jimijames
New member
So, I've probably made a comment or two about how my epi valve jr. was torched. Well, turns out it wasn't. More on that later.
I ordered this pc board, and on that site they have all the documentation for all the parts.
I ordered everything, busted out the soldering iron, etc. Total cost on top of the valve jr. was probably in the $150 range.
I'm still waiting on a 12ay7 to arrive from amazon. Right now I've got a 12at7 and a 5751 in there. I finished the build tonight (or last night as it were) and I can't turn it up all the way until around 9 am tomorrow (live in an apartment complex, noise rules and the like)
A lot of times I try and pretend like I know guitar electronics. Don't be fooled, I'm still very very new to everything. At any rate I thought the old VJ was dying because of the capacitors in it - turns out the guy who had it before me added a second fuse - which is a great idea to protect the expensive bits of the amp, but the first one is starting to let go which made me think the amp was breaking. Discovered that today after firing up the baby will.
I played a HS telecaster and a SSH strat through it (p-rails for the bucker though) - I can't turn it up loud enough to get it to distort yet (even though it's only 18 watts there's still plenty of volume to wake the neighbors), but so far I'm really, really enjoying it.
First Impressions: Lots of bass. I've been playing with the volume at 25% and the v30 (which isn't a very bassy speaker to begin with) does shake (very slightly) some of the stuff in my room when I hit the low E. With the 12at7 and the 5751, the sound isn't super marshall-y - but it doesn't nail that fender sound either. Kind of in between the two IMO.
It's very touch sensitive. Especially noticeable is the difference in timbre when you switch from a pick to your fingers - it doesn't exaggerate the change but it doesn't hide it either. I've played amps that really emphasize dynamic changes - soft vs. hard picking and the like - while this guy doesn't exaggerate everything, it doesn't hide it either. It's a very 'transparent' amp which sounds weird to say but the color of the tone is attributable in very nearly its entirety to the guitar. The strat I played through it has strabro 90s and a p-rails and each position is markedly different. The strat neck sound is clangy and sweet, the full output (p-90) is fat and vocal. If you really squeeze the notes the sound gets thick in a hurry.
The telecaster has a splittable humbucker in the neck and a jerry donahue in the bridge. I wish I could wire it to get series/parallel/split but I don't want to drill the pickguard for a 3-way mini. So for now, it's series/split with a push-pull. I wouldn't call this a really country sounding amp - my poor approximation of chikin pickin was fairly generic even in the middle position with the bucker split. For some reason, the bridge pickup sounds louder relative to the neck than in my (soon to be sold) 50w plexi combo. I'm not selling it because it's a bad amp - I just don't need anywhere near 50 watts, and the Baby Will has better cleans. We'll find out how the distorted sound is tomorrow (later today actually).
I haven't put it back in the chassis yet, but here's a photo:
I ordered this pc board, and on that site they have all the documentation for all the parts.
I ordered everything, busted out the soldering iron, etc. Total cost on top of the valve jr. was probably in the $150 range.
I'm still waiting on a 12ay7 to arrive from amazon. Right now I've got a 12at7 and a 5751 in there. I finished the build tonight (or last night as it were) and I can't turn it up all the way until around 9 am tomorrow (live in an apartment complex, noise rules and the like)
A lot of times I try and pretend like I know guitar electronics. Don't be fooled, I'm still very very new to everything. At any rate I thought the old VJ was dying because of the capacitors in it - turns out the guy who had it before me added a second fuse - which is a great idea to protect the expensive bits of the amp, but the first one is starting to let go which made me think the amp was breaking. Discovered that today after firing up the baby will.
I played a HS telecaster and a SSH strat through it (p-rails for the bucker though) - I can't turn it up loud enough to get it to distort yet (even though it's only 18 watts there's still plenty of volume to wake the neighbors), but so far I'm really, really enjoying it.
First Impressions: Lots of bass. I've been playing with the volume at 25% and the v30 (which isn't a very bassy speaker to begin with) does shake (very slightly) some of the stuff in my room when I hit the low E. With the 12at7 and the 5751, the sound isn't super marshall-y - but it doesn't nail that fender sound either. Kind of in between the two IMO.
It's very touch sensitive. Especially noticeable is the difference in timbre when you switch from a pick to your fingers - it doesn't exaggerate the change but it doesn't hide it either. I've played amps that really emphasize dynamic changes - soft vs. hard picking and the like - while this guy doesn't exaggerate everything, it doesn't hide it either. It's a very 'transparent' amp which sounds weird to say but the color of the tone is attributable in very nearly its entirety to the guitar. The strat I played through it has strabro 90s and a p-rails and each position is markedly different. The strat neck sound is clangy and sweet, the full output (p-90) is fat and vocal. If you really squeeze the notes the sound gets thick in a hurry.
The telecaster has a splittable humbucker in the neck and a jerry donahue in the bridge. I wish I could wire it to get series/parallel/split but I don't want to drill the pickguard for a 3-way mini. So for now, it's series/split with a push-pull. I wouldn't call this a really country sounding amp - my poor approximation of chikin pickin was fairly generic even in the middle position with the bucker split. For some reason, the bridge pickup sounds louder relative to the neck than in my (soon to be sold) 50w plexi combo. I'm not selling it because it's a bad amp - I just don't need anywhere near 50 watts, and the Baby Will has better cleans. We'll find out how the distorted sound is tomorrow (later today actually).
I haven't put it back in the chassis yet, but here's a photo:
