# Valve Junior combo has arrived...



## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

I got my valve junior combo today, after all the reading I have been doing on it and seeing all the mods... I decided I had to have it (GAS) for a practice amp. Took it out of the box, plugged it in and waited for about 1/2 an hour then turned the volume to about half and waited another 20 minutes. It has been said they need plenty warm up time. I will say at this point the noise issue has been taken care of, this baby is quiet for a tube amp absolutely no noise at half and a small small hiss at full. I plugged in my strat, a 70's reissue partscaster with CS69 pups. At 10/11 oclock position nice cleans, at 2 oclock tube breakup starting to happen, full crank ... whoa lots of punch and OD tones. Nice harmonics coming from the strat. Tried two other beaters and they sounded good also. Still to try some other guitars thru it but for 216.00 taxes in this is a sweet little amp. I have ordered the bitmo spanky mods for it so I'll update when that happens. Now on with the evaluation..... :rockon2:


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

The BitMo spanky mod has arrived and been installed. yes it makes a big difference in sound. The clean is a lot brighter not so dark, the bite is growlly just the way you like it. The mods are simple but very effective and Bruce gives you some suggestions to play with. All said this is a pretty cool amp for a low price and a few mods.. Next step is the output transformer.


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## 2005fz1 (Oct 9, 2006)

Thanks for the review Paul. I have been following this amp from the beginning. So many positive reviews on the net , I think I will pull the trigger and try to get a good boxing day deal! :food-smiley-004: 

FZ1


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

You can't lose for the money. The combo is well built,noise free and a few mods it sounds great. As said I did the BitMo and there was a huge improvement, now I have ordered new tubes and a Hammond Output transformer. These mods were on the gear page and the upgrade of the OT is suppose to help things quite noticeably. I'll let you know once there in.


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## 2005fz1 (Oct 9, 2006)

PaulS said:


> I'll let you know once there in.



:thanks5qx: 

FZ1


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

I have installed the JJ's and they did make a noticeable improvement in sound. Bruce from BitMo mentioned that his mods were tuned for the JJ's. I also added a small mod to his input circuit installing a selector switch that offers a second step of gain if desired. Still waiting for the Output tranny.
This little amp is starting to sound real nice.....


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

PaulS said:


> I have installed the JJ's and they did make a noticeable improvement in sound. Bruce from BitMo mentioned that his mods were tuned for the JJ's. I also added a small mod to his input circuit installing a selector switch that offers a second step of gain if desired. Still waiting for the Output tranny.
> This little amp is starting to sound real nice.....



I hope you are recording before and after clips. I'd like to hear them.


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

That's the one area I don't have covered, you can buy them cheap enough I just haven't gotten around to it .....:frown: yet.


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

As an update I've spent numerous hours studying the mods at 18Watt.com and a few other places and basically learning my way around a small simple class A amp. With the use of an audio probe I was able to find a problem in one of the mods I did. I changed the R1/R2 resistor combo, the R6/R7/R8/R9 and R15 values as well as the C3/C4 and C5 values. The next step was installing a Hammond 125DSE output transformer and JJ tubes. Well it's not the same amp I bought at the local music store. It's a beast.... :banana: 
Lovely tone and huge gain. Lots of clean headroom and punch. I am patiently waiting for the final step, a Weber 8" 8F125 speaker... This little baby is turning out better than I had hoped for...


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## Ripper (Jul 1, 2006)

I've gotta get one of these to play around with. I need a low powered practice amp and it sounds like these will take care of two of my needs, one, the practice amp and two my inherit need to change, modify and play around with!


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## 2005fz1 (Oct 9, 2006)

HeY looks like Epiphone has been having enough Great Reviews to update and add a Cab !
What do ya think? I'm gonna be looking at this for sure! 
Not too many details yet that I can find, maybe room for 10 or 12" speaker?










FZ1


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

There are all kind of mod suggestions available online, and for a starter like myself it turned out to be sort of an education and a cool little amp. These suckers are loud for 5 Watts once you swap the Output Transformer. My buddy has a silver face Champ and this will kick it's butt. Like there new idea about the cab, that looks good.


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## Tarbender (Apr 7, 2006)

I did most of the same mods as you PaulS... the big diiference with the Hammond swap is that it raises the power output from the stock 5 watts to closer to 15 watts, and increase headroom and bottom end. I had a lotta fun modding mine too and can't believe what a little beast it has turned out to be. Best $150.00 amp I've ever bought!!!


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

Where did you find this pic? Is going to be a NAMM thing? I didn't find out anything at the Epiphone Site.



2005fz1 said:


> FZ1


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## Ripper (Jul 1, 2006)

so what is the sound like if a person opts to keep the original tranny so the watt stays down?


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## Tarbender (Apr 7, 2006)

It's still a good sounding amp.... just better with the new tranny.


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

Yea the tranny upgrade offers huge results.After that it's the speaker.


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## 2005fz1 (Oct 9, 2006)

I found the pic on the epiphone forum, go to http://www.epiphone.com look around to the forum link on the bottom of the main page, then select "Epiphone Amps & Accessories" in the forum section.The thread is named "Good news for people who want valve jr. cab!"
Sorry I can't seem to find the the url when I visit.

FZ1


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## Rumble_b (Feb 14, 2006)

I love my jr. I've only had it for a month and plan to start modding it soon, still reading up on it. I did plug it in to my buddys 4x12 cab and loved every second of it.


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

Still tinkering...  just did a BitMo Trio upgrade. It features a tone control (nice) and a pull pot for huge boost. Also has three way voicing switch. I left a couple of the other mods intact from previous tinkering. Whoa they do mean a BitMo. It's a great mod kit and now available from the tube store. The tone control is very nice... the voicing switch offers a nice range ... lo, mo, whoa .... Still waiting for the weber, that should finalize the upgrades..


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

Well I think I'm done with it. The weber 8" went in and again a huge improvement over the stock. I tried the spanky mod from bitmo, it was nice but I wanted more so I went with the trio mods. The addition of the tone control is nice especially when you have a different selection of guitars . The gain voicing mod is nice also. The only thing left is to figure out how to work a footswitch on the boost option from bitmo. Replaced C1/C2 with PIO caps which added to the mods. Only thing is with the new tranny and speaker installed this thing is now a heavy little sucker....


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## Ripper (Jul 1, 2006)

Hey that is cool that you got it turned in a smokin little amp. What's your total investment in the amp with the mods etc?


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

To slightly hijack this thread, do you think this may be a bit of competition for the Valve Junior (I've seen street price of $199 US - still much higher the VJ)










http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=2330100000


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

Total in with the cost of the original combo 189.00 I would say I'm at about 400.00, still not a bad little amp for the cost. It was also a learning expierence. While waiting for the Bitmo kit I tried a few mods suggested at the 18watt.com thread and there was one combo that sounded pretty good. I put those componenets aside when I got the Trio mod kit. So maybe the total would be a little lower but I did a bit of fooling around with it. The tranny and speaker were the bigger costs. But I am at a point where I am going to try it out at our open mic nights and see if it can cut the rug...


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

Robert1950 said:


> To slightly hijack this thread, do you think this may be a bit of competition for the Valve Junior (I've seen street price of $199 US - still much higher the VJ)
> 
> 
> 
> ...



and the volume can be turned up to 12.....


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