Epiphone Valve Junior Head
- metanoiastudios
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Epiphone Valve Junior Head
I may be getting one of these for 85 bucks tonight. Worth it? crap? should I get it??
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- jgimbel
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I've had one for about a year, the combo version. It took me a while to realize that I was more excited about it than I should be (because of what it represents as a really cheap, well built tube amp), and that it really didn't sound great. I've used it for distorted Rhodes with great results, but for guitar the overdrive is just way too harsh and not attractive sounding.
Then I built a 1x12 cab to use with it and my Pathfinder. Oh man oh man, I have an amp. Unfortunately I had the first version of the combo that only has the one 4ohm jack, but the tranny has leads for the other jacks so I installed a switch for 8ohm to go with the cab). It sounds incredible. When the gain maxed out it still gets kind of harsh in a way I don't particularly love, but for 85% of the range I love the sound. Granted I tend to gear towards clean and lower gain sounds, but even the higher gain of it sounds great. I haven't used it with pedals, but others have said (here and all over the internet) that a good boost before it works really nicely. I wouldn't get it as a main amp, but if you don't have a million things on your list that you SHOULD be buying instead, go for it. I'd still love a head version. I have a friend who uses a head through a Marshall 2x12 for indie-rock kind of stuff (which is what I'm doing as well, so you know) and his sounds are incredible. I guess the 8" speaker in mine just doesn't do wonders for it. I haven't tried a 10" but knowing that a 12" or two 12"s are really nice with it is good to know.
I say go for it. But amps are like candy to me so..
Then I built a 1x12 cab to use with it and my Pathfinder. Oh man oh man, I have an amp. Unfortunately I had the first version of the combo that only has the one 4ohm jack, but the tranny has leads for the other jacks so I installed a switch for 8ohm to go with the cab). It sounds incredible. When the gain maxed out it still gets kind of harsh in a way I don't particularly love, but for 85% of the range I love the sound. Granted I tend to gear towards clean and lower gain sounds, but even the higher gain of it sounds great. I haven't used it with pedals, but others have said (here and all over the internet) that a good boost before it works really nicely. I wouldn't get it as a main amp, but if you don't have a million things on your list that you SHOULD be buying instead, go for it. I'd still love a head version. I have a friend who uses a head through a Marshall 2x12 for indie-rock kind of stuff (which is what I'm doing as well, so you know) and his sounds are incredible. I guess the 8" speaker in mine just doesn't do wonders for it. I haven't tried a 10" but knowing that a 12" or two 12"s are really nice with it is good to know.
I say go for it. But amps are like candy to me so..
- metanoiastudios
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Awesome comments so far! I think I'll go ahead and get it I do have another question though.
I have a few combo amps, but not a dedicated cabinet. I'd like to purchase one in the near future, but I am interested in running the head direct into my interface, and then use different impulse cabinets (ReCabinet) to mess with different sounds, until I purchase a cab. Given that the head has three different outputs, tailored for different ohms, do you guys think that this would still be feasible?
I have a few combo amps, but not a dedicated cabinet. I'd like to purchase one in the near future, but I am interested in running the head direct into my interface, and then use different impulse cabinets (ReCabinet) to mess with different sounds, until I purchase a cab. Given that the head has three different outputs, tailored for different ohms, do you guys think that this would still be feasible?
http://www.paulojuarez.com
*Will trade design work for gear!*
*Will trade design work for gear!*
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+1 on if you need it/ have an application in mind.
If you already have a cabinet, test it out with the cabinet to see if you like it. If you plan on buying one, take it to the store to try it out with different stuff.
I got one for a large cabinet (4, 8, 16 ohm outputs on the head are great) that I want to run a little cranked, but not at a 100 watts... I think it works and sounds decent and as others have said, it does like pedals.
I've also used it on organs and keys with good results.
Last but not least, there are lots of mods available for this head, so if you are so inclined you can easily make a lot of changes it's functionality.
If you already have a cabinet, test it out with the cabinet to see if you like it. If you plan on buying one, take it to the store to try it out with different stuff.
I got one for a large cabinet (4, 8, 16 ohm outputs on the head are great) that I want to run a little cranked, but not at a 100 watts... I think it works and sounds decent and as others have said, it does like pedals.
I've also used it on organs and keys with good results.
Last but not least, there are lots of mods available for this head, so if you are so inclined you can easily make a lot of changes it's functionality.
Gorilla
I have a head/cab "half stack". Lots of fun, sounds cool and looks great.
However, I think it pales in comparison to a Fender Pro Junior, I've been playing
those since about '93 when they first came out.
Valve junior is fun and definitely useful, but not even close to the tone and response
from a pro junior. Not that you were asking for them to be compared, I just thought
I'd give my 2 cents a reference point.
However, I think it pales in comparison to a Fender Pro Junior, I've been playing
those since about '93 when they first came out.
Valve junior is fun and definitely useful, but not even close to the tone and response
from a pro junior. Not that you were asking for them to be compared, I just thought
I'd give my 2 cents a reference point.
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- metanoiastudios
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Would this still be an issue if I take the output into a DI, THEN into the interface?subatomic pieces wrote:I would not run the speaker output of a guitar amp directly into your audio interface. Seems like a really, REALLY bad idea to me.
My reasoning for wanting to try this out is because I just got the Recabinet Impulse library (http://recabi.net/), and they claim that, to use them, you can do the following:
"simply connect the FX send or line out of your amp to your computer audio interface (just make sure you have a cabinet or load box connected so you don?t fry the tubes!) [learn more (pdf)]"
Thing is, this head doesn't have an FX send, or dedicated "line out", hence my question: would this be safe to do?
http://www.paulojuarez.com
*Will trade design work for gear!*
*Will trade design work for gear!*
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Great amp. Valve junior + eq pedal = versatile. A rat distortion pedals complements this amp well too.
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i used to own a rocktron juice extractor that you could plug an amp's speaker outs into and use it as a line level device. turned great sounding heads into distortion pedals.metanoiastudios wrote:Awesome comments so far! I think I'll go ahead and get it I do have another question though.
I have a few combo amps, but not a dedicated cabinet. I'd like to purchase one in the near future, but I am interested in running the head direct into my interface, and then use different impulse cabinets (ReCabinet) to mess with different sounds, until I purchase a cab. Given that the head has three different outputs, tailored for different ohms, do you guys think that this would still be feasible?
rich
http://www.radialeng.com/re-jdx.htmmetanoiastudios wrote:Would this still be an issue if I take the output into a DI, THEN into the interface?subatomic pieces wrote:I would not run the speaker output of a guitar amp directly into your audio interface. Seems like a really, REALLY bad idea to me.
My reasoning for wanting to try this out is because I just got the Recabinet Impulse library (http://recabi.net/), and they claim that, to use them, you can do the following:
"simply connect the FX send or line out of your amp to your computer audio interface (just make sure you have a cabinet or load box connected so you don?t fry the tubes!) [learn more (pdf)]"
Thing is, this head doesn't have an FX send, or dedicated "line out", hence my question: would this be safe to do?
You still need to end up plugging into a cabinet so that the tube head sees an impedance load or you'll fry the output transformer among other things.
-Chris
http://www.ctmsound.com
http://www.ctmsound.com
Hi all, I'm newish here, but I've been lurking the TapeOp scene for a long time...
I'm the founder/creator of Recabinet and I'd just like chime in... DO NOT connect your speaker out to anything other than a cabinet or a speaker load box. When I say load box - I mean a unit such as the THD Hot Plate, Gibson Power Stealth, or the Weber load box units.
The THD Hot Plate is probably the best unit out there overall. It features a line out that's safe to use with your interface. Set the Hot Plate to load mode, and it will absorb 100% of your amp's speaker power output.
Thanks for supporting Recabinet, we really try to warn people about this and educate as much as we can, up front. If there's any way we can possibly make this clearer, we will.
I'm the founder/creator of Recabinet and I'd just like chime in... DO NOT connect your speaker out to anything other than a cabinet or a speaker load box. When I say load box - I mean a unit such as the THD Hot Plate, Gibson Power Stealth, or the Weber load box units.
The THD Hot Plate is probably the best unit out there overall. It features a line out that's safe to use with your interface. Set the Hot Plate to load mode, and it will absorb 100% of your amp's speaker power output.
Thanks for supporting Recabinet, we really try to warn people about this and educate as much as we can, up front. If there's any way we can possibly make this clearer, we will.
--
Shane McFee
Producer/Engineer - Kazrog Productions | Vocalist/Guitarist - Backmask | Creator - Recabinet
Shane McFee
Producer/Engineer - Kazrog Productions | Vocalist/Guitarist - Backmask | Creator - Recabinet
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