Valve special VS. Valve standard?

[iansmitchell]

I was originally looking for a valve junior, becuase I wanted a tube amp smaller than my monster huge one(Fender red knob twin), but not TINY. But seeing as I LOVE reverb and like EQ, I started looking to others, and found 2 potential choices.

A. Epiphone valve special or B Epiphone valve standard

Link: http://www.zzounds.com/item--EPIEPABKSPDSP

The valve special is 5W Class A, combo with 10" speaker, EQ, Reverb, chorus, flanger, and delay, as well as a master volume(which I'm not entirely sure how is operated)

 

link: http://www.zzounds.com/item--EPIEPABKSTDSP

The valve standard is a 15W (not sure if it's class A or not), Combo with 12" speaker, the rest is same as above.

 

I'm not sure whether or not I'll need an attenuator, but suggestions for which one would be nice.

 

What do you think?

[layboomo]

The DSP on both of them is not very high quality(noisy too)....and that's being nice. Honestly if you want a little flexibilty with tone controls in the 5 watt power range...look at a blackheart 1x12 combo...then just add a reverb pedal. That will give you a much better tone IMHO.

[ricach]

I have the Standard - and the reverb was very useable on it, but the DSP was not. But I still liked how the amp sounded - until I bypassed the DSP and found out a plethora of tone and volume were being sucked up by that DSP circuit. As much as I like reverb - I don't miss it - and have no intention of ever undoing the mod.

[ladyscaglyc]

The Standard has just enough power for the small gigs & that Master volume can really help in a low volume "crunch" setting.

The DSP is almost like a cheap afterthought and really "drags down" an otherwise cool amp.

And with the help & advice from ricach, (he's outlined the mod in Valve Standard topic) I hope to get closer to the same

"sparkle" of tone I'm used to from my main amp. (Fender HR Deluxe)

By the way, Ricach, I intend to go to a vintage Premier or Fender Reverberation- it's a lot cleaner than trying to scarf-in a Weber

into the amp cab. (So it's another 2 to 3 bucks more)

Vintage sound & look for 500 or so.

I suggest the Standard for flexibility w/ the minor mods for a more Fender "sparkle" and just add a verb, pedal or that older stuff I love.

 

IMHO

 

s/Vin

 

s/Vin

[klast]

The Special and the Standard have been discontinued, so they must be selling what's left in stock.

 

I had a Special for a short while.

Bought it because I wanted preamp crunch at bedroom volume.

It did that fairly OK, with a somehat bluesy, gritty sound.

However, the clean sound was not good, largely due to the speaker, I think.

In fact, my VJ combo (version 2) has a much better clean and probably more volume despite its smaller speaker.

The Special's EQ didn't have much range. The reverb was acceptable, as as the delay on low setting. Didn't care for the other EFX. The onboard EFX of the Vox AD30VT are much better.

I used the Special a couple of times for rehearsal in a small setting (no drums) and it was acceptable.

 

Klas

[strangedogs]

A V3 Valve Junior combo with a reverb pedal and an EQ Pedal is a small powerful rig.

[cGil]

The Standard has just enough power for the small gigs & that Master volume can really help in a low volume "crunch" setting.

The DSP is almost like a cheap afterthought and really "drags down" an otherwise cool amp.

And with the help & advice from ricach' date=' (he's outlined the mod in Valve Standard topic) I hope to get closer to the same

"sparkle" of tone I'm used to from my main amp. (Fender HR Deluxe)

By the way, Ricach, I intend to go to a vintage Premier or Fender Reverberation- it's a lot cleaner than trying to scarf-in a Weber

into the amp cab. (So it's another 2 to 3 bucks more)

Vintage sound & look for 500 or so.

I suggest the Standard for flexibility w/ the minor mods for a more Fender "sparkle" and just add a verb, pedal or that older stuff I love.

 

IMHO

 

s/Vin

 

s/Vin[/quote']

 

Try plugging in a 16ohm speaker load into that VStandard to boost the reflected impedance up to 8k. The stock OT is only 4k impedance, but 18watters seem to prefer an 8.5k load. Still, the VJr's v2-era iron just isn't the greatest and I would expect the VStandard's iron to follow suit. The lousy green circuit board certainly does. So anyway, for the best possible results, shop around for a Heyboer 18watt OT. That'll get the sweet tone to your speakers for sure.

 

As for the poor little neglected VSpecial. It suffers from the same muddy OT as the v2 VJr. For immediate, knock your socks off improvement, I'd slap a Hammond 125DSE in that dog.

 

 

Gil...