If you’re in the market for a low-cost guitar amp with reasonable amounts of real tube-mojo you might want to check out Vintage Guitar Magazine’s review of the Epiphone Valve Special and Valve Junior.
Granted, these are decidedly cheap amplifiers, but as has been suggested in numerous reviews around the web, both of these Class-A tube amps offer a fair amount of bang for the buck.
Hehe, and you’ve gotta’ love Bob Dragich’s sense of humor––
Through the years, a number of amplifier manufacturers have tried their hands at producing budget tube amps. The problem with the vast majority of these items was that they were not primarily tube amps, they were primarily low-budget amps. Their main audio function was to give the listener the distinct feeling that a knitting needle was slowly being shoved through their eardrum.
The Epi Valve Junior, with its single 8“ speaker and five watts of power, is currently fetching about $150 out-the-door, while the Valve Special (10” speaker, onboard digital effects, etc,) can be had for about $240.
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August 28th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Cute little find!
August 30th, 2008 at 7:12 am
Buy one of these, mod them with a mercury magnetics kit, and you’ll have yourself a nice little amp.
August 31st, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Would be amazing for recording
September 2nd, 2008 at 6:32 pm
i like the vintage look
September 5th, 2008 at 10:35 am
And, beside the fact that the Valve Junior is a bang for the buck deal, can be turned into a real killer tone machine with just a couple of component replacements, etc. Like for instance replacing the output transformer with one made by Mercury Magnetics.
thanks for the article!
September 5th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I have a head Valve Jr and it’s a great amp for the bedroom/apt and really purrs when cranked for recording. A $40 Hammond replacement OT sounds just as good as the $300 Mercury Magnetics package. My ears couldn’t hear the $260 difference, YMMV.
October 12th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
That is a sweet little amp. The price tag isn’t bad either!
October 13th, 2008 at 7:20 am
I’m dying to try out this little baby. I’ve been using a Fender Pro Junior which I like a lot but I’ve heard a lot of good things about the valve junior.
Dave The Gear Mall.com