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.

Only has volume

I am running my chain this way: guitar, boss me50, bbe sonic stomp, amp, marshall 2x12 cab. This little thing sounds great. Best amp for playing at low levels and it cranks to. I finally know what the volume knob on a guitar is for(you realy can use it) Only thing that may be better is an orange tiny terror (at 4 times the price)

just got it

just got it

Best small amp out there. Get the BBE Sonic Stomp

One channel, one volume knob. Simple. I wish it had a tone control, but I get around that with a DOD 7 band E.Q. I use this amp mainly for recording and piddling around, not enough power for gigs or rehearsal. Thats why I have Marshalls.But overall great tone and lots of fun and for $99, you can't beat it.

The amp makes pretty much one sound. Volume knob controls clean to distortion. At about 10 o'clock it gives a good Chuck Berry sound. Dime it and it goes to town. Put an o.d. pedal in front of it ( I use an Analog Man tube screamer) and look out! This puppy rocks. And it is sensitive to different pickups. I play rock (ACDC, Thin Lizzy, Four Horsemen ) and this serves the purpose for recording demos.

Built like a tank. No problems.

Never dealt with directly. Got it from Sweetwater Sound and they back up every thing they sell. No worries.

I've been playing since catfish were walking. Been using Marshalls since the early 70's. If this amp were stolen, I would replace it. I love it's simplicity and basic sound. Very similar to early 60's Gibson and Epiphone amps. This is a fun amp. I would like to have four of them to gig with. That would make a hell of a racket.

2007 model I think; one knob model with a wopping 5 watt of pure tube tone. And yes 5 watts is plenty loud for any bedroom studio. Needs as previously stated an EQ. This amp is great for bedroom levels and to experiment with different types of pedals because it is so "tonally" flat. It is not fair to rate this amp on features because there really aren't any.

Tone: Nice clean up to 12:00ish then the amp breaks up beyond that. I did replace the tubes with a matched triode ECC803S gold pin and a quicker break EL84 and this amp really sounds good for what it is. This amp with a little help from various effect pedals really can sound great from crisp clean to 60's British AC30 OD. My effect chain looks like this-->Peavey HP Special USA--->Barber Direct Drive--->Boss EQ (bump the low freq's to beef up the low end)--->Toadworks Meat (discontinued so buy one if you can still find them as this pedal really adds girth to your tone)--->Boss Digital Reverb--->Barber launch pad for impedance matching and tube cooking (if you have never tried this pedal, you should. Its a clean boost pedal/AB switcher/Buffer). The cab I use is a Peavey 2x12 16ohm designed for the Classic 30 head and it sounds great with the above setup. This amp pushing my 5150 4x12 cab was thin and weak sounding. Lastly, this little amp loves pedals so have fun trying various combinations in various locations in your chain to find your tone. Also I found that if you let this amp warm up for about fifteen minutes the tone will mellow out considerably to a creamy buttery warm tone; but also I'm smacking the front end input of this amp pretty hard with the Barber launch pad well above unity gain, so that may also have something to do with my end tone. As far as noise is concerned, I run all of my gear through a Furman power conditioner for really clean 120VAC power.

So far so good. This amp is really built well, almost overbuilt for its size. Nice covering, 1/2" plywood construction and with spring tension tube guards/holders.

Never plan to call them.

I have been buying gear for 25 years. I have owned mostly Peavey over the years just because their products have always suited my needs well, and that I have never had issue with them and I try to buy what is made here in the US or at least what is assembled here. I own a full 5150 II Stack, Classic 30 head (very nice), Line 6 Vari-tone III, Line 6 Spider and now the Epi Valve Jr. and they all have their "tonal" place in my music spectrum. This is a good buy for what it is a simple clean tube amp with great potential. Plus with only two tubes to play around with, it takes a tube load off of the 10 tube monster 5150 and the 5 tube Classic 30.

This is a very straight forward amp with few features which is a good thing. This is a basic 5 watt one 12ax7 preamp tube and one 6l6 power tube. This was made in china but the costruction seems to be good, you'd be amazed how many big name amps are built in china these days. On the front panel you get a input a on-off switch and a volume knob. On the back panel you get three speaker jacks one for 4ohm, 8ohm and 16ohm. For $99.00 new from guitar center what more can you ask for.

Depending on the speaker cabinet and what type of guitar you use you can coax several different sounds out of this amp. I have a 2x12 speaker cabinet loaded with eminence speakers(don't remember which ones)that I run this through and I play a strat with Duncan Livewire active single coils. This amp is very sensitive to your volume placement and your attack on the strings. What works best for this guitar is to set the amp volume around 12 to 3 o'clock and use the volume on your guitar to control the drive. At low volumes this amp is sparkling clean (think small fender) and as I turn the volume up on the guitar I get more and more distortion (think 70's tube amp). If your guitar has cheap electronics you will notice it with this amp(muddy sound)which could also be a good thing for lo-fi. This amp is for classic rock, blues rock, blues and some country. I love this amp and it does exactly what I got it for which is for recording but if miked since it is only a five watter it also sound good live. It is pretty quiet for an amp in this price range.

I have had this amp for only 8 months but it is built pretty well and I always have some sort of a backup when I play live with a tube amp(25 years of experience). I have had no issues with this amp and if I did Guitar center has always been pretty good about service.

I do not remember what thew warranty was but if it last me over a month with no issues then it will last for quit a while. Usually when I buy things from guitar center if there are issues they usually handle it but I have also found that every Guitar center is run differently.

I have been playing for over 25 years. I play either classic rock, my first love the blues or country. I own around a dozen amps ranging from small practice amps(peavey) to what could be considered boutique amps(bedrock,mesa boogie) and plenty of fender tube amps. I play fender and gibson guitars and I have about 25 of those. I compared this to other small tube amps but for the price and sound this beat them. If you think that you need more features just go on ebay and there are companies that sell upgrade kits with standby high low swithing etc. If you play metal or want a distortion machine this amp may not be for you. This amp may not have enough clean headroom for some country picking but for everything else it works fine. And if you are not sure just go play it with your guitar at the store.

These amps have been out for a couple of years now but they have maintained a steady level of popularity. After playin on my friends Epiphone Valve Jr., and finally obtaining my own, I know exactly why. Sure, this isn't one of the most versitile amps but I didn't buy it for that. It's simple and that is the outstanding aspect to it. Just a 5W class A tube circuit (el84 power and 12ax7 preamp tubes) with a power switch and a volume knob. It doesn't get more simple than that. A lot have rated this amp low in the features dept. because of this but I rather feel that if you aren't hunting for a bazillion knobs and an on-board computer/midi/modeling doo-hickey then this amp has the most important feature possible: TONE. Seeing as there is no EQ, no effecs,and no bullsh*t to this amp, it allows the true tone of your guitar to shine through. It is also very sensative to your picking style. Best of all this amp has 3 outputs: 4,8, and 16 ohms so you can use this amp wih just about ANY cab.

For the money this should be a must-have for any guitar player. It's just too much fun not to own. That single Volume knob comes in very handy and can deliver a wide range of tones from a warm clean to a raunchy, crunchy rock tone. The higher you turn the knob, the more the preamp tube is pushed and the harder the sound gets; one of the most pleasing rock tones I've ever heard. Down low on the volume and you can get a full bluesy tone. The type of guitar and the type of pickups being used affect the sound immensely. I mainly use a Gibson SG with a 498 in the bridge and a Dillion SG with a Gibson 500t in the bridge and both sound fantastic out of this amp. I have also used a handfull of other guitars and each one has a completely individual tone that is really delivered by this amp. As I said before, the limited controls on this amp actually work to its favor in this very way. I play a lot of metal and in that sense I suppose this amp might not deliver the goods. However, there's aways the option of a distortion or overdrive pedal to push it even farther. I have had excellent results with all of my overdrive pedals (mainly DOD stuff). One thing I should mention is how damn LOUD this amp can get. I have used it in practice and I plan to use it live soon (yes, it's that loud). I never knew that 5 watts could be so loud. It really shakes my entire house when only at about 12 o'clock on the volume! When I used it in practice out of my Fender GE-412 cab I was actually louder than the rest of the band. I have also used it with my VOX 2x10 cab and a Kustom 1x12 cab and have still never heard 5 watts sound so good. On it's own it can give a warm, full bodied clean to a thick Sabbath-like groove to an all out AC/DC rocker. All with just one knob. It does pay to experiment with different tubes. I have tried out a few and have found JJ's to work the best in it but that is always going to depend on each persons individual taste. There's also a TON of mod's out there to hot-rod this amp. I would love to try a Tube Works pedal with this!

I have not had any problems and I doubt I will. Other people that I know that also own this amp have yet to tell me of any flaws in production. So, while I have not, and noone that I know has not had to deal with any reliability issues I'm gonna rate it high.

Like I said, haven't had to deal with the Epiphone/Gibson people yet so I can't tell you for sure.

I have owned a LOT of gear in my 15+ years of playing and I would CERTAINLY buy this again. It has instanly moved into one of my favorite gear spots. It gives me that same feeling when I was a child and I got a new toy; I wake up early and quite excited to play with it. I do wish that it might have come with a preamp or gain knob but it's nothing I'll dwell on. And if I do there's plenty of mod's out there to make it possible but I don't see myself doing that any time soon. Find a friend who has one, find a shop who has one, find a sound clip online, do whatever you can to check this amazing little amp out. For the money it CAN NOT BE BEATEN!!!

input, on/off, and volume in front - 4, 8, and 16 ohm speaker outputs in back - nice. 5 class A watts and not bad looking. $100 delivered...is that a feature?

as is, weak. JJ tubes will help fatten - and it needs eq. Sans the mods, use an EQ pedal. Don't try to make a fender outta this - it's got 1 EL84 power tube so think mids, and go with it. Put a TS-type drive pedal after the EQ and use your higher-output PU for nice brit-rock tone at low levels...REAL nice with a decent guitar and speaker. Remember those JJ's - makes a diff.

16 months and no probemos amigos

These are fun to play with. You can do the mods or use pedals to further shape tone - and new tubes are a must, imo. So, if you have the desired pedals lying around, and a good spk cab, it's a cheap trip to decent lower-volume tube tone. Paid a hundred bucks new, delivered(!) - currently $130 at MF, or less on 'the bay'...the price of another pedal.

Brand new made in 2007 I assume. This amp suits my need for an indie rock 4 piece i'm in myspace.com/plainclothestracy. It has 1 channel with just a volume knob. Simple enough for anyone I suppose. I wish this amp had instead of 3 seperate cabinet jacks i think there's a 4 ohm, 8 ohm, and 16 ohm I wish it just stuck with one so I could add an extra extension cab to the one I currently have.

This amp is pure valve. Turn up the volume know you have 5 loud watts of overdrive. With a substantial amount of gain. If you wanna play metal then go by a Mesa which in my opinion is as dry as the Sahara desert anyhow. The amp does dirty up at high volumes. And it is plenty loud enough to give with. I use a El Degas Les Paul copy with extremely hot dimarzio's. I also use a standard american strat for a bluesy sound. This amp would fit well with rock, country, blues any genre that requires tone *cough* metal.. It is also relatively quiet with the les paul. The Fender you get a little feedback as always.

This amp seems reliable. The chance of dropping it are that of getting struck by lightning because it's lighter than your balls. I've yet to have it break down knock on wood. But it seems like if it did as simple as the amp is it wouldn't be hard to fix. Plus it was only $99 bucks.

Haven't dealt with them I deal with my local music store.

I have been playing guitar for about 5 1/2 years. I own along with it and the 2 guitars. A boss blues driver for and extra boost, an old ibanez tremelo, and a boss chromatic tuner. I try to keep it simple. If it were stolen I'd find the sob and break his face. And go buy another cause they are cheap haha. I got this amp from a trade with a hot rod deville which some would say your nuts. But the 12 inch speaker gives me the punch i need as regards to the 4 10s in the fender. Also the fender is way to clean it won't break up and it's too heavy. I would recommend this amp to anyone who plays good music, wants a valve amp for cheap, and doesn't want a hernia. Keep rocking ladies and gents!

The Valve Junior is allegedly modelled on the first generation of simple valve amplifiers that accompanied the newly invented electric guitar in the 1950s. There???s 5w of power under the hood with single knob to control the volume, like the early Fender tweed champs. Although 5w sounds diminutive in the tube world that???s still pretty darn loud; it would easily disturb the neighbours when fully cranked and will get the floor rumbling through the matching 112 cab. The only features the guys thought to include were three outputs for the amp to be hooked up to 4, 8 and 16 ohm speaker cabinets, allowing it to be used with pretty much any guitar cab ever made no doubt. A rating of 3 isn't a criticism - it just means this is a bare-bones amplifier.

I bought mine with the matching Epiphone 112 cab, so will describe how it sounds through this. It has a strong 50s vibe about it, no doubt since it was based on amps from that era. Without pedals the only sound you???re going to get from this amp is early rocknroll. The amp has a strong midrange and attack and at 5w is quick to break up, having a thick, slightly grainy overdrive. With modern high-output humbuckers the amp breaks up at around 10 o???clock, and of course a little later for single coils. The clean tone provides a nice foundation on which to use pedals if that???s your thing, but it lacks the sparkle of a post-tweed Fender. It???s a bit meatier. Running an EQ in front of it can widen the tonal palette, but every once in a while I???ll bypass the effects and just plug the guitar straight in jam like they would have in the 50s.

It seems relatively solid, though it is the cheapest tube amp going around and comes from China, so naturally my confidence in it isn't high. On the other hand it's such a simple amp that there are less things that can go wrong with it. I found the stock Sovtek tubes would rattle if the amp was turned up past 1 o'clock, so I replaced them with a Tung-sol reissue 12ax7 and JJs EL84. I can now crank the amp fully without any annoying rattles. The tube swap also unexpectedly cut out a lot of background hiss (which was quite minimal anyway), and made the tone slightly clearer and I guess more hi-fi.

With tube amps this cheap now there's really no need to compromise with solid state amps anymore, especially if you already have a rather sizeable pedal collection. A pedal running into this amp will give a more natural and responsive tone than any (current anyway) digital model ever could like you find on those Roland Cubes and Line6 amps. I'm more satisfied with this head and cab package than I ever was with a Fender Blues Jr, which cost me twice what the Epi package did. I think both tube amp virgins and seasoned valve connoisseurs would be able to appreciate this amp - flexibility, tube response and a decent tone for pocket money really.

2007 Valve Junior Head. For practice use, maybe small jams.

Sounds from clean to distorted. Using a Fender Highway One Strat.
I got the amp brand new. Tested it in comparison side by side with a Roland Cube 20 watt with effects etc because it was the same size and price range. I had two speakers to plug it into. 12" Celesiton Alnico Blue, and a 10" Celestion Vintage Ten. Hands down its louder than the Roland both cranked full. Sound wise the Roland beats the crap out of it. It seems to be a fun retro looking package. I really dont need another project to drive me nuts researching all the mods available. Personally I'd leave it to hell alone. It is what it is. A 5 watt small tube thing. Dry sounding as a two day old pizza. To me it didnt seem to have enough poop to really push the 12" speaker. It did rattle my old eardrums however. The 10" was better but didnt push that either. (Compared to the Fender Pro Jr I had it in) For $129 bucks its a better deal than the noisy Pro Jr. It may sound pretty good with the Epiphone cabinet that has a 12" speaker. Some have reported the speaker is not too hot. That may be the ticket to get the old retro sound. I dont know. But it would look nice. Overall the Roland has great various distorted sounds for a few bucks more and almost as loud. (Almost)And a lot more fun. Having said all this, there is nothing wrong with it out of the box. Good quality and it indeed does kick booty for 5 watts.

Probably ok. For 12 bucks from Musicians friend you get two years to screw it up and get a new one. Provided you dont modify it.

Ive been playing for several years. Im older. What is nice it has three different speaker ohm plugs in the back. I'd think with a couple pedals it would make a killer harp amp, even blues guitar, but nothing for clean loud playing. But its 5 watts. If you get it dont go nuts on the mods till you try it awhile. If youre going to sink another 100 bucks into it then get a bigger amp to begin with. I'd get it with the cool speaker cabinet for sure. If the speakers cheap and it breaks up all the better. If I didnt have a couple tube amps already Id a kept it for the hell of it. I think it would be tons of fun to break out at the local ego jams. For a fun rating I'd give it a 10.

I believe the serial indicates a 2006 production date. I wanted it to experiment with. This a single ended single channel amp. I wish it had a gain and master volume. This amp may be used in the lab?

The variety in sound will come from your guitar, the attack , the position of the VC and the speaker you use. The amp will distort , however its that nice single ended crisp sdistortion. There is no brutality here or none intended, however it does have a nice retro sound. I plugged in the speaker from the Valve Special (purchased last week) (see review) and I couldn't believe how loud it was. This is the loudest five watts I have ever heard. Many people that love this amp have offered mods to better the tone and after seeing the schematic(enclosed with instructions) it looks like many of these mods were incorporated into newer products. The product is noisy when you crank it and are not playing, however none of the noise creeps into the output. This suits my style as I am trying to learn some of Mike Bloomfield's riffs. I may make changes to the amp?

The first one I purchased played for 7min and died down. I turned the switch off and turned it on again in a minute and it came back and played for 5 min. This time i waited and turned it on again and it went down it 2min. I took it back to the dealer and they repalced it immediately. I am giving this a good opinion because it did not cause me any great inconvenience. In 45 years I have never purchased a product tha failed to work and most of what Istill have has worked for many years. This was a fluke.

I have had good luck with Gibson. There dealer Music Arts Enterprises was fantastic!

I have been playing 45 years. I would replace this unit and of course if I lost I would place my self in rehab for people who lose very large objects. I love the price I have accesories that cost more. I hate nothing it is simple unpretentious and delivers the goods. Because of my intent I did not compare it to anything, I wish it had a gain control and possibly one other socket for an extra 12AX7. These are possible things that I can do. If you are on a limited budget and are looking for a great value or just a gear hound this amp packs a wallop for any one's dollar. Sure this dosen't sound like a botique amp, however, you can go out and buy that great guitar you always wanted with what you'll save. and you will still be awfull close. With some slight mods and the right speaker this amp could killer. This amp also leads me to believe that tone stacks are highly overrated.

ive had this for about 7 months now wanted to wait to write a reveiw so i could test it out overtime. ill tell you i use this head with a 210 hartke cab for bass and it rocks i do use it for guitar but i just loce it as a bass amp..this puppy has some puch and ive actually used it live i just mic it and it just thumps. ive had new jj tubes put in to get a little more clean head room stock a just under half way i got a little grit but now i can go almost 3/4 way up and just nice awesome 70's bass grind..

for bass very nice love the sound..with my american strat its a little thin but i did the tube mod because i wanted the clean headroom so without at least some kind of pedal its just too bright. if you turn her up all the way though it rocks but its too loud for practice these things are really loud..very quite get some noise with my strat(what amp doesnt make noise with a strat) my les paul and my thunderbird bass are dead quite though

ive used it live about 5 times all with bass and i use it at home alot and the kids are always climbing on it for a chair or banging on it and ive havent had any problems..the only thing i would even remotley knock points off for are that the power chord can sometimes come loose in the socket

have never used them ive owned alot of epiphone stuff over the years though and have never had any problems i seem to always buy the epi version of whatever gibson i have at the time as a player and sometimes the epi version is better than my gibson's

just a great little amp and like i said they make fantastic bass amps..

Features: all tube, class A, 5 watt design. single knob (for volume). three speaker outs 4ohm, 8ohm, 16ohm.

This amp has some easily overlooked features that make it handy. For one, its self-biasing, so you have no trouble experimenting with different tube brands and mixing. You still gotta use a 12ax7 and el84 of course. I wish the amp had an eq section and a master volume. but hey its 99 bucks so whatever! as far as versatility: the amp ranges from punchy cleans to all out overdrive. i've run this through the matching cab and other speakers and it always sounds great for the style i'm playing. this ranges from classic rock to blues to 70's style metal. for modern tones you'll deffinitely need an EQ medal

sounds range from nice cleans to warm breakup to really harsh overdrive.

you control the gain by driving the tubes (thanks to a 5 watt class a design). this can be done via the volume knob, your guitar's volume, and the pickups you use. with a passive i get a good range of tones. with my extra high output active humbucker this amp has NO cleans. just warm to brutal (but not scooped mid-range brutal).

the valve jr has a neutral EQ at lower volumes but then its cranked the mid range really comes alive with heavy bass presence and good highs. this amp is very quiet during operation.

this amp is not suited for modern styles as is (ie: modern shred and scooped metal). its all about mid range tones so you can do classic rock with ease and some awesome 70's metal tones that i use in my progressive metal band(and we're damn heavy!) if you like scooped tones just put an EQ pedal in there and youre good.

simple design, simple operation, cant go wrong

i'd use it without a backup but you should always have extra tubes and a spare fuse just in case

havent dealt with them, havent needed to

amazing value. i got the head brand new for 99 and the cab brand new for 130. cant beat this value. this has replaced my 140 watter! for jamming, practice and most venues this amp will perform fine. if youre competing with a huge amp or are in a bigger venue you need to mic it. problem solved. i love the tone and the real tube design! i just wish it had an EQ and master volume...

i give it an 8 because i love it to death but if it was lost or stolen i'd save up for a pro amp

Very versatile in that it drives all kinds of cabinets (thanx to 3 separate outputs in the back).
No tone controls, just volume... but if you need to tweak thetone simply use an EQ pedal and you're good to go.
Also, if you need more drive use an OD pedal.

Great for rock, classic rock, and some earlier forms of heavy metal (Judas Priest) with an OD pedal. You can certainly shred with this guy.

Very quiet (no noise and/or hiss) and unexpectedly loud for only 5 watts. Certainly too loud to play in any apartment.

Regardless of volume issues, this amp sounds great and even better when driven by a nice pedal... actually, even with a cheap Bad Monkey the results are recording-worthy.

Not at all dark sounding as some have written in the past. I experienced a big, muscular sound with plenty of highs.

In all fairness, need to add that I bough mine used and that the previous owner upgraded the tubes to JJs, so I don't know what the amp sounded like out of the box.

Too early to comment

I've been playing for 26 years as a hobbyist. Own 30+ guitars and 7 amps.
I would certainly buy this amp again.

It's a 1-trick pony. But that one trick is a controllable tube overdrive/saturation.

The sound on this thing is absolutely amazing if you're into tubes. For $130, you won't find a better amp head. This thing makes every practice amp out there a joke if this is the sound you're looking for.

If you want metal or a lot of variability, then get a modeling amp...but it won't respond to your guitar controls or your picking as well as a real tube will. For blues, classic or even hard rock, jazz, pop...you won't find a better amp for the price.

I run mine wide open with a G&L Legacy or an SG and use the guitar's volume controls to control the sound with a gutted Vox Valvetronics cabinet (the amp died and I didn't replace it). I also have it running into a THD hot plate because it's just so damn loud. Yes, the hot plate alters the sound a bit on the quietest setting, but it makes it playable in my apartment.

I would imagine it would take pedals allright, but I don't plan on using one except for a clean boost.

And this is with the stock tubes. I'd imagine you could tailor the sound to your liking with slightly different tubes.

Again, it's a 1-trick pony...but it does that one trick really well.

I dropped it once...ripped the leatherette when it hit, but didn't notice a single probelm affer the fact.

The amp hasn't broken down, and I don't expect it to. There's not a lot to go wrong with it and it's simple enough to get fixed.

Epiphone's guitars (apart from the elites) seem to have the same choices made in their construction: good wood, horrible electroncis. That is not the case with this amp.

Never dealt with Epiphone; never plan on it.

I absolutely love this amp. My eventual plan is to run it wide open through the Hot Plate on a loop of an LS-2 with something else on the other side into something like a Black Cat that's really clean...and use the amp like a distortion pedal. As it is right now, it sounds absolutely amazing for the price and does exactly what it claims. If it dies, I'd go buy a new one before having it fixed and then use the fixed one as a backup. At $130, there's no reason not to own one...it's cheaper than pedals made to model this kind of amp.

I am guessing it was made in 2006 or 2007 since I just bought it new.
Features: Volume, Input, On/Off switch. My cats can operate it. Full tube amp since it has a 12AX7 preamp tube and a EL84 power amp tube. 5 Watts. Three speaker outputs (4, 8 and 16 Ohm).

I am using it at home for my hobby of torturing my wife and cats using whatever is sonically available to me (guitar, keyboard, piano, organ, voice). I am predominantly a pianist(weddings, lessons, etc.) but play guitar for some variation and such. It is a good volume for my usage: loud enough to feel it, not too loud that the neighbors take up pitchforks and storm my house. I would hate that to happen because they would probably take all of my beer and good liquor.

Only thing I think it is lacking is an effects loop.

Scoring this one is difficult since it is short on features but it has all of the features that I require it having. I would give it a 10 but minus 1 for no effects loop. That justifies my 9 rating.

I will preface all of these comments by saying that it is still 100% stock. This is my first full tube amp.

People have said that it is a little dark and have to agree but I like a slightly darker sound after many years of playing through cheap solid state amps that way too bright and brittle sounding. Even though it has only one control it is pretty variable on sound by just using the volume knob. Its clean is pretty good and I like the feel of the distortion. It is very quiet with very little noise.

I am using a pretty wide variety of guitars with it: An Ibanez SZ520QM (HH), Ibanez Roadstar II RS140 (SSH), Johnson Strat (SSS Texas Specials), BC Rich Ironbird (HH bridge=DiMarzio Breed), Oscar Schmidt OE40, OLP Luke (SSH active). I has suited all of my styles which range from Blues to Country to Rock.

One of the most impressive things that I have found about the Junior is that it loves pedals! I have a Jekyl & Hyde pedal that I have held onto even though I have not had much luck with it through solid state amps. It kept sounding too piercing. It sounds great through the Valve Junior! I had gotten rid of most of my pedals sicne I got tired of not liking them but now I am afraid I may start piling them up again!

I am currently playing it through a modified Kustom Tube 12A combo amp. I added a switch and an input jack so i can use the Kustom as a combo or a cab. I will be doing this mod to my other amps to give me some flexibility: Kustom 12A with 8" speaker, Peavey Transtube 212 EFX with 2x12 and a Fender Cyber-Deluxe with a 12".

It seems sturdy. I usually wouldn't gig without a backup no matter what I am playing.

I don't feel I have had it long enough to give a good rating on this.

Have not had to use.

I have been playing about 4 years now. I listed most of my guitars and amps above.

I would definitely replace it with another one if stolen. The price is great and I really like it. It is super flexible since it takes pedals so well. I have never been an Epiphone fan until I played this amp.

I love how simple it is. It is going to force me to actually spend time learning instead of tweaking umpteen knobs and switches. I have modelers that I spend more time tweaking than playing.

It is pretty much alone at its pricepoint for being fully tubes. I am new to tube amps and was not prepared to drop $400 at the moment. This give me a great introduction to tube amps and doesn't break the budget.

Overall, I think it is a great amo and a great value!

2005/2006 5 watt all tube amp. This is the new version with the reduced hum. I play Latin, Blues, Rock, Jazz, New Age..etc ... I play through this amp mostly with my American Fender Start with David Gilmour EMG pickups. I also us my TogaMan Guitar Viol(BowedGuitar.com) through this amp. I find that the bowed part sound s a lot warmer. You know all the features (or lack of) of this amp already. I do wish it had reverb. Everything else is fine.

This is where this amp really shines. I turn mine up to about 11 o'clock and control the gain with the guitar's volume knob. This amp doesn't stay too clean, but I do mic it up and use the P.A.'s reverb for it. As long as I have a monitor nearby I am in tone heaven. This little amp really surprised me...

Looks pretty solid, but for $99.00 I wonder where the cut corners. I plan on buying a couple more and getting them modded with Mercury Magnetics. So far, I have not had a problem with it.

Never dealt with them.

I have been playing for about 12 years now. I recommend everyone who is into tube tone to get this little gem. You will not regret it.

Brand new.. probably a 2006, as it's the version 2 model.
I play rock blues country and pop on this thing.
One channel, one volume control, one on/off switch. that's it.

Mine is dead stock and about three weeks old. It came as a blem from Musicians Friend.. I managed to discover the fuses weren't connecting in the holders. fixed it for free in about five minutes.
voila.. perfect.

I wish it had a standby.

It has plenty of power.. esp for the overdriven sounds.. otherwise it's a practice amp.. and wont keep up, on clean settings, with a drummer unless he's taking it easy and you're chording. Then it might be ok.

These will not continue to be sold at 99.00.. you'd better get off your crack and go by one cheap while you can.

I'm giving this a ten because wishing it had stuff or did things I had no reasonable expectation for would be dishonest.

Real sweet tube clean esp if you're pushing it almost to overdrive.
I've used strats teles p 90s humbucks.. and it has a good relationship with all of them.

An el84 tubes sounds like an el84 tube.. and if you don't like that, you're probably goofy in the first place. The overdrive is fantastic..from mild to wild this has stuff you can really get into.

maxed out it's a bit mushy.. but then.. what amp isn't?

It's quiet.. it's toneful.. it's got plenty of volume for jams or solo practice. it loves pedals in front of it..

Today I jammed tom petty, and zz top..
then I fingerpicked clean for a while, folk to jazzier stuff.

I am always able to make this amp sound good, fast.

what you use in front of it, it responds to wonderfully.

(unless it's crap.. hey! know what sounds really awesome.. the cheapo behringer cs100 compressor all by itself.. man.. the amp has the tone.. )



I'm giving it a ten.. for two reasons.. out of the box at this price it's tone madness!
however.. for those wanting more, it's available in common modifications, cheap and in several voicings.
how can it deserve less than a ten?

five year warrranty. My 15 year old epi sheraton has an even longer warranty. I doubt I'll ever need either of them.

The main projection for hassle is the lack of a standby switch.
it will cause the tubes to warm up too fast, and reduce their lifespan a bit.

but I can't deduct points, since I knew it didn't have one.

it's built well.. nice inside and out.. solid everywhere.. good materials. no sloppy glue or anything like that..
I'd have to say it's really overbuilt.

So far, other users are NOT having any problems. No component failures, etc..

so though mine is new.. the warranty is in effect, and is a long one..and reports are all good from others.. a ten!

I've never done warranty with epiphone or gibson. I've communicated with them several times. And they've always been great. Even sent me a whole bunch of really nice posters!
So I have nothing bad to say about them.. and haven't heard anything bad.
another ten.

My first amp was five watts.. back in '64.. a little silvertone with a 6 or 8" speaker.
I have about 30 guitars and basses.. three amps.. lots of stuff..recording etc.

Not only would I buy this again.. I am going to buy another one.
It's just too good a deal.. too good a sound.. too many possibilitys..
it would be foolish of me not to.

Compared to solid state offerings in this price range, this amp blows them away.
other small tube amps seem to cost twice as much, at least.

I do think they should install a standby switch.
otherwise.. I think they have done this exactly right.

To move the amps performance around would make it more costly.
What EPI has done is give you a really sweet tube amp that can be whatever you want for tiny money and not a lot of effort.

I think that's better than adding a hundred bucks to the price.

Buy this amp. Keep it for the rest of your life. As long as you practice at home.. you'll be glad you have this. If you do small gigs.. like play in church.. or jam in the garage or basement... or even lots of clubs and bars that are 300 or less seating.. you'll be glad you have this amp.

I typically plug a digitech rp7 in front of it.. and there's my reverb EQ modulation.. etc.. and the amp gets along fine with it.

I can drop the volume of the amp down to a whisper and still it sounds very good.
above the 10:00 position.. the amp is really just great.

I have to say this is one of the best buys out there.. what it is is way more than it's price tag.

Music 123 has them for 129.00... MF still has them at 99.00.
ebay used ones are available.. you can't miss at these prices folks.

I know it sounds like gushing.. and I know amp experts would swap a few compliments and add a few criticisms.. that's their nature.
But for most guitar players.. this is as good as it gets for an amp of this size and type.

I liked my Marshall mg15dfx.. and I liked my Behringer GM110..
they both had nice qualitys and were great to practice with.

Now, I never turn them on.

One knob is enough for this little tone monster!

This may be the ultimate jazz amp! Nice warm full rich tone! If you want to hear some great sounding audio clips of this beast just go to
www.myspace.com/clifffrederiksen-the speaker was a peavey Sheffield 1X12 cabinet. These are awesome sound clips!

Seems very well built-not much to go wrong!

I wouldn't know-never needed it.

This little beast rocks! Wvery studio or jazz musician ought to have one!

Less is more at least when you're paying 100 bucks for a tube head. I think an EQ pedal could really open up some options.

I have it connected to a 16 ohm Carvin tweed 2-12 cab loaded with US-made "British Series" Carvin speakers. I play an LP Jr. with a Seymour Duncan '59 in the bridge and the stock P-100 at the neck. I can get a wide range of tones with this set up. Want to rock out, I use an MXR Distortion+, which really helps the tone out even with the distortion at "0". It's also useful to overdrive the amp at lower volumes. I also once owned a Classic 30, and to compare the two would be unfair but I'd be hard pressed to choose between the set-ups

No probs, 5-year warranty.

see above

No tone, volume on/off only. Rating is relatively high because of the convenience of multiple ohm settings for different cabs. Tube, w/ss rectifier.

Great for blues. Very sweet cleans at lower volume & tons of gain when dimed w/humbuckers. A little too gainy (especially for harp), so I will probably sub a 12at7 or 5751 for the 12ax7.

It is built like a tank w/a 5 year warranty. No need for backup. but really to new for me to give an appropriate rating here.

No issues w/Epiphone.

Love clean & overdriven tones. Far out performs the valve jr. combo. I would be willing to pay 20-30 bucks for a tone control. There is nothing out there in this price range that comes close in tone.

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.

N/A

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.

n/a

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.

this amp is as simple as air. A volume control and that's it. the saving grace is it's speaker outlets. Most of my speakers are rated at 8 ohms, but it's nice to have that option of other ratings. With the right kind of adapters, I can use this with any amp i have.
- I did some home recording recently. I was using my Fender Junior Pro and i was bothered by the tube rattle. Although, i liked the sound from the fender amp, i couldn't have that rattle. I hooked up the Epiphone through the Fender and and got the sound I wanted, rattle free.

Tones can go from a low clean to a thick distort.At about 1 o'clock on the volume dial thing get fun. past that it gets louder, and a little more fun. For what i like to play, anything between 10 to 1 o'clock works best. it's not like i'm going to be using this at the Staples Center anytime soon - if ever.
Although, because it's a simple amp, it can bring out a few faults real quick. dead strings sound even deader on this amp.
- I like playing my Telecaster through this. It can get twangy and clean at low volumes. When I play my Dean Stylist though it, It chunks up good and woody at 10 o'clock. At lower volumes, with a little reverb and slapback, both guitatrs sound great.

No problems so far, but all it's been doing is sitting at home being used once in a while. Of course, when you suffer from GAS, it's so hard to give each amp the full attention they all need....

wouldn't know, never had to deal with epiphone/gibson.

I've been playing since the late sixties. I'm not a big fan of big amps as i have no need for them. With these small simple amps, the limitations are part of the sonic puzzle. This Epiphone is as simple as it gets. And because it overdrives fairly soon, i can get the crunch i want without too much damage to my house.
- I also own a Fender Junior Pro and a Vox P15SMR408. I've managed to use each amp as a head for the other amps speakers. It works out well that way, a real flexible arraignment If I really want to get loud, I can bring out my crate 1, then things get interesting.
- I was given to some free money to spend at Guitar Center. I think I think i got a little overloaded on the choices. I kept looking at everything I could afford. Finally, I saw this on sale next to the Crate POWER BLOCK. When I heard the Epiphone though a 4 x 12 stack, I thought this little amp has some good possibilies, so I bought it.
- This item was a gift, i'd still want to replace it - only after i track down the thief - yadda yadda yadda.
- For it's size, cost and features, it's a great deal.

The Amp is just off the boat from the People's Republic of China; Yes, that's where it comes from folks-as does most of your goodies that you've been buying over the last 8 years! Anyway, I immediately exchanged the Russian tubes inside with Groove Tubes- One GT-12AX&M in the preamp section and a GL-EL84-S (#5) in the power. Then, I plugged it into the mono plug of a Marshall 2x12. I pulled out my strat with voodoo pickups and,
very, very impressive tones came forth. It is my practice setup from now on.
Of course, this is the very reason that I bought the Epi Valve Jr. Head-for practice.
Nothing extra to complicate this arrangement. Though, I would have like the product to be made here in the U.S.A.

The tones are clean and break up early. I've happily used it with pedals and a Line 6 floorboard.
The head holds it's own in a very small room. I wouldn't want to use it for a gig though.

Seems to be solidly made, when I changed the tubes, the back grill plus two sets of metallic corner guards have to be replaced. This puppy is solidly built. Again, it was made in the PR of China-so, these days, quality control is dictated. Time will tell how this amp head will last
over time; however, I believe that it will do so, very nicely.

Although this product is subcontracted and imported by Gibson, Who knows in the long run,
since RP China as a source is a wildcard for the future.

I've been playing for forty years, have over 20 guitars and five other amps (three tubes).
Although my friends are still rightous snobs about tube amps, I think that they will be impressed by this head. It's a great little number if you want it, need it or can only afford to buy this; or, if you enjoy seeing a vintage Epiphone logo on the front. If you have the bucks and need a small practice amp. I'd suggest getting a Gibson handwired GA5 Les Paul Jr. amp.
It is, and will remain a classic. The tones from the GA5 compared to this amp, is like eating a good sirloin compared to a Macdonald's hamburger (sorry if you are a vegetarian, or a lover of Micky Dee's). The handwiring and parts make the difference. Also, if you consider a GA5, consider upgrading to the same GT configuration, as above.

has 4, 8, and 16 ohm outputs which is an awesome feature in my book!

10!!! Excellent classic rock breakup when this thing is cranked. You can't get anything that's going to sound better than this for $100. I give it a 10 based on price,value, and tone. Sure an original jtm 45 will kicks it's butt but you'll have to refinance your house to afford one of those these days!

So far so good

This is the best $100 I've ever spent!

Exactly what it needs ... a volume knob. This 5 watt Class A amplifier is built to reflect the true tone of the guitar that you are playing. It is a simple, and very affordable, tube amp. It also features 4, 8, 16 ohm speaker out jacks (a very nice and flexible feature), which covers about all speaker cabinets that guitarists use.

Just great! I really like the sound of this little amp. With the volume low you get a nice clear yet round and warm tone from the amp. Crank it up for some crunch, and add an overdrive pedal for more sonic mayhem. It really acts like an amplifier should -- just amplifying the tones that are sent to it -- whether it be a particular guitar plugged straight into the amp or a particular guitar with whatever effects connected in between.

Still too early to tell. I have only owned the amplifier for a month. The build quality, though, is much better than one might expect for a $100.00 amp.

Never had to deal with Epiphone.

I am very pleased with this purchase. For those who have not played the amp, this little 5 watter is loud. I use and attenuator to tame it while being able to crank the volume for maximum tube saturation. I will change the tubes out soon to investigate the sonic differences. Right now, though, I am pleased with its sound as is. If better quality tubes improve the amplifier???s current tone, I will be all the more pleased. I believe I will buy another head, but I think I will get the Valve Junior combo also just so I have both.

Straight forward, all tube head with a volume knob.Crank it up and go. 4,8, and 16 Ohm outs are a real plus. It has alot less features than the Line6 junk I just unloaded, but the tone makes up for this.

All I can say is what a great little amp for practicing!Running it into a 2x12 cab. w/V30 Celestions.I no longer need to fire up my marshalls everytime I want to play. I dumped a Line6 Flextone for this little gem because the modeling amps hate pedals.Goes from very clean to crunch as you crank it. It absolutely loves my Route 66 OD, you can drive it to a VH or Hendrix tone with the right guitar. OK, it doesn't have the worldclass tone of my JTM 45 with the Heyboer OT tranny, but for $99 this thing is worth every cent.I'll be buying another one so I can run in stereo.

N/A, just bought it.

Never dealt with them

I've been playing for 30 yrs, have G.A.S. and realize it.Amps include JCM 800,JTM 45,Line6 Flextone,Boutique pedals such as Sweetsound Uvibe,Tonebone Classic, Route 66 OD, Vox Clyde Wah, Maxon Delay. I love the pure tube tone in this simple little head.For the price this has great value, I'll be getting another one.

This is a follow up to my review below...

I put an MXR 10-band equalizer in front of this amp and it CAME ALIVE!! I'm serious when I say this, I just put my Marshall Silver Jubilee away, because this amp sounds so much better than the Marshall...I thought I would never do such a thing, but the truth be told, the VJ Head w/ the EQ sounds better! It is very sensitive to the EQ, more so than the Marshall ever was. In fact I was about to sell the MXR eq because it didnt do much w/ the Marshall...well, w/ the VJ, every frequency is sensitive. B4 you mod the VJ, try the MXR 10 Band Equalizer...because of this discovery, I'm not even going to bother modding it xcept for tubes...I went on mercury magnetics web site and listened to their sound bites...with the mxr, it sounds almost exactly like their sound bites...nice and crisp, with full-ranged tones...

Features are, as every other reviewer has described them, minimal to nonexistent. This can actually be a huge plus. My Dr.Z and my Matchless Lightning don't have too many knobs on them either. This keeps you from defeating yourself or trying to make the amp make allowances for the (too) wide range of guitars you play through it without knowing how to adjust the tone on the instrument.

Yes, the amp is capable of a "Cream" era 70's sound. For those of us that really don't like that sound particularly, it can also do a pretty good AC30 impersonation when mated with the right preamp valves and speaker. For a higher gain sound, put a pedal in the chain, or better yet a bunch of them (it handles multis like my Vox Tonelab SE with aplomb that probably makes my AC30 weep quietly from the closet). It can be on the dark side without EQ control, but this can also warm up effects or bright, thin sounding guitars, so decide whether you need to add eq before you start.
I'm using mine in stereo from the Tonelab with the combo version of this amp on one side running its little ceramic 8" and a JAN 12AT7 for high frequency bite and the head mated to a '40's (?) Bell & Howell Projector Speaker cabinet with a Jensen C series alnico 12 in it and a higher gain JJ12AX7 in the preamp for a bit of warm overdriven voxiness and chime. Both are running JJ EL84 in the power stage.
Not to mention the cabinet options this little head gives you give a great opportunity to have COOL looking gear that keeps people guessing (rather than something they can run out and buy). My guitars are two Gretsch (Malcolm Young Signature and Light Blue Pearl Jet) a '71 Gibson ES 345, a '64 Hofner Verithin, a Tele thinline, a Casio DG20 and a Parker Nitefly (mainly for recording). The amps currently favour the brighter guitars, but that's easily flexible, and if I want the ES 345 to sound less like a sled of Les Pauls hitting a wall, I can ease back on the Vari-Tone switch.
My music style is '80's post-punk (Echo & The Bunnymen, U2, Placebo, Simple Minds,The Cure, INXS, psych furs, The Cult, James, Def Leppard, Suede etc. and I'm yet to find one of these that the combination of the two amps and a decent multi-processor can't dial in.
It's great and versatile for recording, and so far has been loud enough for live, just mic it up - singers perform better when the rest of the band isn't drowning them out anyway. I'm not sure I would reccomend these as 'beginner' amps or as a 'stand-alone' piece of gear, as no one piece of gear does all the things we want it to, but for a super warm and dynamic low wattage class A amp stereo pair that looks dead cool onstage and cost less than a decent pair of shoes, these are definitely worth a try.
The fact that you don't have to break your back trying to carry your AC30 or Matchless around to a club (not to mention worrying about someone stealing it) is just icing on the cake.

Since it's a stereo pair, I suppose there already is a backup in place, but it hasn't been a problem so far.

Yet to come up.
Their warranty is fairly long (5 years I believe) but modding them voids it. I have all the Bitmo mods and have been waiting for a time when I'm feeling like a bunch of benchwork to install them all. I've read excellent things about them, but honestly when I get home from work and walk up to my little rig, I usually end up playing it instead of getting out the soldering iron. If this changes, I'll review the Bitmos as well.

This, after slight tube swapping and mating to a mismatched speaker configuration (alnico/ceramic)stands pretty close to some amps I've paid a great deal more money for. No, it's not really a substitute for an AC30 if you're touring or playing big venues, but since I'm not these days, its a lot less of a headache and a whole lot less of an expense plus it has a lot more individuality (at least for now).
If I ever get myself to sell my other amps, I'll have to come back and rate this a "10".

For $100, this amp head gives us (1) a real tube pre-amp section; (2) a real tube power amp section; and (3) three speaker outputs (4, 8, or 16 ohms). Also, it is a very attractive little head, with a solid feel and apparently good build quality. True, it lacks a standby switch, tone knob, and some other features--thus the rating of "6." But it's only $100!

Wow! I have played the amp through a 2x12 cab at Guitar Center, a vintage 2x15 cabinet (a great-sounding old Teisco cab), and a 1x12 Line6 cab that I picked up. It sounds different through the different cabs--but it always sounds great. And it's incredibly loud for 5 watts. It has an outstandingly warm tone, moving into a full-throated--but not over-done--distortion as you crank the volume knob. I've tried with a number of different guitars. It makes even my Teisco Spectrum 5 sound great! (Beautiful, cool guitar, but its wacky pickups are tonally challenged.)

I play nothin' but the blues, and this amp is great for it. A metal-head would need a pedal or two, but the amp takes pedals well. I've plugged in a Frantone Cream Puff, a Zoom UltraFuzz, a Voodoo Labs Superfuzz, a Snarling Dogs SuperBawl Whine-O-Wah, a Rocktron Black Cat Moan wah, a Voodoo Labs MicroVibe, a Visual Sounds H2O Liquid Chorus and Echo, and a PreSonus TubePRE preamp. The Epiphone has treated all of them kindly. In fact, it's a real pleasure trying out my pedal collection through the amp! With some pedals--for example, the Frantone Cream Puff--the Epiphone sounds as though it's channeling some previously unknown tone god.

I don't gig, but I did use the amp for my company's holiday party, playing it through the 2x15 cab in a room of about 200 people. It was plenty loud for the venue: in fact, I was louder than the bass player, who had a 100 watt solid-state amp and two 12s.

I've only had the amp a couple of weeks, so I can't predict how it will work in the long term. It appears to be solidly built.

I've never dealt with Epiphone and thus have no opinion in this category.

I've been playing about 25 years. I have owned a variety of other amps, including three vintage Silvertone tube amps (one of which I still own: tiny, but great sounding), a Fender Tremolux (great-sounding amp), a tiny Danelectro (beautiful, warm sound), a couple of Peaveys (including a Delta Blues 210, which is also a great-sounding amp), a couple of Alamos, some solid-state amps (a couple of Voxes, a Fender Frontman 25R, a Crate . . .), and a couple of Teisco amps (including a Teisco Checkmate 50 and a Teisco "Miny T"). I own a bunch of guitars, mostly off-the-wall stuff. (I'm a big Hound Dog Taylor fan: thus the Teiscomania.) This Epiphone appears headed instantly for "Most Favored Amp" status. I haven't gotten a bad sound out of it yet; it treats my guitars well, even the weird ones that no other amp has ever really liked or respected; it treats my pedals well; and it's surprisingly adaptable.

I would definitely buy another if this were stolen or lost. In fact, I've thought of buying another so I can run the pair in stereo--and maybe at last get a knock on the door from a neighbor, asking me to turn the darned thing down!

I love the vintage look, the small size (I hate lugging heavy amps!), and the tone the tone the tone the tone the tone!

This is a great little amp. For $100, it's almost unbelievable.

Basic - All you really need!

OK, I'm STOKED! Just got it in from musiciansfriend last nite...Tried it this morning. I'M IN DISBELIEF. How in the world did they get a $99 amp to sound this good is beyond me. I've been looking for a cheap alternative to a Vox AC30 and I think i've found it. With my les paul and strat I NAILED Edge's sound, IMHO. Now, that's to my own ears comparing it to a AC30 I played 2 weeks ago. I was looking for that "Chimey" top end the AC30 is known for, and this comes pretty close, well at least good enough for me! Now, it doesn't sound EXACTLY like one, mind you, but if you went out and spent $1600 on a new AC30, it won't sound exacly like Edge's setup either. I found it with the volume between 2 and 3 o'clock, and LIGHTLY picking the notes on the guitar. If you hit them too hard, it will be too harsh and distorted. At that setting, if you hit a power chord it's gonna crank...Some reviewers said it sounds sorta marshally - I disagree. It has a higher top end, and it's not as smooth as my Marshall Silver Jubilee; more like a fender or vox cranked. (BTW, I played this thru my Crate Blue Voodoo 4x12 cab, which is a great cab - I dont think they make them anymore...)

ONE IMPORTANT OBSERVATION: I noticed when I played a note, I heard a too-familiar fizz on the top. As I suspected, the tubes are microphonic. I tapped on the top of the head, and sure enough you can hear it thru the speakers...They are Sovtec tubes, but probably 2nd's or low quality. I'm gonna retube it next week anyways, so no worries here.

Buy One of these before they sell out of them! I went to a store that had 3 of them last week, they were all gone a few days later...

I would bring a backup if I was playing out with it...

I'm sure epi would take care of things if needed

Playing 28 years, have played every style, from Elvis (Hey, you laugh, we were so busy w/ gigs we almost quit our day jobs!)to heavy metal. Used to be one of those 80's players with stacks and racks of outboard gear. I smartened up, and now use good floor pedals with my Les Paul, strat and 1981 BC Rick Mockingbird thru my Marshall Silver Jubilee. Simple. Currently in a Christian worship team. This amp fits right in with contemporary Christian music...

Although many reviews have already been submitted I feel the urge to say my say as well. Groundbreaking piece of kit, no excuse to buy average small trannie amps anymore. Get AT LEAST one of these.
Simplicity is a beautiful thing, and this ampette is beautifully simple.

Goes from clean to a decent roar by a quick flick of the single volume knob. Turn it up and control things from your guitar. Sound quality is very , very nice. Its class A valve, so you're sorted for quality sounds. Responds well to my Gibson The Paul ( 1979) and Squier Tele. Take effects well to, I use a Boss GT3 multi and various overdrive units. Slight hiss when fully cranked on its own, but on the whole very quiet indeed.

Time will tell, but the signs are good. Build quality seems very decent. Comes with a 5 year warranty! That's 2 years more than you get on an average brand new car! Nice!
Solidly built, no compromises made. Nice and chunky , but still cute.

Should be really easy to service this one, or get it serviced. So simple, not much that can go wrong that cannot be easily fixed.

This one is a keeper for sure. Use a vintage Roland Bolt 30 Hybrid amp as a cab for the Valve junior. Fitted with a Celestion classic 80 speaker. Does the job very nicely. For the price, this thing is a no- brainer. Did I mention that the amp is cosmetically flawless as well? Epiphone really have their quality control well sorted on these products. What next? A 20 watt version with EQ and reverb perhaps? Now that would be glorious. For the moment, this fella is the bargain of the year.