A dramatic amp mod as well as the simplest in the Epiphone Valve Junior Head Tube Guitar Amplifier is known as the “JP1 Mod”. The name derived from the jumper labeled JP1 on the board.
It basically morphs the tone of the guitar amp from one with no definition, dark, to an instant edgy and more present tone. To my ears things came to life using the Fender Telecaster compared to the raw un-modded amp I had.
Paul Riario, did an exceptional video demonstration of the Gabriel V33 guitar amp, that was coupled with the print review that appeared in the Guitar World magazine a while ago (by Terry Buddingh). Paul explains in very easy terms the V33’s features as well as the footswitch functions. Sit back relax and enjoy the video!
It’s worth watching.
The patient is in the house. Before taking the scalpel and start the surgery, I thought of shooting a quick reference video for the newly receive out of the box Epiphone Valve Junior head. We will use this to compare the tone for each mod as we go along in our face lift journey.
I was particularly stunned on how dark this guitar amp sounds! In the video I have a Fender Telecaster (Mexican) that sounds crystal clear through my Gabriel V18 or V33 guitar amps. Bright, beautiful upper mids, etc. The overdrive was nevertheless EL-84-ish but without any definition or character or identity. i guess that’s what should be expected from a $150.00 (shipped) head, right?
The speaker cabinet has an AlNiCo Blue Celestion speaker , and has an open back. But even with this speaker the amp is simply too dark.
But the amp has potential. And we’ll discover that as we will start modding it. Stay tuned!
Welcome to our first video on modding the Epiphone Valve Junior guitar amplifier. I ordered a head version from Musicians Friend specifically for this. It is a very exciting project to me and hopefully will make your life easier modding it by watching these video tutorials.
I don’t know how many times it happened that I spent so much time on trying to guess how to open a unit just to be able to get to the heart of the problem and fix it. Yes, even pulling the chassis out of an Epiphone Valve Junior can be intimidating for the first comer.
A fantastic and full of character local dealer I cherish a lot is Fat Tone Guitars, a music store located in Northbrook IL, got lucky enough to record a killer video demo of the Gabriel V18 1×12″ combo, that didn’t spend a week in the store before it was sold.
Steve Gerlach of Fat Tone Guitars flexes the muscles of the Ampeg Dan Armstrong AMD100 guitar and the Gabriel V18 1×12″ Combo.
In guitar amps, we always battle the signal-to-noise ratio. Of course we could never have the ideal guitar amp in this life because we are limited by the components we use that will dictate the final guitar tone and noise. And to be honest we don’t even need to push for a complete noiseless amp otherwise we would slide into the Hi-Fi zone and that’s NOT a field for tube guitar amps.
Justin Ostrander is an avid user of the Gabriel guitar amps. He is an active musician in the Nashville music scene, gigging with names like Mandisa, Whitney Duncan, Tammy Trent, SonicFLOOD, Julianne Hough, Aaron Shust, Shannon Brown, and with many others.
In this Gabriel V33 Guitar Combo Amp (2×12″) demo he demonstrates the versatility of using the amp plugged direct in as well as with numerous guitar effects.
With the price hike in boutique guitar tube amps, (and rightly so since, depending on the components quality that go into the construction the initial costs can add up very quickly), there seems to be a tone-void gap between solid-state easily accessible (cheap) and the high end tube amps out there.
So, what will you do, if you are a serious guitar player but have no cash to spend on one (two or three) of the big name tube guitar amp?
Going further with our guitar tube amp building! Here I will show you the simple trick I use to wire the front controls. Nothing complicated. You will see the way I solder the ground buss I use for all preamp connections that are kept separate from the power amp and power supply stage ground connections.
Please make sure you give the videos a 5-start rating, and comment, ask questions, etc. I am glad to answer. Thank you and enjoy the guitar amplifier cooking show!
Hello Ladies & Gentleman!
Here is another chapter in the Sound Garage Tales video tutorial on how to build a tube guitar amp from scratch. This time wiring the power supply.
Follow along all 4 videos in this chapter and you will learn how to make a clean layout which is critical for a robust guitar tube amp
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