Epiphone Valve Junior?

[Blungo]

I just had a thought, if you're looking for an amp that will do bedroom volumes, possibly an old tube PA amp?

 

My current favorite amp is a 1947 Newcomb H-10. It sounds great at conversational levels, i can crank it up (still with some clean headroom) loud enough to play music with friends, and fully cranked it absolutely roars.

 

In the us anyway, you can sometimes find similar amps for very good prices.

[english_bob]

...and check out the Tube Cricket thread. Not sure what the price is going to be, but it should be cheaper than the ZVex nano amp, which would be worth a look if the OP weren't on a shoestring budget.

[Saturnine10]

I have a VJR head and just love it!! i replaced the tubes with JJ's and thats about it.. I use it as a power amp for my rack setup and performs quite well! It pushes a 4x12 just fine and gets plenty loud for my home/house setup..

If you have a preamp of some sort, this amp is perfect for a small power amp..

[Dolf]

My vj doesn't break up till just before 12 o'clock.

 

I'm also using some pretty clean speakers.

[NetStar]

ANY NEWS ON THE VALVE SENIORS?

[MPH]

I have an EVJ version 3 - heavily modded including Power Scaling (see pics)

Mine has a decent amount of clean headroom, about 12 O'Clock breakup.

First thing i did was to change the tubes though. Mine came with a EH ECC83 and a Shuguang EL84 (Urgh). It was too muddy & bassy, so i re-tubed it with JJs and these brightened the amp up no end.

I saw on a post recently somebody fit their pre-amp with a EH ECC82 and this give it more clean headroom.

[Y0UNGBL00D]

i bought a valve senior!!! doesnt ship until september they're saying now... but as a bonus, i was the first person to ever buy one!!! thats gotta be worth something. or not.

 

my VJ breaks up at about 1/4 with my buckers, and about high noon with my singles. my favorite clean to breakup scale ive found with it is my tele. that thing makes the VJ sound SO nice.

 

i use an Orange Thunderverb 50 as my main amp, and the attenuator can make it quieter than the VJ while still getting full tube clipping. its perfect. the 412 cab is a little much to carry around though.

[mewithoutlouie]

i'm using a tele and the vj sounds really good through the epi cab. it's really all i need right now.

[Saturnine10]

Thats so sweet

I have an EVJ version 3 - heavily modded including Power Scaling (see pics) Mine has a decent amount of clean headroom, about 12 O'Clock breakup. First thing i did was to change the tubes though. Mine came with a EH ECC83 and a Shuguang EL84 (Urgh). It was too muddy & bassy, so i re-tubed it with JJs and these brightened the amp up no end. I saw on a post recently somebody fit their pre-amp with a EH ECC82 and this give it more clean headroom.

[Y0UNGBL00D]

i'm using a tele and the vj sounds really good through the epi cab. it's really all i need right now.

 

 

yeha im a pedalhead with a giant Orange amp, but the tele straight into the VJ can keep me entertained for hours and hours. i LOVE it. very kings of leon.

 

and cheers to your avatar, when i first started over at UG i used the same MC escher drawing. right on.

[L_Z_nut]

I have the VJ w/matching cab. It's a great little amp and can get plenty loud, I live in a townhouse, but I think it should be fine for an apartment. Trying to get headroom out of a 5w amp is a little difficult, but there's plenty of mods on the web to help you with that on the VJ. Different preamp tubes will help, there's also a NFB (negative feedback) switch that can be added that increases the headroom as well. It's been a while since I've looked around, so I'm sure there's plenty more mods you can do. I'd suggest looking around and asking questions on http://www.sewatt.com/forum if you're really interested in buying one to mod.

So far, on mine, I've done the Marshall mods, and popped in some JJ's and it sounds really good already. Once I get the time I'll add a NFB switch, a gain, and tone control, and perhaps a bright switch. Just need to find the time. I also want to re-tolex the grill cloth on the mat/cab. It doesn't look that great IMO, but I can't really decide what to go with.

[RSD]

Too bad they're Chinese-made.

[L_Z_nut]

Yeah.... cause that's a good reason not to get one.

[goodhonk]

. and cheers to your avatar, when i first started over at UG i used the same MC escher drawing. right on.

 

finally, someone that likes KOL.

[zygoat]

Too bad they're Chinese-made.

 

 

oh noez

[goodhonk]

Too bad they're Chinese-made.

 

these are also made by the chinese!

[strangedogs]

is there something NOT MADE by the Chinese/Koreans/Indonesians/Whateverisians?

[Y0UNGBL00D]

some people obviously havent been paying attention to the asian amp/guitar building revolution. american companies are moving their factories AND their skilled craftsman over there, and the products are as good if not better. hell, orange is cranking out their tiny terrors out over there. the simple fact is they can build it just as good for far cheaper. so lets all raise our collective glasses to small hands and affordable low wattage tube amps!

 

and kings of leon are awesome.

[Loobs]

is there something NOT MADE by the Chinese/Koreans/Indonesians/Whateverisians?

 

 

Ooof, dick.

[JVanDe7]

The Valve Jr is a great amp. I have one and use it often. Couple of things though...

 

I changed the stock Electro Harmonix 12AX7 tube to a matched-triode JJ 12AT7 from Eurotubes.com and it helped A LOT for what I wanted, which was good clean tones at higher volumes. Before the tube change, it sounded like I had a badass overdrive pedal engaged if I turned the volume up more than 25%, which wasn't a bad thing- it actually sounded really good but I like my fuzz/dirt pedals and I wanted to use them for most of my dirt. I wanted to be able to play loud cleans and then slam on the fuzz and rock out. Anyhow, the tube change did the trick for sure. I think I lost a little overall volume, but well worth it.

 

I also thought the amp sounded better IMO when I had a fan blowing on the tubes keeping them warm, but not overheated. Then you have to deal with the noise of a fan though.

 

It is a bit loud for my neighbors, but they bitch about everything. I keep it at my practice space and it keeps up with my drummer just fine. Especially now that I have the 12AT7 and I can turn it up good and loud and get usable clean tones. After that, a good fuzz/dirt pedal can boost your volume if you wish. Stock speaker sounds great, don't bother changing it. I did, and I changed it back to stock.

 

Great amp. Of course, you could get better features and all that if you spend more money, but no need to for what I do. Just get a good reverb pedal. I use the Mr.Springgy by Lee Jackson, but many use the Holy Grail or similar.