Epiphone Valve Junior Head

ok one volume knob, I would have liked a tone knob or a mid cut but no big deal. For 99 bucks, it'll get modded with one. the fact that you can plug it in to a 16, 8, or 4Ohm cab is a great feature in a low cost amp that gets overlooked. Makes it easy to pawnshop for a cab to go with it.

Clean tone is kind of dark, but I like it that way. I wasn't looking for a fender clean anyway. full volume sounds good with my Gibby LP standard, but a bit flubby. Mids are a bit farty, especially open d and g strings. sounds great with my MIM tele for clean tones, not great distorted and just sounds ok with my American Strat. But...

Put a Rat Re-issue big box in front of it, turn the knob to 2 oclock and the LP sounds excellent, Tele very good , Strat so so. Does still need EQ to fine tune it.

only had it a month so no telling. It does seem well built, and looks simple enough to fix if something did go wrong.

Never dealt with them. Actually , this is the first epiphone product I've ever owned.

Been playing 20 years, owened several tube amps in the past, nothing that really blew me away. Most recent was the Peavey classic 30. Good amp, but Gas, you know, wanted to try new things. Moved on to modelling gear(podxt / xt llive) and atomic reactor several years ago. Sounded good, but a lot of tweaking. On a whim I decided I wanted to try this amp. I really forgot how great a tube felt. Modelling gear can sound good, but you don't hear or feel that glass, you know? So, I'll be modding this to get the most out of it. Maybe buy another and try to get a fenderish sound out of one, a marshally / vox sound out of another. This really is a fun amp for under a hundred bucks.

One knob, one input, and sweet sounds. Sounds good the way it is. Reverb would be nice but not necessary. Very open to mods if thats your thing or you want to learn about building amps.

This thing sounds wonderful. All by itself at different volumes it takes on different sounds and all them are fun and pleasing to my ears. Sounds great dimed for some ripping overdrive or down lower for clean to bluesy drive. Sounds insane warmed up with an overdrive pedal and medium volumes. Great for pedals. I like to run the Jecky side of a Jeckyl and Hyde pedal into it with the amp up about a quarter. Very nice.

Not a lot to go wrong in there. Basic class A amp.

Haven't used and don't plan to since I plan to void the warranty soon.

For the money you cannot beat this amp. For 200 dollars more you still can't beat this amp. I would replace it if stolen. I love it just the way it is. For 100 bucks everyone should own one.

An input jack, a volume knob, 3 speaker outputs; the last is the important difference from the combo version having only one speaker output. Single-ended Class A, 5W of pure tube power: a cheap alternative to Gibson's LP Jr amp, and a DIY modder's delight. It has just enough power for some studio work and bedroom level practice.

Everything you'd expect from a single-ended Class A circuitry: by design it has a limited headroom, thus such amps always compress sound and cannot sound clean at higher volumes; on the positive side, the resulting compression and natural overdrive sound very musical. Tonewise, the amp is very midrangy, which may be good for classic rock and blues, but could be limiting for other styles (for the lack of lows and highs). It can sound decent with higher-end guitars, and quite cheap with lower-end ones. The noise levels seem within acceptable limits for a tube amp.

I have not used it long enough.

I did not have to deal with them.

been playing for 20 years; experienced with plenty of high- and low-end gear; at $100 these amps are very affordable, so replacing one would not be a problem, but depending on the application there may be more versatile ones, e.g. you could find a similarly priced used Epiphone Galaxie-10, also SE Class-A, but with 3 band EQ, gain/master control, and a stand-by switch all stock.

Note: all of the ratings were done for the stock amp.

2006 model. You know the deal: one knob, multi-tap OT. 5W Class A, etc.
I always say that if an amp has 1000 sounds, it has at least 999 bad ones. A good amp should have at least 1 great tone and it should easy to get it.
The VJ's greatest feature is its simplicity. It has no bad tones. It has one good tone.
The VJ's greatest luxury is the multi-tap OT. I think ALL heads should have that feature. Great flexibility.
The reason I got one is to mod it. It is well built and has LOTS of room for mods. I added a tone knob among other things.
Many people talk about replacing tubes and using pedals. This is not to criticize those people, but 2 resistors can do much more than a $200 NOS Telefunken 12AX7. Modify the input. No excuses, just do it; you'll be glad you did.

Stock, the VJ was quiet and sterile. Quite frankly, I didn't care for it at all. I'd give it a 6 in its stock form.
After modifying the input (stock it resembles a fender low side; change it to fender high) I'd give it an 8. The whole amp opens up a lot. It allows you to overdrive the first gain stage with a single coil. It also allows more "sparkle" to get through.
Next I removed the 2 extraneous resistors that made a voltage divider right before the volume control, and instead added a simple tone control. After this mod, I give it a 9. This is not a vintage fender, nor is it a boutique amp that rivals amps 10 times its cost. It has its own flavor out of the box (bland) but can me much improved and teach you a lot in the process. I'll give it an 8 on the assumption that you all do youselves the service of modifiying the input.

Don't care- $99!

This amp is great for modding, and great after some light mods. It is not the holy grail, but it is built well, very simple, and a no brainer at $99. Get it. Modify the input.

The feature is the sound and price. It has a volume knob - so as far as features it is limited. But it has the classic tube compression and overdrive sound. If you play at louder volumes (12 o clock +) you get a robust overdrive/distortion. Below that you get the full tube sound without a great deal of crunch.

I play in a classic rock band, church worship band, and home recording. I was worried the 5 watts would be too small. It is quite capable of decent volume. I alternate between simple (with a distortion,wa and delay direct to the amp) and complex (rack compressor, rack tube preamp, rack effects - reverse DI box to change impedance > two amps in stereo). I get the tube spank either way with this amp. Very happy with the sound. And for a tube amp this is very quiet in the studio.

The classic tube spank is in this thing. I've always been a tube amp user. The rounded wave overdrive of tubes is very nice to my ears. Over the years I've used Fender, Laney, Carvin tube amps and this amp is in that same sounding area. If you want a low price way into the tube sound this is it. The price gives you the feeling you just bought Manhattan for $15 - it's a deal!

Personally I found the distortion past 12 o clock a little harsh so I use external distortion. I regularly use a les paul, several ibanez shred types, fender strat, and an ovation acoustic guitar. All get the nice warm tube sounds. I use a 12" Fane speaker in a well damped closed cab. I've also used a 12" celestion in an open back cab. Both sounded good with more bass on the closed cab.

It's worth having an eq pedal to adjust tones. If you want the scooped mids like a half stack, clean high end, etc. Keep in mind the basic rock/blues sound is right out of the box with the amp. Think about an eq if you want some more versatility

Used for three months so far in active gigging with no issues.

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I've been playing live and recording about 20 years. I also play bass, keys, sing, do sound, and sometimes sing. If it disappeared I would buy another one immediately. I love the tube sound. As I mentioned You can get a para or graphic eq unit to help with tone sculpting if that's a need. I would say 85% of players would be happy with out of the box tone.

If you get one be sure to surf the net for all the mods. This is dufus easy to get some neat options soldered in.

Same as the others posted on here, I like the simplicity of this unit, just plug in and go! It's also fun to control the sound using only the guitar, with some practice it can be great.

This amp is loud! I bought it as a lighter, lower volume alternative for my Marshall TSL60 head. I plugged in a turned the dial to half way and it was much louder than i expected, sould be loud enough to play small gigs, really pleased. Sound is great, no hiss, as long as you're using a good guitar the sound will be good, don't expect this thing to sound amazing with a cheapo strat copy!

Seems pretty sturdy.

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For ??100 this is an amazing piece of kit!

This is actually a review of the BitMo mods for this amplifier. I have tried the BitMo Duo Tone and the three way voicing switch as well as the BitMo Spanky in two seperate VJ heads A/B ing them with an unmodified Valve Junior head, all three carrying the same tube complement of JJ EL84 and GE JAN 12 AT7. All three were run through a 16 ohm cabinet with an alnico 12, then through the stock 8" ceramic on the combo.
For reference's sake, changing the tubes on the 'control group' stock amp took roughly 8 minutes, while the attachment of the Duo Tone and the voicing switch took roughly 2.5 hours (partly due to my inexperience with soldering and neurotic need to double check everything). The Spanky mod I was able to successfully complete in less than 40 minutes.
Also for clarification I am in no way affiliated ecomomically, familially, platonically, nor have any existing business relationship with Mr.Bruce Hutcheon, maker of the BitMo mods.

Testbed 1 was the duo-tone and voicing switch equipped head. The push pull tone knob adds a gain stage and allows you tonal control, while the three way voicing also adds a gain stage and has three voicing options (it wouldn't be completely accurate to characterize them as Fender, Vox and Marshall, but they sounded not too dissimilar). The mod is well made and well thought out, and for use in a recording amp, would be very beneficial. It is also not very additionally noisy (although you definitley hear the difference when you pull out to second stage). I noticed that there was a sizeable difference between speakers at this point- running this head into the combo's speaker generated a much more useable spectrum of workable tones, whereas running this head into the alnico 12" kept me on the brighter two settings to avoid mud (and this is with JANs in preamp, volume at 1:00 and the bridge pickup of a 63 telecaster - not exactly inclined to sound muddy). I attribute this to my being accustomed to my AC30 and my Matchless Lightning 15, both of which produce distortions that are quite bright and dynamic, rather than the warm compressed thud of most recent Marshalls.
You can get a lot of sounds out of this mod, and with the right speaker it does sound quite good, but it does cut the headroom significantly (surprise- this is exactly what it's supposed to do) and being married to a setup of one alnico and one ceramic speaker and running my rig in stereo, the Duo Tone and Voicing Switch eventually got replaced by my ordering another Spanky. When I get my fourth Valve Junior, they'll go in it.
Testbed 2 was the Spanky - This adds a little bit of gain and a little bit of treble and bass. The newer version also includes bright and cut caps to further tailor your sound. The degree of differnce that this kit makes to the sound of the stock valve junior is really quite noticeable even to non-players. It makes the amp more articulate, glassy, and chimey and though the gain is a little higher, the headroom still is sufficient to play a stereo pair as a live rig mic'd into a P.A.
It even breathed more life, punch and responsiveness into the tone when using it as a basshead with a '72 P bass.
I noticed that the Spanky's range was instantly very similar to the sweet-spot I'd found on the duo tone that I hadn't moved it from since. For $25 and less than 1 hour's work and no drilling, this mod is even more of a no brainer than the Valve Junior itself. There are also variables explained in the instructions that allow for even more variety and customization, so once you take the plunge into modding, you might potentially think of the BitMo as a 'gateway mod'.
Testbed 3 was the standard Valve Junior head. It's pretty decent sounding even before anything, as long as you have an eq pedal and some new tubes but until you've tried these mods, you really haven't heard this amp at its best. Once you have, you'll be thrilled with it all over again.

I did the work, do I take a backup me to a gig?

Hutcheon was friendly and helpful, especially with my initial terror about draining the capacitors (it turns out to be a lot easier than I'd heard).
Epiphone are friendly every time I've spoken with a rep when I used to work in a guitar shop. For all I know the people in China that make the amps are even friendly, but the important thing is that what they make works. Even if everyone in each of these transactions had been belligerent and hostile, I'd still be thrilled with the result.

For other gear, style of music,etc. please refer to one of my other reviews on the Valve junior, where I've already listed it.

This amp has only one feature and that is volume. It's a class a 5watt amp and all the extras will have to come from your pedals if you use any.

I've played about 6 differednt guitars on this unit and they all sound great. I use a boss reverb pedal in from of this amp and it gives it a great sound dimention of spatialness. The sounds are round and articulate and really is a lot of fun to play with. It loves all the pedals I've thrown at it and I can't say that for all the amps I use and I have 4 more rigs at the house. For the money you can't loose on this amp. It costs less then most of the pedals I own. I replaced the 12ax7 and el84 with JJ's and it just sparkels at low volumes and has that class a growl at high output.

Just got it a week ago and no problems yet.

The sound for the money can't be beat. Try buying a boutique 5 watt amp for this price and people will laugh at you. Let them hear this amp and tell them what you paid and they'll cry.

I'm not really worried about where it's made, but I opened it up and it looks great (not much to really screw up in there).

No versatility, but you bought it because you wanted the tube tone, so place an EQ (I have the MXR 10 band) pedal in front of her to shape that true tube tone. Done.

All it has a is a volume, on/off switch and 3 different speaker impedance options in the back, that's it!

At only 5 watts it'll suprise the hellllll out of ya'! She stays clean up until about the half way mark and with a pedal in front of it you can really shape that tube tone to your liking. I'm pumped, baby! It's completely 100% quiet! Maybe it's just mine, but I didn't hear NOTHING until I started playing, how sweet is that, man!?

The tone is pure and it's a 100% tube path so it's ... 100% tube tone, too. Love it. I got going with it and hooked up my whole pedal collection to it eventually and went at it for hours and giggled like a lil' girl scout the whole time, couldn't believe it! LOL! I've got a ton of amps sitting around and this is getting all the attention right now. Unreal, man. It's the tits, yo!!

I'm a metal head, so I instantly found the Metal Muff pedal sitting in front of her and even the Radial Plexitube Tonebone sounded good in front of her, my other pedals where just as pleasing. WOOOHOO!

I used all my guitars in front of her, Jackson with humbuckers, Fender with single coils, Washburn w/EMG's and a LP with PAF's and it loved them all.

100 bones? I feel guilty, almost like I stole something! LOL!!

I broke it open and am already looking to start modding, but it's not really needed as I've got pedals that'll do what I need. But I love to tinker.

The inside looks pretty naked and the thing is really professional looking and it's put together nicely and it's VERY simple, so there's really not much to go wrong in it, ya' know. GREAT, huh??!!

Haven't had any problems, so no opinion.

Are you kidding? Won't need it at this price, man! This is the disposable tube amp, guys!! This is it!

At 5 watts it's about the only tube amp I own that'll sound good at bedroom levels and I've not been able to turn it up past the halfway mark, yet! How cool!

This is just a great deal that you HAVE to get in on, ya' know? You want a tube sound/performance at a steal of a price? This is it, man! If you reading this review and REALLY thinking about "Should I" or "Shouldn't I" ... dude, 100 bones?

A study in simplicity. IT'S ONLY SUPPOSED TO HAVE ONE KNOB! That's why I give it a "ten". If I was expecting more, I'd have given it less. The selectable speaker output is nice for using different cabs.

I bought this amp after watching them for a while and thinking, "$99.95 isn't much of a risk." I picked one up at GC, brought it home and hooked it up to a Marshall 2x12 with g-12H 70's in it and to be honest... I was a little concerned at first. The tone was dark to say the least, but the little sucker didn't have any trouble driving a 140 watt cab. Since I use a plethora of boxes on a large Furman pedal board, I knew I'd be able to shape the tone alot, especially via the graphic EQ. With my usual wreckless abandon, I took the Junior to a two-piece gig. miked it up into the mains, shaped the graphic a bit and it really sounded quite nice. Not as much breakup as I expected, actually, but more than loud enough for gigging (miked up, and all...) and the tone was even a bit brighter than the twelve watt Fender than I usually use for these small gigs. After two sets I decided to try my secret weapon on the Valve Junior and hooked up my big, scary, 1946 Variac rheostat that I bought at a flea market for twenty bucks. I dropped the voltage to about 67 or 68 volts and the V Jr. slipped into the Zen state of magical tube amp interdimensional wonderfulness. The power tube breakup came shining through like magic while the tone stayed bright and defined. Rolling off the guitar volume cleaned it up enough to pass for "clean". My bass player told me to TURN UP! He never tells me to turn up. I'm telling you, you could spend three thousand on a boutique amp and still have to work at getting the tone I'm getting on a hundred dollars! I'm going to buy three more of these so that I never don't have one. Now listen, a very good friend of mine sells those mod kits for the V Jr. on eBay. His mods work great and I definitely want to mod one of these. BUT NOT THIS ONE! I will not be changing the tubes or harming my little brown amp in any way. If you take it from me, I will hunt you down like a murderous pitt bull and lop your head off with a rusty fishing knife! God bless the Chinese for making this thing on the cheap.

I don't know if I can depend on it yet, but given that it's also built like a tank, I don't imagine it's gonna fall apart soon. We'll see about the circuitry over time. BTW, The cab is made of plywood! Not bloody particle board or MDF. No opinion yet on the rating.

Not yet.

I have been playing, on and off, for a long f'ing time. I like to tinker and try all kinds of stuff. My rig is something of a mish-mosh, but not without rhyme or reason, and I wire and maintain my gear with an eye toward neatness and respect. If you abuse stuff, it will let you down eventually. On most rock gigs I use a 60 watt Marshall tube head with either a 2 twelve or four twelve. Recently I built a rack amp with a gutted Roland JC 77 and Digitech tube pre. I'll try anything twice. The Roland is an attempt to get a really clean clean tone. I use Fender amps, Marshall, anything that sounds good. I use a Roland guitar synth, a dozen pedals and fifteen different guitars. My main gigging guitar is a Hamer USA semi-hollow with a piezo bridge and synth pickup. The lve rig is sometimes stereo, sometimes mono. If I'm playing loudly through the marshall, I put a plexiglas baffle in front of the rig. I intend to try the Epiphone amp at a full band gig, miked appropriately. The only thing I wish the Jr. had is something to hold my beer.