ValveTrain Amplification Classic 318 112 Combo

This is sort of an addendum to my other review of this product,a review or two south of here, concerning the controls. Still love the stark but faithful features.

I play this with both single coil Fender) and humbucker equipped guitars, and sometimes an old Supro lap steel. This thing still kicks the snot out of anything in its class, and quite a few costing far more. I thought I'd add a bit to what I'd previously said, both because I've been enjoying it for a couple of years with the end of the honeymoon nowhere in sight, and also because one other review, while complimentary, lamented the lack of clean headroom somewhat.
The feature of 4 inputs/2 volumes is extremely important in obtaining more "Fender Bang/Twang" from this. Yes, the distortion can get pretty brutal around volume 4 on either input. But, setting the volume pot for the input you're not using way up around 8 to 9-1/2 will attenuate this considerably, while increasing your presence a tad. I can get a reasonably loud, clean bluesy tone from a neck PAF plugged in the Lo side of the "Bright" input, Volume at 7-8 and the "Normal" pot at around 9 and the Guitar pot around 8. Being a humbucker through a tweed deluxe, this is really saying something. With single coils, try it the other way around bright/clean-wise and depending on the strength of your pickups, possibly into the "Hi" jack. It'll be bright enough, the more you crank the bright pot to clean it it up. Loudness will drop off considerably after 9 though, and the amp gets pretty hissy. Between 8 & 9 seems to be the sweet spot on mine, and miniscule tweaks do a lot in this area.

So far so good.

This amp was built sometime in the Spring of 2005, and I have had it for about a year. It is a version of the quite popular and well regarded Fender 5E3 tweed Deluxe. I was looking for a small lightweight 1-12" combo with killer tone, and this amp fit the bill for me. About 18 watts (the newer version of this amp, the 315, comes in at about 15 watts). It has a dual 6V6 class AB power amp stage with a twin 12AX7 preamp stage (I substituted a 12AY7 in V1, which is now the standard setup for the 315), rectified by a 5Y3. Four imputs, with both Hi and Lo ins for a 'Normal' channel and a 'Bright' channel. Next are the two volume controls which are both active regardless of whether an input is present in a particular channel. Next is the single tone control, followed by the jewel light, the power switch, a fuse, and a standby switch. The chassis control plate is the old style tweed fender chrome. Valvetrain's newer models now come with a brushed black, and white lettered chassis plate that I think is much nicer looking. The speaker is a sweet sounding Weber Alnico 12A125-A . The cabinet is covered in a very attractive lighlty laquered tweed.

Top notch craftmanship throughout. An old tube amp tech guy, to whom I showed the amp, was very impressed with quality, and said it compared very favorably with the Victoria reproductions, as well as the orginal Fenders. Being a minimalist, I enjoy the basic controls, and I find the single tone control quite sufficient. I am less than enthusiastic about the interactive dual volume controls. I know many users love this feature, however, I find them a bother. And as the "Normal' channel is rather dull sounding, and I never use it, I would be happier with just a single input channel with one set of Hi and Lo jacks (so, one point off). Otherwise, the "what more do you need" expression aptly fits this amp. Except one thing more I wish it had is more clean headroom, as well as more graduated volume pots (okay, that's two things but they are sort of related). Distortion starts to kick in just before 3, which is ridiculous (so, another point off) (From what I've read this is a problem with most 5E3's). Overall, though, the point of this amp is to be a simple straightforward tone machine, and in that feature it excells.

My guitars are: a Telecaster equipped with Seymour Duncan 5/2 pickups, a Jazzmaster equipped with Seymour Duncan Antiquity's, and an Epiphone Sheraton equipped with Lindy Fralin P-92's (awesome pickups, by the way). The best match of the three with the 318 is the Tele. You could say they were made for each other! The clean tones of the 318 bring out the sweet side of a Telecaster with a warm clear articulation of the high strings. When cranked, the tele cuts through the sludge of the 318 to maintain some distinction of the individual strings in slashing out the chords. The Jazzmaster also sounds nice through this amp, although in general, it prefers cleaner amps. The Sheraton with the P-92's is somewhat too thick and overpowering except at the lowest volumes where it can sound sweet, mellow, and alluring.

The amp essentially has two sounds - a low volume clean sound and a louder full on overdrive distortion sound. Both are things of beauty. However, the transition between those tones is frustratingly narrow. I wish there was a more gradual transition from clean to distorted, and I wish the clean tone could be had at a greater volume. The in-between tone is most problematic in the bass. While the treble notes might still be ringing clear, the bass notes quickly start breaking up. I sometimes play with my bare thumb and fingers and the 318 simply cannot hold up to the soft fat pluck of a thumb on the low strings. The basic tone will be nice, but there will be all sorts of other unpleasant 'artifacts'. 5E3's are notorious, from what I have read, for their flabby bass and the 318 is therefore, no exception. (However, some minor modifcations I made did improved the bass response somewhat - see Customer Support section below). But at full throttle - who cares. The fully cranked up sound of this amp is a beautiful noise, full of richness and complexity, and capable of refined mayhem.

As I mentioned above, the craftmanship is very good. A hum problem developed after a couple of months but Valvetrain took care of it, and it has been fine ever since.

Rick at Valvetrain has been exceptionally communicative and helpful, both through e-mails and on one particular phone conversation. When a significant hum problem developed after I had had the amp a few months, I shipped the amp back to him and he took care of it right away. He also helped me refine the tone of the 318 by suggesting some modifications that improved the bass response of the amp more to my particular liking (subsituting a 1uf cap for the cathode by-pass, and a .022uf for the plate coupling caps). He seems very passionate about great tone, his amps, and providing great service.

I have been playing for about 25 years or so. Besides the guitars mentioned above I have heads by Dr. Z, and THD. I wanted a "grab and go" combo amp, however, one that could go from the living room to a small club, and which I could carry in one hand, with my guitar in the other. I first tried a Blues Junior, and after a year of cringing every time I played a note (even after upgrading the speaker), I sold it and began looking for something better. I tried both the Carr Mercury and Rambler, but as fine as those two amps are, The Valvetrain has - I think - a finer overall tone. I really love the sweetness of the 318 that can turn into a menacing roar with a turn of the volume knob on the guitar, and I love its small size and lightness. While I don't particularly love the flabbiness of the bass, or the way too short range between the clean and distorted tones, I have other amps (my Dr. Z's) that can allow me to be a tight ass when I need to be. This is a fine amp, and Rick at Valvetrain seems to be a knowledgable and passionate designer/builder who proudly stands behind his products.

The amp was built just two months ago, in Sept. '05. Briefly, It is an elegant reproduction of the Fender 5E3 Deluxe guitar amp, usually referred to as the "Tweed Deluxe". It is worth mentioning here that the sound of a 5E3 is one of the most sought after by guitar audiophiles. Just check the control panel (oops! I mean, interface!) of any digital modeling amp. They wish!
At any rate, the features are pretty much the same as a '55 Deluxe, with zero miles. It is a single channel 1X12 combo running 2 6V6's in class AB. Tubes are set aglow by a 5Y3 rectifier tube. On the preamp/driver side are a 12AY7 and a 12AX7. The chassis is hand-wired. On the control panel are 4 inputs, 1 Hi & 1 Lo "Normal", and 1 Hi & 1 Lo "Bright". There are two volumes, 1 for the Bright and one for the Normal. There is a tone control, which smoothly attenuates the treble, followed by a large red jewel pilot light, then "standby" and "on-off" switches. The power fuse is conveniently located here as well. The panel is an attractive (and smudge resistant) brush finish with laser lettered functions. Brown Chicken-head knobs on the 3 pots. The cab is solid pine, covered in lightly laquered tweed. The grillcloth is a period-correct dark brownish-red with gold threads accenting. The 5 tubes are Groove Tubes. All have retainers.A quick look at the chassis with the back panel removed reveals impeccable workmanship. The speaker is a Weber VST signature series rated at 25 watts. On my particular unit the output transformer has been upgraded to a Mercury Magnetics. There is a jack for an extension speaker. On top of the box is a comfortably soft brown leather carrying handle, and the unit weighs in at 28lbs. I use this amp mostly at home, both for recording and practice. While it is small, I would gig with it either miking it or in a small room, at higher volumes its smooth bark sufficing nicely.
In all respects, this instrument appears and sounds to have been built with great care, respect & love for both it and the original design.

I play this mostly with an '86 Franken-Tele equiped with a tapped 1/4lb Dunc at br and an Alnico II Pro (strat) at the neck. One thing is certain, the way this amp aggresively drives the power section you want to have pickups that retain all their brilliance turned down to half if you want to control this properly. That having been said, I plugged in a 335 clone with a real PAF in the neck, and that was not a bad ride either. It's just that you really have to modulate your fingers to the attack, and that's a good thing. I play mostly country-styled blues & rock with thumbpick & fingers. I would definitely characterize this amp as not noisy. But if you are playing single coils, and it's turned up, it sure ain't silent. But it's roughly a bit better than par than other quality tube amps of its size there. In terms of sounds, now lemme see: I play a pretty good (though not identical) version of Merle Travis' "Nine Pound Hammer". It always sounds good on a Martin J-40, but no matter what amp or electric guit I've tried it through it just never has quite worked, top vs. bottom, sparkle vs. punch, and the ever so important string-to-string definition while distorting mildly. Well, this one nails it perfectly. With a Tele, no less. For a comparison of the more distorted, up-volume sound, folks reading this probably want an example. Mark Knopfler, on the "Sailing to Philadelphia" disc, does a tune called "Junkie Doll". Although he used a 335 & an old Bassman, you can get that sound very easily with this amp. That's the distorted sound. As for clean, if you're not into Fenders I might not be able to explain it to you. I will say that,in the living room, with the bright input at 5, and the guitar at 1/2-2/3, hours of pleasure with a Tele may be had in the same (although louder) realm of playing a good acoustic. The notes have such detail. They bloom magically. It's hard to get a bad sound out of this amp. One word of caution, though: I've got a G&L ASAT classic (basically a refined Tele) with original pickups. While I've never actually loved the sound of the G&L "Magnetic Field Design" ceramic pickups, I've never disliked them enough to go on a pickup-swapping quest. Well, this amp is, in my opinion, just honest and simple enough with its straightforward design & control scheme to really give you the true sound of whatever guitar you might plug into it. And the G&L didn't quite make the grade. So I'm giving it a set of Seymour's Antiquity pickups, so I can enjoy it with this amp as much as the Franken-Tele.
So thats the one and only caution, soundwise. It's kind of like when you obtained your first good condenser mike only to discover that some of your acoustic guitars needed to be burned in the fireplace.

It's impossible to rate a fairly new amp on reliability, although it is worth saying this unit was built with probably even more care than the originals, and their design has showed to be incredibly reliable over time. The old Fenders were pretty good at de-coning those old Jensen speakers, so in that regard the Weber is a most welcome improvement. I would certainly have no qualms about gigging with it, but some sort of contingency plan is always desirable with any electronic device.

Valvetrain gives a lifelong warranty on workmanship, and 90 day on parts. This seems quite fair to me, since parts are cheap and expertise ain't. All repairs must be done at Valvetrain with shipping paid both ways by the customer. I will derate cust. support just a tij here, since in the event of an early failure of parts or workmanship the shipping should be not entirely on the customer, but perhaps negotiable. Rick at Valvetrain immediately e-mailed me once I registered the warranty and offered help as well as thanks. He seems a genuinely kindred spirit in the quest to provide us retro-geeks with high-quality toys at a most reasonable price.

Been playing 40 years or so. So far, it appears I would replace it if it were gone. It is just so elegant in its simplicity, sound, and quality that I would liken it to the electric equivalent of my old Martin in terms of utility and enjoyment.
I love a lot of things about it. But Rick, thanks for not over-lacquering the tweed with an orangey substance to make it look 50 years old (like Victoria appears to). It'll get that way on its own, and maybe one of my grandkids'll dig it.
I compared it to the Victoria Deluxe. It appears to have everything the Victoria has, (except the orange laquer and the $1700
price tag. Oh yeah, I think the Weber speaker is a tad better than the Jensen re-issue Victoria uses.)
There's really nothing I wish it had, but I would like to share one other neat sound you can make with the multiple inputs and the cheapest delay pedal you can find: Plug your gee-tar into Bright #1, then run a short jumper from bright #2 into an Ibanez soundtank (I did say cheap) then out to normal input #1. Set bright volume at 5-6, normal at 7-8, and set the delay time at what ever quick slapback suits your playing speed, the delay level all the way up, and the repetition at roughly 1. Now put on your thumpick, and, if you don't know how, learn how to play "Mystery Train". Hello Sun Records, Hello Scotty Moore, Hello Sam Phillips. The slapback going back into the "norm" set at a higher volume has a wonderfully degraded quality and sounds an awful lot like a real dirty, worn, vintage tape echo. Ever price one of those on E-bay? Now all you need is Elvis.