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.
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 own-
ers 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.
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
A look at the inside of the Valve
Junior. Notice the black
( evision 3) PC board.
