Epiphone Valve Jr.

OK, Most of the following is from the Ebay ad. for essentially a cabinet, amp and speaker. The ad following the description for the amp is the modifications to be performed using the Mercury Magnetics kit. This is an experiment, I wanted to build an amp for a while and this opportunity availed itself. In the end I hope to have a boutique quality recording amp for under a grand.

"Custom made in Nashville TN! The Billy "G" custom made Western Style amplifiers! Features Pine and hardwood cabinet construction. Hand tooled leather leather handle. The actual amplifier installed in the custom cabinet is an Epiphone Valve Jr. Seeing is believing! I was very impressed when builder Graham Nichols brought this amp into the shop! Custom orders are welcome!Please add $40.00 for S&H. Thanks for looking! Franklin Guitar & Repair1912-B columbia PikeFranklin, TN 37064615-595-2268"

PAGE 1 PAGE 2Mercury MagneticsTransformer Demonstration Project

"The Valve Junior FEATURING the Mercury Mod

The Mercury Mod kit for upgrading your Epiphone Valve Jr. (combo or head)
Can you really get RECORDING QUALITY tone for less than $400?
YES you can! And change forever what you thought you knew about guitar tone.
Background: Inside of all the greatest-sounding amps ever built lies buried treasure. The source of this profound and amazing amp tone is the transformers. Pro-quality transformers are not easy to make and they are also expensive. When an amp builder is unaware of, or chooses to ignore this fact by installing cheapo transformers, the tone of the amp tells the tale.
If you find playing your guitar fatiguing or just plain boring, if your childhood memories of Uncle Bob's "armpit far concerts" sound better than the amp you're stuck with, then you are probably an unwitting victim of tonally anemic, low-budget transformers.

"If my place caught fire, my Mercury Modded Valve Jr. would be one of the first things I'd drag out to the sidewalk... despite the low cost."
-- Bob DragichVintage Guitar MagazineCLICK HERE TO READ FULL ARTICLE
To prove the point, Mercury has designed a Mercury Mod for the remarkably inexpensive Valve Jr. amp (combo or head). This demonstration upgrade kit features high-end pro-quality performance transformers like those in great-sounding amps costing anywhere from hundreds to thousands more. Our upgrade is the lowest-cost introduction ever to the wonderful world of boutique amplifiers.
This means you can experience pro-grade tone with all of the feel and expanded range-of-control the pros enjoy -- without draining your wallet!
Give Paul Patronete or Patrick Selfridge a call at (818) 998-7791 and get started on the right path to pro-quality tone today!
"I finished the Valve Jr. mods over the weekend. AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! I have been playing guitar for 21 years and this is, without a doubt, one of the best amps I have ever played -- and it only cost me $400 total!!!!! Unbelievable!
I had a longtime guitar-playing friend over on New Year's eve and we recorded all night long with the Mercury Mod Valve Jr. Needless to say, he wants one and will be ordering the amp and kit VERY SOON!!! I am eventually going to order a second kit so that I can run them in stereo. Can’t wait to hear what this thing sounds like with upgraded tubes.
I have a new found respect for the iron that is used in all my amps... and more specifically for the fine people/engineers at Mercury Magnetics. As a budding DIY amp builder, all my new builds will be using Mercury Magnetics trannies. Way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
-- Jonathon Short
About Mercury's EVJ project: Ever wonder how much better YOUR amp could sound just by upgrading its magnetics? Here's your chance to discover the night and day difference. On occasion we'll get a couple of identical amps sent to us for A-B testing purposes. Typically one of the amps is kept bone stock while the other gets the Mercury transformer upgrade treatment. The results are always dramatic -- with rich, lush improvements in tone and harmonics, and the distinct absence of ear-fatigue that only enhanced magnetics can reveal.
In-house, we call the "B" in these tests the "Mercury Mod" version. These A-B tests have always been popular around here and are responsible for thousands of converts to our cause.
"Update on my Valve Jr. upgrade! Wow, nothing but kick ass, balls-to-the-wall tone!"
-- Gilbert Cruz
That set us to thinking about conducting an A-B test on a fundamental guitar amp. One with only the minimum components to do the job. Hummm....
After a little digging around we found our guinea pig -- the Epiphone Valve Junior Combo (thank you Bob Dragich). Talk about your fundamental (and remarkably inexpensive!) tube amp. Check this out:
5 watts
Single-ended, Class A
One generic 12AX7 preamp tube
One generic EL84 power tube
Generic power & output transformers
Generic 8" speaker
Epiphone's Valve Junior combo proved to be an almost ideal demonstration platform because it is such a basic, stripped-down tube amp. Just 2 tubes, 2 transformers, 1 speaker, a simple circuit board and just a handful of other parts -- along with 1 input jack, 1 volume knob and an on/off switch. That's it, no computerized components, no tone knobs, no added f/x circuits, nothin'... you just can't get any more elementary and still have a playable tube amp!
"The amp tech was floored. He couldn't believe the tone. I highly recommend this insanity!"
-- Craig Lunsford
All this for about $139.00 for about? Yes, but as you might expect, the stock amp is anemic and thin sounding -- not exactly an inspirational amp. Let's see, what can we do about that....
Side note: It should be mentioned that our goal wasn't to build the perfect amp, only to demonstrate the effect of quality magnetics. But it quickly became apparent that we'd transformed the little Valve Jr. amp into an extraordinary "I've gotta record with this!" keeper. As the demands poured in we decided to develop the Mercury Mod into a kit and make it available to the general public.
"Holy smoke, I thought the amp was going to get up and walk around!! Are you doing mods like this to other amplifiers? Very, very impressive complete tonal spectrum sound! Nice job."
-- Marcus Earling
The Mercury Mods....
The project was headed by Mercury's Sergio Hamernik, and Los Angeles-based amp tech wizard, Alan Cyr (http://www.amp-exchange.com/). After examining the original circuitry several custom Axiom®-series transformers and Mini-Choke™ sets were designed and tested, as well as several circuitry mods to correct flaws in the original design.
Alan and the Mercury team spent several weeks working on the little amp before deciding upon the best-sounding combination of mods and adaptations. A bonus was Alan's ingenious, yet deceptively simple circuit corrections.
Along with a custom-designed set of transformers, and much needed clean-up of the circuitry, the amp remains stock. If you are an experimenter you may want to try different speaker and/or tube configurations, but oddly enough, those components deliver relatively minor tonal changes compared to the absolutely H-U-G-E improvement of the Mercury trannys. The result is a remarkably harmonically responsive & toneful little amp that runs quiet and sounds B-I-G. No wonder so many LA session players are grabbing them up and heading to the studio!
We've definitely transformed the bland little Valve Jr. Combo into a keeper. Here in Los Angeles, the Mercury Mod Valve Jr. is one of the hottest, most in-demand insider amps around. Those who've heard it immediately want one -- and at such a low cost to make the mods, who can afford NOT to!"