Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: gwEm on November 18, 2007, 11:27:53 AM

Title: valve junior mod kits - do they really work?
Post by: gwEm on November 18, 2007, 11:27:53 AM

i'm in the market for some sort of practise amp at the moment, this is my first thread about it... going to do another one in a second.

tried an epiphone valve junior head through a marshall 1936 cab, and i was less than impressed. the clean tone was quite nice, but wound up it sounded overly-dark, muddy, fuzzy and frankly horrible :(

obviously many mod kits exist for the amp. i've watched alot of youtube videos, and its pretty hard to make a judgement - often the mods are very radical and expensive (dont want to spend alot of money), or if the mods are simpler they just play clean on the vids (suspicious)

so do the mods really help the driven tone of the amp? if i'm playing clean or with a pedal, i might as well go solid state.

Title: valve junior mod kits - do they really work?
Post by: HTH AMPS on November 18, 2007, 11:57:28 AM

when I tried the valve juniors I thought they sounded awfull - there are dozens of SS practice amps on he market that will leave that amp for dead (unless you simply MUST have valves regardless of the tone)

 :twisted:

Title: valve junior mod kits - do they really work?
Post by: gwEm on November 18, 2007, 12:04:25 PM

finally someone who agrees with me! so much hype about those amps, thought there must be something wrong with my ears.

Title: valve junior mod kits - do they really work?
Post by: Ratrod on November 18, 2007, 12:16:01 PM

I gave mine the BitMo Spanky mod and a set of JJ tubes. It's nowhere near as muddy as it was. It sounds best on a clean/breakup tone. I have the matching cab wich is the best match for it, IMO. Othet cabs sound a bit too dark. This little amp really came to life when I hooked it up to a Boss RE-20 to add a bit of reverb and slap echo.

Title: valve junior mod kits - do they really work?
Post by: indysmith on November 18, 2007, 12:23:18 PM

they sound okay clean, but the dirty sounds leave much to be desired. i think all the hype was there for the same reason it was about the minimat - a cheap low-powered valve amp for the masses *gasp*

Title: valve junior mod kits - do they really work?
Post by: dave_mc on November 18, 2007, 04:46:43 PM

i wouldn't want one as my only amp, but i think it sounds good for what it is... it doesn't sound great cranked to 10, either, granted. between 10 and 2 o'clock is where the best tone is (depends on pickups too, of course).

Title: valve junior mod kits - do they really work?
Post by: BadMonkey on November 19, 2007, 10:30:30 AM

I've modded the hell out of my valve junior & to be honest it's been a complete waste of time.
For all the time, money & energy I've wasted on the thing I could have bought a better amp & spent more time playing than soldering.
As a learning exercise it was useful as I'm now pretty good at amateur electronics & can make my own stomp boxes & stuff.  But if you think any of the mod kits'll turn the junior into something fantastic you'll be disappointed.  They do improve it, but up to a point.  You can't polish a turd!
The Alnico kit on EBay is the most comprehensive & value for money I reckon.  Though all the info can be found for free on the web if you can be bothered searching.

Title: valve junior mod kits - do they really work?
Post by: Philly Q on November 19, 2007, 11:21:51 AM

There's this guy on eBay who totally rebuilds VJs and GA5s, upgrades the transformers and speakers etc.  You can even have Power Scaling.  He has a nice George Lynch ESP too!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RAT-HOTROD-EPIPHONE-VALVE-ELECTRIC-GUITAR-AMPLIFIER-AMP_W0QQitemZ140179368154QQihZ004QQcategoryZ10171QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem