Epiphone Valve Junior Head

[GuitarsCanada]

Review Submitted By
Gene Machine

Product Name
Epiphone Valve Junior Head

Would you recommend this product to others?
yes

Your overall review of the product
great

Did you feel there was good value for the money?
yes

What is your website?
www.myspace.com/geneconradband

How would you best describe yourself?
Part Timer

please select a choice
I own this gear

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Your full review

I bought one of these (barely) used. Great shape, all stock.

I plug it into a Mesa 1x12 cab with 100w 12" celestion gold speaker.

with a les paul, at about 12 o'clock it starts to crunch a bit. at about 2 o'clock it is perfect. I use a tube screamer or guv'nor pedal for crunch, and use the volume knob on my guitars. strat is a bit cleaner too because it is lower output.

so very versatile so far. i played an outside gig, only complaint was no clean overhead at that volume (near full). provided you can keep the volume between 50-75% you should be ok. BUT, it is not a nu-metal super saturated kind of thing. old skool tube ampy goodness a'la Beano album or Allman Bros.

I have heard mixed things about their reliability, since they are mass produced el cheapo stuff. i've had no probe. i plan on doing a cap upgrade, tube upgrade, and maybe a OT upgrade down the road.

I'll be using it Saturday September 29 at Market Square in Napanee Ontario, if anyone is interested in hearing it. Free gig for listeners...

If lost, stolen or eaten I would either buy another one, or a Fender Champ 600 reissue.... that's next on the list....

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Gear used for this review

Les Paul strat

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[garretrevels]

I just picked one up and I love it! Gotta love that tube sound. and for $100 you can't go wrong

[Gene Machine]

i find with a 12" greenback celestian, it really gives me a 60's british Bluesbreakers type tone with a gibson HB type guitar. I'm very fond of it.

Ii have an external reverb box too, which really helps wet the sound a little bit. nicely done, epiphone...

[taskforcestudios]

nice to see some EVJ love on here!
I own the head version and have added a gain switch, bright switch and standby switch. Great sounding amp. I run mine through my Marshall 1960A cab and it sounds killer!

[Stratin2traynor]

I've had one for a year or so and I did the 3-way voicing, boost and tone knob mods. I also upgraded the tubes: Tungsol 12AX7 and JJ power tube. Sounded killer with a Greenback. Just trying it out right now with a Weber Blue Dog. Cleans are nice but dirty isn't as nice as with the Greenback. I like hooking it up to a Weber Mini Mass attenuator and cranking it up to 8-10. Very articulate and nasty. Love it.

[Gene Machine]

Did you guuys mod the original or a later version?

I have the Rev 3, and I couldn't find the schematic for that. WhenIi compared the schematic for the Rev 1, a number of mods were already factory made. One in particular is the DC circuit for the heaters... the Rev 3 already has that.

If you guys modded the Rev 3, could you please forward me info? Ii would be interested in making it brighter. I tried JJ power tube and EH pre tube and it made a marked improvement also, but brighter is always better, that's why guitars have a tone knob.

I'll be using Wednesday at band practice. Haven't played it in a month so I'm pretty excited, it's like getting a new amp all over again.

G.

[bcmatt]

I didn't know the Celestion Gold was 100W.

[Gene Machine]

I originally tried the amp with the Gold Celestion which is 100W (at least what it says on it) I have since replaced it in the cabinet wth a 12" greenback celestion. I 'think' it's 20 or 25 Watts, not quite sure.I haven't checked it lately.

I prefer the sound of the Greenback with this particular config.

I used to run the cabinet with the 100W speaker as an extension cab for my traynor, before it got relegated to Epiphone VJ duty.

[stujomo]

I've been playing with the VJ combo for just over a year now. I have to say that I am very pleased with it. I've done some mods to it and got it sounding just how I like it. I spent a long time looking for an reasonable priced upgrade to the VJ combo and it was not so easy as I thought it would be. I would say that the VJ is a keeper for me.