The British company extends its ever-growing line of high-quality guitar amps
NAMM 2020: In just seven years, Victory Amps have gone from being a relatively unknown upstart to one of the finest purveyors of classic British guitar tones - their logo proudly seen on stage behind guitarists as revered as Guthrie Govan, Richie Kotzen and James Bay.
For this year they’ve announced a VC35 - aka The Copper Deluxe - to join their thriving Heritage Series. The all-valve 35-watter will be available as a head or 1x12 combo that comes fitted with a Celestion Alnico Gold speaker, and will offer valve-driven spring reverb and tremolo for accentuated harmonic and dynamic richness. There’s also plenty of vintage appeal to its red/brown tolex…
“The ‘classic’ EL84 amp has a unique tone and feel with a specific kind of high-end response that differs from any of our other amps,” says Victory’s Chief Designer Martin Kidd. “VC35 The Copper has gone over so well that it just made sense to offer the Deluxe version. Like the Compact Series amp, this one uses a mix of fixed and cathode bias in full-power mode and is cathode biased in low power.
(Image credit: Victory)
“There’s also a NOS EF184 pentode valve in a cathode-follower configuration to drive the tone stack in the preamp. We have great stock of them, they have very low microphonics and have proved to be superbly well made and reliable.”
As for the speaker cabinets and combo, the Chief Designer found himself most impressed by the Celestion Alnico Gold, which are worth over double that of the Vintage 30s or Creambacks normally found in their combos and speakers.
“We did a bunch of blind listening tests and unanimously decided that a Celestion Alnico Gold was the perfect match,” continues Martin. “[It’s] hardly the least expensive speaker in the world, but it sounds incredible in this amp. I think VC35 Deluxe is going to crop up in a lot of very toneful places!"
Victory’s VC35 The Copper Deluxe head will be retailing for $1,749 and the combo version for $2,499. The matching speaker cabinets will be going for $999 as a 1x12 and $1,599 as a 2x12.
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The amps will have a series effect loop, mid-boost, bass cut, and also boast a low power mode cutting 35 watts down to 12.
Amit has been writing for titles like Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Guitar World for over a decade and counts Richie Kotzen, Guthrie Govan and Jeff Beck among his primary influences as a guitar player. He's worked for magazines like Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Prog, Record Collector, Planet Rock, Rhythm and Bass Player, as well as newspapers like Metro and The Independent, interviewing everyone from Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy to Slash and Jimmy Page, and once even traded solos with a member of Slayer on a track released internationally. As a session guitarist, he's played alongside members of Judas Priest and Uriah Heep in London ensemble Metalworks, as well as handled lead guitars for legends like Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols, The Faces) and Stu Hamm (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, G3).
