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New Valve Junior User!


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Hi folks! I got a Valve Junior head about a month ago, and just did my first gig with it over the weekend. Both guitar players in my band are now using the VJ, the other guitar player is running it through the VJ 1x12, but I thought I'd save some money by running it through my old Marshall 1936 2x12. It sounds good, but I realized that I like the sound (and portability!!) of the Epi 1x12, so I just pulled the trigger on one. No use lugging the 2x12 around when (in my opinion) the Epi cab sounds great!

 

One question... just wondering if anyone has trouble hearing their amp while gigging? That 1x12 is so low to the ground and I'm thinking that I might want to put it on a stand, or angle the cab upwards a bit. Any thoughts?

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Thanks guys! We will be mic'in the amps, but our homebrewed PA system doesn't have decent monitors yet. But we are working on it!

 

I'm loving the VJ so far. I'm coming from a 50 watt JCM900 that was absolute overkill for what we play. The VJ with a few effects in front of it totally kills the Marshall in tone. I can't believe it!! The Marshall is great for playing hard rock really loud, so I'll keep it around. But the VJ is now my main rig. No mods, other than some JJ tubes... and it sounds amazing.

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I have 2 - 2x12s. Custom made so that I can isolate any 1x12 or run both (or all as a 4x12). You really don't add volume db but you do add apparent volume and gain wider "coverage" by pushing more air. Enjoy your VJr. My V3 heads are stock w/valve upgrades.

 

WELCOME to the forum WallEyed!

 

Hit every BLUE NOTE baaaby..., I'm going to play on:-"

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Without micing, you won't have any clean headroom with this amp at all, unless your drummer is tinkerbell. Especially if it's stock. Anything beyond 10:00 is a bowl of useless mush.

 

The undeniable fact is, 5 watts just isn't enough muscle on its own for most semi-realistic gigging situations. In order to cut through a mix, you have to have some headroom, and you don't get that from an amp that you have to crank just to barely hear.

 

Putting the amp on a chair or amp stand will help you hear it, but it also decouples the cabinet from the floor, which will basically erase any hint of the tiny amount low end that you'd have with this amp on the floor. It's really just not a very good gigging amp, imo.

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You know that is funny I have tons of clean head room with my ES-295.. almost 3/4 the way up is clean. But I had custom wound pickups made so my neck is 4K and my bridge is 4.8.. Neck pickup is set to 3/16 and bridge to 5/32.

 

Now my HB-30 a differant story.. I get about half way up and I start to get break up. Those are I believe just about 7.5 to 8 k

 

But in my defense on that I put have low out put pickups in my guitar..

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But I had custom wound pickups made so my neck is 4K and my bridge is 4.8..

That's one option. Just turning down the guitar volume or shunting a bunch of the gain at the front of the amp to ground is another, but all will result in considerably less output as well, which doesn't really help you cut through a mix.

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I did the BITMO' upgrade with a EH ENGLISH MUFF'N in front,volume pedal and a lil' BOSS reverb.Kept it on the floor ,used a home made angle"riser".It cut through without givin' up some bottom .I like that "feel" at my feet !

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Anything beyond 10:00 is a bowl of useless mush.

 

Which Vj do you have? I agree you need to mic, but that statement doesn't go with the Vj I have.

A volume boost also does wonders. I can't find an amp i like better unless it's 3x the price. Granted

i have alot of stuff running into my Vj, but this is the nicest little amp i've found for the money.

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...but this is the nicest little amp i've found for the money.

 

Right On - Mine isn't mush above 10:00 o'clock? at 3:00 o'clock and higher not much change in volume just more distortion but even @ 3:00 o'clock I get some great Classic Rock Sound and loud as hell too (Think Zeppelin 1). I use a Korg Toneworks, a Russian BIG MUFF PI sometimes, A Tubescreamer sometimes (cheap TS-7) and at times have used a small ART Tube Studio Preamp with it - I can get a plethora of Guitar Tones and with tweaking on the Tonelab can get convincing Death Metal High-Gain (add in the Big Muff and it Chug's beautifully) all the way to pristine Fender sounding CLEANS with Reverb, Chorus and slight bit of Delay. I also use the ROTARY effect too as I love the old Wurlitzer sounding speakers. I know Scott was using an MXR 10-band EQ Pedal that he swears opens the amp up beautifully - I still intend to get one based on his recommendations.

 

I also can use the Big Muff, My ME Pedal or the TS-7 as a cheap attenuator - just turn the amp wide open and lower the LEVEL on the stompbox - it works - a fully driven amp at low LOW volume... some will say it hurts the tone - I'm tonedeaf anyways so who cares :-& It's all good. There are those who like the VJ and those who don't. It's all good. I've had loads of amps and some were better than others. I feel the VJ is a blast of fun for the price. If you can't find a sound from it you like then move on. I tested out a few Blackhearts but they were no better than my VJ IMO - I could have bought the small 5-watt with matching Cab when I finally was able to test one out but didn't as It sounded AS GOOD (maybe) as my VJ but cost MORE $$$$.

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Which Vj do you have?

I had a v2 head and a v3 combo, and both got gutted and converted into amps that are far more useable.

 

The 10:00 mush statement may be a slight exaggeration, but not by much, with humbuckers. I had very little headroom beyond 10:00, and nothing but annoying buzzsaw from noon on, with both amps.

 

Now, bear in mind that tone is a subjective thing. I personally don't care for sloppy distortion. I like gain, but the amp has to hold together well enough for me to hear note separation and articulate detail, or it just doesn't work for me. Some people like what the stock Vjr does but I'm just not with them on this.

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Hey Scott58....what stuff do u have running into your Vj .....

 

It started with the POD XT Live. I bought a little vj combo for my G/F when she wanted

to learn how to play and just offhandedly plugged the thing in to it. It was so much

better sounding then the PA and Vox Da 20 I'd been using I ordered the head/cab

for me with in 20 minutes of plugging in. That's been about 1 1/2 years ago now.

Since then I've been addressing the weaknesses of the POD. The first being OD/Distortion.

After alot of research and youtube browsing i decided on a Wampler SuperPlextortion.

Outstanding pedal for 80's hair metal stuff. Not only did it take over my OD operation it

also took out the JCM 800 and JTM 45 amp models. Just a very sweet pedal. Next came the

Fuzz. I'm a Gilmour fan so I was leaning toward his type of fuzz and ended up getting a

Skreddy Lunar Module. Again another good call. My Vj actually grew some hair with this

pedal. Think early 70's. (hendrix, T-Rex, etc). Next came the H2O Chorus/Echo. I'm not as

impressed with this pedal as the others. It is better then the POD, but $190 better? I don't

think so. Where the Wampler and Skreddy were miles ahead this was only a little bit. If i

had to do it again i'd just stay with the POD on those fx's. i use my 10 band now mainly for

the Variax when I a/b to the PA for acoustic stuff, but am considering getting another one

to see what it will do for the Wampler. I'll wait and see how that works out. I'm very happy

with my setup right now. It absolutely spanks every other modeling amp i've plugged into.

There isn't any type of music i can't play and not get close to cover tone. With all the amp models

at my disposal this thing just rocks. AC 30, bassman, dual reverb, slo100, hi-watt. etc..

Amp and pedals it does come to about $1200 total cost, but that's spread out over a couple of

years and the end result gives me more versatility then i could have ever imagined. It may not

be for everyone, but it suits my low volume needs perfectly and if I ever do get another amp

(Egnater Rebel 20 looks interesting) I can plug all this stuff into that too.

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It started with the POD XT Live. I bought a little vj combo for my G/F when she wanted

to learn how to play and just offhandedly plugged the thing in to it. It was so much

better sounding then the PA and Vox Da 20 I'd been using I ordered the head/cab

for me with in 20 minutes of plugging in. That's been about 1 1/2 years ago now.

Since then I've been addressing the weaknesses of the POD. The first being OD/Distortion.

After alot of research and youtube browsing i decided on a Wampler SuperPlextortion.

Outstanding pedal for 80's hair metal stuff. Not only did it take over my OD operation it

also took out the JCM 800 and JTM 45 amp models. Just a very sweet pedal. Next came the

Fuzz. I'm a Gilmour fan so I was leaning toward his type of fuzz and ended up getting a

Skreddy Lunar Module. Again another good call. My Vj actually grew some hair with this

pedal. Think early 70's. (hendrix' date=' T-Rex, etc). Next came the H2O Chorus/Echo. I'm not as

impressed with this pedal as the others. It is better then the POD, but $190 better? I don't

think so. Where the Wampler and Skreddy were miles ahead this was only a little bit. If i

had to do it again i'd just stay with the POD on those fx's. i use my 10 band now mainly for

the Variax when I a/b to the PA for acoustic stuff, but am considering getting another one

to see what it will do for the Wampler. I'll wait and see how that works out. I'm very happy

with my setup right now. It absolutely spanks every other modeling amp i've plugged into.

There isn't any type of music i can't play and not get close to cover tone. With all the amp models

at my disposal this thing just rocks. AC 30, bassman, dual reverb, slo100, hi-watt. etc..

Amp and pedals it does come to about $1200 total cost, but that's spread out over a couple of

years and the end result gives me more versatility then i could have ever imagined. It may not

be for everyone, but it suits my low volume needs perfectly and if I ever do get another amp

(Egnater Rebel 20 looks interesting) I can plug all this stuff into that too.[/quote']

 

 

Thx scott58 for sharing your set-up...I pretty much have and use the same set-up...I mainly use my Pod with my Tech21 amp for live and recording, but have been running test with the pod and Vj....I know there two different worlds to some folk but to me thats what music is all about..trying different things...but I must admit, when its all said and done...Its always my geetar and Vj or geetar, Vr with a few pedals....LOL....For me, where I'm at right now, I'm enjoying the best of both worlds...thx again for sharing...

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One other thing i should add is the tube change recommended here was a

huge improvement. Tung sol 12ax7 and JJ el84. The electro-harmonics 12ax7

that was in it was no where near as good. A JJ came stock in the power section.

Best $25 i've spent.

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Thanks for all the tips everyone!

 

We played a show this weekend at a small/medium sized brewery. Both guitar players were running VJs. I used the VJ 1x12 cabinet and the other guy has a Blackheart 1x12 and his head has the BitMo Spanky mod. We both set the amps up on chairs, since we don't have any stands yet. I have to say, we were both really impressed. We were positioned on the stage area in a manner that we could both hear our own amps extremely well, and we could hear just enough of the other guitar.

 

The amps were miked running through the PA, so the volume could be loud enough for the crowd to hear. We had almost universal reviews that it was the best we had sounded live. Everything was balanced nicely, and the sound of the amps was great. We don't do any cleans, so the amps were running at about 11 or 12:00, so they were fairly loud and dirty, without getting muddy. I think we found the sweet spot!

 

They may not be for everyone, but the VJs served their purpose this weekend. The old Marshall half stacks (mine was a quarter stack...) that we normally run would have been volume overkill for this place. We got a similar sound without killing the crowd's ears!

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I have used an amp stand for several years now and can't imagine being without it but, that being said, 5 watts is awful small to gig with. 15 tube watts should be good for most small venues and then can be mic'ed for larger shows.

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