Epi Valve Jr vs Kustom Defender

[higain617]

I'm sure this topic has been beaten to death so I apologize in advance. I have been thinking about getting a small tube head for practice use. I don't want to spend a lot but I was looking at the Epi Valve Jr. and the Kustom Defender. My hope is that I can use it for guitar and bass since I have a 4 ohm 2x12 guitar cab and a 4 ohm 210 bass cab. Both of them just have volume. For you guys that have either of them do you think they take pedals well? My guitar practice head has an effects loop which is great, but it's solid state and starting to break down from age.

[Mike]

I've never played the Kustom, but I own a VJr, and play it all the time. The VJr has been discontinued, while it looks like you can pick the Kustom up from Amazon for $97 brand new. The Kustom doesn't look very durable though.

These little 5-watt tube amps are great with pedals, but I don't think they would be so great with bass. They just don't have the headroom. Of course, if you don't want clean tones then that doesn't matter.

BTW, many/most of these 5-watt tube amps are biased too hot for the EL84. Mine was 15% over the max. If you don't fix it, you will burn through power tubes much faster than if you fixed it. Also, if you plan on modding it, VJr is probably the way to go, just because of the wealth of information available.

Mike

[Achtane]

The Valve Junior sounds cool with bass through a 215, but the bass you get from it is more of the Joy Division variety rather than low-lows.. If ya run an EQ in front you can get a lot more versatility out of it, but if yr looking for a clean bass toan you might wanna look elsewhere. I do really like it overall, though.
Also, Blowing Up into Valve Jr sounds monstrous.

[higain617]

Thanks guys. I just need it for practice use and I think the VJ will do what I need. I have a Mesa MPulse head that I use live. I want to use this with my little Schroeder bass cab at home occasionally, but it will mainly be for fuzzed out guitar. I will try it with an EQ for bass stuff.