Q: What’s the difference between Epiphone’s Valve Junior guitar amp and the new Valve Junior Hot Rod version?
A: These two guitar amp models are close siblings — the Hot Rod is aptly named, as it’s really a hot-rodded version of the original Valve Junior. They’re both compact and lightweight, with a single-ended Class A design using one EL-84 power tube to produce five watts of power, and offer 4-, 8-, and 16-ohm speaker outputs.
The “regular” Valve Junior has just one control: a volume knob, and its preamp uses a single 12ax7 tube. The Valve Junior Hot Rod has gain and volume controls for as much crunch as you want at any volume, and uses two 12ax7 preamp tubes instead of one for more gain and flexibility.
The Hot Rod also has a built-in reverb. And, there’s an extra feature: the amp has a dummy load, so you can plug in another amp and use the Valve Junior Hot Rod as a stand-alone spring reverb tank.
Both sound great and come in at ridiculously low prices!