MERRY CHRISTMAS
Just unwrapped the Valve Senior Combo that Santa brung me, and have already been playing with the various settings. All I can say is
WOW!!!!
This thing sounds great. The suggested settings are pretty good, although with a little tweaking they can be truly outstanding. Lots of dynamic range and touch sensitivity here, highly adjustable gain, plenty of volume and a TON of great sounds inside this box. I have found a few downsides, some serious and some purely design issues:
(1) It has as much reverb as my 5E3, which is to say it is non-existant. Any word from Epiphone on recommended improvements? I had a Mesa Mark IIb with this issue and even the folks at Mesa said that was just the way it was.
(2) When I went to check the reverb tube (hey, maybe it was dead already) I discovered that the back panel was on so tight I literally could not get it open. Eventually, I was able to get the back panel off (hey it is a very good fit, if a wee bit tighter than I expected!) and I discovered that,
(3) While the power tubes are chassis mounted, the 12AX7's are mounted direct to the PCB. As it ages, the heat and vibration are likely to age it prematurely
(4) It was actually bigger and heavier than I expected. Not Fender Twin heavy, but I seemed to think it would be about 16"x16" and weigh about 30 lbs. It's acually 18"x18" and weighs about 40. Not a huge difference, but I was a bit surprised when I pulled it out of the box.
All in all, it is definitely a keeper, especially for the price!
