Members Boris the Blade Posted January 16, 2007 Members Share Posted January 16, 2007 99 bucks cant be beat and considering I am a poor student, it is all I can afford right now. Playing through an old 15w fender frontman is no fun at all. And I have a great guitar, but nothing good to accommodate it. My question is that is it recommend to purchase some pedals for this amp? I have none. All i have is some crappy Ibanez pedal that sounds god awful. Its not a tube screamer btw haha. Anyways, the thing that bugs me on that amp is just the single volume knob, but would i get by without pedals for the time being? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members "sasquatch" Posted January 16, 2007 Members Share Posted January 16, 2007 99 bucks cant be beat and considering I am a poor student, it is all I can afford right now. Playing through an old 15w fender frontman is no fun at all. And I have a great guitar, but nothing good to accommodate it. My question is that is it recommend to purchase some pedals for this amp? I have none. All i have is some crappy Ibanez pedal that sounds god awful. Its not a tube screamer btw haha. Anyways, the thing that bugs me on that amp is just the single volume knob, but would i get by without pedals for the time being? stock,the amp isn't that great, but for like $10 in parts, you can mod it and get it pretty good. for another $30, you can get an OT and really open it up.www.18watt.com has a thread w/ over 170 pages dedicated to modding the valve jr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LOCO5150 Posted January 16, 2007 Members Share Posted January 16, 2007 I just bought one of these yesterday. I haven't had a chance to read up on modding it...I don't know if I will, I generally like to just sit down and play my guitar. So far I've tried it with a Boss Chorus Ensemble and Boss Flanger in front of it. Both of those pedals sound pretty nice. I'm running the amp through a 2x12 Mesa Recto cabinet with Celestion V30's. I would imagine that a compressor would sound pretty good in front of this thing, and probably some delay or reverb. I've tried a Boss SD-1 as well, but haven't got that thing dialed in just yet. There are some nice-sounding clips around of VJ's that have been boosted. I don't know what pedals those guys are using...maybe Tubescreamers, Bad Monkeys, or something else. Overall, I like the amp pretty well so far. I don't regret spending the $100 at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BAZGUITARMAN Posted January 16, 2007 Members Share Posted January 16, 2007 99 bucks cant be beat and considering I am a poor student, it is all I can afford right now. Playing through an old 15w fender frontman is no fun at all. And I have a great guitar, but nothing good to accommodate it.My question is that is it recommend to purchase some pedals for this amp? I have none. All i have is some crappy Ibanez pedal that sounds god awful. Its not a tube screamer btw haha. Anyways, the thing that bugs me on that amp is just the single volume knob, but would i get by without pedals for the time being? Hey man, the VJ head is a pretty cool little amp. I was pleasantly suprised at the performance vs. price. Not too bad in stock form. Great for ratty, raunchy blues tone. Pretty loud too. If you decide to buy one, drop me a PM. I`m selling mine to help finance some other gear. I also have a couple of pedals that would make a good package. A Digitech X-series Digiverb and a X-series multi-voice chorus. I`m pricing them cheap and they are in like new condition, in the origional packaging and with paperwork. I`m willing to let it go for a low price as long as it goes to someone who will actually use it. Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 Personally, in your situation, I'd get something else. Like a Vox AD15. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members luke978 Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 It does get loud, but you cannot gig with it unless you mic it.For 34$ shipped I got a Hammond 125DSE output transformer. It sounds way, WAY, better than stock. If you buy one do this mod FIRST!!! Its also the easiest. I also did the BITMO Duo Tone Control and 3 way voicing mod kits. They're on ebay and they are foolproof. Get the DUO Tone control. It has a better influence on tone, with a push pull gain/tone pot.The difference btw output transformers:Before BITMO mods:After BITMO mods. I literally learned to solder installing these mods, thats why its so sloppy. The Tone control mod is on the right:You will not get metal gain out of this thing, even with mods. Breakup starts at about 10:00 volume. Its great for bluesy breakup. Boost it with a Bad Monkey, and get the volume past 2:00 and you start getting into AC/DC territory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members luke978 Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 I also put in a standby switch. Here's what it looks like now: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zakko Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 It does get loud, but you cannot gig with it unless you mic it. For 34$ shipped I got a Hammond 125DSE output transformer. It sounds way, WAY, better than stock. If you buy one do this mod FIRST!!! Its also the easiest. The difference btw output transformers: I'm not a tone nazi but I'd like to upgrade the sound of my vjr.What are significant differences with just the OT swap alone? Honestly, I really dig the amp 'as is.' Will I get more volume? More dynamics?What's the hype? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members duncan Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 i love that the two gain settings are "low" and " 'mo " haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members luke978 Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 I'm not a tone nazi but I'd like to upgrade the sound of my vjr.What are significant differences with just the OT swap alone? Honestly, I really dig the amp 'as is.' Will I get more volume? More dynamics?What's the hype? It improves the overall tone quite noticeably. You will get slightly more clean volume. I mean SLIGHTLY. Also, you have a more useable volume range too. It makes the low freq's richer and the mids and highs clearer, basicly. When it was stock at around 1:00 and higher on volume I noticed that the tone started getting really muddy and loose, while the crunch got very ratty/loose. The new OT tightened up the breakup and enhanced the low end, with out making it muddy. Its almost like someone took a blanket off of the speaker. It improved the cleans as well. Now I can go from 2:00 to dimed on the volume and it doesn't sound like muddy {censored}. Also jumping or re-valueing out one of the resistors, will further clairify the Tone as well, but the OT makes the biggest change. Do some research on this. I think it might have been R6. Its been a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members luke978 Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 Pepi turned me on to this mod on another forum. I can't remember which forum it was though, but I did find the walkthrough that I saved. Here's pepi's walkthrough: You want to use the 5000 ohm secondary lines. The EL84 is happier at 5000 ohms. The stock OT is 7000 ohms. Primary: on the 125DSE are the Brown and Blue primary wires. These go to to the output from the EL84 tube. Some will say it makes a difference which one goes where but it doesn't. I tried both ways and got the same results. Now, on a push-pull amp it does make a difference. Secondary: For the 16 ohm jack wire the White wire on the 125 to the PC board where the 16 ohm jack is. For the 8 ohm jack wire the Yellow wire on the 125 to the PC board where the 8 ohm jack is. For the 4 ohm jack wire the Greem wire on the 125 to the PC board where the 4 ohm jack is. Black wire goes to the jack PC board where the exsisting black wire is. DONE! Kick @ss 5 watts ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zakko Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 Pepi turned me on to this mod on another forum. I can't remember which forum it was though, but I did find the walkthrough that I saved. Here's pepi's walkthrough:You want to use the 5000 ohm secondary lines. The EL84 is happier at 5000 ohms. The stock OT is 7000 ohms.Primary:on the 125DSE are the Brown and Blue primary wires. These go to to the output from the EL84 tube. Some will say it makes a difference which one goes where but it doesn't. I tried both ways and got the same results. Now, on a push-pull amp it does make a difference.Secondary:For the 16 ohm jack wire the White wire on the 125 to the PC board where the 16 ohm jack is.For the 8 ohm jack wire the Yellow wire on the 125 to the PC board where the 8 ohm jack is.For the 4 ohm jack wire the Greem wire on the 125 to the PC board where the 4 ohm jack is.Black wire goes to the jack PC board where the exsisting black wire is.DONE! Kick @ss 5 watts ... where can i get one of these fancy transformers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members luke978 Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 I bought mine here:http://www.stf-electronics.com/Page0009.Html They were the cheapest at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members anibas Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 Pepi turned me on to this mod on another forum. I can't remember which forum it was though, but I did find the walkthrough that I saved. Here's pepi's walkthrough:You want to use the 5000 ohm secondary lines. The EL84 is happier at 5000 ohms. The stock OT is 7000 ohms.Primary:on the 125DSE are the Brown and Blue primary wires. These go to to the output from the EL84 tube. Some will say it makes a difference which one goes where but it doesn't. I tried both ways and got the same results. Now, on a push-pull amp it does make a difference.Secondary:For the 16 ohm jack wire the White wire on the 125 to the PC board where the 16 ohm jack is.For the 8 ohm jack wire the Yellow wire on the 125 to the PC board where the 8 ohm jack is.For the 4 ohm jack wire the Greem wire on the 125 to the PC board where the 4 ohm jack is.Black wire goes to the jack PC board where the exsisting black wire is.DONE! Kick @ss 5 watts ... Thanks for the info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pepi Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 Pepi turned me on to this mod on another forum. I can't remember which forum it was though, but I did find the walkthrough that I saved. Here's pepi's walkthrough: You want to use the 5000 ohm secondary lines. The EL84 is happier at 5000 ohms. The stock OT is 7000 ohms. Primary: on the 125DSE are the Brown and Blue primary wires. These go to to the output from the EL84 tube. Some will say it makes a difference which one goes where but it doesn't. I tried both ways and got the same results. Now, on a push-pull amp it does make a difference. Secondary: For the 16 ohm jack wire the White wire on the 125 to the PC board where the 16 ohm jack is. For the 8 ohm jack wire the Yellow wire on the 125 to the PC board where the 8 ohm jack is. For the 4 ohm jack wire the Greem wire on the 125 to the PC board where the 4 ohm jack is. Black wire goes to the jack PC board where the exsisting black wire is. DONE! Kick @ss 5 watts ... Here's the transformer diagram ... I did all the mods to mine and added a tone and master volume. This is a great 5 watt amplifier for 150.00 bucks. Someday I'll remember to pick up some label stock to mark the added pots Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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