Finally....modded my Epi Valve Junior

After one year of foot dragging....I finally got around to modding my version 2 Epiphone Valve Junior head amp.
Replaced the two stock 68k resistors in R1 & R2, with 1M & 10K resistors respectfully.
Replaced the stock OT with a Hammond 125CSE transformer.
I had replaced the stock tubes last year with a NOS Sylvania 5751 and a NOS GE EL84.
HUGE difference in volume and a much better bottom end.
Even my teenage guitar playing daughter noticed the difference right away...."Whatcha do? Sounds better."
I'm often skeptical of mods.....but a couple of MF resistors and a $30 OT made such a dramatic difference in this case.....that it's a no-brainer IMO.

Steve :shock: :mrgreen:

Pictures ?

Pictures ?

And some MP3s maybe. ;)

After one year of foot dragging....I finally got around to modding my version 2 Epiphone Valve Junior head amp.
Replaced the two stock 68k resistors in R1 & R2, with 1M & 10K resistors respectfully.
Replaced the stock OT with a Hammond 125CSE transformer.
I had replaced the stock tubes last year with a NOS Sylvania 5751 and a NOS GE EL84.
HUGE difference in volume and a much better bottom end.
Even my teenage guitar playing daughter noticed the difference right away...."Whatcha do? Sounds better."
I'm often skeptical of mods.....but a couple of MF resistors and a $30 OT made such a dramatic difference in this case.....that it's a no-brainer IMO.

Steve :shock: :mrgreen:

Been draggin' my feet too on this one. Was this your first amp mod? Was it difficult, especially the transformer? I'd love to hear some mp3s as well.

HUGE difference in volume and a much better bottom end.
Even my teenage guitar playing daughter noticed the difference right away...."Whatcha do? Sounds better."
I'm often skeptical of mods.....but a couple of MF resistors and a $30 OT made such a dramatic difference in this case.....that it's a no-brainer IMO.

Congratulations. It is a very satisfying and enlightening experience to modifying what many people think is a cheap crap sounding amp into something that sounds so good.

Here is a sound demo of a modified Valve Junior that sounds pretty good. (No me playing by the way).

http://www.davidvibert.co.uk/BabyVoxTele.mp3

Being a 55 year-old dinosaur I don't even own an MP3 player.
From start-to-finish, it took me 2 hours....even with Sugar, my 11 month-old Sheltie puppy, dropping a tennis ball in my lap every 5 minutes.
I really was dreading doing the work, but it actually turned out to be quite an easy mode to do.
I had read horror story on the net about the traces on the PCB lifting up!?
For me, a solder wick really came in handy.
I also used Kesler 63/37 solder to limit the amount of time/heat on the PCB traces.
The Hammond transformer installation was not hard, but I went SLOWLY step-by-step, and double checked my wiring as I went.
You have to drill an additional mounting hole in your chassis for the larger OT, but that was an easy 5 minute job.
I have a 1965 Harmony 400 tube amp that I recapped a few years back.
But that uses point-to-point wiring, so I didn't have to worry about PCB traces.
I'm REALLY glad that I finally did the modifications.

Steve

How much head room would you say was gained??
Not tha I ever expect my VJR to sound like it has the power of a 12-18 watt amp. But it starts to break up way to early for me, at 1/3 throttle.

V3 combo, and I have tried a few speakers, in cabs. 2/10, 1/12, 1/10, still like the 8" Emminece [spelling?] just as well as any combo I tried.
Barely mad a differance.

I actually only have one guitar that can stand the sound of through, a Tele, big surprise, although I have not tries all my guitars through it.

I totally was attracted to the amp due to it's tweak ability, just sleeping on the starting gate. Sound familiar?

;)

Well, replacing the stock Chinese 12ax7 with a 30% less gain Sylvania 5751 seemed to give it slightly more headroom and later break-up.
Running it into a "huge" (my wife's words) 2 x 12 cabinet with alnico speakers, it doesn't start to break up until around 60% volume.
Fully cranked.....you can FEEL the bass....and hear it 1/2 a block away.
For some reason.....it sounds HUGE with P-90 pickups!?
My wife is thrilled as you can imagine.

Steve

6942. You have done the same mods as me, and I found that it really opened up the amp. Mind you with me, I had that amp in bits within three days of getting it.
I think that best mod you can do to a version 2 VJnr is the OT replacement, as it really opens out the tone and the volume of the thing. Replacing the tubes made a bit more difference, and reducing the input resistance boosted the front end. Mind you whereas it now sounds ok at lowish volumes, it doesnt run clean at anything above 1/2 volume, not that I mind that.
The other mod folks sometimes do is lower the resistance between the preamp tube and the power tube, though that can really make the thing lairy. I lowered mine a bit, bit not by as much as it was suggested to do.

Yes I find that a Tele is the best guitar to put through this amp, though I do like putting something with a P90 through it as well.

You guys are filling me with confidence! Sounds pretty easy and I may have my next project.

Great sounds clip, Gee!