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In depth tone review of Epi. Valve Jr. head.


BAZGUITARMAN

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Originally posted by OneArmedScissors

Find out what factory in China they are made at and see if they will do it.
:D

 

 

How in the heck do I find that info? I guess I could contact Epi. again. :confused:

 

Eric

 

 

edit: I guess I could contact Madison Amps and see if it`s the same factory that makes the Divinity. :rolleyes:

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Originally posted by BAZGUITARMAN




How in the heck do I find that info? I guess I could contact Epi. again.
:confused:

Eric



edit: I guess I could contact Madison Amps and see if it`s the same factory that makes the Divinity.
:rolleyes:

I'm pretty sure that was a joke. Actually oxblood grille cloth goes pretty good with the reddish-brown front tolex. Or get some swatches from some of the many companies that sell tolex and see if any match.

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I got my Epi jr. head Thursday and so far, really like it. I was playing it through a Marshall 410 cab and it sounds "british", not too dark, or too bright. It didn't seem to like a Boss DS-1, but I still need to play with diff cabs and guitars (only played my sg supreme through it so far).

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I just found out about these things and I'm getting curious. I'm not an amp fanatic (my main amp is a pathfinder 15) and I've only owned combo amps. Couple of questions:

 

-How hard would it be to put in an effects loop or have someone do it for me?

 

-What do you recommend as a cabinet? Keeping it simple of course

 

-I have a couple 10" celestion bulldogs lying around and since I'm a carpenter who can handle a soldering iron, should I just make my own cabinet?

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Originally posted by pondo sinatra

I just found out about these things and I'm getting curious. I'm not an amp fanatic (my main amp is a pathfinder 15) and I've only owned combo amps. Couple of questions:


-How hard would it be to put in an effects loop or have someone do it for me?


-What do you recommend as a cabinet? Keeping it simple of course


-I have a couple 10" celestion bulldogs lying around and since I'm a carpenter who can handle a soldering iron, should I just make my own cabinet?

 

 

 

I`m no techy so I don`t know how hard it would be to install an f/x loop. You should email JerryP(www.fjamods.com) and see what he says.

 

I ran mine through my Boogie 4x12 with V30`s for my review, but I`ll probably get an Avatar closed back 2x12 with (1)V30 & (1)G12H30 for a dedicated cab.

 

If you`ve got the skills then go for it and make you a 2x10 cab with those Bulldogs. It would be worth it just to try them out and then you would have an extra cabinet for tonal options down the road.

 

Eric

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I'm mostly curious about this amp for its potential to "warm up" a Pod for cheap. I'm sure it'd be managable plugging into the front, which is what I have to do with my amp, as the effects loop sounds absolutely terrible for some reason, but I'm curious about what all would be involved in making the power section alone usable. Obviously, an effects loop would allow that, but the full extent of such a mod wouldn't be necessary, far as I know.

 

:confused:

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Originally posted by OneArmedScissors

I'm mostly curious about this amp for its potential to "warm up" a Pod for cheap. I'm sure it'd be managable plugging into the front, which is what I have to do with my amp, as the effects loop sounds absolutely terrible for some reason, but I'm curious about what all would be involved in making the power section alone usable. Obviously, an effects loop would allow that, but the full extent of such a mod wouldn't be necessary, far as I know.


:confused:

 

 

 

I dont think a loop is too involved for a tech (again JerryP could help you here alot more than I) - but thats not saying its an easy mod for occasional tinkerers.

 

ive added extension jacks and thing to a few amps but when I asked about a loop with the response I got I decided not to try - again, probably very simple with experience though

 

through the front you would only get so much clean headroom as it starts to breakup around 2:00 on the volume, but thats plenty loud for home use im guessing. if you planned to play it loud you may get some of the natural breakup going on, which is fine playing alone straight into the amp but usually not what you'd want when using a modellor .

 

it may work, but when using Pods with amps ive found that alot of times the loop works better than in front, but again different amps will give you different results. i think this amp is more for plugging in and playing, crank it for crunch! type thing, but it seems like a simple design so maybe you could work out a way to bypass the preamp for your Pod

 

 

if you look around for older stereo tube amplifiers, some of them are selling for pretty cheap. they were made for amplifing record players and radios, so they have a flat frequency response which works well with Pods, I run a Pod through a real old silvertone one, it has 12ax7s and 4 el84s and it just sounds so right, i get that tube character but the flexibility of the Pod, and the amp does not color the tone too much. dont get me wrong, tube amps really color your tone when going guitar>cable>amp and thats a good thing, but modellors need more of a flat response instead of color to sound as they were designed

 

 

 

anyway - its up to you. im not saying that it wont work. i was just meaning that you will get some unwanted distortion if you really crank it and that would probably turn those patches to mush. then again, at home you may still be in the clean part of the amp at the levels you have the volume set and not have to worry about it

 

this amp sounds good to me from clips, and ive got all the tube cleans to cleans that start to breakup covered with my amps at home, but id like a little bugger that would get raunchy when cranked, and a few cabs to play with so ill be picking one up soon myself

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Originally posted by fishfartz


this amp sounds good to me from clips, and ive got all the tube cleans to cleans that start to breakup covered with my amps at home, but id like a little bugger that would get raunchy when cranked, and a few cabs to play with so ill be picking one up soon myself

 

 

 

If you want a raunchy little amp then this would be great for you.

 

The three R`s of the Valve Jr. head= Raunchy, Ratty, Rude

 

Eric

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OneArmedScissors... There's a product I've been testing that is in production now I use exclusively for the POD. It's called the Buffer2. It's stereo and has 2 12au7 tubes with a slight gain stage and a tone cut. I have some soundclips on their site.

 

http://www.redironamps.com and select Buffer on the new products link on the upper right of his main page.

 

If you like it and order one, make sure you tell them AndyZ sent ya.

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Originally posted by supercow3



Do you thinl it will take effects well?

 

 

 

I havn`t tried any effects with mine. That`s how good it sounds. It doesnt have an effects loop, so you will have to run your pedals through the front of the amp.

 

 

 

Originally posted by Gunslinger

how do you think it'll sound with a 808 or ZW boost in front?

 

 

I think it would sound awesome with a boost. I don`t have an overtdrive pedal right now and I don`t miss it at all.

 

Eric

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Originally posted by supercow3



That good eh...makes me want to get one right now:D

 

 

If you want to play low gain, raunchy blues then this amp may be for you. At $99.99 it`s a no brainer. Even if you only use it to add texture to a recording.

 

I actually am planning to put my wah in front of it. But I think that`s all for right now. So far I`m completely happy playing straight through the head.

 

Eric

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Originally posted by TattooedCarrot

I wouldn't use this for a POD, you want something with a lot more headroom to allow the POD to do it's thing. I have a VHT 2/50/2 I use with my POD and it does the trick wonderfully. I ordered one of these little Epi's to get some real tube nasty blues grit.

 

 

I agree. At the lower volume settings (where you have a clean palette) aren'treally loud enough and you wouldn't get that powertube saturation.

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Originally posted by JPOM

Thanks for the great review!

The VJ is really cool,

but I don't think it can be run with a 220V we have over here.

 

 

The box mine came in had 4 different voltages on the outside with a tick mark by 110- there were 220 and 240 as well as 115 i think.

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Originally posted by ColorsoundKid



I agree. At the lower volume settings (where you have a clean palette) aren'treally loud enough and you wouldn't get that powertube saturation.

 

 

Hence why most people would want an effects loop. If this amp had one, it'd be oh so great for me. But no effects loop = no use for it.

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