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valve junior

lemonboy

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RSDx

RSDx

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Hi! everyone. The ups man just delivered my new valve junior amp a few minutes ago. I haven't had a chance to take it out of the box yet. I'll let you know what I think

about it.[cool]

HNAD !!! Dd you get a combo or the head'n'cab??? I have one of each, they're good for what they are - an affordable, no frills se amp. Using an eq pedal can really open up their tone, as stock, it's a bit of a one trick pony. Something as simple as a $30 Danelectro Fish&Chips 7-band eq is well worth adding yo your gear (unless, of course you already have something to eq with)

Enjoy !!!

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Steven Lister

Steven Lister

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My go-to for small clubs are stock VJ v3 heads and a humbucked Lester.

RSDx is right on with the EQ. I use the Dano Fish & Chips plus Keeley's compressor and modded Blues Driver pedals.

 

I bought my first VJ thinking I would mod it some day. But, decided to try simple, first-things-first, approach and found that a valve upgrade really opened up some much needed headroom. I like JJ EL84 and Tung Sol 12AX7-ECC803S but others work nicely too, just different. Then after finding the right speakers/pedals, and finding that a pair of valves last me 6 months (at 3+ hours per day average) I've just not felt any need to break out the soldering iron. BTW in larger clubs and open air shows I use a custom build cloned version of the Marshall JTM45 (to give you a good idea of where "my ideal tone" is at).

 

One more VJ trick: best tones - from cleans to overdriven - when VJ is cranked up, 2 o-clock to max on the vol. dial. That may be too loud. If so, use a pedal to roll back volume (works better than either the guitar vol pot or attenuators in my experience). I use either my compressor or my reverb pedal. I've called this method the "poorboy's attenuator."

 

Welcome to the forum lemonboy!

 

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

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lemonboy

lemonboy

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Thanks for the replies guys. I have the combo amp. I wanted something small that I could take to the shop and

practice there. I have a 40 watt Peavey Valveking 112 that I love.I just wanted something small that is easy to

move around.

 

I noticed that mine sounds better with humbuckers than it does with singlecoils. I agree that it sounds like there is

a blanket over it. I'll try better tubes and see how that goes.

 

I play clean all the time, although I do have a TS9 pedal. Thanks again.

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  • 1 month later...
K.E.B.1281734147

K.E.B.1281734147

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Thanks for the replies guys. I have the combo amp. I wanted something small that I could take to the shop and

practice there. I have a 40 watt Peavey Valveking 112 that I love.I just wanted something small that is easy to

move around.

 

I noticed that mine sounds better with humbuckers than it does with singlecoils. I agree that it sounds like there is

a blanket over it. I'll try better tubes and see how that goes.

 

I play clean all the time, although I do have a TS9 pedal. Thanks again.

It's been a month. What are your impressions now? I've heard good things about the Weber speaker replacement. I think that would open up your sound more than tubes.

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lemonboy

lemonboy

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Hello all.I have been trying to dial in a good sound with the amp in stock condition. As I'm unemployed

I don't have a lot of money.The amp does just what I wanted it to do.I can move it easy for practice. I'm

happy with it just the way it is for now. When I have the means I will try some modes.

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cjlandry

cjlandry

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I just "won" an EVJ head on eBay. I also "won" a Vox AC4TVH, and a few different 12" speaker cabinets.

 

I bought a Fender Vibro Champ, as well as a couple of pedals. When I get home from the sandbox, I'll have all sorts of new sounds for my guitars. I'm gonna have to rearrange the room so all the amps and speakers won't be scattered, smothered, and covered.

 

Yeah, I'm a gear-head. I can't help it. It's some kind of disease.

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wedgeSG

wedgeSG

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For a quick low or no cost VJ improvement search YouTube for the JP1 mod. Basically it's simply a snip on a resistor that kinda brightens things up a tad. Add a toggle between the open leg and the board and you can engage/disengage it at will. I did this on a Version 3; that coulpled with an EQ pedal as others have mentioned, (I use an Ibanez GE10 and love it), will go a long, long way on a VJ. I have a Version 2 with full Marshall Mods and a Hammond 125-ESE OT kicked in the a$$ via a EH English Muffin and there's not much overall difference in tone through the same common cabinet, volume is another story however. I did the Version 3 with an EQ pedal just to see if I could get anywhere close to what the Version 2 was capable of after all the mods and funds poured into it as an experiment. Yeah, somebody was paying attention to what was being talked about here prior to releasing the thing...

 

Wedgie

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RSDx

RSDx

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Yeah, somebody was paying attention to what was being talked about here prior to releasing the thing...

 

Wedgie

Haha ... yeah, talk about "free" R&D !!! The original VJr hummed and buzzed like crazy (although I must admit, I own a v1 combo, and the hum/buzz is kind of relaxing in a reminiscing way back to my early days of learning electric guitar in the late '60's ... hum was kind of normal....it takes me back and makes me feel warm and fuzzy, kind of like an electric narcotic......but I digress...) Apparently, the VJr mod community wentr to work, Epi took some ideas and ran with them to produce the v2..... modders want to work again, and Epi ran with ideas and turned out v3 (I have a v3 head and cab - completely different beast from the humming/buzzing/farty v1 combo....but I love them both for what they are. ) Nothing like having paying customers/tinkerers do the R&D to help you improve your products on the cheap.
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TWANG

TWANG

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You know.. the thing is..

I just got a vj the other day..

390 volts on the plate!

 

No wonder the guy let it go cheap.

 

I've got six or seven stock boards and what I do is make a new board for my amps. then I mod these as

drop in replacements.

 

I'm not arguing with Lister.. too many people like these amps dead stock for me to do that.

But I know some of them are way off as to voltages, and they get sold most probably for that reason.

 

And a simple thing you can most probably do yourself is swap that stock OT out for something better.

Triode Electronics has a nice one.

Weber has a monster.

MPS has good ones, too.

Hammond and Mercury cost too much in my book!

 

But an OT change and a correction in voltages.. I promise..makes a huge difference.

 

congrats on the amp for sure though. make no mistake!

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cjlandry

cjlandry

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Well, my EVJ v3 was here waiting for me when I got home. The guy put it in an oversize box full of Styrofoam "peanuts", so it floated around in there and self-destructed.

 

Not too bad, really. The output transformer was hanging by the wires, and the EL84 tube was shattered from being smashed by the transformer.

 

So I checked the transformer, put it back in place, and ordered some tubes.

 

I'm really looking for a cleaner sound, so I had them throw in a couple of AT's and AU's.

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cjlandry

cjlandry

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Tubes showed up from tubedepot today. Plugged the amp into my 4x12 cabinet. This is the preliminary analysis, after about an hour's time swapping tubes and comparing.

 

Tried the 12AX7 first. As expected, breaks up too early (some prefer this).

 

Next, I tried the 12AT7, and I liked it better, but had to put the 12AU7 in there, just to see if I liked it even more. Swapped between those two for a bit.

 

Both are clean, but the AU has just the right breakup, at just the right level, for my taste. It is also quiet enough for playing at home, where the AX gets loud much earlier.

 

 

I really dig that I can change the sound so drastically by just changing to a different tube. I like it clean, and I can dirty it up with pedals.

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TWANG

TWANG

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peanuts for something as heavy as a vj.. sheesh.

sorry that happened.

the au 7 really cuts the gain for sure..you can hit bedroom soft with that easily enough.

 

triode electronics has an OT that's not spendy at all and usa made.. you should think about that down the line!

 

congrats and happy pickin

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cjlandry

cjlandry

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peanuts for something as heavy as a vj.. sheesh.

sorry that happened.

the au 7 really cuts the gain for sure..you can hit bedroom soft with that easily enough.

 

triode electronics has an OT that's not spendy at all and usa made.. you should think about that down the line!

 

congrats and happy pickin

 

Thanks!

 

I think this is perfect for pedals. With the Fab Distortion pedal (cheapy, I know), I get all the gain I want.

 

Now I have to figure out what I want to do with the VOX AC4TVH. [biggrin]

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