Secrets of the Epiphone Valve Junior - Modifying, Troubleshooting & Tube Amp Repair
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ส.ค. 2024
- Follow up video on how to reduce noise in this amp: • Reducing Hum Noise on ... c
The Epiphone Valve Junior tube guitar amp has been a target for modding or circuit "hot rodding" since its inception. In this video, we'll go through an already modded, non-functioning Valve Junior Combo and see what mods were done before us, and then we'll modify it differently in the hopes of getting a nice blues tone out of it. First we'll troubleshoot it and see what's working and what's not working. At the end of the video, we'll demo the tone with my Big D Bourbon Barrel Telecaster. Because they are cheap, these amps are a good place to start cutting your teeth on electronics.
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Tell me in the comments if you own one of these. Have you modded it? What mods did you do to yours? Also, what mods do you think I should have included in this one?
I would gut it and put a P2P amp circuit in it. :)
No but I have a little Fender Greta amp that I use in the house all the time any chance of doing a similar video on one of them Brad? Great video though and nice sounds man!
maybe a power supply resistor to simulate sag ....
I've had two of them. One bone stock with a new set of JJ tubes and a Crate 4x6-1/2" cab. It admittedly sounded pretty good for what it is and sold it to a friend to use with his electric banjo. My other was purchased "modded". It's fixed and sitting on another Crate mini cab. I definitely like your approach. Speakers make a huge difference with these!
The best mod in my opinion, is just strip the whole circuit, build it from the ground up and basically turn it into a vibro champ with 2 knob tone stack.
Mix that with a 10" or 12" speaker and you have a hell of a amp, for very little money.
I remember reading about Valve Juniors for a while and deciding on getting one. I went to a Guitar Center and asked about the Epiphone amps. He looked at me weird and said “Epiphone makes amps? Nah, we dont have that” Clearly should be working in the keyboard section.
The only thing worse than a guitar salesman is a guitar salesman with stale alcohol from the night before on his breath. Looking around like he just landed on Mars.
I went to a GC once looking for replacement saddles for a strat bridge.
F'n guy didn't know what string saddles were... 🤦♂️
I sometimes forget how buddy can burn up the fretboard, when he’s of a mind to.
Yessss!!!! The Old Brad is back... Love these vids... It's what bought me to the channel in the first place.
Yes, love that content, too. But Brad is Brad and will be Brad. Either you take it or leave it
@@boggsty what are you trying to say? Seriously! I just said I love this content and you come back with a comment like that. I discovered this channel years ago when I was repairing my own amp, then became addicted to his amp videos. I like his other content too, (except for the dumpster diving) but This is my favourite content that he does. Why do you have to make a comment like that?
@@madaxe79 maybe I should have explained my comment a little further. It was no offense, I just wanted to say that if you like those kind of videos like this one you can still watch it even if you don’t agree with his opinions in other non-technical videos. People just mock him, which is kinda what happens a lot lately... so yeah, cool that you stick around
This is the kind of video that originally brought me to this channel. I generally avoid this channel now because of gratuitous profanity and content that doesn't interest me.
@@biglutherie I agree, although I still watch most of videos he posts, I really miss SPF though. Obviously the separation killed his mono, it’ll take a while to get that back, but it’s slowly coming back
You put those two 1M resistors in parallel like that because one is a pot, and that makes the pot react differently through the range of motion. That's typically a non-linear response vs the linear 500K pot you could use.
I've removed that glue for years, most of it was on radio equipment. The glue was supposed to be for vibration, like on the filter caps and bigger caps that will produce vibration during driving. I remove all the glue because it is caustic after a few years, I've seen it eat the legs off electronic components. When that stuff turns a darker brown, then it's really fun to get off the board. I've recently got another HR2510 10/11/12m radio, that it's loaded with that glue, another fun job to look forward to.
@@LeapFrog_Radio I've owned several since 1994 when I got my first, they are good radios when set up right, pretty narrow banded/low bleed over from other channels if any, clean transmit/receive. My biggest problem with them is finding the MRF477 final, they are near non-existent now, and I mean the originals, not knock-offs. The 2SC1969 final will work, in its place, but, output suffers a heap.
When that stuff turns turns darker brown, it can become conductive. That will mess up your bias.
Am I the only person here who thinks you should build an amp?
If you build it they will come...
Brad, I agree with David immensely. If you built your own amp.. it would sell... make sure you put your price high for profit.. you earned it...
Maybe do a collaboration with one of these wood working guys. They would love to do that. Do the build. Then put up a wiring diagram, make it DYI project.
Just spit-balling here...
@P J Pachasa Jr ha
he said he has a pile of weird nos tubes, or knows one that goes to waste because there aren't circuits based on it, and so he designed an amp around it. Who knows if we'll see it
@@vxidastronaut I'd like to see him build one with 3 or 4 12ax7 and 2 7868.... that's what I have on hand from gutting a old console unit. 7868s in push pull can go about 45 watts... I'm only looking at pushing them about 30 watts though... basically limiting for 2 reasons... the caps I have on hand from electronics salvaging are my voltage limit... and figure the tubes will hold up longer not maxing them.
I had the 5 watt head for 5 years or so when I was in college. I used it all the time for jams at my different friends houses. I put a tube screamer in front and cranked the amp to about 2 o'clock. Loved it. Was about 15 mins into an extended Garcia-ish jam one night and it burst into flames. I wasn't even mad as I def got my 90 bucks out of it. It was a fitting death for my little 5 watt buddy.
Epic story and what a fitting end to the little amp that gave everything to the cause!
Lovin’ the dystopian music during the double-speed breakdown. 😵🤐🤫🤖😆
It was really cool... especially since I'm getting so twisted on cbd flower tonight!!
Cool to see the inside of one of these amps. I always wondered what the Valve Junior's guts looked like.
I've been watcing this channel a long time, and I missed vids like this. Besides the obvious value in education of amplifiers, and the nice escape from news and politics, I particularly enjoyed this because it reinforces the perspective of Brad as a knowledgeable authority. If Brad says something about an amp, I believe him; because he knows more about the subject than I do. Same goes for disputing copyright claims on youtube, or politics. He's spent time learning the details, I'll believe what he presents as facts. (and continue to form my own opinions, of course.) It's easy to discount people, like: "Why should I listen to this dude?" But that becomes apparent after being completely schooled.
...Here's what I like about the tone demo. It wasn't a bunch of Brad's ego showing the most difficult things he could play. It was him testing the amp, and listening to it closely throughout. He also showed the subtle shades of the amp circuit, and at the end, (intentionally or not) showed how 'inspiring' he found the amp's tone. All in all, a great demo while also proving the amp he rebuilt in front of everyone wouldn't melt down after getting good and hot...That's legit.
Turn volume on the amp up all the way, then use guitar volume as you see fit, then let the good times roll! Sounds great Brad.
As Jeri Ellsworth said “fail and fail often” good stuff
Nice work, Brad. Turned it from an (at first non-functioning) ratty looking and sounding mess into a snarky and responsive little barn-burner of an amp. You really know your stuff and are cool enough to share it with us. And I always love the jams at the end. Thank you, brother.
I have the model in the thumbnail and i love it. I used it plugged into a cabinet. The cabinet is an old 71' Gibson 4/10 Ranger amp, that blew and fried the components. I removed the amp unit and filled the panel opening with chrome diamond plating. Looks great too! (Backstory: I tried to get Brad to repair that amp, because I loved it. It was solid state 100w and he suggested that it wasn't worth the effort/cost shipping etc after i described the damage. He said the way I was using it as a cab was probably the best use of it at this point. I very much appreciated his insight.) Its all original 1971 10" speakers sound great with the Epiphone pushing them. Don't let the 5 watts fool ya, it cranks pretty damn loud! Pure tube tone.
Dunno about how it went in the US, but here in Europe, these affordable amplifiers were a favourite among modders.
There was a handwired version of these amps sold in german discounter supermarkets around 2005. Bought one new for 89€! Handwired! And still perfectly working to this day. I also had a valve junior, and the difference between pcb and handwired was pretty striking. Hw champ clone is still working to this day. Never had a service whatsoever
I feel I have missed out in life,I've been playing guitar for 30 years and never owned a tube amp.I live in the hills of eastern Kentucky there are no music stores around,so I watch the Guitologist and dream.
@@kitten-whisperer how do you know for yourself ? You don't have a neural DSP board, do you ?
Mike, I can recommend a couple real good tube amps specifically cheaper more affordable amps like the Peavey Bravo combo, Peavey valve king combo, Peavey classic combo or 20 watt head, Fender super champ X2, fender deluxe VM combo also the fender bandmaster VM head, Fender champion 600.
Those are some of the good cheaper tube Amps that I've used with good results. The monoprice tube Amps are pretty good but look kinda ugly but there's also Bugera ! All the Bugeras I've tried sounded great so Bugeras a good buy.
There's also Fender mustang 150 stereo head unit that's awesome and cheap and not tube, while on the topic of digital I've also had great results running a Headrush pedal board unit into a Peavey USA 6534+ head into a Mesa oversized 412. So the best of both worlds.
You have to get a tube amp - You won’t regret it
Really enjoyed the sounds you got out of that little amp, Brad! Greetings from Wales, UK.
I've never so much as played a tube amp, and yet I fucking love watching these.
Thanks for watching.
Hey brad, loved the background music. I had this video on while I took a short nap, and I woke up feeling like brainiac. Tubes and wires coming out of my head and all listening to that stuff
Very nice video Brad. Just a comment about putting a resistor in parallel with the volume pot: as you already commented, a 500k pot could be used in place of the combination of a 1M pot and a resistor. The reason (as I see it) is to also change the log pot curve. For example, in a 500kA pot, it is usually around 10% of that value with the pot at midpoint, so it would be at around 50k at midpoint. The 1M pot would be around 100k at midpoint. But here is the catch: a 1M pot in parallel with a 1M resistor essentially becomes the same as a 500k pot, but with a midpoint of 100k (as in the 1M pot), or a 500kA pot with a 20% midpoint. I use this trick in my own circuits (such as gain controls and tone stacks) and it works great when you need to tweak the curve.
It’s just odd in a factory circuit.
@@TheGuitologist sure it is!
R6 & R7 also make a voltage divider. Probably done to keep the gain in control for the second triode. I think the previous tech tried to "Fenderize" this amp.
The biggest improvement to my Valve Jr. besides better tubes and speaker was plugging my Marshall 9001 tube preamp into the input and plug my guitar into the 9001.
It made that lil' amp sound a ton better and a unique voice as well.
I’m gonna bookmark this one to watch the play through part over and over
Sooo many folks trashed and still to trash this amp.
The lowly Valve Jr. was my first legit tube amp and how I discovered things like, 1) volume control on a guitar and dynamics
2) What tube breakup really meant 3) the value of a decent attenuator (yes 5w single ended is damn loud)
Man I loved that little thing.
The old 6 watt Fender Champs sound really good.I used to have one . They take pedals really good but I had to get a better speaker. The Bugera V5 5 watt and Bugera 15 watt sound really good too
@@gregoryrussell8267 I’ve come close to purchasing a Bugera V5 a few times.
Thank you for letting The Guitologist come out and play.
It has a good speaker but it needs a tone stack & you could
fix the volume problems with V1B grid at the same time .
Better magnetics will help specifically the output transformer .
A new one is expensive but if you've got one in the junk box !
I might even experiment with a small resistor after the rectifier .
Say 150R @ 2W .
Movie ground around from the PCB & finding the lowest 120 Hz noise will help .
( Yes the green wire )
I'm an Epiphone guy but I don't have an Epiphone amp. This will be very interesting. I will,, of course,, tell the cops about your channel.
What exactly does tell the cops about your channel mean.Please expand on that??
@@gregoryrussell8267 See item 6 under *show your support*. I'm taking this as some badly needed humor. What does it mean to you?
@@Hardrockkenny sounds to me like a threat,which was why I asked him what it meant.I HATE PUNK RATS!!!
@@gregoryrussell8267 The FBI or sheriff actually did show up at Brad’s house over a dumb TH-cam joke one time.
th-cam.com/video/sETDPFyHQsM/w-d-xo.html
It's a good thing that you dug all the bird shit from board. When that stuff hardens it can actually become conductive. Great video always, Brad.
I just bought a whole bunch of brand new production Vishay/Sprague “Cera-Mite” Z5U caps from Mouser. They’re the perfect amount of microphonic. I was working on a 1961 6G3 Deluxe that was all dead and lifeless after someone replaced ALL of the original ceramic caps with orange drops. It changed hands probably 7 times in the last 2 years going off all the Reverb/EBay listings.
I tried to find the original Sprague Z5U’s, but they’re just not out there anymore. The new Cera-Mite caps brought back the dimension. It’s like the thin plywood baffle in a Tweed amp.
Thanks for the tip.
Sounds glorious after your handiwork!
i know its youtube audio im hearing on my laptop but that amp now sounds rich and has its own voice and by the way u are playing it gives u them tube amp feels. and might i add that bourbon barrel style finish tele is brilliant
Your mods makes it look more like a Peavey Valveking Royal 8 now which is a great-sounding little amp.
I love it when I find amps like this on my bench. It makes me think that people really do want the world to burn when you open up a chassis and these “mods” are discovered.
I like the Beato Clickbait picture
Sounds pretty damn good to me. I always like these little amps in a room with wood floors with some natural ambience. Makes me play for hours. Something about the natural reverb.
I've got the head/cab version of his amp. I bought it when it first came out and used it for a good five years as my at-home amplifier. Using it every day. I love it. It sounds great. It came with a good speaker in the cab. Eminence 12" I think. I have it out in the shed now but I pull it out every now and then and I always enjoy it. I haven't heard much good said about the combo but I've never heard anyone say anything at all about the head/cab version. I guess they didn't sell well. This one here sounds good to me. That really nice feedback around 40min, that's something I like about this amp.
This mod kit is being sold on the internet. FYI: Fromel Supreme Mod Kit For Epiphone Valve Junior Amp
Avoid.
I remember years ago on the Epiphone forums modifying these was a HUGE deal to the point that people were selling mod kits. BitMo mods for adding tone controls and reverb were popular, and Mercury Magnetics had one that upgraded transformers, added a choke, and added a 6V6 power tube.
For all the time and money people were spending upgrading these things, it might've been better to just buy a kit to build a point to point wired Champ clone.
No need for a kit, just experiment.
Really looking forward to this! I have the burgundy panel head with matching cab. The head is totally BitMo modded with the low/mo/whoa switch and tone control with pull boost. This thing is a little 5watt beast! Loud as hell. The matching cab has the Eminence Lady Luck 70w speaker in it and sounds great. I've run several different amps through that cab and gotten many compliments on how good it sounds with the EVJ head, my Orange tiny terror, Quilter 101 and even my EHX 22 caliber (which sounds incredible through it....).
I do not believe it. Different strokes.
That whisky barrel tele sounds good through that amp.
It’s a black V3 pcb. Removed C3 and added the Jumper like everyone else. Basically a 5f2a preamp with unbypassed V1B. 220k resistors in R6/R7. And a 500pF bright cap/ high pass on a separate control allows the right low content at any volume. I typically run volume at 2’clock. 1000k first supply resistor and upped EL84 resistor to 270 or 330 ohm. A little cold but gives the OD a bright edgy Soldano crunch. 12” Jensen C12Q. My friends love it too. Say it doesn’t sound like any modded EVJ. More like a Tweed Deluxe. Biggest thing is controlling lows. Most guys do it with cathode bypass. I chose low cut control. I also chose Fender values in pre because overdrive sounds better imo. Then use the divider to adjust overdrive balance between pre and power amp.
This was my first build/mod project.
Upgraded power and output transformers, larger first filter cap, used a 12AY7 instead of the 12AX7, and added a switchable 100k resistor as an option for the 1 Meg resistor in the interstage circuit (I think; it’s been a long time since I worked on this amp). It still gets used to test speaker cabinet builds, and demonstrate the difference between a 5 watt amp and anything larger.
You (and Uncle Doug) got me inspired to build my own amp from scratch. I got one of the Mojotone kits. Not only do you learn how all this stuff work's. but you can tinker with values and learn what does what. Within reason. If you double the resistance, or half it, you better know what it's going to affect. I have released the magic smoke out of a few components by being a dumbass. Same with making your own pedals. I did the Keeley mod to my Tube Screamer and I love it now more than before! If I could just get my soldering skills up to par now...
I know guys who used to build tube equipment for amateur radio. They used paraffin wax as an adhesive. Don't know if it was better than what was used in the video, but it worked for them.
Good work! that amp sounds great now!......and Dude... That rug really ties the room together.. . Does it not?!?
😀😀👍👍👌👌🎸🎸🎼🎵🎶🤗🤗
It does. Don't piss on it, man.
A big lebowski reference ...nice.
Another great video. I can't get enough of your repair vids.
I have one of these heads somewhere. I like it, although it isn't the most distinguished sound, it's got some nice attributes. Nice response on the fingers and dynamics. This one sounds great with your upgrades. The previous work was a scary mess, but you did a great job cleaning it up. I like it a lot- thanks for sharing.
I was doing some maintenance on a pa system last week and it had that adhesive in. It was everywhere, I agree not needed unless they know the solder joints are going to fail thinking it will help. Thanks for the video, amp sounded pretty good after your fixed the design and those crazy mods.
I was always told that the reason for the goo on the filter caps was to combat 60Hz vibrations. But I don’t know. I have seen a cap have a leg break after many, many years. But it could have just been a crummy cap. Who knows?
I have played through exactly one Valve Junior head and cab. It belonged to a buddy of mine. We used his Epi cab and it sounded awful. Plugged into my Celestion loaded Avatar cab and it sound pretty damn good. I’m convinced that many of these mods could be totally avoided with the replacement of that awful Eminence speaker. Not all Eminence speakers are bad. The one in my Peavey Bravo 112 was decent. But the one that was used in that Epi cab is a total turd!
One of your first videos I watched was when I was working on my own Valve Junior Amp Head. I ended up getting the schematic and putting everything back to stock and starting again. My fault for buying a modified Amp blind on eBay of course, and half the fun is fixing these beasts. The previous owner had replaced components with substandard fake orange drop capacitors and a dreadful attempt at a tone stack in the middle of the guts which really was causing all kinds of oscillation and nightmares! I ended up ordering a load of replacement parts from RS Electronics. I didn't spend a lot of money, but anytime someone has been inside these things its a mess. I feed mine into a Marshall 1x12 Cab with a Ruby Speaker, sounds pretty good and plenty loud enough.
I have one I haven't modified it or had any trouble with it . I like it. Mine is the head version it has 4 ,8,and 16 ohm outputs
Always nice to hear you play through it after. Thought I heard a little diamonds and rust in there.
As a college trained engineer I never was allowed to change any value the way you casually do it by your desired sound is something that can’t be taught I see some of your technical exclamations to be wonky but alway entertaining
Brad the interior decorator...the orchid looks good! amp sound nice. good work man.
Over here vibin
I have the head model. I use it with an old upright radio cabinet with an Eminence 12" speaker. It sounds pretty good. Above 5, it begins to bark and growl.
Come on does it really sound good. Sorry for being skeptical.
@@guitarocd9984 It's a matter of taste, I suppose. I seldom use it, as I have other amps; a '64 Princeton with an extension cabinet, a Hotone classic, an Excelsior, a Traynor bass mate, Traynor Quarter Horse, Roland Street Cube and a Spark. So, I seldom get around to giving the Epiphone a workout. I'm over-supplied, but Covid has cramped the buy/sell market. Who wants a 5 watt Epi rig that's as bulky as a Marshall half-stack? Oh, if you're asking about the cabinet, it's good. Those old cabinets were made to project sound, and 5 watts was science fiction in those days, so low watts=good sound. I have three that I've reworked for guitar amps.
Brad . Sod the amp for once. . great job tho. It is your voice on a guitar that really speaks to me . . it has a " Voice in the wilderness " quality to it that draws me in every time , to put it simply , it is beautiful my friend.
Love and Peace from a fellow wanderer in the UK.
That's very kind. Thank you.
Black Diamond? By Kiss? Killer!!!! Brad, you should be building and modifying amplifiers. Make it 100 watts able to lower to 10 in a 2x12. Great job as always.
Damn, the repaired amp sounds incredible! I am seriously impressed!
Awesome stuff. I still say you're one of the best players alive today.
Well, I disagree, but still kind of you to say.
I've just about finished off my first run of mods on the thing. I drilled the chassis for o 9-pin socket and fly-wired the el84 power tube off of the PCB to the new socket. The hot glue used to seat the caps was reflowing when the amp would run from the heat wicking back up into the PCB from the el84! I could even smell it when playing. This fixed a major design flaw in most modern tube amps. There is no practical way to dissipate 10W of heat right on the PCB from the power tube passively. So just don't do it!
Next set of mods was removing the fuse from the secondary of the mains transformer and installing a proper fuse holder next to the mains cord. I wired this new fuse into the primary side of the transformer, and installed a new value. Pretty sure that I went with a 1.5A SLO-BLO. 1A should work as well at 120V RMS, as this little guy should never gulp down 120W of wall draw for a second or 2. So now the amp is a lot less likely to start a house fire.
Then I removed the 2 1M resistors on the high side of and in parallel with the volume potentiometer, and replaced it with an audio taper pot. I added the tone-stack based on the normal channel of an AA864 Bassman. I changed this up by adding a mid-knob where the low-side resistor was in the stack, pretty sure I went 10k linear. Not sure why I chose this circuit, as the amps are so different on paper. But this little amp has a similarly in-your-face attack like a BF Bassman. And like any gig that's a bad fit, just focus on the good that you have to work with. Find that one person in the audience who digs what you're doing and work from there. I applied the same principal to his amp.
Last and best mod was the game changer for turning this little amp around. Replace the cathode bypass cap, a cheap electrolytic, with 2 x 10uF, 100V PP Film caps in parallel. Night and day improvement. All of the harsh clipping in the highs just disappeared, and the amp's sound totally opened up. It's super dynamic and touch sensitive. And it really does beg one to ditch their pick and play with their fingers. There's now a lot more clean headroom as well, since the highs aren't distorting waay to early in the gain curve. The amp doesn't start to get crunchy until about 2 o'clock with the EQ cranked. I could go on about electrolytic cap derating vs frequency, and why this is a thing (surprise! - all caps have inductive properties too). But for how easy it is to do this mod, I'd just recommend trying it out. It blew me away.
I'm still planning on adding a switchable NFB circuit, and possibly another preamp stage. But the thing sounds pretty incredible right now, in spite of being a $200 tube head with about $40 in parts, and a few hours of TLC.
Hey how you doing doctor guitarologist I'm just commenting on the the music you had while you were going backwards from the speaker up I'm assuming it's your own and it's really cool and really interesting and I can just imagine how much fun it must have been for you to make that that is if I'm correct and you did that but I think I'm correct so therefore in my mind I'm correct so how do you like that sincerely yours, Bob the blind bedroom guitarist
I have three of the Valve Jr's. First and most important mod is a stand by switch, followed by a better 5k output transformer. Always add a 1000uf el84 cathode bypass cap. After that the rest is personal preference. Add a bright cap if you like. I like an interstage negative feedback loop sometimes. They are a blank canvas, be original.
That was a great video, thanks Brad. I seriously enjoyed your playing at the end too.
G'day, Brad! Enjoyed the video! Great job - modifying & troubleshooting!! By the way... Smooth distortion… super-clear note definition. Turn up the volume, more grind. Turn it down, nice warm jazzy sound. Plus! I always enjoy the guitar playing at the end!! Well done! Thank you! Cheers! 😊🎸✌🏻❤️
P.S. Just an observation... "Noticed through the years, a number of amplifier manufacturers have tried their hands at producing budget tube amps. The problem with the vast majority of these items was that they were not primarily amps, they were primarily amps. Their main audio function was to give the listener the distinct feeling that a knitting needle was slowly being shoved through their eardrum." Lol! 🤣
Be respectful! The next guy might be you!🤣🤣🐾
A genuine Craftsman is also a gentleman.
Once upon a time I had an EVJ with a Weber in it. I used an attenuator to get distortion at low volume. It was a nice little amplifier.
I really like your channel and I sub !!!
You have a new friend !!!
Greetings from Italy !!!
Welcome to the channel!
This guy loves this amp
Are you sure this isn’t your amp? Because the guitar you played and that amp sounded perfect together. I owned the amp briefly and unfortunately I only played a few times and traded it
I moved into a quiet apartment
To my knowledge single ended amp may need larger filtering caps just to get rid of the power supply noise that you don't have with push-pull amps because the phase inversion makes it cancel itself. I have read that you can go up to 1000uF without issues, but it draws more current when turning the amp on. Do you think there could be some other issues with large filter caps?
Sounds great with that guitar and your modifications/ fix up. I had a valve jr combo amp for a few months. It was stock/ vanilla. I sold it for a 50s Champ Clone.
The Dave Ross of amp repair.
Bob
@@PapaWheelie1 Pretty sure he meant Rick.
@@MrSonis3 - or maybe just the Ross of amp repair. Everything you might want but nothing good in your size and probably smells funny there.
I really enjoy watching your channel man. Keep it up.
Glad you enjoy it.
Around the 37:00 mark your jam had some of McCartney's Momma Miss America vibes!! Loved it!!!
I remember back in the day everyone were buying at least one of these crappy things. They sounded horrible but people were convinced that they could buy 2 of these turds, and this is at the top of the bubble as George Gruhn would say when vintage stuff that 10 years before you could not give away, were fetching insane high prices. People were making little stereo rigs for home, and possible gigging with what they thought were going to be like 2 old tweed Champs for very little money. They soon found out that you get what you pay for, The magazines, mostly Vintage Guitar were loaded with mods for these trash cans. That is when Mercury was getting famous. Remember the ads with the sexy nurse who would tell you how to make a Ferrari out of a Corvair ? Mods every issue, They were still crap. It was not Mercury or Webers fault. I love the little 8 inch Webers in many good old tweed amps. Mercury also makes some great stuff. You just could not make these things sound good.Oh the good old days !
I messed with one of these. Ended up up using a 6n2p-ev (w/ 6n2 to 12ax7 adaptor) for preamp. Not a huge fan of the sound of these. :-( But i see a lot of people like to mod these etc. Very simple to work on. Good learning amp id say for someone interested in messing with a tube amp without getting overwhelmed. Thanks for the videos. Oh by the way the 6n2p tube sounded the best of the different tubes we tried. Power tube wise we stuck with a 6p14p-k, that tube worked very well in this circuit.
Wow that power tube was getting warm, look at the brown on the board. Yeah that 100mfd is over kill.
Yeah I used a 250ohm to cool the bias, thats how i was able to use 6p14p-k power tube in this amp.
What type of pickups are in that Tele you use towards the end of the video ?
Loved your playing at the end. It was just great
I think R7 and VR1 are both 1meg is to double the Wattage in that area instead of using a 500K pot or it could be that the taper of 1meg pots have a wider taper compared to 500K tapper. I'm just taking guesses but two 1meg resistors in parallel is 500K but the two 1 meg resistors are "current sharing".
Had v3 head + cabinet. already had high input Z and DC filaments. swapped OT with a 125ESE. Wired for 10k (not 5k!) and rebiased for giving less hot idle below advised power. Added treble bleed at R6. Sounded great. Much cleaner on the lower notes. Better drive. Sold it now.
I have the head version of this amp, with the bitmo mod. Awesome amp!
LOOK,,,NO PEDALS fantastic job again brad ,whatever the
bill, you are undercharging !,it just needs a little spring reverb
as do many of this type of home use practise amp,,
Hi. Great mods nice clean work wicked tone..Had one of these amp since 2007 head and cap all i have changed is the tubes Nos Phillips 6bq5 and GE 5751 in the pre amp plus Changed out the speaker for a made in England Vintage 30 Celestion Still going strong played many a gig nice tone for drunk Crowds .Cheers from Australia .
I was wondering if the hum problem has to do with the layout of the board. In general, you want to have a trace between the negative (ground) of the main filter capacitors and your "star ground", that introduces a minimum of resistance (we are talking about milliohms) and prevents high current ripple from the capacitors from entering the audio ground path. On that board, there is just a narrow section between that pseudo "ground plane" (the negative side of the filter capacitors) and the rest of the ground circuit...looks suspicious
Nice work Brad. Maybe the 1M in parallel with the 1M pot, is to approximate a log taper on a linear pot?
I think they just needed a 500k pot and only had a ton of 1M.
@@TheGuitologist Ha! Needs must.....
LoL @29:12 "Sometimes that next guy is you"... yep, been there Brad :-)
Never heard a valve junior sound that good.Really awesome and inspiring playing at the end Brad! Have you ever designed/build an amp from scratch?
A few, yeah.
That goop looks like liquid nails construction adhesive. Glad to see an amp repair. The guitar repair stuff is good too.
I used to have one of these amps.I'm not really a big person who's into using a lot of pedals but that's what these amps are good for in my opinion."Dusty"you say?... That's why I keepreal high percal count sheet dropped over-top my amps when I'm not using them
love your videos brad, great work!!!!! keep bringin em back buddy!
I’ve had a VJ head for a long time with the only mod done was JP1 which basically is a quick snip that instantly opens up the sound.
Great and timely, I've got a little Joyo Crybaby which appears to be similar enough to use your basic ideas to clean it up and reduce some Humm.
Cheers buddy, take care
👍✌😎
Nice playing by the way, could happily listen to it all afternoon.
Sounds superb
That Bulleit Bourbon Tele is very cool!
quick tip: don't glue caps top side down. That metal top of the big cans is like a relief valve, and the whole thing will just shatter to pieces if its blocked, if something goes south
Good thing i watched this video, i was gonna buy one for 100$ CAD........not anymore. THANKS!!!!! AWESOME VIDEO!!!!
You’re the man Brad. Thanks for all these videos.
Awesome playing at the end, Brad. I could listen to that all day.
You ever watch/hear Jim Campilongo? He's an awesome Tele player who does this style. Sorta jazzy/rockabilly/blues. There's some great vids of him here on TH-cam.
I'll check it. Thanks!
I had one of these produced under the Harley Benton name for Thomann. In the end I used the cabinet for a 5E3 Micro (with Jensen speaker) and the transformers were perfect for a 6G15 Reverb.