homemade noize

The new little epiphone valve juniors half stacks are pretty cool. Whoever is responsible for they’re development is definitely learning. The extension cabinet was a good idea but other improvements where made. a while back most orders were delayed for the seeming reason of a third version. the most notable change was output transformer has been changed to the correct 5.2k primary impedance instead of the 7.2k in the original amps. By all reports this greatly improves the stock sound. If you are happy with the sound there is no reason to change it. the hammond ese that i am a big fan of should give you a lot more bass though which might really help the 8″ speaker in the combo. it is personal preference thing.

It is also is shipping with better tubes. Reportedly a jj el84 and a electro harmonix 12ax7 though i think it would be a good idea to experiment and you always should have back ups.

They changed a bunch of components also. The voltages are more under control. Before doing any mods I think it would a good idea to check and see what components are on the board first. A lot of the evj mod lists are outdated now. Some of the parts swaps no longer need to be done.

I enjoyed fixing mine up and am planning on getting another one. The improvements bummed me out at first but that was not too smart. There are still improvements to be made and now less time and money can be spent fixing problems that now can be used shaping the tone more to your liking.

I am very happy with my amp after the ot, tubes, and marshallized mods. The only thing I am still thinking about is adding a simple gain knob. I like the simple one knob look so maybe i throw it on the back i am not sure how practical that would be. the are more things to do fr sure but i am not that motivated to change anything when i like the sound. I shouldn’t mess with it because I like it but I am just itching mess with it. I think I have to get another. I would like to Fenderize one & you can’t beat the price.

A few final thoughts:

I really don’t think those bit-mo kits are a great idea. They’re expensive considering the price of the parts and have not read that flattering of reviews of them. You can do the same things more customizable and cheaper with readily available parts and information. There are better things you can do in my opinion also. On my last evj post I mentioned the mercury magnetics kit and it got a lot of clicks. I hope it was out of curiosity. The price is obscene and from what i have read from very knowledgeable people it is actually ill suited to the evj. I have not heard a sample of the amp for a buyer though. I can’t imagine there would be to many takers at that price. With the improvements now to the new version(and not having to buy a ot) you really could have a smokin’ little amp(s) tailored to your tastes for very little dough. If you need any info it is probably at sewatt.com