Epiphone Valve Junior Combo

Purchased new in January 2006.

Amp Features: One Knob: Volume. One channel. Class A Tube (1x12AX7, 1 EL84). 1x8" speaker. Only one thing I'd like is a master vol control.

Styles of music: Blues - Electric/Slide/Acoustic

I got this amp for a regular weekly gig at a small club. Allows for the nice warm, bluesy OD at a respectable level.

I might look at swapping tubes to see about different types of tone that are possible, but right now, it's fine.

So far, so good. Gives me that old 1950's/1960's blues sound (can you say Elmore James) that small, over driven amps of that period have.

No tone controls to mess up your sound. I get the actual sound of my guitars where all the tone controls I need are. Using with the following guitars: 1951 Epiphone Century Archtop/flat back, 2006 Washburn HB15 archtop, 2005 Strat type I built ("Texas" GFS Premium Alnico pickups).

I do run a Digitech RP50 for reverb, delay and level balancing and, if need be, can tweak bass/mid/treb tones there. Occassionally use a DOD 250 OD for some added crunch.

Bottom line: Sounds great with or without pedals.

Seems solid. Time will tell as I play every week.

Not used.

It is what it is: Simple, warm and surprisingly LOUD. Worth it for playing the music I do (blues/rock). Some might find it limiting without tone controls. I find it freeing. Gives me the true color of my instruments.

I'd buy another if stolen (after hunting down the perpetrator) or if lost. Remember, I'm using this for a specific purpose/music. It might not suit everyone.

My first comment is "THIS IS NOT A FENDER CHAMP, DOES NOT SOUND LIKE ONE IF YOU EXPECT IT TO BE YOU WILL BE DISAPPOINTED LIKE ME." I've been playing since I was five. I've owned every great amp there is, here are some examples so you know what my reference point is: Tweed Harvard, 64 princeton reverb, 68 champ, (2) 68 broncos, (3) silverface vibrochamps, silverface deluxe, (2) Vox JMI ac-10, Vox ac-4 (worst sounding amp ever made) Supro thunderbolt, Magnatone 213 (I think that's the number it's like a tweed deluxe except with vibrato) A late 80 marshall tube combo, a regal tube combo. Those are all the tube amps I think I have owned I maybe leaving some out? Of all these the epiphone valve junior sounds the most like the late 80s marshall tube combo which is not that outstanding. Out of the box I was VERY impressed with this thing. The cabinet, knobs, cosmetics, speaker, tube layout, transformers, feel of the amp was of something way more expensive and reminded me of a champ. This amp is WAY bigger than you will expect. I like the fact it uses a computer electric cable as I have a brown paper bag full of extra ones. I plugged it in expecting to hear a fender champ sound. Let me tell you what I did hear: HUM. Loudest hum I ever heard. My amp is brand new, I'm sure was treated okay in shipping. This amp hums more so than amps that are damaged. Had I not been aware of this amps reputation for the hum and just plugged this in I would take it right to the repair shop. It's really bad, annoying and its so loud I can hear it over the distortion pedal. I tried different sockets in my house, turning off lights, different locals. Everything. These amps hum. Some people here have suggested masking this with the distortion pedal or something. That's like turning up the radio when the car is not working right. The hum is so bad I am not sure if I can practice with this amp and I don't know if I would record with it. The hum really bothered me. I do not feel it has anything to do with the amp being dropped, the speaker or the tubes. People talk about replacing the tubes in these. I've had mullards, RCA and brimars. They do not make that much difference over sovteks. I feel there is some kind of design flaw in all of these. I don't want to have to deal with "mods" or anything or tinker with the amp. Why buy an amp you have to "fix" before you can use it. The most affordable bench fee of any tech I know is about $60 to service an amp like that. Add that to the $119 I paid for it that's around $180. That's putting you in fender champ territory which we all know we want to buy but either can't pay or won't pay the money for.

Okay. I tested this amp with two guitars: A peavey predator USA made strat copy with cheap pickups and bad shielding. And, a 58' Gibson es-125 tdc (george thorogood, izzy guitar) with p-90s. I also used a tech 21 GT2 distortion pedal. I tried it with and without. By itself this guitar does not sound too good. The hum gets worse-especially bad after about 2/4 cranked. I compared the amp with nothing plugged in and that dam noise is still there which is a shame cause it's such an impressive looking little amp. The clean sound did not seem "warm" to me it's definitely a tube amp though as it takes time to come on. It didn't sound any better after leaving it run 20 minutes than when it was first turned on. The strat style guitar made it hum more but again it has bad shielding. This amp does not like semi hollow guitars and it sounded farty and crappy. Sort of like the non-tremolo channel on a old vox jmi. This amp does not sound like the beatles and if you plugged Paul McCartney into it would not sound like the beatles so forget all that "class A" stuff which just means it is single ended and is not vox like. This amp does not sound like zep or acdc in anyway shape or form and I do not think Jimmy page is running out to get one. (incidentally page used a supro trojan which is a knock off of a vibrochamp not a thunderbolt. Albert Lee who grew up with page talked about this in an interview in vintage guitar.) What does this amp sound like? In the late 80s Marshall came out with this little expensive tube studio combo with a 6v6 and 12ax7 tube compliment. It had a vintage 12 celestion speaker. I bought one of these dreadful little amps, I think I paid $250 for it back then which is a lot for a small amp like that and this sounds real close to it. Maybe a little bit better. This amp has no real sound of it's own. The best mod you can make to this amp is not changing out the speaker or tubes but getting yourself a Tech 21 GT2 pedal and plugging it into it. Instantly for some reason this pedal takes care of the hum problem and reduces it. Why? Hell if I know. Makes a substantial difference. With the pedal in this you get a great marshall and boogie sound. The clean sound on this amp sucks. Even with sansamp. No way to get good clean "fender" sound on this amp. The clean sounds brittle and shrill. It does not sound pignosey. That would be to generous. Amp sounds beneath solid state clean. I would prefer going clean into a peavey rage 128 than this. This amp really hated my gibson guitar it sounded really bad. I am not sure what it would do with a guitar with humbuckers. Maybe something great. You could practice with a drum kit with this tiny amp with a distortion pedal to boost the signal you could not play out with it. This amp has no real sound of it's own, not "transparent" but like no sound of it's own. It sounds good with the Tech 21 gt2 because it is a great sounding pedal and the best piece of recording/performing equipment I ever bought.

This amp looks solid. The place I bought it from gives a 1 year replace no questions asked warranty in addition to 5 year from epiphone. If I keep this amp I am going to play the living shit out of it! I am not worried about this amp conking out. The chineese are building some good stuff. Very nice work on this one except for the hum

I would not buy again. That's honest. I gave all new tube amp combos a shot and let me tell you what I think. Fender blackface/silverface champ is it and covers all the bases. If you have to pay $300 for a decent one so be it. It's the best sounding amp there is. I bought my first one for $35 in 87. Those days are long gone. Hehe Play the Epiphone Junior first somewhere before you buy. Forget what you read here. If you've never had many tube amps maybe you won't know. I feel a lot better about this amp than any other tube amp they've made. I don't know if I am going to keep mine or not. I am still testing it out. It sounds pretty good with the Tech 21 pedal but that's the pedal. The worst problem with this amp? Really just one big one: HUM. I don't want an amp I have to fix or mod, or do anything to mask a hum. This is not in the realm of normal hum this is like the worst hum I've heard. It's like bad guitar cable 60 cycle hum times ten. I don't want to put money into this thing. I bought the amp because I wanted to save money and not buy a champ. There is no other tube amp in this price range so right there you have a bargain. I would defintely take this over a harmony, tempo or kay amp with radio tubes. Those are shock boxes stay away. I would take this over a kalamazoo too. Play this amp before you buy it that is all I have to say. I can tell you exactly what the amp sounds like. A 1975-2005 marshall circuit board tube amp. I think it will only sound as good as the pedals and guitars you plug into it but your not really hearing the amp but the pedal and the guitar. This amp has no sound. I am giving it an 8 because of the high quality construction and the price. I would not make this the only amp you own in that case by yourself a nice used solid state usa made peavy. You can get clean and dirty sounds with it.

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.

1 volume knob, on/off switch. one input. 1 Sovtek 12AX7, 1 Sovtek EL84, 8" speaker, Class A, 5 watts. pretty much old school no bullshit. it's basically an overdrive pedal with a speaker.

cabinet is a little cheesy. not wild about the shape of the speaker grille and the rattan grille cloth. plastic epi logo is also a bit cheesy (sorry to be redundant...only word that works). metal corners also smack of "crate" and "ibanez". but other than that nice box.

I play imported teles (mexican and jap)with replacement bridge pick-ups,a mexican strat with a stacked double coil in the neck, an sg junior with one p-90, a jay turser 12 string electric, an a junky arbor gretsch copy.

i play jangly pop and americana, so class a tube is the only way to go if you're worth your salt.

at 12 o'clock you've got a nice, chuck berry style clip. if you play open chords, you get a nice belnd of mild crunch and clean. very little sparkle to these but there's not supposed to be. it is what it is. if you want sparkle and shimmer, get an old british made ac-30.

when i crank it to about 3 o'clock, Keef starts oozing through the speaker and i get a huge hankerin' for smack, vodka, and sunkist (just kidding). past 3 and it's the first zep record. played the gretsch copy with it cranked all the way and it was total good, scary, 60's garage. sounds good using my $20 dano tuna melt trem pedal.

you'll read all about the hum. yes...it's there...but so f**king what? it's a $119 from guitar center. it's got one knob. you don't want hum? be a dick and spend $7500 on some boutique amp.

have only played in writing/practice room at home. will use it in the studio. ears will ring after playing with it cranked...that's a very good thing in my book.

too early to tell. seems sturdy. would never gig with it. bought strictly for recording. use a 90's blues deluxe for gigs.

have not had to deal with epi yet. is supposed to have a good warranty but haven't gotten up off of my ass to register it on the internet (yet...i have time to write this review).

have two epi acoustics and absolutely friggin' love 'em..though.

i've been playing 26 years. have had two twins, the jazz chorus with two 10's(no lie..had it for like two weeks...what a stupid f***king mistake), a blues junior, and a 90's blues deluxe.

have had a hankering to get a small, recording amp so i had been trying to buy a silverface champ on ebay but they kept geting away from me. don't care how great they were...not gonna pay $250+ for an amp with, essentially, an 8 inch radio shack speaker in it. looked at the mini z or the mini cat (what? are they serious? $700+ for a 5 watt amp with A knob? does a boutique amp come with a blowjob as well?).

stumbled on to the valve jr. went and took it for a test drive at guitar center. went when the kids wouldn't be there playing staind on the schecters through the solid state marshalls. cranked the sumbitch up with a standard taco tele and really dug the tone. went home. sold some old stompboxes on ebay, went back to guitar center and bought it. the floor model was the last one there so, i knew what it sounded like. was very hesitant buying something chinese made but was surprised (almost frightened) at the quality. like japanese stuff from the mid 80's. really top notch.

if you want to mod it out later...you can. new speaker..tubes..what ever. it's $119! go to town.

i'm planning to use jr. to record. get back to the basics: a wood cabinet, a speaker, a knob, and some glass tubes. place the ribbon mike correctly and i'm ready to roll.

2005 Production model. Great recording/practice amp. If Epiphone put in a defeatable master volume, then this amp would be unstoppable. I would rather see this modification or new production model than one with tone shaping features. As for now, I will just turn my amp up and set my guitar volume low.

Do not believe some of the extremely negative reviews some have posted. My guess is that they have a vested economic interest in a competing product or that they are just being unfairly critical to seem like a tone conniseur. My amp is no more noisy than any other tube amp I've owned. Tube quality, pickup type, and environment will have more to do with noise than the amp itself. The stock speaker holds up at high volumes. Mine does not rattle at the highest volume.

This thing encourages you to practice. When you're not concerned with adjusting tone and reverb knobs, then you spend more time on the guitar itself. If you absolutely must have distortion at midnight apartment levels, then you'll want a distortion pedal. Feel free to buy different tubes or an alnico speaker, but I think the way the amp sounds stock is remarkable. If you do not own a dedicated practice amp, you can't go wrong with this thing.

Too early to tell. I suggust that you should keep the cabinet in a stable climate (i.e. not too humid) to prevent warpage. The cabinet is very thick, so it would probably take a lot of moisture to warp it. I have heard some 1968 Fender Silverfaces with fiberboard baffles, that were well cared for and sounded great.

No experience with Epiphone.

I've been playing for about sixteen years. I have owned many expensive vintage and boutique amps and guitars. This amp is a fantastic buy for an almost disposable price. I admit that I paid below cost for it, but even for $120 it is a fair price. Materials alone seem like they should add up to about $50. If you can't afford a Victoria, Bad Cat, Dr. Z. or Star Amp, then this is a wonderful alternative. I suggest that Fender make a similar amp with a 6v6 tube to compete with this monster.

I want to say that this is a great time to be a guitar player. I think that this product demonstrates that great playable gear can be had a reasonable cost. I have talked with many people who feel the quality of instruments today are better than they've been since the mid sixties. I think the only limiting ingredient is good wood. So support your local farmers and all legislation that will encourage the continued production of these critical natural resources.

This amp had all the features I was looking for in an "at-home" amp. 5w, single-ended class a, 1 12ax7, 1 el84, one volume knob. Chances are if you bought this amp you're not looking for a line 6. It loses points for only having a 4 ohm jack. I have since added an 8 ohm jack (the wire is in there...you just have to drill in a new 1/4 inch socket and hook it up). If you're like me, chances are you'll want to use an extension cab...

Let me state that I bought this thing with the intention of turning into a head, which I have. The stock speaker was okay for that "small-amp vibe", and is pretty loud and efficient. Cool for ratty blues and slide tones, but that's not really my thing.

I changed the preamp tube to a JJ 12ax7 and the power tube to a JJ as well (groove tubes-rated "6"). This took much of the boxiness out of the sound, brightened things up a bit and sweetened the midrange. It also made the clean tone far more useable. The stock sovtek's werent bad (they were actually great for full-bore distorted rock sounds), but the JJ's made the amp far more versitile and complex.

The main guitars I use with this amp are a mahogany Parker Fly with dimarzios, a custom built Tele thinline with EMG buckers, and my old beaten strat with two dimarzio blue velvets and a red velvet. I run it through either an open 2x10 with celestion vintage 10's or an open 1x12 with an eminence private jack (excellent old greenback clone). With the strat, the clean tones are great. With single coils the amp actually stays pretty clean until about half way. Push it past half and it yeilds excellent blues tones. With the volume set over half way with buckers, it gives a great heavy rock tone, which is why I initially bought it. I find the heavy distorted tones had more low-end punch with the stock tubes, but the JJ's are better overall. The biggest surprise of this amp has been the amazingly woody and responsive jazz tones i've been able to get out of it. Playing fingerpicked with either the tele or the parker (or my archtop), I've gotten possibly the sweetest sounding jazz tone i've ever heard...almost reed-like in its attack. This sound isnt loud enough to cut it un-mic'd with most drummers, but is perfect for duo gigs (or any drum-less gig, really). Needless to say I'm completely happy for $150!

No problems. Easy enough to fix if something were to go wrong. I was also impressed by Epi's use of metal jacks. Seems pretty solid.

If it broke, i'd fix it myself. I dunno how much epiphone cares about a sub-$200 amp...

I've had the amp for about 2 months, and I'm still blown away by the tones and value. I bought it because it had become impractical to use my other amps (Orange AD-30 and Fender Prosonic) for practice, as the level at which they distort is much too loud to play at home on a regular basis. Some have mentioned that this amp takes awhile to warm up, and this is true...it definately sounds best when it's been on for at least 20 minutes. However, even when you first flip it on, the tones are nothing to complain about. I love the class A response, and the low wattage, great tone and unbelievable price are why I bought this amp. It still has a little too much gain for my taste, and the JJ preamp tube added some unwanted brightness when fully cranked, but I plan on sawpping it for a Groove Tubes 12ax7-m mullard reissue, so we'll see what that does to the tone. Also, I have a Dr. Z 2x12 on order which should spice things up too...regardless, this amp sounds great, is useable of a variety or styles and is an awesome value for anyone looking for a small tube amp.

1 knob looks cool.

Holy doodoo. O.k. Im hearing a little buzz but I dont give rats ass. The sound coming out of this little amp is so amazing. The people complaining about the buzz havent played many tube amps because all of them buzz a little. I have also found many mods on the net to easily fix the hum. Dude I got mine for 100 bucks! The tube saturation when cranked is amazing. I want another one just to have it. I run this thing in stereo with my blackface bassman and I am in tone nirvana. Oh yeah then I can plug this little focker into my 4 ohm bassman cabinet. Wow! Oh by the way the speaker is already made by Weber so save your money. If you bought a weber 8 inch ceramic. ow you have 2 because its the same speaker that comes with the amp. It gets a 9 for the buzz factor. Again I dont even notice the buzz because the sound is that good. Look compressor into a reverb pedal into the amp mama!

Seems pretty damn rugged built like a rock outside. I havent looked at the guts.

Havent dealt with them.

Been playing 16 years mostly thruogh vintage fender tube amps. Ive got gear we all got gear Im not taking the time to list it all here.I would definately but it again. I want another one just for fun!

No features at all, which adds to it's cute little appeal. One volume knob. That's it. Nothing more. 8" speaker, class A itty-bitty cute as a button Chinese made all 5w tube amp that can be purchased for change you find in your sofa. In all fairness, there really isn't any features to this amp, which isn't a bad thing. It's what it's meant to be. So, you really can't rate it in this category.

Have a Japanese 60's RI Strat w/Duncan Antiquities and a Amer Std. Telecaster w/replacement PUPS. Play mostly rock/blues. This amp's perfect for those styles of music. Breaks up very evenly and completely. Heres the kicker though.... I run my Marshall 15DFX from the line out into the input of the Epi amp, to use the gain and effects of the Marshall, and the 'second amp' of the Marshall. Good lord, it sounds amazing. The tube warmth rounds out the transistory harshness of the Marshall and complements it very well. Now, I have the versatility of the digital FX, the Marshall's high-gain tone AND the warmth of a tube amp, all in a neat little package I can carry w/one hand. This little amp is LOUD for 5w (all tube, probably equals 15-20w of a like transistor amp). I practice with my Epi/Marshall mini rig and have been told I'm too loud! Other reviews have stated this amp hums a lot. I don't seem to have that problem. It's typical of an amp of this size and output to be a bit noisy. It's fine despite even taking the microphonic shield from the preamp tube so I can see 'em glow in the dark. Sweet! I'm so happy I bought this little amp.

Don't know how reliable it is. The cabinet is pretty beefy, and seems to be well built. Only time will tell, but for $119, if it broke, I'd go dig in my couch for more change and buy a new one.

5 year wty minus the tubes.

Great, fun little amp and a great conversation starter. I'm going to give it 10 for what it is... A class A all tube amp that sounds great and is cheap as dirt. Hope it holds up!

This is a follow up to a review I wrote a few months ago. The amp has held up better than I could have imagined. It has won over everyone in my band/family. Two of my brothers bought one because they were blown away by this little 1X8 all tube wonder king. Read on...

Well, this is the whole point, yes? How does it sound??? Rippen!!! incredible!!! rude!!!! warm!!! cutting!!.. You could do every record made by ZEP,ACDC with this amp. You could even get away with some VH. keep in mind, it's been 3 months since I've owned it.. The honeymoon period has well passed and this thing is even better than I thought it was.

Turn it down and use a good bridge pup ( like the one in an EBMM Axis gitar) and the thing sounds excellent for if you like a different flavor.

I bought a second amp for myself as well as three 8" weber speakers when they were on sale for like $20 bucks or something. I bought every 8" model they had.

The second amp sounded great but had/has signifantly less bassresponse. The tubes and speaker are the same so it's hard to pin point the cause- In it's stock form it still sounds great just not as good as the first one I bought.

I ended up swapping some speakers in and out to see what I get.. After reading many comments about the improved sound with a weber speaker upgrade I came away with a different opinion. The stock EP speaker in the amp is the best speaker for this amp- or at least it's a very good match. The ceramic weber speaker I tried was not as exciting sounded and did not add any improved bass. I also tried two alnico Webers.
The Alnico S version ( which I think is the cheaper of the two weber Alnicos) is more compressed with less mids than the stock speaker. It's not as loud either.. It's less in your face... It gives you a different sound that is great for rock but not as good as the stock speaker for soloing or other types of music.
Since I have two amps, I decided to keep the ALnico S in one of the amps. If I only had one amp I would leave the stock speaker in it. I prefered it to any of the three weber speakers. It certianly has more attack/midrange/ in your face sound.
That's not to say that I do not like the new amp with the Alnico S.. I love it.. Having owned many vintage amps/speakers. I could say that the alnico is much closer to a Greenback with its compressed less middy sound.
The more expensive Weber alnico did'nt do it for me.. Perhaps, I''l fool around with some different tubes in the future but be assured that this amp in it's stock form is the shit.

My two brothers just bought two more but I have not had the chance to test them. It will be interesting to compare all four amps.

So far so good.

@ $120 it's a silly, sick value. My 70s non master bassman has been sitting unused. every once in a while I plug it in but It does not give me the goose that the little EP's do.

I also forgot to mention that we were all blown away by the fact the we are able to use the amp for rehersal. I play it with the amp all the way up and I do not understand why but this thing cuts like nobody's buisness. If I were readind this I would say BS, but I am telling you that after years of using 50/100 watt amps with and without an atenuater(spelling?) It blows me away that I am know using a 5 watt amp that cuts as good as it does. (I now understand how Page could use his 1X8 or 1X10 to record the first zep record).

Whe all is said and done, If you could get over the fact that little chinese people are being paid penuts to build these.. then it's the best deal on the planet bar none. It's the best all time deal on anything. I want to buy four more but I'll never use them all.

Just one knob, 5W, Class A, dirt cheap. That's why it is so appealing. I would have like headphones, but for the price that is OK...

I should start by saying that I love Epiphone products. All the Epi guitars I have, i.e Sheraton, EJ200, Biscuit are great instruments at an incredible price.

Having said that, RUN AWAY FROM THIS AMP !!!

It does not hum, it SCREAMS, it YELLLLS!. Do you want to sit next to a power plant in full activity? Unless you have a 500 feet jack, and play from a different room, you'll get all the BUZZZZZZZZ in your ears until you get real sick and stop the guitar.

I purchased one and returned it the next day.

I also checked all the VJs (about 6 of them) at three shops: they all buzzzzzzZZZzZZZ. Saying it is a Class A is no excuse: my VOX AC30 does not hum at all. No, it's not a 230v problem. I tested them in the US at different places.

Protect your ears, protect your brain, save your money for something else.

BTW, it is not the rip-off of the year. There is a better one: the similar-sized Gibson amp hums about the same for 4 times the price of the Epi... Yeah!!

No idea

Never tested

Would be a bad bad move if you buy it, my friend...

Brand New, Under #90 & a 5 year Warranty, this amp provides great value for money. Features are beautifully simple; Input/ Volume/ On-Off switch. In a small watt A Class amp anything else would be Guilding the Lilly

I bought it as a harmonica amp (Couldn't justify a Fender Champ to the Bank Manager) and it it offers all the dirt a harp player could want. I would reccomend changing the valves as the sovtek ones are able but not great. I had a couple of friends over who use my house as a home studio and they used to add a bit of crunch. Young lads (bless 'em) asked what pedal I was using, their jaws damn near fell off when they realised I'd just turned the volume up a bit! I'm ignoring the buzz as I can't wait to invalidate the warrenty and get the soldering iron out/

Had it 3 weeks not broke yet. It is solid as though.

I've got a Marshal JCM 800 and a lovely 1963 AC30 but this amp really does come in useful. At 5 watts you can play at home, the tone is sweet and it has good old fashioned looks. If you need a new amp and you fancy just plugging in and getting on with it, this amp is hard to beat. Good basis for a harmonica upgrade (the valves are easy to get to so you can replace them to cut the gain).

5 watt guitar valve combo.
One 12ax7 Sovtek preamp valve.
One EL84 Sovtek poweramp valve.
Volume control.
One 8inch 4ohm Epiphone speaker into a single 4ohm minimum output.
Enough features to produce great tones for me.

Between 0 and 1/2 way you get 'clean as a bell' tones, giving a great clean tone.
Between 1/2 and 3/4 you get my favourite tone, clean but just, and I mean just, slightly edgy, so rich and warm, it is the perfect tone for me.
When fully cranked you get a rocky overdriven sound which is perfect for classic rock.
I prefer to use single coils with this amp as they work better with this amp, humbuckers tend to make the amp sound like it is forcing the sound out more, though I still use this amp with humbuckers from time to time as they produce a different sound.

Well I've cranked it many times and it still works fine. The tubes still work great. It's built solidly.

Not used it yet as I haven't needed to.

I have a Marshall DSL201, a Fender Blues Junior, a Fender Pro Junior and this. The Epiphone Valve Junior is my favourite as it is so simple but never disappoints me when I want great tone. I've wondered if I changed the valves will I get a better sound, surely that's not possible but I'm going to do that next just to see.
It is slightly quieter than my other amps but it's still bloody loud.
The price it is out of this world and for what this amp does I would pay double for one any day.
If it were lost I would get another one in 1 second after it was lost.

Great little amp. I did some modifications though a bit expensive, proved to be totally worthwhile for me.
1. Changed the EL-84 power tube to an n.o.s. RCA blackplate 6L6BQ (same tube as EL-84, just old nomenclature.)
For penny-pinchers, JJ Eurotubes EL-84 would suffice, or for a little more money, an n.o.s. Philips JAN 6L6BQ would be super.
2. Changed the preamp tube to a good used Mullard made "VM" (Voice of Music) 12AX7A.

CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION !!

The metal shield which covers the small tube (12AX7)contains a spring which is WAY WAY too strong. I've never seen one like that before, the wire-gauge is way too heavy, making the spring seem almost as strong as a coil spring on a car! If you install an n.o.s. (vintage)tube there, don't put that same shield back on, because the glass tends to be thinner on old tubes. I found out the hard way, and destroyed a $40.00 Mullard tube in the process. It didn't happen right on installation, it happened after a couple heat-up and cool-down cycles. The next day... the amp didn't work. The glass had shattered from the excessive spring force. Either leave the shield off, or use another shield with the typical (lighter) spring inside.

I purchased a 2 x 10 speaker cabinet from a good quality, inexpensive cab. maker on ebay and installed 2 Eminence "Ram Rod" 10" speakers in it.(8 ohms each, wired in parallel for 4 ohms total.) I have the cabinet standing up "on end," after adding 4 rubber feet to the one end. The Valve Junior sits on top of the cab., perfect fit, and the internal speaker is unplugged. (must,because the amp needs 4 ohms.) A speaker cable goes from the speaker jack on the amp,to the cab. input.
Vastly improved tone, and the hum is much less noticeable.

Solid as a rock thus far.

5 yrs. warranty on chassis parts except tubes.

If you want any clarification or additional info/assistance with mods I've described, contact me & I'll try to help.

One control labelled "volume". If you think all it does is control how loud the amp is then you're mistaken. The one volume control on this amp effectively does the same job as the thirty knobs on your Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectumfryer. You can completely change the tonal contour of the amp just by messing with the volume control. I've added a switch to change from 4ohm to 8ohm output - useful if you want it to drive an outside cab.

The hum of this amp is well documented and can be fixed easily by adding some additional filtering and improving the grounding. I won't harp on it here.

Stock, this amp has a very ratty, raw vintage sound. Perfect for blues and classic rock. You may or may not like it. At five watts, it's not going to stay clean for very long, but it's definitely not a quiet amp. I've played several small gigs with it (30-40 people) and it was plenty loud provided you don't mind a little grit in your clean tone. The nice thing was, the sweet spot of this amp was at an acceptable volume level - not something that I'm used to.

The tone of the amp is fabulous - full of your typical class A 3D overtones. With such a small cab and ceramic speaker the actual tonal character of the amp is understandably focused in the upper midranges - again, perfect for rock and blues. The stock speaker is excellent - has great bite that really cuts through the mix nicely. Very aggressive sounding.

Now, I have made some changes to the amp. First off, the sovteks that come with the amp absolutely suck. The el84 was microphonic and the two of them both sounded realy harsh. Yanked them both and replaced the 12ax7 with an EH and the el84 with a JJ. The JJ took away the harshness, and the EH helped add clarity to the entire frequency range. A $12 upgrade that should be done right away.

I also changed out the speaker. Like I mentioned above - the stock speaker is excellent. However I'm more of an alnico man myself. So I picked up the weber sig 8 alnico ($25) and threw it in there. The result was a less agressive sound with more compression and sparkle. The alnico was also noticably quieter than the stock speaker. The overall sound after the change is more up my alley - so I'll keep the alnico in there. However, if you're content with the stock speaker then don't change it - it's the same speaker that's used in the $600 Dr. Z Mini-Z. Actually come to think of it, the Mini-Z and the Valve Junior seem very similar - perhaps a little too similar.... I'd be curious to see a schematic of the Mini-z.

Chinese labor is the best. I don't care what anyone says. The cabinet is crafted as good as anything out there, and the assembly is top notch. I trust that this thing will stand up to many gigs out - and hey, if it doesn't, you can buy a new one for a $120.

I've been playing for 11 years. I won't go into the gear I own, but let's just say I know that top notch tone usually isn't available at Guitar Center. At $120 this amp is the steal of the century. The only thing I would change about it are the cheap tubes and the MDF cabinet. I wish epiphone would just pay the extra cents for real pine and better tubes. Other than that - great job!

Current (2005) production tube combo guitar amp, with a 12AX7 Preamp Tube, EL84 Power Tube, and 8" speaker.

Front panel: Input Jack, Volume Knob, Power Switch

Rear panel: AC Inlet (removeable power cord), Speaker Jack

Nice warm clean tone at lower volumes with both a Strat and a Les Paul. It sounds bigger than any Fender Champ that I've ever tried.

Good blues tone as you increase the volume a little bit, especially with neck pickups selected.

Unfortunately, the speaker starts farting out as you crank the volume beyond 50%. The resulting sound is kind of harsh and flabby. The circuitry seems to be more at fault than the speaker. Perhaps one of the coupling caps is simply too big???

Also, the amp gets quite noisy with hiss & hum as you turn it up. I bet this can be fixed with improved power supply filtering and/or better internal wiring.

Too early to tell, but it seems very solid.

The transformers & circuitry are covered by a 5 YEAR WARRANTY! Unfortunately tubes & speaker are only warrantied for 90 days, but these should be relatively easy to replace if/when necessary.

I've been playing electric guitar for over 15 years. This is a really cool little amp for practice and small gigs. I was looking for a small rig for coffee house size gigs & playing music at parties &