epiphone valve jr

chris · Post by **chris** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 1:03 pm

Scored one at Guitar Center (only place in town that stocks them), it was a display model so I got them to know 20 bucks off the price and the speaker is already a little broken in. I had origionally planned on using this essentially as a kit to build a ga-5 copy since you defintely can't buy even just a cabinet for 100 bucks. I got the thing home and cranked it up, sounds great with my lp jr. I'm shocked, this amp is at least 95% of the ga-5. I will probably still swap some components, it won't cost much to put higher quality caps and resisters in it at least. I'm not sure if I should try mallory's, sozo's or both. Do you guys think it would be worth trying Freds in it? I was thinking of replacing the speaker but it sounds great and is apparently an epiphone relabeled weber sigature 8 (it sounds and looks like the one thats in my champ too). I might try to replace the iron and tubes but this thing is surprisingly good stock.

PJD · Post by **PJD** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 12:17 pm

Can you link to the schematics for the mods your thinking of? I have one of those too and I've decided to make a little project out of it. I hooked it up to a 12" Celestion and liked it much better so I'm going to make a 1x12 combo out of it.

daniel · Post by **daniel** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 2:02 pm

I have the ga-5 and swapped out the mallory caps it came with for sozos(there is only two to change) and I liked them a lot better. The difference isn't as big as a speaker or tube change would be but there is more clarity now and the mids especially sound better with the sozos. I put in a nos polam el84 and and rca 12ax7a and those changes made the biggest difference in the tone of the amp.. I also tried a weber signature 8s alnico speaker cause it only cost me twenty bucks. I had it in there for a while but ended up liking the stock speaker better cause it was brighter and had a lot more headroom. I imaginge the epiphone would benefit greatly from sozo's and some good tubes.

PJD · Post by **PJD** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:08 pm

I've been digging around and found these links to Mod pages on another forum
http://www.coolpick.com/way/cool/about/valvejunior.html
and this one
http://www.euthymia.org/DIY/VJmods.html

As i learn more I'm going to attempt some of these. Any opinions from the experts around here?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:26 am

Ohhh, it just keeps gettin' better...

http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?Pro ... ctionID=13

BashCoder · Post by **BashCoder** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 11:29 am

Anonymous wrote:Ohhh, it just keeps gettin' better...

http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?Pro ... ctionID=13

Just bought one from http://music123.com -- they are taking pre-orders at $99. But I may need to go stereo...

BashCoder · Post by **BashCoder** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 1:08 pm

Haha -- Gibson tells me that the Valve Jr. Head is 15" wide, and their cool (and cheap) matching 4x12 cab is 30" wide. Just wide enough to fit two heads, and the cab has a stereo mode.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=601611

Of course, the head doesn't come out until June...

BashCoder · Post by **BashCoder** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:10 am

Just received a Valve Junior head today. Pretty cool box -- seems really well made, and the tolex is beautiful. Turned it on and played around just a few minutes with it. It's a pretty cool little amp. The main faults are that it lacks low end and the distortion is too gravelly when cranked. But I'm always surprised how loud 5 watts can be!

I'm going to open it up, check out some mods, and maybe replace some parts and tubes to see what we can do with this thing. At $99, this thing is a pretty amazing deal.