Epiphone Valve Junior Head

[Justaguyin_nc]

Well, as not to interfere with the Mod listing I just thought my stock beginners opinion would be best in its own thread.

The Epiphone Valve Junior Head has arrived.


This is first impressions:

Looks:

The Case, transformer, weight (it has some weight to it), size and 4/8/16 ohm output are worth the $99 probably. It is an amazing looking little amp. Feels and looks of quality construction with the piping wrapped around the front of the cabinet.
The back end also boast quality, with the screening protecting the tubes and screwed on back panel allowing for tamper free existence. Detachable grounded power chord is a big plus for less possible damage on the inside if knocked over or tugged on.
The top has a plastic handle that sits snug and should last awhile at this weight. There are four holes on the top covered with plastic caps which I have no idea what they are for? Holding in the electronics I assume. They distract a little from the overall look being so clean but easily overlooked. The corners are all protected nicely by black gloss screwed on metal protectors.
Guitar input, chicken head power knob and lighted power switch is all there is to gander at on the front panel, and look again to be quality. How did they make it look so good for so little? Excellent job Epiphone!

Sound:

This is an opinion over "Stock" sound now with no mods!
Ok, well this is probably how they made it look so good at this price. Mind you, this is just my opinion.

I had an old cheap five watt Harmony 410 amp (similar tube setup with the addition of tremolo) that had a sound twice this good stock and without the hiss apparent in the Epiphone (slight but there). The Harmony amp looked dated to me and had no speaker out, so instead of surgery on a vintage amp it was sold at a good price. Although it may seem at first, I am un-happy with it's replacement, I am not.

There is a noticeable Hiss once I go above 11:00-12:00 on the volume.
I attached mine to an Avatar 2x12 cab with helltone speakers inside. This Five watt Epiphone through a Cabinet at 12:00 is much, much louder than the Harmony's little one speaker cranked full could ever be! That was expected from an external cabinet and put a smile on my face. Five watts is more than plenty for in home playing!

The sound to me is much darker and flat up to 11:00 on the Epiphone than the Harmony was. Playing around with pedals and EQ settings I was able to get it to start having a higher end to it. Very acceptable to my ears, yet still lacking something. The Epiphone VJ seems not to mind having pedals attached. Thats when it came alive. Adding a MXR compressor, Rat, BD-2 and a delay pedal started making this amp sound like it was worth three times the cost. I quickly disgarded the hissing sound heard faintly in the background as I cranked it to 2:00.

Next came adding a modeller in front of it. Having a cheaply priced zoom 505-II on hand it was a simple addition. Wow, is all I can say! Dial in any of the presets and let it be heard. I am loving it now with all the pedals and no mods "yet" made to this little gem out of a box. Even with the stock tubes and hiss, it's a winner going thru a 2x12 cabinet!! All the sounds are there to be had, if you setup some pedals to get them.

Now the final sound, fully cranked. Louder than I can bear in this 12x14 foot room, and to my ears it seems to cut in and out with the touch of the strings (This the tube feel thingy, of way to much breakup?). Much harder and harsher sounding than down around 2:00. The hiss is all to visible at these volumes. So in my opinion they could have stopped the volume knob at 2:00.

My thoughts are probably opposite of most here and about the net.
I think I want to make this amp have more head room with a Clean tone instead of the break up. Allowing the pedals to do most of the over drive sound for me (thats why we get pedals right?). I am going to think about getting tubes of less gain addition. I have read some place if you swap to a 12AT7 over the stock tubes, you will have that cleaner sound, more head room with about a 40% drop in gain. This will probably be my first priority.

End of First Impressions:
Attached to a 2x12 cabinet, It's a keeper for now!

[Spudman***]

Awesome report. Just wait until you plug it in to a good 4x12 cabinet. It's hard to believe it sounds so good.

I'm interested in hearing your headroom experiment results. That is how I wish to use mine too.

[duhvoodooman***]

I think I want to make this amp have more head room with a Clean tone instead of the break up. Allowing the pedals to do most of the over drive sound for me (thats why we get pedals right?). I am going to think about getting tubes of less gain addition. I have read some place if you swap to a 12AT7 over the stock tubes, you will have that cleaner sound, more head room with about a 40% drop in gain. This will probably be my first priority.

If you're looking for more headroom, Justa, then you're better off focusing more on the power tube than the preamp. Lowering the gain on the preamp tube mostly just drops the signal amplitude sent to power stage. The effect I've noticed is that it drops the apparent output volume, so that you'll need to turn the volume knob up further to get the same volume that you had with a 12AX7. But once you do, you'll get pretty much the same amount of breakup you got before, because the power tube is working just as hard, and it saturates before the preamp tube does.

What I'd recommend is to order a J&J EL84 from Bob Pletka at Eurotubes.com, specifying that it's for a Valve Junior and that you want max. headroom. He'll send you a power tube that has been specifically selected for minimal breakup. You might also want to get a 12AT7 while you're at it, so you can fool around with various tube combos and see what gives you the best result. As I recall, the J&J tubes use the European tube nomenclature, so you'd want the ECC81 preamp tube. Another preamp type you may want to check out is the ECC832. This is a 12DW7 type, a hybrid tube that's like half a 12AX7 and half a 12AU7 (which has a gain of only 20), with a gain factor very close to the 12AT7.

[ted s]

DVM, you just gave me a brain ache...

[duhvoodooman***]

DVM, you just gave me a brain ache...

My specialty! Just ask my wife!

[Justaguyin_nc]

Thanks for the insite DVM, it was actually at eurotubes that I read the article about switching to the 12AT7..or a hybrid 12DW7.. then further searches brought it up again in other forums (here is one of them: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/sho...t=59347&page=2) I will probably do both tubes.... and play with it a bit... I still got a stock Harmony amp tube laying around here that was very low gain... much cleaner than those I recieved from eurotube for the Harmony amp... will be adding it first to see the change.

[duhvoodooman***]

As it says in that forum thread, you won't know for sure until you try it and hear it for yourself. With quality new production tubes running somewhere around $10 each, it isn't too painful to try a couple different combos and see what suits your ear. AAMOF, you've piqued my interest a bit, so I'll probably try a few tube swaps on my own VJr over the weekend. Mine is currently set up for early breakup, but I have a "clean" EL84 that I got from Eurotubes, and several different 12**7 preamp tube flavors on hand, even down as low as the 20% gain 12AU7....

[Justaguyin_nc]

I sent a messgae to Eurotube, requesting what they thought about clean headroom with a Valve Junior.. well this is the reply..

We've been retubing a lot of these lately and a JJ EL84 in a grade anywhere between #26 to #28 are quite nice for tight clean headroom, and would also work well with pedals. A grade #30 up to #34 would still give a nice clean but would grind real good when pushed.
For the front end you can either use the JJ ECC83S or the ECC803S. We do not recommend the ECC803S for the VJ combo amps but they are just fine for the head version. The ECC803S is a slightly lower gain tube with a real thick mid and a little brighter high end so if you choose to use one of these I would recommend a matched triode ECC803S that is at 90+ in gain. For a more substantial gain reduction (about 40% less) you could go with a matched triode ECC81.
If you want to maintain the amount of gain the amp has now then you can use a matched triode ECC83S that is between 105 to 110 in gain.
If you choose to order online please let us know if you’re after more or less headroom and which way you want to go for the front end. You can leave this info in the comments section on the check out page.
A single EL84 and a matched triode ECC83S or ECC81 would run 19.00. A single EL84 and a matched triode ECC803S would run 23.00 or a single EL84 and a high gain ECC83S would run 22.00 and we can ship them for 6.50 by Priority mail with a 3 day delivery anywhere in the US.
The bad news is you caught us with no EL84's in stock!! Things have been so busy with the online store, combined with a big shipment from the JJ factory that was two weeks late in leaving that we ran out of stock. The good news is that we have a skid of tubes landing Tuesday and they should clear customs by Wednesday.

[Justaguyin_nc]

Just an update from this beginner...

Well, I must not be at the level of needing that extra boost/ sag from tube amps yet. To be honest, I don't hear or feel any difference between the Epi Valve Jr. and the use of me little Crate PowerBlock. In fact, I still favor the power block over it... just seem to get more feeling? out of the crate.

That being said... for $99 its still a great little head.. feel of quality for the money and sounds good... nothing special.. but good.
I have yet to mess with the tubes.. but having to run it thru speakers all the time (which I do really love the cab I got), with no other option to the computer (line-out/in) makes me default back to the crate.

I just mention this as something us new guys have to get use to. A home player using a tube amp while sitting by his computer kinda lacks options that a SS amp or multi-effects box offers... with little boost to our playing sound if any for going with a cheaper tube amp.

[tot_Ou_tard]

As it says in that forum thread, you won't know for sure until you try it and hear it for yourself. With quality new production tubes running somewhere around $10 each, it isn't too painful to try a couple different combos and see what suits your ear. AAMOF, you've piqued my interest a bit, so I'll probably try a few tube swaps on my own VJr over the weekend. Mine is currently set up for early breakup, but I have a "clean" EL84 that I got from Eurotubes, and several different 12**7 preamp tube flavors on hand, even down as low as the 20% gain 12AU7....

Vood, have you ever looked into the mercury mod?

http://www.mercurymagnetics.com/page...Pjt/EVJ-01.htm

It's sounds right up your alley. Although it costs $300 to get the kit.

[M29]

Hello guys,

I am interested in either a Valve Junior or building a Champ and I have run across some info where some guys are using Hammond organ transformers with good success. I don't know enough about this yet to know if they are less expensive then some of the upgrades or not but I know the transformers especially the output transformer is one of the most important parts in the tube amp mix.

Looking forward to more info on this little bugger!

M29

[tot_Ou_tard]

Hello guys,

I am interested in either a Valve Junior or building a Champ and I have run across some info where some guys are using Hammond organ transformers with good success. I don't know enough about this yet to know if they are less expensive then some of the upgrades or not but I know the transformers especially the output transformer is one of the most important parts in the tube amp mix.

Looking forward to more info on this little bugger!

M29

I read an articale about Goodsell amps (a boutique amp with great press). The builder (is he a Mr Goodsell? I forget. If so great name) was originally in the organ (as in Hammond) renovation business & started building amps out of spare Hammond parts.

[duhvoodooman***]

Vood, have you ever looked into the mercury mod?

http://www.mercurymagnetics.com/page...Pjt/EVJ-01.htm

It's sounds right up your alley. Although it costs $300 to get the kit.

Yep, have seen that one. Lemme see....do a $300 mod to a $100 amp? Er, no thanks. Kind of defeats the purpose, if you ask me.

[tot_Ou_tard]

Yep, have seen that one. Lemme see....do a $300 mod to a $100 amp? Er, no thanks. Kind of defeats the purpose, if you ask me.

That's what I figured you'd say. So it's time to build your own trannies!

Voodoo Transformers: transform your mojo.

The ad copy writes itself.

[Justaguyin_nc]

I been in a buying mood here lately...
I decided to put new tubes in the jr head and it made a big difference on its own. Cleaner not crunchy..
Then I started reading about this mod and that mod... and instead of going into the amp...

I got a MicroMass ($70.00 up to 15 watt) attenuator from Weber comming...
It has controls for bass/mid/highs and a line out, that might solve any other issues I might have with this amp.. Actually..it sounds pretty good now, although a hiss at higher volumes (over 12noon now).. Heard some Juniors cranked on youtube with a mini attenuator ($100) and they sound excellent.. But this little 5 watt is to loud in this room to be cranked.. till I get it..

https://taweber.powweb.com/weber/micromass.htm

[Justaguyin_nc]

I am not sure if this been mentioned before or not..

Seen it on Youtube.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_0JXvocguY

Seems the front facing and the back grill on the VJ Head can be switched. Exact same size... if you want to watch your tubes glow...

[guitartist]

I got a MicroMass ($70.00 up to 15 watt) attenuator from Weber comming...
It has controls for bass/mid/highs and a line out, that might solve any other issues I might have with this amp..

https://taweber.powweb.com/weber/micromass.htm

Hey JustaGuyin_nc, please let us know how you like the Weber MicroMass...I've been thinking about ordering one of these myself. I live in a quiet apartment complex, and am always looking for ways to get a big sound at a low volume. The Epi Valve Jr head is great for the money, but you do have to crank it to overdrive the tubes, and it gets pretty loud. (I still have the stock tubes in mine, am planning on switching them out soon).

[Justaguyin_nc]

Hey JustaGuyin_nc, please let us know how you like the Weber MicroMass...

Will do for sure... They just sent me an Email stating they will take a week more to make it? I must assume Weber is a very small outfit... It seems they are more like Wendys and only make the item when ordered.. I would have thought they had a few of these already made up for sale...But then , I do like Wendys better than McDonalds...

[Justaguyin_nc]

Justa update... This is now the only amp I been playing for weeks on end.. Once I connected the Weber MicroMass and changed a tube to an old Harmony amp tube I had laying around, Everything needed was there! I have the option to turn this little LOUD 5watter down to decent levels in this room when going thru the speakers or just run it into the computer thru the lineout on the MicroMass.

I been using it on about 4 for volume and adding pedals to it.. I want it to stay clean and it does just what I want. Great sound imho! All the warmth one would want. The Weber MicroMass does change the sound a bit unless on bypass, but I like how it changes the sound.. fuller deeper sound to the amp.. great combo!

I have a Hammond Tranny to throw into the head, but as of yet I do not want to go with out the amp head if something goes wrong... will wait till I have another one before doing it I think..

I would suggest this amp head to anyone wanting a small great sounding 5 watter at these prices.. but again..I only like the CLEAN..and let the pedals do the rest... but thats just me!