First impressions of the Epi Valve Jr. head 

First impressions of the Epi Valve Jr. head

Guitar Lesson

My Epi Valve Jr. head finally arrived; three days late. Anyway. this is
my first impressions after playing it about 2 hours.

I really like this little amp. It has a great tone that fits right in
with my style. I usually play clean because the Vibrolux Reverb needs to
be plenty loud to get it's output tubes to distort and I don't have a
distortion pedal that gives me what I want. This little guy starts
overdriving right away at a level that is low enough for a stand alone
house and possibly an apartment. As other have said. speaker sensitivity
is important. With my 10" JBL (98db in a ported cab) it has great
distortion at a low level. Turning up the volume control doesn't make
the amp much louder but increases the overdriven sound. Using the 12" EV
(100db) in my Mesa. the level is somewhat louder with the same volume
setting. This means that the amp plays cleaner at a higher level that
with the less sensitive JBL. I haven't tried it with the Vibrolux's 2
10's but will in the near future.

The amp seems to have somewhat less bass response than either the Mesa
or the VR. The EV giving more bass than the JBL (as one would expect
compared to a 10"). This makes it a somewhat less useable for comping
chords. I can compensate some using the active tone controls on my
"strat". The Hagstrom. which makes great bass on the VR and Mesa. sounds
quite deficient with the VJ. Paralleling the JBL and the EV (and going
into the 4 ohm tap). boost the bass a bit (I plan on building a series
box to try the 16 ohm tap). A EQ unit of some sort would probably be a
good addition. I was hoping the tone control on the Fender reverb would
cover this but it doesn't.

Again as others have said. it likes to have a bit of boost at the input.
The volume doesn't go up a lot but sustain and the sweetness of the
overdriven EL84 and 12ax7 are increased. Just bring up the volume knob
doesn't do the same thing as boosting the input level. Right now I'm
using a DynaComp for boosting the signal.

All in all this is a great sounding little amp with a vintage tone. With
the right speaker selection you can control the room volume and "clean"
headroom. An EQ will allow boosting the bass. and could
provide an overall signal boost that should be very pleasing. It's a
keeper!
"Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence.
Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear."
William Gladstone. 4-time Prime Minister of Great Britain.

The one and only tune I have posted.


I read somewhere that after May 26 of this year they put the sme
filaments or something in the combo that they use in the head to
eliminate the hum.

Return to Main Page

Comments

Add Comment




Search This Site


Syndicate this blog site

Powered by BlogEasy


Free Blog Hosting