Epiphone Valve Jr Amp Head

[Panamark]

Man... I gotta stop visiting this forum, I keep seeing shit that is way too fucking cool for words....

This looks awesome, what a great little amp...
Ive always wanted a luggable little amp with a
big tube sound. This looks like the baby !!

(Especially with the new transformer fitted !)

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by Panamark
Man... I gotta stop visiting this forum, I keep seeing shit that is way too fucking cool for words....

This looks awesome, what a great little amp...
Ive always wanted a luggable little amp with a
big tube sound. This looks like the baby !!

(Especially with the new transformer fitted !)

I just wrestled two 4x12 cabinets up a narrow stairway and I hear ya. After catching my breath from the experience I was seriousely asking myself why. Shit, a little 30 Watt combo probably would do it but I just like the thump of a good 4x12 getting spanked by a good amp.

[BrownSound1]

I agree Nitro...nothing beats the thump of a 4x12.

[ELVIS]

One of these heads might respectably push a good 4x12...

[BrownSound1]

Originally posted by ELVIS
One of these heads might respectably push a good 4x12...

And with it being 5 watts it wouldn't render you sterile or have the police beating down your door.

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by ELVIS
One of these heads might respectably push a good 4x12...

I had the smallest Peavy classic combo which was like 12 watts and pushed a pair of EL-84 tubes. I ran that through a Marshall 1960B cab with 25 watt Celesians and it sounded great! Like a fool I got rid of that little amp for some reason and it was really peddle friendly and versitile.

My little toy head is a Sovtek Mig 50H and I have found it very versitile. It's EQ sensative and speaker sensative. It loves Peavey 5150 cabinets as well as Marshall 1960 cabinets. Small cabinets tend to sound thin and colorless. This little amp likes 4x12's and the hi gain channel is loud as shit once you go past 2 on the master volume. The clean channel is glassy nice.

Yup I'm a 4x12 man, in fact I have a 5150 cab in my little dressing room and I practice in my bedroom around the corner. the top of the cabinet doubles as extra counter space. LOL!

[Nitro Express]

Actually I have found 1x12 and 2x12 cabinets to be actually louder than 4x12 cabinets at low volumes. A 1x12 can rip your fucking head off!

Because Jim Marshall and Ken Bran went with a 4x12 cabinet with low wattage speakers with the first JTM 45 amp they made, that really shows they understood how to make an efficient speaker system.

The 4x12 can sound great at low practicing volumes and still do the job at high stage volumes. Combos or small speaker cabinets are actually louder at lower volumes and tottaly fart out when pushed. A 4x12 is the best of both worlds and I don't care if you have a 8 watt amp or a 200 watt monster. It's going to work.

The only drawback is moving the damn things up narrow stairs. LOL!

[Nitro Express]

I personally think a lot of the famouse Marshall tone is the excellent Marshall speaker cabinets. Marshall always had good cabinets. They have changed suprisingly little from the 1960's.

[Panamark]

Yup, Marshall CABS RULE !

And any of their heads up until about 88..
Well thats my humble opinion anyways...

Have to admit Ive heard some of the later
model solid state Marshalls that sounded good.

You need a good head job too though !

(its gotta be tubes 4 me..)

Besides, who doesnt feel all warm and fuzzy
when you look into the ventilation grill and
see those little suckers all glowing !!

[Nitro Express]

A lot of the solid state and digital moddeling stuff sounds good now but since tubes are still available, I'm playing the fire bottles still.

In a funny way, digital technology have brought the need for tube power amps back. It's been found that running a cold sounding digital recorded CD through a tube power amp warms the sound up because tubes are inneficient and cause a natural delay.

I'm running my home theater with Golden tube SE-40 amps and whoah does it make a difference! Those amps are a real bargain on Ebay. I'm running two of them into four JBL speakers and using a solid state amp to pump the subwoofers.

So when I'm watching a movie I see a tottal of 16 tubes glowing!

[BrownSound1]

Originally posted by Panamark
Yup, Marshall CABS RULE !

And any of their heads up until about 88..
Well thats my humble opinion anyways...

Have to admit Ive heard some of the later
model solid state Marshalls that sounded good.

You need a good head job too though !

(its gotta be tubes 4 me..)

Besides, who doesnt feel all warm and fuzzy
when you look into the ventilation grill and
see those little suckers all glowing !!

I agree...pretty much anything from the JCM 800 on back to the original JTM 45s are the shit. I just can't get into anything after that...just too fuzzy and buzzy.


My biggest bitch with modelling amps are the way they respond. They just don't FEEL like tube amps. I'm sure they'll eventually get it close enough, but they still don't have it nailed down. Plus, the demand for vacuum tubes is still here...perhaps greater than it has in 30 years. Western Electric is making tubes in the States again...right here in Huntsville, AL. They're mainly geared for the hi-fi market, but they will produce some guitar tubes in the future.

I have it on good authority too that if you want a very Mullard sounding EL-34 then try the new Chinese tubes. Shuguang brand. The early ones wouldn't hold up, but now they're on like their 4th generation and seem to have worked many of the problems out.

[ELVIS]

Hmmm...

I don't know about that...

A buzzy tube amp is a pain in the ass, especially when it doesn't work properly or even POWER UP...

A good modeling amp lets you actually play your guitar...

[BrownSound1]

...and sound like shit.

Whenever you dial a "Plexi" up on one of those modelling amps it doesn't sound like a Plexi. More of an approximation. Now sure, you can fool most people on a recording with some eq and what not, but to me it ain't nothing like playing one. Maybe it is the whole volume thing, I don't know. I just know it is different.

I'll be honest, I've never had much trouble with tube amps. So either I'm extremely lucky, or I just do my maintenance.

[ELVIS]

Fair enough...

My Behringer Bass V-Amp Pro that I use as a "Marshall" might fool you though...

IF I plug it into a tube amp, which is actually my current set up...

But you are 100% correct...

I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea...

[Nitro Express]

Tube heads and 4x12's get damn HEAVY! I never really had reliability problems. But I let my amp cool down before moving it and a lot of guys don't.

The problem with modeling amps is they run the pre amp into a standard HiFi solid state power amp. They sound much better if you run them through a tube power amp so the tube and transformer saturation smoothes the digital sample out and you still get the feel of the tube amp. The moddeling becomes like a peddle.

I would love to see a digital preamp ran into a EL-34 powered power amp with a tube and solid state rectifier in the power supply. I don't know if someone makes that in one box yet.