Just got my Ibanez Valbee

[coldshot76]

Went down to SL yest and tried out the much talked about Valbee.

I could immediatedly tell the tonal diff between a SS and a tube upon playing it.

The shop was noisy so i cldnt really hear the nuances.

Nonetheless, i trusted my ears and bought it.

When i plugged it back home and tried it, MAN! I was blown away.

It sounded really warm, sweet and made my guitar sound alive.

How shall i put it, my tone sounded very saturated.

Maybe its becos i've always been a SS amp player so this is like music to my ears.

And with the on board EQ, I can conjure up many diff tones as well.

The O/D channel does sound rather brittle and trebly. It takes quite a bit of fiddling on the EQ to finally get the sound i want.

Can't wait to try my Tubescreamer on the clean channel.

BTW, does playing in clean with high gain does anyhting to my sound?

Gain seems more like a vol boost in clean channel

 

[Ripper]

Congrats there! The valbee is a great little amp for the price! Why did you not get it during the sale?? It will be even better value for the money! I bought mine 2 years back during the sale and I have never touch my peavey 15w SS since...

 

[leecs]

Best if you could try using a TS to boost your preamp channel. thats where the juice is. In my opinion, I find it useless if u use the clean channel on a tube amp. You could stack 2 TS type pedals for more saturation.

 

[subversion]

i feel this amp needs reverb to make it more 'full' sounding

 

[keysersoze808]

..

first rules of tube amp club is....u do not talk about SS amp......

second rule of tube amp club is ..... u do not talk about SS amp...

enjoyy!!:-D

 

[coldshot76]

Congrats there! The valbee is a great little amp for the price! Why did you not get it during the sale?? It will be even better value for the money! I bought mine 2 years back during the sale and I have never touch my peavey 15w SS since...

I only manage to find out abt this little gem last week.

like the saying goes 'better late than never'

 

[jdawg]

Went down to SL yest and tried out the much talked about Valbee.

I could immediatedly tell the tonal diff between a SS and a tube upon playing it.

The shop was noisy so i cldnt really hear the nuances.

Nonetheless, i trusted my ears and bought it.

When i plugged it back home and tried it, MAN! I was blown away.

It sounded really warm, sweet and made my guitar sound alive.

How shall i put it, my tone sounded very saturated.

Maybe its becos i've always been a SS amp player so this is like music to my ears.

And with the on board EQ, I can conjure up many diff tones as well.

The O/D channel does sound rather brittle and trebly. It takes quite a bit of fiddling on the EQ to finally get the sound i want.

Can't wait to try my Tubescreamer on the clean channel.

BTW, does playing in clean with high gain does anyhting to my sound?

Gain seems more like a vol boost in clean channel

I owned a Valbee for almost a year. Agree with most that it's a good amp for the price, but it's gotta be played at slightly above TV/conversational level volume to appreciate the tone. I really never used the amp OD much and preferred the clean channel, with the volume all the way up and using the gain knob to control the desired volume.

Likes:
- Very powerful active 3-band EQ
- Decent clean tone and a good base for pedal-induced dirt
- Effects loop (can't ask for more at this price point)

Dislikes:
- The speaker is a big let down. Quite stiff, very directional/small soundstage
- Output transformer is 4ohm, so plugging to an external cab will be difficult (unless you have a 4ohm speaker cab)
- Clean channel stays clean throughout most of the range of the gain knob. Hard to induce any breakup.
- OD/boost mode sounds like crap

For all its shortcomings I really wanted to gut it and just make a mini head out of it but lost interest because of the 4ohm output transformer. Now I'm back to SS for my bedroom amp needs.

 

[Ripper]

i feel this amp needs reverb to make it more 'full' sounding

Yup! Thats why my DM-2 is always on.....

 

[keithC]

congrats!
lemme say i lurrb this amp too.
i got it second handed at a damm good price, and though the stock china tubes are in it, its doing very well for me.

for cleans, i absolutely love it. i can play my guitar just clean and get creative juices flowing..

however i dislike the amp's inbuilt distortion, as it is very compressed and such. just.. doesnt work for me.
if valbee has a '12version, its juz gonna be the best practice amp ever...

i dont hardcore at home, hence my need for a better amp isnt there. even if it does come, i'll swap the tubes first before deciding again

 

[subversion]

the ibanez chaps got the wrong expectations going when they labeled this amp as a high gain unit; it conjures up images of some metal maniacs bleeding the valbee for intensity when all it could afford here is some crunch.

 

[Whitestrat]

Congrats there! The valbee is a great little amp for the price! Why did you not get it during the sale?? It will be even better value for the money! I bought mine 2 years back during the sale and I have never touch my peavey 15w SS since...

Yours sounded damn far away when I played it lei... didn't have a "presence"...

 

[Ripper]

Yours sounded damn far away when I played it lei... didn't have a "presence"...

Sharp ear you really got there, White!

I actually set the presence knob at 11 o'clock, always. Its bcos the valbee has only a 6 inch driver, the bass response isnt that great IMO and therefore I did not set the presence level over 12 in order to retain a more bassy sound. Come over again when you are free, lets tweak it and I think you will find it a moderately good practice amp at the price. (I bought mine for $179!! Haha!)

 

[Whitestrat]

Sharp ear you really got there, White!

I actually set the presence knob at 11 o'clock, always. Its bcos the valbee has only a 6 inch driver, the bass response isnt that great IMO and therefore I did not set the presence level over 12 in order to retain a more bassy sound. Come over again when you are free, lets tweak it and I think you will find it a moderately good practice amp at the price. (I bought mine for $179!! Haha!)

Chey... you early early dun say so... I like "in your face" amps... Nevermind. I want to test drive your ALs next time... Keep your Morse away from me...:mrgreen:

 

[Ripper]

Chey... you early early dun say so... I like "in your face" amps... Nevermind. I want to test drive your ALs next time... Keep your Morse away from me...:mrgreen:

Why??? No love for morse? (You want in-your-face amp? When I move to new place next year, you bring all your MMs to my place, my 25w full valve amp will blow you away! Haha)

Anyway back to the Valbee. I am gonna change the tubes one day, per Subversion's recommendation. There's one thing I dont like bout the valbee however, that there is a very soft hissing background noise. But its subtle lah. I think it could be due to the circuit or transformer. But strangly, sometime when I turn on long enough, the hiss seems to be gone. Maybe I am too marbok in my playing that I forget bout the hiss. Anyone wanna share on this?

 

[Whitestrat]

Why??? No love for morse? (You want in-your-face amp? When I move to new place next year, you bring all your MMs to my place, my 25w full valve amp will blow you away! Haha)

No love for Morse. I like the tones, but I hate guitars with no forearm cutaway. damn uncomfortable for me...

Besides, I just might steal that morse of yours to sell it... since it's a limited edition... heheheh...

Anyway back to the Valbee. I am gonna change the tubes one day, per Subversion's recommendation. There's one thing I dont like bout the valbee however, that there is a very soft hissing background noise. But its subtle lah. I think it could be due to the circuit or transformer. But strangly, sometime when I turn on long enough, the hiss seems to be gone. Maybe I am too marbok in my playing that I forget bout the hiss. Anyone wanna share on this?

There's a general amount of hiss to be expected from vacuum tubes lah... but after they heat up enough they should go off. Something about electron discharge or something. Can't remember my Analog Electronics... Hell, I even confuse BJTs and Mosfets these days... whahaha...

 

[Ripper]

No love for Morse. I like the tones, but I hate guitars with no forearm cutaway. damn uncomfortable for me...

Besides, I just might steal that morse of yours to sell it... since it's a limited edition... heheheh...

Haha, not limited lah. Its a production model - just thats its to commemorate morse 20 years collaboration with EBMM.. Yes, the tele style non-cutaway take some time to get use to.

Ok, so hissing is alright with valbee? okay everyone - go get it!

 

[ShredCow]

hissing when? clean or on its overdrive? how loud do go before it becomes prominent?

Hissing is normal for a tube amp but on a well put together tube amp, its minimal and should not bother one at all.



I don't think anyone should be surprised abt the ValBee's dirt channel... after all, the dirt channel isn't 100% tube. It uses diodes...

 

[Reth]

Hey contratulations to your new valbee! I've had mine for about a year now and it's perfect for my bedroom practice I just recently swapped out both the tubes to tung-sol ones, and I'm loving it! About the background noise/hiss, mine hums as well. But I guess that's normal for all tube amps. The humming is very soft anyway..

I use only the clean channel and depend on pedals for my dirt though.

 

[jdawg]

Mine never hummed/made any strange noises. It was actually a very quiet amp, even at volume.

 

[tany]

i feel this amp needs reverb to make it more 'full' sounding

tell me about it. i sold mine cos it didnt have reverb! lol!

but after a while i got sick of it cos it was too bright and no reverb.