Epi Valve Jr. Head

dont_go_on_me

Picked one up as a Christmas gift for myself. It's cool, a lot of fun and sounds quite good through my Avatar 212 cab (one V30 and one G12H30). The only problem I have with it is that it's a dark sounding amp and I'd like to brighten it up.

I know there are a ton of mods out there but I have no experience with soldering or schemantics or anything (the most indepth thing i've ever done is the Phase 90 r28 mod and that really doesn't even count ). Anyone know the simplest mods that can eliminate the darkness and make this little gem shine?

Here are some on the bay --

http://cgi.ebay.com/V-Mods-Epiphone-Valve-Junior-Amp-Mod-Kit_W0QQitemZ230069586885QQihZ013QQcategoryZ10171QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/BITMO-TONE-CONTROL-mod-kit-for-Epiphone-Valve-Jr-Amp_W0QQitemZ140068329537QQihZ004QQcategoryZ10171QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/BITMO-SPANKY-mod-kit-for-the-Epiphone-Valve-Junior-amp_W0QQitemZ140067429666QQihZ004QQcategoryZ10171QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/BITMO-TRIO-Mod-Kits-for-Epiphone-Valve-Junior-Amp_W0QQitemZ140068162411QQihZ004QQcategoryZ10171QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

They all say that they are easy, but by who's standards...probably not mine . Also, I'm sure swapping out the stock tubes would make a huge difference in tone. Any recommendations on tubes (12AX7 & EL84) and could it brighten up the tone?

exhausted

well, i'm sort of sitting back and reading a bunch before i decide what to do, if anything.

i did find this, which links to some more resources.

http://duhvoodooman.com/VJr/VJr_mods.htm

i'm sure i'll be doing something to this amp at some point. really don't know what yet.

ps. those ebay listings give me the heebies.

jbd

I changed the tubes for a JJ electronics EL84 and a Sovtek 5751...

All Those Yesterdays

Hey guys, PM your email address, I'll send you a pdf, that talks about each individual change and what it will affect. A friend of mine has a 8 month head start on mods.

All Those Yesterdays

As I've stated a friend of mine has been moding his for about 8 months now. He started off doing the standard mods and is actually now taking a step back, trying to get some more head room in the amp. I've played thru his, and compared it to my stock one.

I really am probably just going to get rid of the flabby low in bass when you crank it. I'm going to put in a weaker NOS pre-amp tube (Jan Phillip 5751), these break up much later then a standard 12ax7 does. I have 7 of them laying around here from a old used guitar store that used to me in town years ago, back then I got them for $9 a piece, now they are $20 (but heck it's only one). I'll have a JJ in the power tube section

Lots of the mods are to get more gain out of the amp. Does it really need more gain? Not in my opinion of what I want. I'm going for more of a power tube drive then a pre-amp drive.

Getting a 2x12 avatar cabinet with a red fang and a G12H-30. I'm going to retube it, get that cabinet, then verify what real mods I'm doing.

No matter what that horrible flabby low end will be there, and that's a quick fix.

exhausted

i think i may just put a standby switch in and do the mods to the input impedance. and tubes of course.

All Those Yesterdays

exhausted wrote:

i think i may just put a standby switch in and do the mods to the input impedance. and tubes of course.

I've seen both opinions on the stand by switches. I'm going with out it. I just don't play thru the amp and keep the volume at 0 for a minute, then I'll turn it up. It's a single tube, not 4.

My big deal is the fizzyness of the power tube distortion (EL84 thing), and the flabbyness of the low end.

I actually already made some mods on it today, and am pretty happy right now (Won't touch it till the cabinet comes home).

exhausted

i got to spend a while with it today and i'm honestly at a loss as to whether i'll do anything at all to it. today it sounded great. with the right pedals in front it's quite nice. works well with an OCD.

right now, i'm running it through my attenuator's line out into my pod. i've programmed the pod as a cabinet sim (a 2x12 blackface cabinet) with a touch of compression and some reverb. it sounds really good.

seems to sound fine through my amp's speaker as well though that arrangement appears to lack some bass response. my deluxe reverb has fuller bass out in the air.

i'm running the volume around 10:30 or 11:00 so i'm probably trying to get different tones that you are.

i really don't know. i don't think i'll do anything to it any time soon. i'd probably kill myself discharging a cap anyway.

i've read both opinions on the standby as well after my last post. i'd agree that's it's probably not worth the trouble.

i should try to do some clips to see where i'm at with it.

my ears hurt though. i was running for a while with no attentuator and it's still pretty loud.

All Those Yesterdays

exhausted wrote:

i got to spend a while with it today and i'm honestly at a loss as to whether i'll do anything at all to it. today it sounded great. with the right pedals in front it's quite nice. works well with an OCD.

right now, i'm running it through my attenuator's line out into my pod. i've programmed the pod as a cabinet sim (a 2x12 blackface cabinet) with a touch of compression and some reverb. it sounds really good.

seems to sound fine through my amp's speaker as well though that arrangement appears to lack some bass response. my deluxe reverb has fuller bass out in the air.

i'm running the volume around 10:30 or 11:00 so i'm probably trying to get different tones that you are.

i really don't know. i don't think i'll do anything to it any time soon. i'd probably kill myself discharging a cap anyway.

i've read both opinions on the standby as well after my last post. i'd agree that's it's probably not worth the trouble.

i should try to do some clips to see where i'm at with it.

my ears hurt though. i was running for a while with no attentuator and it's still pretty loud.

I agree its totally hard to believe how loud that little 5 watter is.

I'll have to get some sound clips going too.

You are correct the OCD does sound killer in front of it.

Actually some mods got accomplished to it today. I'll get the list of them up here tomorrow and what they did to it.

I'm not sure your opinion, lots of people say that amp is not bright enough. I'm the opposite, its interesting though that's for sure.

exhausted

it seemed bright enough to me today.

dont_go_on_me

exhausted wrote:

it seemed bright enough to me today.

definitely not for me. maybe i notice it so much since i'm used to playing through my extremely bright delta blues 115...but they are definitely polar opposites from each other as far as brightness is concerned.

for instance, on my Shannon OD I like the tone knob almost all the way to the right when playing through my delta blues; but when playing through the valve jr. i turn the tone knob all the way to the left (and it's still too dark).

I just want to find some middle ground!


Also, am I correct in assuming the valve jr. will not need biasing since there's only one power tube?

All Those Yesterdays

don't_go_on_me wrote:

definitely not for me. maybe i notice it so much since i'm used to playing through my extremely bright delta blues 115...but they are definitely polar opposites from each other as far as brightness is concerned.

for instance, on my Shannon OD I like the tone knob almost all the way to the right when playing through my delta blues; but when playing through the valve jr. i turn the tone knob all the way to the left (and it's still too dark).

I just want to find some middle ground!


Also, am I correct in assuming the valve jr. will not need biasing since there's only one power tube?

I still checked the plate voltage to see what it was running at.

By the way what guitars are you running thru it?

All Those Yesterdays

R1: We changed it to 1M like most amps are, and what most people use. It gives more gain, and really brightens up the amp (with a tele and a dan, it was way to bright!). We knocked it back to a 470k.

R8, R9 & C3, C4: This is where you can pull the flabbiness out of the low end. I now have these as follows; R8 & R9 = 1.5k, C4 = 10 uF and C3 = 3.3 uF We might be messing with this after the cabinet comes depending on how bassy that cabinet is.

R5: this increase or decreases power tube distortion. Because of the input capacitor R1 change you get much more gain out of it. I want power tube distortion don't get me wrong, but it was getting stupid. This is now a 47k

C5: I needed to do this to help bring some lows back into it, it's now 1000 uF 35v (big mofo!).

If I get a shot this weeks I'll get some sound clips recorded.

dont_go_on_me

All Those Yesterdays wrote:

By the way what guitars are you running thru it?

a variety:

Strat
Paul Westerberg guitar (P90)
Les Paul
SG

Not surprising that the single coil guitars don't sound too bad, but the humbucker-equipped axes just don't seem to have any life...far too dull sounding (especially the LP).

Thanks for that .pdf file...I'll be reading up on a few of those mods and then will be deciding whether or not I'm going to attempt them .

I don't own a soldering iron, any recommendations for an affordable iron that will get the job done?

All Those Yesterdays

don't_go_on_me wrote:

a variety:

Strat
Paul Westerberg guitar (P90)
Les Paul
SG

Not surprising that the single coil guitars don't sound too bad, but the humbucker-equipped axes just don't seem to have any life...far too dull sounding (especially the LP).

Thanks for that .pdf file...I'll be reading up on a few of those mods and then will be deciding whether or not I'm going to attempt them .

I don't own a soldering iron, any recommendations for an affordable iron that will get the job done?

a 15 watter with a pencil tip is all that's required. Get that at radio shack, get your self some thing solder too like .032, or less if you can find it (for the small resistor stuff.

Iron at Radio shack runs under $10

dont_go_on_me

I decided I'm not even close to ready to fiddle around with electronics in a tube amp, and it wouldn't be worth it for me to pay someone to do the mods for me. So just as I was set to return the Valve Jr. and save up for something else (Bumbox, perhaps) I decided to run both my amps together.

Fuck Yes.


My God, my tone has never sounded so good. The Valve Jr. through my Avatar cab together with my Delta Blues compliment each beautifully. Maybe it's because I've never ran two amps at once, but I'm blown away by how great this sounds! The Peavy's bright 15" speaker along with the darkness (that I was complaining about earlier ) of the Valve Jr. equals a perfect clean tone! Stomp the Shannon OD on and I'm in heaven! Throw in a little phase and panning delay and I can hardly handle it!

I'm also now finally happy with how my SD-9 is sounding too...on it's own it's good, but with the Shannon it's incredible (I know I sound like a broken record, but that Shannon is a tone monster! ) I can't believe I am so satisfied and this is at reasonable volumes...I can't wait for the next door neighbor to head to work so I can crank them both!

I guess we'll see in a week or two if the dual amp set-up as lost it's charm, but right now I couldn't be happier!

Ryan, thanks a lot for that mod .pdf for the valve...I'm going to hold off on doing anything now but will definitely be keeping them in my back pocket for when I feel comfortable enough to perform them.

I really can't believe how such a simple, mass produced and (in gearhead terms) inexpensive pair of amps could sound so perfect together!

woohoo!

JofZ

The EVJ is the perfect modding amp!
I have one and I am in the middle of the BitMO mods now. I will report later on the tone.
I plan on doing a bunch of mods to this beast. IMO it is the best amp money can buy. After the mods are done it will cover the Bumbox and then some.

Even if you have no clue you can still mod this thing. Do not be afriad, just be careful and read a tube service amp book first.

All Those Yesterdays

JofZ wrote:

The EVJ is the perfect modding amp!
I have one and I am in the middle of the BitMO mods now. I will report later on the tone.
I plan on doing a bunch of mods to this beast. IMO it is the best amp money can buy. After the mods are done it will cover the Bumbox and then some.

Even if you have no clue you can still mod this thing. Do not be afriad, just be careful and read a tube service amp book first.

Totally agree its totally simple to do mods to this.

All Those Yesterdays

Cabinet has been purchased. I bought a 2x12 Avatar G212H, black tolex, with the wheat grille. Unfortunately I'm going with the G12H-30 and the vintage 30 combo (cost of this was only $288). It would cost the same to do a G12H-30 and a red fang, as it would to buy what I purchased, and buying a red fang seperate to do my self. So I'm either going get a seperate single 12 open back cabinet for a red fang, or replace the vintage 30 with a red fang at a later time (throw the vintage 30 in something else).

That's the breaks, just can't pass up that deal. Think I'll be at my buddys studio thursday, so I'll try to get before and after mod clips of the epiphone done that night.

exhausted

well, i'm going to do the input impendance modifications today.

as soon as i buy a multimeter so i make sure i don't kill myself on the filter caps.

from what i've been reading in the s2 amps pdf, i think this will take care of everything i'm concerned about.

All Those Yesterdays

exhausted wrote:

well, i'm going to do the input impendance modifications today.

as soon as i buy a multimeter so i make sure i don't kill myself on the filter caps.

from what i've been reading in the s2 amps pdf, i think this will take care of everything i'm concerned about.

As in going up to 1 meg on R1?

NMyTree

don't_go_on_me wrote:

Any recommendations on tubes (12AX7 & EL84) and could it brighten up the tone?

These tubes lean to the brighter side: JJ/Tesla 12AX7

http://www.thetubestore.com/tesla12ax7.html

http://www.triodeelectronics.com/12ax7tesla.html


http://www.triodeelectronics.com/12ectejjtu.html

exhausted

yeah, R2 to 10K and R1 to 1M.

i'll try that and see how it goes.

just out of curiousity, how much voltage was on the filter caps when you opened yours up?

All Those Yesterdays

exhausted wrote:

yeah, R2 to 10K and R1 to 1M.

i'll try that and see how it goes.

just out of curiousity, how much voltage was on the filter caps when you opened yours up?

Here's the deal (and I'm going to get yelled at for some one on this one). If your smart, you take your time, and you stay away from them, you don't have to worry about them!. Honestly, You can discharge those with a screw driver or a pair of insulated needle nose pliers if you like. But your. the items your going to be doing aren't near them (sure they are on the board, and it's small). But unless your replacing those, don't worry about them. It's good to be scared, keeps you on your toes. I've done some circuit's in high school before. I honestly didn't check the filter cap voltage, I just kept on my toes, once again I'm going to get yelled at, but you just have to think things thru and be smart.

Honestly, just change our R1 first. see what you think. You'll get a lot more gain out of it (if that's what your looking for). It will brighten it up some.

I have gone up to 1M then down to about half that, now I'm back to 68K.

Have your heat sink?

exhausted

All Those Yesterdays wrote:

Have your heat sink?

sorry? i don't understand the question.


and with voltage. i'm just paranoid and sort of a safety nut. i do want to get further into amp mod/building so i figure i might as well learn how to do everything right from the get go.

300+ volts would still sting a bit.

besides, i've got a kid and all.

All Those Yesterdays

exhausted wrote:

sorry? i don't understand the question.


and with voltage. i'm just paranoid and sort of a safety nut. i do want to get further into amp mod/building so i figure i might as well learn how to do everything right from the get go.

300+ volts would still sting a bit.

besides, i've got a kid and all.

Roach clip? Copper alligator clip. You put it on the side of the resistor, capacitor, what ever you are soldering on (removeing and installing). It pulls the heat away from the resistor. Get them at radio shack right with the solder and irons etc... Resistors can handle a lot of heat, and they are cheap, but it really doesn't take much time, it's a good extra tip.

Yes 300 volts, does sting. Could be from 400 volts on down. If your not comfortable just discharge them. It will make you jump the first time but that's part of it.

Take your time though, relax and have fun. Safety is a big concern. If I ever change a filter cap then yes then I'd discharge them.

Did more mod's yesterday, amp was just way way too bright, with the danelectro, and the dearmond.

exhausted

oh yeah, got the heat sinks etc. from working on pedals and guitars.

All Those Yesterdays

exhausted wrote:

oh yeah, got the heat sinks etc. from working on pedals and guitars.

Just making sure! You got the soldering down, so you should be all right. Here is a tip, get some duct tape, so when you flip the board over to start to remove the solder, go ahead and tap the board to the chassis (so it doesn't move for you). I use the same piece the entire time. I'll screw the board back on, take the chassis, and re tube it then carry the chassi to the cabinet, plug it in and see what I think. (instead of going back and forth, putting it back in the cabinet etc....

All Those Yesterdays

All Those Yesterdays wrote:

R1: We changed it to 1M like most amps are, and what most people use. It gives more gain, and really brightens up the amp (with a tele and a dan, it was way to bright!). We knocked it back to a 470k.

R8, R9 & C3, C4: This is where you can pull the flabbiness out of the low end. I now have these as follows; R8 & R9 = 1.5k, C4 = 10 uF and C3 = 3.3 uF We might be messing with this after the cabinet comes depending on how bassy that cabinet is.

R5: this increase or decreases power tube distortion. Because of the input capacitor R1 change you get much more gain out of it. I want power tube distortion don't get me wrong, but it was getting stupid. This is now a 47k

C5: I needed to do this to help bring some lows back into it, it's now 1000 uF 35v (big mofo!).

If I get a shot this weeks I'll get some sound clips recorded.

Here is the latest. The big problem with doing so many changes in a row (even though hearing what they did each time) is that you ears get so used to things, and you don't notice it. The amp days later when plugging it back in seems way to bright for my needs. yesterday went back in and did the following:

R1: back to the stock 68K
C3: down to 2.2 uF
R9: down to 1K


Now I have my tight punch back, not to bright and most of the flabbiness out of the low end when cranked. A little of it is still their, but I'm at a happy medium. I won't use the amp on kill most of the time any ways, usually around 1 to 3 oclock.

I didn't get around to doing sound samples on thursday, we were to busy trying to get a organ track down. Hopefully this thursday I'll be able to jump on some tracks.

exhausted

All Those Yesterdays wrote:

Just making sure! You got the soldering down, so you should be all right. Here is a tip, get some duct tape, so when you flip the board over to start to remove the solder, go ahead and tap the board to the chassis (so it doesn't move for you). I use the same piece the entire time. I'll screw the board back on, take the chassis, and re tube it then carry the chassi to the cabinet, plug it in and see what I think. (instead of going back and forth, putting it back in the cabinet etc....

thanks, yeah, all the screws etc to get the board off the chassis is the main reason i want to discharge everything. just too much fiddling to get to the solder side to risk it for me.

i will do R1 first. R1 @ 1M and R2 @ 68K makes the input the same as my deluxe reverb. so we'll try that. i've got a bunch of values to try if that doesn't work out.

changing R2 to 10K would make the input the same as my blues jr.

i'm not changing any caps etc. for brightness at this point.

i saw one guy put a master volume in. interesting on a 5 W amp but sort of appealing i guess.

i don't want to muck up the front panel though.

All Those Yesterdays

exhausted wrote:

thanks, yeah, all the screws etc to get the board off the chassis is the main reason i want to discharge everything. just too much fiddling to get to the solder side to risk it for me.

i will do R1 first. R1 @ 1M and R2 @ 68K makes the input the same as my deluxe reverb. so we'll try that. i've got a bunch of values to try if that doesn't work out.

changing R2 to 10K would make the input the same as my blues jr.

i'm not changing any caps etc. for brightness at this point.

i saw one guy put a master volume in. interesting on a 5 W amp but sort of appealing i guess.

i don't want to muck up the front panel though.

Screwdriver, with a magnet tip works. those filter caps are only going to do bad things if your touching their prongs. The top of the caps can't hurt you. Fortuantely those caps are tight to the board practically.

Good luck and keep us posted.

I agree I'm not up to any mods to the actual front panel. I don't need bright switches etc. It's going to be a two tone amp for me, and that's cool. When I record I'll mess with the tubes, but that's about it.

Avatar 2x12 should be here on monday!!!