Epiphone Valve Junior Head

metanoiastudios · Post by **metanoiastudios** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 5:24 am

I may be getting one of these for 85 bucks tonight. Worth it? crap? should I get it??

vapour trail · Post by **vapour trail** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 5:40 am

it's worth it if you need it..

def a nice little amp (it is the 5w thing isn't it?),
i got the eu thomann head version (Harley Benton) new for about the same price. sounds great.

rty5150 · Post by **rty5150** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 5:58 am

cool amp, good price. drive the piss out of it. it loves a nice fat distortion pedal like a rat, blues driver, or ds-1 pushing it, too.

jgimbel · Post by **jgimbel** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:16 am

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..

metanoiastudios · Post by **metanoiastudios** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:41 am

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?

Gorilla · Post by **Gorilla** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:47 am

+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.

mertmo · Post by **mertmo** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:53 am

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.

chris harris · Post by **chris harris** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:18 am

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.

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:28 am

... unless you want to see fireworks in February

metanoiastudios · Post by **metanoiastudios** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:30 am

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.

Would this still be an issue if I take the output into a DI, THEN into the interface?

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?

Brett Siler · Post by **Brett Siler** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:40 am

Great amp. Valve junior + eq pedal = versatile. A rat distortion pedals complements this amp well too.

rty5150 · Post by **rty5150** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:04 am

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?

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.

rich

ctmsound · Post by **ctmsound** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:17 am

metanoiastudios wrote:
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.
Would this still be an issue if I take the output into a DI, THEN into the interface?

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.radialeng.com/re-jdx.htm

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.

Kazrog · Post by **Kazrog** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 12:01 am

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.

ctmsound · Post by **ctmsound** » Thu Feb 11, 2010 1:27 pm

What's wrong with the radial box?

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Epiphone Valve Junior Head

Epiphone Valve Junior Head

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