There comes a time in an amp’s life when changes happen. We try our hand at the BitMo 3-way voicing/gain mod kit for the inexpensive Valve Junior.
When Epiphone released the 5-watt Valve Junior at Summer NAMM in 2006, it’s doubtful anyone was aware of the industry-wide stir the little $150 tube combo amp was about to create, moving value-conscience guitarists out in droves to get one of their very own.
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Another unforeseen effect following the debut of the adorable, great-sounding-for-the- price Junior was the devoted subculture that sprang up around modifications intended to handle its shortcomings, turning the Valve Junior into the rock n’ roll equivalent of the Nissan 240SX: fun, cheap, and ripe for customization. That the Junior arrived just as the low-wattage, boutique-bedroom amp craze was gaining stride didn’t hurt, either.
One of the first companies to recognize the Valve Junior’s sleeper potential was Mercury Magnetics, offering up mods that received nothing but praise from both the guitar press and Junior owners alike. But because the Mercury Magnetics kit involved replacing both transformers, it didn’t come cheap; amp geeks were paying nearly $300 to mod a $150 amp. This was great for players looking at the Valve Junior as a starting point for experimentation, swapping out tubes and speakers, and now even transformers and caps, to eventually end up with a boutique-sounding amp, voiced exactly as desired, for a car payment south of a grand.
Figure 1
A look at the inside of the Valve Junior. Notice the black (Revision 3) PC board. |
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However, there was a second subset of Valve Junior aficionados who were purchasing the little amp precisely because it was inexpensive and sounded good in stock form – illustrating that not everyone who drinks PBR is being ironic. It also begs the question: why should the less well-heeled be excluded from all of this Valve Junior modding fun? That’s where Bruce Hutcheon comes in, the mastermind behind BitMo’s amp mods, offering up reasonably priced, less intrusive mods that shouldn’t intimidate anyone, from either a price or complexity standpoint.
We met Bruce at the Dallas International Guitar Festival, and even through the cacophony of the show floor, we could tell he was onto something. He offered up a few of his mods for us to try, with the Voicing/Gain being the first we attempted, due to the seemingly easy nature of the mod, and because of some pressing time constraints. The following chronicles our adventure installing the mod; for a general idea of our technical expertise, picture a monkey in a cage with a stick, and a banana just out of reach outside of the cage.
First off, we tracked down a Valve Junior at our local guitar shop, deciding to go with the head version and picking up the Valve Junior 1X12 extension cabinet, too, both readily available for $130 each. The Voicing/Gain mod costs $25, putting the total cost of this rig at $285. The tools suggested by BitMo for the upgrade are: screwdriver, soldering iron, rosin core solder, wire stripper, needlenose pliers, drill and drill bits, dark colored tape and acrylic spray sealer for the included decals, in short, nothing out of the ordinary. The instructions include the same old safety warnings we’ve all heard before, but they bear repeating; rock some goggles or safety glasses when soldering or drilling. Sure, your grandpa never did, and he’s fine, but what about his friend, the old dude with one eye and nine fingers? Yeah, that guy. Don’t be him.
| The little Valve Junior is pretty amazing in its simplicity. To get costs down, Epiphone needed to do their homework on the design side, with the resulting component layout indicating that they did just that, with a surprisingly tidy, efficient looking interior that exuded Feng Shui... |
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The instructions also let you know that as soon as you bust out the soldering iron that the warranty is void, something to keep in mind if you’re the really cautious type. It also includes a few tips to get the most from both the amp and the mod, offering up suggestions on possible tube swaps, such as sub-ing the stock 12AX7 with a NOS 5751, and where to start with the amp settings once the mod is complete. Bruce was also thoughtful enough to include a link to a pdf that covers the basics of soldering if you’re new to this.
To start the actual mod, we needed to remove the chassis from the cabinet, which was straight forward enough, and in its stock form, the little Valve Junior is pretty amazing in its simplicity. To get costs down, Epiphone needed to do their homework on the design side, with the resulting component layout indicating that they did just that, with a surprisingly tidy, efficient looking interior that exuded Feng Shui all over the place.
Bruce provides very well written, thorough instructions for the mod, with one minor oversight, albeit a huge one in our case; he included a very simple diagram on page three. We were pretty much done reading at this point, instead relying on the Mr. Miyagi method of “Picture perfect tree. Now, make like picture,” although a few of the instructions did ultimately stick. The first one was leaving the switch in the middle-off position while soldering, going so far as to suggest clamping it in place. Next was advice on how long to trim the legs on the caps to make everything fit properly, saving potential heartache when read in a timely fashion ( i.e., before the soldering starts).