“Will appeal to high-gain players without unlimited budgets”: Victory MKX Lunch Box Head review

What is it?

During a design career spanning Marshall, Cornford and now Victory amps, chief designer Martin Kidd has gained an army of illustrious fans, including Guthrie Goven and Chris Buck, due to the excellent sound, features and construction quality of his creations.

Victory’s first amps rolled out of the factory in 2013 with the Baron combo and the Earl and Duke heads. The much-vaunted Kraken head was unveiled in 2015 in partnership with riff-lord Rabea Massaad and has established a reputation for Victory as the high-gain provender to the modern metal scene.

Further releases, however, have made it more than apparent that Victory’s sonic attributes cover all bases, from pristine cleans to out-and-out gain-Armageddon and all the classic semi-dirty tones in between.

The MK range, from which this amp spawned, was designated as the brand’s “ultimate, no-compromise amplifier collection”. Feature-packed and fully hand-crafted, these amps can certainly be considered premium: the MK Overdrive model for instance, weighs in at the not inconsiderable price of £5,099.

Since it was most likely out of reach for less fiscally blessed players, Victory cleverly found a way to cater for this end of the market by way of its compact and portable lunchbox amps. Indeed, it is to the MK family lunchbox that we eagerly turn our attention.

Emerging from a smart padded gigbag is a stout and study enamelled unit, with its heat-dissipating – and somewhat militaristic – semi-perforated steel chassis housing an eye-opening array of front-panel controls.

The MKX is festooned with two rows of controls, the top row for the Clean channel and the bottom row for the two overdrive channels, which share a common tone stack after the individual gain controls.

The reverb and master controls take the last millimetres of front-panel real estate, though we do still have the Resonance and Presence controls, which can be found nestling on the rear panel alongside the very helpful bias points, speaker outputs and the series, non-switchable effects loop.

Finally, the mains power is integrated into the rear IEC socket, while the front-panel standby controls the wattage selection between the 50 watts of full power or the nine watts’ reduced power output.

Specs

• PRICE: $1,659 | £1,399 | €1,699
• ORIGIN: USA
• TYPE: All-Valve channel switching compact head
• VALVES: 3x ECC83, 2x EL34
• OUTPUT: 50/9W RMS
• DIMENSIONS: 350 (w) x 190 (d) x 180mm (h)
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 7.15/15.76
• CABINET: Steel
• CHANNELS: Clean, OD I, OD II (foot-switchable)
• CONTROLS: High/Standby/Low wattage switch, Gain (Clean), gain (OD I), gain (OD II), separate treble, middle, bass tone stack for clean and overdrive channels, 2x footswitchable master volume, reverb length and level, resonance and presence (rear panel)
• FOOTSWITCH: 2x two-button footswitches included
• ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Padded gigbag included
• OPTIONS: 1x12 cabinet (£349); vertical 2x12 cabinet (£949)
• RANGE OPTIONS: The upmarket MK Clean Head is £4,899; the MK Overdrive Head costs £5,099. Other lunchbox heads include the V40 The Duchess Mk II (£1,249) and the VX The Kraken MKII (£1,349)
• CONTACT: Victory Amps

Usability and sounds

Armed with a small armada of guitars and cabinets, we commenced our sonic inspection with the Clean channel. Martin has expressed that his goal was to offer a fully independent Clean channel, rather than a shared topology with potential compromises.

Our Stratocaster’s single-coil pickups appreciated the benefit, rendered with a depth and gentle natural compression that made licks and even lead parts hold their own.

Speaker-wise, the company is known to use Celestion Vintage 30s for their balance of traditional tone with improved high-end clarity, and we found this to be the case for achieving some clean sparkle from the MKX. The rear-mounted Presence control further enhanced the top-end excitement appreciably.

Sometimes a new piece of gear can unlock fresh musical possibilities, and this amp’s Clean channel brings a solid fluidity that can be heard on many contemporary guitar-orientated recordings.

Unlike the design ethos of many of the more historic brands, reproducing the vintage character that created their success, the Victory clean here doesn’t particularly evoke specific historic references. If pushed to choose a closest match on the colour chart of amps, perhaps shades of Vox are subtly detectable.

The onboard and footswitchable two-position reverb continues the theme of studio-grade sonics without historic baggage. Reverb position I yields a shorter, less dense sound that Victory suggests is more spring-like.

It’s not particularly splashy or metallic as springs often are, but that lends itself particularly well to the style of this amplifier. Reverb position II has more of a larger, plate-like quality, equally as perfect for solos or lush clean sounds.

The OD I channel lunges forward with a punchy, responsive authority, and a gain range from light ‘edge of break-up’ through to JCM levels. It does an excellent job of conjuring the Marshall-esque crunch, with a nod more to the later metal-face Marshall sound, rather than the earlier ‘Plexi’ tones.

Diving into what may be considered as this amp’s main course, the OD II channel, it becomes immediately clear why Martin Kidd’s designs are a favourite of many a virtuoso. The response is lightning-fast and mid-forward, and both fast-picking and legato styles sound equally forthright and impressive.

When you’re ready to hold that yearning bend, there’s glorious harmonic feedback aplenty for that forever sustain, given a sufficiency of master volume juice.

In the rhythm department, those crushing, heavy drop-tuned riffs will sound every bit as impressive as you’d expect, perhaps with a little midrange cut. If a little more depth is required from a thinner-sounding guitar, the Resonance control has you covered.

Overall, the tone has a smooth, rich midrange character that flatters many guitar styles, especially fusion and legato, but the Presence control adds all the aggressive bite to the fore.

In a stage context, the pair of included double footswitches allows for channel selection, master volume and reverb options, which covers most of what players may wish to switch, with the exception of the effects loop status.

For home use, low-power mode reduces the output to nine watts, which – together with the excellent master volume – means you can enjoy its full overdriven roar at whisper-quiet levels.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

Price-wise, the MKX does reside at the higher end for lunchbox-style amps, but then it offers more in terms of wattage and channel count than most.

It doesn’t, however, have cab-emulated output facilities, and the two double footswitches – each with a separate cable – are perhaps a bit of a faff for a compact package. But if it’s rich, flattering overdrive combined with scaled-down size and cost that you value, the MKX could indeed prove victorious.

Guitar World verdict: This amp will appeal to high-gain players without unlimited budgets, and if you’ve had your eye on the MK50 head but couldn’t justify the cost, this one’s tailor-made for you. It brings forth versatility, portability and controllability.

Hands-on videos

Victory Amps

The MKX is here. Victory’s most advanced lunchbox amp ever | Fully revealed and demoed. - YouTube

Watch On

Sweetwater

Victory Amplification MKX Amp Head Demo - YouTube

Watch On

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