Epiphone Valve Junior
Encyclopedia
| Valve Junior | |
| Manufacturer | The Epiphone Company |
| Period | 2005 - Present |
| Electronics | |
| Power | 5 Watts |
| Technology |
|
| Features | |
| Package | Combo: 8.5" x 14.25" x 14.75" |
| Cabinet |
|
| Speakers | Eminence Lady Luck speaker 70 watts RMS (half stack) |
| Other Features | volume knob, on-off switch |
The Epiphone
Epiphone
The Epiphone Company is a musical instrument manufacturer founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos. Epiphone was bought by Chicago Musical Instrument Company, which also owned Gibson Guitar Corporation, in 1957. Epiphone was Gibson's main rival in the archtop market...
Valve
Vacuum tube
In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...
Junior is a small 5 watt
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
class A electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
amplifier
Amplifier
Generally, an amplifier or simply amp, is a device for increasing the power of a signal.In popular use, the term usually describes an electronic amplifier, in which the input "signal" is usually a voltage or a current. In audio applications, amplifiers drive the loudspeakers used in PA systems to...
.
Specifications
- Available as a 8" speaker combo version or as a head only version.
- 11 Ply Birch Plywood Construction
- 5 Watts RMS
- Volume Control
- Power Switch
- 1 Input, 1 Channel
- 1 x 12AX7A Preamp Valve/Tube
- 1 x EL84 Power Valve/Tube
- Single-Ended Class A Cathode Bias Design
- Solid State Diode Rectified
- Weight: 20.9lbs / 9.5kg
- Dimensions: 14.6" x 8.7" x 15.1" / 370mm x 220mm x 384mm
- Made in China
History
The Epiphone Valve Jr. version 1 combo was released in 2005 as a part of Epiphone's line of amplifiers. In January 2006 a head version was released and also a version 2 combo. In June 2007 an updated head version and a version 3 combo were released. The first Epiphone Valve Juniors (version 1) were only combo amplifiers and received only a fair reception, due to such problems as buzzing and hum caused by the AC filament voltage. Epiphone then released a head version, correcting these issues and changed the AC filament voltage to DC voltage. Version 2 combos also featured these modifications. The version 1 and version 2 combos feature a 8" 4 ohm Ceramic speakerGuitar speaker
A guitar speaker is a loudspeaker – specifically the driver part – designed for use in or with the guitar amplifier of an electric guitar...
.
Epiphone has recently released Combo version 3 and a newer version of the head which have higher retail prices and feature a variety of tube brands based on availability including Electro Harmonix, JJ and Sovtek. The new versions of the head and version 3 combos feature updated transformers with 4, 8 and 16 ohm outputs and the version 3 combos feature a 8" 16 ohm Eminence Lady Luck speaker. In 2007, Epiphone released a speaker cabinet that can be used with the Epiphone Valve Junior, featuring a 1x 12" 16 ohm Eminence Lady Luck speaker rated at 70watts RMS.
- Combo version 1 has front panel stripes that run along the centre of the front panel and has a 4 ohm output only and a AC filament voltage.
- Combo version 2 has front panel stripes that run along the top of the front panel and has a 4 ohm output only and a DC filament voltage.
- Combo version 3 has front panel stripes that run along the top of the front panel and has 4,8 and 16 ohm outputs and a DC filament voltage.
- Head only versions have 4,8 and 16 ohm outputs.
- Early versions mainly have Sovtek tubes and later versions have a variety of tubes such as JJ, EH and Sovtek tubes.
Modifications
The Epiphone Valve Junior has become very popular to modify because of its basic design. There are many websites, kits, and forums dedicated to this purpose, including the Epiphone official amps and accessories forum. Some sites offer kits to match the gain characteristics of Marshall, Fender and Vox amplifiers. These kits often do not include a bridge rectifier to convert the version 1 AC filament supply voltage to DC, instead they suggest twisting the AC leads together to cancel the generated electromagnetic fields, a technique used in twisted-pair EthernetEthernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
cable to eliminate cross-talk.