Well, I said goodbye to a couple of old friends yesterday…two amps and a cab. Actually, the one amp was awesome and I wanted to keep it forever, but I just wasn’t using it, and money dictates that I cannot keep what I am not immediately using, unfortunately. The cab was great and I’d had it forever. The other amp was pretty killer, too, but every once in a while (like every week) I just feel the need to look for something else. So I sold it to get something that was closer to what I needed….or wanted….I find that the further I go in my quest for tone, the more ‘need’ and ‘want’ get mixed up. And I revel in it.
So, anyway, I’ve been having trouble finding the amp I wanted, and the church has been needing a house rig anyway, so I figure I’ll buy something decent and hopefully inexpensive that can get me through the next couple weeks while I look for an amp that fits my needs; and I can then donate it to the church afterwards. Usually I go up to the shops in Hollywood for needs (or wants…I know, I know) such as this, but right now gas costs like what my grandfather paid for his first house, and a trip to Hollywood will take a good two hours worth of traffic sucking up said expensive gas. So I went to my local Guitar Center to check things out. Yes, I know. Most of you who know me know that there is a little bit of bitterness lodged deep within my heart toward Guitar Center. Basically, they sell a lot of junk and then treat you as if you should feel honored to give them your money in exchange for said junk. And I dislike that just a little bit. But, every once in a while, you can find some good deals on some not-so-junkie gear.
But…that not-so-junkie gear is usually found in the boutique room (they very originally call it “The Vault”) or hidden behind the Krankenstein amps with a ‘Used’ tag on it. (And for those of you who think I just made that up…nope. There really is an amp called the Krankenstein. And please note…if you play out of a Krankenstein, you’re awesome. I can’t and will never for the life of me be able to get a good sound out of that amp or most of the amps at Guitar Center…but if you can, then hats off, props, and more power to you!) So….I go into “The Vault” and there’s one or two vintage amps that I like, but the prices are way jacked up. So I continue to look around, and my eyes fall upon the Epiphone Valve Junior.
(Note the U2 book and picture in the background. U2 makes me happy. And yes, that is a Frodo action figure in the background on the right…he and Samwise Gamgee are still in their shrink wrap and will one day fetch me thousands of dollars for my retirement because that’s what old shrink-wrapped toys do when you sell them 40 years later. These are the things I tell myself.)
So there’s the Epiphone Valve Junior….rumored to be an all tube circuit. Now once again….a little background about myself: I like tubes. I like them very much. I think they make the best sounding amps. You may not think this, and that’s cool. But I love tubes very much. And I love tube amps that have been handbuilt. I like the clarity of the sound when the signal is unimpeded by circuit boards and the like. So, I never really gave this amp much thought, as its a production run amp, not a handbuilt one. It’s also very inexpensive, and as a general rule, large companies like Epiphone like to make large profits. So if something is this inexpensive, I immediately think that if they’re still making their usual profit, then this thing must be really cheaply made. However, I have read some really good reviews on this amp, and they look pretty trick, and it is just chilling there in the store. So I pick up a fairly decent guitar, find a cable (a feat at Guitar Center these days), and try it out.
First chord sounds…..good. What? Can’t be. It must just be that it is the first in tune thing my ears have heard since walking into Guitar center and being attacked with warlike fury by the out of tune guitars in chorus playing eight different versions of ‘Crazy Train’. So I play another chord….then a little riff. Still sounds good. The notes are sitting on top of each other nicely. The cleans sound very full. Overdrive isn’t bad. Both neck and bridge pickup bring out different subtleties from the amp. So I talk to a sales guy, the amps are on closeout, and out the door I go with an all tube head and birch cab with an Eminence 12 inch speaker for right around 200 bucks.
So now for the review. Yikes, I talk a lot! I’m just now getting to the review? Oh, well.
So, it’s a 5 watt head with a 12AX7 tube for the preamp, and an EL84 tube for the power amp. I would guess that it would normally give about 2.5 watts, but the solid state rectifier helps give it more output and probably higher clean headroom (Fenders are great at this). And don’t let the term ‘solid state’ for the rectifier get you down. Solid State rectifiers have been used in fender amps for years, and I personally like the flavor they give…not worse, but just different, and probably less saturated but cleaner than tube rectifiers. So I plugged my board into my main amp, and then a/b’d it with the Epiphone. And the Epiphone sounded very good. Not nearly as good, but much better than I expected, and good enough for me to keep it, which I still wasn’t expecting. It sounds very warm, and surpisingly full. Good harmonics. Not very much clean headroom (I mean, it’s 5 watts), but perfect for a church or small club situation where the sound tech wants less stage volume and you’re going to mic the amp anyway. Past about 10 or 11 o’clock, the amp starts to overdrive with humbuckers. Not a completely saturated overdrive, but still really good sounding. Highs are lacking a bit. Overall, a very good amp. I don’t know if Epiphone was trying to make a good amp, or if they just wanted to make the cheapest tube amp they could, and in so doing came up with a really, really clean and simple circuit. But it sounds very good. The speaker in the cab is good, but totally mismatched. It’s 70 watts, and it’s being paired with a 5 watt head. I’ll probably replace the speaker so it gets pushed more.
So, final words would be…..
A very good amp if you’re going to be mic’ing it. Missing a bit of the high end in the tone…some people like that, though. It won’t hold its own in a loud band practice with no mic’ing. A fantastic amp for the money ($200, sometimes cheaper on e-bay). And there’s a ton of mods you can look up online and do yourself, or send the amp to someone to do it for you. You might want to change the speaker, to a lower wattage one to run more efficiently off of the head, and I’m guessing the tubes are something Russian or Chinese production, so it’ll probably do the tone good to change them to JJ or something vintage.
Hope that was somewhat informative. As someone who tries to be accepting of all avenues to tone, but ends up unfortunately being a boutique and vintage snob sometimes, I had to eat some humble pie playing through this amp. Not the best, but very good.
Splendid.
Karl
Guitar for Worship 