Epiphone Valve Junior Head

ITS GOT ALL YOU NEED

THIS AMP IS T.N.T. I GOT THIS AMP FOR MY BIRTHDAY.
AT FIRST I WAY GOING TO GET A MARSHALL MICROSTACK BUT THIS WAS A BETER AMP CLASS A TUBE AMP ONE NOB AT LOW VOLUMES SO PEOPLE DONT CALL THE COPS I RUN IT WITH A MARSHALL GOV NOR SO I CAN GET A REAL GOOD ROCK SOUND AT 3 OR 4 BUT ONCE YOU GET IT UP TO FIVE THERES NO NEED FOR ANY PEADLES ITS GOT THAT NICE TUBE GAIN.

FOR MY STYLE BLUES ROCK BLUES-ROCK AND HARD ROCK AC/DC STYLE THIS IS A WINNER

I DONT REALY KNOW YET HAD IT FOR A MONTH SO FAR ALL GOOD

I KNOW THE PEOPLE AT THE STORE I GOT MINE FROM NO PROBLEMS WITH SUPPORT

I HAVE BEEN PLAYING FOR 8 YEARS WITCH IS A LONG TIME FOR A 12 YEAR OLD KID I ALSO OWN A MARSHALL 1987X WICH IS A BIT MORE MONEY BUT I WOULD SAY THE EPIPHONE HAS JUST A GOOT SOUND AS THE MARSHALL I PLAY MINE INTO A GIBSON 1967 SG

NOTE I THINK EL34S ARE A BETER THAN THE EL84S

When I see a tube amp for $99.99 with one volume knob I expect one input and one output jack. So as far as features I don't expect much however I was surprised to see output jacks for 4, 8, or 16 ohm speaker cabs. What a suprise! This is a basic amp so if you are looking for something with knobs you have no busisness coming near this amp. I bought this in December of 2006 at Guitar Center for only $99.99. I was looking for a low wattage basic tube amp for recording and practice without spending over $1000 for a botique. For specs and where this was made just read other reviews. This amp does exactly what it was intended for and more. There are plenty of mods on ebay that are very enexpensive, easy to install and for $99.99 you can get several amps and do different mods on each one.

A FIVE WATT AMP IS NOT DESIGNED TO BE PLAYED WITH A LOUD BAND. I have read some reviews that complained that this was not loud enough. If you want to use this for live music you will have to mike it which I have done and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Just make sure you have a good soundman. I play blues,rock,country and gospel. I bought this for mainly blues and rock. This has a very nice clean sound with very little noise. I get a nice fender priceton reverb type clean sound. I keep the amp volume at three oclock and use the volume knob on my guitar. You actually have to learn how to use the knobs on your guitar but if you have a decent guitar you will be happy. If you have a crappy guitar you will get a crappy sound. I have guitars ranging from gibson setups to strats (one with duncan livewires)to a 1952 es125 with a single P90. As you turn up the volume on your guitar this is where the magic starts. Every guitar is slighty different. You get a early marshal type of distortion not too harsh and very creamy. The best thing is you can stay in the same room, the sound level is very manageable. This amp is very sensitive to picking dynamics. I use several speaker cabinets but I like my 2X12 loaded with eminence patriots the best. This will not have the dynamics or the construction that a botique will have but for the price you can't go wrong.

Although this was built in China I have had this for one year and I have experienced no problems. The cabinet is built well enough and there is not enough inside this amp to really go wrong.

I bought this at guitar center and they are pretty good(to me anyway)about replacing defective gear. I have had no issues with anything I bought from epiphone.

I have been playing for around 30 years. I play electric guitar,acoustic guitar and bass guitar. I have different types of Gibsons(about a dozen), 4 or 5 fenders and about 8 other types of electric guitars. I like everything about this amp and there is nothing I don't like about this amp because I played it several times with different guitar and speaker combinations before I bought it. I knew exactly what I was getting before I took it home.

It actually has a good feature set all things considered.

The volume control allows for very precise control over breakup/distortion.
It can run into 4, 8, or 16 Ohm cabs.
The tubes (preamp and power) are relatively easy to change.
There's plenty of room inside the head for ventilation of the tubes, so you don't have to worry about them overheating.
And it has a handle.

If I could add anything to the amp, it would be Reverb, but... if you play in a room that's not too big with hardwood floors, even that's not a problem. It loses 2 points for this because there's no good way to put a reverb pedal in front of an overdriven tube amp.

My style centers around blues. I've been playing rock, punk, emo, classic rock, indie... anything a self-respecting college student listens to.

My main guitar is a G&L Legacy with stock pickups and a Stellartone ToneStyler with a depth control. I've also played 2 SGs, a Jackson POS, and a Bill Nash "Vintage" strat with lollar pickups through it.

The amp can do anything from sparkling cleans to growling overdrive capable of classic rock or early metal. The character is closer to Marshall than anything else, but it's an earlier marshall before the quintuple super lead garbage.... think bluesbreaker or jcm-800 non-master volume sound, but at a volume that you can use in a garage or bar without hearing protection. With the right guitar/settings, you can almost get a fender tweed twang, but with a bit more of a low-end growl.

Actually, with the amp all the way open, you might need hearing protection if your house is small.

The distortion is by no means brutal. It's a very smooth vintage character that is easily tamed by altering your guitar controls or pick attack. It responds as it should to different kinds of pickups/guitars, and it's very responsive to subtle changes of the guitar controls. Slight changes in the tonestyler, volume, and pickup selector can make the tone with this combination go from slight country twang to a distinctly strat growl that would make a lot of les pauls jealous. The SGs sound like they're supposed to and the Nash/Lollar strat screams like Stevie Ray Vaugn's over-wound pickups if he played through an early marshall.

I can't imagine playing with another amp right now, certainly not for the price. If they made one with a rudimentary EQ and reverb and marketed it correctly, they'd drive Crate, Pevey, and Marshall out of the market/price range.

When it's time to buy another amp, I'll be looking at the SoCal 50 because of how much this amp impressed me.

Unfortunately, these amps are made in Asia (I believe in China) and like all products from the region, they're plagued with reliability issues due to bad workmanship and an almost complete lack of quality control.

Fortunately, the PCBs and microchips are made well-enough. It might just randomly die on you. Mine did. I was pissed. The thought occurred to me to just have it replaced with Guitar Center's replacement policy, but I took it to a warranty repair center instead. They basically just took the thing apart and put it back together again and it started working. I also replaced the tubes with Groove Tube re-branded Russian (Sovtek) tubes for the heck of it.

So, don't gig without a backup if you haven't had a competent tech rebuild it. After that, it's probably fine.

But at just over $100, you might as well just get 2.

Haven't dealt with Gibson. The repair shop I took it to took almost 3 months to get it back to me because they're overworked. This is a result of Gibson not authorizing enough service centers in Atlanta.

My recommendation is to buy from Guitar Center with a replacement plan... the turn-around time to have it replaced is shorter than you can probably expect on warranty repair from an authorized service center.

This is one of the few places in the guitar world where you seem to get more than you pay for.

It's another reminder that a product doesn't need to be innovative to be amazing. And it's a reminder that if you choose to sacrifice unnecessary features instead of design principles and quality (ignoring incompetent chinese technicians), you can get something amazing at a reasonable price.

What features??? Input, One vol knob, Power Switch and 4, 8 and 16ohm speaker outs.
I bought this and the matching extension cab what a killer combination. Simplicity at its best.
I hate fiddling with knobs I just want to play. Turn that volume knob and see how many different sounds you can get between the amp and your guitar controls. Awesome.
Many people mod theirs but I have no intention of doing so I love this amp as is.

I wanted an amp that was simple, cheap to service and sounded great when I read the reviews on this one I was sold, when I heard the clips on Youtube I thought forget it!!! But then I tried one out instore with my own cab and couldn't believe what I was hearing. After 1 hour (Must have annoyed the guys at the store as I was trying out the amp with overdrive pedals so I could cover myself for low volume work as well as cranked up tones. I played my MIJ Telecaster > MI Audio Blue Boy Deluxe > Valve Junior Head > My own caband thought I had it made it was great. But as soon as I took it home my little cab just sounded so lifeless. However considering I had only spent just over 200AUD on the amp I ordered the Extension cab and WOW what a difference turned up to twelve and this thing rocks just use your volume knob for clean tones. Also the BBD wasn't cutting it at lower volume so I sold it and bought a Keeley BD-2. This is a tone match made in heaven Tele > BD2 > Valve Junior. Using my volume knob I can go from nice warm cleans to ballsy drive just like that.

Build quality seems awesome for such a cheap amp and cab. Don't see any problems with it as I only play out everys often. Basically this will be mostly for my own enjoyment. If it broke down I would probally just by the same amp again. I have only had it for about 4 months so I have had no issues as yet

Haven't dealt with them, haven't need to.

I play mostly classic rock > hard rock, think CCR to AC/DC to Guns n Roses with my Tele > BD-2 > Valve Junior setup I have definitely found my tone. I spend less time fiddling and more time playing than before. On weekends I just have the Valve junior at 12 o'clock and use the BD-2 for a lead boost when needed. During the week I run the Valve Junior at 9 o'clock and the BD-2 gives me that same kind of overdrive at lower volumes. Truly awesome stuff for not alot of cash. Well done Epiphone

The best feature here is... no features.

No pre-amps, no digital effects, no nuthin'. That's one of the reasons I wanted it, though. The simplicity of it makes it reliable, easy to repair, and provides (to a purist like me) the best possible sound.

1 input for your guitar
Your choice of 3 outputs according to speaker resistance.
Power switch
Volume knob.
The end.

Perfection.

Clean tone is good, but only available at low volume. If you want clean at high levels in this price range, go buy a Roland Jazz Chorus or just play through a bass amp.

This thing breaks up into tube distortion right about at the level where you can keep up with the drums in a garage band. In other words, it's perfect for all those applications where people with their 100W (or even 50W) tube-driven half-stacks are using attenuators to cope with the fact that their amps are too loud.

You get the tube crunch rock guitarists live for without constantly being told to turn it down. It's real tube distortion in the power stage (there is no pre-amp stage) that you can actually take full advantage of in almost any setting (except at home... this is NOT a good choice for a practice amp.)

If you play on a bigger stage, you can always mic it.

Lots of rich and satisfying tone out the matching 1x12 cab. I tried it with a 4x12 cab, and it gets pretty much the same sound with MONSTER low end.

I mostly use a peavey JF-2 (a 335 hollow-body with mini-humbuckers), or a lucite LP copy which I modded with Seymour Duncans. Both sound great with it.

A little bit of noise to it if you don't let it warm up enough. Not bad.

"Would you use it on a gig without a backup?" is a stupid question. I wouldn't gig without back-up underwear, let alone without a backup amp.

I haven't owned it long enough to give an opinion here, but the simplicity of it seems like it would make it pretty robust.

Never dealt with them.

This puppy is changing the rules of guitar amplification. In a market stuffed with powerful solid-state amps trying to simulate the tube-sound "holy grail", an amp which barely costs more than a hundred bucks offers the real thing, at a volume level which you can use in any situation.

The one thing I wish existed is a 1x12 or 2x12 combo cab with this head built in. (They actually build it in to the Epiphone LP gift pack, but only with a puny 8" speaker). This head plus the matching 1x12 speaker cab makes a pretty sweet "mini stack", but it would be nice to be able to take a set-up like that to gigs without lugging two separate boxes around.

Then again, knowing that I can build any kind of "frankenstein stack" I want with this head is probably worth the hassle, so maybe I take that wish back a little.

This amp fits nicely in the class between "practice amp" and "wall of Marshalls". It can't replace either of those solutions, but for what it is, it's pretty darn near perfect.

I'm giving it a 9 because of it's versatility in the studio, where I'm using it at the present time. Mine has been modified and I'll explain that later. The key with this amp is the amount of gain/volume. It will probably never be a great heavy metal amp, but I don't play that kind of music.

I have the head and standard Lucky Lady cabinet.
Does killer AC30/Bluesbreaker/Tweed tone. Comes close to EL34 Marshall tone and doesn't kill the ears like my buddy's 1976 Marshall 50 watt Lead Bass combo.

This is my $.95 (That's 95 cent) modification:

Replace 68,000 ohm R2 with a 22,000 ohm 1/2 watt resistor.
Place a 150 picofarad ceramic disc capacitor in parallel with 1 MegOhm R6 (all of the mods on the internet say 100 picofarad or less; I say excess is best).

Sounds killer with a Tele and killer with a Les Paul.
Chime away brothers (and sisters)!

Yeah I'd gig without a backup, but I'm a reckless @ss.

Warranty, uh, better to modify it on top of the PC board in a way that can be completely visibly undone - also puts less strain on the solder joints and traces. I can't remember what the parallel resistor value would be to drop R2's value to 22K, but it can be easily done. I'll give Gibson 10 for past experience.

I've owned Marshall, Vox, Boogie, Mitchell, Fender, Ampeg, Traynor and Sunn tube amps. With a little encouragement, these cheap little buggers really sing.

Not even a consideration.

What this amp is all about. Absolute dynamite through the right speaker. I'm pushing an Eminence 10" Rajun Cajun. Louder than you think it would be, delicious wonderful full rounded tube tone.

Who knows? Cheap Chinese toy. What a marvel. There's not a lot to really go wrong. Murphy's law protects you here.

Can't imagine bothering fixing it. I've had it for a year now.

Been playing 35 years. Own lots of other gear, including several fairly expensive tube amps.

This little critter is one of my favorite favorites.

I've had it for over a year now. I'd most certainly simply replace it if it happened to break down.

Dollar for dollar, one of the best buy gear purchases around, IMO.

Well nothing to speak of. This Version 3 has a EH12ax7 and Sovtec EL84 and new OD. 4-8-16 ohm jacks.

Tried it in a low jam and it was totally lost in yhe mix. Plan on as a practice amp only.Clean up to 9 o'clock and way to diry for my taste after that.
But this is what it does. If you like Fender amp clean glassy tones you better try before you buy. No clean headroom.

no problems

n/a

Just didn't work out for me. As stated no clean headroom after 9 and way to muddy after that. Very well made. I bought with extension cab also very nice quality. Its going back. I'm bummed cause I really do like the simplicity. I prefer driving a clean sound for definition and dynamics. It is loud but unusable for band, just lost in mix. Good bedrm fun with pedals.

Why do I give a one knob amp such a high feature rating? Because simplicity is the best feature you can have! One power tube, one preamp tube, one switch, one knob...one kick *** old school tube amp! The reason I bought this is because I bought a Marshall Plexi reissue....fantastic amp but too loud for home and you MUST use a good guitar or it really shows. Same with this amp though but cos its less loud, its less irritating when using **** guitars.

Sounds fantastic. I mean 200AUD? Can't be right can it? I use a strat through this head and in through a marhsall cab with greenbacks. I do use pedals with it. I use a Tonebone valve distortion pedal and instantly hammer saturated vox queen sounds. beautiful mid ranges. Hendrix is also very acheivable. To be honest I cant dont need to say anything.. This Amp can acheive anything based on you guitar and pedal setup. Its simple, pure valve tone is all it needs. Loudness is perfect for the home. You have to mic it for gigs but hey its sounds awsome. You can easily get a crap sound out of it if you use the wrong pedal and guitar. But it does compliment and is very pedal friendly for sure.

Made in China...however again its so simple not much can go wrong with it even if an ape made it. AWSOME!!!!! So wat if it breaks down...dish out another days pay and u got another one! I really respect this amp.

This amp is incredible. you can achieve anything with it if you use the right guitar, cab and pedal. And a great sound at that! Enough said. Stick a Squire strat in and you get "decent" tone but with flabby mids and dark lifeless to an extent solos. Plug in a USA Strat, Gibson or Ibanez and you get screaming well balanced perfect pinch harmonics sounds...Bass, midd and treble even out perfectly to make you smile. Id pay $1000 for this amp. It blows away any artificial bull**** of an amp marshall AVT100 etc with loads of "features" which just colour the sound and make it sound like an asmatic ant with heavy shopping blowing through a straw. Feel free to comment back on anything I have said. Cheers

This amp is truly bare bones, and i love it.

Here's the specs out of the box:

Pre-Amp Tube/Valve: 1x 12AX7A (will be either a Sovtek, Eectro-Harmoix, or JJ/Tesla Tube (Most likely a Electro-Harmonix))
Power Tube/Valve: 1x EL84 (Either a Sovtek, Electro-Harmonix, or JJ/Tesla Tube (Most Likely a Sovtek))
Solid State Rectifier
5watt RMS Power output
Single Ended Class A, Cathode BIAS
4, 8, & 16 Ohm speaker output
35watt power consumption


This Amp as only one channel, and no other knobs besides the volume control, and besides that, the input jack and the On/Off switch there is nothing else on the face of the head.

This amp lacks a standby switch which i really believe would have been a nice feature to include.

This amp is alot more versatile than most reviews let on. They tend to describe this amp as only good for blues and nothing else. However this Amp is able to turn out tones that range from Eric Clapton to Black Sabbath and anyone in between, with a little help from some effects pedals. I recomend the use of a ProCo Rat2 distortion pedal. This will give you enough versatility to play anything from Blues to Grunge to Old-School Metal.

Straight out of the box this amp is very impressive, and simple modifications will make it even more so.

First of all, you must understand that this amp is a replica of 50's and 60's Era low wattage tube amps with some modern benefits. Therefore you should understand that it is a little more tonally tempermental than most, and highly sensitive to minute playing variations.

A important tip that I would like to give you is to let it warm up for 30, 45 mins or even an hour, before you play. It will of course begin normal operation in 10 or 15 seconds, but I feel that the tone improoves greatly if you give it time to warm up.

The Volume knob will give you a warm and clean sound from the off position to about 10 or 11 o-clock, at this point it moves into a pushed sort of distortion until it reaches about 1 or 2 o-clock, and from then on it begins to produce rich, and thick distortion.

This amp is known for letting the pure sound of your guitar ring through, so the tone may vary significantly from one guitar to another, i personally use a Gibson-Epiphone 1966 re-issue SG with a Dirty Fingers pickup in the bridge position, and a Gibson Alnico 2 pick-up in the bridge possition. I hope to swap the Alnico for a '57 Classic pickup soon which should improve my tone siginificantly.

This amp is known for having some muddy lows at times, but i find that the problem is almost non-existant as long as the amp is given proper warm-up time. These problems are also removed via amp modifications, and swapping in higher quality tubes. Most users recomend changing the tubes with JJ/Tesla Tubes if the amp does not allready come with them. An EQ pedal can also be used as a solution to the low end problem.

This amp is a dream for anyone who wants to play blues, and any 60's or 70's rock or Metal.

Some claim that the amp has a problem with noise and hum. I personally do not find this to anything at all significant, and only barely noticable. And it's not anything that I haven't heard in even a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier. If you do find it has any hum problems, this is usually solved by installing better tubes or preforming some amp mods.

One final note: this amp has only 5watts and many write it off simply because of that (I was told by one man that if it only has 5watts I was no better than one of the little mini solidstate amps made by Fender and Marshall, but he was wrong, i've used both and I know.) This amp is however very, very loud. I turned it to 9-o-clock at guitar center on Black Friday (anyone who's ever been to a Guitar Center on Black Friday knows how incredibly noisy and packed it can be,) my companion who was at the other end of the store said she could hear me loud and clear over the comotion.
As for giging volume, it does come close, however for many venues it comes too short. but this can be solved by simply running the head through a larger cabinet, or micing it and running it throught he venue's PA system (my prefered method).
I find this amp is also just fine for band practice, unassisted.

I find this amp to be very reliable, as long as you don't do anything stupid to it. (i.e. play in the rain)

The customer support is handled by Gibson Inc. and is helpful, friendly, available (24/7), and knowledgable.

1-800-444-2766

I've been playing for some years now, And I generally use Gibson Style Guitars (i.e. SG, Les Paul etc.) I generally use brands other than Boss for my pedals, and stomp boxes, and I am a big fan of the Monster Cable line.

If this amp were lost or stolen I do believe that i would by another one. The only other amps that I would buy other than this if I had the money would be the Epiphone Blues Custom (maybe,) a Marshall Vintage Tube Stack, or a Orange Stack.

Once again the only complaints I have is some muddy low-ends, that i can usually fix with proper warm-up, and can be fixed with different tubes, or mods, and the fact that it does not have a standby switch.

One final statement:
This amp is very very veristile and can hit almost any tone imaginable except for extreem, searing metal, as long as you run good FX pedals and stompboxes through it.

If you want an affordable, versatile, Tube Driven, classy, asthetic Amp, this is exactly what you want.