Ibanez Valve Bee VBG Combo

It is built in China 3-4 years ago.
It has two channels (Clean and Boost),Presence,low-mid-high tone controls, Effect Loop, Headphone/line out, Gain and Master volume,
internal 6.5 inch (4 ohm) speaker
It does not have output for external speaker.
I use it for home playing and recording (line out to a mixer).
The line out is very good for recording, not to much noise and hum if you use high enough master volume.

I use a Yamaha RGX 320FZ dual humbucker guitar with this amp.
The Clean channel is good with a typical tube amp sound, but it is difficult to overdrive it into distorsion even with max gain and Master volume. With tone controls in mid position and no presence the sound is a bit pitchy for may taste, you need to reduce high tone controls to get a normal tube amp (12 inch speaker) sound.

Using the clean channel with good tone control settings and guitar pickup swith set to mid position I can get a rather nice BB King sound.

The boost channel is not a true overdriven tube amp, its a "Tube Screamer" semiconductor ciruitry with clipping diods that gives the distorted sound that also reduces max volume below the max volume of the clean channel. The sound of the Boost channel is very high note pitchy and needs very much taming with tone controls to be useful.

Playing at high volumes and using the speaker you can get a very anoying rattling inside the cabinet at certain tones (low D).

I have not had any technical problems with this amp.
But I have opened it and rebuilt some parts and then found the building quality rather good (as the electrnic engineer I am).

I have not used Ibeanez Customer support, bought it in Swedish Music after it had been used as a demo unit in the shop

I have been playing guitar for 5 years now, not professionally.
If it were stolen I would not buy it again, I would by similar small tube amp with good true tube overdrive channel.
I like the clean channel, the features and the good line output.
The boost channel is not useful.

But as the electronic engineer I am, I have performed a simple modification of the internal circuitry and disconnected the "Tube Screamer" clippings diods. This makes the boost channel to a true pre-amp tube overdrive channel with the same volume as the clean channel. I can now drive the pre-amp tubes (12AX7) into a nice overdriven sound, from just overdriven to heavy distorted.
Its a simple operation to do with a pair of cutters
Anyone who wants to know how to do it can contact me by email

Good for small practice amp, it's got send-return!!

Shining on the clean channel, I sold my MG30DFX for this one. Well... can't compare tube vs transistor, I know.
I don't use distorted channel that much. I prefer using TS808 clone & DS-1 instead.

If people said that this amp is noisy.... CHECK THE GROUNDING! It happened to me once before I replace my power plug with the better type (properly Grounded). It's damn QUIET!

Not broken (yet)

Excellent amp for home practice use. If people said that this amp is noisy.... CHECK THE GROUNDING! It happened to me once before I replace my power plug with the better type (properly Grounded). It's damn QUIET!

I bought mine new in 2006 in Essen (Germany).
The amp is good enough for home usage. It has an effects loop (Send/Return jacks), what helps to use it with other pre-amps or to use the ValBee's pre-amp with other amplifiers. The active EQ is also versatile enough for home practice. It also has a headphone jack, but I do not like how it sounds.
There are 2 channels: clean and hi-gain. The channels can be switched by a tiny button near the input jack. Clean sound is louder with the same settings than the distorted one. I like the clean channel, because different guitars woods sound different: you can hear the differences in guitar prices by you own ears. The distorted channel, contrary, eliminates these differences: cheap guitars sound very closely to expensive ones.
It is versatile enough for home exercises, but not for stage or rehearsals with live drums.

The sound is good but is not the best. I like the clean channel, I even used its pre-amp, sending it into Peavey's Return. ValBee's clean was more bluesy for me than the Peavey's sound. But 6.5" speaker is not enough to use the ValBee's speaker for recording. That's why I used another one.
But the combo is good for home practice.

I tried to use it on a gig. Don't try to take the ValBee's sound with mike on gigs. My guitar that night was the most terrible I've ever heard.
Anyway this combo is very useful if you want to take it anywhere. For example, I have taken it to hear some used guitars. As I told before, ValBee makes it is possible to hear differences in guitar woods.

I play electric guitars more than 10 years.
I own a custom hand made 5 Watt guitar head Ostap Custom Mini. I use ValBee as a cabinet. I can say Ostap sounds more truly: ValBee is not so sensitive for dynamics. So, I think, ValBee can be good for beginners but the real sense of tubes will be hidden from the ValBee's player.
This little blue box is versatile if you have to move it from one place to another. It is versatile while it has an active EQ and an effect loop. It's good for the price. But I own a 2 or 3 times more expensive head amp, which is more truly. Maybe I will sell my ValBee later.

Controls are: Gain, Volume, Bass, Mid, Treble and Presence.
Presence shifts the frequencies above Treble only up.
One single channel, but has incorporated distortion, which is solid state (Ibanez did not say this, but found some info on the net from folks who looked in the inside of the amp).
It is a very versatile amp, features could be 10 if it had Mid Freq and a footswitch for distortion on/off (Anyway, I have naver seen a practice amp having these much controls).

First, I want to state that when using an external distortion pedal on the clean channel, you need to set teh gain over 50% to avoid fuzzy sounds, I just discovered it today, and this is the main reason I'm writing here. I play this amp at home, so I always had the gain to 25%, to use the Volume knob efficiently (with 50% gain, you turn the volume knob a little and it is already too loud for late-night practice :)). I used Rocktron Metal Planet, Ibanez TS7 and Boss DS2 with my previous amp (VOX AD100VT) and they were all sounding fine, but while I had the gain on 25% they all sounded like crap, no matter how I tweaked them.
Now they are fine, I use the gain at 1 o'clock, treble at 11 o'clock, mid at 3 o'clock and bass at 11 o'clock. So remember, if your sound is fuzzy, add gain (to the point while the sound is not distorted and back off the volume if the amp is too loud), cut some treble and add mid, and if the amp sound too boxy maybe cut some bass too.
Beside this, clean is very beautiful, on every setting, and very-very responsive to your picking. The incorporated distortion is also okay, can go from AC/DC to Iron Maiden, but I use pedals to achieve distortion.
I use the following guitars:
ESP-LTD EX351 (MH-HZ H1 set)
Ibanez XPT700 (DiMarzio DActivator set)
Squier Bullet strat (Seymour Duncans: HotRails and SSL4 in the bridge, in a humbucker slot and SSL1 in the neck).

Looks very well built, but avoid throwing it, the tubes might feel teh shock, even if it is solid on the outside. Obviously not made for gigging, even if it is pretty loud.

I had it for almost two weeks for now, It is a good amp, however, I miss my VOX a little, it was much easier to get a good sound from it, but as I found the "Gain-trick" I am really happy with the ValBee.

The ValBee has two channels - clean and overdrive. It has a master volume, presence, treble, middle, bass and gain control knobs. All eq (treb, mid & bass) potentiometers are active, so adjusting the amp should be done with a very little turns.

It has a headphone jack input (6,3mm), which may come in handy if you need to play at low volumes. It also has an effects loop, but I have never even tested it.

The amp has a single 6,5" speaker, and 5W of power. It has a 12AX7 pre-amp tube, and a 6L6GC tube. I haven't replaced them yet, because I have owned the amp just a few months.

I use this amp in my apartment (read: my little room), and it has just enough of power for my use. I usually keep the volume (scale 0-10) at 1, when playing.

Although the ValBee definetly produces enough sound when playing in an average bedroom, it doesn't have enough power to be used in a band rehearsals, for example. You can actually turn the volume at full, and sit right in the front of the amp without ear plugs (Well, it's quite loud, but you won't be feeling any pain in your ears).

The sounds of the ValBee are far more better than I expected from an amp of this price. I use a Gibson SG Special with stock pickups (currently).

The clean channel sounds really good, at all volumes from 1-10. I play with full gain all the time, because the amp just sounds best that way (You would never believe the amp had only 6,5" speaker, the sound gets really fat and full when you use full gain). If you need to soften the sound, lower the volume and tone from your guitar. The amp's clean suits really well for blues and jazz, and you can get a crispy funk rhythm guitar sound by adjusting the amp a bit. In my opinion, they could have added a reverb, although the amp sounds very good even without it.

The overdrive channel is a little drawback. It's quite noisy and muddy, and I think it should have more punch in it. You can make a lot better-sounding distortion using a clean channel with a separate overdrive pedal, for sure.

(I'm giving this amp an 8 in this category, because the cleans are so good. Overdrive would be... maybe 3.)

Well, it's very cheap, so I don't expect very much from it, but I can't give an opinion about the reliability issue.

I have never dealt with them, so no opinion.

I am a semi-professional musician, who plays a big variety of styles, including blues, funk, jazz, rock, 80's heavy metal, neoclassical and progressive rock & metal, just to name a few. I purchased the amp because my old 100W Fender combo with two 12" speakers was too big and loud for a small apartment, where I moved recently. I have been playing for a bit over nine years. I use this amp with my SG mentioned earlier, Boss DS-1 -distortion pedal and a Dunlop Crybaby -wah.

The best thing in this amp is definetly the clean channel. Fairly low hum, and the sound is really good. It makes you smile when you play.

The worst thing in this amp... is the overdrive channel. This can sound a bit funny, but the channels are like the opposite. The overdrive channel is pretty noisy, and it doesn't have the depth of the clean channel. I'll avoid using it, and if I need distortion, I play through my boss pedal, with clean channel. At least it sounds a lot better than the amp's own overdrive.

If I had to add something to this amp, it would be a spring reverb. Lacking the reverb is not a big matter, but it could make the amp a bit better.

---

So, the amp has it's pros and cons, but I'm very satisfied in it. This is one of the cheapest tube amplifiers you can buy, and it performs really well for it's price. If you need a cheap practise amp, which sounds excellent at low volumes and is small and light, this one is really worth trying.

china made all tube mini amp, 5W, active bass, middle, treble controls, presence, boost channel switch, gain, master. line out for headphones, direct recording or other amp/cabinet. fx loop

due to the active controls there's quite a range of tones this little thing has to offer. very useful is the effects loop, i connect a digitech rp50, a pod II or one of my boss/ibanez effects to add reverb, delay or modulation.

i pplay mostly rock, punk but also blues and jazz.

i use it for playing in my room or for recording with my boss 1180 digitracker - i plug it straight into the recorder and just use the cosm cabinet simulation, amp modelling or effects turned off. by that i get practically the same sound as from it's own speaker. i'll try to mike it too one of these days

for these purposes it has all i need and it is definitely loud enough. cranked up fully it could get me thrown out of my flat. i have no idea if you could use it for band practice or live, i rather doubt it.

the ValBee produces a very nice tube sound. the clean channel needs some gain before the tube character comes out, further increasing gain starts to compress the tone. with single coils i don't get much crunch on the clean settings even with full gain, but a nice warm tone with good sustain. humbuckers can produce some crunch even on the clear channel.
the overdrive channel gets fuzzy very early and fully cranked up it produces really fat distortion. and noise. more gain more noise, that's how it is. but not so bad that it would bother me in any way. it might not be the right amp for death metal.

the tone controls are active so, it has been mentioned before here, turning them up fully doesn't give you a nice sound at all! you have to tweak around a bit before you find your tone.all controls in the neutral position is a good start!

this is great for ROCK! and Blues! but you can play jazz on it too - everything you like a good tube sound with.

as mentioned, yes, it can be noisy esecially with overdrive settings

i hope i can depend on it...don't have it for long. so no, it hasn't broken down so far but that would be a joke after a few days...

i once ot in touch with the local ibanez distribution, they answered my request in a competent and constructive way

i play for 33 years. i own a few guitars and usually play at home with my Pod II. i'm not naming every piece of gear here as i have quite a lot and i don't want to bore you. my main axes are a fender tele and a Ibanez 1978 Performer

the ValBee is the perfect vehicle for me. i can play in my room and still get a true tube sound. in the shop i compared this thing with a Roland Microcube. the cube is not bad at all. but the ValBee totally blew it away.

Price paid: 15o Euro on eBay ("used" showroom model bought from a shop)

A low budget single channel all tube combo amp and a rather new Model (On the market since about 10/2005), I purchsed mine in May 2006. It has an effects loop (very good - > 8 Points), three active (yes a c t i v e !) tone control knobs (more effective than anything Marshall ever made) plus Presence knob. Of course there is Gain and Volume and a boost switch (clean<->distortion).
Construction is solid but the nice blue tolex is more a kind of patchwork than one piece. I guess it will fall off.

Personally I think my amp is faulty, that is why I returned it and got my money back. Why?
1) There was a constant buzzing noise, even with nothing plugged in at all, even with Gain and Volume at zero.
2) It was so low volume - it was probably about 0,5 Watt not 5 Watt.
I own an all Tube recording amp with a one watt Tube Poweramp made by Hughes and Kettner. If I hook that thing to a 12" Celestion and turn it all up - my goodness, what a difference to that whsipering buzzing named Ibanez but made in China crap.

I tested it with an Ibanez SZ320 (old model) stock pickups and a superstrat with two noiseless EMG select single coils and one Carvin SD22 humbucker (a real screamer).
IF YOU IGNORE THAT UGLY NOSIE
You can get a decent jazz tone (fingerpicking, Neck humbucker, highs a little off, amp on clean), it has a very good bass response for 6,5" speaker (which is crap imo btw). A REAL PLUS is the fat metal sound (bridge Humbucker), but you have to tailor it very carefully because the tone controls are active. Attention everybody BAD CRUNCH SOUND, NO REAL CLEAN SOUND for strumming that is, fingerpicking is ok.

I want to see if other models are that noisy too.

I receieved it broken I think. Perhaps the final control before shipment was not so good.

No idea. Returned it to the shop.

I play guitar now for about 16 years, from shred to jazz and back. I have owned several amps and still own a Hughes& Kettner Crunch Master (great Vintage clean and crunch sounds) and a Roland Jazz Chorus 120 which are both keepers. Now, that JC 120 is a loud (!) and clean (!) amp that absolutely sucks if you want to use the built in distortion. I like the sound of a Hiwatt Custom 50 very much but could never buy one. :-(
As I returned the ValBee to the shop, I will check out the small Orange and Vox Amps for home use. I just can't use the JC120 in the living room. It simply is too loud.

It got what it needs. Input (5mV), output (5mV), input and output (20mV). That is quite nice if you are in for home recording or if you like jamming with friends. The standby switch is a nice feature making your tubes last a little longer + allowing you to plug the guitar in and out without having to turn te amp off (and thus making your tubes last longer).
It got a active eq on it, at first glance I couldn't get the right sounds out but after a while I found out it is a very sensitive tone control. The prescence button does the job nicely. Ok no reverb or other special effects. I don't need it since I got enough multieffect pedals to get all that.

Aria pro 2, no other pedals, just the amp. I have compared my guitar with many other (much more) expensive ones concluding that my guitar has the same sound as the joe santariani form Ibanez so I can't blame the guitar for any bad things. furthermore the manual+ website has lied about the power tube claiming that it is a 6L6 but in reality it is a more rare 6L6GC

Ok lets pu the thing on. Yep it is a tube amp thats for sure. Needs about 60 seconds to warm up. The bad thing is (hey what do you want 170 euro!!) that the internal electric suply is not fully stabilized so after putting the volume up to over half the tubes started buzzing. I have tested some other amps amongside with stabliziled electrical suplies and you could hear the difference. Maybe if you ground the amp properly the minor problem may resolve but lets be fair.. It is a practise amp for those who want professional sound for cheap ;) Also interesting to notice is the fact that when I tested this thingy in store it didn't make as much noise as it does now. Propably the tubes start degrading quickly causing the humming.

Started with the clean channel. After some fooling around with the settings I can only conclude one thing. The clean channel sounds phenomenal!! Authentic tube sound, loud in a small room ;) but it sounds like it should be, no his no buzz no fake clean here.
What I really like about this thing is the kink you can hear from the power tetrode. Especialy on high gain the tetrode starts releasing that weird high tone when picking hard on the strings.

The distortion is also not dissapointing. Ok it doesn't sound like a metal zone (I compared it!!) but it can be used for metal sounds. After some tweaking and tuning I managed to release a sound very close to that of the metal zone with the difference being caused by the fact we are talking about tubes here!! Haven't managed to get things like slash or van halen out but things like bbdady and jimmyx has proven succes. Though I must admit that my fast soloing technique still sux so maybe I will be able to create such sounds in the future ;) Strangely the distortion channel sounds alot more quiet. I don't know why, maybe some security to make sure we don't blow the power tube up?
I compared this amp with an 100 watt engl amp and can conclude that this amp cannot produce powerfull sound without having the volume open completely. This is more a tube technical problem caused by the weak output of the power tube causing therefore less distortion on the end. Can be resolved with high open volume but don't look strange if the neighbours drop by to finish you off as it makes enough sound.

Long story with some conclusions:
1. Definetly no stage amp by NO means. It simply doesn't have the power to do that and pushing it to its limits may prove fatal to this amp since the 6L6's maximum output is 6,4 watts.
2. Very tube authentic sound. The clean is perfect and the distortion can do, In fact the distortion is good but the output of the amp is to weak to get that real fat sound you hear on the radio.
3. if you play at home, if you are a poor student but still want to have a very good nearly professional sound. This is one of the amps that are worth your money. There are more tube amps available (behringer) for cheap and even cheaper but I couldn't find them in store.

Recording may also prove worthless as the sound also gets nice warm and smooth becuase of the acoustics of the speaker box.

Definetly no 10 for this boy but it sounds hell better then many of the price ranged crappy solid state amps. (also tried all the solid state amps within the same price range with good expensive guitars, let them be played by pro guitarist and they all suck).
I didn't believe all that tube talk at first but after some days of extensive playing I am convinsed for sure.

Final words to say. This amp is not cheap. I have seen cheaper tube amps for sale. 150 euro for 20 watts. 200 euro for 10 watts etc. So look around for those if you can. Maybe they sound better. But definetly go for tubes!!

Solid. Haven't tried to drop it from a flat building orso. I bet it won't break apart if you let it fall from lets say 2 stories but it is a tube amp. Tubes amps can die quickly if exposed to shocks.
I allready made some mistakes like putting the wrong plugs in the wrong channels and the boy still works :) (lucky me) Looks like they secured some of the channels. I don't expect this amp will blow up easily since I also found other bariers of security inside such as fuses and special voltage relinks.

It gets a 7 because the 10 is only for the boss pedals (I have trown those things from 20 stories on hard stone and they still work). the 8 and 9 is for the rest of the indestructibles and I bet this amp can die easier. It is a home amp no on stage metal thingy.

Haven't dealt with the costumer support. Though some remarks.
2 years warranty (nice)
Horrible, sad paper to whipe your ^%&* with as a manual. They could have put some more effort into that manual. I have heard some stories from friends Ibanez doens't even sell the schematics of this amp which is a very sad story. I respect the fact they want to keep the sound secret but hey come on.. It isn't a world famous marshal JCM like amp. And so what anyway, schematics will come available over time as electronics freaks like me will open those things up and start figuring out how they are put together. Sad story indeed. Ill give them a 5 for that.

Actually you can rate this thing from three points of view.
I play about everything except for country muscic.
It is really a good amp if you like to play at home with a pro sound for very cheap. If you have a very small room (like mine) this i the solution (8).
If you play death metal or black metal you maybe may consider to put a metal zone in front of it. You can get the right sound but it takes a long tweaking which may prove irritating when playing together with friends (then ill rate it a 7).
If you play life, gigs or you jam along with powerfull instruments (drums) then you can forget about this thing. The 5 watts are simply not enough to be heard (rating in this case 3)

If have compared this amp with some engl, marshal and fender amps. With different guitars and different players and it doesn't sound bad at all. Thos who say that the sound sucks simply don't have technique and should practise more!! ;)

lots of features: powerful active EQ,effects loop,a nice recording output/headphone,it's cute and small

sounds great ,very 'pentode' like,macho distortion...I have hooked it to a 1 x 12 and kicked ass

seems very well built

this people at Ibanez are very unhelpful,and their UK support is crap as well

serious little amp,beats the hell of virtually all similarly sized transistor or modelling amps

Well - I think we are all capable to check the specs on Ibanez's homepage so I won't waste any time here - only lack - the missing reverb unit!

I use a gibson LP special with P90 and a Les paul Standard with this little fellow for home practise. Being 34,playing mostly a blues and jazz, I am totally happy with its warm and dynamic tube clean tone - it is true that the distortion is not as loud as the clean channel - but boys - THIS IS A PRACTISE and RECORDING unit - not a live amp. So for me it makes totally sense that Ibnaez handled things this way - due to that loudness differnece it is possible to play high tube gain in your sleeping room without making your neighbour getting his chainsaw... It has a little steady hum /sizzling sound which is natural for a class A amp -owned a fender pro junior before - same thing
The active equalizer is very sensitive - so please take your time to play tenderly around with it - otherwise you might be disappointed and won 't recieve the great results this little thing is capale of.
The only definite minus for me is a missing reverb - truely - nothing fancy - but a neat little spring reverb unit is all it needs to make this amp the ultimate friend for the road.

Well - after 6 weeks I guess it is not appropriate to judge anything in this department yet - time will tell - looks pretty solid and well built to me

-never had to contact them

Wonderful rich warm clean tubesound - I truely would recommend it anytime before any hybrids - had them all - microcube -VOX DA 5- Cube 30 - AD 15 VT - close but no cigar... A tube will always stay a tube !
That's a fact, as males won't give birth on this earth for the next couple of decades too....