valve jr.

[1878]

Hello Everyone.

Firstly, apologies if this is posted on the wrong place.

I was given a bunch of Epiphone Valve Jr. V3 parts recently. Someone I work with bought them about a year ago but couldn't be bothered to put it together. He told me I need a mains transformer (U.K 240v to ??) and a couple of valves. I'll be using a 12au7 and an EL84 because I want more clean headroom.

Can anyone confirm what transformer I need, and how I would put this together ?? The bloke in question told.me to visit sewatt.com, but they aren't taking any more members at present.

For now, I just want to get it working. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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[davent]

By chance did you try to register with a Hotmail or Gmail account...
dave

[1878]

I didn't try to be honest. The following message is on the site...

Access to the forums is currently restricted to members who are logged in.

[davent]

I didn't try to be honest. The following message is on the site...

Access to the forums is currently restricted to members who are logged in.

I asked for clarification at Wattkins...

Can you please pass this message on:

You can't sign up at sewatt.com. Follow the links on sewatt.com to sign-up at login.wattkins.com. Once you sign up there, it logs you into all the sites including sewatt.com. It might seem awkward, but it's how we stop spammers polluting the forums.

And i'll add you need an email at someplace other then Hotmail or Gmail and there may be other's black listed, who knows?

http://login.wattkins.com/user/register
dave

[Jmsteele187]

Check out mercurymagnetics.com.  They sell, or used to sell, upgrade transformers for the valve jr.

[1878]

Thanks for the info Davent. I had tried at Wattkins a year or so ago when I was interested in building a JTM45, but it wouldn't allow me & I didn't know why. I'll try with the address my ISP gave me tomorrow.

Regarding Mercury Magnetics, they are proper high end stuff with a price to match & I couldn't justify the outlay for something which I may not like or just want to experiment with. Nice to window shop though !!

Thanks peeps.

[davent]

Only local one i'm aware, sure there's other options, number of your compatriots active at Wattkins.

http://www.ampmaker.com/store/190-0-190V-5W-power-transformer.html
dave

[PRR]

Valve Jr power transformers are *very* readily found on eBay.

I don't know if these are take-outs from DIY upgrades, if somebody soups-up Jrs commercially, or factory back-door sales, or what.

I do know that you can't buy the parts in onesies for what Epi sells the whole rig for. The economies of ship-load sales.

[mac]

I have a V.3
It has a multi-voltage transformer, very useful indeed.
I bought in Mallorca, Spain, during my holidays there, and the transformer was set to 240v. Spain voltage is 230v.
When I returned to my country, Argentina, I changed it to 220v in minutes. It's very easy.
Unused outputs go to blind connectors in the PCB IIRC.

Let me know if you need the transformer brand or a picture.

mac

[amz-fx]

The best mod that I made to my Epi Jr was to add a feedback loop from the speaker terminal to the cathode of the first tube. This reduces gain but it also cleans up the sound a lot. I used a switch so that I can take the feedback in or out. With it in, the sound is much like a Fender Twin or similar amps.

regards, Jack

[mac]

http://www.britishaudioservice.com/#!epiphone-parts/c1rra

The transformer in mine is very similar, except this one has a 12v output, and runs at 270v, 10v higher.

mac

[1878]

Thanks for the replies...

I am now a member of Wattkins thanks to a Yahoo email address. Hoping to have a good look this weekend when I have a bit of time to myself.

Regarding the feedback loop. Is it a relatively easy mod ?? I would like as much clean headroom as possible & this is one of the mods I'd been considering.

Thanks.

[davent]

Be forewarned, there's zero means of searching the forum so if you have a question be sure to ask or be prepared to read thousands of posts, needle in a haystack.

http://www.sewatt.com/files/sewatt/StockVJ_1-3.pdf
http://www.sewatt.com/files/sewatt/Basic.pdf
http://www.sewatt.com/faq/38
http://www.sewatt.com/vj-mods

dave