Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

[everdrone]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

Mais, wha

lol

I dig my epiphone valve junior combo, I got it for $110 used through musiciansfriend.com 2 years ago

[guitarded]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

Can't understand why this was available for less than a year.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ValveSrHD/

[guitfiddle]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

They had something with the VJ...I once had a studio engineer tell me he thought mine did the little amp about-to-melt-down thing better than many amps he'd recorded, costing WAY more.

[Marshall3203]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

I had the 5 watt head with one knob for awhile. I couldn't stand it and sent it back. Never explored beyond that but I suppose the higher output ones with more tone controls might be better than the one I had.

[Rick330man]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

Starting with the Galaxie 10 and the Galaxie 25, they had significant quality control issues.

[ItsaBass]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

Regardless of what the quality was or wasn't, the short answer is that they stopped making them because they were not profitable enough to bother making any longer. For whatever reasons that was the case (poor sales and/or low profit margin, for instance), it certainly was the case, or they would still be being produced.

[ratherdashing]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

Regardless of what the quality was or wasn't, the short answer is that they stopped making them because they were not profitable enough to bother making any longer. For whatever reasons that was the case (poor sales and/or low profit margin, for instance), it certainly was the case, or they would still be being produced.

There are lots of reasons besides profitability that could lead a company to stop producing a product. A few examples:

- Supply chain problems (a critical part becomes unavailable, for example)
- The factory that produced them is no longer available
- Corporate re-structuring
- Legal issues
- The whim of the executives

[guitarded]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

They were all pretty cool entry level valve amps.

[AudioWonderland]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

seemed like the amp everyone loved to buy and then sell, or buy and turn into something else.

it sort of started the lunchbox revolution, so it is a bit odd it's no longer part of the current crowd in production.

Not really that odd to me. They had a great idea and did nothing with it. Compare an Egnater Tweaker or a Blackheart Little Giant to a Valve Jr and ask your self which you would buy?

[Rick330man]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

I have a Galaxie 10 and a Galaxie 25. Both say "Made in Korea." I had a second Galaxie 10 which I gave to my brother. The output transformer on it fried and took out a few other components, too.

There was no product support for these. I called once to get warranty work done on one of mine. I was told that I had to pay to ship amp to their repair facility and that even if covered a repair might not be possible because they did not have surplus parts. I paid an amp tech in Miami to fix it for about double what shipping would have cost me back to Epiphone (Gibson).

My Galaxie 10 and Galaxie 25 have held up well since then. I took the speaker out of the Galaxie 10 and now use that amp exclusively as a head for bedroom volume practicing. The Galaxie 25 got a speaker swap. Out went the Celestion G12P-80 (too bright) and in went an Eminence Legend 122 alnico.

Epiphone seems to have had a good thing going, but it looks like they were not ready to support the amp line the way they needed to.

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

They were piss-poor excuses for amps IMO.

I agree. Forum member Will S_T gave me one a few years ago. I remember being dumbfounded by some aspects of the circuit (more specifically, certain component values that were certain to seriously neuter the amp's performance), and I calculated the turns ratio of the output transformer, which proved it to be not particularly suited to either 4, 6 or 8 Ohm loads. Stock, it sounded way less than average, a seriously disappointing amp.

I read about various mods, and made some changes, bringing it more inline with traditional component values. I replaced the output transformer with something I had on hand that was eminently more suitable, and it made a lot of difference, but still the amp was pretty darned average, certainly nothing to write home about.

I ended up giving it back to Will, because i simply never used it.

[Rick330man]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

Yet they seem to have almost a cult-like following.

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

Because they're cheap. Cheap rarely equates to 'good'. My s/s Vox Pathfinder has a far superior clean tone to the Epiphone, and that's coming from someone who has always used tube amps (45+ years).

[BloodRose]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

Arise ye thread of the ancients!!! Since its up, Ill add my worthless drivel.. Gibson (this is not meant as a bash) does not seem to budget in much support for it's aquired (sp?) brands. They want to make the sales that those brands may bring, but their focus is on the Gibson name. I was actually pretty surprised when the Epiphone branded amps came out. And TBH, was pretty tempted by the Socal (IIRC) model. Was a cool looking tube amp and many of the clips I heard weren't bad.

[ehdwuld]

Re: Why did Epiphone stop making amps?

In the current epi catalog there is a small elektar amp