Epiphone Valve Junior Head

On/Off switch, input jack, volume knob, 3 speaker outputs on rear (4,8,16 ohm). That's it and that's all it's intended to be. Pretty loud for 5 watts. I figured for 99 bucks it had to be worth a try.

I use it with a variety of guitars, both humbucker and single coil. It sounds pretty good with either. I understand that Mercury Magnetics has a transformer upgrade and I am sure new tubes would make a difference, too. For now I am leaving it stock because it is just fine as is. I play it thru a ported 1-12 Sovtek cab and I am planning on trying it thru a 2x10 Ampeg bass cab. I have recorded with it but not played live with as of yet. I bought it mostly for practice and recording, and the 7 rating is for the stock, out of the box amp. I would imagine that with better tubes it might be an 8 or 9. All tube amps are a little noisy but this one is no worse than any of the others I own.

As simple as the design is, it should be reliable. I never gig without a backup. Period. You never know when something is going to happen.

I own another Epiphone amp and also a Thunderbird bass but I have never had a problem with any of them so therefore I have never had to deal with the factory.

I have been playing for 15+ years. This amp is what it is, simple and affordable. I would for sure replace it if I had to. One of the best music values I have ever had.

5 watts. One volume, three outputs 4,8,16 ohms. This amp came out this year and I found it in Musician's Friend Catalog. I liked the simplicity of the amp and I also read many of these reviews before ordering it online.

Great tone turned all the way up. Breaks up nice. Doesn't hurt the ear drums. Plugged it into an 8 ohm, 2-12 cab with Eminence Governors. I was initially, very pleased.

I can only imagine that it is reliable to fill out the warranty and hope nothing will ever go wrong with it.

5 years on the warranty.

I think it is a fantastic purchase. I own modified Fender amps from the 70's and they are 40 and 100 watts respectively. Too Loud! I'd have to see how it will perform on stage to know if I will purchase a back-up. It needs nothing else to improve the crunch and vintageness of the sound.

Already done many times.

Already done many times.

Just bought it.

So far Epi has always been excellent with customers' emails.

Well, you should try one of these with the new Brit Boost pedal made by Vox!!!!!! Just incredible as the boster pedal allows you a wide variety of tone (treble) and adds also some presence to the signal. Makes this little Epi amp an instant old style british amp. Connected to a good cab with a 12" Celestion vintage 30 brings the whole setup sound wise in the boutique type level of sound. I suspect one of these miked through a PA would be awesome.

On/Off Sw....Volume Knob.....carrying strap handle...that's it. Utter simplicity.

Vox Tonelab up front so this amp does pretty much any type of Classic/Metal/Hard Rock tones. Without it, it's dirty blues type sound.

As a "bedroom" practice rig (w/a Marshall 1x12) and sound system cranking, 5W is plenty loud.

Originally purchased to use as a practice rig. Use it with a Vox Tonelab thru an Avatar 2x12 (Hellatones) with Gibson Explorer, Vee, Invader (all w/SD SH-8's) and EC-1000 (EMG's). @ 3/4 this really come's alive. The Tonelab is pretty good on it's own, but really beefs up. I'm a JJ's tube fan so I'll be swapping out the tubes shortly....definitely will go with a milder pre-tube. Great friggin buy.

I've been cranking this little B*st*rd for about three month's and it's been pretty ball's on reliable. I plan on using it for a couple of short gig's for my "Classic/Hard Rock barband". I'm trying it out at practice and since we mic up, it should do great.

Playing Classic/Hard/Metal/Extreme Alt Rock on/off 20 yrs. Main Rig is a Mesa Roadking/Soldano 4x12 + Avatar 2x12, 5150 Combo w/Peavey 4x12. Gibson Guitars(Invader, Explorer, V) ESP EC-1000, Ibanez 400 Series. I sure a hell would get another if this were stolen...plan on getting another anyway just incase this fries....not worth fixing at this price. Great match with the Tonelab...if you have a TL, try it out. Have the other older Epi 5W Combo 8" and IMO this Jr blows it away. I use it as a footrest. Anybody wanna buy an amplified footrest?

What features? On/off swich, volume knob, and 4,8, and 16 ohm out. 5 watts. 1 EL84 poweramp tube and 1 12AX7 preamp tube. Solid state rectifier. No loop, no reverb. Just volume. Maybe weighs 5 lbs. Really nice compared to lugging around something like an old fender.

I figured what do I have to lose with this thing? 99 bucks, free shipping for Musician's Friend, and if I didn't like it, put it right back in the box and send it back. For 99 bucks, this thing is awesome.

I'm running a Custom shop Showmaster (strat basically) and a Fender Tele through a dyna comp, Bad Cat 2 tone, a tremelo and DL4 delay. From the head I'm hooked into a Carvin Legacy Cabinet loaded with vintage 30's. Remember that the amp itself has no EQ control, but it doesn't need it either. 5 watts doesn't leave you with a lot of head room. When I plug the guitar straight in to the amp and slam the volume full it grits up really nice. This thing has some balls after all. Not really ideal volume unless you're putting a mic in front of the cab, but that's what I do and it works for me.

I'm not going to inflate the score of this thing. There are many other amps that sound better than this. But I also realize that for what it is, it's awesome. For 99 bucks, it's a freakin' amazing. It's a pretty good tube sound for 99 bucks. Better than the Fender Blues Junior in my opinion.

Already dopped it once. Other than a couple of scuff marks it seems to be alright. Took a look inside and found everything to be nice and secured well. But seriously, if it really were to break to a point where I couldn't fix, I would just buy another one.

I've been playing for 8 years. I'm hardcore about my tone, and this amp doesn't nail what I like, but it does a good enough job. If it were stolen or lost, I probably would buy another one. It's nice to have the little thing sitting around. Very ideal to have if you don't want to lugg around heavy stuff. Take a chance and snag one if you can. Seriously, it's a tube amp with a tube sound. Take a chance, and if you don't like it just send it back.

This is a review for the Epi. Valve Jr. head. A great little, super simple, low watt tube amp head. The feature list is short as the amp only has the single volume knob, an on/off switch and three speaker outputs(4,8,16 ohm). Power is rated at 5 watts from a single Sovtek EL84 power tube configured in the classic open ended class A design. The pre-amp section features a single Sovtek 12AX7 tube. That`s it in a nutshell. No f/x loop, no midi-switching, no variable voicing, no built in effects. Just pure class A tone in the simplest signal path available.

I bought this amp knowing exactly what it was so there are no features I wish it had. I wanted a pure sounding, simple, low watt head to use in a simple little "blues" rig I`m setting up. Just for kicks, and this is what the amp does in spades. I wanted a low power head since I play only at home and don`t need deafening volume. Although the 5 watt output is plenty loud and suprises most players who try it.

Since I bought this head with a specific tone in mind, I have to say it performs very well. I wanted a raunchy, rude blues tone and that`s a spot on description of this little amp. It does exactly what I wanted so I am very happy with it. Especially at this price point.

As I continue to build this little blues rig, I hope to add a good inexpensive semi-hollow guitar and an Avatar 2x12 closed back cab loaded with Greenbacks. I`ve chosen an Ibanez Artcore AGS83B to use with the VJ head and will be buying it in less than two months. I can`t wait. Right now I`m playing an assortment of solid body electrics through the VJ and my Boogie standard 4x12 with V30`s. I have five different guitars loaded with an assortment of Duncan, Dimarzio and EMG pickups and all sound great through this little amp.

Through the Boogie 4x12 the VJ has a slightly dark and smokey tone. The clean tones below 11:00 on the volume are complex and sweet. Not Fender sparkle, but very pleasing in it`s own way. At this volume level the amp is super dynamic. You can go from clean to slightly over-driven tones by changing your pick attack. It`s nice to have this much control without having to touch your guitar`s volume knob. From 11:00 to 2:00 the distortion starts coming on and the amp gets very slightly compressed. You can still easily control the amp`s dynamics with your guitar`s volume knob at this point. This is the sweet spot of this amp and there are tons of tones in this volume range. From 2:00 to max the distortion gets more compressed and takes on a very rude and ratty tone. At max volume the VJ pumps out a pretty fair amount of distortion. It should be able to handle anything from blues to classic rock.

The volume taper is linear and very use-able through it`s entire range. From 0 to 11:00 the amp gets loud enough to jam with. In fact it`s loud enough to play a party or coffee shop without micing. From 11:00 to 2:00 the volume pretty much maxes out at a pretty high level. It`s louder than what you would expect, but not painfully loud in any way. Loud enough to easily play small gigs while miced up and using the amp as a monitor on stage. From 2:00 to max the amp doesn`t get any louder and starts compressing with increased distortion. If you play with a large or loud band you will need to mic this little amp, but don`t be suprised when you hear it for the first time. 5 watts is pretty darn punchy and loud.

I`ve found the VJ head to be the quietest tube amp I`ve ever used. Compared to my Single Recto it is absolutely noise free at idle. Even with the volume maxed it is very, very quiet.

Since this amp does exactly what I bought it for, I`ll give it a rating of 10. For $99.00 you are not going to beat it at raunchy, rude blues tone.

The first thing I did when the amp came out of the box was make a super close inspection. Inside and out. The fit and finish is very good and I found no cosmetic flaws. I took the chasey out of the head box and examined the guts of the amp and was pleasantly suprised there as well. The layout is very clean with plenty of working room for any needed repairs or wanted mods. The circuitry is all loaded on one PCB which is mounted very well. The jacks and volume pot are seperately mounted on small PCB`s and are connected with spade connectors. Everything was tight and right. I have had no trouble at all out of mine in the last three months.

With the super simple layout and circuit design the chances of a breakdown are minimal. Short of being kicked down a long flight of stairs, dropped in the ocean or set on fire, I think it should be very dependable. I still wouldn`t gig without some type of backup though. Murphey`s law and all of that, you know.

My only dealings with Epiphone customer support was when I was looking for a supplier of the red tolex used on the VJ head. They responded to my email within one day, but unfortunately they couldn`t help me find the exact tolex. Oh well.

I`ve been playing for about 20 years, but recently have become interested in the blues. I`ve always been a metal head so I didn`t want to spend a lot of money on a "blues" rig. Therefore this little amp worked out really well for me. It gives me the tone I`m looking for and the price can`t be beat.

My gear list includes...LTD EC-1000, LTD Viper 1000, Ibanez RG421, Fender Esquire Custom Scorpion, Jackson JS30RR, Mesa Boogie Single Recto head, Boogie standard 4x12 and assorted effects from MXR, Digitech, Boss and Dunlop.

I don`t know why anyone would steal this little amp head, but if they did I would just buy another one. I love the simple, honest tone this little amp puts out. It`s very musical, easy to play and is a joy to jam through. As far as I know there is nothing else on the market to compare or compete with it. At least not under $100.00

If anyone wants a pleasant, complex clean tone that developes into a rude , ratty blues tone as the volume goes up. Then do yourself a favor and buy one of these little amps. Not the most versatile amp, but great at what it does. It would be awesome for recording since it`s so quiet and would work very well to fill out any guitar rig.

you can get this head shipped to your door for $99.95 from musicians friend. this amp only has a few features, volume, on/off switch, and 3 jacks for 4,8,16ohm speaker on the back. the cabinet looks nice and seems to be made well for the price.

this amp sounds better than it should for the price. i played it with my strat, and an epiphone les paul, and it sounded great with both. i tried a few pedals with it, and it responded well. i am currently getting the best sound from the strat into a modified boss ds-1 to the valve junior, into a 1x12 alnico mojo tone speaker.

too soon to tell, but it seems to be made well for the price.

overall, i would say this amp is a steal for the price. you can't get anything that sounds this good for this amount of money, anywhere. take a look around and see what kind of amp 100 dollars will get you. i have only been playing guitar for about 2 years, and i have never played through the top dollar gear. most of the amps i have owned have fallen into the $150 dollar or less category, and i think if you are used to playing premium or vintage gear, you might not like it, but if you are used to playing 100 dollar gear, you will love it. it might not sound as good as your friends bad cat or your daddies old marshall, but for $100 dollars shipped to your door, you cannot go wrong with this amp.

Brand new, shiney, vinyl-smelling Chinese box with a switch and a knob on the front (with some words silk screened on it so you know what you're playing through) and a plug and three jacks on the back.

If you want "features" then plan on spending more cash! I'm assuming that anyone who buys one of these knows what they are getting, and therefore thinks it has all the features it needs to have.

I use this little guy in my studio and jamming with friends. Mostly I use it to help me pick up chicks! Really though, it's a cool little tube head and I'm having a ball with it! It has everything it promised. Not very versitile, but I knew that going in.

I play a host of guitars through this amp. A humbuckered Tele Deluxe, a P-100 Les Paul Special, a dog-eared P-90 Ibanez (Les Paul Jr.) and a zebra humbuckered Dean V. Each guitar sounds fine but I don't get quite the veriaty of tones that I do with my other heads. But they all sound tough and aggresive!

I usually like driving my amps up to the edge. I'm not a metal head, but I live for that classic, aggresive, overdriven guitar tone, ala AC/DC, Dinosaur Jr. or maybe the Replacements. I play everything from acoustic folk (not through this amp) to heavy Neil Young, to Petty, punk, blues, rock, alt rock...like most of us here. Even a "little" alt country (Drive-by Truckers, Cross Canadian Ragweed).

Nice little quiet amp (as I expected). Only noise I get is with single coils...huh? This amp makes one tone only IMO that counts or matters. It is made to be cranked to at least 2:00 o'clock and overdriven. Anything below 12:00 is pretty worthless with the way I have it tubed. And all that rich el84 tone remains trapped inside waiting to breath. I'm sure saying that will piss off a lot of people here! But really, this amp is made to be pushed, and it takes it well. I personally feel that a vintage class A amp doesn't produce "Distortion." It may cause your speakers to distort, but that's a function on driving the amp hard...aka "Overdrive"

Oh, I'm playing this through a 4x10 Carvin tweed cabinet usually. I prefer the 4x10 to my Marshall 2x12. The 2x12 sounds a little bassy to me, and with no Tone control, you pretty much have to take what you can get! I love the tone with a Tube Screamer or a Daddy-O pedal in front to eq the sound a little.

Looks to be well built and if the Chinese thing has anybody worried, I've owned a Chinese-built Pignose head for three years (also running in class A) and I'm still on the factory preamp tubes. And if this little Epi goes down, I suspect people will just toss them in the garbage and pick up a new one...when they're in stock!

I could not use this by itself at a gig because it only does one thing well. There is no "clean" with this amp. Okay, you can mimic a clean channel but then your volume is too low to be of any use, so I'd have two heads A/B'ed for anything live. But I will take this little guy out once in a while.

We'll all let everyone know how these hold up in about a year. Until then, I'll just push the livin' sh!t out of it and see what happens.

Epiphone is not Gibson! Gibson may treat you okay on the phone, but come on. You're a guy (or gal) who popped for a $99 amp. Do you really think they care?

But, a five year warranty is cool! That's better than most amp companies.

24 years of strappin' on the guitar and it's nice to pick up decent, inspiring gear now and then. I have two other amp heads (I'm a class A half stack kind of guy), a Carvin Vintage 50 (class A) and the above-mentioned Pignose GVR-60 (also class A with the help of THD Yellowjackets). I'd buy this little amp again because it's just so darn cute! And it kicks a little ass too.

Reading these reviews makes this amp sound like the greatest thing since the dual rectifier. It's not! I think the price is attracting a lot of previous solid state users, which is a good thing (life's to short to put up with bad sound!) but this amp gives you just a taste of what el84 tubes can do. They really sound nice on a gritty but clean setting, which is tough to get with this amp. I too retubed this bugger with JJ's because as others have said, Sovteks are kind of industrial and sterile sounding. But it was pretty good out of the box.

There are always thing you wish it had but I can't ask for anything more because I feel I got more than what I paid for. Make no mistake, this is a true bargin in a class A tube head but it's also kind of a one-trick pony. But it's a nice little trick!

And to all those who think this amp is under rated at 5 watts, it's because you've been hearing solid state watts for too damn long. Class A watts are big! Play this through a single 8" speaker and it'll sound small. Plug into a 4x12 cabinet, and it'll sound huge. You got to love that!

One volume, power on/off, 3 output jacks, one input......... THATS IT
THATS ALL YOU NEED
I bought 4 and run 2 through 2 custom made Avatar cabinets, both with one Celestion V-30 and one G-12 30 in each. The other 2 are backups. Sound awesome with a Groove Tube swap out. It cost me a WHOPPING 22 bucks for the swap. Now they rival my Dr. Z, THD and Two Rock. I use the little buggers live too........... along with my 2 Carvin V3's set to 50 watts a piece. I have them on the road right now and after 40 days out here gettin the snot beat outta'em, they're still going strong.

We play a bloozy rock ala Buckcherry, Silvertide. I use ES-335's, Washburn HB-35's, Strats with Humbuckers in the bridge, a Tele and 2 LP's with burstbuckers in one and JB's in the other. Effects are, in order, CRY BABY, TS-808 (original), TS-9, Keeley modded BOSS BLUES DRIVER, Boss MEGA DISTORTION, LITTLE ALIGATOR volume pedal, BOSS Delay... then to a Radial Amp Splitter then to the amps. They are noiseless and absolutely LOVE effects pedals. Absolutely great for our Music and for any style but metal really.

Again, I have them on the road. 4 of them, 2 for use live, 2 for back up. I use them in conjunction with a Carvin V3 (which is also backed up). They all have Avatar 2-12 cabs loaded with one Celestion v-30 and one G-12-30. SOUNDS AMAZING. Very think and bluesy.

Havent had to deal with them at all yet. Dot think ill need to either.

Been playing for 15 years. I own numerous strats, LP's, ES-335's, HB-35's, Tele's, ES-145's, and PRS's. Ampwise I have Fender Twins, Twin Reverbs, vibrolux and Supersonic; Music Man HD-130's; Carvin XB1000's, V3's, and MTS's; Marshall JTM-45's, JCM 800 & 900's, JCM 2000's; Dr. Z Mazerati and Prescription ES; Divided by 13; And THD Univalve. Avatar, Marshall, Bogner and Divided by 13 cab's. I would def buy it again if stolen. I love it period. Simplicity is key. Too many knobs, too much indecisiveness over tone. I hate nothing about it. I just wish it had power amp out, slave in jacks. Thats all.

One volume knob and an on-off switch...and a power cord. 5w EL84 class A chinese amp. Multiple ohmage speaker outs and that's about it. Supposed to be simple, and well, on that issue a resounding success. I'll give it a 10 as it compares favorably in features to all other amps that only have one knob. Yes, among one knob amps, it's definitely a 10 as it definitely only has one knob. I double checked this several times to be sure.

I tested this extensively with an Ibanez RG42 with the Infinity Humbuckers, and a Fender USA Strat with a Seymour Duncan Strat-sized Lil '59 Humbucker. I used a Planet Waves 12' guitar cable into the amp, then a normal amp speaker cable to a 1x12 closed back cab loaded with a Celestion Vintage 30 8 ohm speaker. So the signal path was quality from beginning to end. At first I was really digging this amp, as it has the all tube response and feel that I expected. In fact it was a better feel and response than I expected as I'm used to Class A/B, which are a little saggy feeling (as opposed to snappy feeling like this Class A). That's the best I can describe it, as the amp seemed to have a lightning fast response, which was good. The clean sounds were great, very harmonicallly complex as you'd expect, and the distortion (everything past 12 o'clock) got progressively more rich. If you want to know what the distortion sounds like, play Steely Dan's "Reelin in the Years". That's it. From about 3 o'clock upwards things start to level out soundwise, and it may get slightly louder, but it doesn't get much better. Both guitars sounded different and I feel their true nature was reflected in the output. HOWEVER... at anything past 10 o'clock, this amp has an upper high frequency noise which sounded like what you hear when your ears are ringing. A piercing sound that was like an icepick in the ears. I first tried dialing this out with the tone controls on the guitars to no avail. I then stuck an eq in front of this thing, and again no luck. I then played this exact set-up through my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (same guitars, cables and speaker cab) to check, as I thought maybe my ears ARE ringing. Nope. I tried the eq's on distortion pedals, and then I rigged an rack mounted eq into the signal chain before this thing, and still, that f'n sound. Very, very sad as this amp actually sounded and felt good. I thought maybe it's the tubes, but I doubt it as I know what microphonic tubes sound like, as well as about-to-blow-reduced-output tubes, and this wasn't it. Have someone scream into your ear for a few minutes, and then go into a quiet room and listen to the ringing noise, amplify that sound and that's it. Maybe it was just this particular amp, but I quickly sent it back. I had a suspicion that $99 would buy a flawed design made of the cheapest components that it's possible to source from slave labor. The sad part is that for many people, this will be theirs, or worse yet, their kids first tube amp, and they'll get past the return date before they notice this, by which time they'll actually have tinnitus from the sound, so they'll be double screwed. I wasn't too happy about this, and yet it could be a one-off situation so I'm not going to give this category a rating.

This thing felt really well built. Quite heavy, and packaged well. However, when you strip out the sellers profit ($20), the shipping cost from China ($10), Epiphones profit ($20), the cost of the packaging ($3), the Chinese manufacturers profit ($20), Labor ($10) you arrive at approx. $83 cost, leaving approx $16 worth of parts that actually compose this thing. So no, I would not gig without a backup. Since all amps have this cost structure to some degree or other, I would not balk at paying $600 to $700 for a decent amp. At least then you'll be gigging with with about $100 bucks worth of parts, including some additional tone controls.

I've never dealt with Epiphone. The seller (a catalog company) was very good about taking this back and I'm sure they'll sell it to someone else. Hopefully not you.

I've tried several low cost solutions over the years that seemed to-good-to-be-true (digital modeling anyone??). $99 for a quality tube amp is not possible and I would advise you to buy something better. There is a reason that Gibson gets $500 for this same amp configuration. People think it's the name, and they're right. Gibson gets $500 for this same amp because the Gibson name means very high quality design, parts and build. For kicks, I went to a music store and played the little Gibson 5 watter, and yep, it's how this one should sound. Damn, it's $400 bucks more, which I can't afford right now, but at least I learned something.