Ant138
52 posts
Dec 20, 2008
6:49 AM
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Im stuck. Im thinking of getting an amp and had my heart stuck on the Epiphone Valve junior (5wat) but its gone up in price from £79.99 up to £139.00 For that price i can get a Vox Valvetronix 15wat amp which can mimic a series of valve amps and some effects. Has anyone tried the Vox valvetronix amp? Ive only got a budget of around £130 and am clueless when it comes to amps.
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MrVerylongusername
72 posts
Dec 20, 2008
8:36 AM
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I've not tried the Vox and not this specific Epiphone amp, but I do have an Epiphone Electar 10 as my home practice amp and I like it. It's very nice for the price I paid for it. Probably could do with a better speaker, but it's just for fun, not gigging.
(BTW I found a few online places selling the Valve Jr around £125 - it pays to shop around, especially at the moment when retailers are struggling.)
In terms of loudness, the wattage of amps is an exponential scale. 15W won't be three times louder as you might expect. In very simple terms a 100W amp is only twice as loud as a 10W amp. A 1KW monster amp is roughly twice as loud as a 100W. I don't want to do the maths, but I'm estimating the 15W will be around 1 1/2 times as loud as the 5W.
If you play with a band, 15W might just cut through, 5W probably wouldn't. Either way, if were running the mixing desk, I'd want to have a mic on both.
The Valve Junior is a true class A amp - one knob for volume, gets crunchier as it gets louder. To dial in the tone you want you'd need to crank it, and at home in a small room even 5W can be too loud. It also bothers me that there are no tone controls. Basically this amp will give you one sound.
The Valvetronix is an amp modeller, but remember it is primarily aimed at guitarists, who want different things to harp players. A lot of harp players want to boost the bottom end, but that's at odds with the treble boosting crunch that guitarist like. Still I'm sure there'll be a few different sounds that are useable for harp and on board effects are useful. This amp will give you much more choice soundwise.
Find a shop selling them. Take your mic and a harp and take them for a test drive. Only your ears will be able to make the decision.
Last Edited by on Dec 20, 2008 9:00 AM
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Patrick Barker
152 posts
Dec 20, 2008
5:17 PM
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The valve jr is a great amp for its price, and I use it effectively with a green bullet mic. You can control the volume and tone at the same time if you have volume control on your mic, in which case you can turn the mic down and the amp up to gain a good amount of distortion at an acceptable volume. Also, if you're looking for a good amp in this range, I've heard good things about the Gretsch electromatic G5222 5W guitar amp as well as the fender 600 champ amp
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"Without music, life would be a mistake" -Nietzsche
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Oisin
63 posts
Dec 20, 2008
10:46 PM
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Hi there Ant,
I have both a Vox Valavetronix 50 watt 2x12 and a fender champion 600 and a couple of other small valve amps. The Vox is great if you want loads of different sounds to try out. It has a valve pre-amp and copies loads of different types of amp sounds and 11 different effects. If you are just starting out and playing mostly at home and just practising then I would try a the Vox as it's a load of fun.
If however you are wanting to start playing straight away at jams and with other musicains, then I would go for the valve junior as you will want to get that "sound" right away and you won't get it with the vox. They have a fender bassman model on the Vox called "tweed 4x10" and although it sounds ok, it doesn't have that same crunch you associate with a valve amp. Also the amp uses 12" speakers and the original has 10" so they just won't be able to sound like the original.
However the effects on the Vox are excellent and you can get some crazy sounds with it. It has an excellent reverb and delay and some crazy stuff like a flanger. If you get this amp for Christmas you'll still be messing around with it till next June.
The Valve junior will give you a valve tone but you will have one sound to work with. If you are just starting out and want to have fun, go with the Vox. If you want to start playing gigs and jams then go with the Eiphone, but you'll have to get it mic'ed up to the PA system.
Hope this is of help.
Oisin
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Ant138
53 posts
Dec 21, 2008
5:20 AM
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Thank you all for your help. I think im going to go for the Epiphone Valve junior.
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Oisin
65 posts
Dec 21, 2008
5:32 AM
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Ant...if you've got time and a means to do it, try and do what Verylongusername suggests and try them out in store. If this is your first amp you'll probably have a beeter time with the Vox. A non-harp player probably wouldn't hear the difference in these amps and when you're playing the vox with say, reverb, then I know from experience (my missus and kids) that they much prefer this sound to the valve amp dry(no effects). When you've got fed up with the vox then flog it on ebay and buy yourself that epiphone.
Oisin
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Oxharp
53 posts
Dec 21, 2008
3:12 PM
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Hi Ant,
Are you in the UK?
I have a brand new Valve Junior for sale. Short on cash and have too many amps and gear now. I have used it a couple of times at home only and I dont smoke it is as new.
email me if you are in the UK and interested for £85.00 + postage (dont know prob about £10)
email is russ.turner@ntlworld.com
I have a fender Bassman now and want to modify that with the money from the VJ. Maybe speak soon.
Russ
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Anonymous
Guest
Dec 21, 2008
11:47 PM
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You can buy a fender champ 600 for 100 pound from andertons in the uk. Alternatively, a gretsch 5222 can be bought from dolphin music for 116. They are the same circuit but you can fit an 8 inch weber in the 5222 at a later date. There are also alot of modding sites about. Look on youtube for sound clips. Adam rates there amps to
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Ant138
54 posts
Dec 22, 2008
9:48 AM
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Thank you for the offer Oxharp but im gonna stick with the Epiphone or the Fender Champ 600. Just gonna keep it nice and simple. Thank you anyway.
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MrVerylongusername
77 posts
Dec 22, 2008
10:20 AM
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Isn't that what he's offering for sale???
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