Before You Consider an Epiphone Valve Jr, You Might Want to See THIS!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Buck62
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Dunno, prolly begging for a neg here, but that was I M H O a very processed tone. In the beginning a decent amount of static involved... A decent crunch though... some straight up clean and driven chords would be in order before I'm looking for an European dealer.:p
 
amra said:
If it actually sounds good, then it would officially be the first crate I have ever heard that did. Just being completely honest here.
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Then you probably never played a Crate V-series amp. I would agree that Crate solid state amps are crap, but their V-series amps (all tube / Class A ) are top notch amps and have incredibly great tone.

Also, the Blackheart was designed/built by Pyotr Belov of Gibson/Belov Amps fame. Crate was simply used for their distribution network and doesn't seem to have anything to do with the development of the Blackheart. You'd have known this if you took the time to read the info and links already posted in this thread instead of jumping to a conclusion. Remember, Hyundai used to make the crappiest car in the world in the late 80's. Now they're build quality is neck-and-neck with Honda and Toyota. Food for thought.
 
JPXTom said:
I am not one for bashing amps...but i might have to agree here. I still have yet to try out the valve jr. The name gets tossed around so much here, but i'd like to see someone compare them side by side.
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I've owned a Valve Jr combo for about a year now. I re-tubed it with a JJ EL84 and a TungSol 12AX7 and it gives the VJ a sweeter harmonic jangle and more punch. But I have to put my Digitech RP200A in front of my VJ combo to get any kind of effects or tone control. So, I like the idea of actually having some built-in eq options as well as gain control. That makes the Blackheart more appealing than the VJ, especially for the money.
 
as fun as it is to bag on crate, i'll admit that they do make some good shit here and there...my ears have enjoyed the blue voodoo's on occasion, and a buddy of mine had an oooooooooooooooooooooold crate 2x12 tube combo that was just awesome

but yea - the joke was there to be made, so i made it!
 
amazing the competition of all these makers these days, must be brutal.
someone comes out with something that sells, then 800 other products come out with the same thing plus more options...making it a better deal.
the customer benefits it seems. I loved the sound of those Crate V series, all tube...Crate makes some Crap though, not that some of Fender stuff is ..oh nevermind.

I don't know about how long some of this stuff will last? for $100...expectations are easily surpassed. Cheap Gear these days...wow? I love a Squier 51 I bought a few months ago...it was like $99!!! one of the best guitars I play and have played....scary, how nice some of it is.

whats even more bizarre is how a talented person can often make cheap gear sound good and clunker-players can make expensive gear sound like ASS.
 
How loud is 5 watts? I wonder if there is a way of keeping it clean from 5-10?
 
capnkid said:
How loud is 5 watts?
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It depends on the efficiency of the speaker.
I wonder if there is a way of keeping it clean from 5-10?
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You could use the 4 ohm output into an 8 or 16 ohm speaker. If the distortion is in the power stage, this would clean it up, but at a loss of volume, so there's probably nothing to be gained from this if you want clean volume.
 
sounded really good. the clarity was there too on the one example.

I don't get how they get the distrtion without the pre-circuit....he said Volume only and 3 band EQ.....so where's the overdrive coming from? strange..
 
How loud could this thing get? if I get the half-stack thing. Would I be able to use this for small gigs?
 
stop reading my thoughts - it's gotta be illegal!

:D

i'm wishing for a 2-channel myself. And reverb. And FX-loop :)

I hate pedals. Except for the footswitch or anything not requiring power :)

but i do also hate digital effects (especially the cheap ones).

capnkid said:
There needs to be a 5 watt tube amp with two channels.:D
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elenore19 said:
How loud could this thing get? if I get the half-stack thing. Would I be able to use this for small gigs?
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I've used the Epi Valve jr. for small gigs and it's also 5 watts and probably doesn't cut as well as the L.G. since it doesn't have the EQ.

The Epi will handle a soft restaurant type gig ..... ..... I also play a little biker bar that could only hold maybe .. oh, 50 or 60 people and it does fine on that.
On gigs where the drummer gets a bit more energetic, it'll keep up to a point, but then it starts getting strained sounding. At about that level, I have to move up to my Orange TT or my small mesa.
 
The WESTLABS PicoFire is still the one to beat. There is no sub for hand wired in the USA tone.


chazba
 
Buck62 said:
Then you probably never played a Crate V-series amp. I would agree that Crate solid state amps are crap, but their V-series amps (all tube / Class A ) are top notch amps and have incredibly great tone.
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I'm with you. I was seriously impressed by Crate's VC-5, and the Palamino 30-watter I played was actually quite nice.

Their solid state stuff is, well, good beginner gear, I guess, and the Blue Voodoos are a you-either-love-it-or-hate-it thing, I guess, but I dig their smaller tube stuff enough to be curious about this.
 
About a year ago I walked into a G.C. and they had the 5 watt Palomino and I tried it out just for the hell of it ans was shocked at how good it sounded and how loud it was.
If memory serves ...... it was a step above the VJr although I've owned and gigged with the VJr and only played the Crate for about 10 minutes in a store so it's hard to be sure.
 
Lt. Bob said:
I've used the Epi Valve jr. for small gigs and it's also 5 watts and probably doesn't cut as well as the L.G. since it doesn't have the EQ.

The Epi will handle a soft restaurant type gig ..... ..... I also play a little biker bar that could only hold maybe .. oh, 50 or 60 people and it does fine on that.
On gigs where the drummer gets a bit more energetic, it'll keep up to a point, but then it starts getting strained sounding. At about that level, I have to move up to my Orange TT or my small mesa.
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So it would work for small gigs? And it would be able to cut through easier due to the EQ. So I should have no problem then with playing some small shows.


EDIT:


ALSO. What do chords sound like through this beast? I've only heard sound clips of bluesy solos.
 
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it's ok in that first take, sounds a bit like a oy in the second take.

any samples of rythm done on it?
 
Ok,

So I gots the Killer Ant today, running into an Epi 12" cab. There's not a lot of clean headroom, but if I want clean, I'll use my Peavey Classic 30. This is a great little amp for recording, and though I've always thought Crate was a waste of space in music shops, this little Blackheart gives up some nice tube tones without neighbours showing up at your door with torches and pitchforks.

I used to record with friend of mine who had a small Beltone tube amp that his brother bought back in the 60's sometime. It had great tone, and though it could get loud, it never got 'hurt your ears loud.' The Killer Ant is the closest approximation of that sound that I've yet heard, especially at the price it is going for. I expect these are going to be pretty popular little amps.
 
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