Epiphone Valve Special Guitar Combo Amplifier (5 Watts, 1x10 in.)
5 Watts. 10 in. speaker. DSP Effects.
Overall User Ratings (based on 17 ratings)
Submitted October 12, 2008 by a customer from yahoo.com
Epiphone Valve Special Customer Review
Verified Customer
zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
I'd probably just get another one of these if I ever needed to. A couple pedals and this amp covers a lot of ground, lets me spend time playing, not futzing with gizmos.
Sound
Very nice tube sound, and a lot of flexibility with independent gain and volume. I'll downrate it a notch with the stock speaker, which I think is just lacking in treble capability. I've since upgraded to a "Ragin Cajun" and now the tone controls really work.
Features
Least useful are built-in effects. I use the chorus occasionally just because I don't like to carry around any more stuff than necessary. Reverb is decent for digital effect, though.
Ease of Use
Nothing confusing about this rig.
Quality
Seems well put together. You could quibble with some of the components, but look at the cost, and there's no evidence they cut any corners delivering a class A amp in the $200 price range.
Value
I admit I didn't play a bunch of models in the class, but I'd have a hard time imagining anything substantially better in terms of bang for the buck, whether you're using it for practice, miking onstage or both.
Manufacturer Support
Never had to deal with it.
The Wow Factor
What's not to like? Blistering overdrive sounds in your bedroom or not lugging 150# of stack to your job? You need this amp.
Musical Background:
Re-starting after 30 year guitar layoff - been playing multiple instruments for 45 years
Musical Style:
Rock, contemporary Christian
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Submitted June 7, 2013 by Gabe L in Toronto, ON
"Epiphone Valve Special"
Nice little amp, bigger and louder then I had expected, about the size of a Fender Blues Junior. Not blown away with the tone but it's pretty good, considering the price tag it's very good. Would like to put it up against similar 5 watt offerings n the market like the Fender Champion, Gretsch 600, Bugera 5 watt whatever and in particular the Fender Vibro Champ. I like the basics on this amp, the master volume and gain combination, Treble Middle and Low. The reverb is okay, not bad, the DSP effects are noisy, too noisy to use. I bought it used, I think it might be an 05 I read somewhere that Epiphone has addressed this noise issue in more current versions. Aside from the noise the first chorus setting is nice, the rest are too much, same with flanger, the first flange setting is nice the rest are too much, I like the Rockabilly style slapback you get from the first Delay setting. The longer delays will be useful I'm sure for different applications. This is my first impression, I plugged a Mexican strat into it, I then put my vintage Tube Screamer inline, that helped, but it helps everything all the time. The amp cleans up nice when you back off the volume on your guitar and gives a rather menacing growl when you crank it up, this is why we love tube amps.
Musical Background:
I have been playing for 40 years now, I play semi professionally, bars and parties (Weekends for beer money +)
Musical Style:
Blues/Rockabilly/Vintage Rock n Roll/Brit Pop
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Submitted August 11, 2007
"great class A bark and whine on a budget price."
Between some stompboxes, and the natural tone of this amp, I can cover a lot of bases and I am really enjoying playing again. I wish the effects were more usable.
If it was stolen or broke down through no fault of its own, I would replace it in a heartbeat.
Sound
I love the creamy full clean sound of this amp. I could max out the master volume and treble, and put the bass, mids, and reverb pointing straight up at 12 o clock and play arpeggios and chord comping all night. Pushing the gain beyond 50% and you get into some ok blues territory, and maxing out the gain produces a good raunchy bark but the stock speaker struggles to keep up.
For the moderately clean sound with my humbucker-equipped LP style Ibanez Ghostrider- I would give it a 10, anything beyond 50% gain I give a 6-7, so an average of 8 on sound.
Features
Well knowing this is a single channel amp, you don't buy it expecting the versatility of $1000 tube combos, but theres a lot of tones that can be pulled from this amp with some tweaking. You're not going to get a high gain sound, or tube-driven reverb but the digital reverb thats there is quite good. And the DSP effects prove frustrating, as anything beyond the most mild setting are too extreme.
I dig the 8 ohm speaker output on the back, meaning I can easy push a cabinet of my choice, and the standby switch is a welcome addtion since the Valve Junior head and combo don't have one.
An effects loop would be nice, but for the price range I'm quite happy to have a master volume, quite usable eq stack, and decent reverb.
Ease of Use
If you can't get a good sound out of this then you need a better guitar. I've only had mine a couple days and haven't even swapped in better tubes or tried different speakers, and I'm digging it.
One great thing, is that it LOVES stompboxes. Setting the amp clean (gain 1/4 up, master 1/2) a DOD Grunge gave me some crisp and chunky high gain sound perfect for riffing and palm-muting. My TS9 Tube Screamer pushed the amps natural overdrive into great high gain soloing tone.
Quality
The amp came without a problem. Great fit and finish, especially considering the price. Its hard to tell how it will hold up. I've had solid state amps crap out on me after a couple years of regular playing, so if this last that long I'll be happy.
Value
Personally I think this amp stacks up a lot better than the Fender Pro and Blues Junior, as well as those tube class A Crate amps. I would have bought the Valve Junior head version if it had reverb, but it was worth paying for the Special and getting standby switch, eq stack, master volume.
Manufacturer Support
Haven't needed it.
The Wow Factor
This is one cool looking amp, vintage look with black vinyl and gold basketweave grillcloth. If I were in a band I would gig with it and mic it up, rock it with pride. Gotta love the chicken beak knobs.
Musical Background:
hobbyist
Musical Style:
rock, and jazzy stuff
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