Valve Junior PCB

Started by Zben3129, December 17, 2007, 12:00:08 AM

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Zben3129

Hi Guys,


I was about to start ordering parts for a P1 or extreme, and I was planning on buying a valve junior. Then, I thought, why not attempt to build the VJ!


I noticed that the VJ is made on a PCB, and I was wondering if there was a transfer Image, layout, or cad file for this somewhere?

Also, could someone supply me with some links for the cheapest trannies that would work in this?


Thanks


Zach

erick4x4

Not to discourage you (go for it!)

But I built an old spec P1 with master volume. It was simpler, only one el84 tube, solid state rectifier.

It was quite easy to do point to point, and I use it all the time.

So even if you build a VJ, I think you should consider a point to point P1. It was pretty cheap, and I love it!

Zben3129

Thanks! The only reason for PCB was to keep the cost down.


For P1, could you give links to the cheapest trannies? If you know some?



Thanks

stumper1

Deric®

theundeadelvis

Zben-Check ut sewatt.com. They have a dedicated Valve Jr. area. Someone may have what you're looking for.
If it ain't broke...   ...it will be soon.

SonicVI

I just bough the VJ head and cab yesterday. I played it for a bout 2 minutes at GC and knew I was leaving with it.  It's really an awesome little amp. I can wait to do some mods.

trevize

if you want to keep the cost down build it on perfboard, take a look at the princeton build on bancika site:

http://www.storm-software.co.yu/diy/index.php?project=princeton


John Lyons

Just buy a VJ. There is no way you can build it cheaper that buying one. The parts will cost you more than the VJ's asking price.
When you get over the initial "this is cool" stage you can modify it. There are a ton of mod posts and sites for it.

John

Basic Audio Pedals
www.basicaudio.net/

phil

Quote from: John Lyons on December 18, 2007, 04:35:53 PM
Just buy a VJ. There is no way you can build it cheaper that buying one. The parts will cost you more than the VJ's asking price.
When you get over the initial "this is cool" stage you can modify it. There are a ton of mod posts and sites for it.
John
+1 on that. A new Valve Junior is less than I can build the amp and cabinet for. Checkout www.sewatt.com for all the mods that can be done to it (the Marshall mod, Fender Mod, Vox mod). Except for the OT swap (which would be about $35) or adding a power tube, most the mods can be done with about $10 in parts and greatly improve the amp. Modding the VJR is how I started working with Tube amps and with the help of the members at sewatt and 18watt I've learned how to safely work with the high voltages. If you still don't like the VJR after you mod it,  you can always reuse the parts to build another amp - I've converted one of my VJR's into a HeavyWatter and then into a Firefly amp, and I've bought an extra chassis that I'm building a Tweed Princeton in so I can swap it into either the VJR head cabinet or the VJR combo cabinet I have.

DWBH

Yep, that's what I'm gonna do. If you live in Europe buy yourself a Harley Benton GA5 (Thomann.de) instead of the Valve Jr. You get exactly the same (plus a tone control!) for a lower price ;)

Zben3129

Thanks Guys!

Gonna buy a VJ, and the stuff to mod it, even though I'm gonna be afraid to crack open my beautiful new tube amp(first time im gonna ever play a tube amp!)


Also, Im gonna get the head, is this a good idea? Im getting a marshall half stack for x-mas "100hdfx with 412 cab), I should be able to play the vj through that cab correct?


Zach

george

you should be, the head has outputs for 4 8 and 16 ohm impedance that covers pretty much most speaker types and combinations ...

the combo has only one 4 ohm output and a not great sounding 8" speaker so save your money and buy the head IMO

distortedskies

Hi, Getting the head is a good idea since it uses DC filaments and has 4, 8, and 16ohm outputs. I actually just bought one of these over the weekend since we started carrying some of kens (turretboards.com) VJR turretboards and I wanted to test them out. When the salesman at guitar center asked me if I wanted the warranty I just laughed and told him I would be tearing the thing apart as soon as I got home, obviously he said the warranty wouldn't cover that. The amp went right out of the cabinent as soon as I got it home and after about 10minutes of checking out the stock sound was promptly ripped apart and rebuilt. The turret boards work real nice and make it easy to modify the amp, plus it looks great! I also replaced the pcb mounted pot, input jack, and output jacks. Overall not a bad amp, they do dump quite a bit of gain between the first and second stage so you can turn this thing into a gain monster by shorting across the 1M series resistor between the stages, although thats the quick and dirty way to get more gain and it doesn't sound all that good without other mods. Looking forward to getting some more time to mess around with this little amp. Putting a smooth plate telefunken 12AX7 in it really brought it to life, but then I guess most people don't have the luxury of putting a tube in there thats worth as much as the amp itself.


-Matt at Triode Electronics

phil

Quote from: Zben3129 on December 18, 2007, 08:37:40 PM
Also, Im gonna get the head, is this a good idea? Im getting a marshall half stack for x-mas "100hdfx with 412 cab), I should be able to play the vj through that cab correct?

That'll be an awesome combination! I've got both the Head and Combo, but  the 8" speaker in the combo is just too small to show the amp's potential and there's no room to wedge in a 10". Also, certain tubes are more likely to be microphonic in a combo because of all the vibration from the speaker being in the same cabinet - having the tubes in the head will reduce the vibration on the tubes. The VJR sounds really good with a 10" speaker, and great with a 12" celestion - with your 4 x 12 it should be awesome. Great Choice!

I forgot the mention in my last post - after you play a little bit with the stock Head, probably the first change I would recommend is to swap out the Sovtek tubes that the amp comes with - that's probably the biggest simple improvement you can make to it. Even if you don't replace both tubes, you'll notice a huge improvement in tone replacing even the 12AX7 with something like a JJ or a Tungsol (which aren't expensive but sound great).

Gus