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Valve Junior Head-Version 3


normy

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Hello i have been reading about all the mods that you can do

 

ie:

-Bitmo mods,

-various switches like gain,brightness, and standby

 

now questions

 

1) i heard that if you have a V3 VJ head then you dont need to do the basic mods to bring the tone up to par

is this true

2)if i wanted to get more wattage what would be a good mod for this

3)would running a eq pedal be as effective as having those controls actually in the amp

4) what would be the advantages of having a tone control

 

I want to mod the V3 VJ to be a louder amp than stock, I want to be able to get cleaner tones at higher volume control levels beacause i have been reading that after about 12:00 1:00 ish the clean is gone

 

thanks

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I don't own a valve junior, but this is what I know or have heard from other forumers.

 

1) I think. I've heard the OT is better.

2) From reading the bottom comment, you want more clean headroom. A good option is to switch the preamp tube for something with less gain. Check this out: http://thetubestore.com/gainfactor.html . You might also want to consider a retube with different tubes of higher quality that are a little louder with more headroom.

3) Yes, but you get a lot more versatility because you get many bands as opposed to the usual 3 on most amps.

4) You could control (usually treble) a certain frequency on the amp. You could fine tune some of the sound.

 

Hope it helps.

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Hello i have been reading about all the mods that you can do

 

ie:

-Bitmo mods' date='

-various switches like gain,brightness, and standby

 

now questions

 

1) i heard that if you have a V3 VJ head then you dont need to do the basic mods to bring the tone up to par

is this true

2)if i wanted to get more wattage what would be a good mod for this

3)would running a eq pedal be as effective as having those controls actually in the amp

4) what would be the advantages of having a tone control

 

I want to mod the V3 VJ to be a louder amp than stock, I want to be able to get cleaner tones at higher volume control levels beacause i have been reading that after about 12:00 1:00 ish the clean is gone

 

thanks[/quote']

 

1. yes and no. That is, they swapped the OT, and they put a 1M res. in R1.. this did two things, made the OT match the amp much better.. and gave it a boost right at the input.

Quite a difference between V1/2 and V3 right there.

But it's not really all you can do for the tone.. not by a long shot.

 

2. More watts means you have to have another tube. For that you'd have to add a socket, drill a hole in the chassis, swap a few components, and choose a tube.. but, you'd also have to add a bigger OT. Like the Hammond 125ESE.

 

3/4. since these are related both at once.

Some people prefer to not use the usual Tweed tone control, or the Bitmo tone control, and use a pedal in front, EQ or bright/boost are typical.

Modding the amp can bring up the highs quite dramatically. Tweaking the tone control to your taste means once your done, no bother with pedals and cords and cables.. it's right there.

The Tweed tone control works to attenuate the highs.. these can be quite sharp...and allows you to switch guitars, different pickups, and get the right sound for them.

Is it as effectice to have a pedal.. well, it depends on the pedal, all of them do introduce some noise, and some color your tone so much that when you bypass it and compare that to plugged straight in, you can hear the tone loss.

Good pedal, good results, not so good pedal. not so good results.

 

If you want a loud clean amp, 5 watts aint gonna do it anywhere outside your bedroom according to most folks.

add drums bass another instrument..not typically enough clean headroom can be had.

 

I'm currently adding a 6V6 tube, to run with the El84 power tube, and that should give me enough power to get the clean tones up to snuff with the current overdrive sounds..

 

If you switch the preamp tube for less gain at that stage, you wont get any more clean volume as far as outright power goes.. you just get more on the dial. That is, it won't be any louder, you'll just have your distortion farther up the dial.

 

IOW.. tube swaps can reduce your dist. but they can't add watts.

If you need more power.. that is, truly louder cleans, you have to make the amp something it currently isn't.

 

If you just need more cleans on the dial, but not really much louder, if at all, then tube swaps, and some other mods, can do that nicely.

 

One of my heads has vol., tone and gain.. and I like the combination a lot. It's done a lot for allowing me to get various sounds out of the vj.. let's me swap pickups, get blues, rock, clean tones, and harder rock sounds, think early metal, with just a few flicks.

But it doesn't do anything for power, even with the bigger OT.

 

The V3 OT still wont have the big bottom end boost the Hammond will give you.. but it's a matched OT now and sounds much better than the ones I got in my V2s.

And it's quite acceptable.

 

I had all sorts of switches on my two heads. In the end, I skipped them all, except the NFB and standby.

Once the head was tweaked to my taste, the gain/tone/vol was al I felt I needed except for the vol. reduction

that the NFB gave me.

 

The efx loop that this amp will take is a line level signal.. NOT a small weak guitar signal, but the full signal coming off your preamp tube. So you can't run your amp into a pedal.. unless it's a rack type or something that will take a strong signal...

I bring this up because if you ran that loop into, say, a single channel 15 or 31 band eq.. it would be able to take that preamp strength and let you shape tone all you want.

 

You have to think of the stock vj as a one trick pony at volume.. at volume, it's not going to be clean.

(that's sort of unfair, because a lite overdrive bluesy type sound and jimmy page sound are both on the dial)

 

At recording volume, or practice volume, it's got a few more tricks.

the cleans are nice.. can be made even much better, and will give you great tone. That means for recording or practice you can go acoustic, old time country, new country, blues, rock, hard rock.

But loud... not without more power.

 

Or, two heads!!

(I love running both mine together)

 

ok.. that's about it I guess. hope that explains something!

TWANG

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thanks

 

so you like your gain/tone/volume mod?

 

what other mods did you do to your head?

 

and are there any instructions on this mod it sounds like it would be good

because what i really what to do is mod it so the head is getting the best tone it can get along with a couple other knobs on it for control and this sounds good

 

also are the tube replacements a must for this head?

 

thanks in advance

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Standby switch on both.

NFB on both. I liked the three way best. C3 lifted, C3 in and C3 lifted NFB on.

I've got back panel mounted fuse holders on each.

I've had gain on a switch, with the gain pot-both seperately and as a push pull switch pot combination.

I've had bright, crunch and twang switchs. *twang more of a mids boost*.

The Loop D' Jr. EFX loop on both.

 

I've used the Weber OT in one and the Hammond 125ESe in the other.

(with the stock tube configuration the Hammond has only a slight edge over the Weber to my ear. not enough to matter to me, really. But for any other tube, as with my intended 6V6 addition, the Hammond is the one.)

 

I reversed the head in one. That is I turned it upside down in the cab, Marshall style. The other is stock.

I reversed the panels, on both, I like that screen in front.

 

And of course I've swapped a lot of caps and resistors, the diodes are all new. Added some resistors and caps, some in parallel.

And I've tried varying values at many points.

 

There's enough information and people to help on the web to add a tube.. depending on your patience and care!

 

Many people have used different tubes, 6L6, different KTs, and of course many choose different pre amp tubes.. 12at7, 5751, 12AU7,

and the stock 12AX7 from different companys.

 

The best tone it can get.. hoo boy.. long as you remember that many many people have done more than one of these and have found they liked more than one for their tone. That is, you really can tweak a lot with these, and all the tweaks can be called the best, subjectively, by anyone.

Bottom line, do the right mods well and you'll have good tone, no worry there!

 

Gain Tone Volume is a nice combination for me.

For example, right now I'm trying a 500K volume pot in one head. This reduces the gain quite a bit from the usual 1M pot.

so all three controls at 12:00 is clean.. and very smooth, but with my p90s I can get a little blue grit in three ways..

more vol.. more power tube dist.

more gain...more pream tube dist.

more tone..highs increase but vol. gain goes up a tiny bit, too.

 

man, if you couldn't find the tone you wanted quick with this thing you must be awfully specific about what you want.

 

I will put the 1M back in the vol. because I want that crazy gain you get when both tubes are cookin'.. but I found this quite a good sound, and more appropriate for bedroom use, and for clean.. there's more clean tone there.. not louder, really, just a better range.

 

I'm hoping that this basically what I'll have once I put the 6V6 in.. clean volume and good clean range.. with the NFB engaged bedroom volume, without it, stage volume.

and the same with clean. Like you I want the best of both worlds if I can get it. The VJ is lacking on clean volume.. not on clean tone.

so the extra tube, I'm hoping, will do it.

 

I am, however, going to try some new switches.. I believe I had them less than optimal before, and since I did rather like the twang bright and crunch switches, I'm going to do some more experimenting.

I may fill those holes up yet!

 

(but I bought a blank panel just in case I don't!)

 

TWANG

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I would like to reply to your first two questions, but not from a mod point of view. I run a Weber Micromass attenuator between the OT and the speaker cab. This way I can overdrive the amp getting the sound I want and then turning the volume down on the speaker. To get cleans louder, I run the line out on the Micromass into a solid state power amp, effectively turning the VJr into a preamp. Just another point of view if you want a bit more flexibility without tinkering too much.

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