Epiphone Valve Junior does Metal (With Samples)

[amra]

Ok, this was kind of an experiment. I had the urge to pick up one of those Epiphone Valve Junior Heads because they have such a sweet tone, even though it's "drivey" medium gain is not my style. I wanted to see how it would do with an overdrive in front of it boosting the gain. The kind of music I play is "southern metal" which is a heavy stoner/doomy kind of metal but with a blues based vibe. I think the Epi VJ acutally worked pretty well for doomy/stonery type metal.

Recording info: I wanted to keep it simple, so it is a 4x12 cab, with a SM-57 2 inches away from the center cone of a speaker > Soundtech Mixer Preamp > Delta 1010. I put a tiny bit of ambient reverb on them just to make them sound right using the Kjaerhus Classic Reverb VST in cubase. No EQ of any kind was applied, and the head does not have an EQ (one would have made a big difference in sound, I suspect).

Disclaimer:the guitar playing is not trying to be perfect by any means, just representative of this style of metal, they were just one take shots.

Ok, for these first clips, the Guitar is a Jackson Dinky with a Bill Lawrence 500-XL humbucker in the bridge in Drop C.
I am using a a "Bad Monkey" overdrive into about 3/4 of the gain on the V.J. In this application the OD isn't meant to noticably change the tone, just boost the gain.

Riff from Down's "Eyes of the South"

Riff from Down's "Bury me in Smoke"

This is just some riffing, without and then with the Bad Monkey overdrive. I switch back and forth several times so you can hear the difference in gain.


Ok, here is one with a strat, WITHOUT OD in E-flat.
Little lead riff from Down's "Eyes of the South" with Valve Junior only, no overdrive

These next two are with a strat, WITH OD in E-flat.
Short Riff/lead from "War Pigs"

War Pigs Intro Riff


These next two are with a Hamer Double cut (import), with OD, in Drop B
Just some riffing

Short riff from Black Label Society's version of "No More Tears"

[COOLCAT]

Excellent post of tones. The change to Strat was really cool.

Frkn awesome sounds you got going, and a great variety of sampling.

That makes the EPI really shine too, damn thats alot of sound from a $99 head!

[travelin travis]

What's your opinion of the valve junior?

Down was one of my absolute fav metal bands (if you can call them that).

[amra]

For $100, the Valve Junior is a no brainer. By itself it has a pretty sweet, slightly dirty tone. You don't usually hear the words "sweet" and "tone" mentioned anywhere near a $100 amp, but in this case you really can get some nice sounds. Also, it sounds WAY bigger than it looks when you use a 4x12 cab. Loud enough to make your ears ring a little when cranked all the way up in a small room. As you can hear in the clips, you can get quite a bit more gain out of it if you use a little overdrive. I bet with an EQ pedal and an overdrive you could even get a modern "metalcore" type tone out of it. Seriously.

If I have anything negative to say, is that it is a little "loose" on the bottom end, at least with my 4x12 cab. I would have paid an extra $50 for a basic EQ section, because I am pretty sure that would have given you enough control to fix it. Anyways, well worth the $100 in my opionion and still would have probably been worth it at $200.


About Down, they are damn sure metal. If you think back to "NOLA" there are some SERIOUSLY heavy riffs on that CD, and Phil Anselmo's vocals get pretty intense.

[Zaphod B]

Excellent, Amra, thanks for posting the clips.

That little sumbitch sure sounds big!

[travelin travis]

Originally Posted by amra

For $100, the Valve Junior is a no brainer. By itself it has a pretty sweet, slightly dirty tone. You don't usually hear the words "sweet" and "tone" mentioned anywhere near a $100 amp, but in this case you really can get some nice sounds. Also, it sounds WAY bigger than it looks when you use a 4x12 cab. Loud enough to make your ears ring a little when cranked all the way up in a small room. As you can hear in the clips, you can get quite a bit more gain out of it if you use a little overdrive. I bet with an EQ pedal and an overdrive you could even get a modern "metalcore" type tone out of it. Seriously.

If I have anything negative to say, is that it is a little "loose" on the bottom end, at least with my 4x12 cab. I would have paid an extra $50 for a basic EQ section, because I am pretty sure that would have given you enough control to fix it. Anyways, well worth the $100 in my opionion and still would have probably been worth it at $200.


About Down, they are damn sure metal. If you think back to "NOLA" there are some SERIOUSLY heavy riffs on that CD, and Phil Anselmo's vocals get pretty intense.

I think the valve junior (in stock form) sounds pretty loose too but I wanted to keep my mouth shut until you said it. Reminds me of a sovtek midget. I think with some simple mods to the valve junior and a mic backed off the amp, you could get really close to that Down tone, no pedal needed.

NOLA is the only one I've heard. I thought it had a kind of haunting sound that no other metal album has, especially on Eyes Of The South. I was a Pantera fan when I heard it and thought it kicked the shit out of most of their stuff. Gutiar wise, I like the greasy blues licks and guitar tone on that album quite a bit still. They left out the buckets of gain. And hey, for a metal album it actually has some breathing room dynamically. It has plenty of room sound in the tracks, which is the total opposite of standard metal recording.

[donkeystyle]

here's a heavy'ish song that I recorded a couple months ago with the band I just quit. the guitar on the right is a valve junior with a DOD od/preamp 250 in front of it.

If I remember right, we didn't have any distortion coming from the overdrive pedal, we just wanted clean gain.

it has been eq'd.

the guitar on the right on this song is a valve junior, and the clean guitar parts are also a valve junior. the kind of lead part towards the end of the song is also the valve junior.

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=6270

i think the distorted guitar sounds pretty metal. the guitar on the right is a little out of tune.

[Nakatira]

A friend of mine bought the Epi Juinor valve head from my store.

He also bought a alnico blue 12" element and mounteded it into a home made cab.

He said he had "a hard on" all week from the imense sound.

I`ve tried the amp as well, on a randall 2x12 cab, and it just sounds great.

Epiphone has done it here

[travelin travis]

Originally Posted by donkeystyle

here's a heavy'ish song that I recorded a couple months ago with the band I just quit. the guitar on the right is a valve junior with a DOD od/preamp 250 in front of it.

If I remember right, we didn't have any distortion coming from the overdrive pedal, we just wanted clean gain.

it has been eq'd.

the guitar on the right on this song is a valve junior, and the clean guitar parts are also a valve junior. the kind of lead part towards the end of the song is also the valve junior.

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=6270

i think the distorted guitar sounds pretty metal. the guitar on the right is a little out of tune.

linky no worky here.

[donkeystyle]

Originally Posted by TravisinFlorida

linky no worky here.

interesting. it's working fine for me.

[travelin travis]

Originally Posted by donkeystyle

interesting. it's working fine for me.

it's working for me now. weird.

you're relying on a pedal for distortion rather than the amp. i'm not saying that it sounds bad, but the amp's tubes aren't really being taken advantage of.

imo, the valve junior's overdrive (in stock form) isn't the most desirable sound and it doesn't really work for metal.

[mrface2112]

i swapped the stock sovtek tubes out for a set of JJ's and the sound improved immensely. the "loose" bottom end is gone. the 12ax7 i put in is one of the "high gain" ones. i lost a little bit of clean headroom and it crunches a bit earlier now (which was the whole point) and the crunch is a whole lot smoother sounding.

very easy getting classic rock tones out of this thing.....think AC/DC, BadCo, etc.

it's positively LOUD hooked up to my old fender 4x10 cabinet. this summer i'm going to be building a 2x12 (to be loaded with a weber blue dog and a weber silver bell), and i'm expecting great things out of that.

this amp is a great cheapie. it does the marshally sound quite well--let alone for $100.


cheers,
wade

PS--since posting links seems to be the trend here, this is a song i did with the VJ on all guitars. the guitars are an Ibanez Hollowbody (AG75) -> Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde -> ValveJr -> Weber 8in speaker. I was going for that Hot Tuna/BadCo kinda sound in the rhythm, and in the lead, the goal was something reminiscent of the late Michael Houser (from Widespread Panic). The amp was mic'd with an EV RE38 and/or MXL V77.

Shame http://jalapenocornbread.com/mp3/shame_011007.mp3

[donkeystyle]

Originally Posted by TravisinFlorida

it's working for me now. weird.

you're relying on a pedal for distortion rather than the amp. i'm not saying that it sounds bad, but the amp's tubes aren't really being taken advantage of.

imo, the valve junior's overdrive (in stock form) isn't the most desirable sound and it doesn't really work for metal.

I'm almost 100% positive there was no distortion coming from the pedal, I just turned the amp all the way up and stuck the pedal in front of it as a clean boost.

there was quite a bit of eq done on the track though. low end roll off, a bit of a mid scoop, and a little bit of high end was added.

oh....the guitar on the left and the first solo is a rivera knucklehead.

[COOLCAT]

Just had to add on a Epi Valve Junior we played last night.

It's one frkn amazing piece. Between 3 other amps...the sounds and simplicity of that damn little thing is nothing short of amazing.

a 12" Eminence "sealed" cabinet was the main...though we tried several other speaker combos. and tho the speaker made a big difference, the amp did just fine.

Pedals tried out too, but with all the noise buzzes and hassle, the beauty of the little straight-up amp, left the tone in the hands of the guiatr player and pots on the Stratocasters.


If I was a tube MFG, maker I'd be a bit worried. This thing is $99. Its frkn fun, Its a Class A EL84.

two thumbs up...again.

we didn't sound as good as AMRA, be thankful I didn't put up any posts..hehe

[OhSh1rt]

Wow with all of these praises I may have to turn my 2x12 Peavey Classic into just a cabinet for a valve junior.


Tempting....

-jeffrey

[COOLCAT]

my bro's band in Iowa said one of the guitarists just bought one...same response.
freakn wierd almost.

For my HR and recording though, its right....I suppose even the arena's size you could mic it....the roadies would love 'em too!

[COOLCAT]

my bro's band in Iowa said one of the guitarists just bought one...same response. freakn wierd almost.

there's a Roadie forum, with everyone praising them too!

[SMC Productions]

I have two of these little babies!...and I LOVE them! I'm using Epi's 'matching' cabinet for them, and they sound SO sweet! I also bought the mode kits for them, but haven't installed them yet. To me, these little gems are MUST haves for anyone!