Moderators Lee Knight Posted December 19, 2006 Moderators Share Posted December 19, 2006 Has anyone tried this little guy? I've been following with interest the reaction people have had to this little guy. 5 watts of class A tube guitar amplification. I turned my buddy on to buzz and he's bought in... $99 at GC. Apparently there are many mods for this little beast that offer a lot of options. The clips I heard at a mod site where amazingly good. $99 He's coming over Thursday night to lay down some guitar and we'll will be using it through a Marshall 4x12 along with his AC30 and Marshall. I shall let you know. I've heard only good things... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrbrown49 Posted December 19, 2006 Members Share Posted December 19, 2006 great! I would love to hear what you think of it. Do you still have the link to the mod site by any chance? -s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scarecrowbob Posted December 19, 2006 Members Share Posted December 19, 2006 I was thinking about getting one because it looks fun, but a lot of the folks who were looking at it (you could probably do a search on HC forums) seemed to think that unless you were strictly looking for something with which to play with a soldering iron, you'd be better off putting that c-note towards something that is more useful right out of the box, or towards another better sounding amp. But then, I haven't played with one, just done a little pre-purchase research. There are a lot of posts about it though, and since the search is supposedly working again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members seaneldon Posted December 19, 2006 Members Share Posted December 19, 2006 i've got one. haven't bothered to mod it. it's fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted December 19, 2006 Author Moderators Share Posted December 19, 2006 Originally posted by seaneldon i've got one. haven't bothered to mod it. it's fun. Sean, did you leave the stock tubes as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members D Charles Posted December 20, 2006 Members Share Posted December 20, 2006 I've heard a lot of buzz about this one. But doesn't it use an EL84 tube for it's ass end? My little Boogie Studio Caliber has a couple of those and they're a bit crackly for my tastes. I asked Mesa ages ago about getting mine modded for 6V6s and they said 1 It could be done.2 It wouldn't be as loud.3 It would sound a ton more smooth! I never got around to doing it, but that's something I'd like to do. I just can't imagine the Eppy sounding better than my 60's Vibro Champ with it's one 12ax7 pre and one 6v6 power tube (plus that 5ya something or other rectifier tube), but just the three. I put boogie tubes in the front and rear end of the little guy and it just screams above around 6 or 7 on the volume (plus it's got treble and bass and virbo). Thing is, the little Eppy is tube so it's got to sound worlds better than a similar priced practice amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Will Chen Posted December 20, 2006 Members Share Posted December 20, 2006 Tried the combo version at GC based on all the buzz. Very unimpressed specifically with the flabby low end and muted highs. Perhaps through a different cab it would sound better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted December 20, 2006 Members Share Posted December 20, 2006 I liked the combo quite a bit when I tried one of the originals last year -- except for one, to me, HUGE problem... the amp's self-noise was really, really bad. A huge hum sitting there in a GC iso room with nothing plugged in... However, reading the user reviews at MF (I think) for the new head version it looks like they've addressed the internal design issues that led to the noise (a number of people commented on the improvement between models). Let's face it, guitar tone is a highly individual thing. An inexpensive amp with a single control (volume) is simply not going to be able to deliver a tone that will please everyone... But I know that, with the apparent improvement in self-noise, the new brain unit has gone to the top of my short list of toys I might buy sooner rather than later. (In fact, I've even toyed with selling my largely unused Lexicon Signature 284 "recording amp"... all that flexibility I almost never use.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted December 21, 2006 Share Posted December 21, 2006 I got the head ver. as an early Christmas present from the wife, and while it's not a super-duper tube amp, it does sound a LOT better than the Fender Frontman 15G I've got. And I've got none of the hum of the earlier versions. I ran it into an old Peavey combo that I have a Fender 75W speaker in. Just disconnected the peavey and wired up a jack. What can I say, I'm high class It can get a little flubby if you turn it up past 3 o'clock or so, but if you back off the volume it does clean up really nice. my .02. . .haven't been recording anything lately, but I could post a couple clips with my Tele if anybody is interested --edit-- oh, and one of the mod sites is Linky. He's got links to some other sites at the bottom of the page. It seems to mostly deal with the noise issues that have (mostly) been resolved it seems. But some of the other sites have info on gain mods, tone mods, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted December 22, 2006 Share Posted December 22, 2006 They cost more than the Epi, and you have to solder them / assemble them yourself, but the parts quality is very high, they have various options available / make a great mod platform, and sound great IMO: www.guytronix.com IMO, they are much better amps than the Epi Valve Jr. Also check the Pro Review on them over on the PR forum here on HC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted December 22, 2006 Author Moderators Share Posted December 22, 2006 Well, we did some tracking and evaluating the Epi Jr. It's cool but not great. It has potential though and I can see why modders have picked up on it. It's almost there. But... plug a Paul into it and it does that one thing perfectly... the early 70's hard/boogie rock thing. Using an eq pedal in front does some cool things, as does any gain pedal. It a catch 22 on this one. Crank it and it's smooth but a little ill defined in it's low mid distortion. Turn it down and it gets a little hard and spikey sounding in it's attack. Still, there are a lot of possibilies with it and you do get a true tube sound for a bill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 2manband Posted December 27, 2006 Members Share Posted December 27, 2006 I wonder why, if Epiphone can produce a decent tube guitar amp for $100 - which includes a real, high voltage, actual tube preamp section....why then can't anybody produce a $100 real, high voltage tube preamp? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted January 12, 2007 Author Moderators Share Posted January 12, 2007 It has potential though and I can see why modders have picked up on it. OK!!! He's modded his Valve Jr. with the BITMO "Spanky" mod for 25 bucks! And another mod for altering the gain stage.Then he put in some JJ tubes. Hello!?!?!? This thing absolutely rocks. Just a heads up, it's wonderful. Think Angus' solo on You Shook Me. Distorted yet clean. Overdriven but you can hear the actual strings being picked. Like I said it's wonderful. Marshall-like yet it does a great Fender imitation at lower gain settings, hence the Spanky moniker. Wonderful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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