My small amp shoot out

R

RandyW

New member
My Small amp shot out

I've a spent a couple days comparing sound, features, value on 4 of my small amps

Legion for each amp to save keystrokes.
Epiphone Valve Junior EVJ 5W, JJ gold pin tube upgrade
Epiphone Valve Junior Special EVJS 5W JJ gold pin tubes
Vox R15 R15 15W completely stock SS
Traynor YCV20 Custom Valve 20 YCV20 15W completely stock

All of these amps sound great through the Carvin Vintage 2 12" cabinet I tested with.

However with only the original speaker I would rank them in this order
YCV20 Celestion Greenback 12"
R15 8" Bull Dog "only at low volumes"
EVJS 10" Special
EVJ head only

Noise factor, important for studio work.
YCV20 extremely quiet
EVJ almost middle of the road with JJ's in it.
EVJS actually quieter with effects and reverb turned off than EVJ
R15 lots of hiss with turned up to moderate levels.

Quality of clean sound and tone "think bright country type sound"
R15 not factorin in background hiss
YCV20
EVJS
EEVJ

Quality of slightly broken up sound and tone "think blues and classic rock"
YCV20 by a hair over the EVJS due to better tone calibration.
EVJS really tough call between this and the YCV20
EVJ good but could be better with a tone control
R15 very limited

Over all raw blasting volume.
R15
EVJ JJ's did some powerful magic here
YCV20
EVJS

Cost compairson to what you actually get for your buck
EVJS weighs in at about $240 decent speaker but don't forget the tubes
R15 really nice amp lots of features that need to be turned off $140
EVJ for around $100 all you need is a speaker cab, and some JJ's but needs tone pot.
YCV20 probably the quietest amp with the most features on the market $550-$635

So I guess my winner is the EVJS just seems to be the best overall and the bigest bang per buck. I do plan on dong a tube swap it the traynor. I like it
better than the small fender amps blues jr, hot rod etc. It reminds me alot of a low power version of the bassman channel in my supersonic but with no hiss.
 
Cool stuff, I've heard a lot of good about those smaller Traynors.

I will say that I once played a Crate VC-5 that surprised the hell out of me. I know, I know, a Crate... But it really didn't sound half bad for the price. Run it through a proper speaker cab and it could have been a fun amp.
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
Cool stuff, I've heard a lot of good about those smaller Traynors.

I will say that I once played a Crate VC-5 that surprised the hell out of me. I know, I know, a Crate... But it really didn't sound half bad for the price. Run it through a proper speaker cab and it could have been a fun amp.
Click to expand...

For a general purpose, multi situation guitar amp the Traynor would be my amp. It won't cover metal but it does every thing else quite well. My Valve Junior is ok but it is a one trick pony.
 
I guess the amp of choice would actually be the Traynor but after spending a minimum of $45 for JJ's tubes to a couple hundred for some vintage NOS's you could have $600 to $800 tied up into it.

I agree the EJR only gives a limited amount sound but EJR Special gives you quite a few more tones and the reverb is pretty good for digital. I think if you
bought a couple of the mods for the EJR you could have a the Special almost
the same price plus have decent speaker.

I've noticed the Traynor is dead quiet with my teles that I've modded with vintage noiseless and Bill Lawrence pickups. For some reason humbuckers like the LP 490's and Dimarzio Airs create a little more ground noise when taking your fingers off the strings. It almost completely opposite of my other amps.

I guess the amp that surprised me the most was the little bitty Vox R15 I still can't believe how nice it sounds through 2 12's. I've only the the Traynor and Vox for a couple of weeks. The vox had some wierd clicking going on when the reverb was turned up past 2 or 3. I took it a part and repositioned some
wiring that was actually interfering with the reverb spring and the problem went away. The mini reverb assembly is actually installed in the chassis of the amplifier. This is a really cheaping built amp that sounds incredible EXCEPT for the excessive hiss.

BTW: If any one is interested in a Traynor you might want to drop by this guys site. I think I paid $500 plus $25 for shipping
which a good $100 whay you see it for at MF and others. You don't see the discount price till you put it in your cart and go through check out.

http://www.ampandspeaker.com/shop/listcats.aspx
 
Yeah you need a lot more amps. Id like to see the fender champion in there. and the orange like buck62 said.

Probably the only small amp I would get would be the champion I played one and the tone is unmatched to any small amp in the class that I have heard.
 
i don't get it...seems the EVJS is almost 3rd place in every test section, 2nd once...and last in one of the groups/test sections?...only first place is ion the cost section, which has nothing to do with sound? :confused:

i probably missed some critical point as usual in the post.

cool test though, sounds fun. yeah adding the Champ would be interesting.
 
RandyW said:
Traynor YCV20 Custom Valve 20 YCV20 15W completely stock


So I guess my winner is the EVJS just seems to be the best overall and the bigest bang per buck.
Click to expand...

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but......if your Traynor is completely stock, and it has a Greenback in it, then it is a YCV20WR. The regular YCV20 (not WR) does not come with a Greenback in it. If you actually have a YCV20 (with no Greenback) that would explain to me why you prefer the EVJS.

If you really do have a stock YCV20WR (with a Greenback in it) then I am quite surprised that anyone would prefer any Epihpone amp over the YCV20WR. I've had both, and even with extensive mods, the EVJ amps are not even close to being in the same ballpark with the YCV20WR. My YCV20WR is the ONLY amp I've sold in the last 15 years that I regret selling. I never should ahve let go of that thing. I dont miss those Epiphone amps at all.
 
RandyW said:
BTW: If any one is interested in a Traynor you might want to drop by this guys site. I think I paid $500 plus $25 for shipping
which a good $100 whay you see it for at MF and others. You don't see the discount price till you put it in your cart and go through check out.

http://www.ampandspeaker.com/shop/listcats.aspx
Click to expand...

The guy at affordableaudio.com is also an authorized Traynor dealer, and will sell any amp at 60% list plus shipping. He knows his stuff and gives a straight deal. I'm areally itching for a YCS100 head.
 
soundchaser59 said:
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but......if your Traynor is completely stock, and it has a Greenback in it, then it is a YCV20WR. The regular YCV20 (not WR) does not come with a Greenback in it. If you actually have a YCV20 (with no Greenback) that would explain to me why you prefer the EVJS.

If you really do have a stock YCV20WR (with a Greenback in it) then I am quite surprised that anyone would prefer any Epihpone amp over the YCV20WR. I've had both, and even with extensive mods, the EVJ amps are not even close to being in the same ballpark with the YCV20WR. My YCV20WR is the ONLY amp I've sold in the last 15 years that I regret selling. I never should have let go of that thing. I dont miss those Epiphone amps at all.
Click to expand...

The Traynor and the Epiphone amps have Sovtek tubes, giving them both a somewhat darker, muddier tone than, say, your typical Fender tube amp. I don't particularly care for that darker tone. But I knew that when I bought my VJ combo. So the first thing I did when I brought it home was to swap out those crappy Sovteks with a TungSol 12AX7 and a JJ EL84. Now it chimes really sweet at low to mid volume and bites like bitch when cranked.

I've played the Traynors and was pleased but not overly impressed. I'm sure they'd sound better (to suit my personal taste) after swapping out the tubes and the Chinese made Celestion. But if I'm spending over $500 for a new amp, I don't think I should have to dump another $150 into it to get it to sound the way I like. That's why I went with the cheapo VJ combo and re-tubed it. Next up is a new Weber 8A125T AlNiCo speaker. :)
 
fender champ
national
ampeg jet
little gibson from the 50s
'guitar buddy' ( it exists!)
harmony
silvertone

you get the idea...any small tube amp will almost guaranteed sound cool. old pedal steel amps are also very cool.

(am i stating the obvious here?)
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
Cool stuff, I've heard a lot of good about those smaller Traynors.

I will say that I once played a Crate VC-5 that surprised the hell out of me. I know, I know, a Crate... But it really didn't sound half bad for the price. Run it through a proper speaker cab and it could have been a fun amp.
Click to expand...

I have the VC5. Ran it through a 2x10 enclosed and it sounded pretty sweet actually. I pull it out in the studio now and then for some fun.
 
Traynor retube

I swapped out the stock tubes in the Traynor with some JJ's.
It didn't make any major differenced in the sound. I chose the
blues option as Eurotube labels this package.
The upgrade did not have the wow factor the upgrade for the
EVJR had for sure.
 
interesting how a tube can have more effect in one amp than another.

its like speakers sometimes, maybe?
at times this huge change is heard and sometimes nada...zilcho...zero.


great HR unbiased test though...(no pun intended.:p)


what amp do you notice the biggest "tube change" with?
 
COOLCAT said:
interesting how a tube can have more effect in one amp than another.

its like speakers sometimes, maybe?
at times this huge change is heard and sometimes nada...zilcho...zero.


great HR unbiased test though...(no pun intended.:p)


what amp do you notice the biggest "tube change" with?
Click to expand...

Well I noticed the most change with the Epi amps. The Jr head got tons more
gain and volume and over all smoother sound.
The Special didn't not get the volume gain of the Jr head but got a much smoother sound and tight bottom. The special has a extra tube, BTW on the Epi's I paid extra for the gold pin options on the tubes maybe that contributes to the bigger difference.

The Traynor was standard JJ tubes and I don't notice any real improvements other that perhaps a bit more nature break up with the boost turned on.

I was trying to diagnose a problem with the reverb channel on my Fender
Supersonic and noticed the GT tubes in it are actually Sovteks. This amp
is a 60watt but really has a nice sound only problem is it is to noisy for studio
work.
 
Well it has been a while since I did this review.
I picked up a Vox 212 cabinet and the EJ head never sounded
so good. It is now back at the top of the food chain. It seems
to be putting out more sound than the other ones.
And the clairity and tone leaves the Traynor in the dust.
I did a digitech reverb and punch factory to the chain.
EJ users you need to check it out on a vox cabinet!
 
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