Epiphone Valve Junior Guitar Amplifier Head (5 Watts)

Feature:
but you say.. what features, it only has a volume control. Well, you're wrong weedhoper, er. grasshopper.. it is easily modified. cheaply modified. all over ebay modification is up for sale. all over 18watt.com and yahoo vj groups.. and this thing has amp techs and amatuer techs all freaking out so the best feature of this amp is THE AMP ITSELF! that's a great thing, man. You can spend up to four hundred dollars on this amp head.. going from very nearly boutique quality for practically nothing.. to full on balls to the wall top of the line pro sound nobody could fault! wooo. for a hundred bucks? yeah.. ten on features for sure. imagine.. a couple of resistors.. a capacitor or two.. a switch, a knob, a pot.. and voila.. not even twenty bucks spent but way better sound!

Quality:
I've had both of mine apart and yes, there are some parts that aren't as sturdy as point to point hand wired amps.. (amps which cost you a minimum of six hundred bucks these days) But if you exercise the reasonable care you should.. no problem. really good materials.. great fit and finish.. nice looks! hey I saw a guys vj with the rear cover put on the front.. only he covered it with vox grille cloth! man was that neat looking! and you can just use the rear panel on the front for a very serious metal type look.. glowing tubes show through, too. cool! great warranty.. I have no doubt that I'll never use it though. plastic corners on the amp.. that's about the worst thing. big deal. really this amp is mean to be a friend.. a long term friend.. something you keep and use for years.. and it's built that way. sometimes you put a little nick in your friend, but you don't say he's worthless after you do.

Value:
there are more five watt amps out there.. one is made at the same factory as the epi vj .. and has tone control. But I hear it's got some noise and other problems. fender has a five watter.. two hundred bucks. peaveys got one..six hundred I think. in the hundred dollar amplifier category, the epiphone vj is most probably the hands down all time winner. adjusting for inflation and all.. this is a much better amp than anything near it's equal from the sixties.. when I started, to today.

Desirability:
I've mentioned the hottest feature of this amp as it's ability to be modified.. strongly improved.. for little money and with little effort. the same is true of it's cosmetic properites. just switching the front and rear panels produces a completely different look. with the red leather front panel you have something pretty spiffy looking.. and not plain at all like most. but with your choice of covering applied to the front panel.. you can go tweed, marshall, fender, ampeg, orange amp, any color or style you like. the piping is classy. the off white panel is really well chosen. on top of the new matching 1X12 cabinet.. it's very sexy classy high end looking.. and yet. it looks tough too.. ready to play. let's rock!

Sound:
You have to judge what you've bought by what it is designed to do. This one is not about clean headroom, it's about single ended class A tube overdrive. And it does it very nicely. For a hundred bucks.. it absolutley rocks! I love the touch sensitivity.. I love the crunch.. I run an old but trusty Digitech RP 7, which has it's own 12ax7 tube in it.. and recommend that you put a pedal in front, too.. any pedal.. this thing loves pedals. I love it's clean tones when I'm plugged into my cheapo behringer compressor.. and using that simple cheap pedal to drive the pre amp tube in the vj is sweet! The RP 7 will do just about anything, and the vj handles it all with great aplomb. replace the tubes. go jj/tesla.. even groove tube users have said they like them better than the sovteks..*I like sovteks, too.. but there are differences.. read about them.. choose!* consider a 12at7 pre amp tube.. it will add a bit more clean headroom and alter the break up just very small amount.

Ease of Use:
plugged straight in, you should readily find a nice almost overdriven clean tone.. and a couple of overdriven sounds representing a range.. your guitars tone and volume controls are the main controls here.. crank it up. put chicken beak at 3:00.. then back off your guitar volume and from there you decide everything from bass and treble to clean/overdrive. that's the way it's supposed to be1 on the other hand. .. that's kinda hard on tubes.. and really darn loud for in the house. music room. etc. so put a pedal in front.. with just a compressor which has a tone control you can do all sorts of things. with a couple of pedals.. or a mulit. you can find the glass in the amp.. then set your pedal(s) to take full advantage of that. I'm promising you really good tones and pretty quiet, too.. for almost nothing. easy yes.. but you have to use the amp right.. the way it should be used.

Support:
epiphone has always been great with me. very friendly, very fast. I believe this is a good company and under jim 'epi' rosenbergs direction will continue to grow the epiphone reputation.

Overall:
I bought one, and then I bought another one two weeks later. I would buy two more, and may. I plan on modifying one head, and keeping the other stock. the thing about this head is that while it's more than advertised.. it's also the one trick pony some people say. but listen here.. the one trick. it's not one sound, man. It's the one trick an amp like this does. it amplifys.. it creates good clean tones. and great overdriven tones. that should be why you bought it. it responds well to pedals.. loves 'em! and that's part of the one trick, too. no.. one trick pony is the last thing I'd call this..

Feature:
well it only has one voloume knob but it turns smooth with no noise. They also added three different om inputs on the back so you can use it with just about any cab.

Quality:
This is made in china?! Ive seen $2k boutique amps not as well put together as this.

Value:
you wont find a better value

Desirability:
This is a great addition to any ones home set up especialy for home recording. I love the look of this amp and it looks good sitting on top of my marshall mini stack {2 1x10 cabs} it sounds and way better than the marshall head that came with it and I thout it was all that!It is built really solid and should last a long time. If you are a clean player or like effects pedals this is perfect

Sound:
this amp is awsome!! The clean tone is just beutiful and then when turned up over half it starts to get a nice over drive. I like to use it with my RP50 effects processor,way cool!

Ease of Use:
if you cant figure this little honey out you'd best get an acoustic!

Support:
don't know

Overall:
this is great for home practice and recording because you can get that great cranked tone without cranking the ol' lady