Epiphone Valve Jr.

[Nelskie]

ww - From the perspective of a moderator, I am going to address your post point-by-point, because I think you've raised a lot of good discussion, and most importantly on a few topics that I don't think anyone has really addressed. Or, at least in the terms of how each member's participation, and collective understanding of the function of the forum affects the "big picture".

i don't think there are very many pros on here.

Define "pro". If you mean play in a band, or record professionally, I am neither. I'm an "advanced hobbyist", if that makes any sense at all. And one who has a severe jones for buying gear.

I could not write an indepth article on anything guitar relate

Have you tried? You just wrote two paragraphs here about why you like this forum. In other words, you put some thought into a response, developed it into written form, and presented it. You've just proven to me that you have all of the tools you need to do it.

I don't know the difference between capacitor types, wave frequencies or whatnot...

Me neither. Yet amazingly, I can come up with pseudo-technical content at the drop of a hat . . . ??!! You do not need to have this knowledge to enjoy guitar, and I think it would be safe to assume that the large majority of folks who participate here at FN don't either.

I have a tele and a strat knockoff but i wouldn't know where to start to come up with a truly informational post in that area of the forum

I have knock-offs, too, and I write about them all the time. How about what attracted you to purchase those guitars? Did you compare them to the "Real McCoys" before purchasing them? How about the components - are they similar to the higher-priced USA-made models? Feel? Tone? Possible upgrades? Maple vs. rosewood? Single-coil vs. humbucker at the neck? Those all came off the top of my head as fast as I could type them.

As the forum grows i'm sure there will be more "traffic". Heck some forums i'm on have hundreds of posts per hour buth they allso have 5-10,000 members instead of a little over 100.

Why depend on others to contribute to YOUR forum?

I enjoy the comraderie here including all the non guitar related noise....food, beer whatever. It's like going on a man's night out without leaving the house.

Indeed, I do too. But at some point you need to consider the direction of the forum, and it's collective capacity in presenting and disseminating viable information about its intended subject(s). This is a guitar / bass forum, and thus, we should all be respectful to its basic purpose, that being sharing and discussing things about guitars, bass, and related equipment, along with associated activities, and general musical content. If you want to build traffic to the forum, you first must have something to present, or something of interest to offer. Potential participants / members who come here, and see threads going off-topic, or non-guitar related discussion may look at that detrimentally, and seek to participate / contribute elsewhere.

There are also many ways in which you can share in camaraderie - the personal message feature, e-mails through, or outside of the forum, chat rooms, blogs, posting sites, etc.

Being cognizant of proper forum protocol should not be looked at as a hindrance, nor should it deter your participation. If this forum is to grow, and move forward, we all need to be aware of our roles and responsibilities as members. And the sooner we can come to terms with it, the better our forum will become. Conversely, if our posts become strewn with non-topical content and chat-room discussion, it will stagnate content-wise, and soon, you too will be looking elsewhere for guitar-related information (if you aren't already!)

Anyways, that's my two cents.

 

[warren0728]

ww - From the perspective of a moderator, I am going to address your post point-by-point, because I think you've raised a lot of good discussion, and most importantly on a few topics that I don't think anyone has really addressed. Or, at least in the terms of how each member's participation, and collective understanding of the function of the forum affects the "big picture".


Define "pro". If you mean play in a band, or record professionally, I am neither. I'm an "advanced hobbyist", if that makes any sense at all. And one who has a severe jones for buying gear.

pro might have been a poor choice of a word...but it seems like there are a lot of folks on this board (myself included) that are casual players...although i'm guessing most of us have your severe jones for buying gear!

Have you tried? You just wrote two paragraphs here about why you like this forum. In other words, you put some thought into a response, developed them into written form, and presented them. You've just proven to me that you have all of the tools you need to do it.

i have the tools yes....but not the knowledge...i can certainly create coherent paragraphs about my thoughts....but don't have the knowledge (i am only talking about me here) to contribute much technically.

I have knock-offs, too, and I write about them all the time. How about what attracted you to purchase those guitars? Did you compare them to the "Real McCoys" before purchasing them? How about the components - are they similar to the higher-priced USA-made models? Feel? Tone? Possible upgrades? Maple vs. rosewood? Single-coil vs. humbucker at the neck? Those all came off the top of my head as fast as I could type them.

i have talked about some of my purchases and why i liked them (like the tele and the valve jr.) but i am not able to go much beyond hey i liked this guitar and got a good deal on it. I wish i did know more about this stuff but i don't so i don't write about it.

Why depend on others to contribute to YOUR forum?

i think i contribute quite a bit to the forum (although admittedly a lot of times it was non guitar related...although when i felt i had something helpful to ad to the guitar related threads i did)....i'm not depending on anyone else to. My point was only that as our numbers grow so will the number and diversity of the posts.

at some point you need to consider the direction of the forum, and it's collective capacity in presenting and disseminating viable information about its intended subject(s). This is a guitar forum, and thus, we should all be respectful to its basic purpose, that being sharing and discussing things about guitars, bass, and related equipment, along with associated activities, and general musical content. If you want to build traffic to the forum, you first must have something to present, or something of interest to offer. Potential participants / members who come here, and see threads going off-topic, or non-guitar related discussion may look at that detrimentally, and seek to participate / contribute elsewhere.

i agree....in part but think a healthy mixture of each would be what most are looking for. I stay here because i feel like part of the family, not just because there is great musical information here (which there is!

There are also many ways in which you can share in camaraderie - the personal message feature, e-mails through, or outside of the forum, chat rooms, blogs, posting sites, etc.

absolutely, in fact i have set up two personal real life meetings with a couple of fretters and have been thrilled with how those get togethers turned out!

Being cognizant of proper forum protocol should not be looked at as a hindrance, nor should it deter your participation. If this forum is to grow, and move forward, we all need to be aware of our roles and responsibilities as members. And the sooner we can come to terms with it, the better our forum will become. Conversely, if our posts become strewn with non-topical content and chat-room discussion, it will stagnate content-wise, and soon, you too will be looking elsewhere for guitar-related information (if you aren't already!)

again i think a mixture of all of the above (with an emphasis on guitar-related material) would be the most appealing.

Please keep in mind...I am not offended or mad or anything....open dialog is great. I want to see this forum succeed as much as anyone. Also I am only speaking for myself...not anyone else here on the fret. I like it here and am not going anywhere.

Thanks for considering my points and taking time to reply as you did.

ww

 

[Iago]

by the way... what`s the "heater" they talk about so much in that link Tim posted??

ah, the amp must be here tomorrow!!! I`m so excited!! I`ll probably make a small review after fixing my needs of playing a tube amp again!

 

[warren0728]

ah, the amp must be here tomorrow!!! I`m so excited!! I`ll probably make a small review after fixing my needs of playing a tube amp again!

cool iago....i know you are going to like it!

ww

 

[Tim]

Iago,

The heating element (or cathode) can be found on Triode tubes. One of our favorites as guitarist is the 12AX7. The heater assists in keeping the grid fully charged and aids the passing of electrons between the grid and the plate. The higher the rate of electron flow the more amplification is produced. See the below link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_tube

I hope this helps answer your question.

Caution: If you don't know anything about electronics, then I highly recommend you not try the modifications yourself. You will either seriously hurt yourself or fry the amp.

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

Well, tot, I don't know if "dark" is a real accurate description - esp. for a Class A amp. The natural tonal characteristics, however, seem to be geared less towards the upper registers, and more focused in the mids / lows (mostly mids), although the highs can be enhanced with a little sleight of hand (think pedals and EQ). To me, amps with smaller cabs have a tendency to sound "darker" no matter what, and I think that's due to a number of things: 1.) they naturally lack a little bit of the "headroom" of a larger amp; 2.) a smaller speaker does not move as much air as a larger amp; and 3.) the reflection characteristics of the tone inside a smaller cabinet (less space). These, of course, are my own personal observations, and if they do not correspond with the all-knowing, all-seeing tube amp guru over at Amptone.com, I extend my most sincere apologies. I would agree with your statement that the amp favors single-coil guitars by-and-large, and maybe its because the natural brightness of the single coil pick-up evens out the middy / bass-y tone of the amp. However, I've procured some awfully tasty tones out of the Valve Jr. using my Les Paul, so don't think that single coils are the only way to fly with this rig.

It would naively seem to me that you would lose the bottom end first with a small speaker & cab given that the size now matches a shorter wavelength and hence higher frequency.

So Class A's are known to be brighter? I wonder why that is. Has anyone seen a list of the classes of well known amps? The AC30 is class A I believe and so are some Fenders so that rings true with them.

Since I have mainly single coils at this moment that Valve Junior is looking tastier & tastier.

Thanks, Nelsk!

 

[Nelskie]

To me, amps with smaller cabs . . .

These, of course, are my own personal observations . . .

tot - Please do not construe any of my comments as universal facts regarding the Valve Jr., Class A equipment, or smaller amps in general. Your own opinions, interpretations, and results may vary from mine. Also bear in mind the modifications (speaker, tubes) that I've employed with my own amp.

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

tot - Please do not construe any of my comments as universal facts regarding the Valve Jr., Class A equipment, or smaller amps in general. Your own opinions, interpretations, and results may vary from mine. Also bear in mind the modifications (speaker, tubes) that I've employed with my own amp.

I'm just trying to understand the principles involved Nelsk.

 

[Bloozcat]

I'm re-printing this below from a post I did at HC earlier today about my latest (and last) experiments with tubes and the Valve JR.:

Well, I had some time this weekend, so I went through the last of my tube testing for my Valve Jr. head (and two other tube amps at the same time) and I've finally settled on a set that delivers just what I was looking to get from this amp.

I was limited by the number of output tubes I had on hand, but I still managed to test five different brands. The list of pre-amp tubes I tried is fairly extensive. I re-visited some of both the output and pre tubes as I felt that I may not have fairly judged them by not letting the amp warm up for a good half hour first.

Guitars used:
Home-made custom Strat clone
Agile AD 2500 w/P-90's
Agile 2800DLX with Highorder humbuckers
Modified Squire '51
Speakers: 2X12 cab with Weber C12N's

Here's the pre-amp tubes I tried:

New manufacture:
Sovtek 12AX7WA (stock)
JJ ECC83S
Chinese (Shuguang) 12AX7
JJ ECC81
Sovtek 12AX7LPS
Sovtek 5751

NOS:
GE JAN 12AX7WA
BEL 12AX7
RCA 12AX7A
Tesla E83CC (NOT JJ's)
GE JAN 5751
Philips 12AT7

Output (Power) Tubes:

New manufacture:
Sovtek EL84 (stock)
JJ EL84

NOS:
Polam/Telam EL84
Russian Military 7189 (EL84M)
Tesla EL84 (NOT JJ's)

Of all the tubes I tested the combination that I found to be the best to my ear are these:

Pre-amp tube: NOS Tesla (not JJ) E83CC
Output (Power) tube: NOS Tesla EL84

The E83CC is a very warm, musical tube that is lower gain than a std. 12AX7. I was looking to extend the clean headroom in the amp a little without losing over-all volume and a rich warm OD when pushed a little. This tube fit the bill perfectly. The Tesla EL84 output tube is simply a classic NOS tube in tone...warm, rounded, fat, and musical, with neither a bright edgy-ness, nor a muddy, flabby bottom. It's tone just makes you think, "nice tube tone" when you hear it. My favorite EL84 is the Polam/Telam, but in this amp the differences in tone between it and the Tesla were pretty negligable, which worked out well since the Polam I tested came from a back-up matched set I have for another amp.

From 0-10:00/11:00 the amp has a nice clean tone that is characteristically warm and fat as only a tube amp can sound. At the 12:00 position, the amp becomes fatter with just a bit of OD tone. Perfect for classic blues. At 2:00 the tone becomes fatter yet with a nice OD growl to it that is neither over the top not fizzy or fuzzy. Great for a more agressive blues to clasic rock. Above the 2:00 setting, the OD/distortion becomes more pronounced and the amp becomes less musical...but still not as buzzy as I found it to be with many of the other tubes I tested.

Throughout the testing of these tubes, the description I kept coming back to was warm, rich, rounded, fat, musical, balanced, and full. No bright ice-pick edge, no muddy, flabby bottom. Just great solid tube tone. This tube combo IMHO, makes this simple yet well designed circuit really shine.

I happy, and I'm through testing...

 

[Robert]

Thanks for posting that! It seems like everyone should have one of these amps. I'll see if I can snag one too...

 

[Bloozcat]

Thanks for posting that! It seems like everyone should have one of these amps. I'll see if I can snag one too...

For such an inexpensive amp, it's well designed. It's simple, uncomplicated, and performs well beyond expectations - and it's price tag. What's even better is that should you decide to change tubes, there are only two to change. Even the more expensive NOS tubes won't set you back to much when you only need two.

Although in it's un-aided state it's a one trick pony, the addition of pedals can extend it's range quite a bit. Especially pedals with active EQ's. The amp takes pedals very well without an effects loop. Not all amps like pedals straight in.

I'm anxiously awaiting the release of the Epiphone Blues Custom 30. It's been advertised by several on-line vendors, but none have had it in stock. Hopefully the delay is for a useful purpose, such as redesigning the circuit with DC filiments in place of AC filiments as was done in the Valve Jr. which made it the quiet amp it is. How does a fully tube driven amp with a tube rectifier utilizing 5881 power tubes as found in the old tweed and brown face circuits sound? And for $500.00 new price? Sounds good to me...can't wait.

 

[Iago]

yeah...a neighbor just knocked on my door complaining about the noise... I knew that would happen!

 

[oldguy]

Got one ordered, due 5-25

 

[Robert]

Iago, you bought one, right? Happy with it?

 

[Iago]

yes I am Rob!

My only complaint is that I can`t cranck it up to get distortion because of the neighbors!... I just wish it had a tone control too, but I can live without it by now. I find the Valve jr to have a really nice sustain and harmonics, and the buzz is really less than what I expected. This little amp has a lot of bass... so I was thinking in getting a treble booster or something like that..or just a overdrive pedal with some tweaking on the tone control would do it. I can get a really nice "woman tone" with the amp crancked and the tone control on the guitar rolled down...

one of my favourite settings right now is both pu`s on "in phase" with the volume all the way up and the tone all the way down. I can get really cool smooth distortion..(it distorts more easily with the Mustang when I`m using both pickups) and the amp still gets every nuance of my playing attack. So, cranck it and use your volume and tone controls to make the rest... I still wish some more treble range...

I think that the Valve Jr would sound really nice with high gain pu`s too... maybe even better than single coils. the Mustang sounds extremely clean when using only-neck or only bridge pu configuration. The neck one sounds like a strat but "not-springy" I guess that maybe it doesnt have the same "depht" of tone as some others strats I played before... maybe because of the strings being "top loaders"... well I guess I`m gonna keep that for a Mustang review

See you guys!

 

[Robert]

Good to hear you like it. I am very interested in one. The head seems better since the hum issues seem to be resolved, but then of course I'd need a decent cab, which I don't have. Ahh, decisions.

 

[Iago]

I think that getting the head and then a cab would be really good for you Rob, since you have some combos already... The Valve Jr really gets the details of your playing. It also doesn`t have all that "saggness" from a totally valve amp (i mean valve rectifier) but it really does an excellent job. Definitely unbeatable for the price.

 

[Tone2TheBone]

The combo sounds killer with a Gibby Les Paul loaded with PAFs. It's my favorite sound. Amp dimed it kicks...great invention wish I would have thought of it. I bet a brand spankin' new Suhr Stratymeister would sound pretty good through this Roberto.

 

[Iago]

Roberto compre o valve jr!

 

[Robert]

But what cab to get...hmm... suggestions?

 

[Katastrophe]

How 'bout this? http://www.axetopia.com/items/Vox/VOXAD212.htm It'd be a good compliment to the Vox amph for bigger gigs and screaming solos!R :R

 

[Robert]

Oooh, I'd love to try that one! Looks great, wonder if it sounds any good?

 

[duhvoodooman]

DVM NEWS FLASH!! I just nailed a lightly used Epi Valve Jr. combo off eBay last night for $92 + shipping. Won't get it until next week, 'cuz the seller only ships on Fridays, but can't hardly wait to hear what it sounds like. Not sure if it's new enough to have the "hum fix" in it (BTW, can anybody positively confirm that the new VJr combos truly have gone over to the DC supply to the tube filaments??), but I'll deal with that as necessary. This will be my son's amp for his B&C Squier Tele, but you can be sure his old man will be logging plenty of playing time on it!

I've been amazed by the amount of info available on the web for modding these little terrors, with many of those links posted in this thread. A lot of it is focused on taming the hum, but there's a bunch of other stuff like adding a "brightness" switch, or a gain switch, or a small light bulb to act an attenuator. These things seem to have achieved official "cult status" out there with tubeheads!

An interesting comment I've read a couple of times from apparently knowledgeable sources has been that they consider the hum and its causes to be so obvious that the Gibson/Epiphone engineers couldn't possibly have overlooked it in the amp's design and prototyping. Their conclusion is that they must have intentionally left it in, and may even have designed it in! Speculation on possible reasons for doing this include (1) giving the VJr more of that "vintage" vibe to go along with it's retro look and operational simplicity, and (2) keeping this little wonder from being so good that it would siphon off sales of the more expensive models. But, then again, they fixed the hum issue in the newer head model, so this may all be idle chatter....

 

[Nelskie]

An interesting comment I've read a couple of times from apparently knowledgeable sources has been that they consider the hum and its causes to be so obvious that the Gibson/Epiphone engineers couldn't possibly have overlooked it in the amp's design and prototyping. Their conclusion is that they must have intentionally left it in, and may even have designed it in! Speculation on possible reasons for doing this include (1) giving the VJr more of that "vintage" vibe to go along with it's retro look and operational simplicity, and (2) keeping this little wonder from being so good that it would siphon off sales of the more expensive models. But, then again, they fixed the hum issue in the newer head model, so this may all be idle chatter....

DVM - Now that I think about your statement, the hum issue would indeed seem so blatantly obvious that it requires one to think outside of the box. I would wholeheartedly concur with the hum adding some distinctly vintage mystique to the Valve Jr.'s tone - even to the point where one would consider it an essential part of the amp's overall vibe. Myself, I consider the hum issue to be relatively insignificant in comparison to the Jr.'s long list of positives. One might also make the point that the Valve Jr. has eclipsed both the Valve Std. and Special models as far as popularity is concerned, and I really don't see where that will change anytime soon. With its obvious comparisons to the venerable Fender Champ line, and ever-so-basic Class "A" design, the Valve Jr. is well on its way to becoming a cult icon for the guitar-playing masses, and deservedly so. Perhaps that's why its causing such a stir amongst tube afficianados, in that they're now face-to-face with having spent upwards, and in some cases over $1,000 for fancy boutique numbers, and realize that they could have hot-rodded one of these little rigs for around $250 (and that's including the price of the amp!), and had nearly the same thing. Ah yes, such is the price for keeping up with the Jones'.

 

[duhvoodooman]

Valve Jr. First Impressions

Yesterday, I received the used VJr combo I bought on eBay. Haven't spent that much time with it yet, but here are some first impressions.

• It really does have an appealing look--clean, simple, retro. Quite a nice design job by Gibson/Epiphone. Sturdily built, too.
• 5W (especially tube watts) is still LOUD. Granted, I play in a very small room, but anything over about 2 PM on the mojo dial was getting uncomfortable to my ears. Gotta bring it down into the basement playroom, where I can open it up a bit more!
• What hum?? At least with the volume at about halfway, I really don't hear any significant ambient hum. There's a low buzz that I can hear build in as the volume is turned up to full, but it's far from obtrusive. I'll have to open up the chassis and see if mine has the DC filament fix, but I kind of doubt it. Will be very interested to hear it down in the basement, with fluorescent lights overhead!
• The tone is definitely on the dark side, to my ears. I had to turn up the treble on all three of my guitars to get more brightness in the tone--including my son's Tele played from the bridge p'up! I can definitely see why one of the popular VJr mods is a "brightness" switch.
• Putting my Digitech Tone Driver in front of the amp really brought it to life. I was running the morph knob midway, with the gain about 1 - 2 PM, and using the Tone knob to boost the high end. As Nelskie would say, it was floodin' down in Texas, for sure! And I was grinnin' in Schenectady....

I've already ordered some JJ tubes from Eurotubes.com to replace the stock Sovteks (one 12AX7 preamp, one EL84 power), which is said to brighten up the tone some. I've got two EL84's coming, one graded for max. headroom and the other for early breakup. I've also got a range of 12A_7 preamp tubes, to fool around with various degrees of preamp gain. Should be fun playing around! Film at 11....

 

[Spudman]

Voodoo
Does the combo have a speaker out jack? It would be great to have the best of both worlds with the combo. Just curious.

 

[duhvoodooman]

The VJr combo has a 4-ohm speaker jack that the stock speaker plugs into (see pic below), so you can definitely plug in a different 4-ohm speaker set-up. But I've also read on a couple of the VJr mod websites that you can easily add an 8-ohm output jack or install a switch to toggle the existing output between 4 and 8-ohm impedance using wiring already present on the output transformer. More reasons why this little puppy has gained the reputation as a "modder's dream"....

View attachment 231

 

[Nelskie]

DVM - You won't soon run out of ways to have fun with the Valve Jr. - modding, playing, tweaking with effects, etc. However, it'll be that true-blue Class A tone that'll keep coming back to the lunch-counter for seconds.

I was also wondering if you'd heard any "tube rattle" with your amp running at higher volumes? As I'd outlined to you in my e-mail, I solved my "rattle" issue by using silicone tube dampers. But I'm wondering if my speaker / tube change-out was the source of that, or if it's something that is inherent to the amp itself?

Anyways, I enjoyed reading your review (post #205). Keep us posted on your mods & progress.

 

[duhvoodooman]

I opened up the VJr last night, and it's definitely the original design--no evidence of DC voltage supply to the tube heater filaments. From what I read, this is why you get the buzzy hum rolling on when increasing the volume, which is exactly what I hear. This would undoubtedly be annoying to the serious musician, esp. if they wished to record with this amp. Let's just say that description is not remotely applicable to my son, who will be using the amp, or to me, who will be stealing time on it, too! So I have no plans to have the DC fix done, which involves cutting traces on the PCB and installing a small bridge rectifier & capacitor. Not worth the trouble....

The two tubes are very easy to get at, once you pull the back off. I'll probably remove the metal grille that's mounted across the upper hole of the back panel; this will allow access to the tubes even with the back left on. And tube swappin' is SUCH FUN!

Speaking of which, I pulled a couple of tubes out of my Delta Blues last night (a NOS BEL/Mullard 12AX7 and a JJ EL84) and put them in the VJr to see what tonal harvest could be reaped. It seemed to brighten up a bit and be somewhat smoother overall, but the difference wasn't dramatic. I really need to record some A/B sound clips to judge how big the difference is. Your mind can play tricks on you with this stuff, if you don't hear the two versions played head-to-head. I still want more brightness than a tube change will give me, though, so will likely pursue a mod or two that I've seen for this purpose.

Nelskie: Regarding the tube rattle, both of these tubes have spring-loaded retainer mechanisms on them (see JPG below; power tube on left, preamp tube on right). Didn't yours come with this, also? Or do they just not work well? In any case, I really haven't played enough through the amp at higher volumes to tell if this is a problem with mine. So far, I haven't noticed it, though.

View attachment 232

 

[Nelskie]

Nelskie: Regarding the tube rattle, both of these tubes have spring-loaded retainer mechanisms on them (see JPG below; power tube on left, preamp tube on right). Didn't yours come with this, also? Or do they just not work well? In any case, I really haven't played enough through the amp at higher volumes to tell if this is a problem with mine. So far, I haven't noticed it, though.

DVM - Yes, mine has the same retainer clip / enclosure set-up as yours. The jury's out as to for effictiveness in eliminating this tube "buzz", and I've read a number of posts on other sites that state the same. Possible causes: 1.) The magnet and metal speaker frame for my Weber Alnico 8S speaker protrude further back than the stock speaker does, which may put the resulting speaker vibrations closer to the tubes - hence the rattle; 2.) I may have accidentally "clanked" my tubes while changing them out, so there is the possibility that the rattle was a product of my not-so-deft technical skills (I really did try to be careful.) At any rate, the silicone tube dampers / lead tape trick I told you about have pretty much put the kabosh on the majority of the problem (although I am now officially on the Golfsmith catalog mailing list - which appears to be a weekly publication), running the amp at full gallop (2 bells and beyond) does occasionally produce a little bit of tube rattle. Nothing I can't live with for now. The speaker is absolutely tight to the cab, so I dont think that's an issue. It's also helped to run the amp through my Classic 112E cabinet, which I think allows a bit of "breathing room" for the tone, as well as a slightly more complex break-up with the 12" Swamp Thang speaker.

But I do have to tell you this - what happens when you plug a Tonebone Classic Distortion pedal into this amp is absolutely magical. Pure Class A nirvana. And now that I've heard how this particular set-up this sounds, can a Valve Jr. head be far behind . . . ? Stay tuned.