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Author Topic: Epiphone "Valve Junior"  (Read 39508 times)

Fletcher

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Epiphone "Valve Junior"
« on: January 12, 2007, 03:47:17 PM »
So my kid built herself a Theramin [Moog] and needed an amp for it, so I shlepped my ass down to the Banjo Mart to pick up a small one for her... and while I was there this little 5w Epiphone amp caught my eye... tried it out with a Marshall 4x 10" cabinet and was totally blown away.

She ended up getting a different amp, but I picked up one of the little Epiphones [and the 4x 10" cabinet... a used one with a band stencil on the grill that says; "Noosense"]... it might be the best $99.99 + tax I have spent on the studio in a couple of years!!!

I've used it with my Madison 4x 12" cab, my Marshall 1960 4x 12" cab [that is loaded with custom made speakers from Weber VST], the THD 2x 12" cabinet and the little sucker sounded great with all of them.

I just figured I'd mention it because for basically $100- its pretty damn remarkable.

Peace.
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CN Fletcher

mwagener wrote on Sat, 11 September 2004 14:33
We are selling emotions, there are no emotions in a grid

"Recording engineers are an arrogant bunch.  
If you've spent most of your life with a few thousand dollars worth of musicians in the studio, making a decision every second and a half... and you and  they are going to have to live with it for the rest of your lives, you'll get pretty arrogant too.  It takes a certain amount of balls to do that... something around three"
Malcolm Chisholm

Coco

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Re: Epiphone "Valve Junior"
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2007, 05:06:33 PM »
Apparently if you mod it a bit and slap in some better tubes they are even better. I've been looking at one too.

You are talking about the head and not the small combo amp right?
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Colin G.

Electric Warrior

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Re: Epiphone "Valve Junior"
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2007, 06:52:46 AM »
Mercury Magnetics has a transformer kit for the valve junior - but it's three times the price of your amp  Shocked
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Joe Black

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Re: Epiphone "Valve Junior"
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2007, 10:17:03 AM »
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littlehat

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Re: Epiphone "Valve Junior"
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2007, 11:30:53 PM »
I have a modded 5K (five knob) Galaxie 10 that's pretty cool. But to be honest, unmodded (mine was given to me) it was extremely nothing special.

I've played the VJr and think it's the same amp with fewer controls. They don't suck, but believe me when I say they totally lack the mojo of my Black Face Princeton Reverb. I know that's not a fair comparison, but it's my go to small amp (along with a great sounding Sano). The Epi amps are not even in the ballpark of a real killer amp IMHO. For a hundo, not bad.

If you're down to get into some soldering though... they get much better (I prefer my modded 5KGX10 to my vintage AC15 in all but lead guitar applications).

NO EXCUSES, THE OUTPUT TRANSFORMER MUST GO!

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d gauss

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Re: Epiphone "Valve Junior"
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2007, 02:15:57 AM »
i have two. the original early combo and the new head. the original combos suck majorly because of several serious design flaws that make them hum like a drunk moron in the shower.  after much mod discussion on the ol' internet, epi went and released the spankin' new head version with the changes discussed on the net. they also changed the combo version too.  if in doubt,  any combo with a serial number before december 2005 is indeed a suspect hummer.

as for the amp... it rocks big time. we've recorded everything from gritty west coast swing to balls in yer face hendrix with them. 5 watts is SO perfect.

-d. gauss
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littlehat

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Re: Epiphone "Valve Junior"
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2007, 04:47:47 AM »
Why don't these jerks beta test the prototypes with their forum members? Do a run of twenty and give 'em to the guys who are gonna trash the way they made them the first time?

The Vox Cutom Classics also have major bugs (in the ears of guitar nerds (me included)).

Anyway...

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Kris

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Re: Epiphone "Valve Junior"
« Reply #7 on: January 16, 2007, 11:40:43 AM »
I got one for Xmas.  Sounds SICK through my Germino cab.  I don't think I'll be modding at all!  Harmonica sounds nice as well...
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Randall Squires

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Re: Epiphone "Valve Junior"
« Reply #8 on: January 16, 2007, 04:32:44 PM »
I just finished tracking a Blues record for a local Austin legend. The Guitar player did all of the basic tracking on one of those Epiphones. It was amazing how many different tones he got off of that one little head.
I'm now going to have to buy one!
r
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Podgorny

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Re: Epiphone "Valve Junior"
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2007, 08:29:39 PM »
Recieved one for Christmas as well.  Used it a couple of weeks ago to record some guitar through a 2-12 closed-back cabinet.  Was really pleasantly surprised.

I briefly considered the Mercury Magnetics mod, but it just seems a little bass ackwards to use the high-end transformers with the same circuit board and cheap tube sockets.  At that point, I may as well just wire it up point to point and take off the Epiphone logo.

I figure I'll try the gain voicing mod, put some new tubes in it and call it done.
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"Nobody cares what the impedance is; all they care about is when you can walk into the room, set up a mic, turn the knobs, hit record, and make everybody go 'wow.'"

redfro

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Re: Epiphone "Valve Junior"
« Reply #10 on: January 16, 2007, 09:16:45 PM »
Got one for Christmas as well.

Put J&J's in it. Cleared up quite a bit.

I've found that this amp sounds a LOT better through a good 4x12 than through anything else I've tried. Through a Bogner it really shined.

Thought about the MM mod, but it's hard to justify $300 on a $100 amp. Cause it sounds pretty good as is...
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Wes Pitzer
WCS Media

Fletcher

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Re: Epiphone "Valve Junior"
« Reply #11 on: January 17, 2007, 12:46:08 PM »
I'm torn... I think the damn thing sounds really good out of the box but something tells me within a month I'm going to end up trying a new tube or something like that... I shouldn't have mentioned anything [now you have me wanting to fuck with a perfectly good amplifier!!]
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CN Fletcher

mwagener wrote on Sat, 11 September 2004 14:33
We are selling emotions, there are no emotions in a grid

"Recording engineers are an arrogant bunch.  
If you've spent most of your life with a few thousand dollars worth of musicians in the studio, making a decision every second and a half... and you and  they are going to have to live with it for the rest of your lives, you'll get pretty arrogant too.  It takes a certain amount of balls to do that... something around three"
Malcolm Chisholm

d gauss

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Re: Epiphone "Valve Junior"
« Reply #12 on: January 17, 2007, 01:39:48 PM »
the 4x10 thing is way cool, but also try it with an open back cab for that gritty tweed fender sound.  have mine hooked up into the speakers of a backface vibrolux at the moment... Smile

-d. gauss
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Electric Warrior

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Re: Epiphone "Valve Junior"
« Reply #13 on: January 17, 2007, 03:28:17 PM »
littlehat wrote on Tue, 16 January 2007 09:47


The Vox Cutom Classics also have major bugs (in the ears of guitar nerds (me included)).

Anyway...



why bother with an AC30CC when you can have a Valvetech Hayseed (handwired british invasion era AC30 TB clone) for a similar price? Seems to be the bigger bang for the buck from what I have heard so far. Has anybody here tried both?
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redfro

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Re: Epiphone "Valve Junior"
« Reply #14 on: January 17, 2007, 05:00:29 PM »
Yep...and the Hayseed blows the new AC 30 away.
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Wes Pitzer
WCS Media
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