Totaly amazing little amp. I wish they had these when I first started playing. Do not mistake this for a practice amp.This amp is one loud 5 watts of Class A Tube power.It is about 4 times louder than your average 5 to 10 watt solid state amp. The cab is very nice and loud as hell. You could very easily do small to medium size gigs wit this rig, or just mike it through the PA for larger gigs. The head also is great through 2/12 cabs. Different Cabs and different speakers make this amp sound totally different so experiment to get your sound. There are TONS of mods out there for this amp if you like to experiment but it sounds great stock. It loves pedals, and I have a ton of them, from vintage to modern.My favorite setup with this rig is just a DOD YJM308 Yngwie Malmsteen preamp overdrive into an Electro Harmonix Holier Grail reverb. Just incredible sound. The Yngwie pedal is the same as the DOD 250 preamp so that works as well. They are both very clean preamps with just a touch of treble enhancement, cleans up muddy sounding neck pickups well and kicks the amp into the next level without adding any tone coloring of its own. This amp also sounds incredible with a Fender Blender for wilder sounds. My guitars have P90 pickup in them (Les Paul Jr. and ES 330) But Humbuckers sound great through this rig too.

Be clear about what five tube watts can do. Low Volume cleans, screaming overdrive. The Valve Junior let's you plug straight in, or place your favorite pedal in front and get lush tube tones for very little money. Dynamics are excellent. whether you ligten up or dig in with your pick, or back off the guitar volume, you get great response from the amp. Stock the amp is no frills, concentrating on tube tone you can afford. This is probably the best amp out there for a first tube amp. It's also excellent for home practice for pros, and is even giggable in many situations. As a platform for modification electronics geeks will love it. If you've built a pedal or modified a guitars electronics, this is the perfect next step. A simple tube upgrade can give you much better than stock tones, and a few part swaps can take you straight into boutique territory. Dollar for dollar, tone for tone, the Epiphone Valve Junior is hard to beat! The half stack is definately the top choice, with big bottome end, more volume and richer tone you wont be unhappy plugged straight in. And the amp loves pedals in front.. boost, overdrive, even metal pedals scream to life with the VJ happily screaming along. Buy one! You'll agree.

so i tried this mini tube stack out with low expectations and was absolutely blown away. this is the best type of tube amp one could hope for. the less going through the signal path the better. this thing only has a volume knob. at 5 watts it's too loud for an apartment at half volume. the distortion is so smooth when you crank it. the definition of the el-84 tube saturation is incredible. the matching cab is the only way to go. custom designed by eminence and Gibson you can't go wrong. mods for this thing are everywhere. this thing is a modifier's dream although i haven't seen the need to change anything this far. sounds better than some all tube marshalls i've played. stop reading my review and buy this amazing mini tube stack.

This little amp is one of my favorites. It is as simple as it gets with only an on-off switch and a volume knob. The tones are ALL tube and very pleasing to the ears as well as your soul. It has really nice clean tones , which surprized me a little at first , and the very overdriven tones are just as nice. My preference is somewhere in the middle and this is where I feel this amp shines. It lets the true tone of your guitar come through and the nuances of your playing skills.