Author Topic: Short Valve Junior review. (Read 8201 times)

crispsandwich · « **on:** August 12, 2006, 11:17:35 PM »

I've had this amp a month or so now so thought I'd post a mini-review.

My gear I use with the amp is as follows:

Richwood Strat with the following BKPs - Trilogy Suite neck, Mother's Milk middle and Nailbomb (tappable) bridge. The guitar also has a 'Fat-o-caster' switch which gives me combinations like neck and bridge and lets me make a pseudo humbucker out of the neck and middle pickup.

Behringer TO800 - TS808 copy (uses the same chip allegedly), it RULES.

Behringer OD100 Overdrive/Distortion.

Danelectro 7 band EQ pedal.

Behringer X V-amp set up for effects only (good effects but the amp sims are HORRIBLE).

I'm a bedroom guitarist and I've owned and spent a lot of time with the folliwing amps:

Marshall AVT50 112 combo
Line 6 Flextone III 112 Combo
Vox Valvetronix AD30VT
Vox Valvetronix AD50VT
Vox Valvetronix AD60VT
Roland Cube 30
Line 6 Spider 2 112
Behringer V-Tone GMX212
Tech 21 Trademark 10
Tech 21 Trademark 30.

The Epi Valve Junior, with it's little 1x8" speaker absolutely smokes all of them! And it's considerably cheaper at 90 quid (I got it from Imuso) than all of the amps listed above. It projects better than all of them, it sounds huge. And it just drips with tone. Cleans are clear and bell-like, and when it's turned up full the crunch is awesome :D. I usually play it at bedroom levels with a quarter volume and use my pedals for overdrive or distortion. Using the pedals and my EQ pedal, I've been able to get Fendery cleans, Vox and Marshall-esque crunch tones (hurrah!) and thick, smooth lead tones. With my pseudo neck humbucker I've got some really nice smoky jazz tones. The only tone I haven't got out of it yet is a thick, thumping metal tone but with a good metal pedal I'm sure it would be easy. I don't play much metal at all so a good metal pedal has been last on my list.

Anyway, in my humble opinion, every guitarist should own one of these. I was going to buy a Laney VC15 (which does sound slightly better, but nowhere near 200 quid better) but I figured this was a no-brainer at 90 quid.

I'll get some clips up when I eventually buy a good mic.

-Danny :)

_tom_ · « **Reply #1 on:** August 12, 2006, 11:32:29 PM »

Sounds like a good amp to me. I also have that TO800 and it is indeed a great pedal, I actually prefer its tone to my Keeley Rat (may be up for sale if anyones interested btw).

dave_mc · « **Reply #2 on:** August 12, 2006, 11:33:05 PM »

nice!

:drink:

WezV · « **Reply #3 on:** August 13, 2006, 10:55:58 AM »

If i was you i would look into replacing the speaker with a nice alnico one and got some good NOS valves as well. These amps are so simple you can change valves without having to worry about biasing or owt else and its simply a jcase of unplugging them and plugging them back in. They are perfect for modding.

You could do the speaker and get a selection of valves to try and still have it come out a lot cheaper than the laney!! Speaker would probably be about £50. The price of valves varies a lot.

The amp has a 12ax7 (premap)also sometimes called a Ecc83 (english designation) or a 7025 (military designation). Check out www.hotroxuk.com for a good selection of those that should let you tailor the sound, mainly new valves with a description of what they should do. it also has an EL84 (power amp). Both these valves are very easy to find new and vintage. check out www.watfordvalves.com for a bit more of a vintage selection.

Some people will say it seems silly to mod an amp you are perfectly happy with but these amps make it so easy to do that its silly not to. Imagine if you had a guitar that let you just plug in new pickups to see if you liked them and swap back a minute later if you didnt!!

I suppose i should put the warning about lethal voltages inside amps and all that. Dont do it when its turned on. Dont touch valves out when they are hot. Dont touch anything except the valves and the chassis, the circuits do hold some charge after the amp is switched off!!

indysmith · « **Reply #4 on:** August 13, 2006, 11:05:53 AM »

my TO800 is pretty fly too; i'll definately keep the epi in mind as a practice amp. i like the idea of having a super-simple amp that i can mod the hell out off.

crispsandwich · « **Reply #5 on:** August 13, 2006, 12:43:13 PM »

I've tried different valves. Well, JJs haha. I went back to the Sovtek preamp 12AX7 valve but kept the JJ EL84. There was no difference there and I lost the Sovtek :P. The speaker is a Weber Ceramic 8 or something like that. It sounds perfect to me :). I might consider some NOS valves at some point in the future but the amp sounds so good stock I'll keep it as it is. I might buy another for mods. That would be so cool.

WezV · « **Reply #6 on:** August 13, 2006, 02:42:05 PM »

The weber ceramic is a good little speaker but i would still be tempted to try the alnico version if you like your vintage stuff.

If you can get an old mullard ecc83 i highly reccomend them. I changed from a sovtek to a mullard in a little champ style amp i built and it was an amazing change.

They aint that cheap though!! Heres a few picks of the best
http://www.watfordvalves.com/product_detail.asp?id=701
http://www.watfordvalves.com/product_detail.asp?id=706
http://www.watfordvalves.com/product_detail.asp?id=1384
http://www.watfordvalves.com/product_detail.asp?id=671

dave_mc · « **Reply #7 on:** August 13, 2006, 07:21:16 PM »

Quote from: WezV

If i was you i would look into replacing the speaker with a nice alnico one and got some good NOS valves as well. These amps are so simple you can change valves without having to worry about biasing or owt else and its simply a jcase of unplugging them and plugging them back in. They are perfect for modding.

You could do the speaker and get a selection of valves to try and still have it come out a lot cheaper than the laney!! Speaker would probably be about £50. The price of valves varies a lot.

The amp has a 12ax7 (premap)also sometimes called a Ecc83 (english designation) or a 7025 (military designation). Check out www.hotroxuk.com for a good selection of those that should let you tailor the sound, mainly new valves with a description of what they should do. it also has an EL84 (power amp). Both these valves are very easy to find new and vintage. check out www.watfordvalves.com for a bit more of a vintage selection.

Some people will say it seems silly to mod an amp you are perfectly happy with but these amps make it so easy to do that its silly not to. Imagine if you had a guitar that let you just plug in new pickups to see if you liked them and swap back a minute later if you didnt!!

I suppose i should put the warning about lethal voltages inside amps and all that. Dont do it when its turned on. Dont touch valves out when they are hot. Dont touch anything except the valves and the chassis, the circuits do hold some charge after the amp is switched off!!

where are you getting alnico speakers for £50?

WezV · « **Reply #8 on:** August 14, 2006, 09:05:37 AM »

These are £54 for an 8", 4ohm, alnico Jenson:

http://watfordvalves.com/product_detail.asp?id=1060

scroll down on this page for a 8" alnico Weber for $44 or a super alnico for $76:

http://stf-electronics.com/Page0030.Html

(once you have done postage and customs that would be about £35 and £60 or less for those two speakers)

yannroman · « **Reply #9 on:** August 15, 2006, 12:52:34 AM »

+1 on this nice amp! As for the mods, well it's up to your taste because it's really nice sounding stock (with broken in speaker). Important thing to consider, as with any amp, is the cable. I, like many ppl, use George L cables because I like the clarity it gives to my setup, especially with the valve junior as it is a tad dark sounding to my ears. Others will find it too trebly, find the one that compliments your guitar/amp tone then try out some new tubes, etc...

38thBeatle · « **Reply #10 on:** August 15, 2006, 07:35:30 AM »

Interesting thread-a mate of mine has recently started playing guitar- he is in his earliy 50's and is a keen music fan- amazing why he hasn't started before but I won't go into that. He needs an amp (he has a digital fizzbox at the mo) and I had spotted these and wondered what they were like- I will get him to have a go on one.

yannroman · « **Reply #11 on:** August 15, 2006, 12:51:09 PM »

Go ahead! At this price you can't go wrong, I would say this is a blues oriented amp, you can push the tubes and get some nice overdrive from it without the huge volume associated with tube amps. Still pretty loud, though. Nice feature also, you can disconnect the internal speaker (4 Ohms) to plug in an external cab (i.e 4x12) and get bigger volume when in rehearsal or live. It is also factory equipped with 2 wires to install a 8 Ohms ext speaker out on the chassis. Cheers!

_tom_ · « **Reply #12 on:** August 15, 2006, 01:50:48 PM »

Quote from: 38thBeatle

Interesting thread-a mate of mine has recently started playing guitar- he is in his earliy 50's and is a keen music fan- amazing why he hasn't started before but I won't go into that. He needs an amp (he has a digital fizzbox at the mo) and I had spotted these and wondered what they were like- I will get him to have a go on one.

From what I've heard those Roland Cubes have a pretty good tone for a little solid state combo.

Adam.M · « **Reply #13 on:** August 15, 2006, 11:31:27 PM »

I've been considering getting one of these little beauties, but now sound control's stoped stocking them i havent had a chance to play them! guess i'll just have to trust everyones good word on them...

Anyway, I'm starting to think my perfect practicing/jamming rig would be one of these with something like a GT-8, as the Epi VJ is suposed to really like pedals. has anyone tried anything like that?

Heck, has anyone done any recordings with this beast?

(oh, and hi!)

yannroman · « **Reply #14 on:** August 16, 2006, 12:29:58 AM »

Here are some audio samples of a valve junior run in two different 4x12: one with greenbacks, one with V30s.

http://www.instituteofnoise.com/L6/ampclips.asp

You won't get that sound with the combo alone (speaker's an 8") but it gives a pretty good idea of the tone. I tried a Bogner 2x12 with my VJ combo and it sounded really close to what I hear on this page.