The Working Guitarist Blog

During this last summer tour with The Bill Lupkin Band, there were some big changes in the transportation department. The band van passed on to a better place – the scrap yard in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We replaced it with a much smaller vehicle, which saves us some fuel expense but also created space issues for us and our gear.

I usually travel with my Marshall 1974X, housed in it’s road case but with the smaller vehicle, comfort and space is at a premium so I started looking at possible alternatives to the 1974X. I picked up an unmodified  Epiphone Valve Junior head, and paired it with a Mojotone 1 x 12 cabinet loaded with a single 16 ohm 20- watt 12-inch Celestion G12M-20 “Greenback” reissue T1221 speaker, connected with a Monster Cable #SP1000S3. I was using my 1962 Gibson ES-335 on the gig.

I tried this rig on our last tour, with the first date at The Fat Fish Blue in Cleveland, OH. We started the set with Little Walter’s “Aw, Baby” and man, I was blown away with the tone. It was exactly the tone I’ve been hearing on those Little Walter recordings from the ’50s with Dave and Louis Meyers on guitar. I can get a more refined version of that tone with my 1974X, which I dig,  but this rig dished out that raw, spongy tone that comes from those small wattage amps that were prevalent in the ’50s. The Valve Junior head has  4, 8 and 16 ohm outputs so just about any speaker cabinet will play nicely with it.

One caveat: At times, the Valve Junior can get a little “farty” with a guitar with humbucker pickups;  I solved this by changing my attack or lowering my guitar volume – Problem solved.

I highly recommend checking out the Valve Junior if you play blues, rockabilly, early swing, or any other music that requires some subtle to not-so-subtle gritty overdriven tones.  It’s a great little amp that for me was a perfect addition to my amp collection.