Epiphone Vave Standard

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The Epiphone Valve Standard is an impressive sounding single channel tube based amp with digital effects. It's a 15 watt class A/B amplifier powering a 12 inch speaker with 16 digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms. It has a master volume control so you can get overdrive without it becoming too loud. This is great for players who have to at least sometimes play quietly. Even though it's only 15 watts it’s pretty loud. It's loud enough for most band practice but not if you are say use to using a half-stack or other 100 watt amp.

This is a class A/B amp which the other Epiphone Valve series are Class A. The amp does sound better at louder volumes, that is with the master volume up. The output tubes are (2) EL84's and has more odd and even harmonics than a true class 'A' amp. I'm not certain as to how many actual watts the amps outputs but I think it's more than 15. Class A/B amps use two tubes that are run in Push / Pull mode. For the most part one tube handles the positive side and the other the negative side of the signal. There's more 'distortion' in A/B amps but many guitarists like this type of distortion.

The controls on the amp are Volume, Master Volume, Treble, Mid, Bass, Effect Selector, Reverb level and the normal power switch. The reverb is DSP and not spring. It sounds pretty good for built-in effects and has a great tone when cranked. The EQ section is fairly normal sounding. The Mid's could produce more mid range but it could have been the room I was in. Excellent tone and sustain with some low end. I think the single 12 inch does all right for recording and small gigs.

There are three 12AX7 preamp tubes where one is used for the preamp with two other for the EQ and effects driver. The 12AX7 is probably the most popular preamp tube in use today and yesterday. The EQ is tube based and has the effect of creating more input gain via turning up all three EQ settings for greater overdrive. You can mute the DSP portion of the amp and just listen to the tubes themselves. The DSP has 16 digital effects like flange, chorus, delay, and reverb. Not bad at all for an inexpensive tube amp with effects. The reverb sounds really great through the amp at loud overdriven volumes. Of course this really depends upon what you like.

Features

• All Tube Preamp and Output Sections
• 16 DSP Effects and Reverb (chorus, reverb etc...)
• Both Gain and Master Gain Controls for overdrive at lower volumes
• 15 Watts from (2) EL84 tubes
• Class A/B amp design
• Three Band EQ: Bass, Mid, Treble
• Special Design 12” Speaker
• Three 12AX7 Preamp Tubes
• Rotary Selector Knob with 16 effect selections and bypass
• Single Input - Simple to use - Plug in your guitar and play