Epiphone Valve Junior Combo

Front: input jack, volume, illuminated power switch
Back: removeable power cord, 4-ohm speaker jack

The cabinet looks very nice with black tolex, a woven/tweed grill cloth, and white piping. The 8", 4-ohm speaker sounds surprisingly big & full, with a warm vintage sound.

I really like the fundamental sound of this amp. However, it has an unusually loud hum, even for a single-ended design. So I bought it with the intentions of fixing it, (I'm an Electrical Engineer with lots of tube experience). I have discovered that there are actually three problems:

1) The 60hz hum is caused by the AC Filament supply traces. They run right along the hi-z audio signal path. This is a MAJOR no-no! Whoever did the circuit board layout just doesn't have a clue. (HEY AMERICA, CAN WE PLEASE STOP OUT-SOURCING PRODUCT DESIGNS & MANUFACTURING?!) The solution is to cut the filament traces, and run a twisted pair of wires to carry the filament supply up & out of the way of the signal path. This mod requires careful skill by a good tech or it can get very ugly & unreliable.

2) After you fix the hum problem, you will notice a higher pitch (120hz) buzz. This is typical rectified supply noise, and it can be remedied with a larger high voltage filter cap.

3) At this point my amp was very quiet, but still seemed to have excessive noise as you move the volume control near its maximum. It wasn't bad, but I knew it could be better. After some troubleshooting, I found that the input jack wasn't making a good ground connection to the front panel, because Epiphone neglected to mask the inside of its mounting hole. I removed the jack, grounded off the interior paint around the hole, re-installed the jack, and now she's as quiet as can be.

PLEASE DON'T ATTEMPT TO DO ANY MODS UNLESS YOU ARE A QUALIFIED TECH. THERE ARE LETHAL CONTACT POINTS IN THIS AMP!!! If you need some help getting this work done you can contact me below.

As stock I give this amp a 5, because you really can't record or perform with such a noisy amp. After the noise is taken care of I give it a solid 9.

Aside from the electrical flaws, this amp seems to be very well built.

This is a good project amp for the electrically inclined. Unfortunately I cannot recomend it for the average guitarist because the stock hum/buzz/noise renders the amp useless.

Well, it's a 10 if you like basic b/c 1 simple volume control is as basis as basic gets. If you want more, i.e., eq, reverb, preamp volume, you'll want to look for a more sophisticated amp. I love the basic "it goes from 0 to 10 and that's all it does" simplicity. I'm going to give it a 7 here b/c it has a surprisinglly wide tonal range just w/ the volume control. It goes from a nice clean sound to big gritty growl. And it gets LOUD. I played w/ a 4-piece over the weekend--2 guitars, a bass, and a big loud drummer, and with the volume at 1 o'clock, I had no problem being heard.

I use an American Fender Tele that I think sounds great thru this amp. I play power pop, and am loving the grit I get when I crank it up. The clean sound is very nice too, but if I wanted to play clean w/ the band, it wouldn't be loud enough. With the band, it's grit all the way. I think the overdrive has a great classic tube saturation sound. It's "warm" as they like to call it.

Just bought it a couple of weeks ago. Haven't had any problems yet.

I can't comment on this. I'm not sure how long the warrenty lasts.

As I said, I've been playing it for 2 weeks. I also own a Vox AC-15, which is my pride and joy, but to be honest, I think the Epiphone holds its own. It doesn't have the depth or chimy high end of the AC-15, but for the price, it is a fantastic sounding amp. I do a lot of home recording, and I'm really looking forward to panning the Vox to side and the Epiphone to the other. I think they'll sound great together with the Vox sounding cleaner and more defined and the Epiphone sounding chunky and gritty.

If I lost this one or had it stolen, I'd definately buy another.

1 input
volume
illuminated power switch
4-ohm speaker jack
4-ohm 8" speaker
cool looking cabinet

Simple but very effective!

Sounds great, but hums like a motherf@#ker.

The amp can be modified to eliminate the hum & buzz. I've modified several for friends & customers. My work is neat, prompt, very reasonably priced, and guarenteed to do the trick. If interested, use my contact info below.

Sound ratings:
It's a solid 9 after the hum & buzz is eliminated - a definite keeper!
Stock the amp is a 5.

Big transformers, solid steel chasis, wide circuit traces - so it should hold up quite well. I don't like the fact that the entire back panel needs to be removed to change the tubes. It might be a good idea to remove the metal grill from the back panel when you do the first tube change, so for future changes you can access the tubes without removing the panel. I'm sure the metal grill is for CE Safety Compliance. So if you have a young one or a small pet with access to the amp then by all means leave the grill alone!

The amp has a lot of potential. Unfortunately whoever laid out the circuit board knows nothing about hi-Z circuits.

5 watt, all tube, 1 volume control
Distortion and break-up increase as you increase the volume, simple design.

Played it with my MIM Tele (with SD little '59 bridge pup and SD Vintage Hot neck pup) and my 2004 American Strat (SSS).
Nice clean tone through both, good slight overdriven sound as you increase the volume, but...
LOTS OF HUM, I mean as soon as I plugged it in with the volume turned all the way down it was noticeable, and exponentially worse as the volume was increased. So much hum they should call it the Epiphone Hummingbird Valve Junior, or whatever.
I hadn't noticed so much hum while playing the floor model at Guitar Center, so I brought it back and switched it out for the floor model. Still a lot of hum, but not quite as bad. After a couple of minutes though I noticed an echoey, rattling sound on lower notes. It appeared to be the tube rattling, I adjusted it but it didn't go away.
I returned the second one to GC and got my $90 back.

The amp worked, but the combination of hum and rattling problems I experienced didn't provide me with too much confidence.

n/a

I liked the tone, and I liked the idea of a nice 5 watt tube amp for $90. I pretty much knew I wasn't going to get a ton of quality for that amount of scratch, the the amount of hum and rattle I got from two examples was unnaceptable even for $90. I didn't hate it, but for the money I recommend a Roland Microcube which can be had for around $100, or 100 tacos for $100.

wonderfully, blissfully void of features. amen.

great - for the money. nasty power tube overdrive for pennies. it takes a certain type of player to know how to control and coax a low watt tube amp - this isn't for everybody.

too early to tell - but who cares? if it runs for a month, i got my money's worth.

i dig it - been waiting for a dirt cheap low watter to come out, for recording. suprisingly sturdy construction as well. i have been freaking out over the sheer amount of products americans buy that are made in china, but it's hard to complain about this one.

i'd like to see someone come out with a 1 watter - this thing is still prety loud at the breakup threshhold. recommended.

On/off, input jack, volume. What more do you need?

The class A provides some hum but that is to be expected and doesn't impair the attraction of this amp at all. Clean below 9 o'clock and growls as you go round the dial. I can play it all the way up and it cuts through. I don't know how, but it does. It's basically loud as hell and sounds great too. I replaced the tubes with Teslas and the speaker with a Jensen champ replica. I recorded both before switching them out and the stock speaker sounded just as good. The Jensen is top-notch but somehow the stock does the trick just as well. I'd put decent tubes in there though (I wonder how many stock sovteks are out there collecting dust?).

6 months in and it hasn't skipped a beat.

5 years. Okay, great!

Been playing about 20 years. Would have to go pick up another one for chump change if this one disappeared. I love the vintage 8" speaker tube tones. I play a '96 MIM Strat with EMG-SA's and one of the recent MIJ Blue Flower Teles with Bill Lawrence p'ups. If you know about and can appreciate class A hum then this amp is the bomb.

2005 model.

5W class A
Single EL84 tube and a single 12AX7. Both by Sovtek.
Just a volume knob. Same as a gain knob really, for those of you who only have experience with small SS practice amps.
Single 8" "Special Design" speaker.
Single 4 ohm out.

Features-wise, it doesn't offer much, but it's not meant to. This is a straight up old school style amp. If you need to EQ your sound, then use a graphic EQ stompbox or something. If you think you need more gain, then get an overdrive or distortion pedal.

The stock tubes aren't very good (just about everyone who knows their stuff will tell you that Sovtek does not make a quality product).

Well, this is what I wanted to know when I tried it.

That hum problem? Nonexistent (at least on the amp I tried).
I tried it with a Charvel Model 4 with DiMarzio PU's (I think two Super Distortions).

It's a punchy amplifier and would be great for recording. Great mids and highs. The lows could use work. It sounds a bit farty and loose, especially on the neck pickup. I attribute that to the 8 inch speaker--they aren't made to take lower frequencies too well by nature. I plan on buying one of these and making a cabinet with an Eminence speaker (probably a Black Powder open back).

I wouldn't gig with this because it's just not loud enough to compete with a drummer in its current form. If you put it on top of a 4x12 speaker with extremely efficient speakers, you may have a chance. But seriously, that's not what this amp is meant for.

I can't comment further because I don't own one. I do know that if anything went wrong, it would be a good excuse to just buy a new one.

Can't say.

I've been playing for 8 years now. My stage rig is a Lee Jackson XLS-500 on top of a Lee Jackson 4x12 (with Celestion G12T-75's). My main guitars are a '57 RI Strat and a Dean Vendetta with DiMarzio pickups.

If this were stolen or lost, it would suck, no doubt, but it wouldn't cost me my education to buy myself a new one.

I wish it had a 12" speaker instead of 8".

For the price though, no one can go wrong with this. I want it for recording purposes and for practice when I go to college. There is no better alternative.

Probably made in 2004. One input, one volume, one 8" speaker. No programming skills required. I bought it because simpler signal paths seem to make the best tone. You will not find much simpler than this. Overall tones are easy to change with a simple tube swap. Could use bass/treble knobs and an 8 ohm speaker jack (I will put one in later). I like it simple.

Currently using a PRS Standard 24 with HFS and Vintage Bass pickups and an Epiphone Les Paul 1956 Goldtop reissue with P-90s. I am using a Danelectro Daddy-O overdrive and an EH Small-Clone chorus reissue in front of the amp. I play blues/rock and some jazz stuff. The tubes were cheapies so I swapped them out. I put a JJ/Tesla EL-84 in the power section and the hiss cut out dramatically. I also put a NOS JAN GE 5751 tube in the place of the 12AX7. The 5751 has a lower gain factor like a 12AT7 (70), but provides the circuit with plate voltages closer to the 12AX7. It basically allows you to turn this amp up more without pushing into overdrive so fast(clean headroom). It also boosts the mids a little. The jazz/blues tones coming out of it now are astounding. I would rather play it than my Mesa Boogie F-30. The background hiss is also now similar to what the Mesa produces. Putting in good quality tubes really helps this little amp out in the sound department. If you swap the preamp tube with a better one, do like someone else mentioned before and get a lighter spring to put in the tube shield. You don't want to ruin a good tube. Also, the 8" speaker is a good speaker (Weber Sig-8 ceramic I think). It just does not get the bottom end heavier rockers may crave. I will try a bigger speaker later and see how it goes.

The Epiphone guitars are great, but I do not know how long their amps stand up for. It is built very well and I expect it to last a while. I can not really rate it now as I have only had it for a month. This is a bedroom practice amp, so it will not be gigging.

Never had to deal with Epiphone. The warranty is 5 years except for the tubes which are 90 days.

I have been playing for 19 years. I currently own a PRS Standard 24, Epiphone 56 LP reissue, Mesa-Boogie F-30, Fender Blues Jr, Fender Champion 110, various effects and other instruments. If stolen, I would track the crap-weasel down and show him my rendition of the axe-handle scene from the movie "Pale Rider" with Clint Eastwood and take it back home. Good tubes aren't bank breakers, but you have to put some effort to get them. Then I would go buy another Valve Junior just to have it. I may do that any way. I love the tone and how easy it is to get different sounds with a very simple tube swap. My biggest gripe would be that the tubes that it comes with are pretty cheap and with a slight increase in price, Epiphone could at least put EH, JJ/Tesla or Groove Tubes in it. On a final note, even with stock tubes, this thing sounds great. I have a 12" Celestion arriving later this week and I will have the box finished soon. I hope this will open up the bottom end of the amp a bit. For $120.00, this a fantastic value and you really should think about trying one. It will beat the tone of any practice amp upto $200.00. I know, I compared it with tone modelers and somehow, the modeling just doesn't have the soul of this little beast.

Gain, Volume, 8" speaker, all valve audio path with silicon rectification. 2 X 12AX7 preamp valves into a single el84 output valve. If anything is "Very Limited" features wise it's got to be this amp!! gets a 2, one for each knob..

The amp is not noisey. The distortion is high enough. It can go from clean to mean and from low volume to high. The tonality of the amp is thick and raunchy.

Suits blues, and rock and alternative very well. One could go with a pedal but I wanted an open valve tone so I modified the preamp to have an extra tube in it.

Good amp. Stock it has noise at no volume, mid volume and high volume, even when not plugged in. It is easily improved and becomes a really great amp without too much effort. For the money what's better? With a lot of money what sounds THAT much better if at all? It is what it is. The speaker is high quality, the cabinet is strong, the valves are on the rocky side of smooth. If you like raw marshall tone you probably won't mind this amp turned up to full. Pick response is very fast to, and the thing really just sings with my Les Paul.

Here is a photo of my little beastie.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/eyes.only/vj_mods_3/vj.htm

I give this amp a 9 for ist's basic, yet perfect features for an amp like this. This is a little ROCK MACHINE. Perfect for Calssic Rock! Love the ability to use an ext. cab as well. Simplicity is beautiful!

If I could give this amp a 12 I would. Guys, I am 50 years old. Played in cover bands since I was 16. I have owned and still own some coveted amps by the worlds standards. I have 7 or 8 small practice amps and love small amps. For just over 100 bucks and the reviews here I had to get one.

Holy Cow! With a humbucker guitar this is total nirvana. Crank that little volume knob 1/2 way and you are grinding, all the way and it's a mini Marshall. Do you long for that sound on Zeppelin 1 and 2? Look no furthur. I also hooked up my Boss BD2 just as a boost with the gain on the pedal at zero and this amp is a smoking rocking box!

I have played this amp for over 2 hours today and just do not want to stop! Called two of my guitar playing buddies over to hear it for themselves. One brought his tele, the other used my LP. Within 20 minutes they were gone. Gone to Guitar Center to buy one each. I have not had this much fun with an amp in years.

Just got it today. 5 year warranty, heavy, looks very solidly built.

This is such a great opportunity for people to try that all tube sound and all tube overdrive and such a great price. I have 3 botique amps and they sound no better than this amp.