We'll I'm in the market for a new amp. I currently play a Ibanez 520EX through a Fender Frontman 15 that sucks when I turn it up.

I need something small though because I live in an apartment. I've read a lot of reviews on the cubes, vox's and the Valve Junior (although not a lot on metal). I thought the valve junior would be a nice head with a cab, I was just wondering if I could get a good thrash metal sound like old metallica, testament, slayer sound out of it even if it ment adding a pedal or two. I guess I'm just stuck between the valve junior and the cube.

Can someone give me suggestions please?

Here's the link to the head: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/prod...Head?sku=482069

Thanks,

-B-

dont subject yourself to an epiphone amp... its like cutting yourself with a spoon, its not fun. I'm guna have to say roland cube on this one, or if you're hardcore, badcat hot cat, or a badcat black cat

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Ya thats what I'm kinda hearing. Thanks for the advice bro.

Go with the cube, bro

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much better off with a crate blue voodoo combo or something than that epiphone amp..

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I'm curious as to what that thing sounds like, but I have to agree with everyone else here.

my highschool had epiphones, and old ass peaveys, and just recently got a tiny mesaboogie combo. Everything they have sounds like shit, minus that mesa... but everybody are fucking idiots and dont understand what tube warmup means, and have already broken it. The epiphone however is the worst amp, there was always a rush for amps so no loser got stuck with the epiphone...

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Saw this on youtube, figured you guys would want to check it out. Here's a video of some dude using a valve junior combo for some shred. . . though he's made some mods to it. He's using an attenuator and he has replaced the tubes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bui...related&search=

He has another video playing through it as well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK5d...related&search=

this about using the amp for metal... and to me, that distortion isnt very "metal". Maybe if you threw a soldano hotrod inside, put an OD808 infront of it, using a guitar with a emg's and a built in preamp switch

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Who gives a fuck if it's not a "metal amp", if you tweak it right you could play brutal death metal out of a Fender twin reverb, overdriving the fuck out of it with a boost pedal or doing a tube mod though.

I don't know about that amp, but that 5W tube amp is probably going to sound a million times louder and better than any Roland Cube. Cubes are crap and sound like ass at high volumes. Plus, they don't have an FX loop right?

Get a Marshall 3203 artist series head, they're no longer in production but can be had on ebay for 250$ or less, they're a "mini" amp head type with a SS preamp, some weird tube for tone shaping, and two power tubes that pump out 30W of tube power(louder than any 120W SS amp) that sounds better and better as you crank it. Plus you don't really need to boost it so don't worry about boost pedals unless you're into Suffo or something.

Erik Rutan uses one of those modded, and has another original one.

these amps are supposed to be amazing for jazz and cleans. they have VERY HIGH praise from several different forums.

theyre not very good for metal, but i wonder how it sounds with a distortion pedal in front.

I agree with you on this one. I've heard many bands that didn't have the most "brootal" death metal gain and still sounded really good.

Hell isn't Iron Maiden metal? And htey don't have ultra high gain brroooootal death metal distortion.

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didnt say anything about "metal amp" i said shit about "metal distortion"

and yes, a 5w tube will sound better that a cube, but this thread is about using this amp for metal, and therefore i said it is not well suited.

Stay on topic.

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stop crying

er, right....

Anyway, 'metal' enough or not, the amp is spot on for the price, and are great for recording and use at home.

Obviously a metal amp would give you "metal distortion", and I'm saying you don't necessarily need a "metal amp" for metal distortion, jesus. It doesn't matter if it's suited for metal or not because it sounds good and that's all it matters, you can add more distortion/grind to an already good sound, but you can't fix a shite sound no matter how metal it sounds(ie: Cube).

It would probably sound like gold if you throw one of those boutique "tube preamp in a pedal" distortion boxes in front of it(like a Buddha, Engl Tubetoner, ElectroHarmonix, TCElectronic Tubeman, etc.). Or a good transistor-based distortion pedal, like a ProCo Rat(actually works better for amps that have 2 or 3 preamp tubes but it doesn't hurt to try) but I can't help you on that one too much.

What bothers me about this amp is that it has no EQ. I wonder if it has an FX loop. Using an EQ in the FX loop might be necessary if you want any significant tone shaping out of it.

Regardless, if you have a cab and maybe some overdrive pedal laying around, you can't go wrong with this. It probably fits in backpack you can lug to rehearsal with easily. But if you don't have a good boost pedal and must buy one then just get a Marshall 3203, they sell for as much as one of these amp + a good boost/distortion pedal do.

you're cute



amen. too bad tube purists believe that an EQ takes away from tone.

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Eh? Well whatever tube purists you're hearing that from don't know jack shit about tone. Any decent passive(non digital) EQ does nothing but wonders in the FX loop of any amp.

I wouldent buy it, just for the fact it looks like ugly poop. Research up some good budget heads on here, maby an Ampeg Vh140, you can get that pretty inexpensive and the tone is nice, and when you start practicing/gigging, you will have something decent to play through

Well that's a great reason not to buy it.

Been reading up on some reviews/watching some youtube vids with it and I'm definately impressed. Why am I looking into it? Cause I've got GAS.

Nah actually I need a combo amp for practicing at a drummer's house, I already have a dreamy brutal halfstack but can't bring it everytime we jam. So I've been thinking of buying either the Valve Jr. combo(8" speaker, like 130$) or a 30W SS Laney MXC30? combo.

Don't give a shit about the tone, I'm sure the Laney will do better at metal but I have OD in my multiFX that I can run into the Epi if I go with that. What I'm worried about is which will be enough for practicing with just a drummer? Can 5W tube overpower 30W SS? Could it be possible to mod the amp to bust out more headroom?