Valve Junior Head Room

[hbombgraphics]

OK so I have a valve Junior Head and Cab and a combo,
Has Groove Tubes (head and Cab)

I had it cranked to get a nice break up and my wolf CPU made it sound trashy (not in a good way)
Wolf CPU sounds great at low volumes and on clean amps but doesn't love the saturated tubes.

I am wondering if anyone has any ideas to get the high volume from the V-jr. but keep it from breaking up so early.

Is there a mod?
Is every striped horse a zebra?


I normally love the break up because I can get good tube crunch at low volumes but I was hoping their was a way to increase hearroom.

Different tubes perhaps?

I guess I want the opposite of an attenuater.

[MEC]

If you lower the bias or run the amp "colder" you should get a little more headroom. It's a cathode biased amp so the bias voltage on the power tube is determined by the value of the cathode resistor.
This is not a simple bias adjustment but can be done DIY if you know what you are doing or any amp tech should be able to do it fairly easily.
You could also try a "harder" EL84. If you like the Groove Tubes check the rating on the tubes you have (1-10). 1 is the fastest to distort, 10 will stay cleaner longer.
If you have a fairly low rating on your current tubes try a higher rating.

Hope this helps.

[the Life Aquatic]

im pretty sure their are some mods for it, some resistor changes, negative feedback switch, maybe a master volume mod?

[culturejam]

I think the negative feedback switch would be the best thing to get more clean headroom.

[mathias]

Get another amp. Those things don't like to be clean

But seriously, you're going to spend some money on mods getting it to do that, and it's not going to up the clean headroom to the volume of the Valve JR at 2 o'clock but with a clean signal. You'll be lucky if you get it to go up another 'hour' or so on the volume knob before overdriving. There's other small tube combos with a lot more headroom. And if you get a nice little solid state practice amp you can probably dial in the same volume but definitely clean tone.

[the Life Aquatic]

what about chaning the preamp valve from a 12ax7 to a 12at7? less breakup?

[aen]

Get another amp. Those things don't like to be clean

Well, yeah. He said it. I understand that's not always an option, but You gotta get the right amp for the right application. This thread is kind of like if I started a thread: "My twin reverb wont break up unitl it's too loud"

[hbombgraphics]

Get another amp. Those things don't like to be clean

Well, yeah. He said it. I understand that's not always an option, but You gotta get the right amp for the right application. This thread is kind of like if I started a thread: "My twin reverb wont break up unitl it's too loud"

A new amp is probably the best option, good answer BTW found a nice way of saying "hey that's a dumb question" without actually saying it.

Any recommendations: Low wattage good tone max headroom?
Should I dig out my homemade peavey bandit head?

[aen]

THATS AWESOME.

[hbombgraphics]

the best part is the light switch on the back to change channels and the speaker outputs made out of an old calculator back and some mighty putty.

It's an old jacket, still has a pocket on the one side.

More of a woodworking project than anything electronic.

[the Life Aquatic]

+1