£69 valve head...

Neil

They are never going to get any cheaper.

If the Chinese ever get decent wages, H&S etc we won't be able to afford anything. 

:-S

p90fool

ICBM;90570" said:

dindude said:

Basic OEM shit, but for £69, still not sure how they do it.





That's the thing that bothers me. The Epiphone Valve Junior isn't very well-made and is a much simpler amp, that sells for 50% more money - so how can the Redwood be built to any proper standard...

True, though Epiphone is a marketable name brand. They probably could sell the valve junior for £50, but they don't need to.
Build quality is probably about the same as the Redwood.

JayGee

Maxi said:

It looks alright Im thinking of getting one ,throwing the guts in the bin and wiring Some behringer inards to the control panel .

I'm not sure Behringer innards would neccessarily be a major step forward (and their Bugera branded stuff already offers some pretty impressive value anyway) but at those prices I'd be quite interested in having a look at one as a potential donor for a kit or self-build project - even if only for the woodwork and metalwork...

Maxi

The Behringer comment was a bit dry sorry but yes for £60 odd its a candidate for any amp that needs a nice looking box .

ICBM

Actually even the cabinet looks pretty poor to me - much worse than the Epi Valve Junior (which is actually quite good).

Sorry to be so negative but I just do not believe you can make a worthwhile valve amp containing any decent parts for that kind of money, even in China. I don't believe the Epiphone is sold more expensively than it needs to be either, even that is pushing what can be achieved for under a hundred quid when you factor in the distribution costs.

ThePrettyDamned

It's amazing that the Jet City amps are as cheap as they are, too...

I wonder which works out cheaper per component? 

bertie

daveww said:

 Like a blues junior but better - believe it or not.....

well,  you wouldnt want anything worse 

bertie

double post..............meh

Bogwhoppit

The Bugera V5 is built to pretty decent specs. Decent thickness board, good transformers. The Epi was poor in comparison.  I modified a few GA5s (Harley Benton Epi with tonestack) which I sold on MR and the build construction was OK.  The Bugera V5 is a dream to work on, sounds bloody nice in stock form as well. 

I played in a band with a guy who traded in China. He often went on trade trips and visited the factories to negotiate pricing. He said each trip he made, the quality was going skyward.

Once China's wages increase to match their economy, manufacturing will move to Africa. The hierarchical concept will follow that of guitar building. Japan > Korea > Indonesia > China .... the setting up of production in Africa is currently being looked into.

 

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

It's amazing that the Jet City amps are as cheap as they are, too...

I wonder which works out cheaper per component? 

Cheaper per component at retail price - the Jet City I would think, although it might be close depending on how complex the Redwood is. That's not quite a fair comparison though, since the final price has a lot more in it than the number of parts in the amp - and some of them are probably about the same for both amps, eg the shipping, which is a large part of the total cost of the Redwood. Also the most numerous parts (resistors) are the cheapest.

So although the Jet Citys are very well built - and I still wonder how they can do even those for the prices they are - it's nowhere near as hard to justify their prices as it is to make an amp to sell for £69, no matter how much simpler it is.

Maxi

ICBM said:

Actually even the cabinet looks pretty poor to me - much worse than the Epi Valve Junior (which is actually quite good).

Well I suppose if one was to trawl the 2nd hand market you could get a better looking box for less . Probably a non working marshall even ...would certainly beat buying all the knobs , switches and other bits and bobs  separately .

squarebear

The Epiphone valve juniors as far as i am concerned have no issues, I had one serviced by a good engineer who made no comment about the build. Regarding the Belcat/Sub Zero the 20 watt valve is an excellent amp, have owned one for 2 years no issues at all. I bought it because I no longer wanted to take my rivera designed fender super champ out of the house. The valve super champ is one of the best small combo amps money can buy but the belcat isn't far off, yes it lacks the extreme distortion of the fender but use a rat pedal and it's pretty close. the belcat is indeed a clone of a blues junior but sounds much sweeter and for £240 you can't really go wrong.

ThePrettyDamned

RAT have started modding the 50 watt SubZero amp, and they reckon it's pretty good stock.