"Epiphone" Valve Junior 5 Watt Tube Head Review

Products are rated from 1 to 7 Harps!

Steve"Big Daddy BluzHarp"Harvell

The Valve Junior Head has got to be the very best deal for a QUALITY tube head on the plant!I ordered mine from Musicians Friend for $99.99 and that included free shipping and NO TAX .I liked it so much I brought another one to use in stereo from Guitar center 919-872-0331 here in Raleigh,North Caolina for the same price. The Valve Junior is a 5 watt class A amplifier with DC filaments for both the preamp and power tubes for reduced filament hum. It also has 4, 8, and 16 ohm speaker outputs so you can drive any kind of extension speaker, from a single 8" box to a 4x12" cab.

As one reviewer on Harmony Central said,"The cabinet alone looks like it would have cost you $200 - $250 to have someone build it for ya". And then there is the question,"How does it sound"? Well my little tube junkies,it is 100 % pure tube tone that actually lives and breathes while you are playing through it. How in the heck,even in China,can someone build something of this quality and then sell it here for $99.99?

I have many amps and heads in my possesion that are vintage and new that cost hundreds of dollars but none ,I repeat none of them are as sensitive to different power and preamp tubes as the Valve Junior Head is . The Valve Junior Head comes with one Sovtek EL-84 power tube and one Sovtek 12AX7 preamp tube. Right out of the shipping box the Junior will give ya nice clean sounds in the low volume settings but it does not take much to make this baby grind ever so sweetly.Past noon and this thing turns into a fire breathing monster! I use mine for playing harmonica using a "Shaker" dynamic harmonica mic that is fairly hot.I like to have the Junior at about one or two o'clock and that is the sweet spot ,a nice buttery smooth growl but when ya dig in it starts to howl like a wolf on a full moon.I found that this amp shows so many different sides by experimenting with different power and preamp tubes.For some gigs I need to keep the volume low so I will use tubes that break up fast and for high volume gigs I can put in a 5751 preamp tube for more headroom.

Another kool factor about the Valve Jr. is the way it liked EVERY speaker that I connected it up to.I have been doing reviews for Eminence Speakers for several years now and I have a lot of primo speakers on hand.I spent about 6 hours last weekend trying different speakers in cabs that were wood(pine and birch) as well as plexi-glass with 10 and 12 inch speakers.It was killer thru them all but stood out with the Man-O-War,Private Jack,Red White & Blues,Red Fang,Copperhead,Rajun Cajun,Governor and the Blue Tick Hound.A little fact about the Blue Tick Hound speaker,I can turn this speaker up louder without feedback than any other speaker I know of,regardless of brand.The Valve Junior is voiced in the mid range sound spectrum,not too much bass or treble,right down the middle of the road.Many amps will only sound good with certain speakers but with the Junior they all sound good!

Thru the Valve Junior I get such a fat/edgy full sound that it reminds me of watching a movie in 3-d. It makes playing so much fun that ya hate to turn the amp off.I played it through a Eminence Man-O- War speaker at a local roadhouse a few weeks ago and was able to be loud enough to be heard with the band playing at medium sound levels.I had a ball playing out with it the first time there,it was like being on your first date again,a very nice rush!

The Valve Junior Head head is the very best musical deal on the planet people,it is cheap as far as cost goes, but the quality of sound is equal in my minds eye to one costing $600.I give the "Epiphone" 5 watt Valve Junior Head a rock solid (7) Harp salute for making tube amps available to every musican .For a hundred bucks you can trash that solid state piece of crap and play through something that will enhance your playing and breath with you,seriously.

Go to Musicians Friend and buy the Valve Junior head , read the reviews while you are there too! As the bad guy said in the movie Kung Pow,"I command you"!!



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