Post by saguitar on Dec 29, 2012 11:31:43 GMT -5
I mentioned this little monster in another thread, so I thought I better post a picture for y'all. This is my Epiphone Valve Junior, all 5 glorious watts produced by two little tubes. I have dedicated this box to a late, good friend of James and mine, Terry, because he was a guitar and amp master, and he gave me a lot of advice while I was supercharging this pup. I don't know if they are even available now, but when I bought this one, it sold for $99.00.
If you're familiar with the Valve Jr., you know that they come stock with just the power switch and the volume knob on the front panel. All the rest of what you see there are additions to the stock amp. On the right side, there is a BitMo sticker that I put on there because I used several of his upgrade kits in the upgrade. And just below that, I installed a standby switch because I just think that any tube amp worth its salt should have one.
On the left, there is a new tone knob, which has great voicing, allowing me to dial in a sweet spot for anything from a 335, an LP, or a Telecaster, very handy. Additionally, the tone knob is a push/pull pot that engages a boost, and while the boost is not adjustable, it does have a nice bump to it. I especially like to engage it once in awhile with my Tele, and that pushes the tone into a lightly overdriven range that is useful for a nice crunchy rhythm tone.
The next switch to the right of the tone knob is a BitMo alteration that gives Junior three gain stages (Low, Mo', and Whoa!). Most of the time I play it in the Low mode, which is super clean at low volumes (which is where I practice a lot), and gives the amp as much headroom as you can expect for 5 watts of output. The Mo' stage pushes Junior into a fairly crunchy stage with moderate overdrive at the amps lower volumes, and increasing as you turn it up. And lastly, the Whoa! stage puts the amp into a serious, growling distortion, ready to affront anyone within range. All three of these stages are useful, and each are quite dynamic, enabling you to clean up the signal by just rolling back the volume control on your guitar.
Yeah, so those are the visible changes to Valve Junior. Underneath the hood are several notable upgrades, and this is where our friend Terry helped me out a lot. He recommended a transformer for me, and that put some serious steel into the heart of the amp, giving it a very bold character and presence. Terry also suggested some better tubes, and capacitors which went in with no sweat.
This is the first amp I have ever modded, and I really can't believe how well it turned out. I have a choice of several great vintage tube amps to play through at home, but Junior is my go-to amp and gets a the largest load of playing time. I get quality inspired tones out of him every time I crank it up.
I don't know that it matters much because this amp sounds great through every cabinet I own, but most of time I play him through a solid back cab housing 2-10" Carvin speakers.
Many thanks to Owwdatune (Terry)