Epiphone Valve Junior Head

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.

Input, volume knob, 'On' switch. All in a nice looking box, with 3 speaker-outs at different impedances. Thats it!

Nevertheless, this little amp has an awesome sound. 5w is pretty loud - loud enough for most rehearsals I imagine and certainly for home use and studio work. But I doubt very much that it will be sufficient for all but the cery smallest of venues for live work. I play in a 'pub' band; it might be OK for some of the small ones, we'll see. Sound wise, you get a rich, full tone which gradually clips into overdrive/distortion as you turn it up in volume. Simple. But it means there isn't huge headroom for clean-ish sounds; it starts to break up fairly early. But fat overdriven tones are great for classic rock covers (my band does mainly that). I'm playing it through 2x12 Celection Vintage 30s. I may have a listen to the Epiphone 1x12 cab designed for this amp.

No idea, only had it a couple of weeks. Seems well put together.

No idea.

Great little amp for the money and for what its designed for: low-level work, studio work and home use. It really does sound like a 'big' tube amp at friendly volumes, especially when you crank it up into overdrive. Very nice indeed.

This is a V2 head bought several months ago, 2007. I have two of them, in fact. Bought as blems. The fuses were not making contact, otherwise they were fine. Easy fix, totally free!
Versatility is a quesiton for sure. Stock or modded you get low volume clean, or bigger than your bedroom/basement distortion.
One input, One volume control.

The features I wished it had, I put in myself.
On the first head I added, Loop De Jr effects loop. This gives the full preamp tube output to the jack.. so don't use it with something that requires a guitar level input, it will overpower it.
You can, however use it to drive line level devices, and you can plug halway into the stereo jack, using any pedal, to break into the power amp.
I added a tweed tone control. A gain control. standby. Crunch, Twang and Bright switches on the front. With an NFB, negative feedback, resistor on the back.

I switched to JJ power tube and ECC83 Siemens preamp tube.


I'm going to give it a 10 for versatility. Can it do everything? No, but you can do a lot with it. Also, if you are talking about lower volume versatility, well.. it's got great clean sounds, esp. modded, and it has really sweet overdrive, more modded!
since you can clearly see the input and volume control, you have no right to expect minimalist design to be maximus versatility.
But you can expect to tweak this amp this way and that.. toward your own use.

Head One was built for gain. It's monstrous.
ZZ top, AC/DC, Led Zep. No sweat.
The clean channel, NFB on cuts power dramatically, starts getting dirty around 12:00 on the dial, depending on your pickups. Expect to find nice jazz tones, and pretty good country clean.. and more if you mod it further.
I play blues rock country and fingerpick. I use these two amps for everything.
Head two has only volume, tone, NFB, standby and a hole in the front panel I'm still deciding on.
It's mostly cleanish.. compared to Head Ones insanity.
Very very nice used together.

Quiet as a mouse. Even cranked. You dime it.. put it on ten, you have to expect a bit of hiss, etc. But I promise, no expensive Fender or Marshall I ever heard didn't do the same if not worse.

I liked the stock amp for somethings, with some guitars.
I like the modded heads with any guitar for anything.

I've been in these two heads a zillion times. Thought the PCB board is not an easy thing to work with, it's held up fine.
Well made cabinet.. everything is just fine.

The only breakdowns I've suffered were from my crappy soldering.
Easily fixed.
Strong amp!

Five year warranty. I've dealt with Epiphone before, and they've never not fullfilled their promise and been damn decent about it, too.

both my warrantys were voided when I did the mods.
I was only going to do one, but once I realized what I could do, and how good the amp was, I realized the warranty was more than likely never to be needed.

Started in the mid 60s.
I own a ton of stuff, but since we're talking Epiphone here.. I only want to list, two vj heads, on vj cab, one epi sheraton and one epi lp studio.

If it were stolen I would congratulate the thief on his excellent taste.
then I'd buy another, immediately.

What I love about it is pretty broad. The cost! man this is a lot of sound for very little money. A keeper. One could use this for practice at home, jam or rehearsal, recording at home or in studio.
Mic it up and gig!
The look, it looks great. very nicely done. I reversed the panels on head one, so it's black in front, now. And head two got reversed and flipped, marshall style. they both look way great.
the wood, the tolex, the shielding, I love all these things. thanks to epi!
I love my neck pickup, Kent Armstrong Hot P90s in the sheraton, on head two especially. soo mellow and sweet. just blows me away.
And I love my strat tele lp and sheraton overall in either amp.

I don't hate anything about them.
I changed all I needed to.. and frankly, I think they are made for that.

Compared to solid state amps costing much more.. this is way better.
Marshall and Behringer solid state amps up to 30 watts don't compare in any way at all.

Look.. again I have to say. I'll give it a 10 for overall. but if you need to hear good the size of milwaukee.. you need to spring the two grand for a monster.
If you need good that can be heard by you, your drummer, your microphone. here you go.
Metal heads probaby wont like it.
Hard rockers will love it.
Country pickers will probably need A/B power for anything beyond a church gig, or small bar.
Jazz players in a sedate setting would probably like this a lot.
Blues and Rockabilly.. also good!

In closing. There are arguments, some fantastic, comparing this to amps costing vast sums. That ought to tell you there's something serious happening here.
Tone is always subjective.. so is use.
If the gig gets much bigger than a couple of hundred people, you are going to need to mic this, and probably spread a bit of it through the monitors. It's not Godzilla.
To get it's best distoriton you will need some pretty easy going roomates. It will be darned loud.
However, these love pedals. so crank that master volume down, and get your practice volume from the pedal.
It will still sound really good.

I recommend Hammond 125ESE or Weber transformers for V1 and V2 heads.
(you don't have to swap on V3, epi upgraded.)

For the sounds I want to make, with my efx loop, and other mods, these two heads will be mine. unless I sell them because I like doing the mods so much I wouldn't mind doing two more.
If you don't know how, email me and I'll do yours for you.
!!

Epiphone valve junior, 5 watt head tube amp. Pretty straight forward. You have a power switch and volume knob on the front. The back of the unit has a 4ohm, 8ohm, and 16 ohm plugin, which is an excellent feature and allows you to use any cab. Made in China. Let's face it, if you are looking for features than you shouldn't be looking at this amp.

So, it's pretty simple. By rotating the volume knob you get increased gain and breakup. For me, the breakup starts at around 11 o'clock. What this amp gives you is unblemished tube tone. There are no bells and whistles. Simply a beautiful, clear, tubey tone. Very pleasant to listen to. After allowing your tubes to warm up for about 45 minutes, the tone becomes very saturated. For a little added gain I put a Keeley modded Boss SD-1 and it just sings! This little box is probably the most pedal friendly amps I have seen. Epiphone has really outdone themselves here. They have skipped all the expensive gadgets and gone straight to the point. Unblemished and seriously defined tube tone. Finally, someone has made a tube amp that is affordable for everyone without sacrificing sound quality. This is a must buy for the older generation who enjoy just plugging their guitar into an amp and letting your fingers do the work. A must have!!!

Nothing has gone wrong yet, knock on wood. The design is very sturdy. The stack is very pleasant to look at, excellent design and a real retro look. There are spots where the Made in China characteristics come out. Take off the back grill and you will see that it's simply stapled, rather tacky looking. There a few other spots that I thought could have looked better but everything is very well put together. I did the head and cabinet a one over, took off the grill and took the speaker apart. I must say that everything looks very well put together. Not with the Gibson glamour, but it does the job.
My one and only complaint is that instead of having screws hold in the back grill, I would have much preferred a latch or easy access door of some sort. Seeing as how you need to change out your tubes now and then, it would make things a little easier.

My warranty is valid where I bought the amp. If something goes wrong, I just bring it there. As for Epiphone or Gibson support, I wouldn't hold my breath trying to get a hold of those guys. Just take it back to your dealer if something goes wrong. And fill out your warranty card!!

I have been playing guitar for about 20 years. I have owned many amps and guitars. Most of them ar gone now, either sold or broken. At some point I just wasn't happy with the tone anymore. But, I have a feeling this little gem will be sticking around! What I love about this amp is the simplicity and the focus on pure tone. This amp is all about you, your guitar, and what you can do with it. If you need an amp with a million gadgets to get the sound you want, don't buy this one. If you play heavy metal, this probably won't knock your socks off. But, if you want a great sounding tube amp for an exceptional price, buy it!!
If there was anything that I could add to this amp, it would be a standby switch so you can warm the tubes up before playing. Other than that, you don't need anything else.

Year? >>> Vintage non-humming 2007 re-issue of the 2007 model...

Features? >>> None! A volume knob that should be labeled gain...

Power? >>> None... But, just enough to make sounds!

Channels? >>> Like half a channel...

Wish list? >>> I wish it had just a little more punch on the bottom end. I don't feel the side of the 2x12 cab hit me in the chest. When I push the bottom hard, it gets flubby! Not tight. Knowing that, ahead of time helps sets expectations and if you run direct as well as into it for stage or studio, it's a feature not a drawback!

Where do I use it? >>> I plug a cable from my guitar into it and it makes sounds. Usually recording. Occasional jamming out..

OK - First of all, CHANGE THE TUBES IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got this LFO tremelo effect on head one and microphonic squeel on head two after the first three days of sessions. Change the tubes and "poof" problem dissolved.

To be fair,for $99, how good could the stock tubes be? I spent that on matched replacements.

VERY expressive tone. Great amount of roundness and tube compression. So, it sounds full and musical with all kinds of different pick attacks. I'd like a find a way to get full power out of the amp with the 10:45 to 11:30 gain setting where it has minimum break up but full tube compression. That's more a symptom of the way I front end this puppy.

I front end two of these running stereo with a variety of guitars and pickups. All custom mutts, lots of Lace duallys, chrome domes, Robin Texas Tornadoes, Hot Rails, etc. However, it all goes through a PODxt Pro, TC Fireworx, Lexicon PCM80. This all goes stereo direct as well as through the pair of VJs. Then into an old 78 Tweed Marshall 4x12 Cabinet that I have split directly down the center and slapped two pieces of plywood on (a result of a terrible keyboard stand accident in the 80s). Like I said before, when you run direct, you're really pumping that low end into the mix board to get that punch. It can overwhelm the input stage and make your amp rig all muddy. This little amp just throws all that low end away and does it's thing. I love that!

Besides the tube stuff above, who cares? These are like $99!!!!!!!!!!

If it's broken, you can't even afford to ship it... Just replace it...

Dido above. I can imagine the tech support call. Uh when I turn this knob thing and stuff, like the sound normally changes, but duh the thing's not making the sound that it normally makes...

Sir, Is the unit plugged in?

Er uh.... Click... Dial tone.....

For what I need, It's a 9.1 price to features, its a no brain-er 10!

I really want to figure out how to get a little more cabinet punch out of it...

I may just buy two more to run each speaker discretely. I think the 2x12 speaker load is soaking up the power I need to get the punch...

Year? >>> Vintage non-humming 2007 re-issue of the 2007 model...

Features? >>> None! A volume knob that should be labeled gain...

Power? >>> None... But, just enough to make sounds!

Channels? >>> Like half a channel...

Wish list? >>> I wish it had just a little more punch on the bottom end. I don't feel the side of the 2x12 cab hit me in the chest. When I push the bottom hard, it gets flubby! Not tight. Knowing that, ahead of time helps sets expectations and if you run direct as well as into it for stage or studio, it's a feature not a drawback!

Where do I use it? >>> I plug a cable from my guitar into it and it makes sounds. Usually recording. Occasional jamming out..

OK - First of all, CHANGE THE TUBES IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got this LFO tremelo effect on head one and microphonic squeel on head two after the first three days of sessions. Change the tubes and "poof" problem dissolved.

To be fair,for $99, how good could the stock tubes be? I spent that on matched replacements.

VERY expressive tone. Great amount of roundness and tube compression. So, it sounds full and musical with all kinds of different pick attacks. I'd like a find a way to get full power out of the amp with the 10:45 to 11:30 gain setting where it has minimum break up but full tube compression. That's more a symptom of the way I front end this puppy.

I front end two of these running stereo with a variety of guitars and pickups. All custom mutts, lots of Lace duallys, chrome domes, Robin Texas Tornadoes, Hot Rails, etc. However, it all goes through a PODxt Pro, TC Fireworx, Lexicon PCM80. This all goes stereo direct as well as through the pair of VJs. Then into an old 78 Tweed Marshall 4x12 Cabinet that I have split directly down the center and slapped two pieces of plywood on (a result of a terrible keyboard stand accident in the 80s). Like I said before, when you run direct, you're really pumping that low end into the mix board to get that punch. It can overwhelm the input stage and make your amp rig all muddy. This little amp just throws all that low end away and does it's thing. I love that!

Besides the tube stuff above, who cares? These are like $99!!!!!!!!!!

If it's broken, you can't even afford to ship it... Just replace it...

Dido above. I can imagine the tech support call. Uh when I turn this knob thing and stuff, like the sound normally changes, but duh the thing's not making the sound that it normally makes...

Sir, Is the unit plugged in?

Er uh.... Click... Dial tone.....

For what I need, It's a 9.1 price to features, its a no brain-er 10!

I really want to figure out how to get a little more cabinet punch out of it...

I may just buy two more to run each speaker discretely. I think the 2x12 speaker load is soaking up the power I need to get the punch...

I just bought a used Epi valve jr head. It is an all-tube 5 watt screamer. Just 1 channel, and 1 volume knob, 3 speaker outputs(4,8,16 ohms). I bought it to use in my home studio, and for that purpose, it is perfect.

The sound quality is classic tube amp. At low volumes, it is clean, with a hint of grit and growl. At full volume, it is a lot louder than I thought it would be. It has a nice smooth distortion/overdrive sound, tho a little dark with a lot of low end. If I use my Les Paul with DiMarzio pickups, it drives the preamp really well for a nice "classic rock" sound. If I plug in my Fender Telecaster w/ stock pickups, it doesn't drive as hard, but has a nice trebly bite and crunch. This head pushing an 8 ohm 1-10" speaker is louder than you might think, with little hum or noise.

I have had it a short time, but it seems well-built and the black/red tolex covering should hold up to some abuse.

No experience in this area.

I have been playing guitar/bass since 1979 in various bands. I have also been producing my own music in my home studio. This amp is perfect to add to your arsenal of sounds. It is not meant to be gigged out(due to low power). This little screamer is meant to deliver tube sounds at low volumes, and that it does well. If you drive the preamp with a distortion/overdrive device, it really sounds nice and can shine. It can replicate those classic Marshall/Hiwatt Brit tones pretty well. I own Fender, Marshall and Peavey amps, and I am tending to use this little amp more than the others. It just screams!!

One Volume Knob, thats it.

Wow this thing is a tone monster, sounds really smooth with great feel. Its a little dark sounding but I'm really pleased with it. Tried it with a damage Control Solid Metal and my Boss ME50 and sounds great with both units. I really like the amp on its own though with just guitar. Im not someone who plays alot of clean stuff, but this makes me. BTW I have a Ibanez RG570, USA Strat and a EPI Les Paul. I love it with the strat. SRV tones galore

Have to wait and see. Seems well built though.

Neather dealt with them.

I've been playin about 9 years, I play mainly Blues/Classic Rock. This amp suits those styles perfect. I think I would gig with this amp also and just mic it if needed. I can't believe how loud it is. I have a few MFX/amp modellers and I think they sound great but just lack the feel and inspiration. Ill keep them for recording purposes I think.

The main feature of this amp is that it has none !
Very simple to operate : plug-in, crank it up and play.

This little beast is amazing ! To me, it sounds perfectly tuned right out of the box.
It's a one trick pony yes but what a trick ! I use it with both my Fender Strat and my Gibson Flying V. They both sound good. Some people say the amp is too dark or that it lacks brightness. I disagree. This amp is perfect for taming the extra treble of a Stratocaster.
There are so many companies out there that makes overbright amps. This is a good change I think. This amp reminds me of the Deep Purple Machinehead sound.
Black sabbath and Led Zeppelin are also in there. I just wish they made a 50 watts version that sounds just as good.

So far so good. I bought this recently so I wouldn't know.

Haven't dealt with them.

I've been playing for 18 years. My main amp is a Marshall JCM900 SL-X.
This little head is the closest thing to a Marshall at decent volume levels.
If it was lost, I'd buy it again. The only thing I dislike about it is that it's not loud enough for giggin'. I'll have to mic it up.