Epi VJ - should I?

[Zip]

Local guy has a 2009 Valve Jr he'll sell for 75 bucks. Not that I need it, but....

...should I??

 

[deeaa]

Hell yeah. It's a nice amph. I had one, of course regret selling Just don't expect it to be more than it is: surprisingly loud amp that has a nice tubey clean sound or slightly driven...it's no bedroom amp though. But for what it is, yeah go for it...in retrospect it sounded also great as a power amp for Marshall JMP-1 pre and probably many others as well. It's just that it's too loud for home when you have a nice tone and not powerful enough for band playing. I did a number of mods on mine which was fun, and after the transformer change especially it was a loud mother for 5W...but sounded very nice indeed. But, too loud and not loud enough...

Anyway - what does 75 bucks buy? A night at town, a nice dinner...much better spent on a nice amph.

 

[kiteman]

It's a cool amp. I had one and I took the chassis out and put it in a Kustom 12 Gauge combo box with a 15 watt 12" speaker.

 

[Kazz]

I absolutely love the one I recently picked up. Mine is the head version with the matching 1/2 stack cabinet. Is this the combo version? Either way for 75 bucks you cannot go wrong.

 

[Zip]

No speaker, just the head. Looks to be in great condition too.

All I have lying around is a couple of 4x12 cabs tho. So I'll need to buy/build a cab for the Epi, if I buy it. Meh. Anyone else want it?

 

[tunghaichuan]

No speaker, just the head. Looks to be in great condition too.

All I have lying around is a couple of 4x12 cabs tho. So I'll need to buy/build a cab for the Epi, if I buy it. Meh. Anyone else want it?

You can plug a VJ into a 4x12 cab. In fact, it should sound pretty good. You won't have as much headroom as with a 50W amp, but a VJ will drive your 4x12 cab just fine.

$75 is a good deal for one of those heads.

 

[Zip]

So, if I buy it and plug it into say a Marshall or Peavey 412.....can I run it through an attenuator to get some good bedroom noise out of it?

 

[kiteman]

You won't need an attenuator if you swap the 12ax7 preamp tube to a lower gain tube like a 12at7 or 12ay7. When I had mine I ran a 5751 tube in it.

 

[vroomery]

What area do you live in? I've been looking at one of these for a while and would definitely get one for 75 bucks.

 

[Zip]

I'm in the Carolinas. Want it? PM me & I'll call the guy in the morning.

 

[deeaa]

The need for an attenuator depends on whether you want it's own sound or just a clean sound. If you want the amp's own sound, you do need an attenuator...the 5W is VERY loud 5W. But a simple L-pad will do well. I had a 20W resistor for that with a potentimeter for adjustment, really easy to build.

I'd recommend some mods, they really make the amp come alive...mostly the 'input mod' if you want some nice crunch out of it...super easy to make too, and even so it's made reversible.

 

[Mr Pants]

An excellent amp, with a nice breakup when you start to crank it up. It loves my Digitech RP350