedals sounding like crap, you may just need to set the controls a bit differently than you do for your solid state amp on some of them. |
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FRANZONI
Double Platinum Member
Ireland
3543 Posts |
Posted - 01/05/2008 : 10:20:16
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quote:
Originally posted by DasBeef
Five words....
I fucking love this amp.
Some more words....
Got it home, plugged in my orange USA strat, turned it up, and rocked out! I am almost scared to say this on this forum, as I may be exiled, but I really didn't like the sound of it with many of my pedals. The exceptions being my boss bd-2, and od-1. (Consider my arsenal also includes: DS-1, PQ-4, OD-20, PSM-5, EHX Double Muff EHX Small Stone, EHX Small Clone, Dan Electro Daddy-o and Fab Tone, and a Vox Wah) All my favourite pedals I played through my solid state sounded, well, rubbish on the Epi. On the flip side, I wasn't overly impressed with the sound of my OD-1 through my solid state, so it now has a friend!
The bluesy sound you get when it's cranked up full, and well warmed up is just awesome! (Also note, I play my Start with the Selector UP (neck), and the tone under the volume at zero)
Anyway, best £75 I've spent in ages....
Congrats....Ah....the danger of valve amps. i got through this all the time as well. .the only thing i would say is it depends a lot on what sort of music you play and ground you have to cover soundwise if you play in a band,i found all i really need is a good amp and a few pedals..if we were doing straight up blues or rock it would be my selmer 15 watt amp,clapton strat,wah wah,TR2 and a DD3 for a little slapback at times....but we are mainly a covers band so i need to be a little bit more flexible in my set up but at the end of my chain is still a good valve amp although a bit bigger in wattage usually these days a early 70's marshall superbass head and 2x12 cab for the clean headroom i need,but i have a valve overdrive pedal which i love for my dirt when needed...... enjoy the amp DasBeef...one of the great things in life is cranking a valve amp and playing guitar through it.............
P.S... before i found the joys of shopping on the internet i used to buy some of my gear in scotland in sound control when over visiting friends and i always found them to be pretty decent people and willing to haggle on the price for cash....also not as patronizing as some of the 'experts' in the shops here in dublin...the only thing i buy here now is plecs and the occasional guitar lead if i'm stuck....... |
Edited by - FRANZONI on 01/05/2008 10:28:48 |
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Dirk
Platinum Member
Netherlands
1309 Posts |
Posted - 01/05/2008 : 12:01:25
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quote:
Originally posted by jack
As far as some pedals sounding like crap, you may just need to set the controls a bit differently than you do for your solid state amp on some of them.
Also remember, that the OD-1 was most likely designed to sound best in front of a tube amp, back in those days there weren't much solidstate amps anyway.
The BD-2 is basically the same thing, only beefed up a little.
Your Vox wah should sound great though. |
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Goran
Double Platinum Member
Sweden
2203 Posts |
Posted - 01/14/2008 : 09:30:35
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I have now modded my Valve Jr using components (except new tubes) for a value about US $20. 2-3 hours of work, great insight of how tube amps work and are buildt.
And the result is just fantastic, the amp sound much better on every parameter. A little like a Fender, it´s a different amp now and I suggest everyone who is capable of soldering to do it.
What I would like to do is to change the output transformer, on version 1 & 2 of the Jr this is not a good one. But thoose cost a bit…
There are several good sources on the net for modding VJr´s:
http://www.valvejunior.com/
http://www.euthymia.org/DIY/VJmods.html
http://duhvoodooman.com/VJr/VJr_mods.htm
http://www.diycustomamps.com/valvejunior.htm
to name a few
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Edited by - Goran on 01/14/2008 09:31:21 |
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Goran
Double Platinum Member
Sweden
2203 Posts |
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Topic |
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Epiphone Valve Junior
Have you seen in soundcontrol they basically have epiphone valve juniors only under a different brand name for a little cheaper?