Victory Amps

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davidd

Original Poster:

6,443 posts

283 months

Wednesday 17th December 2014
quotequote all
I've been getting annoyed with my blackstar. I find it is very hard to get it dialed in unless I'm giving it beans which is not good. I had a notion to sell it and the H&K and buy something at about 30W that was switchable to a lot less (1 or 5w maybe).

I'm not looking very hard but I stumbled onto Victory Amps and the seem really good, just wondered it anyone had any experience of them.

Whilst we are here, any other suggestions? Up to £1200, combo or cab and head.

I play in a covers band, set list at the mo includes U2, led Zep, the waterboys, radiohead, theblackkeys, foo fighters.. I guess classic rock sounds would cover a lot of it, so good drive and nice cleans, I don't need hard metal.

Must have an effects loop, reverb would be nice.

Be aware this is just a game for the moment, I doubt I'll buy anything until mid next year!

I play a Les Paul most of the time with a few pedals.

Cheers

D

Tom_C76

1,923 posts

187 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
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As you know, I play my LP through a Marshall Plexi reissue, and for what our band calls classic rock it really covers all the bases, cleaning up well by rolling back the volume. However, it's never going to get you the glassy cleans for U2 stuff.

Have you tried a Vox amp? Seems the obvious place to start given the range of material.

davidd

Original Poster:

6,443 posts

283 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
Tom_C76 said:
As you know, I play my LP through a Marshall Plexi reissue, and for what our band calls classic rock it really covers all the bases, cleaning up well by rolling back the volume. However, it's never going to get you the glassy cleans for U2 stuff.

Have you tried a Vox amp? Seems the obvious place to start given the range of material.
I've had a 1972 vox ac50 since I was 14! It is a lovely thing and really defined the sort of sounds I like. The problem is that it is very basic (2 channels) and really needs a complete rebuild which is well beyond my capabilities.

I had thought about an ac30 but I think an effects loop is worth having.

On another note do you know anyone local who could rebuild the ac50?

Cheers

D

JaymzDead

1,216 posts

199 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
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Slight budget creep but Orange Rockerverb 1 x 12, great amps for classic rock reputedly. I have an Orange CR120c and I play in a classic rock covers band as well as a stoner metal band and it is more than capable for both styles.

Tom_C76

1,923 posts

187 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
Hi David. What's wrong with the Vox? The singer in my band modded my Plexi to take the edge off the overall volume so might be able to look at it for you. He's an electronic engineer by training.

Send me a PM if you want.

T

davidd

Original Poster:

6,443 posts

283 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
JaymzDead said:
Slight budget creep but Orange Rockerverb 1 x 12, great amps for classic rock reputedly. I have an Orange CR120c and I play in a classic rock covers band as well as a stoner metal band and it is more than capable for both styles.
haha, budget smudget.. Tempting. If I get to the stage where I have the cash then I'll certainly try one.


davidd

Original Poster:

6,443 posts

283 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
Tom_C76 said:
Hi David. What's wrong with the Vox? The singer in my band modded my Plexi to take the edge off the overall volume so might be able to look at it for you. He's an electronic engineer by training.

Send me a PM if you want.

T
Hi Tom,

The AC50 is just old and tired, oh and it has been dropped a few times so the chassis is not that straight. Last time it was used it sounded excellent, the problem is that it has not been serviced for probably 25 years and a lot of the components look to have deteriorated a bit. I know these things can be electrically dangerous if they go wrong.

Ask him if he fancies having a go..

Cheers

D

BaronVonV8

397 posts

183 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
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What Blackstar do you have? I have a HT40 Club and I couldn't be happier with it and find it very versatile.

davidd

Original Poster:

6,443 posts

283 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
BaronVonV8 said:
What Blackstar do you have? I have a HT40 Club and I couldn't be happier with it and find it very versatile.
It is an HT40 club. It is a good amp, and the tones are ok. One of the issues is that to get most of the sounds I need I have to crank it beyond 'being allowed to live in the house with my family' volumes!

Is yours stock?

Tom_C76

1,923 posts

187 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
As it's a master volume amp you shouldn't need to crank it that hard. I'll speak to Russ later about looking at your Vox.

BaronVonV8

397 posts

183 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
davidd said:
It is an HT40 club. It is a good amp, and the tones are ok. One of the issues is that to get most of the sounds I need I have to crank it beyond 'being allowed to live in the house with my family' volumes!

Is yours stock?
Mine's the Vintage Pro, so it's got a 12" Celestion Vintage 30 and nasty burgundy leather covering. I know exactly what you mean there though, I live in a flat and I fear for my wall fixings, eardrums, loose teeth, small children in the flat below and generally anything that isn't nailed down at anything over 2 on the master, and of course, anything under 2 isn't worth bothering with. I was looking at some form of attenuation, but it's a lot of faffing around with a combo. Generally, i'm playing with about 3-4 on the clean and overdriven channels and about 6-7 on the geeeetar, and with 2 on the master I can get some nice tones out of it. That being said, when you do crank it, it sounds awesome, and i'm starting to get the hang of the ISF gimmick too.

Have you considered, does the problem lie with your effects chain? It took me a while to get my amp dialed in but even at low volumes it sounds good, i'm a luddite, so I only use a Big Muff (fnarr!) and very occasionally a Cry Baby.

BorkFactor

7,258 posts

157 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
davidd said:
It is an HT40 club. It is a good amp, and the tones are ok. One of the issues is that to get most of the sounds I need I have to crank it beyond 'being allowed to live in the house with my family' volumes!

Is yours stock?
That's quite strange, I have an HT Stage 60 (2x12) and one of the main reasons I bought it was because it could give really good driven tones at sociable volumes. I would have thought the 40 would be quite similar in that regard?

Have you considered using a pedal with it? My Les Paul has a 10db boost circuit so I find I can drive the amp very hard on the OD1 channel (I virtually never use OD2) so maybe a boost pedal would do the trick?

davidd

Original Poster:

6,443 posts

283 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
BaronVonV8 said:
Mine's the Vintage Pro, so it's got a 12" Celestion Vintage 30 and nasty burgundy leather covering. I know exactly what you mean there though, I live in a flat and I fear for my wall fixings, eardrums, loose teeth, small children in the flat below and generally anything that isn't nailed down at anything over 2 on the master, and of course, anything under 2 isn't worth bothering with. I was looking at some form of attenuation, but it's a lot of faffing around with a combo. Generally, i'm playing with about 3-4 on the clean and overdriven channels and about 6-7 on the geeeetar, and with 2 on the master I can get some nice tones out of it. That being said, when you do crank it, it sounds awesome, and i'm starting to get the hang of the ISF gimmick too.

Have you considered, does the problem lie with your effects chain? It took me a while to get my amp dialed in but even at low volumes it sounds good, i'm a luddite, so I only use a Big Muff (fnarr!) and very occasionally a Cry Baby.
I've swapped the speaker for a vintage 30 and all the valves out for JJ's and that certainly helped. I don't think it is the effects as I'm trying to get tones without using any (although I have a pile just in case wink) Maybe I'm expecting a bit much from it.

davidd

Original Poster:

6,443 posts

283 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
BorkFactor said:
That's quite strange, I have an HT Stage 60 (2x12) and one of the main reasons I bought it was because it could give really good driven tones at sociable volumes. I would have thought the 40 would be quite similar in that regard?

Have you considered using a pedal with it? My Les Paul has a 10db boost circuit so I find I can drive the amp very hard on the OD1 channel (I virtually never use OD2) so maybe a boost pedal would do the trick?
I can get reasonable drive from the drive channel, just not sure about the actual tone of it, seems a bit metal (if that makes sense). I'll try winding it back more and arsing about with the tone controls and ISF.


BorkFactor

7,258 posts

157 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
quotequote all
davidd said:
I can get reasonable drive from the drive channel, just not sure about the actual tone of it, seems a bit metal (if that makes sense). I'll try winding it back more and arsing about with the tone controls and ISF.
Does the HT40 have a clean and two drive channels? Or just clean and drive?

I know what you mean about metal, the second drive channel is never used on mine. ISF makes a fairly big difference, took a bit of getting used to. Mine sits about 9 o'clock and seems to work well.

Posk

68 posts

134 months

Thursday 18th December 2014
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I would 100% recomend giving Rob Wienbrock a call, im sure he could knock you up somthing perfect. He made a 1w valve amp for the studio and its amazing. The guy is a genius.


https://m.facebook.com/pages/Wienbrock-Amplifiers/...

Tom_C76

1,923 posts

187 months

Friday 19th December 2014
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davidd said:
I've swapped the speaker for a vintage 30 and all the valves out for JJ's and that certainly helped. I don't think it is the effects as I'm trying to get tones without using any (although I have a pile just in case wink) Maybe I'm expecting a bit much from it.
Part of your issue may be the V30 speaker. It's much more sensitive than many of the other Celestion 12" speakers so is effectively twice as loud for the same input power. I stuck one in my 15W Laney combo, and can play comfortably at jam sessions with it. as long as the drummer is using the sticks made of a bundle of bamboo.